Jude
(NIB below refers to New International Bible, a commentary I appreciate. I would fail this based on my citations, if I were grading it. But.)
Jude: Actual Message
Introduction:
We’re talking about Jude, today. And I hope that at the end of this message we actually do more with Jude than read the little benediction at the end of it now and then–which tends to be the only thing Christians do with this book, because there seems to be so much weird stuff we see in it. Jude would have fit perfectly in the whole “difficult & seldom seen” series we looked at.
But after today, if we could, we’d marry Jude. That’s how much we’ll love it. We’ll never think its weird again…or not much. This is my hope anyway.
May:
And let me set this month up for us, too. Throughout May we’re having some guest speakers in. Reggie Harvey from United Community, a Brethren Church in Dayton that you’ll hear more and more of as the years go on, will be here to share with us & also tell us about what United Community is up to.
We’ll have Tom Asbury in, the pastor of The Center, which is doing some amazing work in the Mansfield-Akron area. Bethel is a part of this group, and I think that the Bridge is hoping to get the rest of us to take part in a day mission trip to Lancaster that the Center is organizing.
Both The Center & United Community are church plants of the Ohio District of the Brethren Church.
We’ll have Wasi in to speak with us. Some of you have met Wasi, he’s sort of the de-facto leader of the Conganese & other French-speaking African communities in Columbus Ohio, and has also founded a ministry called “Band of Hope” that gives bibles to refugee house churches around Columbus.
And we might talk next week about what the Brethren Church is up to in the world. Sort of still up in the air.
And these people will share with us what God is doing through their churches, we will have the opportunity to give to their ministries in various ways. And basically we’ll begin to build bridges between our situation & theirs, our community & theirs…and honestly, in some significant ways, we’re in the same stage of life as they are.
So. Commercial over. Let’s pray
Prayer:
Quirky:
So I guess I’m an individual, right? I mean there aren’t two of me, so by definition. A while ago I was a Resident Advisor at Ohio State, which is a fancy way of saying “Underpaid Nanny” in university-speak. And we were given staff awards, decorated plates, and I was awarded the title of Captain Quirk, because it was felt that I was quirky. And honestly, I still feel a little cheated by the whole thing–I’m working on letting go–because I really wanted, you know “Captain Cool” or something.
My point is this: Jude is quirky. I’m not putting it on a collectible plate, but there are a lot of things about Jude that make it unusual, different.
Let’s read the letter again, and try to notice unusual things, okay?
Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James,
To those who have been called, who are loved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ:
Mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance.
Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that the Lord has once for all entrusted to us, his people. For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.
Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord at one time delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day. In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.
In the very same way, on the strength of their dreams these ungodly people pollute their own bodies, reject authority and heap abuse on celestial beings. But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not himself dare to condemn him for slander but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” Yet these people speak abusively against whatever they do not understand; and what things they do understand by instinct, like unreasoning animals—these are the very things that destroy them.
Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain; they have rushed for profit into Balaam’s error; they have been destroyed in Korah’s rebellion.
These people are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm—shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted—twice dead. They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever.
Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about them: “See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones to judge everyone, and to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly acts they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the defiant words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” These people are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage.
But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold.
They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.
But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.
Be merciful to those who doubt; save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.
To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy—to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.
So. Now Jude’s fresh in our minds. Let’s talk about some unusual things about this letter, especially since I’m sure you noticed a couple of them.
Captain Quirk: Jude? Who? When?
Part of the reason this letter is unusual—at least to us—is because of Jude himself.
Jude claims his authority to write based on the fact that he’s the brother of James. Now; James, we know, was the brother of Jesus…which makes Jude the brother of Jesus, too. And you might think that if you’re going to drop a name, pick Jesus’ not James, right?
But James was a person of great authority and influence in the early church. He was the leader of the church in Jerusalem, and we have a lot historical, non-biblical witnesses to James, his death, his role in the early church, these sort of things. One early Christian historian talks about how various people would trace their roots back to Jesus’ family, this was something to be respected and honored…even if, as we know from other places, the family didn’t welcome Jesus’ mission with open arms. (NIB Watson 474).
But this is unusual for us, the way Jude identifies himself. And it points out not only how popular James is, but also that Jude is likely writing during a time when people remembered James, most likely, James is still living. They remembered what the apostles had taught them, they weren’t that far away from Jesus’ own days on the earth.
And if we were to turn to 2nd Peter, we’d see most of Jude in it, Peter draws heavily on Jude’s letter; copies & pastes the thing, nearly—which again, is an unusual aspect of Jude. Most letters we read in the Bible we can’t re-read somewhere else.
But because we know that 2nd Peter was probably written near the end of the 1st century, we also have a sort of boundary of when Jude was written. (NIB Watson, 324) All in all, this puts us somewhere in the middle of the first century for this letter to this community; but we don’t really know when (cf. NIB Watson, 474).
Captain Quirk: Stories
And let’s just be straightforward here: Jude makes reference to some pretty wild stuff, right? Some of the Old Testament things he mentions we could go and review this morning; but there’s other stuff that I know we haven’t come across when we’ve opened our Bibles.
But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not himself dare to condemn him for slander but said, “The Lord rebuke you!”
Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about them: “See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones to judge everyone, and to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly acts they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the defiant words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”
We don’t know these stories. This stuff isn’t in our Bibles. These are passage from books called, respectively, the Testament of Moses & 1st Enoch; these were books really popular with Jewish Christian communities, especially communities in Gentile places—which tells us that this sort of group is probably the sort of group Jude was writing to. And these books were apocalyptic, written in a genre like that of Revelation or Daniel. (Cf NIB, Watson 477-478) We don’t know these books, we don’t read these books, they aren’t part of our Bible; but they were very important for Jude’s first audience.
Now; today people make reference to stories that aren’t “scripture” all the time, right? 2,000 years from now, if the world hasn’t been set right yet, Jesus hasn’t yet returned, future people will take off their jet packs, and they’ll wonder at the strange use of C. S. Lewis in 75% of the stuff Evangelicals wrote. And we’ll wake up from cryogenic sleep and say we just liked the guy, we didn’t think the Chronicles of Narnia really happened, we read it because it encouraged us in our faith, scenes from the Chronicles of Narnia served as great examples of certain points we were trying to make, principles we were talking about, qualities we were promoting.
We don’t know quite what Jude believed about these stories he’s referencing; did he think they were true? Historical fact? It’s easier for us to say that the Michael & Moses bit was “just” an example than it is to say that the Enoch passage was. Jude basically says that Enoch was making prophecies about the events just around the corner.
We’d all be weirded out if I said that Aslan in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was talking about us at Smoky Row. So Jude at least believes that the words he reads in 1st Enoch are true words, relevant for his audience and especially for the people who are going to be judged pretty quickly.
But the use Jude makes of things that are not biblical troubles us, a little, and I think that it’s part of the reason we don’t read Jude more than we could. And the most that I can say about this is that Jude was written before what we call “Scripture” really took its shape. Christians were reading a lot of things, and we don’t quite know just what level of “inspiration” they thought each particular work they read held. They didn’t have an inspiration meter, you know. Over time, the early church formed one, developed ways to discuss what was scripture and what wasn’t; we’re talking about this stuff today in the “Questions” class after the service.
But he community Jude was writing to incorporated these two books into their lives of faith, they were important for them; we can respect that, I think, even while saying that we’re probably not going to read a 1st Enoch devotional.
More than Captain Quirk:
And we could talk about more than just the quirky unusual stuff that Jude forces us to deal with, you know. We could talk about people who Jude describes here as–let me list some of these adjectives– “grumblers and faultfinders,” people who follow “their own evil desires,” who “boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage,” who are “ungodly,” and “pervert” God’s grace by making it a get-out-of-jail-free card for their own immoral behavior “and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.” Presumably, deny Jesus by taking advantage of grace and doing what they want, not what God asks of them. They don’t have the Holy Spirit, and they are leaders in the church only because it gets them something. They are divisive, abusive, terrible people.
This would be easy to talk about; Jude’s writing to tell his people to avoid them. And If we were talking about it, I probably wouldn’t, oh, you know encourage us to avoid bad theology—we should, of course, but it just wouldn’t be as relevant for us, right? Our world is theological buffet; but one thing I’ve loved is that Smoky Row is full of picky eaters. We think critically, we don’t accept whatever we hear. It’s nice.
If we were to talk about this, I’d do something like, you know, challenge each of us to think about the ways we use the influence we have with people for our own gain, whether we grumble when we maybe shouldn’t grumble, whether we find fault instead of practicing patient grace, whether we take advantage of the grace we’ve been given and act immorally–by which I mean, of course, act in any way Jesus would not. Maybe I’d ask us to figure out what the deal is, what we haven’t understood about Jesus, the risen Son of God, what is in us that motivates us to do these ungodly things. And I’d challenge us reorder our lives by whatever means are necessary.
It’s something we could talk about, right? Jude spends most of his words describing these antagonists, these really not Christian people, and encouraging his group to avoid them.
This is one side of Jude’s letter; the negative side. Negatively, Jude speaks against these terrible people.
A Positive Side:
But there’s another side, right? A positive side.
Positively, Jude speaks for his first readers. He tells them to persist in their faith. To keep on keeping on, “to contend for the faith that the Lord has once for all”—it’s not going to be modified, Jesus is it—“entrusted to us, his people.”
Jude says I am with you, I am for you, and persist in your faith in spite of these antagonistic, wicked, selfish people who have infiltrated you all, become a virus among you.
What matters to him is that his people, the people “who have been called, who are loved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ” fight for lives of faith.
One Point:
So let’s draw one powerful point from the letter of Jude. Let’s highlight one big point out of the many little ones that we could make.
Here it is: Persist.
Persist.
We must contend for our faith. Persist in the faith, keep it, keep on keeping on, stay the course,
This is the positive message of Jude. Persist.
Don’t allow yourself to be waylaid by these people who have come in among you, dissuading you from a faithful life. Instead, hold to the faith. Don’t forget the terrible things that have happened to those who’ve left their faith behind for some lesser thing. Don’t become like those who do whatever they like, who dismiss your faith and you at the same time.
But instead, stay the course, persist in your faith.
Keep yourselves in God’s love, wait with expectation for Jesus to follow through on all his promises to us. Whatever it takes for you to build yourselves up in your faith, do it; and do it with prayer, do it by leaning on the Holy Spirit the way a tired person leans against a wall.
Jude’s Message:
Look it is not easy to be a Christian, to turn to the Holy Spirit and do as Jesus did, as Jesus would do. It is not easy to act with patience to those who frustrate us. It is not easy to keep our mouths shut when they want to give voice to anger, gossip, secrets. It is not easy to do good things that should be done, meet needs that must be met, when it is so much easier to do what we want, when we want, according to our own whims or calendars.
It is not easy to care about things that no one else cares about, receive the scoffing or confusion or dismissal that can come when we mention “our most holy faith.”
Jude tells us to “be merciful to those who doubt”–but it’s so much easier to avoid their doubts on the one hand, or act with frustration on the other. He tells us to “save others by snatching them from the fire”–but it’s so much easier to let people burn up, go their own way. He tells us to show mercy, mixed with fear–hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh. But it’s so much easier to avoid the people we fear, or to become just like the people we want to share God’s love with, and in the process lose all the things that make us distinct.
But the positive message of Jude is “Hang in there.” Fight to do what is pleasing to the Lord. Fight for it. Rouse your spirit to care, and don’t give into anything that would dissuade you away from a faithful course.
Jude calls–through exhortation, through stories, through blessing–to stay the course, and let every action of our lives position us for a life-long, enduring faith.
Relevance: Particular & General
And this message of Jude is relevant, I would guess, for each one of us.
I would guess that all of us need reminded to stay the course, to persist in our faith and faithfulness. We simply forget sometimes to act like Jesus, we let things slide away from us, you know. We stop guarding our attitudes, checking our words, reciting truths that we know, that we’ve experienced. We trade meeting together for meeting with our televisions or the internet. We trade giving generously for self-protection. We trade truth for mostly-truth or an easier-to-follow falsehood.
We just let go of things. Sometimes because of events, sometimes because it’s just hard to maintain this life of faith. It can be tiresome.
Jude reminds us that we had best check ourselves. Seriously. We need reminded to be responsible, because it takes a long time for our habits to transform into responsible ones, and even the most faithful person can let basic faithfulness slip away.
And this message of Jude is relevant, I would guess, for Smoky Row.
We have had our days. But the distance we have climbed and been carried since even a couple of years ago is astonishing, really. Nearly miraculous. But we must also be a community, a church, that persists, that does what we can to grow into the amazing future that God is continually holding out to us.
We have unique things to offer the world and our community, and we need reminded, now and then, of how far we’ve come and how far we can go if we as a community will persist in faith and faithfulness. And all the things that are true of each of us, are in some measure true of the whole of us, Smoky Row, the church we form.
Conclusion:
Jude ends his letter with a benediction, he bestows a blessing on his readers, on us:
To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy—to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.
Amen, right?
We need to remember this, need to take this blessing and run with it. Because while we do have to persist in our faith and our faithfulness, must hold the course, while this is true, we must also remember that God our Savior, who owns glory, owns majesty, owns power and authority: God is on our side. And God is capable enough to keep us from stumbling and straying from faith.
So let’s examine ourselves. Have we loosened our grip on our faith? Have we traded faithfulness for something lesser. We’ve got to ask ourselves this. How can we persist, endure in this Christian life?
But even as we look inward, reflect upon our lives or ask someone us to give us a little feedback, we need to remember that God is for us, not against us, and is more than capable and willing fill up our lives with joy, empty out our lives of all fault & blame, and give us all of himself. God’s persistent; we need to be, too.