This church building was built in the mid 50s. And it is the style that most churches were built in the 50s. It’s the upside-down ark architecture. Churches that have been built or remodeled in the last decade or two look very differently. They look like meeting rooms or even theaters. There’s not as much obvious religious architecture in them. The narthex is much more like a lobby than a narthex… there’s often a coffee shop and a fountain… making the church look more like a mall than a place of worship.
I don’t want to get down on the modern architecture of churches here. There’s a reason for it. These churches are being built to appeal to young people who did not grow up in the church, and therefore these churches take their cues from the kind of spaces that young people might be comfortable in. And, unfortunately, the mall is perhaps the holiest place our society has to offer. Here’s a weird fact. God to a mall, go near the food court. Guess what you’ll find there. Probably some sort of tree or some sort of fountain. It’s almost universal in malls. And it’s actually religious. The fountain represents living water, the tree represents the tree of life. Go into modern church buildings, especially the huge ones, and you won’t find a cross, but you’ll find a fountain, you’ll find a tree. They are buying into this same religious imagery.
But not that I’ve attacked modern church architecture, I want to attack the architecture of our church. And, again, don’t get me wrong. I love this sanctuary. But it also says something about us. Like I said, it’s the upside down ark motif. When this church was built, the common understanding of what church was was that we were a place of safety. The world around us was falling apart, turning away from God. But the true believers could find a safe home. They could come in to the ark and be protected from all the craziness outside. They could find safety here. This feels pretty good, doesn’t it? It is nice to have a place where we’re protected, where we’re safe from the sins of the world around us. But there are dangers here as well. When we see the church as a place to protect us from the world, we no longer see ourselves as having a place in that world. We no longer connect with the people outside the ark, and we become irrelevant to them. Today, as we look again at Balaam, we’re going to see that we need to move outside the ark to reach the world with God’s love once again.
Let us open in prayer.
I. Context
Last week we started to look at one of those weirdoes of the Bible, one of those kooky characters that we often skip over because his story is so weird.
Did you know that Balaam is actually mentioned outside the Bible? There are actually writings from the 8th century BC that come from east of the Jordan River that contain prophecies that Balaam made.
If you read Numbers 22-24 just by themselves you might end up with a somewhat positive reading of Balaam. He obviously knows the One True God. He seems to be a prophet or a seer who is clearly in communication with God. It is interesting that when Balak comes to him and asks him to curse the people of Israel, he never tells him who they are. Rather it’s “a people wandering out of Egypt”, almost as if he’s trying to trick Balaam into cursing a people who should really be on his side. Yes, the whole event with the donkey that we talked about last week puts Balaam in a somewhat bad light, but overall, this story tells of a prophet of God who proclaims God’s blessing over the people of Israel.
But when you read the story in the context of the rest of the Bible, you see a slightly different story emerge. Later in Numbers 31 we are told that Balaam was giving advice to the Midianites on how to lure the Israelites away from God. In Deuteronomy 23 we are told that the sacrifices that Balaam had put up were there to try to curse Israel… that Balaam had every intent to curse Israel, but God wouldn’t allow him to. And in the New Testament as well we see Balaam mentioned and reviled as someone who let his greed get the best of him, who put financial gain above following God.
And so it’s important to see the story of Balaam in context of the rest of the Bible. It’s important to see that Balaam is not a saint, and perhaps can be put alongside Jonah as an unwilling prophet. Or even worse, can be described as a pagan diviner or seer who God chose to use.
II. Curses
Despite all this, I want us to put ourselves in Balaam’s shoes for a minute. Let’s get past the question of whether he was an unwilling prophet or a pagan diviner. Rather, let us see him as someone who wanted to curse a group of people who God instead wanted to bless. Think about that for a moment. Think of the people we might want to curse.
As someone once said, “Vengeance is mine, sayith the Lord, but I just want to be about the Lord’s business.” We often find ourselves wanting to be about vengeance. We often find ourselves wanting to watch people or society fail. And maybe, even have a part in that. When we look at the world around us, the “non-Christian” world that is turned so obviously away from God, we might find ourselves wanting to speak prophetically against them. Our kids go off to college and they come back liberal. Hollywood presents a view of life on our TVs each night that makes it seem like the most important thing in the world is to make yourself feel good, which is just not a Christian virtue any way you try to make it one. When we see this, we may find ourselves wanting to be that prophetic voice as a church telling them that they are wrong and evil and going to hell.
It may be easy to see all the problems in our culture, all the things pulling people away from God, and get all prophetic and declare that this world is going to end badly. But being prophetic isn’t always about complaining and cursing. What Balaam needed to learn was that being prophetic can also be about blessing. Balaam went out and began to proclaim a curse upon the people of Israel. People who had turned from God again and again and probably deserved it. But what came out of his mouth wasn’t a curse but a blessing. And he tried again and again he blessed. We are told that the first two times he was actually trying to curse the people. He was using divination and magic and doing all he could to give Balak exactly what he wanted. But to no avail. Out of his mouth came blessings. By the third time, by the time we get to the scripture we read this morning Balaam is no longer trying to curse. He gives in to God’s message and he becomes it.
You see, when we set ourselves as Christians against a society that we live in, when we live our lives trying to curse the society around us, we aren’t able to share God’s love with them. When we do this we aren’t able to have a redemptive presence among them. And yet that has often been the relationship between the church and society.
Last month I encouraged you to make friends who aren’t Christians. To spend time getting to know them, finding out what is important to them, learning to love them. You may not approve of everything they do. You may find yourself very uncomfortable with some of the choices they make, some of the sins they commit so very openly. But don’t automatically speak curses upon them because of their sins. Don’t be another judgmental Christian who comes across as holier than thou. Instead, find a way to be a blessing to them. Find a way to share with them God’s great love for them.
So often we picture God as trying to keep as many people out of heaven as possible. He’s up there, just looking for an excuse to exclude people from heaven. We may feel this way. Those who haven’t accepted Jesus, but who believe in God probably do feel this way. If that were the case, God wouldn’t have sent his son to die on the cross for us. If that were the case, Jesus wouldn’t make any sense at all. Let me be clear. I’m not talking about easy grace here. I’m not talking about everyone getting to heaven no matter what they believe. What I am talking about is the idea that God loves this world he created. God wants what is best for the world. And he wants to be able to bless the world and share eternal life with everyone he can.
And here’s where things get a little crazy. God chose a messed up prophet/seer named Balaam to bless the people of Israel. God chose a messed up nation named Israel, that never seemed to get the concept of what it meant to be faithful to God, to bless the world. God chose a messed up Pharisee named Saul, who was persecuting Christians to be his greatest evangelist. God chose a messed up fugitive from Egypt who was living life on the lamb as a shepherd named Moses to lead the people of Israel to the Promised Land. And God has chosen to use us, a messed up group of Christians, a messed up church, to be a blessing to the world around us. Let’s be that blessing.
I don’t want to get down on the modern architecture of churches here. There’s a reason for it. These churches are being built to appeal to young people who did not grow up in the church, and therefore these churches take their cues from the kind of spaces that young people might be comfortable in. And, unfortunately, the mall is perhaps the holiest place our society has to offer. Here’s a weird fact. God to a mall, go near the food court. Guess what you’ll find there. Probably some sort of tree or some sort of fountain. It’s almost universal in malls. And it’s actually religious. The fountain represents living water, the tree represents the tree of life. Go into modern church buildings, especially the huge ones, and you won’t find a cross, but you’ll find a fountain, you’ll find a tree. They are buying into this same religious imagery.
But not that I’ve attacked modern church architecture, I want to attack the architecture of our church. And, again, don’t get me wrong. I love this sanctuary. But it also says something about us. Like I said, it’s the upside down ark motif. When this church was built, the common understanding of what church was was that we were a place of safety. The world around us was falling apart, turning away from God. But the true believers could find a safe home. They could come in to the ark and be protected from all the craziness outside. They could find safety here. This feels pretty good, doesn’t it? It is nice to have a place where we’re protected, where we’re safe from the sins of the world around us. But there are dangers here as well. When we see the church as a place to protect us from the world, we no longer see ourselves as having a place in that world. We no longer connect with the people outside the ark, and we become irrelevant to them. Today, as we look again at Balaam, we’re going to see that we need to move outside the ark to reach the world with God’s love once again.
Let us open in prayer.
I. Context
Last week we started to look at one of those weirdoes of the Bible, one of those kooky characters that we often skip over because his story is so weird.
Did you know that Balaam is actually mentioned outside the Bible? There are actually writings from the 8th century BC that come from east of the Jordan River that contain prophecies that Balaam made.
If you read Numbers 22-24 just by themselves you might end up with a somewhat positive reading of Balaam. He obviously knows the One True God. He seems to be a prophet or a seer who is clearly in communication with God. It is interesting that when Balak comes to him and asks him to curse the people of Israel, he never tells him who they are. Rather it’s “a people wandering out of Egypt”, almost as if he’s trying to trick Balaam into cursing a people who should really be on his side. Yes, the whole event with the donkey that we talked about last week puts Balaam in a somewhat bad light, but overall, this story tells of a prophet of God who proclaims God’s blessing over the people of Israel.
But when you read the story in the context of the rest of the Bible, you see a slightly different story emerge. Later in Numbers 31 we are told that Balaam was giving advice to the Midianites on how to lure the Israelites away from God. In Deuteronomy 23 we are told that the sacrifices that Balaam had put up were there to try to curse Israel… that Balaam had every intent to curse Israel, but God wouldn’t allow him to. And in the New Testament as well we see Balaam mentioned and reviled as someone who let his greed get the best of him, who put financial gain above following God.
And so it’s important to see the story of Balaam in context of the rest of the Bible. It’s important to see that Balaam is not a saint, and perhaps can be put alongside Jonah as an unwilling prophet. Or even worse, can be described as a pagan diviner or seer who God chose to use.
II. Curses
Despite all this, I want us to put ourselves in Balaam’s shoes for a minute. Let’s get past the question of whether he was an unwilling prophet or a pagan diviner. Rather, let us see him as someone who wanted to curse a group of people who God instead wanted to bless. Think about that for a moment. Think of the people we might want to curse.
As someone once said, “Vengeance is mine, sayith the Lord, but I just want to be about the Lord’s business.” We often find ourselves wanting to be about vengeance. We often find ourselves wanting to watch people or society fail. And maybe, even have a part in that. When we look at the world around us, the “non-Christian” world that is turned so obviously away from God, we might find ourselves wanting to speak prophetically against them. Our kids go off to college and they come back liberal. Hollywood presents a view of life on our TVs each night that makes it seem like the most important thing in the world is to make yourself feel good, which is just not a Christian virtue any way you try to make it one. When we see this, we may find ourselves wanting to be that prophetic voice as a church telling them that they are wrong and evil and going to hell.
It may be easy to see all the problems in our culture, all the things pulling people away from God, and get all prophetic and declare that this world is going to end badly. But being prophetic isn’t always about complaining and cursing. What Balaam needed to learn was that being prophetic can also be about blessing. Balaam went out and began to proclaim a curse upon the people of Israel. People who had turned from God again and again and probably deserved it. But what came out of his mouth wasn’t a curse but a blessing. And he tried again and again he blessed. We are told that the first two times he was actually trying to curse the people. He was using divination and magic and doing all he could to give Balak exactly what he wanted. But to no avail. Out of his mouth came blessings. By the third time, by the time we get to the scripture we read this morning Balaam is no longer trying to curse. He gives in to God’s message and he becomes it.
You see, when we set ourselves as Christians against a society that we live in, when we live our lives trying to curse the society around us, we aren’t able to share God’s love with them. When we do this we aren’t able to have a redemptive presence among them. And yet that has often been the relationship between the church and society.
Last month I encouraged you to make friends who aren’t Christians. To spend time getting to know them, finding out what is important to them, learning to love them. You may not approve of everything they do. You may find yourself very uncomfortable with some of the choices they make, some of the sins they commit so very openly. But don’t automatically speak curses upon them because of their sins. Don’t be another judgmental Christian who comes across as holier than thou. Instead, find a way to be a blessing to them. Find a way to share with them God’s great love for them.
So often we picture God as trying to keep as many people out of heaven as possible. He’s up there, just looking for an excuse to exclude people from heaven. We may feel this way. Those who haven’t accepted Jesus, but who believe in God probably do feel this way. If that were the case, God wouldn’t have sent his son to die on the cross for us. If that were the case, Jesus wouldn’t make any sense at all. Let me be clear. I’m not talking about easy grace here. I’m not talking about everyone getting to heaven no matter what they believe. What I am talking about is the idea that God loves this world he created. God wants what is best for the world. And he wants to be able to bless the world and share eternal life with everyone he can.
And here’s where things get a little crazy. God chose a messed up prophet/seer named Balaam to bless the people of Israel. God chose a messed up nation named Israel, that never seemed to get the concept of what it meant to be faithful to God, to bless the world. God chose a messed up Pharisee named Saul, who was persecuting Christians to be his greatest evangelist. God chose a messed up fugitive from Egypt who was living life on the lamb as a shepherd named Moses to lead the people of Israel to the Promised Land. And God has chosen to use us, a messed up group of Christians, a messed up church, to be a blessing to the world around us. Let’s be that blessing.
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