A new and Living Hope Lent 2 2022

<p>A sermon about living a heavenly reality drrawing on Luke 13:31-35 and especially Philippians 3:17-4:1</p> <p>In Paul's church and Greek culture Paul was fighting an incredible battle. The churches that he planted were going off the rails. They were rejecting at least part of the message which Paul had told them and that meant they were behaving in ways that were destructive to the community and to themselves. The church was divided.</p> <p> </p> <p>On the one hand a battle against his culture. Most Greek speaking people believed in only a shadowy afterlife. Real life was in this life. Life beyond death was a sort of dream. That meant that life was to be lived now. For many who were wealthy life was about eating, drinking, and sexual excess. It was about physical enjoyment here and now. For others it was about pleasure for the mind, philosophy, poetry, plays and debate. It was not that different to our culture. There was no real future so life was about what could be had in the present.</p> <p> </p> <p>On the other hand in the Church especially among Jewish Christians Paul was facing a battle against (rules) a distorted understanding of the faith which said that to be Christian you had to become Jewish. Males had to be circumscised, certain foods like pork couldn’t be eaten and the festivals and other rules had to be followed. It was not that different to the distorted picture many have of Christians and Christianity. Many see you and I as people who want to set crazy rules for ourselves and impose them on others. No drinking, dancing, makeup, no sex and especially no fun.</p> <p> </p> <p>These two extremes have at heart exactly the same wrong beliefs what is important is us and either our goodness or our self satisfaction. It’s what we do and have which gives us either pleasure or makes us acceptable to God.</p> <p> </p> <p>Their God Paul says is their belly. They either lead a life of excess and destroy not only their bodies but also their inner being or they practice self denial, also destroying the body an