Separation

I blame Megan. She’s sucked me into watching Gray’s Anatomy. And I have to admit, that I actually like it. What I don’t like is when she falls asleep, and then I have to explain what she missed. I find myself actually using the name McSteamy...I don’t like that.

Anyway, there was a recent episode with some Amish folk. In typical soap opera fashion, the daughter had run away from the Amish community, and had lost all contact with her parents and family, until she was dying of cancer, and she called them to the hospital. This episode came on right about the time that I was reading John 17. Jesus is praying what has become known as the high priestly prayer. This is where He talks about His followers being in the world, but not of the world.

John 17:11-16

11 And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. 13 But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. 14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.[a] 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

I thought about this passage, and I thought about the Amish. These people are so devoted, so devout to keeping pure, that they have removed themselves from society, from the world. But then it occurred to me that being removed from the world says more about the power of the effects of sin than it does about righteousness. In this scenario, other people’s sin, or even the fear of other people’s sin, has caused a group of people to withdraw unto themselves. Sin has caused separation.

We’ve discussed this a bit in the past. We said that sin in and of itself doesn’t do the separating, but it is an effect of sin. When we hold onto sin, we give it power. When we think that sin is more powerful than it actually is, we allow it to be more powerful than it should be.

This is the how we interact with God when don’t remember, or at least don’t be have as if, Christ has already taken care of our sin. We allow it to create separation between us and our Creator. Tonight I want to discuss another aspect of the separation that sin leads to in our world; how it affects our relationship with others.

When we define separation, what do we think of? Distance, space. However, there can be distance between you and somebody else, both physical and communicational, but you’re not separated. Kind of like when I have to go on a work trip. But when we talk of sin leading to separation, we think of a distance filled with emotions, perceptions, impressions, and fears that keep us from connecting again.

One type of separation, or at least negative separation anyway, caused by two types of sin: Our sin, and other people’s sin.

Let’s go back to the Amish for a minute. If I’m honest with myself, I’ve done the same thing. I’ve separated myself from the world. I’ve withdrawn from friends because of what they were doing. And it’s not because I thought that I would do the same thing, not because I thought I would slip and join them in their debauchery. It was because I didn’t want others to have the perception that I was doing the same thing.

I didn’t want to be associated with those people, because of what other people might think of me. This fear of man, fear of others’ perception of me, is nothing more than thinly veiled pride. And this pride causes me to think more of myself and less of others than I should. When I focus on their sin, and separate myself from them, these people become those people; it turns into an us vs. them situation. But Jesus didn’t come save them, He came to save us.

This goes directly against the model of Jesus. I keep coming back to His incarnation because I keep getting it wrong in so many areas of my life. He always moves closer. He always gets rid of the distance, the fear, the pride that keeps us from truly connecting. His proximity allows us to see both the humanity and the image of God in others.

Forgiveness, or unforgiveness really, works the same way. We don’t hold onto our sin, but we hold onto other’s. This gives us a sense of power, which is just pride. Again, it creates an us vs. them mentality. There is a great example of this. The story starts in Genesis 37 and wraps up in 46, so we’ll just recap.

A man named Jacob had 12 sons, Joseph being the youngest. Because of his mother, and because he was born to Jacob at a very old age, Joseph was the favorite. He showed his favoritism for Joseph with kind words, and an extremely ornate coat. And according to the text, Joseph wasn’t very tactful. God gave him a dream in which he was ruling over his brothers and his parents. You can imagine how this made the 11 feel.

One day Joseph goes out to the fields to check on his brothers while they are grazing their flocks. His brothers see him in the distance, and their anger rises. The account reads as follows: “Here comes the dreamer!” they said to each other. “Come now, let’s kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him.”

Thankfully one of his brothers had a little more compassion, and suggested that they just throw him in the well, smear some animal blood on his coat to show their father, and then just leave him there. Now, this isn’t too mean. You see Ruben planned on coming back later that evening to rescue him. But, before he could come back to get Joseph, a group of spice-traders came along the way on camels. His brothers sold him as a slave, and then told Jacob that he was dead.

After being betrayed by his brothers and then sold into slavery, Joseph is brought to Egypt where he works for Potiphar, one of the Pharaoh’s top officials. The Lord was with Joseph, and he found favor in the eyes of his master. Unfortunately, he also found favor with Potiphar’s wife, who tried to seduce him. Joseph refused her advances, and as he was running out of the house, she grabbed his shirt. She brought it to Potiphar and said that Joseph had tried to rape her. It seems that his clothes are always used against him…kind of a weird coincidence.

Well, he’s immediately thrown into jail. During his two-year imprisonment, the Lord blesses him with the ability to interpret dreams. Once again, he found favor in the eyes of those above him. When the Pharaoh was troubled with dreams that his magicians could not interpret, he called for Joseph. After listening to his dreams Joseph warned of seven years of plenty in the land of Egypt, followed by seven years of famine. Because of the discernment that God gave, Pharaoh appointed Joseph to be second-in-command of the palace. He was to organize a stockpile of food during the first seven years so that the people would not starve in the famine.

Just as Joseph predicted, the famine hit the land. People from nearby countries flocked to Egypt to get rations. It so happened that Jacob’s sons also went to the Egyptian storehouses for food. They bowed down before him, and asked to buy some food for their family. They did not recognize him. Joseph plots and elaborate scheme in which he demands for the rest of the family to be brought back to Egypt. In the end, they are reconciled.

But in Genesis 45, the text says something strange: He cried. In that moment he had a choice to make. Should he hold onto all of the injustice, the lies, the betrayal? Or should he let it go and forgive? In other words, what is he going to do with the separation?

Genesis 45:4

4 So Joseph said to his brothers, “Come near to me, please.” And they came near. And he said, “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt.

His forgiveness erased the separation. He saw his brothers as brothers, not has traitors. Forgiveness, perhaps more than anything else, allows us to become more like Christ. When we let go of sin, we release Grace, the same Grace extended to us.

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Now there’s the matter of our own sin; the separation that ensues when we hold onto it. Notice the words that I used; when we hold onto it. Not when we commit it. We discussed this before, we read verse after verse after verse that Christ has already dealt with our sin. It was conquered on the cross; defeated.

Often when we hold onto sin, we withdraw into ourselves. There is a perceived judgement, or even a fear of judgment from others. Again, we’re afraid of what others might think of us. Sometimes we assume that they won’t want to be near us if they knew what we did, so we create the distance preemptively.

And although we often do everything in our power to hold onto our sin, there is a deep-seeded need to confess, to get rid of it.

God knows this, and so do His people. In Leviticus 5 the people are instructed to confess their sins, and the word that’s used is yadah. It means to confess, but it also has the connotation of throwing. In other words, God is inviting to throw our sins out into the open; something with which very few of us are comfortable.

James 5:16

Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

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It’s a curious thing that Paul writes this in the middle of a passage that we often use in our anointing services. What does confession have to do with healing? Why are we called to confess to each other, especially if God already knows our transgressions?

If God knows our sins, but calls us to confess them (out loud) to our friends, then it makes me think that there is another purpose. Confession must be beneficial not only to ourselves, but to each other. So, what is the benefit? Why did he include confession in this passage?

In an anointing service, a sick person will gather a number of people together. They decide to pray for the sick person, seeking their healing. Confession is designed to humble everyone present. It’s designed to remind the group that everyone is sick. Though there may only be one sick person there, we are all sick because of our sin. We are all tainted; we are all less than perfect. Confession puts us all in the same boat, it eliminates the distance that we create between us and others. Confession allows us to agree with person seeking healing because at the moment of confession, we are confronted with the harsh reality that we all need spiritual, if not physical, healing.

It draws us together because it very actively eliminates pride. Our confession gives us the opportunity to humble ourselves to the same level. When we’re all on the same level, we work in unison, we worship in unison.

CONFESSION IS A NEGLECTED DISCIPLINE AMONG CHRISTIANS TODAY. WE HAVE SO PRIVATIZED OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD THAT WE NEGLECT THE REAL TRUTH THAT OUR CHRISTIANITY REACHES ITS FULLNESS IN COMMUNITY – Jerry Scott

Eph. 1:22

22 And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

The Church (capital C) is the fullness of Christ.

This is really the point of all of this. Eliminating the separation, getting rid of the distance, the fear, the pride. It’s all about reaching our fullness; finding our identity in the One who died for us. It’s all about becoming more and more like Him.