Christmas Eve 2009
A Child is Given
Luke 2:10-11
It seems this is the gift giving time of year. We work day and night to find the right gifts, wrap them in the right paper (or put them in a bag from last Christmas and try to salvage some paper for a birthday gift last month...), hide them in the right spot so no one finds them until Christmas day, and then we smile with joy as our loved ones open the gifts.
Sometimes, gifts are special too. I don't mean a package of meat from some steak company on the Internet or a gift card that puts all the pressure on the recipient to find the right gift, I mean those special gifts. I'm talking about those gift you remember for decades, not days.
Though I may have had many such gifts through the years, one stands out when I think of special gifts. It was July 1976. I remember having my birthday party in the driveway and my front yard. We had strung streamers between the posts of the carport. The actual carport had collapsed the winter before due to snow and ice but the poles were there. We had tables set up for the cake and gifts and a place in the dirt to play with trucks and Army Men. It was a six year old boys paradise. I don't remember what the cake looked like, I don't remember who was there. But I remember the gift.
Oh, I got lots of gifts, probably a model, maybe a cap gun, possibly a shirt or some pants, but after all the gifts had been unwrapped I noticed my dad was missing... then I saw him. Coming around the house with my brand new bicycle. It was a Spirit of '76 Huffy bicycle. It had red-white-and blue streamers coming out of the Ape-Hanger handlebars. It had a banana seat with a red-white-and blue pendent above it. It was my my own bicycle, not a hand-me down, not one that I shared, not one with training wheels. It was mine, a big boy bike.
It would have been the greatest memory of that day had it not been for one other thing... Smokey Joe showed up. Who is or was Smokey Joe? Well, Smokey Joe was a little Lynx Point Siamese kitten. I remember the little guy having to jump through the thick St. Augustine grass and almost disappearing every time it it landed in the grass. It was so cute and cuddly. I wanted to keep him. I wanted a cat. It would make the best gift, or so I thought. Except my sister was allergic to cats, my mom didn't like all the hair, and Dad didn't like all the damage they cause with their claws and cleaning up a litter box. So, my grandmother ended up with Smokey and I got to visit my birthday cat for the following 15 years.
You see, Smokey Joe was a great gift, the Bicycle was a great gift, and I'm sure all the other gifts were great too, but Smokey and the Bike were special, I remember them even now some 33 years later.
There are a few things we need to remember about good gifts, the best gifts, special gifts:
1.They always express the personality of the giver
2.They unfailingly meet a need or desire of the receiver
\ Let's think about those for a moment. I don't think it is any secret that I like to hunt and fish. So, I could give a gift to Renee that expressed my personality well if I gave her a new Diamond Archery Black Ice Compound Bow – Come on, it has 80% let of at 70 Lbs and shoots an arrow at 318fps. But, since Renee doesn't like hunting it would meet neither a need nor a desire of hers.
But the bike I was talking about. It expressed the personality of my parents and it met a desire of mine. It was a great gift.
3.There is something else about a really good gift too. You have to receive it. If you never accept the gift, if you never receive the gift, if you never take possession of the gift then it is never yours.
4. Finally, you have to open it. A gift, no matter how wonderfully wrapped, will never serve it's purpose if you don't unwrap it and discover it's purpose for your life.
In other words, a good gift says something about the one that gives it, means something to the one that is to receive it, has to be accepted, and must be unwrapped and made a part of the life of the recipient.
One Christmas-Eve an older gentleman was driving home after the Christmas-Eve Service at his church. It was bitterly cold and snowing but as he drove down the street he notices a young boy sitting on the curb shivering. He pulled up next to the boy and asked, “Is everything alright?, you need to get out of the cold or you're gonna freeze!” But the boy said, “I ca-ca-can't sir” the man told him he would take him anywhere he needed to go if he would just tell him where he lived. It confused the older man even more when the boy told him that he lived in the apartments behind him, some 50' away. “You don't understand,” the boy explained, “My daddy gave me $5 and this list to run across the street to the store, but it was so cold and the wind blew so hard I lost the $5. I've looked for it everywhere and can't find it.”
The gentleman smiled and said “oh, that's OK, just go tell your dad what happened and he'll give you another $5.”
“Mister, you don't know my Daddy, he's been drinkin' and he gets mean. I can't go home and tell him I lost his $5. He'll get real mad.”
So, the man took out his own wallet, gave the boy a $5 bill, walked him to the store, and helped him gather the milk, bread, and other couple of things. The total came to $4 and change. The man told the boy, “now you take that change back to your Daddy and give him what he wanted.” the boy smiled and started to run home but stopped, came back to the older man and hugged him around the leg and said, “Thank you, I wish you were my daddy.” and then ran on home.
That night that man drove around for several more blocks looking for any other little boys that might have lost $5. It seemed, if only for an instant, that he had found the perfect gift.
I know you are all smart enough to know that I'm not talking about Five Dollar Bills or the gifts that are under our trees at our homes tonight. Some of those gifts will be special and they will bring great joy for a while, others of them will be a disappointment as soon as they are opened. All of them will someday fade like the morning fog.
There is only one gift that is truly special. There is only one gift that will last forever. And that gift is not under a tree tonight. That is the gift that Isaiah spoke of some 2700 years ago when he predicted that “Unto us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders and he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” It is the gift of Jesus, a gift that certainly expresses the personality of the giver, it unfailingly meets a need of the receiver, it is a gift we must receive, and it is a gift that we must make a part of our life to realize the difference it can produce.
There is an Old Scottish Legend about a shepherd boy that was tending the sheep one day when he saw a beautiful flower in the field. He had never seen a flower like it so he bent over, picked it and took in its beautiful aroma. Just then the nearby mountain lifted up as if on hinges and revealed a treasure one could only dream of. There were jewels, and diamonds, and gold, and silver. The boy ran to the treasure and began picking up the most valuable items he could carry. Then a voice echoed through the caverns of the mountain, “Don't forget the best.” The boy looked around to see if there was anything better than what he had in his arms and, deciding that there wasn't he started to leave. Then the voice echoed again, “Don't forget the best”. The boy hesitated for a moment then ran from the mountain cavern with his arms loaded with treasures. As he cleared the mountain it crashed to the ground and he again heard the voice, “Don't forget the best – the flower you left inside.” At that moment the treasures in the boys arms turned to dust. He had forgotten the best, the flower, the key to the vault of treasures.
This Christmas, let us not forget the best. In the giving and receiving of gifts let us not forget that
A baby born one blessed silent night,
Gave us the greatest gift of our lives.
(Some of the stories and thoughts were inspired by Steve Halliday and Ed Young, "And He Shall Be Called... Everlasting Father... Rediscovering the First Christmas Gift."
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Anticipation
Luke 2:1-7
There are definite advantages to living in a small town. AND there are definite disadvantages to living in a small town. One advantage to living in a small town is that everyone knows everyone. One disadvantage to living in a small town is… everyone knows everyone.
Everyone in Marysvale knew Amy Williams. She had been born 17 years ago, crippled in body if not in spirit. No one had expected her to live, but she had. Everyone knew Amy, her hunched back and twisted spine were recognizable at a distance.
And here she sat by the Choir room door, agonizing over the audition for the communities Christmas program. “What am I doing here?” she thought, “I’ll never be chosen.”
This Christmas program was a community tradition, it had gone on so long that no one even knew when it had begun or even who had written it. Each year more people tried out for the play than there were parts and each year some had to be turned away. There were 12 choir parts, the angels, Mary, Joseph, the Angel of the Lord, the Inn Keeper, and a few Shepherds and Shepherd boys.
As Amy sat there, she through about leaving, she didn’t want to be rejected again, “I try not to care, but I do. I don’t want to be hurt anymore.” She thought to herself, “Mr. Simons will never choose me for a part. I just don’t fit. But at least I don’t have to audition in front of Mrs. Prendergast.”
Mrs. Prendergrast had been the music teacher at Marysvale High School for more than thirty years. She had cast, directed, and accompanied every pageant and production of the school and community for many of those thirty years. Three years earlier Amy had tried to audition for the Christmas program but Mrs. Prendergrast took one look at Amy’s misshapen body and said, “Child, you just don’t fit. I don’t remember anywhere in the script where it calls for crippled girl.” Without singing a note Amy had been rejected. Hurt and humiliated she vowed never to try out again. Then… Mrs. Prendergrast retired.
The new Choral teacher, Mr. Simmons was the polar opposite of Mrs. Prendergrast. Oh, don’t get me wrong, he expected perfection and taught in just that way, but he also understood when perfection was not reached. He taught with love and compassion. He coached and corrected with kindness, and he himself sang with such power.
One day after class he asked Amy to try out for the program. That is the only reason she was even there. As she sat she thought about leaving and avoiding the pain of rejection, but she didn’t want to disappoint Mr. Simmons. As she struggled with what to do the door opened and she heard the words, “Amy, your next.”
After the audition Mr. Simmons said, “Thank you, Amy. The list will be posted tomorrow.” And with that Amy walked out of the Choir room, anticipating the rejection that was to come. For brief moments she would allow herself to speculate that she may have made it into the heavenly choir of angels, then reality would hit her in the face as she tried to move her deformed back. What chance did she have? Yet still she waited.
We’ve all been there in some degree or another. We know the waiting game:
Waiting on our final grades
Waiting for the proposal
Awaiting the birth of a child
Waiting on the test results from the doctor
Waiting on the call to come after the job interview
Anticipation… It has a sense of excitement, like a child watching as the gifts collect under the tree.
It also has a sense of anxiety… that not knowing what is to come, not knowing the answer.
This weekend I felt both senses of anticipation. You see, Friday we left after the school parties were all over to go to my moms for Christmas. There was the excitement of seeing family and the giving and receiving of gifts. But there was also the anxiety of things not being as the once where. You see, my dad died in 2003, my mom has remarried, and things just aren’t the same any more. There’s different family there now. New traditions. A different home. It just isn’t the same any more. And, I anticipate every holiday we spend together because of that.
But any anticipation, any excitement, any anxiety we feel for things like this fall far short of anything Mary and Joseph felt during the 40 weeks of her pregnancy with Jesus.
Remember, they were not yet wed.
Even Joseph shunned Mary when he found out she was pregnant. He loved her so he couldn’t have her stoned. Even though….
That is what the law called for, that she be stoned.
It took a visit from an angel for Joseph to be willing to believe the story - that the child she was carrying would be the Son of God.
The community shunned her; who in their right mind would believe a story like hers, that even though she was pregnant she was still a virgin.
Then, in the final weeks of the pregnancy she had to travel by donkey, across the rough barren land of Nazareth of Galilee, through Samaria and on to Bethlehem of Judea. It was a long and dangerous trip, especially for an expectant mother near the time of birth.
Think of Joseph, of what he endured. The snide remarks made behind his back about what he had done to her.
The questions of why he stayed with her if it wasn’t his fault.
Together they anticipated surviving in a culture that considered adultery and pre-marital relations as a crime punishable by death.
They anticipated the birth of Jesus
They anticipated raising the Son of God
How could they ever live up to the standard, to be the parents of the Messiah?
There was so much to anticipate.
And there was so much for Amy Williams to anticipate as well. Amy didn’t even want to go to school the next day. She just didn’t know how she could face Mr. Simmons after being rejected again. She didn’t want to see anyone or do anything; she just wanted to be left alone.
She avoided the choir room as long as she could but then Third-period choir rolled around and she would have to walk by the list to get to class. Timidly, fearfully, she looked at the list. The heavenly choir was listed at the bottom of the page. As she suspected, her name wasn’t there. “Rejected again!” She turned to enter the class when, out of the corner of her eye, she saw her name at the top of the page. She, Amy Williams, had been chosen to sing the only solo in the entire play, she was to be the Angel of the Lord and sing to the Christ child.
After class Mr. Simmons told her he needed to talk to her about her part. He told her, “I don’t want to upset you but I need to stage your part a little differently this year.” Amy thought to herself, “Yeah, right off the stage, out of sight.”
But Mr. Simmons went on to explain that he wanted to have a pyramid build and have the 12 angels coming up and to have her at the top center of the pyramid above the Baby Jesus as she sang her part. All those years of pain welled up in her and exploded on Mr. Simmons. “You don’t want me center stage. I’ll ruin the show. I don’t fit in. Everyone will stare at me and it will ruin the show.”
But Mr. Simmons stopped her and told her that he had chosen her for the part because she deserved it, what she thought of herself was out of his control, but he wanted her to sing as the Angel of the Lord, and since the song the Angel of the Lord sings is the central meaning of the entire play, he wanted her front and center to sing it.
That night Amy made her decision, she would be in the play. The rehearsals were exhausting, her body ached each day after climbing up and down the pyramid but great joy filled her heart as well. She did fit in.
Once again, one of the advantages to living in a small town is that when there is a special event everyone comes and this Christmas program was no different. And so it was the Sunday before Christmas when the whole town of Marysvale attended the Christmas program. Amy Williams, broken in body but not in spirit, climbed to the top of the silver-white pyramid and with the true voice of an angel sang her heart out to the Christ child.
“What child is this who laid to rest, on Mary’s lap is sleeping?...”
Never had the angel sung more sweetly.
No one had realized how sick Amy really was because they were so used to seeing her broken body. No one even knew she went to the hospital the next morning
So, it was a real shock to the community when she died the next Tuesday. Her mother conveyed a last request from Amy to Mr. Simmons. Would he please sing at her funeral?
And so, on Christmas Eve two of Amy’s classmates helped Mr. Simmons from his wheelchair and supported him as he sang for a daughter of God, just as she had sung for the Son of God.
You see, sometimes we can anticipate what is to come. Other times we must simply receive that which comes our way.
Today, we await the celebration of the birth of our Savior. We sing songs together. We do good deeds for others. We gather with family and friends. And we anticipate the birth of the Christ child. But we also await Christ coming again. We can anticipate all we want. We can prepare our hearts by being in relationship with God through Christ, but in the end we must simply receive that which comes our way.
I hope today you will receive Christ, not just as a child but as the Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, and as a Savior. I pray you will receive the Son of God into your life today and everyday from this point forward.
Let us pray…
(The Story of Amy Williams came from: James, Bob and Kelli eds, Celebrate Christmas and the Beautiful Traditions of Advent, White Stone Books, Inc, pp 144-148.)
There are definite advantages to living in a small town. AND there are definite disadvantages to living in a small town. One advantage to living in a small town is that everyone knows everyone. One disadvantage to living in a small town is… everyone knows everyone.
Everyone in Marysvale knew Amy Williams. She had been born 17 years ago, crippled in body if not in spirit. No one had expected her to live, but she had. Everyone knew Amy, her hunched back and twisted spine were recognizable at a distance.
And here she sat by the Choir room door, agonizing over the audition for the communities Christmas program. “What am I doing here?” she thought, “I’ll never be chosen.”
This Christmas program was a community tradition, it had gone on so long that no one even knew when it had begun or even who had written it. Each year more people tried out for the play than there were parts and each year some had to be turned away. There were 12 choir parts, the angels, Mary, Joseph, the Angel of the Lord, the Inn Keeper, and a few Shepherds and Shepherd boys.
As Amy sat there, she through about leaving, she didn’t want to be rejected again, “I try not to care, but I do. I don’t want to be hurt anymore.” She thought to herself, “Mr. Simons will never choose me for a part. I just don’t fit. But at least I don’t have to audition in front of Mrs. Prendergast.”
Mrs. Prendergrast had been the music teacher at Marysvale High School for more than thirty years. She had cast, directed, and accompanied every pageant and production of the school and community for many of those thirty years. Three years earlier Amy had tried to audition for the Christmas program but Mrs. Prendergrast took one look at Amy’s misshapen body and said, “Child, you just don’t fit. I don’t remember anywhere in the script where it calls for crippled girl.” Without singing a note Amy had been rejected. Hurt and humiliated she vowed never to try out again. Then… Mrs. Prendergrast retired.
The new Choral teacher, Mr. Simmons was the polar opposite of Mrs. Prendergrast. Oh, don’t get me wrong, he expected perfection and taught in just that way, but he also understood when perfection was not reached. He taught with love and compassion. He coached and corrected with kindness, and he himself sang with such power.
One day after class he asked Amy to try out for the program. That is the only reason she was even there. As she sat she thought about leaving and avoiding the pain of rejection, but she didn’t want to disappoint Mr. Simmons. As she struggled with what to do the door opened and she heard the words, “Amy, your next.”
After the audition Mr. Simmons said, “Thank you, Amy. The list will be posted tomorrow.” And with that Amy walked out of the Choir room, anticipating the rejection that was to come. For brief moments she would allow herself to speculate that she may have made it into the heavenly choir of angels, then reality would hit her in the face as she tried to move her deformed back. What chance did she have? Yet still she waited.
We’ve all been there in some degree or another. We know the waiting game:
Waiting on our final grades
Waiting for the proposal
Awaiting the birth of a child
Waiting on the test results from the doctor
Waiting on the call to come after the job interview
Anticipation… It has a sense of excitement, like a child watching as the gifts collect under the tree.
It also has a sense of anxiety… that not knowing what is to come, not knowing the answer.
This weekend I felt both senses of anticipation. You see, Friday we left after the school parties were all over to go to my moms for Christmas. There was the excitement of seeing family and the giving and receiving of gifts. But there was also the anxiety of things not being as the once where. You see, my dad died in 2003, my mom has remarried, and things just aren’t the same any more. There’s different family there now. New traditions. A different home. It just isn’t the same any more. And, I anticipate every holiday we spend together because of that.
But any anticipation, any excitement, any anxiety we feel for things like this fall far short of anything Mary and Joseph felt during the 40 weeks of her pregnancy with Jesus.
Remember, they were not yet wed.
Even Joseph shunned Mary when he found out she was pregnant. He loved her so he couldn’t have her stoned. Even though….
That is what the law called for, that she be stoned.
It took a visit from an angel for Joseph to be willing to believe the story - that the child she was carrying would be the Son of God.
The community shunned her; who in their right mind would believe a story like hers, that even though she was pregnant she was still a virgin.
Then, in the final weeks of the pregnancy she had to travel by donkey, across the rough barren land of Nazareth of Galilee, through Samaria and on to Bethlehem of Judea. It was a long and dangerous trip, especially for an expectant mother near the time of birth.
Think of Joseph, of what he endured. The snide remarks made behind his back about what he had done to her.
The questions of why he stayed with her if it wasn’t his fault.
Together they anticipated surviving in a culture that considered adultery and pre-marital relations as a crime punishable by death.
They anticipated the birth of Jesus
They anticipated raising the Son of God
How could they ever live up to the standard, to be the parents of the Messiah?
There was so much to anticipate.
And there was so much for Amy Williams to anticipate as well. Amy didn’t even want to go to school the next day. She just didn’t know how she could face Mr. Simmons after being rejected again. She didn’t want to see anyone or do anything; she just wanted to be left alone.
She avoided the choir room as long as she could but then Third-period choir rolled around and she would have to walk by the list to get to class. Timidly, fearfully, she looked at the list. The heavenly choir was listed at the bottom of the page. As she suspected, her name wasn’t there. “Rejected again!” She turned to enter the class when, out of the corner of her eye, she saw her name at the top of the page. She, Amy Williams, had been chosen to sing the only solo in the entire play, she was to be the Angel of the Lord and sing to the Christ child.
After class Mr. Simmons told her he needed to talk to her about her part. He told her, “I don’t want to upset you but I need to stage your part a little differently this year.” Amy thought to herself, “Yeah, right off the stage, out of sight.”
But Mr. Simmons went on to explain that he wanted to have a pyramid build and have the 12 angels coming up and to have her at the top center of the pyramid above the Baby Jesus as she sang her part. All those years of pain welled up in her and exploded on Mr. Simmons. “You don’t want me center stage. I’ll ruin the show. I don’t fit in. Everyone will stare at me and it will ruin the show.”
But Mr. Simmons stopped her and told her that he had chosen her for the part because she deserved it, what she thought of herself was out of his control, but he wanted her to sing as the Angel of the Lord, and since the song the Angel of the Lord sings is the central meaning of the entire play, he wanted her front and center to sing it.
That night Amy made her decision, she would be in the play. The rehearsals were exhausting, her body ached each day after climbing up and down the pyramid but great joy filled her heart as well. She did fit in.
Once again, one of the advantages to living in a small town is that when there is a special event everyone comes and this Christmas program was no different. And so it was the Sunday before Christmas when the whole town of Marysvale attended the Christmas program. Amy Williams, broken in body but not in spirit, climbed to the top of the silver-white pyramid and with the true voice of an angel sang her heart out to the Christ child.
“What child is this who laid to rest, on Mary’s lap is sleeping?...”
Never had the angel sung more sweetly.
No one had realized how sick Amy really was because they were so used to seeing her broken body. No one even knew she went to the hospital the next morning
So, it was a real shock to the community when she died the next Tuesday. Her mother conveyed a last request from Amy to Mr. Simmons. Would he please sing at her funeral?
And so, on Christmas Eve two of Amy’s classmates helped Mr. Simmons from his wheelchair and supported him as he sang for a daughter of God, just as she had sung for the Son of God.
You see, sometimes we can anticipate what is to come. Other times we must simply receive that which comes our way.
Today, we await the celebration of the birth of our Savior. We sing songs together. We do good deeds for others. We gather with family and friends. And we anticipate the birth of the Christ child. But we also await Christ coming again. We can anticipate all we want. We can prepare our hearts by being in relationship with God through Christ, but in the end we must simply receive that which comes our way.
I hope today you will receive Christ, not just as a child but as the Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, and as a Savior. I pray you will receive the Son of God into your life today and everyday from this point forward.
Let us pray…
(The Story of Amy Williams came from: James, Bob and Kelli eds, Celebrate Christmas and the Beautiful Traditions of Advent, White Stone Books, Inc, pp 144-148.)
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Unexpected Gifts, Luke 1:26-38
Unexpected Gifts
Luke 1:26-38
Zack had served God his entire life. At this point he was what some would call an old man. He and his wife, Liz, had wanted children but it just didn't seem to be in the plans. They had prayed, they had dreamed, they had cried, but they didn't have any children. I guess at some point you finally give up. You finally accept your lot in life. You love your nieces and nephews, you love the kids in the neighborhood, you pour love into the children around.
Imagine the surprise when one day as Zack was at the altar performing his ministerial duties he heard the voice of an angel. Now that would be enough for me, I'd be passed out on the floor. Somehow Zack maintained his composure and heard the words of the angel Gabriel, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will name him John.”
They had their child. John was a gift to them, a surprise gift, an unexpected gift. But John was more than that, he was the cousin to our Savior. Sometimes the greatest gifts are more than we could ever expect.
In reading today’s Scripture, I began to think of what makes a good gift. What qualities are in a gift that make it special? What are the characteristics of a gift that make it particularly endearing to the one who receives it? Here’s what today’s Scripture taught me, and maybe it will teach you something as well.
A good gift is unconditional. There are no strings attached - nothing is expected in return.
Did you know that when a man asks a woman to marry him and gives an engagement ring, the ring is a gift? The ring is not given in exchange for actually marrying the man. If the wedding is called off the woman is under no legal obligation to give the ring back. There might be an ethical responsibility, depending on the circumstances, but there is no legal one because it is a gift with no strings attached.
The government likes to define words, and it defines “gifts” as well. When you give to the church, you can’t receive anything in return or it’s not a gift, and therefore not tax deductible. Even the law recognizes that a gift is given without strings attached.
So, a good gift is one that is given without any conditions. Once the gift is given, it is wholly that person’s—to do with as they wish.
When you look at the Scripture for this morning, you see that Gabriel gives no conditions for rearing Jesus other than what to name him. Gabriel’s announcement doesn’t come with a long list of items that must happen or God will take Jesus back. There’s nothing like, “Ok, Mary, if you are going to be the one who raises the Son of God, you will have to make sure he wears sunscreen when he goes outside, childproof your home by putting a gate around your fireplace, and be certain that he says his prayers every night.”
You would think with the salvation of the world on the line that the Son of God would come with some kind of Divine Instruction Manual like, “Dieties in Diapers,” “How to Raise a Know-it-all,” or “How to Hide Birthday Gifts from Your Omniscient Child,” or “How to Discipline the Son of God.”
God is trusting Mary and Joseph to raise Jesus in such a way as to shape him into the kind of man who will understand that God will call him to sacrifice his life for the world. What a precious gift and awesome responsibility that is!
Another characteristic of a good gift is that it is surprising. The best gifts are those where you think to yourself, “I can’t believe they got that for me” or “I had no idea they knew I wanted that” or “I didn’t even know anyone made these things!”
I remember not long after Renee and I met, she knew I wanted a new bedspread. I lived in a rat hole with 4 other guys but I wanted my room to look nice. We both worked at Wal-Mart and there was a manly comforter set on clearance at the back of the store. I had no idea that she would get it for me, that is until she asked me to put something in the trunk of her car and there it was, my birthday gift a week before she planned to give it to me. Oops! Needless to say the surprise was ruined for my birthday but it was definitely unexpected and it was a great gift. Sometime the best gift is the one that is unexpected and unpredictable.
Listen again to Mary’s response to the news that she would bear the Son of God.
“How will this be…since I am a virgin?” There could be no greater surprise than being pregnant while still being a virgin! I would imagine that she would be on the verge of shock.
Think for a minute about Mary. She is just a few years older than my daughter Reagan.
She is just at that age when her whole life seems to be before her.
She is sitting at a small desk in her room, and she is staring blankly ahead at the wall.
She is stunned. She sits in disbelief.
She is going to have a baby.
Since she was old enough to talk, she has been waiting and dreaming. She has dreamed of what her life would be like. She has waited for the right man. She prayed for God to send her the right one.
Someone kind. Maybe even someone rich! Certainly someone who had a trade, who could provide.
She had dreamed of the wedding.
She waited for this man, the one selected for her, to respond to her father’s overture…
She dreamed of her friends celebrating with her.
…dreamed of all of the joy of that wedding day.
She must confess she had even dreamed of that wedding night…
In this moment, as she sits staring at the wall, all of those dreams are gone. She cannot avoid the reality. Surprise! She is going to have a baby.
What do you do when what you have prayed for, when what you have been waiting for, isn’t what comes your way at all? But instead, what comes your way is something altogether different, something outside your plans, something that you would never has asked for, never have waited for, never have prayed for. That must be you… You have been there somehow, sometime.
You prayed that the biopsy would come back negative, but it came back positive.
You prayed that your husband would be able to save your marriage, but he seems bent on leaving.
You prayed that the job offer would come, but instead the mailbox was empty.
Surely you’ve had those moments when you just wondered if God was even listening to you.
You see, the question, “how can this be, since I am a virgin,” is not simply a biological question of the angel, but rather a social one. The angel has described a scene in which Mary is a special one, to bear a special child… God is going to use her to do something magnificent.
Mary’s question is “If I turn up pregnant, and unmarried, how can that mean I have found favor with God? How can something magnificent and good and wonderful come out of this?”
And the angel replies: Nothing is impossible with God.
Now that is the real miracle of this story, is it not? Not just that God used a virgin; God used something that seemed like a tragedy and turned it into a victory. That is the way that God works.
Sometimes, our plan for our lives doesn’t work out. What comes down the pike is not just a surprise, but a gut wrenching surprise.
We have to recognize that maybe God can take our lives and work something else out with them…. Something altogether different than we had in mind.
The last thing that makes a really good gift is its value to the giver. The more the giver values the gift, the more the giver values the one he or she is giving it to.
Gift's don't have to be expensive to be valuable. A child takes the time to make a card or a coupon book or A father passes on a special pocket knife that belonged to his dad. Sometimes they can be expensive like a special ring given for a special reason. The point is, the value is not tied to the price, the value is about what it means to the giver and the receiver.
To put that in the context of our Scripture today, God’s greatest gift to us was what? Sure! His Son, which as Christians, we believe was the incarnation of God himself. That means that God values his relationship with us so much that he gave his very self to suffer and die on a cross for us. Does that put things in perspective?
Let me tell you about another Mary and Joseph…. Their names were Patrick and Ellen. They were no longer young; in fact, they were in their forties. But one day, Ellen turned up pregnant. They already had two children at home, and had resolved not to have any others, but they decided that this would be a great gift, this third child. You see, they had hit a rough spot in their marriage and maybe a new baby was just what they needed to smooth it out.
Sometime around the fourth month of the pregnancy, the doctors informed them that the baby was to be a boy, but there was a problem. This boy’s genetic material contained an extra copy of the 21st chromosome. He would have Down’s Syndrome.
Patrick and Ellen were heartbroken. How would they survive? How could their marriage survive?
Ellen traveled a lot for work, and it was difficult enough caring for their two children. What kind of effect would it have on them? What about her career? They argued a lot with God. They cried. They shouted out in anger. They refused to talk to anyone around them, because everything those friends said seemed like shallow platitudes.
By the time Jonathan was born, they had come to the decision that “it is what it is.” They would do their very best for Jonathan.
The family dynamic changed dramatically. Ellen quit her job, so that she could provide full time care for Jonathan. Patrick scaled back his hours so he could help out more. The family began some family counseling; they figured they were going to need it. Ellen became an advocate in the church and the school for children with special needs, helping to start a Sunday school program for Jonathan. The whole family discovered a new sense of focus, a new sense of direction, a new sense of purpose.
Later Patrick would say, “Jonathan is the best thing that ever happened to us. We thank God for him every single day.”
What a gift Jonathan was. A surprising gift, an Unexpected Gift. Yes, and sometimes a heartbreaking gift. Who would have thought that such a tragedy might become such a blessing...
But then again, nothing is impossible is God.
(Parts of this sermon came from sermon curriculum for the "Given" series put out by The Loft Church - The Woodlands UMC. Tom Pace and Tom Teekell of the Texas Annual Conference are to be credited with some of the stories of this sermon.)
Luke 1:26-38
Zack had served God his entire life. At this point he was what some would call an old man. He and his wife, Liz, had wanted children but it just didn't seem to be in the plans. They had prayed, they had dreamed, they had cried, but they didn't have any children. I guess at some point you finally give up. You finally accept your lot in life. You love your nieces and nephews, you love the kids in the neighborhood, you pour love into the children around.
Imagine the surprise when one day as Zack was at the altar performing his ministerial duties he heard the voice of an angel. Now that would be enough for me, I'd be passed out on the floor. Somehow Zack maintained his composure and heard the words of the angel Gabriel, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will name him John.”
They had their child. John was a gift to them, a surprise gift, an unexpected gift. But John was more than that, he was the cousin to our Savior. Sometimes the greatest gifts are more than we could ever expect.
In reading today’s Scripture, I began to think of what makes a good gift. What qualities are in a gift that make it special? What are the characteristics of a gift that make it particularly endearing to the one who receives it? Here’s what today’s Scripture taught me, and maybe it will teach you something as well.
A good gift is unconditional. There are no strings attached - nothing is expected in return.
Did you know that when a man asks a woman to marry him and gives an engagement ring, the ring is a gift? The ring is not given in exchange for actually marrying the man. If the wedding is called off the woman is under no legal obligation to give the ring back. There might be an ethical responsibility, depending on the circumstances, but there is no legal one because it is a gift with no strings attached.
The government likes to define words, and it defines “gifts” as well. When you give to the church, you can’t receive anything in return or it’s not a gift, and therefore not tax deductible. Even the law recognizes that a gift is given without strings attached.
So, a good gift is one that is given without any conditions. Once the gift is given, it is wholly that person’s—to do with as they wish.
When you look at the Scripture for this morning, you see that Gabriel gives no conditions for rearing Jesus other than what to name him. Gabriel’s announcement doesn’t come with a long list of items that must happen or God will take Jesus back. There’s nothing like, “Ok, Mary, if you are going to be the one who raises the Son of God, you will have to make sure he wears sunscreen when he goes outside, childproof your home by putting a gate around your fireplace, and be certain that he says his prayers every night.”
You would think with the salvation of the world on the line that the Son of God would come with some kind of Divine Instruction Manual like, “Dieties in Diapers,” “How to Raise a Know-it-all,” or “How to Hide Birthday Gifts from Your Omniscient Child,” or “How to Discipline the Son of God.”
God is trusting Mary and Joseph to raise Jesus in such a way as to shape him into the kind of man who will understand that God will call him to sacrifice his life for the world. What a precious gift and awesome responsibility that is!
Another characteristic of a good gift is that it is surprising. The best gifts are those where you think to yourself, “I can’t believe they got that for me” or “I had no idea they knew I wanted that” or “I didn’t even know anyone made these things!”
I remember not long after Renee and I met, she knew I wanted a new bedspread. I lived in a rat hole with 4 other guys but I wanted my room to look nice. We both worked at Wal-Mart and there was a manly comforter set on clearance at the back of the store. I had no idea that she would get it for me, that is until she asked me to put something in the trunk of her car and there it was, my birthday gift a week before she planned to give it to me. Oops! Needless to say the surprise was ruined for my birthday but it was definitely unexpected and it was a great gift. Sometime the best gift is the one that is unexpected and unpredictable.
Listen again to Mary’s response to the news that she would bear the Son of God.
“How will this be…since I am a virgin?” There could be no greater surprise than being pregnant while still being a virgin! I would imagine that she would be on the verge of shock.
Think for a minute about Mary. She is just a few years older than my daughter Reagan.
She is just at that age when her whole life seems to be before her.
She is sitting at a small desk in her room, and she is staring blankly ahead at the wall.
She is stunned. She sits in disbelief.
She is going to have a baby.
Since she was old enough to talk, she has been waiting and dreaming. She has dreamed of what her life would be like. She has waited for the right man. She prayed for God to send her the right one.
Someone kind. Maybe even someone rich! Certainly someone who had a trade, who could provide.
She had dreamed of the wedding.
She waited for this man, the one selected for her, to respond to her father’s overture…
She dreamed of her friends celebrating with her.
…dreamed of all of the joy of that wedding day.
She must confess she had even dreamed of that wedding night…
In this moment, as she sits staring at the wall, all of those dreams are gone. She cannot avoid the reality. Surprise! She is going to have a baby.
What do you do when what you have prayed for, when what you have been waiting for, isn’t what comes your way at all? But instead, what comes your way is something altogether different, something outside your plans, something that you would never has asked for, never have waited for, never have prayed for. That must be you… You have been there somehow, sometime.
You prayed that the biopsy would come back negative, but it came back positive.
You prayed that your husband would be able to save your marriage, but he seems bent on leaving.
You prayed that the job offer would come, but instead the mailbox was empty.
Surely you’ve had those moments when you just wondered if God was even listening to you.
You see, the question, “how can this be, since I am a virgin,” is not simply a biological question of the angel, but rather a social one. The angel has described a scene in which Mary is a special one, to bear a special child… God is going to use her to do something magnificent.
Mary’s question is “If I turn up pregnant, and unmarried, how can that mean I have found favor with God? How can something magnificent and good and wonderful come out of this?”
And the angel replies: Nothing is impossible with God.
Now that is the real miracle of this story, is it not? Not just that God used a virgin; God used something that seemed like a tragedy and turned it into a victory. That is the way that God works.
Sometimes, our plan for our lives doesn’t work out. What comes down the pike is not just a surprise, but a gut wrenching surprise.
We have to recognize that maybe God can take our lives and work something else out with them…. Something altogether different than we had in mind.
The last thing that makes a really good gift is its value to the giver. The more the giver values the gift, the more the giver values the one he or she is giving it to.
Gift's don't have to be expensive to be valuable. A child takes the time to make a card or a coupon book or A father passes on a special pocket knife that belonged to his dad. Sometimes they can be expensive like a special ring given for a special reason. The point is, the value is not tied to the price, the value is about what it means to the giver and the receiver.
To put that in the context of our Scripture today, God’s greatest gift to us was what? Sure! His Son, which as Christians, we believe was the incarnation of God himself. That means that God values his relationship with us so much that he gave his very self to suffer and die on a cross for us. Does that put things in perspective?
Let me tell you about another Mary and Joseph…. Their names were Patrick and Ellen. They were no longer young; in fact, they were in their forties. But one day, Ellen turned up pregnant. They already had two children at home, and had resolved not to have any others, but they decided that this would be a great gift, this third child. You see, they had hit a rough spot in their marriage and maybe a new baby was just what they needed to smooth it out.
Sometime around the fourth month of the pregnancy, the doctors informed them that the baby was to be a boy, but there was a problem. This boy’s genetic material contained an extra copy of the 21st chromosome. He would have Down’s Syndrome.
Patrick and Ellen were heartbroken. How would they survive? How could their marriage survive?
Ellen traveled a lot for work, and it was difficult enough caring for their two children. What kind of effect would it have on them? What about her career? They argued a lot with God. They cried. They shouted out in anger. They refused to talk to anyone around them, because everything those friends said seemed like shallow platitudes.
By the time Jonathan was born, they had come to the decision that “it is what it is.” They would do their very best for Jonathan.
The family dynamic changed dramatically. Ellen quit her job, so that she could provide full time care for Jonathan. Patrick scaled back his hours so he could help out more. The family began some family counseling; they figured they were going to need it. Ellen became an advocate in the church and the school for children with special needs, helping to start a Sunday school program for Jonathan. The whole family discovered a new sense of focus, a new sense of direction, a new sense of purpose.
Later Patrick would say, “Jonathan is the best thing that ever happened to us. We thank God for him every single day.”
What a gift Jonathan was. A surprising gift, an Unexpected Gift. Yes, and sometimes a heartbreaking gift. Who would have thought that such a tragedy might become such a blessing...
But then again, nothing is impossible is God.
(Parts of this sermon came from sermon curriculum for the "Given" series put out by The Loft Church - The Woodlands UMC. Tom Pace and Tom Teekell of the Texas Annual Conference are to be credited with some of the stories of this sermon.)
Monday, September 28, 2009
What Time Is It?
Text: Ecclesiastes 3
I wonder if you noticed that there has been a method to the madness of the 3:16 series? This past Spring we looked at Stewardship and saw such texts as Leviticus 3:16 and we talked about an offering to God or Malachi 3:16 and talked about the Tithe. We looked at living in the midst of this world and saw sermons like “Warning” from 2 Peter 3:16. After that we began looking at our Spiritual Gifts and now, over the past several weeks we have been looking at Evangelism. We have jumped out of the 3:16's this month to ask “Why do you follow Christ” and what difference is it going to make in the world? We have looked at 1 Peter 3:16 and said we need to live out our faith regardless of the persecution that may follow. Be ready to tell others of the hope that is in you. Last week we saw that none are righteous but all are worthy. Christ died for us all. Today we will have the last sermon of our 3:16 series and, it too will be a sermon on evangelism.
Evangelism you may ask? Ecclesiastes 3? Isn't that the chapter that the Byrds got the lyrics to “Turn Turn” from? Well, yes it is, but there is a lot more to the chapter than just those few words and that is what we are going to look at today.
Ecclesiastes 3:16 – 22
Ecclesiastes is one of the most misunderstood and misinterpreted texts in our Bible. In a sense, people try to make of it what they will. For instance, one might read 2:13-14 and see that there are many advantages in this life to having wisdom OR one might read the same passage at another time in their life or from another translation and see that wisdom or foolishness doesn't matter because death comes to the foolish or the wise.
The truth is Ecclesiastes is hard for us to translate because it is so different from anything else we read. The Psalmist looks around at all that God has created and responds with a song of praise for God's great handiwork. The author of Ecclesiastes looks out at the same thing and sees the repetition of life, that the rivers flow into the sea, the wind blows where it may, the sun shines and the rain falls and then comes to the conclusion that, there is nothing new under the sun.
The prophet Isaiah may look at an unjust and corrupt society and demand justice in the name of God. The author of Ecclesiastes sees the same and says in 5:8, “It's just the system, you can't beat it.”
In some respects this is one of the most depressing books of the Old Testament. Songs like “Turn Turn Turn ” and “Dust in the Wind” were inspired by it. Songs that plea for peace or say simply that we are just dust waiting to blow in the wind when we die.
However, I think there is a lot more in this Book than depressing words about the meaningless life we live. I think it can help us to ask questions of ourselves. We can see injustice in the world around us and it can remind us that there is a time and purpose for everything under heaven.
That is the thought I want us to take a few minutes to look at. Time.
That thing that we just can't get enough of.
We always need more time don't we?
We say, “there just aren't enough hours in the day to do everything that needs to be done.”
We have the term “waiting till the last … (what)... minute” – (time).
We are concerned that the time won't be there if we wait too long.
We worry about having time to do all our work and still spend time with our families.
We worry that time is slipping away and we can't control it.
Time, it seems, is our enemy, and for some maybe it is.
We do seem to have a limited amout of time in this life.
We do know that “This is the day and the hour of salvation”.
We know that others need to hear about and know Christ before before they die and we do not know when that “time” may come and we need to respond!
But I heard something yesterday about time. Bridget, the young lady that works at the Wash n Fold made a comment about time and then chuckled. She said my Mom always said “There's more time than life” Bridget would say, “Mom, I don't have time to do such and such, I have to finish this so and so.” and her mom would say, “There's more time than life.”
The truth is we use time as an excuse. We don't have time to go to church. We don't have time to talk to someone about the church or about God. We don't have time to care if someone is dying and going to hell.
Well, if that is the case maybe it's not about the time, maybe it's about our priorities. We somehow find the time to do the things we want to do. It's just those other things that we don't have time for.
Let me help us all out with this time thing,
Did God not create this world? Did God not design the earth to rotate around the sun setting our years and seasons? Did God not tilt the earth to the perfect 23.44° and set it spinning on it's axis to set our day's and nights? God created what we have deemed “time”.
God created just the right amount of time for what you need to do. The problem is we try to do all those things that we don't really need to do.
Time is what we make of it and that leads us to the question, “What time is it for you?”
In other words, what is God asking you to do with your time right now?
I think that issue of what God wants us to do with our time is directly related to our purpose as a church. Our church is not about this building! Our church has nothing to do with this building!
Don't get me wrong, I love this building. This building has a lot of history. There are a lot of sentimental feelings associated with this church. Sacred events have happened in this church. You and your children have been baptized in this church. Your families sweated as the bricks were laid and the repairs were conducted to this chancel and choir loft after the fire in 1927 – after much of the oil money had left the community.
All of those things are important for us as a church and as a community, but if this beautiful building were to be destroyed tomorrow we would still be a church. Because YOU are the church. In fact we as a church have somehow gotten this whole thing wrapped around backwards. And I'm not just talking about here in Wortham/Kirvin. I'm talking about the way we as Christians “do church”.
Somewhere between Christ and today we decided that church meant that we come for an hour of Sunday School, then meet together, sing a few songs, say a few prayers, put a little money in the offering plate, try to stay awake during a 20 minute speech that some call a sermon, sing a song and hope we make it to Magic China before the Baptists get there. Am I right?
That is what it means to “Do church”. Doing church involves coming to this building and doing “good things” and that's not a bad thing.
But being the church is something totally different.
Being the church means going to the McCurdy School in Espanola, NM on a mission trip.
Being the church means going to the food pantry and handing out food to those in need.
Being the church means seeing that person that you know is not in church and asking them if they would like to come to church with you Sunday.
Being the church means going to Caritas or Opening a Christian Clothes Closet, Oh, we are already doing that...
Being the church means more than simply showing up on Sunday and hoping to hear a good sermon. Being the church means you have to do something.
Now let me stop right hear and clarify something.
1) I'm not saying that you don't have to come to church. I can hear it now, “well I don't feel one bit guilty for missing church the entire 9 weeks of Deer Season because the preacher said being out doing is more important that just coming to the church.” or “I can skip church this week, it's getting to be Christmas season and I do need to do all my shopping. After all, I can't very well be with those that need to go to church on Sunday if I'm in church. I'll be able to talk to more people that need to be in church if I go on Sunday.”
No, We should never forsake the assembling together as believers.
2) I'm not saying that there is no purpose in coming together here in this beautiful building.
What I'm saying is, well, let me steal a phrase from Gerald Ray.
We need to come to church to fill our salt shaker. We should never have a full salt shaker.
What is salt? It is a purifying agent. It is a seasoning. It is what we are. We are to be out salting the earth, spreading the great seasoning of Jesus in the world. Think of your life as that salt shaker. We need to be emptying that salt shaker every week as we spread Christ to the world around us.
Then, when we come on Sunday we fellowship with other believers.
We gather and discuss how we spread our salt.
We rejoice in lives changed.
We support and repair each other when our shaker gets cracked by heartaches and mistakes.
And we refill our salt-shakers with the Word of God and the Fellowship of the Saints so we can go do it again.
Though Ecclesiastes seems to be saying that time and justice doesn't really matter because everything ends with death, we know there is more. There is more to church. There is more to life. There is more, because, as Jesus said, we are the salt of the earth.
It's time to spread a little salt.
When we see the injustice and wickedness under the sun, spread a little salt.
When we go out into our work, spread a little salt.
Go spread some salt. Share your salt with the world.
That is what time it is.
I wonder if you noticed that there has been a method to the madness of the 3:16 series? This past Spring we looked at Stewardship and saw such texts as Leviticus 3:16 and we talked about an offering to God or Malachi 3:16 and talked about the Tithe. We looked at living in the midst of this world and saw sermons like “Warning” from 2 Peter 3:16. After that we began looking at our Spiritual Gifts and now, over the past several weeks we have been looking at Evangelism. We have jumped out of the 3:16's this month to ask “Why do you follow Christ” and what difference is it going to make in the world? We have looked at 1 Peter 3:16 and said we need to live out our faith regardless of the persecution that may follow. Be ready to tell others of the hope that is in you. Last week we saw that none are righteous but all are worthy. Christ died for us all. Today we will have the last sermon of our 3:16 series and, it too will be a sermon on evangelism.
Evangelism you may ask? Ecclesiastes 3? Isn't that the chapter that the Byrds got the lyrics to “Turn Turn” from? Well, yes it is, but there is a lot more to the chapter than just those few words and that is what we are going to look at today.
Ecclesiastes 3:16 – 22
Ecclesiastes is one of the most misunderstood and misinterpreted texts in our Bible. In a sense, people try to make of it what they will. For instance, one might read 2:13-14 and see that there are many advantages in this life to having wisdom OR one might read the same passage at another time in their life or from another translation and see that wisdom or foolishness doesn't matter because death comes to the foolish or the wise.
The truth is Ecclesiastes is hard for us to translate because it is so different from anything else we read. The Psalmist looks around at all that God has created and responds with a song of praise for God's great handiwork. The author of Ecclesiastes looks out at the same thing and sees the repetition of life, that the rivers flow into the sea, the wind blows where it may, the sun shines and the rain falls and then comes to the conclusion that, there is nothing new under the sun.
The prophet Isaiah may look at an unjust and corrupt society and demand justice in the name of God. The author of Ecclesiastes sees the same and says in 5:8, “It's just the system, you can't beat it.”
In some respects this is one of the most depressing books of the Old Testament. Songs like “Turn Turn Turn ” and “Dust in the Wind” were inspired by it. Songs that plea for peace or say simply that we are just dust waiting to blow in the wind when we die.
However, I think there is a lot more in this Book than depressing words about the meaningless life we live. I think it can help us to ask questions of ourselves. We can see injustice in the world around us and it can remind us that there is a time and purpose for everything under heaven.
That is the thought I want us to take a few minutes to look at. Time.
That thing that we just can't get enough of.
We always need more time don't we?
We say, “there just aren't enough hours in the day to do everything that needs to be done.”
We have the term “waiting till the last … (what)... minute” – (time).
We are concerned that the time won't be there if we wait too long.
We worry about having time to do all our work and still spend time with our families.
We worry that time is slipping away and we can't control it.
Time, it seems, is our enemy, and for some maybe it is.
We do seem to have a limited amout of time in this life.
We do know that “This is the day and the hour of salvation”.
We know that others need to hear about and know Christ before before they die and we do not know when that “time” may come and we need to respond!
But I heard something yesterday about time. Bridget, the young lady that works at the Wash n Fold made a comment about time and then chuckled. She said my Mom always said “There's more time than life” Bridget would say, “Mom, I don't have time to do such and such, I have to finish this so and so.” and her mom would say, “There's more time than life.”
The truth is we use time as an excuse. We don't have time to go to church. We don't have time to talk to someone about the church or about God. We don't have time to care if someone is dying and going to hell.
Well, if that is the case maybe it's not about the time, maybe it's about our priorities. We somehow find the time to do the things we want to do. It's just those other things that we don't have time for.
Let me help us all out with this time thing,
Did God not create this world? Did God not design the earth to rotate around the sun setting our years and seasons? Did God not tilt the earth to the perfect 23.44° and set it spinning on it's axis to set our day's and nights? God created what we have deemed “time”.
God created just the right amount of time for what you need to do. The problem is we try to do all those things that we don't really need to do.
Time is what we make of it and that leads us to the question, “What time is it for you?”
In other words, what is God asking you to do with your time right now?
I think that issue of what God wants us to do with our time is directly related to our purpose as a church. Our church is not about this building! Our church has nothing to do with this building!
Don't get me wrong, I love this building. This building has a lot of history. There are a lot of sentimental feelings associated with this church. Sacred events have happened in this church. You and your children have been baptized in this church. Your families sweated as the bricks were laid and the repairs were conducted to this chancel and choir loft after the fire in 1927 – after much of the oil money had left the community.
All of those things are important for us as a church and as a community, but if this beautiful building were to be destroyed tomorrow we would still be a church. Because YOU are the church. In fact we as a church have somehow gotten this whole thing wrapped around backwards. And I'm not just talking about here in Wortham/Kirvin. I'm talking about the way we as Christians “do church”.
Somewhere between Christ and today we decided that church meant that we come for an hour of Sunday School, then meet together, sing a few songs, say a few prayers, put a little money in the offering plate, try to stay awake during a 20 minute speech that some call a sermon, sing a song and hope we make it to Magic China before the Baptists get there. Am I right?
That is what it means to “Do church”. Doing church involves coming to this building and doing “good things” and that's not a bad thing.
But being the church is something totally different.
Being the church means going to the McCurdy School in Espanola, NM on a mission trip.
Being the church means going to the food pantry and handing out food to those in need.
Being the church means seeing that person that you know is not in church and asking them if they would like to come to church with you Sunday.
Being the church means going to Caritas or Opening a Christian Clothes Closet, Oh, we are already doing that...
Being the church means more than simply showing up on Sunday and hoping to hear a good sermon. Being the church means you have to do something.
Now let me stop right hear and clarify something.
1) I'm not saying that you don't have to come to church. I can hear it now, “well I don't feel one bit guilty for missing church the entire 9 weeks of Deer Season because the preacher said being out doing is more important that just coming to the church.” or “I can skip church this week, it's getting to be Christmas season and I do need to do all my shopping. After all, I can't very well be with those that need to go to church on Sunday if I'm in church. I'll be able to talk to more people that need to be in church if I go on Sunday.”
No, We should never forsake the assembling together as believers.
2) I'm not saying that there is no purpose in coming together here in this beautiful building.
What I'm saying is, well, let me steal a phrase from Gerald Ray.
We need to come to church to fill our salt shaker. We should never have a full salt shaker.
What is salt? It is a purifying agent. It is a seasoning. It is what we are. We are to be out salting the earth, spreading the great seasoning of Jesus in the world. Think of your life as that salt shaker. We need to be emptying that salt shaker every week as we spread Christ to the world around us.
Then, when we come on Sunday we fellowship with other believers.
We gather and discuss how we spread our salt.
We rejoice in lives changed.
We support and repair each other when our shaker gets cracked by heartaches and mistakes.
And we refill our salt-shakers with the Word of God and the Fellowship of the Saints so we can go do it again.
Though Ecclesiastes seems to be saying that time and justice doesn't really matter because everything ends with death, we know there is more. There is more to church. There is more to life. There is more, because, as Jesus said, we are the salt of the earth.
It's time to spread a little salt.
When we see the injustice and wickedness under the sun, spread a little salt.
When we go out into our work, spread a little salt.
Go spread some salt. Share your salt with the world.
That is what time it is.
None Are Righteous
Text: Romans 3:5-22
There is an old tale of a Scottish farmer named Fleming. While some have disputed the facts of this tale with circumstantial evidence, others have used the same circumstantial evidence to prove the tale.
He was a poor Scottish farmer. One day, while trying to make a living for his family he heard a cry for help coming from a nearby bog. He dropped his tools and ran to the bog.
There, mired to his waist in black muck, was a terrified boy, screaming and struggling to free himself. Farmer Fleming saved the boy and sent him back to his parents
The next day, a fancy carriage pulled up to the Scotsman's sparse surroundings. An elegantly dressed nobleman stepped out and introduced himself as the father of the boy Farmer Fleming had saved.
'I want to repay you,' said the nobleman. 'You saved my son's life.'
'No, I can't accept payment for what I did,' the Scottish farmer replied waving off the offer.
Just then, the farmer's son came to the door of the family home.
The nobleman asked, 'Is that your son?
'Yes,' the farmer replied proudly.
'I'll make you a deal. Let me provide him with the level of education my own son will enjoy If the lad is anything like his father, he'll no doubt grow to be a man we both will be proud of.'
The Farmer's son did go to school, eventually Medical school, and they were both made to be proud in the days to come.
- - - - - - -
That, for me, is an example of grace.
Though the farmer had done a good thing, helping the nobleman's son, he didn't deserve anything for it. To save someone is what should be done. You can't repay a person for saving the life of your son. And the Farmer's son - he certainly didn't deserve the reward he was given. It was because of a sense of obligation, but also grace, undeserved favor, that the nobleman paid the boy's way to medical school.
Though this passage seems to be about judgment and righteousness, in the end it too is about Grace. Though it seems to be about the law and the failure of the Jews to live up to the law, it is about grace.
Though the first part of Romans seems to be about the Gentiles, us, being outside of the covenant in the end Romans is about grace: God's unmerited or unearned favor. Or according to one theologian, “In the New Testament grace means God’s love in action towards [people] who merited the opposite of love” (J. I. Packer, Knowing God. Inter-Varsity Press, 1973, p. 226.)
So, where do I get from “None are righteous, no not one” to this is all about grace? Join me on a quick journey through the first three chapters of Romans...
As you begin reading in Romans you find Paul excoriating the Gentiles for failing to recognize God in God's creation and choosing to follow their own way. 2:12 says “When the Gentiles sin, they will be destroyed, even though they never had God's written law. And the Jews, who do have God's law, will be judged by that law when they fail to obey it.”
We see from these verses that the Gentiles will come before the Judgment of God hoping to be justified by their works. The Jews on the other hand will come before the judgment and rest in the TORAH, the Law, and find that the Law doesn't save them but instead reveal their sin. The TORAH is the covenant that God made with the people, “If you live in this way, then I will be your God and I will give you the benefit of that, an abundant life.” I recently heard a great way for us to understand “The Covenant” in our own terms.
How many of you have a Mortgage? That Mortgage is a contract, a covenant if you will, that you and the bank made together. You agreed that you would abide by the “covenant”, i.e. you would pay your monthly payments on time, and they would let you live in the house until the contract is fulfilled. Now what happens when you fail to live up to your end of the bargain?
They take the house from you and sell it to someone who will live up to the agreement.
So here we see Paul reminding the Jew's that they failed to fulfill their side of the Covenant.
They served other gods. They failed to worship God as they promised. They failed to be a lighthouse on a hill guiding others to God. They tried to keep God to themselves when they were to share God with others and teach others about God. They failed.
But unlike the banker, God didn't abandon them. God allowed the natural consequences of their actions like, if they worshiped god's of other people then they were ruled by those other people. If they failed to share God with others, then God would share God's self with others.
But God never abandoned them.
But some took it to the next level. In our passage we see that some have tried to excuse their sin. It seems that once we sin we display an amazing amount of ingenuity to justify our sin don't we (William Barclay, The Letter to the Romans, Westminster John Knox, Louisville, 1975, 54.) I know with myself there is this particular sin that returned over and over in my life. Rather than recognize it as sin that is controlling me, I compared myself to Paul and said it was my thorn in the flesh. It's what kept me in line with my humanity and in need of God's grace. In other words, I was saying that my sin was giving God the chance to show grace to me. In my sin I was allowing God to be God. What a load of stupidity.
But, we do the same with other sins don't we? Though my body is the “Temple of God” I tear it down by putting chemicals in it. Let's say I were a smoker, I might say that I smoke to keep my weight down. The truth is, that is my excuse to justify my behavior. A better choice would be to spend 20 minutes a day walking. Then rather than tear down my lungs and keep my weight down, now I have made a decision to strengthen the Temple God gave me and keep my weight down.
Let's try another one. Let's say I use foul language that doesn't help encourage someone to do better. Scripture tells us that our language is to be wholesome and is to edify or build others us (Ephesians 4:29) so we know that foul and abusive language is a sin. But I could justify it by saying, “that's the way I was raised”, or “I was in the Navy”, or “that's the only way I can get her to do what I want her to do.”
Let's try one more. We even have a special name for this one, “A Little White Lie.” We lie so we don't hurt someones feelings. We lie so we don't get in trouble... do I need to go on?
These are just the “minor sins” that anyone of us could have committed in our life. I'm not even going to get into the major ones like Murder, Stealing, creating other Idols in our life that we worship.
Once we sin we try to excuse it. We try to justify it. We try to make life just as if the sin never happened. But you know what? We can't. Sin happens in our life and it isn't just something we do to give God the chance to forgive us. No, we knowingly and willingly disobey God and that separates us from God.
That is what this description is here. In verses 10 – 18 Paul follows a typical teaching style of the Rabbi's by stringing together a list of verses from Scripture. Here he uses verses from Psalm's and Isaiah to paint a vivid picture of the depravity of humanity. No one is righteous, no one understands God, no one does good, they all have wicked speech and violent behavior. In this list any of the Jew's or Gentiles could find themselves, then or today. In this list we can all see that no one can fulfill the law and “the entire world is guilty before God. For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the Law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are.” (vs 19b-20)
But that isn't the full story. No, neither the Jew's nor the Gentile's can be made right by the Law. No one ever could. God isn't like the shrewd banker who forecloses on the home when the contract is broken. No God never leaves them and God never leaves us. In fact verses 21 & 22 tell us that “God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago. We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are.”
God never forecloses on us when we fail him. No, instead of making the Law the only way, God creates a new way. God shows the way that was in the works since the first sin happened in the Garden of Eden. God shows the way that Moses and Isaiah and Jeremiah and Daniel and Joel told us about.
God makes a new way.
A great song of our faith comes to mind when I think of this....
God sent his Son. They Call him Jesus.
He came to love, heal and forgive.
He lived and died, to buy my pardon.
An empty grave is there to prove my savior lived.
And it's
Because he lived that I can face tomorrow
Because he lived all fear is gone
and because I know he holds the future
my life is worth living because he lived.
That is why this passage is about more than judgment and righteousness. That is why this verse is about Grace. We don't deserve the Abundant Life God promises. We don't deserve the hope of a life to come. We don't deserve to have a relationship with God. But because of Jesus we can have that relationship.
And our lives can make a difference today because of that Grace that God affords us.
We never know what the outcome will be when we let God's grace flow through us.
Think about Farmer Flemming's son...
Because of the grace offered to him by the nobleman he attended the very best schools and in time, graduated from St. Mary's Hospital Medical School in London. He went on to become known throughout the world as the noted Sir Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of Penicillin.
Years afterward, the same nobleman's son who was saved from the bog was stricken with pneumonia. What saved his life this time? Penicillin.
The name of the nobleman? Lord Randolph Churchill .. His son's name?
Sir Winston Churchill.
And the world will never be the same because of grace.
We never know the reach of God's grace. God's son came to this earth for you and for you and for you. Jesus gave his life for each of us. We didn't deserve it. We don't deserve to be rescued from the bog of our life. We don't deserve the finest education available. We don't deserve even to know of God much less to know God.
But that is the beauty of Grace.
It is while we were yet sinners that Christ died for us.
That is the grace that has been offered to us. But, who will you share that grace with, because though none are righteous, all are worth it.
There is an old tale of a Scottish farmer named Fleming. While some have disputed the facts of this tale with circumstantial evidence, others have used the same circumstantial evidence to prove the tale.
He was a poor Scottish farmer. One day, while trying to make a living for his family he heard a cry for help coming from a nearby bog. He dropped his tools and ran to the bog.
There, mired to his waist in black muck, was a terrified boy, screaming and struggling to free himself. Farmer Fleming saved the boy and sent him back to his parents
The next day, a fancy carriage pulled up to the Scotsman's sparse surroundings. An elegantly dressed nobleman stepped out and introduced himself as the father of the boy Farmer Fleming had saved.
'I want to repay you,' said the nobleman. 'You saved my son's life.'
'No, I can't accept payment for what I did,' the Scottish farmer replied waving off the offer.
Just then, the farmer's son came to the door of the family home.
The nobleman asked, 'Is that your son?
'Yes,' the farmer replied proudly.
'I'll make you a deal. Let me provide him with the level of education my own son will enjoy If the lad is anything like his father, he'll no doubt grow to be a man we both will be proud of.'
The Farmer's son did go to school, eventually Medical school, and they were both made to be proud in the days to come.
- - - - - - -
That, for me, is an example of grace.
Though the farmer had done a good thing, helping the nobleman's son, he didn't deserve anything for it. To save someone is what should be done. You can't repay a person for saving the life of your son. And the Farmer's son - he certainly didn't deserve the reward he was given. It was because of a sense of obligation, but also grace, undeserved favor, that the nobleman paid the boy's way to medical school.
Though this passage seems to be about judgment and righteousness, in the end it too is about Grace. Though it seems to be about the law and the failure of the Jews to live up to the law, it is about grace.
Though the first part of Romans seems to be about the Gentiles, us, being outside of the covenant in the end Romans is about grace: God's unmerited or unearned favor. Or according to one theologian, “In the New Testament grace means God’s love in action towards [people] who merited the opposite of love” (J. I. Packer, Knowing God. Inter-Varsity Press, 1973, p. 226.)
So, where do I get from “None are righteous, no not one” to this is all about grace? Join me on a quick journey through the first three chapters of Romans...
As you begin reading in Romans you find Paul excoriating the Gentiles for failing to recognize God in God's creation and choosing to follow their own way. 2:12 says “When the Gentiles sin, they will be destroyed, even though they never had God's written law. And the Jews, who do have God's law, will be judged by that law when they fail to obey it.”
We see from these verses that the Gentiles will come before the Judgment of God hoping to be justified by their works. The Jews on the other hand will come before the judgment and rest in the TORAH, the Law, and find that the Law doesn't save them but instead reveal their sin. The TORAH is the covenant that God made with the people, “If you live in this way, then I will be your God and I will give you the benefit of that, an abundant life.” I recently heard a great way for us to understand “The Covenant” in our own terms.
How many of you have a Mortgage? That Mortgage is a contract, a covenant if you will, that you and the bank made together. You agreed that you would abide by the “covenant”, i.e. you would pay your monthly payments on time, and they would let you live in the house until the contract is fulfilled. Now what happens when you fail to live up to your end of the bargain?
They take the house from you and sell it to someone who will live up to the agreement.
So here we see Paul reminding the Jew's that they failed to fulfill their side of the Covenant.
They served other gods. They failed to worship God as they promised. They failed to be a lighthouse on a hill guiding others to God. They tried to keep God to themselves when they were to share God with others and teach others about God. They failed.
But unlike the banker, God didn't abandon them. God allowed the natural consequences of their actions like, if they worshiped god's of other people then they were ruled by those other people. If they failed to share God with others, then God would share God's self with others.
But God never abandoned them.
But some took it to the next level. In our passage we see that some have tried to excuse their sin. It seems that once we sin we display an amazing amount of ingenuity to justify our sin don't we (William Barclay, The Letter to the Romans, Westminster John Knox, Louisville, 1975, 54.) I know with myself there is this particular sin that returned over and over in my life. Rather than recognize it as sin that is controlling me, I compared myself to Paul and said it was my thorn in the flesh. It's what kept me in line with my humanity and in need of God's grace. In other words, I was saying that my sin was giving God the chance to show grace to me. In my sin I was allowing God to be God. What a load of stupidity.
But, we do the same with other sins don't we? Though my body is the “Temple of God” I tear it down by putting chemicals in it. Let's say I were a smoker, I might say that I smoke to keep my weight down. The truth is, that is my excuse to justify my behavior. A better choice would be to spend 20 minutes a day walking. Then rather than tear down my lungs and keep my weight down, now I have made a decision to strengthen the Temple God gave me and keep my weight down.
Let's try another one. Let's say I use foul language that doesn't help encourage someone to do better. Scripture tells us that our language is to be wholesome and is to edify or build others us (Ephesians 4:29) so we know that foul and abusive language is a sin. But I could justify it by saying, “that's the way I was raised”, or “I was in the Navy”, or “that's the only way I can get her to do what I want her to do.”
Let's try one more. We even have a special name for this one, “A Little White Lie.” We lie so we don't hurt someones feelings. We lie so we don't get in trouble... do I need to go on?
These are just the “minor sins” that anyone of us could have committed in our life. I'm not even going to get into the major ones like Murder, Stealing, creating other Idols in our life that we worship.
Once we sin we try to excuse it. We try to justify it. We try to make life just as if the sin never happened. But you know what? We can't. Sin happens in our life and it isn't just something we do to give God the chance to forgive us. No, we knowingly and willingly disobey God and that separates us from God.
That is what this description is here. In verses 10 – 18 Paul follows a typical teaching style of the Rabbi's by stringing together a list of verses from Scripture. Here he uses verses from Psalm's and Isaiah to paint a vivid picture of the depravity of humanity. No one is righteous, no one understands God, no one does good, they all have wicked speech and violent behavior. In this list any of the Jew's or Gentiles could find themselves, then or today. In this list we can all see that no one can fulfill the law and “the entire world is guilty before God. For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the Law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are.” (vs 19b-20)
But that isn't the full story. No, neither the Jew's nor the Gentile's can be made right by the Law. No one ever could. God isn't like the shrewd banker who forecloses on the home when the contract is broken. No God never leaves them and God never leaves us. In fact verses 21 & 22 tell us that “God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago. We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are.”
God never forecloses on us when we fail him. No, instead of making the Law the only way, God creates a new way. God shows the way that was in the works since the first sin happened in the Garden of Eden. God shows the way that Moses and Isaiah and Jeremiah and Daniel and Joel told us about.
God makes a new way.
A great song of our faith comes to mind when I think of this....
God sent his Son. They Call him Jesus.
He came to love, heal and forgive.
He lived and died, to buy my pardon.
An empty grave is there to prove my savior lived.
And it's
Because he lived that I can face tomorrow
Because he lived all fear is gone
and because I know he holds the future
my life is worth living because he lived.
That is why this passage is about more than judgment and righteousness. That is why this verse is about Grace. We don't deserve the Abundant Life God promises. We don't deserve the hope of a life to come. We don't deserve to have a relationship with God. But because of Jesus we can have that relationship.
And our lives can make a difference today because of that Grace that God affords us.
We never know what the outcome will be when we let God's grace flow through us.
Think about Farmer Flemming's son...
Because of the grace offered to him by the nobleman he attended the very best schools and in time, graduated from St. Mary's Hospital Medical School in London. He went on to become known throughout the world as the noted Sir Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of Penicillin.
Years afterward, the same nobleman's son who was saved from the bog was stricken with pneumonia. What saved his life this time? Penicillin.
The name of the nobleman? Lord Randolph Churchill .. His son's name?
Sir Winston Churchill.
And the world will never be the same because of grace.
We never know the reach of God's grace. God's son came to this earth for you and for you and for you. Jesus gave his life for each of us. We didn't deserve it. We don't deserve to be rescued from the bog of our life. We don't deserve the finest education available. We don't deserve even to know of God much less to know God.
But that is the beauty of Grace.
It is while we were yet sinners that Christ died for us.
That is the grace that has been offered to us. But, who will you share that grace with, because though none are righteous, all are worth it.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
The Purpose of Your Spiritual Gifts, James 3:13-18
What is the Purpose of Your Spiritual Gifts
James 3:13-18
This isn't what you would normally think of as a passage on Spiritual Gifts. Nowhere in the entire letter or epistle of James do you find a mention of any specific gifts listed as Paul did, instead you find a plethora of writings about how our faith is exemplified by our works. In fact, the most famous verse of the book is 2:17, “Faith without works is dead.” It is for this reason as well as a few others that was James almost excluded from the Bible. If Martin Luther had had anything to do with it once the Protestant church started in the 1500's it would have been removed from the canon, calling it “an epistle of straw.” The early Church Fathers struggled even with who authored it. Was it James the brother of John that we see so prevalently in the Gospels? Some thought so, yet he was martyred around 40 AD. Then there was James the son of Alpheous, but many scholars think that this was the same as the brother of John. The one that many of the church fathers finally agreed upon was James, the brother of Jesus. He had become one of the leaders of the church in Jerusalem, was strict in his interpretation of the Jewish law, and had been raised with Jesus and would have fully had an understanding of righteous living. (see Barclay, The Letter of James and Peter)
Regardless of who the author was our own John Wesley was incredibly fond of the Epistle of James. He felt that it was a remedy against the general temptation to leave off good works in order to increase faith. When Wesley wrote of James and his writing of this letter he said, “That grand pest of Christianity, a faith without works, was spread far and wide; filling the Church with a 'wisdom from beneath,' which is 'earthly, sensual, devilish,' and which gave rise, not only to rash judging and evil speaking, but to 'envy, strife, confusion, and every evil work'”. (see Sermon 61: “The Mystry of Iniquity,” §19)
Though grace is extremely important in Wesley's theology, his life shows the importance of the works that result from a life changed by Grace. Likewise, James doesn't so much teach of this love and grace that leads to salvation but more about the expectations of those that call themselves Christian. He speaks of what the changed life of believers should look like. Specifically, our passage deals with those who presume to preach or teach but the lessons learned from this passage are reasonably transferable to all Christians and the use and misuse of their Gifts.
So, What then happens when we misuse our Gifts? Well,
Have you ever known of a person who can destroy a meeting by their mere presence? They walk in and the arrogance oozes from their pores. They speak the truth but it is somehow lost because of the haughtiness and selfishness that is a part of who they are. It seems that everything always comes down to them, what they can do, what they have done, who they are. Their pride is rampant and humility is non-existent.
This is the type of person that our passage talks about as having wisdom that does not come from God above but rather from the evil that comes from the devil.
The result of this behavior is disorder and chaos and that is the result of the misuse of our Spiritual Gifts. Our gifts from God are to be used to glorify God and edify others and bring about unity in the Body of Christ, but when they are misused they bring chaos and glorify evil. When we misuse our gifts we let pride and arrogance rule in our life. When we misuse our gifts we disregard the importance of the Body of Christ because we are busy looking out for Number one.
When we misuse our gifts we give the devil control of our life and ignore the rule of God in our life. Not so when we use our Gifts properly.
I tried to think of one human example of the proper use of our gifts. As I thought, one name came to mind.
Agnes = AG-ness
Gonxha = GOHN-jay
Bojaxhiu = boh-yah-JOO
Also known as the Blessed Mother Theresa.
From childhood she felt a call to follow God and by age twelve she had committed to a religious life. She became a Nun and while teaching in Calcutta in the 1940's she felt what she called “a call within a call” and began her work with the poor and dying of the poorest parts of Calcutta. She worked with the starving, at times herself starving and homeless.
She gave up all personal glory the pleasures of modern life, in fact during a particularly hard time she wrote in her diary
“Our Lord wants me to be a free nun covered with the poverty of the cross. Today I learned a good lesson. The poverty of the poor must be so hard for them. While looking for a home I walked and walked till my arms and legs ached. I thought how much they must ache in body and soul, looking for a home, food and health. Then the comfort of Loreto [her former order] came to tempt me. 'You have only to say the word and all that will be yours again,' the Tempter kept on saying ... Of free choice, my God, and out of love for you, I desire to remain and do whatever be your Holy will in my regard.”
(see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Teresa)
If there was ever a person who seemed to be a complete and total follower of Christ it was Mother Theresa. Yet, in her humility she never sought honor of her own. She admitted to struggles of faith and times of emptiness.
Never did she let pride or arrogance interfere with her work for Christ.
When we read in our passage about purity, peacefulness, gentleness, righteousness we can see each of these exemplified in the life of Mother Theresa.
Theresa used her gifts to build up the Body of Christ in Calcutta and around the world. She cared for the sick and dying. She fed the hungry, clothed the naked. She lived the life that Christ taught but never did she seek her own way. Never did she seek her own fame. Never did she claim to be anything but a servant of Christ. She is truly an example of what happens when we use our gifts properly.
Will we all serve like Mother Theresa? Will we all live lives of poverty and tend the wounds of the Lepers?
Of course not. But can we all use our gifts to build up the Body of Christ? Can we all use our gifts in a way that exemplifies the life Christ taught us? Can we all use our Gifts in a way that Glorify God and bring about peace?
Of course we can.
When we use our gifts in this way, when we build up rather than destroy; when we live lives of love and mercy; when we produce good fruits with the life God gives us; when we to glorify God and edify others and bring about unity in the Body of Christ, then we know that we are fulfilling the purpose of our Gifts. That is your call from James. That is your call from John Wesley. That is your call from Christ. And that is the call I hope you hear today.
James 3:13-18
This isn't what you would normally think of as a passage on Spiritual Gifts. Nowhere in the entire letter or epistle of James do you find a mention of any specific gifts listed as Paul did, instead you find a plethora of writings about how our faith is exemplified by our works. In fact, the most famous verse of the book is 2:17, “Faith without works is dead.” It is for this reason as well as a few others that was James almost excluded from the Bible. If Martin Luther had had anything to do with it once the Protestant church started in the 1500's it would have been removed from the canon, calling it “an epistle of straw.” The early Church Fathers struggled even with who authored it. Was it James the brother of John that we see so prevalently in the Gospels? Some thought so, yet he was martyred around 40 AD. Then there was James the son of Alpheous, but many scholars think that this was the same as the brother of John. The one that many of the church fathers finally agreed upon was James, the brother of Jesus. He had become one of the leaders of the church in Jerusalem, was strict in his interpretation of the Jewish law, and had been raised with Jesus and would have fully had an understanding of righteous living. (see Barclay, The Letter of James and Peter)
Regardless of who the author was our own John Wesley was incredibly fond of the Epistle of James. He felt that it was a remedy against the general temptation to leave off good works in order to increase faith. When Wesley wrote of James and his writing of this letter he said, “That grand pest of Christianity, a faith without works, was spread far and wide; filling the Church with a 'wisdom from beneath,' which is 'earthly, sensual, devilish,' and which gave rise, not only to rash judging and evil speaking, but to 'envy, strife, confusion, and every evil work'”. (see Sermon 61: “The Mystry of Iniquity,” §19)
Though grace is extremely important in Wesley's theology, his life shows the importance of the works that result from a life changed by Grace. Likewise, James doesn't so much teach of this love and grace that leads to salvation but more about the expectations of those that call themselves Christian. He speaks of what the changed life of believers should look like. Specifically, our passage deals with those who presume to preach or teach but the lessons learned from this passage are reasonably transferable to all Christians and the use and misuse of their Gifts.
So, What then happens when we misuse our Gifts? Well,
Have you ever known of a person who can destroy a meeting by their mere presence? They walk in and the arrogance oozes from their pores. They speak the truth but it is somehow lost because of the haughtiness and selfishness that is a part of who they are. It seems that everything always comes down to them, what they can do, what they have done, who they are. Their pride is rampant and humility is non-existent.
This is the type of person that our passage talks about as having wisdom that does not come from God above but rather from the evil that comes from the devil.
The result of this behavior is disorder and chaos and that is the result of the misuse of our Spiritual Gifts. Our gifts from God are to be used to glorify God and edify others and bring about unity in the Body of Christ, but when they are misused they bring chaos and glorify evil. When we misuse our gifts we let pride and arrogance rule in our life. When we misuse our gifts we disregard the importance of the Body of Christ because we are busy looking out for Number one.
When we misuse our gifts we give the devil control of our life and ignore the rule of God in our life. Not so when we use our Gifts properly.
I tried to think of one human example of the proper use of our gifts. As I thought, one name came to mind.
Agnes = AG-ness
Gonxha = GOHN-jay
Bojaxhiu = boh-yah-JOO
Also known as the Blessed Mother Theresa.
From childhood she felt a call to follow God and by age twelve she had committed to a religious life. She became a Nun and while teaching in Calcutta in the 1940's she felt what she called “a call within a call” and began her work with the poor and dying of the poorest parts of Calcutta. She worked with the starving, at times herself starving and homeless.
She gave up all personal glory the pleasures of modern life, in fact during a particularly hard time she wrote in her diary
“Our Lord wants me to be a free nun covered with the poverty of the cross. Today I learned a good lesson. The poverty of the poor must be so hard for them. While looking for a home I walked and walked till my arms and legs ached. I thought how much they must ache in body and soul, looking for a home, food and health. Then the comfort of Loreto [her former order] came to tempt me. 'You have only to say the word and all that will be yours again,' the Tempter kept on saying ... Of free choice, my God, and out of love for you, I desire to remain and do whatever be your Holy will in my regard.”
(see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Teresa)
If there was ever a person who seemed to be a complete and total follower of Christ it was Mother Theresa. Yet, in her humility she never sought honor of her own. She admitted to struggles of faith and times of emptiness.
Never did she let pride or arrogance interfere with her work for Christ.
When we read in our passage about purity, peacefulness, gentleness, righteousness we can see each of these exemplified in the life of Mother Theresa.
Theresa used her gifts to build up the Body of Christ in Calcutta and around the world. She cared for the sick and dying. She fed the hungry, clothed the naked. She lived the life that Christ taught but never did she seek her own way. Never did she seek her own fame. Never did she claim to be anything but a servant of Christ. She is truly an example of what happens when we use our gifts properly.
Will we all serve like Mother Theresa? Will we all live lives of poverty and tend the wounds of the Lepers?
Of course not. But can we all use our gifts to build up the Body of Christ? Can we all use our gifts in a way that exemplifies the life Christ taught us? Can we all use our Gifts in a way that Glorify God and bring about peace?
Of course we can.
When we use our gifts in this way, when we build up rather than destroy; when we live lives of love and mercy; when we produce good fruits with the life God gives us; when we to glorify God and edify others and bring about unity in the Body of Christ, then we know that we are fulfilling the purpose of our Gifts. That is your call from James. That is your call from John Wesley. That is your call from Christ. And that is the call I hope you hear today.
Monday, May 4, 2009
Are You Weary
2 Thessalonians 3:6-16
We are beginning our month long conversation about our stewardship this week. Over the next few weeks we will talk about what it means to support our church with our Prayers, Presence, Gifts and service. Your support of this church and your continued ministry here in Wortham is something to be commended and something to truly be thankful for. The support I saw at the Fire Department BBQ was impressive. The desire to bring food for the End of the School year food drive shows your presence in the community and your desire to serve and witness to Christ in this community. We are ever mindful of the Swine Flu epedimic/pandemic... We are worried about our selves and our community, those we care for and love.
And today we open our Bibles today 2nd Thessalonians 3 and find a passage that has often been used to question pastor’s salaries. It’s also a passage that has been used to argue in favor of welfare reform or even the complete abolition of the welfare system.
But, maybe there is something else in this passage. Could it be that this passage can help us understand what we are to do as we wait for the Lord’s return? Could it be that it is about how we live in community with one another? Maybe.
Today we will hear a story, a long story it may seem, then we will discuss our scripture, and in the end I hope we will be able to apply both to our lives.
Let us read our passage: 2 Thes 3:6-16.
Prayer: Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, Oh Lord my Strength and my Redeemer. Amen.
---------------------------
Michael wasn’t quite like the other kids at Briarcrest High School. For one thing he was big, huge even. People often called him “Big Mike” and rightly so, he was 6’5” and 350 lbs. in the 9th grade. But Mike didn’t really belong at Briarcrest, actually he had gotten in to the private school by accident. You see, Mike had been passed around from foster home to foster home, from school to school, simply living off whatever help he could get from the next generous person. They would help him for a little while then decide that he was hopeless and shuffle him on to be someone else’s problem.
When Michael was born he was the seventh of what was to be around 13 children born to Denise, or Dee-Dee as she was known on the streets. By the time Mike was about 4 they were living on the streets full time. By 6 he was in a Foster home but ran away and found his way back to Dee-Dee. By 8 his mother was addicted to Crack-Cocaine and Mike was again in foster care. By 10 he was back with her and somehow managed to stay either with her or friends in the low income housing project for the next few years.
It was during these years that he became friends with Steven, the son of “Big Tony.” And, from time to time Mike would sleep at Tony and Steven’s place. Though he wasn’t the guardian of Mike, when Tony moved his son to another school, for some reason he took Mike with him and tried to enroll him at Briarcrest Christian Academy. The problem was Mike had no real education. He should have been going into 10th grade but he couldn’t read, he could barely write, knew no math and had little to no social skills.
Once again Briarcrest, like all the others, made an attempt to help but was just another part of the process of pushing him off to be someone else’s problem. He belonged in the public schools, not private. His IQ had been measured at 80. He ranked in humanities 9th percentile in intelligence and the 6th percentile in “ability to learn”. It had been said of him, “Mike’s not retarded, he’s just stupid.”
The Principal and the President of Briarcrest both wanted to help Michael but weren’t sure how, so they sent him off to a type of home school situation to work on his reading, writing, and arithmetic. It was soon clear that Mike wasn’t able to do the remedial work that he was sent and in the end even missed the public school enrollment. Here Michael was, adrift in the masses of society. Shuffled again from one place to another. No home. No school. No one to really help him. Out of guilt they let him in the school, but he was failing miserably. He just didn’t belong. Michael had become just another story of what happens to so many of our youth today.
-----------------
So, what is community? It is definitely something that Michael didn’t have, at least not as we would recognize it. Dictionary.com defines it as: a social group of any size whose members reside in a specific locality, share government, and often have a common cultural and historical heritage.
Methodist’s fit that. As United Methodists we have our own governing body, we meet in certain places, share a common culture and historical heritage. This definition can be applied to many other groups, clubs, and organizations.
If we were to read other passages in our Bible, such as Acts, Ezra and Nehemiah, we would find examples of God's people living in community with one another, helping one another, sharing food and clothing. The problem that often happens in such a Commune – or community, is that some may take advantage of other’s generosity. “I’ll let others give and keep what I have for myself” they may say. Or, “I expect to get my benefit regardless of what I do. I deserve it.” We see it in our society. We know there are some that could work but choose not to because others are generous.
Our danger as outsiders to the situation is that we will begin trying to judge one situation over another and forget that we are all called to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, heal the sick… Even when we see that “free loader” and want to judge them, we don’t know their situation. Maybe we could be that one to help them and give them the opportunity to find their autonomy, their pride, their strength, their courage to grow in their own development and someday be able to help someone else.
We argue between giving a “hand-up” or a “hand-out”. We argue about “personal accountability” and “reallocation”. Somewhere within both of these thoughts is an answer and we as Christian are called to seek that answer and reach out to the least, the last, and the lost.
So far this has all been about the public, about others, but when it comes to our private lives, we need to think about this too. We need to remember what Paul said here and in his previous letter in 1 Thes 4:9-12 where he tells the Thessalonians to quietly work with their hands so as to show love and depend upon one another.
Rather than all the Thessalonians working with their hands, some had decided that they would do nothing and wait for the Lord to return. They, as many today, believed that Christ was coming back in their lifetime. If Christ was coming back right away, then why worry about the fields? Why worry about the cattle? Why make tents and clothes and all the other things that were needed in the community? Just wait on the Lord. In their idleness, it also seemed that they got into the habit of gossiping a bit too. Think about it. If a large number of us decided that we weren’t going to work anymore and just sat around the church all day, everyday, with nothing to do, what would happen? We’d start gossiping. “Did you see Billy? Can you believe he’s still plowing that field when Jesus is coming tomorrow?” “Oh, but didn’t you hear, while he’s out working in the field, his wife is out working with Anna’s husband.”
Paul was warning the Thessalonians, just as he is warning us today, we need to be careful that we don’t become idle. That we don’t grow weary in doing the good that we are called to do. For Pastors, it is working for the spiritual growth and needs of the congregation. For teachers, it is the growth of those in their class that they may learn, be it Sunday School, public school, or private school. For factory workers, it is the use of the hands to make the items that are used by others every day. For the retailers, it is making the products we need available. We are all called to do various tasks, but in each of these tasks we are to do good.
Or as John Wesley put it:
Do all the good you can, By all the means you can, In all the ways you can, In all the places you can, At all the times you can, To all the people you can, As long as ever you can.
With Spring & Summer upon us and all the hustle and bustle, it is sometimes easy to grow weary of doing good.
--------------------
I could understand Leigh Anne growing weary.
Leigh Anne’s children also attended Briarcrest, but if ever there was a family that belonged at this private school it was Leigh Anne’s. Her husband, Sean, owned numerous Restaurants around Tennessee. They had more than enough money, nice cars, preppy clothes, and college degrees – All the right credentials to have their children in this school.
One night Leigh Anne saw Michael walking along the road. It was freezing out yet Michael was walking along in a t-shirt and cut-offs, the same thing he wore every day. Sean pointed him out to Leigh Anne as “Big Mike”, the guy he had run into at the school gym one day and anonymously arranged to take care of his meal ticket at the cafeteria. Out of compassion, Leigh Anne stopped to check on Michael. It was the last day of Thanksgiving break and Michael had no place to go. He was hoping to get in the gym, “because they got heat in there” he said. As Sean and Leigh Anne drove away Leigh Anne was in tears. The next day she picked Michael up from school and took him shopping, at his stores, across Memphis, in the other neighborhood. Michael seemed to be worried about her as they went farther and farther away from Briarcrest and deeper and deeper into gang territory. Yet, Leigh Anne told him she wasn’t scared, as long as he was with her to look out for her.
Not long after this shopping trip Michael began to live with Sean, Leigh Anne, their teen age daughter, and young son. Michael became such a part of the family that he was adopted and truly became their son.
Along the way he was tutored in his school work. Leigh Anne would spend hours teaching him social skills and Sean would work with him in sports. By now the football coach had noticed him and realized his potential. It’s not often that you find someone this big and fast. Michael was a natural athlete. He had only briefly played football once before but that would all change his Junior year. By the end of his senior year he was picked to play in the All-American bowl, was offered one scholarship after another, had brought his GPA from a 0.9 up to a 2.65 and his IQ had gone from an 80 to 110, something that is not supposed to be possible.
Michael Oher is now a graduate from Ole Miss and was selected to play Left Tackle by the Baltimore Ravens in the 1st Round of the NFL Draft. He went from having nowhere to live as a Sophomore in High School to a university graduate and the recipient of a multi-million dollar contract in just 7 years. Had society had it’s way, he would still be lost, on the streets, bouncing from place to place looking for the next generous person to care for him. But because one Christian lady cared enough to do more, to do all the good she could , and not allow herself to grow weary, Michael’s life was changed forever. When Leigh Anne found Michael he didn’t have a community. But Leigh Anne welcomed him into her community and in that community Michael has been loved.
This is what our Christian community is about. Not sitting back waiting on Jesus to come again, but actively working to reach out to those in need until Jesus comes back. We work diligently, we don’t grow weary. We work in connection with those around us to reach out to the least, the last, and the lost.
We as Christian’s are called to be a community that is open and welcoming of others. We are present in worship, we are present in the life of the community, we are present in the lives of those in need.
We as Christian’s are called to be a community and pray with and for others. We are called to pray for our church, for our friends, for our enemies, for our leaders.
We as Christian’s are called to be a community that gives. We are called to give of our time and talents. We are called to give our ideas and our resources. And yes we are called to give our money.
We are Christian's are called to serve. We are called to serve in leadership in our church and community. We are called to serve others with love and compassion. We are called to reach our to the least, the last, and the lost.
We as Christian's are called to witness to our faith. We are called to tell others the story of the faith. We are called to live our Christianity our in the community and the world around us.
That is what Leigh Anne Tuhey did and Michael Oher will never be the same. Now to you, the challenge is this... Go and do likewise.
We are beginning our month long conversation about our stewardship this week. Over the next few weeks we will talk about what it means to support our church with our Prayers, Presence, Gifts and service. Your support of this church and your continued ministry here in Wortham is something to be commended and something to truly be thankful for. The support I saw at the Fire Department BBQ was impressive. The desire to bring food for the End of the School year food drive shows your presence in the community and your desire to serve and witness to Christ in this community. We are ever mindful of the Swine Flu epedimic/pandemic... We are worried about our selves and our community, those we care for and love.
And today we open our Bibles today 2nd Thessalonians 3 and find a passage that has often been used to question pastor’s salaries. It’s also a passage that has been used to argue in favor of welfare reform or even the complete abolition of the welfare system.
But, maybe there is something else in this passage. Could it be that this passage can help us understand what we are to do as we wait for the Lord’s return? Could it be that it is about how we live in community with one another? Maybe.
Today we will hear a story, a long story it may seem, then we will discuss our scripture, and in the end I hope we will be able to apply both to our lives.
Let us read our passage: 2 Thes 3:6-16.
Prayer: Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, Oh Lord my Strength and my Redeemer. Amen.
---------------------------
Michael wasn’t quite like the other kids at Briarcrest High School. For one thing he was big, huge even. People often called him “Big Mike” and rightly so, he was 6’5” and 350 lbs. in the 9th grade. But Mike didn’t really belong at Briarcrest, actually he had gotten in to the private school by accident. You see, Mike had been passed around from foster home to foster home, from school to school, simply living off whatever help he could get from the next generous person. They would help him for a little while then decide that he was hopeless and shuffle him on to be someone else’s problem.
When Michael was born he was the seventh of what was to be around 13 children born to Denise, or Dee-Dee as she was known on the streets. By the time Mike was about 4 they were living on the streets full time. By 6 he was in a Foster home but ran away and found his way back to Dee-Dee. By 8 his mother was addicted to Crack-Cocaine and Mike was again in foster care. By 10 he was back with her and somehow managed to stay either with her or friends in the low income housing project for the next few years.
It was during these years that he became friends with Steven, the son of “Big Tony.” And, from time to time Mike would sleep at Tony and Steven’s place. Though he wasn’t the guardian of Mike, when Tony moved his son to another school, for some reason he took Mike with him and tried to enroll him at Briarcrest Christian Academy. The problem was Mike had no real education. He should have been going into 10th grade but he couldn’t read, he could barely write, knew no math and had little to no social skills.
Once again Briarcrest, like all the others, made an attempt to help but was just another part of the process of pushing him off to be someone else’s problem. He belonged in the public schools, not private. His IQ had been measured at 80. He ranked in humanities 9th percentile in intelligence and the 6th percentile in “ability to learn”. It had been said of him, “Mike’s not retarded, he’s just stupid.”
The Principal and the President of Briarcrest both wanted to help Michael but weren’t sure how, so they sent him off to a type of home school situation to work on his reading, writing, and arithmetic. It was soon clear that Mike wasn’t able to do the remedial work that he was sent and in the end even missed the public school enrollment. Here Michael was, adrift in the masses of society. Shuffled again from one place to another. No home. No school. No one to really help him. Out of guilt they let him in the school, but he was failing miserably. He just didn’t belong. Michael had become just another story of what happens to so many of our youth today.
-----------------
So, what is community? It is definitely something that Michael didn’t have, at least not as we would recognize it. Dictionary.com defines it as: a social group of any size whose members reside in a specific locality, share government, and often have a common cultural and historical heritage.
Methodist’s fit that. As United Methodists we have our own governing body, we meet in certain places, share a common culture and historical heritage. This definition can be applied to many other groups, clubs, and organizations.
If we were to read other passages in our Bible, such as Acts, Ezra and Nehemiah, we would find examples of God's people living in community with one another, helping one another, sharing food and clothing. The problem that often happens in such a Commune – or community, is that some may take advantage of other’s generosity. “I’ll let others give and keep what I have for myself” they may say. Or, “I expect to get my benefit regardless of what I do. I deserve it.” We see it in our society. We know there are some that could work but choose not to because others are generous.
Our danger as outsiders to the situation is that we will begin trying to judge one situation over another and forget that we are all called to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, heal the sick… Even when we see that “free loader” and want to judge them, we don’t know their situation. Maybe we could be that one to help them and give them the opportunity to find their autonomy, their pride, their strength, their courage to grow in their own development and someday be able to help someone else.
We argue between giving a “hand-up” or a “hand-out”. We argue about “personal accountability” and “reallocation”. Somewhere within both of these thoughts is an answer and we as Christian are called to seek that answer and reach out to the least, the last, and the lost.
So far this has all been about the public, about others, but when it comes to our private lives, we need to think about this too. We need to remember what Paul said here and in his previous letter in 1 Thes 4:9-12 where he tells the Thessalonians to quietly work with their hands so as to show love and depend upon one another.
Rather than all the Thessalonians working with their hands, some had decided that they would do nothing and wait for the Lord to return. They, as many today, believed that Christ was coming back in their lifetime. If Christ was coming back right away, then why worry about the fields? Why worry about the cattle? Why make tents and clothes and all the other things that were needed in the community? Just wait on the Lord. In their idleness, it also seemed that they got into the habit of gossiping a bit too. Think about it. If a large number of us decided that we weren’t going to work anymore and just sat around the church all day, everyday, with nothing to do, what would happen? We’d start gossiping. “Did you see Billy? Can you believe he’s still plowing that field when Jesus is coming tomorrow?” “Oh, but didn’t you hear, while he’s out working in the field, his wife is out working with Anna’s husband.”
Paul was warning the Thessalonians, just as he is warning us today, we need to be careful that we don’t become idle. That we don’t grow weary in doing the good that we are called to do. For Pastors, it is working for the spiritual growth and needs of the congregation. For teachers, it is the growth of those in their class that they may learn, be it Sunday School, public school, or private school. For factory workers, it is the use of the hands to make the items that are used by others every day. For the retailers, it is making the products we need available. We are all called to do various tasks, but in each of these tasks we are to do good.
Or as John Wesley put it:
Do all the good you can, By all the means you can, In all the ways you can, In all the places you can, At all the times you can, To all the people you can, As long as ever you can.
With Spring & Summer upon us and all the hustle and bustle, it is sometimes easy to grow weary of doing good.
--------------------
I could understand Leigh Anne growing weary.
Leigh Anne’s children also attended Briarcrest, but if ever there was a family that belonged at this private school it was Leigh Anne’s. Her husband, Sean, owned numerous Restaurants around Tennessee. They had more than enough money, nice cars, preppy clothes, and college degrees – All the right credentials to have their children in this school.
One night Leigh Anne saw Michael walking along the road. It was freezing out yet Michael was walking along in a t-shirt and cut-offs, the same thing he wore every day. Sean pointed him out to Leigh Anne as “Big Mike”, the guy he had run into at the school gym one day and anonymously arranged to take care of his meal ticket at the cafeteria. Out of compassion, Leigh Anne stopped to check on Michael. It was the last day of Thanksgiving break and Michael had no place to go. He was hoping to get in the gym, “because they got heat in there” he said. As Sean and Leigh Anne drove away Leigh Anne was in tears. The next day she picked Michael up from school and took him shopping, at his stores, across Memphis, in the other neighborhood. Michael seemed to be worried about her as they went farther and farther away from Briarcrest and deeper and deeper into gang territory. Yet, Leigh Anne told him she wasn’t scared, as long as he was with her to look out for her.
Not long after this shopping trip Michael began to live with Sean, Leigh Anne, their teen age daughter, and young son. Michael became such a part of the family that he was adopted and truly became their son.
Along the way he was tutored in his school work. Leigh Anne would spend hours teaching him social skills and Sean would work with him in sports. By now the football coach had noticed him and realized his potential. It’s not often that you find someone this big and fast. Michael was a natural athlete. He had only briefly played football once before but that would all change his Junior year. By the end of his senior year he was picked to play in the All-American bowl, was offered one scholarship after another, had brought his GPA from a 0.9 up to a 2.65 and his IQ had gone from an 80 to 110, something that is not supposed to be possible.
Michael Oher is now a graduate from Ole Miss and was selected to play Left Tackle by the Baltimore Ravens in the 1st Round of the NFL Draft. He went from having nowhere to live as a Sophomore in High School to a university graduate and the recipient of a multi-million dollar contract in just 7 years. Had society had it’s way, he would still be lost, on the streets, bouncing from place to place looking for the next generous person to care for him. But because one Christian lady cared enough to do more, to do all the good she could , and not allow herself to grow weary, Michael’s life was changed forever. When Leigh Anne found Michael he didn’t have a community. But Leigh Anne welcomed him into her community and in that community Michael has been loved.
This is what our Christian community is about. Not sitting back waiting on Jesus to come again, but actively working to reach out to those in need until Jesus comes back. We work diligently, we don’t grow weary. We work in connection with those around us to reach out to the least, the last, and the lost.
We as Christian’s are called to be a community that is open and welcoming of others. We are present in worship, we are present in the life of the community, we are present in the lives of those in need.
We as Christian’s are called to be a community and pray with and for others. We are called to pray for our church, for our friends, for our enemies, for our leaders.
We as Christian’s are called to be a community that gives. We are called to give of our time and talents. We are called to give our ideas and our resources. And yes we are called to give our money.
We are Christian's are called to serve. We are called to serve in leadership in our church and community. We are called to serve others with love and compassion. We are called to reach our to the least, the last, and the lost.
We as Christian's are called to witness to our faith. We are called to tell others the story of the faith. We are called to live our Christianity our in the community and the world around us.
That is what Leigh Anne Tuhey did and Michael Oher will never be the same. Now to you, the challenge is this... Go and do likewise.
The Ultimate Gift
The Ultimate Gift
John 3:16
So often when I think of this verse I think of where I learned it: Sunday School, Vacation Bible School,
I think of it being a key to Salvation
I think of it as a synopsis of the Gospel of John
This is all true. We should teach it to our kids at SS and VBS
It is true and key in our salvation as it the entire discourse with Nicodemus
It is a summary of the Gospel of John.
All this is true but there is one other image that kept coming to mind as I read this passage again. The images and message of the movie “Saving Private Ryan” It was a horrific and realistic portrayal of the D-Day invasion as well as way in general. For any of us that have served in the armed forces, whether we have seen battle or not, it is haunting. I will not go into any of the details of the movie but, in order to give you a perspective, let me summarize it:
Two Ryan brothers were killed in action during the D-Day invasion, a third brother was killed within a day or two of the others in New Guinea. Mrs. Ryan, a widow, was to receive three letters and flags from the US government on the same day. The Joint Chief of Staff, General George C. Marshall realizes this and then hears of a fourth brother, Private James Francis Ryan and vows to return him to his mother.
Captain Miller of the 29th Inf. Div, 2nd Ranger Battalion was tasked with finding Pvt. Ryan and bringing him home safely. Capt. Miller selects 8 men and they set out through enemy territory to find Pvt. Ryan of the 101st Air Born Division. Along the journey they argue about why 8 men are risking their lives for this one. They wonder why one soldier can be so valuable.
After fighting their way across parts of France they finally find him and his unit, a unit in short supply of men and weapons with a task of holding a bridge. When Ryan will not leave, Capt. Miller and his men help defend the bridge until reinforcements arrive.
In the end Capt. Miller lay dying on the bridge he defended and tells Ryan - “Earn this” Capt. Miller and six of his men gave their life to save Pvt. Ryan.
For some reason, as I think over this verse, as I think over all this verse means the thought comes to my mind, “Earn this”
Yet I know there is nothing I could ever do to earn the love of God. “For God so loved the world...”
If I can't earn it, then maybe I can at least understand it.
The Gospel of John is so complex, so layered, that one could study it for years and never stop discovering nuances within the book. Because of that we could read over this verse and every one of us come up with more of what the verse means. But to help us along I want us to look and the verse word by word.
For God...
This wasn't and isn't something from some other person. It wasn't from some figure of history. This is from God, the creator of all that was, is, and ever will be. The God, the one true God.
So Loved...
Oh, there's that word, Love... You know, I love pizza. I love lasagna. I love Steak and potatoes, and asiago shrimp, and chocolate meringue pie.
I love Colorado, the mountains in the summer, the snow in the winter
I love hunting and fishing
I love the United Methodist Church
I love my wife and my kids
I love God...
One word with so many meanings. Love is a word that has been used and abused, so much so that it has lost its meaning.
The Greeks have many words for love: Eros (erotic love), Phileo (friendly love), Storge (patriotic love), and Agape (Godly love),
Our one word has to be a noun, we see it described in 1 Cor 13 (Love is patient, love is kind...)
our one word has to be an adjective, how we do things lovingly...
Our one word has to be a feeling (a feeling you feel when you feel a feeling you never felt before...)
Our one word has to be a verb, “I love you”.
This love we find in this verse is so much more than all this. It is a deeper love, a stronger love. It would have to be because what else could pull Jesus from the wonder of heaven to the pain of the cross?
A love that, were it only for me, or for you, Jesus would still have come to this place, suffered, and died. It was a love beyond you and me. It was a love for all.
It was a love for the world...
This isn't a word for earth or just this little dirt clod out in space. The word here is cosmos. It is the word for all of God's creation.
That he gave...
What is a gift? A true gift is something that is given without any expectation of reciprocation. There is nothing we can do to earn God's love, it is freely given all we have to do is receive it.
Some of you may have heard of the Gutenberg Bible. It is named this because of Johan Gutenberg, the inventor of the Movable Type printing press and the first person to publish a copy of the bible on such a press.
He worked during the mid 1500's what we call the dark ages. It was a time when people feared God. They have a view of God more like Zeus of Greek Mythology than the God we discover in the Bible. With lightning bolts ready to throw toward anyone at the first hint of sin.
One day Gutenberg was printing a copy of the Bible when a mis-fed page fell from the press and his young daughter, Alice, picked it up. She looked at the words and read “For God so loved the world that he gave.”
From that day forward Alice was a happy girl. After days of smiles her mother finally asked her why she was so happy and Alice produced the page from her pocket. Her mother read it and asked, “what did God give?” to which young Alice replied, “I don't know but if God loves and god gave, then why should we be afraid?”
For God so love the world that he gave
His One and only Son...
that is, his unique, not begotten in the sense that we see in the Old Testament begotten in the sense that he is true God from true God. This one that we call Jesus is the one true God in human form.
That whosover...
That means you and me. That means that anyone can believe and be saved. Salvation is for all. That neighbor that seems unlovable. That disrespectful kid down the street. That little angel of a child or grandchild. Whoever means just that whoever.
Believes...
This isn't just a head belief. We can believe in our head that God can make a difference in the life of a person in need but that makes no difference. It makes no difference until the belief moves from our head to our heart and spurs us to action. It is deeper than just knowing. You see, this belief is both a head knowledge, an intellectual feat, and a heart knowledge, an emotional and spiritual endeavor.
When John Wesley experienced it he said that “His Heart was strangely warmed.”
In Him...
This is explicitly non-inclusive language. All through the NRSV and other modern translations the scholars have worked to be inclusive with their language of God but here we see this pronoun apologetically stated as Him.
It had to be because as you read the verse you realize that it encompasses both God, the Almighty, Jehovah, YaHWeH, and Jesus Christ he person. For John there was no question, they were one and the same. When you believe in Jesus, you believe in God. “I and the Father are one.” “You believe in the father, believe also in me. If you have seen me you have seen the Father...”
Shall not perish but have eternal life...
This isn't talking about immortality. It is talking about abundance, fullness. John 10:10 reminds us that Jesus came that we might have life abundantly. It is beyond just pie in the sky bye and bye... it is about living today recognizing that eternity starts now. It is about living fully in the life we have here as we seek to bring about God's kingdom here on earth.
It is in recognition of this that we look back upon our life and ask our selves, have I done enough. We recognize the gifts that we have received and out of gratitude try to live in such a way to say thank you. It is in gratitude for all the God has done for us that we look back on our life and try wonder, did we do enough to earn what God has done, knowing that we can never do enough.
At the end of the movie, Saving Private Ryan, a 65 year old James Ryan stands a the memorial in Normandy over Capt. Miller's grave and says,
My family is with me today. They wanted to come with me. To be honest with you, I wasn't sure how I'd feel coming back here. Every day I think about what you said to me that day on the bridge. I tried to live my life the best I could. I hope that was enough. I hope, at least in your eyes, I've earned what all of you have done for me.
As his wife walks up he says to her, “tell me I've led a good life, tell me I'm a good man.”
At some point in our life we have to look back and realize all that Jesus did for us. Out of gratitude we have to live a good life. But there has to be more.
We must believe in our head and in our heart.
We must follow Christ and we must accept the abundant life he offers.
“For God so loved the world...”
That is what it means to encounter Jesus. To daily remember what he has done for us and to live a life that reflects the change that it causes.
John 3:16
So often when I think of this verse I think of where I learned it: Sunday School, Vacation Bible School,
I think of it being a key to Salvation
I think of it as a synopsis of the Gospel of John
This is all true. We should teach it to our kids at SS and VBS
It is true and key in our salvation as it the entire discourse with Nicodemus
It is a summary of the Gospel of John.
All this is true but there is one other image that kept coming to mind as I read this passage again. The images and message of the movie “Saving Private Ryan” It was a horrific and realistic portrayal of the D-Day invasion as well as way in general. For any of us that have served in the armed forces, whether we have seen battle or not, it is haunting. I will not go into any of the details of the movie but, in order to give you a perspective, let me summarize it:
Two Ryan brothers were killed in action during the D-Day invasion, a third brother was killed within a day or two of the others in New Guinea. Mrs. Ryan, a widow, was to receive three letters and flags from the US government on the same day. The Joint Chief of Staff, General George C. Marshall realizes this and then hears of a fourth brother, Private James Francis Ryan and vows to return him to his mother.
Captain Miller of the 29th Inf. Div, 2nd Ranger Battalion was tasked with finding Pvt. Ryan and bringing him home safely. Capt. Miller selects 8 men and they set out through enemy territory to find Pvt. Ryan of the 101st Air Born Division. Along the journey they argue about why 8 men are risking their lives for this one. They wonder why one soldier can be so valuable.
After fighting their way across parts of France they finally find him and his unit, a unit in short supply of men and weapons with a task of holding a bridge. When Ryan will not leave, Capt. Miller and his men help defend the bridge until reinforcements arrive.
In the end Capt. Miller lay dying on the bridge he defended and tells Ryan - “Earn this” Capt. Miller and six of his men gave their life to save Pvt. Ryan.
For some reason, as I think over this verse, as I think over all this verse means the thought comes to my mind, “Earn this”
Yet I know there is nothing I could ever do to earn the love of God. “For God so loved the world...”
If I can't earn it, then maybe I can at least understand it.
The Gospel of John is so complex, so layered, that one could study it for years and never stop discovering nuances within the book. Because of that we could read over this verse and every one of us come up with more of what the verse means. But to help us along I want us to look and the verse word by word.
For God...
This wasn't and isn't something from some other person. It wasn't from some figure of history. This is from God, the creator of all that was, is, and ever will be. The God, the one true God.
So Loved...
Oh, there's that word, Love... You know, I love pizza. I love lasagna. I love Steak and potatoes, and asiago shrimp, and chocolate meringue pie.
I love Colorado, the mountains in the summer, the snow in the winter
I love hunting and fishing
I love the United Methodist Church
I love my wife and my kids
I love God...
One word with so many meanings. Love is a word that has been used and abused, so much so that it has lost its meaning.
The Greeks have many words for love: Eros (erotic love), Phileo (friendly love), Storge (patriotic love), and Agape (Godly love),
Our one word has to be a noun, we see it described in 1 Cor 13 (Love is patient, love is kind...)
our one word has to be an adjective, how we do things lovingly...
Our one word has to be a feeling (a feeling you feel when you feel a feeling you never felt before...)
Our one word has to be a verb, “I love you”.
This love we find in this verse is so much more than all this. It is a deeper love, a stronger love. It would have to be because what else could pull Jesus from the wonder of heaven to the pain of the cross?
A love that, were it only for me, or for you, Jesus would still have come to this place, suffered, and died. It was a love beyond you and me. It was a love for all.
It was a love for the world...
This isn't a word for earth or just this little dirt clod out in space. The word here is cosmos. It is the word for all of God's creation.
That he gave...
What is a gift? A true gift is something that is given without any expectation of reciprocation. There is nothing we can do to earn God's love, it is freely given all we have to do is receive it.
Some of you may have heard of the Gutenberg Bible. It is named this because of Johan Gutenberg, the inventor of the Movable Type printing press and the first person to publish a copy of the bible on such a press.
He worked during the mid 1500's what we call the dark ages. It was a time when people feared God. They have a view of God more like Zeus of Greek Mythology than the God we discover in the Bible. With lightning bolts ready to throw toward anyone at the first hint of sin.
One day Gutenberg was printing a copy of the Bible when a mis-fed page fell from the press and his young daughter, Alice, picked it up. She looked at the words and read “For God so loved the world that he gave.”
From that day forward Alice was a happy girl. After days of smiles her mother finally asked her why she was so happy and Alice produced the page from her pocket. Her mother read it and asked, “what did God give?” to which young Alice replied, “I don't know but if God loves and god gave, then why should we be afraid?”
For God so love the world that he gave
His One and only Son...
that is, his unique, not begotten in the sense that we see in the Old Testament begotten in the sense that he is true God from true God. This one that we call Jesus is the one true God in human form.
That whosover...
That means you and me. That means that anyone can believe and be saved. Salvation is for all. That neighbor that seems unlovable. That disrespectful kid down the street. That little angel of a child or grandchild. Whoever means just that whoever.
Believes...
This isn't just a head belief. We can believe in our head that God can make a difference in the life of a person in need but that makes no difference. It makes no difference until the belief moves from our head to our heart and spurs us to action. It is deeper than just knowing. You see, this belief is both a head knowledge, an intellectual feat, and a heart knowledge, an emotional and spiritual endeavor.
When John Wesley experienced it he said that “His Heart was strangely warmed.”
In Him...
This is explicitly non-inclusive language. All through the NRSV and other modern translations the scholars have worked to be inclusive with their language of God but here we see this pronoun apologetically stated as Him.
It had to be because as you read the verse you realize that it encompasses both God, the Almighty, Jehovah, YaHWeH, and Jesus Christ he person. For John there was no question, they were one and the same. When you believe in Jesus, you believe in God. “I and the Father are one.” “You believe in the father, believe also in me. If you have seen me you have seen the Father...”
Shall not perish but have eternal life...
This isn't talking about immortality. It is talking about abundance, fullness. John 10:10 reminds us that Jesus came that we might have life abundantly. It is beyond just pie in the sky bye and bye... it is about living today recognizing that eternity starts now. It is about living fully in the life we have here as we seek to bring about God's kingdom here on earth.
It is in recognition of this that we look back upon our life and ask our selves, have I done enough. We recognize the gifts that we have received and out of gratitude try to live in such a way to say thank you. It is in gratitude for all the God has done for us that we look back on our life and try wonder, did we do enough to earn what God has done, knowing that we can never do enough.
At the end of the movie, Saving Private Ryan, a 65 year old James Ryan stands a the memorial in Normandy over Capt. Miller's grave and says,
My family is with me today. They wanted to come with me. To be honest with you, I wasn't sure how I'd feel coming back here. Every day I think about what you said to me that day on the bridge. I tried to live my life the best I could. I hope that was enough. I hope, at least in your eyes, I've earned what all of you have done for me.
As his wife walks up he says to her, “tell me I've led a good life, tell me I'm a good man.”
At some point in our life we have to look back and realize all that Jesus did for us. Out of gratitude we have to live a good life. But there has to be more.
We must believe in our head and in our heart.
We must follow Christ and we must accept the abundant life he offers.
“For God so loved the world...”
That is what it means to encounter Jesus. To daily remember what he has done for us and to live a life that reflects the change that it causes.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Have You Got it?
In today’s sermon we are going to be looking at being perfect or mature as a Christian as Paul would have us to understand it. We will look at it in three steps which I lay out now so that you can follow along and know where you are on this journey we are calling a sermon. 1) we will look at the example of one who would have never claimed perfection, 2) we will look at what Paul was actually saying in the text, 3) we will apply it to our lives today.
Our text is Philippians 3:12-16
No one ever claimed that John Newton had an easy life. He was born July 24, 1725 in Wapping London. Six years later his mother died of Tuberculosis and he spent several years with relatives and in boarding school as his father continued the shipping business. Then when he was 11 he began sailing with his father on the slave ships - learning the family trade.
By the time he was 18 he had become a Slave Ship Captain, only to be pressed into the service of the Royal Navy as a Midshipman. After he attempted to desert the Navy, his Naval Captain humiliated him in front of the other 350 sailors, reduced him in rank to common seaman, and eventually released him from duty to work as a servant to a slave trader in Sierra Leone.
In 1748 he was rescued by a friend of his father and he began his long journey back to England.
But more importantly, this trip marked the beginning of his journey to Christ.
While he was at sea a storm came upon the ship and he finally cried out to God. He then began reading his Bible and accepted the Christian doctrine as his own. This journey to Christ continued in stages but he also continued in the slaving business. But now, he encouraged the sailors under his care to pray and treat the human cargo with humanity and compassion. Later he would denounce slavery all together and realize the horrors of the industry.
In 1755 he began working at a port in Liverpool and in his spare time he studied Greek, Hebrew, and Syriac. Then in 1757 he applied to the Anglican Priesthood and was finally ordained a priest in 1764.
History would one day show that two of Newton’s greatest accomplishments were:
1) preventing the noted abolitionist and politician William Wilberforce from resigning his post in Parliament to become a minister. The result of which led to the abolition of the slave trade in England and her colonies
2) Penning the sermon/poem/hymn “Faith’s Review and Expectations” for a New Years service in 1767.
As a minister Newton was well known for his pastoral care but it was his evangelical preaching that drew the crowds of hundreds and thousands. Many lauded him as a great leader yet, he often dismissed their praise as he claimed to be far from perfect. He knew who he was and what he had been a part of. Every night he went to bed with the haunting memory of the voices of the 20,000 slaves that died while aboard his ships.
Newton knew the prize he was striving for, and he also knew that he had not attained it. It was as though God had plucked him from his life of sin and prepared him for a purpose, a purpose he would work his entire life in. In this respect he was much like Paul in our text today.
Key to understanding our text is the understanding of the Greek word Telios. Often this word is translated as Perfect but it is used in our passage today in verses 12 and 15 with a slightly different meaning in each.
In verse 12 many versions translate it as “perfect” but it isn’t to mean some sort of abstract perfection but rather qualified, fully prepared, complete. As though to say that Paul was not a complete Christian but he was pressing on to become one. You see, Paul could never see himself as complete because Christ changed him so dramatically that day on the road to Damascus. To be blinded by the light of Christ and to hear the voice of the Lord should change any of us. It was that day that Paul knew that he had been grasped by God for a reason, for a purpose.
Realizing this Paul knew that he must press on to achieve the goal for which he was grasped that day. That brings us to a question, For what goal did Christ grasp you? Do you even know the goal? Maybe you are pressing on toward realizing that goal. Maybe you are pressing on toward that goal.
Either way, it leads us on to the 2nd meaning of the work Telios found in verse 15. Here it is often translated as “mature” or “fully mature” as if to say that those who are full grown Christians will agree.
These are the ones who press on toward the goal.
These are the ones, young and old, who seek to become telios, seek to become perfect, seek to become full and complete.
These fully mature Christians are the ones that realize that the Christian journey is no respecter of age. The Christian journey is for everyone at every age. Paul is telling us that we must press on until the end.
As William Barclay puts it, “[One] must never relax [their] efforts or lower [their] standards but must press on toward the goal, until the end.”
How then do we press on toward the goal? Through the disciplines of the faith
John Wesley would call these the Means of Grace. Bishop Rueben Job would say that these are the ways we stay in love with God. I will say that these are the ways that we press on toward the goal we have yet to attain.
The study of Scripture, Private worship
Corporate worship, Charity,
Helping others in need, Tithing,
Prayer, Fasting,
These are also the foci of Lent. It is customary for us to “give something up” for Lent, i.e. fasting, so that we can remember the sacrifice of Christ as we journey through Lent toward the Cross of Christ and the empty tomb.
The practice of these disciples is not meant to become a law or a requirement for our faith. Instead they are a means to achieve God’s grace. They lead us to grace, and yet it is from the grace of God that they come to us.
It is amazing that it comes back to grace.
As we remembered John Newton earlier I told you of what history has said was one of his greatest achievements, the penning of the sermon/poem/hymn, “Faith’s Review & Expectation.”
But you know that hymn by another name, “Amazing Grace”
It is a song about a man touched by God’s amazing grace.
It is a song about a man at the center of the sin of slave trade.
It is a song about a man grasped for the purpose of ending that sin.
It is a song about a man who overcame a stroke to press on to achieve the goal before him.
It is a song about a man reaching out and reaching up.
It is a song about God’s amazing grace being poured out upon him and upon all who will come to it.
Have we achieved the goal for which we have been grasped? I think not.
Are we striving towards it? Through God’s amazing grace, I hope so.
Our text is Philippians 3:12-16
No one ever claimed that John Newton had an easy life. He was born July 24, 1725 in Wapping London. Six years later his mother died of Tuberculosis and he spent several years with relatives and in boarding school as his father continued the shipping business. Then when he was 11 he began sailing with his father on the slave ships - learning the family trade.
By the time he was 18 he had become a Slave Ship Captain, only to be pressed into the service of the Royal Navy as a Midshipman. After he attempted to desert the Navy, his Naval Captain humiliated him in front of the other 350 sailors, reduced him in rank to common seaman, and eventually released him from duty to work as a servant to a slave trader in Sierra Leone.
In 1748 he was rescued by a friend of his father and he began his long journey back to England.
But more importantly, this trip marked the beginning of his journey to Christ.
While he was at sea a storm came upon the ship and he finally cried out to God. He then began reading his Bible and accepted the Christian doctrine as his own. This journey to Christ continued in stages but he also continued in the slaving business. But now, he encouraged the sailors under his care to pray and treat the human cargo with humanity and compassion. Later he would denounce slavery all together and realize the horrors of the industry.
In 1755 he began working at a port in Liverpool and in his spare time he studied Greek, Hebrew, and Syriac. Then in 1757 he applied to the Anglican Priesthood and was finally ordained a priest in 1764.
History would one day show that two of Newton’s greatest accomplishments were:
1) preventing the noted abolitionist and politician William Wilberforce from resigning his post in Parliament to become a minister. The result of which led to the abolition of the slave trade in England and her colonies
2) Penning the sermon/poem/hymn “Faith’s Review and Expectations” for a New Years service in 1767.
As a minister Newton was well known for his pastoral care but it was his evangelical preaching that drew the crowds of hundreds and thousands. Many lauded him as a great leader yet, he often dismissed their praise as he claimed to be far from perfect. He knew who he was and what he had been a part of. Every night he went to bed with the haunting memory of the voices of the 20,000 slaves that died while aboard his ships.
Newton knew the prize he was striving for, and he also knew that he had not attained it. It was as though God had plucked him from his life of sin and prepared him for a purpose, a purpose he would work his entire life in. In this respect he was much like Paul in our text today.
Key to understanding our text is the understanding of the Greek word Telios. Often this word is translated as Perfect but it is used in our passage today in verses 12 and 15 with a slightly different meaning in each.
In verse 12 many versions translate it as “perfect” but it isn’t to mean some sort of abstract perfection but rather qualified, fully prepared, complete. As though to say that Paul was not a complete Christian but he was pressing on to become one. You see, Paul could never see himself as complete because Christ changed him so dramatically that day on the road to Damascus. To be blinded by the light of Christ and to hear the voice of the Lord should change any of us. It was that day that Paul knew that he had been grasped by God for a reason, for a purpose.
Realizing this Paul knew that he must press on to achieve the goal for which he was grasped that day. That brings us to a question, For what goal did Christ grasp you? Do you even know the goal? Maybe you are pressing on toward realizing that goal. Maybe you are pressing on toward that goal.
Either way, it leads us on to the 2nd meaning of the work Telios found in verse 15. Here it is often translated as “mature” or “fully mature” as if to say that those who are full grown Christians will agree.
These are the ones who press on toward the goal.
These are the ones, young and old, who seek to become telios, seek to become perfect, seek to become full and complete.
These fully mature Christians are the ones that realize that the Christian journey is no respecter of age. The Christian journey is for everyone at every age. Paul is telling us that we must press on until the end.
As William Barclay puts it, “[One] must never relax [their] efforts or lower [their] standards but must press on toward the goal, until the end.”
How then do we press on toward the goal? Through the disciplines of the faith
John Wesley would call these the Means of Grace. Bishop Rueben Job would say that these are the ways we stay in love with God. I will say that these are the ways that we press on toward the goal we have yet to attain.
The study of Scripture, Private worship
Corporate worship, Charity,
Helping others in need, Tithing,
Prayer, Fasting,
These are also the foci of Lent. It is customary for us to “give something up” for Lent, i.e. fasting, so that we can remember the sacrifice of Christ as we journey through Lent toward the Cross of Christ and the empty tomb.
The practice of these disciples is not meant to become a law or a requirement for our faith. Instead they are a means to achieve God’s grace. They lead us to grace, and yet it is from the grace of God that they come to us.
It is amazing that it comes back to grace.
As we remembered John Newton earlier I told you of what history has said was one of his greatest achievements, the penning of the sermon/poem/hymn, “Faith’s Review & Expectation.”
But you know that hymn by another name, “Amazing Grace”
It is a song about a man touched by God’s amazing grace.
It is a song about a man at the center of the sin of slave trade.
It is a song about a man grasped for the purpose of ending that sin.
It is a song about a man who overcame a stroke to press on to achieve the goal before him.
It is a song about a man reaching out and reaching up.
It is a song about God’s amazing grace being poured out upon him and upon all who will come to it.
Have we achieved the goal for which we have been grasped? I think not.
Are we striving towards it? Through God’s amazing grace, I hope so.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Ark, What Ark?
Jeremiah 3:14-18
This week the sermon may seem a bit disjointed. You may listen and think that I am chasing rabbits all over the place; but, actually I am not. As I read this text and reflected on it the themes seemed to jump around as well, but yet still they are all tied together. That being said let me lay a map out for you to follow on this journey through the text. First we will discuss the History of the Hebrew people that led them to this point. Then we will look at the thought of “return”, third we will consider the metaphor of “shepherd”, fourth the “Ark”, and finally “Jerusalem”. In the end I hope to tie these disjointed thoughts together and at the same time apply them to our lives.
Let us begin by looking at the text:…
HISTORY
If you remember back to our study of Genesis last fall you may remember how Abraham and Sarah were the parents of Isaac, and the grandparents of Jacob. Now Jacob wrestled with God at the River Jabok in Gen. 32:22 and his name is changed to Israel, the one who strives with God. Jacob had 12 sons whose families eventually formed 12 tribes – the 12 Tribes of Israel.
Over time they became enslaved in Egypt but through the leadership of Moses and the direction of the God of their Ancestors, YaHWeH, they were once again freed and they gradually returned to the Promise Land, the land of their ancestors of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. In Joshua 15 – 19 we see the division of the land to the 12 tribes and some of the half-tribes. Over the years they were led by various Judges and military leaders, both men and women, but eventually they wanted a King. In fact Judges 21:25 tells us that “In those days there was no king in Israel; all the people did what was right in their own eyes.” Samuel tells us about the rise of the Kingship of Saul, then David, and finally Solomon. Under David the kingdom united. They experienced great wealth and military victories. It was a great time for the Israelite people. It is the time of David that the people would look back to as their “Golden Age” and wish to return to. It is to the stories of David that future generations would look to as they awaited the Messiah.
After David and Solomon the Kingdom began to divide and eventually the Northern 10 tribes, now called Israel, seceded from the Southern 2 tribes, called Judah, where the capital city of Jerusalem was. Gradually the North first and later the South began to fall away from God and worship other gods. As they look at their own history they blame themselves for their destruction as they feel that God removed the protective blessing from them and they fell to the enemies around them, namely here the Babylonian Empire. The North fell first but Judah held on until 587 B.C. when it fell, Jerusalem was sacked, and the Temple was destroyed.
Jeremiah now writes to these exiled Hebrew people to give them a message from God, a message to challenge them and to give them hope.
RETURN
Jeremiah’s message is a command, an invitation, and a plea to return to God. To turn from the worship of themselves, to return from the worship of their false gods, to return to the life of promise that God had offered the generations before them.
In a sense it was also a call to return to the land they had been promised. Many of the leaders of the country had been removed from the land and exiled to Babylon. The Babylonians had a theory that to defeat a nation or kingdom you should remove the best and brightest, imprison them for a while but then incorporate them into the life of your society. As a result, the people are scattered, their customs forgotten, and their gods replaced with the worship of Babylonian gods.
But the Israelites were different. It seems that in exile they were drawn closer to God. Jeremiah and Hosea continued to bring messages to them, both in the exiled region of Babylon and in the homeland. They knew that they needed someone to lead them, to guide them, to shepherd them back to God.
SHEPHERD
Let’s think about the metaphor of a shepherd. What is a shepherd? One who leads the sheep. And what are sheep? The dumbest animals on the face of the earth! You can train a dog. You can teach a cat, somewhat. A horse and a cow can be left alone and they will go to the ponds for water and the pastures for grazing. If a cat or dog gets dirty they will clean themselves, but what about a sheep? If a sheep gets dirty it will stay dirty until the shepherd cleans it. If a sheep is thirsty it will wait for the shepherd to guide it to the waters. The sheep are helpless, they have absolutely no defense.
The Hebrew people compared themselves to sheep in need of a shepherd. They knew that they were helpless without God and a guide, a leader to shepherd them. And they needed to remember that God was with them.
ARK
That is the significance of the Ark of the Covenant. Many of us remember the movie “Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark” so we have an idea about what the Ark was. It was a box overlaid with Gold which contained the commandments from God. It was placed in the Holy of Holies and was a designated place where God would meet with the people. It was a visible representation of the presence of God with the people of Israel. But here we see that the Ark will not be remembered by the people. It will be a thing of the past. They will no longer need the Ark to know that God is with them, rather the presence of God will be with them and they will know it.
They will no longer need something to remind them that God is with them for Jehovah will be their God. A God who will meet with them, not on the lid of a beautiful box, but rather in the city of Jerusalem.
JERUSALEM
Ahhh, Jerusalem, the beautiful city of God. It is a place where Israel and Judah once gathered together in Worship of the Lord. And, it is a place where all the world would one day gather together in worship of the Lord.
CONCLUSION
So, now that we understand the passage from the standpoint of the people to whom it was written, what can we gather from this passage? What is the message for us today?
Are we so different from the children of Israel? Have we not forsaken God and followed our own gods? Not the gods of Baal, or other named gods, but instead we have followed the gods of money, the gods of sensuality, the gods of self and power. After September 11, 2001 a prominent African American pastor made the comment that “America’s Chickens had come Home to Roost” meaning, I assume, that the attack on our country was the result of our foreign policy in the Middle East and our domestic treatment of minorities. Though I may not agree with what Rev. Wright meant by that phrase, today I think that “our chickens have come home to roost.” As we have placed our faith and our trust in the all mighty dollar we have finally found that the dollar can not be our shepherd. The pursuit of wealth at all costs can not be sustained and as a nation, and for some of us as individuals, our chickens have come home to roost. Now, even those who stayed true to God have felt the pain of those who worshiped the god of money.
I can hear God now, calling us to return to our foundation.
I can hear God calling us to the promised life that was offered to us so long ago.
I can hear God calling us to forget about the Golden Years that we think we remember and return to the God who will bless us regardless of the years.
I can hear God calling us to forsake the worship of wealth and to use our financial abilities to glorify God and to grow the Kingdom of God here on the earth.
I can here God calling us to Jerusalem. That place that, 2000 years ago became the place where Judah and Israel came together. That place where all nations return to worship the Lord…
God is calling us back to the Cross. You are invited on a journey to this Cross. This week we will begin our Lenten Journey to the Cross with Ash Wednesday. We will spend Six weeks reflecting upon our lives and our devotion to our Lord. In the end, we will find ourselves at the foot of a cross on a hill outside Jerusalem where we return to find our salvation in the One that unites all under one banner, the cross of Christ.
This week the sermon may seem a bit disjointed. You may listen and think that I am chasing rabbits all over the place; but, actually I am not. As I read this text and reflected on it the themes seemed to jump around as well, but yet still they are all tied together. That being said let me lay a map out for you to follow on this journey through the text. First we will discuss the History of the Hebrew people that led them to this point. Then we will look at the thought of “return”, third we will consider the metaphor of “shepherd”, fourth the “Ark”, and finally “Jerusalem”. In the end I hope to tie these disjointed thoughts together and at the same time apply them to our lives.
Let us begin by looking at the text:…
HISTORY
If you remember back to our study of Genesis last fall you may remember how Abraham and Sarah were the parents of Isaac, and the grandparents of Jacob. Now Jacob wrestled with God at the River Jabok in Gen. 32:22 and his name is changed to Israel, the one who strives with God. Jacob had 12 sons whose families eventually formed 12 tribes – the 12 Tribes of Israel.
Over time they became enslaved in Egypt but through the leadership of Moses and the direction of the God of their Ancestors, YaHWeH, they were once again freed and they gradually returned to the Promise Land, the land of their ancestors of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. In Joshua 15 – 19 we see the division of the land to the 12 tribes and some of the half-tribes. Over the years they were led by various Judges and military leaders, both men and women, but eventually they wanted a King. In fact Judges 21:25 tells us that “In those days there was no king in Israel; all the people did what was right in their own eyes.” Samuel tells us about the rise of the Kingship of Saul, then David, and finally Solomon. Under David the kingdom united. They experienced great wealth and military victories. It was a great time for the Israelite people. It is the time of David that the people would look back to as their “Golden Age” and wish to return to. It is to the stories of David that future generations would look to as they awaited the Messiah.
After David and Solomon the Kingdom began to divide and eventually the Northern 10 tribes, now called Israel, seceded from the Southern 2 tribes, called Judah, where the capital city of Jerusalem was. Gradually the North first and later the South began to fall away from God and worship other gods. As they look at their own history they blame themselves for their destruction as they feel that God removed the protective blessing from them and they fell to the enemies around them, namely here the Babylonian Empire. The North fell first but Judah held on until 587 B.C. when it fell, Jerusalem was sacked, and the Temple was destroyed.
Jeremiah now writes to these exiled Hebrew people to give them a message from God, a message to challenge them and to give them hope.
RETURN
Jeremiah’s message is a command, an invitation, and a plea to return to God. To turn from the worship of themselves, to return from the worship of their false gods, to return to the life of promise that God had offered the generations before them.
In a sense it was also a call to return to the land they had been promised. Many of the leaders of the country had been removed from the land and exiled to Babylon. The Babylonians had a theory that to defeat a nation or kingdom you should remove the best and brightest, imprison them for a while but then incorporate them into the life of your society. As a result, the people are scattered, their customs forgotten, and their gods replaced with the worship of Babylonian gods.
But the Israelites were different. It seems that in exile they were drawn closer to God. Jeremiah and Hosea continued to bring messages to them, both in the exiled region of Babylon and in the homeland. They knew that they needed someone to lead them, to guide them, to shepherd them back to God.
SHEPHERD
Let’s think about the metaphor of a shepherd. What is a shepherd? One who leads the sheep. And what are sheep? The dumbest animals on the face of the earth! You can train a dog. You can teach a cat, somewhat. A horse and a cow can be left alone and they will go to the ponds for water and the pastures for grazing. If a cat or dog gets dirty they will clean themselves, but what about a sheep? If a sheep gets dirty it will stay dirty until the shepherd cleans it. If a sheep is thirsty it will wait for the shepherd to guide it to the waters. The sheep are helpless, they have absolutely no defense.
The Hebrew people compared themselves to sheep in need of a shepherd. They knew that they were helpless without God and a guide, a leader to shepherd them. And they needed to remember that God was with them.
ARK
That is the significance of the Ark of the Covenant. Many of us remember the movie “Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark” so we have an idea about what the Ark was. It was a box overlaid with Gold which contained the commandments from God. It was placed in the Holy of Holies and was a designated place where God would meet with the people. It was a visible representation of the presence of God with the people of Israel. But here we see that the Ark will not be remembered by the people. It will be a thing of the past. They will no longer need the Ark to know that God is with them, rather the presence of God will be with them and they will know it.
They will no longer need something to remind them that God is with them for Jehovah will be their God. A God who will meet with them, not on the lid of a beautiful box, but rather in the city of Jerusalem.
JERUSALEM
Ahhh, Jerusalem, the beautiful city of God. It is a place where Israel and Judah once gathered together in Worship of the Lord. And, it is a place where all the world would one day gather together in worship of the Lord.
CONCLUSION
So, now that we understand the passage from the standpoint of the people to whom it was written, what can we gather from this passage? What is the message for us today?
Are we so different from the children of Israel? Have we not forsaken God and followed our own gods? Not the gods of Baal, or other named gods, but instead we have followed the gods of money, the gods of sensuality, the gods of self and power. After September 11, 2001 a prominent African American pastor made the comment that “America’s Chickens had come Home to Roost” meaning, I assume, that the attack on our country was the result of our foreign policy in the Middle East and our domestic treatment of minorities. Though I may not agree with what Rev. Wright meant by that phrase, today I think that “our chickens have come home to roost.” As we have placed our faith and our trust in the all mighty dollar we have finally found that the dollar can not be our shepherd. The pursuit of wealth at all costs can not be sustained and as a nation, and for some of us as individuals, our chickens have come home to roost. Now, even those who stayed true to God have felt the pain of those who worshiped the god of money.
I can hear God now, calling us to return to our foundation.
I can hear God calling us to the promised life that was offered to us so long ago.
I can hear God calling us to forget about the Golden Years that we think we remember and return to the God who will bless us regardless of the years.
I can hear God calling us to forsake the worship of wealth and to use our financial abilities to glorify God and to grow the Kingdom of God here on the earth.
I can here God calling us to Jerusalem. That place that, 2000 years ago became the place where Judah and Israel came together. That place where all nations return to worship the Lord…
God is calling us back to the Cross. You are invited on a journey to this Cross. This week we will begin our Lenten Journey to the Cross with Ash Wednesday. We will spend Six weeks reflecting upon our lives and our devotion to our Lord. In the end, we will find ourselves at the foot of a cross on a hill outside Jerusalem where we return to find our salvation in the One that unites all under one banner, the cross of Christ.
What Good is a Promise
Galatians 3:15-18
Sometimes we have lights go off in our mind. We suddenly make a connection, often in the study of History, which ties our lives to the lives of the past. I made that connection this week.
Here is how it worked…
BUT… Did you know that many of you were quite likely related to the very people to which Paul addressed this letter? Let me ask you this? Do any of you recognize or celebrate your Celtic heritage? What about your Pictish or Gaelic heritage? Let’s move through the centuries and think about some other names for these regions such as Scottish, Irish, Welch, Italian, French, German.
By 400 years before Christ much of
Today we read the letter that Paul wrote to the people of the northern region of
Originally these people worshiped a group of gods, not unlike the Roman and Greek Pantheon. They were so devout that when Paul and Barnabas came to them and healed a man that had been crippled from birth; they thought they were Zeus and Hermes. Acts 14 tells of this story and we know that as a result of this and other incidents there were Gentile churches planted in and around this region. These pagans, these
They had given up their religion for the Gospel Paul preached but then, as is often the case, someone came along behind Paul preaching a different Gospel. These that came along after Paul introduced to them the Jewish customs, history, and law and told them that they could only be followers of Jesus if they believed in Christ and followed the Jewish Law. That is why Paul wrote to our ancestors, to teach them that the law does not offer salvation, but rather condemnation.
So, let’s talk about the law. Can the law be kept? Have you kept all the law? I think not. Do you know anyone who had kept the law? If you think so, read through Deuteronomy and Leviticus again and see if you followed all that is in it. The point is that it is impossible to follow all the laws that are recorded. Think about our own times…
Have you ever sped in a car?
Have you ever misunderstood a law or not known about a rule and broken it, on accident?
It has happened to all of us, physically and spiritually. Roman’s 3:23 tells us that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”
We have all failed. End of discussion. Or is it?
To hear some tell of the story of Salvation, God created we humans, we messed up in the Garden, God gave us the law and we broke it, so God had to do something else to help us out since we couldn’t kept the law. I think I may have even put it pretty close to that before myself.
But would it surprise you if I said that salvation in God was never associated with the law? Look back at our passage… it keeps talking about a promise and an inheritance if Abraham. Let’s look at those promises:
Gen. 12:3 “…in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
Gen. 15:6 “and he believed the Lord; and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness.”
Because of his faith, Abraham was promised to be a great nation and that the salvation of the earth was to come from among his seeds, his offspring, his descendents; not from all of his descendents but from one seed, one offspring, one descendent, that is Christ.
The promise of salvation came long before the law. Abraham’s righteousness had nothing to do with the law, it had to do with his faith. You see, the promise of God both preceded and superseded the law.
We heard the passage from Romans 3:23 and I know I have quoted it so many times when talking about salvation, but I don’t know that I have ever sat down and read the whole passage. Even though we know better, we still seem to focus on the law, on our failures. But let’s look back to that passage and the verses that surround it, Romans 3:21-26.
You see, once again, it is not the law that saves us, it is faith, or as we read it in Ephesians as well as here in Romans, it is grace through faith in Jesus Christ that we find that we are made right before God.
Don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that we should throw the law out, be they the OT laws, the NT laws, or the laws of our society. The laws are there to help us. They are there to guide us. They are a gift to help us be better people as we relate to God and to one another.
BUT… our salvation is not found in these laws, it is found in the promise that was first given to Abraham. It is found in the faith that we have in God, through Jesus Christ, that because of it we are reckoned as Righteous.
What good is a promise?
What good is the promise that Paul reminded our ancestors about some 2000 years ago?
What good is the promise that we are reminded of today?
The Good is that the promise is as available to you today as it was to your ancestors in Galatia 2000 years ago, and to your ancestors in Europe 1000 years ago, and to your ancestors here in the
It is the same promise that has been passed down from Abraham to Isaac, to Jacob and on through the years.
It is a promise that if you believe in God and place your faith in Jesus Christ, you will be saved.
And that’s when the real journey begins.
Salvation is not a destination, it is journey.
Will you join us on that journey today?
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