Today we continue in our Community Life series. I don’t know how many of you have actually read the Community Life principles that have been posted up on the FCC website but it is not an easy read!
And well, here’s the principle I’ve been assigned to preach on today:
“We believe that self-reflexivity is a critical discipline of individual and corporate spirituality and ethics. This requires that we engage in constant critical study and reflection which considers also the perspective of others who might differ or even disagree with us.”
OK, a show of hands besides Clarence Singam, who wrote it, how many of you actually understand what that means?
Yup, that’s what I figured. Not many. Wonderful. I guess that why we’re having this sermon today, yes?
Last year, we did our foundation studies series in November and December. That laid the foundations of WHAT we believe.
So this series is like a follow on to that series. The community life principles should govern how we act and behave and how we relate to one another.
To put it simply, the previous series looks at what we believe and this series looks at knowing what we believe, how then shall we live?
And really, if you really, really want to distill it down to its core, we keep saying this and I think even Susan mentioned it in her last sermon, it all boils down to the love commandments – Love Your God with all Your heart, mind, soul and strength, and Love Your Neighbour as yourself.
So back to this community life principle:
“We believe that self-reflexivity is a critical discipline of individual and corporate spirituality and ethics. This requires that we engage in constant critical study and reflection which considers also the perspective of others who might differ or even disagree with us.”
How many of you have heard this word “self-reflexivity”?
You know, before I came to FCC, I’ve never heard this word before. Not in Church, not anywhere.
In fact, I can tell you the EXACT date when I heard this word being said from the pulpit – Sunday, 30 Nov 2003. How many of you were there?
Clarence Singam preached a message at Utterly Art, well actually it was more like TWO messages. I think since then he’s been banned from ever doing that again, but in that second sermon that he preached, it was the first time I ever heard that word – “self-reflexivity” ever being preached. I may not have fully understood what it meant then, but since that day, 2.5 years ago, it added a new and very important dimension to my faith.
You see, I used to be a member of a church that just buzzes with energy. The presence of God would be so tangible on the weekend and I would hear and respond to sermons that speak of God’s goodness and grace and how God blesses those that love Him wholeheartedly with material, emotional and spiritual blessings. How we can be more than conquerors through Christ who strengthens us. How we’re called to be the head and not the tail, above and not beneath, blessed our coming in and going out.
I liked those sermons and the worship. I always came out of those services recharged and ready to face the challenges of the big bad world the next week.
And yes, God is certainly all that! No doubt about it!
But a counter-balance called “self-reflexivity” was missing.
Clarence preached on the song of Moses back then from the Book of Exodus. Exodus 14 and 15. Do you remember it?
It’s about how God dramatically delivered an oppressed people – the Israelites from the hands of the Egyptians who were pursuing them by parting the waters of the Red Sea and destroying their enemies in the process.
The first part of his sermon inspired us to make God the centre of our lives, to hold fast to Him, to look for God even as we think we are at our wits ends and to build spiritual landmarks in our own faith journeys to look back where we have seen God’s supernatural hand at work to encourage ourselves and to remind ourselves that God is ALWAYS faithful.
But the second part of the sermon (or rather the second sermon) reminded me that there needs to be a counter-balance in our walk with God. And that is to recognize that as humans living in the flesh that we are a fallen people, that SIN infects everything we do – everything – even our spirituality.
1 Jn 1:8 says that “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”
So after being delivered by God from the hands of the Egyptians, the Israelites burst out into song.
Exo 15:1
Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to the LORD,
and spoke, saying:
"I will sing to the LORD,
For He has triumphed gloriously!
The horse and its rider
He has thrown into the sea!
So while the Israelites were celebrating their victory, the sermon reminded us that back in the Egyptian camp that with the entire army decimated in one fell swoop, the first born son of many of the Egyptian families were killed in the process. Thousands of Egyptians had died when the waters covered the army.
We could say that the Egyptians deserved it since they were a sinful and evil nation. But like many of us today, and even the Israelites back then, they were merely submitting to and following the orders of their leaders.
I was reminded that to say that the suffering of the Egyptians was justified is to say that the suffering of the Iraqis was justified during Saddam Hussein’s reign because they are responsible for the acts of their leaders. Or that the suffering of women and children sold into slavery even today is justified.
In fact the very song they sang was in direct contradiction of Biblical principles:
Exodus 23:4-5
If you come across your enemy's ox or donkey wandering off, be sure to take it back to him. If you se the donkey of some one who hates you fallen down under its load, do not leave it there; be sure you help him with it.
Similarly Proverbs 24:17 says
Do not gloat when your enemy falls; when he stumbles do not let your heart rejoice.
This quality of self-reflexivity is often lacking in the way many Christians live their lives. Self-reflexivity means the ability to step back for a moment, and assess how our own behaviour, actions, belief systems impact other people.
The Jewish people actually try to incorporate this principle to this day in their rituals. During the Passover celebration – which is the celebration of God's deliverance of his people from slavery - as the Scriptures are read, each time the story of one of the plagues is read out, the Jewish people spill some of the wine in their cups on to the ground. Each time a plague is mentioned, some wine is split.
The reason for this is the belief that, “as long as someone else's suffering is needed for my victory, my joy can never be complete.” It is an act of reflexivity.
We have built this principle in when we celebrate communion together each Sunday. The spilling of the wine is not just for dramatic effect, but it is to remind us that as long as there’s suffering in this world, our joy can never been complete in this lifetime.
So that’s what this community life principle is all about. But I want to go further. How do put this process of “self-reflexivity” in action? What kind of thinking or attitudes do we need to have in order to be reflexive?
I believe this morning, that there a related attitude that God has been laying on my heart for our church since the last time I was up here to preach that will help us in living out this principle of “self-reflexivity”.
Humility
This sermon is not going to win me any popularity points but I really think all of us really do need to hear it. The attitude I want to talk about is “humility”.
Mt 23:12
“And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
One of the most important attitudes that we need to have to live out the principle of “self-reflexivity” is humility. It takes a humble spirit to allow God to show us the planks in our own eyes before we see the specks in the eyes of other people around us. (Luk 6:41).
Sounds simple enough right, but can anyone tell me what is the opposite of humility?
Pride.
Pride is the reason why man fell from a right standing and relationship with God and sin entered the world. It was not about an apple. It was about pride.
Gen 3:1-5
(1) Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"
(2) The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, (3) but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.' "
(4) "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. (5) "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
So in Gen 3, it is recorded that Satan came up to both the them and said, “Adam and Eve, you don’t need God! In fact, you can be like God yourselves!”
The essence of pride is simply this – seeking independence from God.
Any life that is not lived out in willing dependence on God is motivated by pride.
How many times have we said or thought, “not Your will be done, but mine?”
To illustrate this, let’s look at the parable of a certain rich man in Luke 12:
Lk 12:16-21
(16) And he told them this parable: "The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop.
(17) He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.'
(18) "Then he said, 'This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. (19) And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry." '
(20) "But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?'
(21) "This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God."
Notice all the “I”s in that passage? Unfortunately that is the attitude of many people in Singapore, and even more so in gay men and women today.
Now, in a certain sense, this man was a good man. He was sensible, respectable, smart, prudent and a good manager – just look at the crops he harvested. He could well be a member of FCC, the head of a ministry, or even on the Council of leaders.
But yet, Jesus called him a “fool”.
Why? The essence of his sin was that he acted as if he were independent from God. For this rich man, God was simply not in his equation.
He didn’t take into account that he depended on God for his breath, his seed that brought him the harvest, his health and strength - for everything in his life!
He was a FOOL because he didn’t see his dependence on God and didn’t acknowledge God. The root of his sin was pride.
Jas 4:13-15
(13) Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." (14) Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. (15) Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that."
We need always remember that our lives are dependant on God.
Jas 4:16
(16) As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil.
What is boasting? It’s pride! To act as if God has no place or authority in your life.
1 Jn 2:16 (NASB)
“For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.”
You know pride is evident is every area of life:
As Christians, we can get puffed up and proud because we think our sophisticated theology is better than the next church, or because we have the power gifts of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
As Singaporeans, we’re proud of our prosperity of our nation and we think we’re better than our neighbours in the countries around us.
Some of us as gay men and women, we’re out loud and proud of who we are. In fact, in increasing number of countries, we band together and have a festival called “Pride” to stand up and be counted whether people like it or not.
So like that certain rich man in Lk 12 who the world considers a success, Jesus called him a FOOL because he acted as if he were independent from God.
There is nothing useful about pride in the Kingdom of God. Pride is “ME FIRST” thinking – it is selfish and self-centered. Pride stops us from forgiving. Pride prevents us from being a reflexive people. Pride puts barriers between us and other people – we’re right you know, you’re wrong. And most importantly, pride separates us from walking with God.
So Mt 23:12 gives us a universal principle:
For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
Humility is a choice that we make. Humility is an attitude that we choose. Praying God make you humble doesn’t work. It is not something that it given. It is a choice we make out of the free will that God has given to us.
You know, the greatest and positive example of this promise in Matthew is given to us by Jesus Himself.
Phil 2 talks about how Jesus humbled Himself, and consequentially how the Father exalted Him.
In v5-8 we see the 7 successive, downward steps Jesus took from a place of equality with God, to the lowest place of dying a criminal’s death on the Cross.
If you study numerology in the Bible, the number “7” in the scriptures often refers to that which is perfect or complete. So here, we see the perfect or complete self-humbling of our Lord Jesus Christ.
(5) Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
Notice here that everything starts with an attitude, not the act.
Let’s look briefly at those 7 downward steps:
(6) Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
(7) but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
(8) And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
Step 1: Jesus emptied Himself – He laid aside His divine glory, splendor, majesty.
Step 2: He took the form of a servant (Gk slave) – He could have come down to the level of an angel, still a servant of God. But…
Step 3: He came in the likeness of man - made Himself of the same level as us, humans.
Now he could have come to the Earth in the same perfection Adam had before the Fall. But He didn’t…
Step 4: He was found in the appearance of a man – He was just like the men of His time – He mingled with them, walked with them, ate – became one of them.
Step 5: He humbled himself – Jesus did not come from a noble or powerful family – He was not a military commander, or a ruler.
Step 6: He endured the ultimate fate of all men – Death!
Step 7: He died the worst possible death a man can die – a criminal’s death on the cross in the agony of shame.
That was the total self-humbling of Jesus. Now what was the result?
v9-11 shows the 7 upward steps:
- God highly exalted Him.
- God gave Him the name which is above every name
- God ordained that at the name of Jesus, every need shall bow… where?
- Those in heaven,
- On earth,
- Under the earth
- And that every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
Now, let us continue with the next few verses. Reading on v12, “Therefore”. What is all of this there for? How should we respond to this?
Phil 2:12-15
(12) Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, (13) for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.
(14) Do everything without complaining or arguing, (15) so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe.
Charismatic Conference Experience
You know I wasn’t with you guys in Church last Sunday because I was invited to the Charismatic Conference hosted by Pastor Sandy and Janet’s Church in Long Beach just outside LA.
I had a wonderful time at the conference and got to meet many different Christian leaders, especially those from inclusive Churches. The Holy Spirit moved very mightily during the conference and the theme of building bridges between communities kept coming through.
But I think the thing that left the greatest impact on me was the Saturday evening service which was led by Dony and Reba McGuire who pastor a church called the River in Nashville, Tennessee.
13 months ago, Pastors Dony and Reba had a revelation of the hurt they had caused by the years of condemning and excluding the GLBT people from their church. So they exercised their self-reflexivity, did what they needed to by humbling themselves, explaining to their congregation their change in heart, and started connecting with other inclusive churches. This caused many, many of their congregation members to leave the church, unable to accept this 180-degree change to the point that Pastors Dony and Reba almost gave up the ministry.
But they hung on and they came out for the conference with their 2 kids, and they are really, very anointed musicians and singers with their own CDs and they came to minister to us during the conference.
You know, sometimes being reflexive takes us down paths that are not always popular. But you do what is right, rather than what is popular.
Anyway, during the service, Pastor Dony and Reba calls all the leaders of inclusive churches forward and proceeds to humble themselves and wash every feet of the very people that they used to persecute as a way to ask for forgiveness and to make restitution for some of the hurts that was caused.
  
 
It was a very emotional time for many of the church leaders there, having years of hurt and pain start to be washed away as their feet were being washed. Many hearts were healed that night but there was one thing that Pastor Dony said that I’ll never forget – he said, “Thank You. By letting us minister to you, my family and I are finally free.”
So you see it is a really simple but critically, important principle for Community Life together as Christians in FCC.
But we have to choose to live it out. God cannot make us humble or self-reflexive – He has given us the will to choose. We have to choose to live and walk the talk.
You know I’ve been trying to invite my friends to come to church. Especially my gay friends because I know that it is a people group I’m connected with that few other Churches in Singapore can be bothered with.
But I usually get a lukewarm response at best. Or a look that says – I don’t want to hear about it. You know that look right?
The response I sometimes get goes along these lines:
"God doesn’t love us, Christians hate us. They keep telling us we’re all going to hell anyway."
"There’s nothing in Christianity that attracts me. They take all the fun out of life."
"Christians keep arguing with each other. They can’t even agree among themselves!"
"There are so many rules to keep if I become a Christian, I’m better off on my own."
"Christians are always so self-righteous. I don’t need to be reminded all the time what I’m doing wrong."
The lack of self-reflexivity and pride of Christians has been keeping people out of the Kingdom of Heaven. No need for the Devil to do anything here. We can wreck people’s salvation on our own, thank you very much.
Jesus Christ says that the gospel is what? GOOD NEWS to those who receive it. But we tote it around and live it like it was BAD NEWS.
You know that the Bible can simply be distilled down to this – an account of God’s plan of redemption for humanity. The Gospel is good news!
But we have to recognize always that our world is fallen. Our spirituality is fallen. Even what we do sometimes in the best of intentions is not the heart of the Father. That we have to continue to exercise self-reflexivity through humility.
So this morning, I want us as a community of faith to commit to self-reflexivity and humility.
How many of you want to make that commitment today?
Heavenly Father, we thank you for your love. Thank you that you’ve redeemed all of us by the work of the cross. We thank you for a love so amazing that you would empty yourself, take the form of a servant, humble yourself and die the worst possible death on the cross just so that we could be redeemed to You. Lord, we want to be a people that will honour you and love you with all of our heart. Heavenly Father, give us to wisdom and the grace to live out your love commandments. Help us be the salt and light of the Earth, so that we can reflect Your love into the world. Lord, we make a decision today to always walk in humility and commit to self-reflexivity. We ask that you will continue to teach us, inspire us and transform us so that when the world sees us, they will see You and be drawn to You. We ask humbly in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour, Amen.
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