Genesis 9:8-17; Psalm 25:1-10; 1 Peter 3:18-22; Mark 1:9-15
Last weekend, on Saturday, Andy and I went to Morgantown so that he could attend “Merit Badge University”, a day-long event where he could take one of two dozen merit badges offered, which included one he needed to qualify for Eagle Scout. So we left the house around 7 AM with the temperature outside running in the single digits, and drove to Morgantown.
The merit badge course lasted all day. I spent my time eating breakfast, taking a nap, walking around a couple of buildings on campus to see how they’d changed since I was last there, and reading. It snowed. I read for hours. And I watched more snow fall and blow around the campus. You’ll remember that it poured down the snow that afternoon.
Finally, around 4 pm, the classes began to finish. Scouts came to check out. No Andy. 4:30 – no Andy. 5 pm, and still no Andy. Finally, the last class to finish showed up around 5:15, and there was Andy. He got checked out and we went outside to scrap the ice off our little gray Honda Fit and head for Quiet Dell as the sun set over Morgantown – and the snow poured down.
The drive home is normally about 45 minutes. But that assumes that you are traveling at 70 miles an hour most of the way. That night, the snow was still coming down, the ice was sitting on the roads, and the traffic was moving at about 40 miles an hour, sometimes moving at 25 miles an hour.
We drove through the darkness. I gripped the wheel with both hands with a death grip. Tractor-trailers flew past me and their bow wave of wind tossed us to the right. But the lane was narrow since the snow was blowing on the pavement, and I didn’t have much room to dodge. I gripped the wheel tighter.
As we went down the road, the salt spray coated the windshield. It seemed like I had to spray the windshield with cleaning spray every two or three miles. And the salt spray coated the headlights and the road grew darker and darker with each mile.
We approached Fairmont and there was a flare in the northbound lanes, the leftovers from an accident. Another mile – I asked Andy why all the flashing lights – “There is a big truck being pulled out of the ditch by an really big tow truck.”
We kept moving, trying to avoid the ridges of snow and ice on the road. I hate those ridges – when I lived in New Jersey I saw a car hit one one snowy night on the interstate – he was going the other way. His car hit the ridge of snow and it looked like something out of a high speed chase movie – the car’s left side spun upwards and the car became airborne, turning completely over in the air and sliding down the highway on the roof of the car, finally coming to a stop as another car hit the tail end hard in the side and sending the car spinning around a couple of times.
It cleared up – almost – for a few miles. Then, as we approached the six lane near Jerry Dove Drive, the snow on the road grew more intense, just as the traffic increased. Now, none of the lanes were clear – the roadway could not even be seen through the snow. Now, I was driving through the dark, with salt-covered headlights that were little more than marker lights on top of a snow-covered highway, ready to go into a spin at any moment.
I’ve experienced those spin-outs. Once, we went to Canton to retrieve some students that were flying in during a snowstorm and our van didn’t have much tread on the tires. Suddenly, I found myself going left, then right, then l-e-f-t all the way around and ended up in the medium strip in 8 inches of snow facing ongoing traffic. It was NOT a fun feeling. And that was during the daytime.
Now, I was passing Meadowbrook Road driving on an inch and a half of slushy, snow-and-ice with traffic beside me as I headed up the hill in the curve.
And then, I came up over the ridge at Route 50 and the people in front of me slammed on their brakes. I risked it and moved to the left quickly, crossing a ridge of snow and ice. A little left, a little right, but this time the tires caught and I went down the leftmost lane.
Five minutes later, we came to a stop at the bottom of the Quiet Dell exit. The long dark night of travel was over. I playfully spun out as I turned at the 7/11 and drove past the Bastins, and went into the lot. We were home!
I walked into the house, and there was my dear wife, warming dinner, and very relieved to see us safely home. She had been praying all the way.
Sometimes, it seems that our life is one long dark night of our soul, traveling down a slick, tricky road with tractor-trailers right beside us. Every mile you go, you wonder if you are going to be run over, go into a spin-out, slide off the highway, or end up in the ditch, needing to be towed out by God’s tow truck. And the only thing that seems to get you home are the prayers of those who love you.
We are entering the time of Lent, a period of time in the church calendar which is a 40-day time of preparation for the events of Holy Week. Our readings lead us toward Jerusalem, toward the teachings of Jesus in the Temple, and toward His sacrificial death on the cross which paid all the penalties which we have owed God for all the crimes we have committed against Him and His creatures. Today we start with Christ’s encounter with Satan during 40 days of testing in the wilderness for Jesus. Lent is often a dark time.
For we have all committed crimes against God. And those crimes – those sins – keep us away from God.
We have all disobeyed His commands to love Him and to love other people. In our lives we have harmed other people countless times through acts of violence, through words of violence, and through avoiding acts that would have helped others. We have disobeyed God in thought, word and deed.
Have you ever wished someone dead, even for a few seconds? Jesus points out that this is morally the same as killing them. Have you ever coveted something a friend has – a new car, a home, a new phone? This is morally the same as stealing. Have you ever desired a married woman or man you saw in person or in the movies? Jesus points out that your heart has committed adultery. God’s standards of behavior and moral goodness are very high – so high we cannot naturally achieve those standards. But let’s avoid God’s laws and look at human law.
Have you ever driven faster than the speed limit? If so, you have broken the law. You may not have been caught by the state police, but God’s ever-present all-seeing radar knows that you have broken that law, and that you are a lawbreaker.
And God knows that anyone who disobeys, anyone who is a lawbreaker, anyone who commits a crime and gets away with it will eventually commit a crime once again, and then another, and then another, each crime growing worse and worse as the criminal grows older. Can you imagine such a person after ten thousand years? Can you imagine their sneaky, cunning, conniving character?
God can – and does not want to associate with such a person. And so God tossed us out of the Garden of Eden when we became disobedient to God by eating the fruit, the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and we were tossed out of the Garden so we could no longer eat of the fruit from the Tree of Eternal Life, and we began to die. We who were born after the Garden episode also commit these crimes and we are allowed to die, just as Adam and Eve died, so that we won’t live around God and become those warped and twisted, evil-natured creatures that ten thousand years of getting our own way would turn us into.
But God provided us with a way to turn around. As Jesus said, “Repent and believe the Good News!”
If we will turn around, if we will repent – the word literally means to “re-think” – if we will rethink our relationship with God and choose to follow God’s commands, and particularly follow the commands of His Son, Jesus Christ – He will give us eternal life. Our commitment to follow Jesus Christ is all that is necessary for God to forgive us and begin to work with us instead of against us. And when we take the extra step of showing action by becoming baptized, God reaches down, washes away all of our sin history, and changes our heart so we will desire to be good as we begin our eternal life with God.
Why should He do such a thing? For you know and God must know that within a day we will break another of God’s commands and we will once again be disobedient to God.
Because God also knows that there is a vast difference between not caring what God thinks of you and trying to follow the commands of God’s Son. If you are truly trying to follow Christ, to become like Christ, to do the things Jesus commanded, then those same ten thousand years that would have destroyed you and warped you and given you a heart of stone can now become ten thousand years where you can learn and practice and follow Christ more and more, becoming holy and good and angelic in your thoughts, your words, your soul.
Over the last few couple of years, I have heard stories from you of certain saints who used to attend this church, saints that now dance with Jesus. There are the stories told of Oma Witty, who was such a joy to be around, Grandmother Sandy, who had such wisdom, and the British-born Irene Upton, whose laughter was contagious. Such saints are dearly missed, but we will see them again one day.
Those saints did not develop those wonderful personalities overnight. And those who knew them best would say that they still had areas to work on. But they were on the road to a spiritual perfection that we rarely see, improving every year in their ability to walk as Jesus would walk.
Yet, there are also people in this world today who are not on that road at all, and there are still more who are stuck at rest stops along the highway – or even in the ditch. You may be stuck in the ditch. If so, then join us in Sunday School, in Anita’s midweek study, in the confirmation class, or the Sunday evening class to get you back on the highway and get you moving toward the spiritual perfection that is our goal. But today, let’s look at those who were completely off the road, or are not on the road at all.
I know of a man who was directly responsible for imprisoning men and women for no other crime except the crime of telling people that Jesus Christ was the Son of God. Some of these men and women were later executed for this so-called crime. And this man was directly responsible for dragging these men and women from their homes after they were denounced by others. He was a religious fanatic – absolutely dedicated to serving his God and would not tolerate the least bit of disagreement over who that God was. He lived in the Middle East. You may know of him also, for he became famous. His name was Saul of Tarsus – known to us as the Apostle Paul.
As we know, one day Paul was walking on the road to Damascus to find and persecute some more Christians, when a blinding light hit him and a voice spoke to him. “Who are you lord?” Paul asked, and the voice replied, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.” Paul was taken to Damascus, received his sight back a few days later from a Christian who was scared to death of him, and began to preach that Jesus Christ was the Son of God. Paul repented – he re-thought his relationship with God.
A few years ago, there was another man who became famous. Jeffrey Dahmer was a serial killer and cannibal. He raped and murdered his 17 victims. Dahmer was finally arrested and put into prison.
A few months after his arrest, Dahmer asked for and received a Bible. After about two years,, Dahmer asked for and met with a Church of Christ pastor repeatedly. Eventually, Dahmer was baptized, continued to meet with the pastor weekly, and showed every sign of a complete conversion. Six months later, he was murdered in prison.
Today in the Middle East there are men who have decided that Christians are to be murdered, beheaded on public videos. And we wonder why the men of the so-called Islamic State do this. I will tell you, but it will not be the answer you may have thought.
I have pondered long and hard why the Islamic State has chosen the public executions that they have chosen. I first heard of these guys a couple of years ago when they were just another group fighting the Syrian government. They posted a video where one of their leaders took a Syrian prisoner, cut out his heart and ate it on camera. At this point I could see that this was true evil walking upon the earth.
Since then, they have massacred many of the Yazidi, the people of the mountain, who are an oddball religious sect who could actually be said to be Satan worshippers – or to be worshippers of a religion which is a mixture of Islam, Zorasterism, and look toward Enoch, one of the early patriarchs whom you will find in Genesis. Read the Wikipedia article on the Yazidi. It’s a strange religion, so, we think – “These ISIS guys are religious fanatics who only want Islam”.
Then, they murder several American and British journalists and we think “Oh, they don’t like the West – we’ve seen this before”, they consider us to be crusaders who have tried to control their countries, and we go on with our life.
But then they begin to do some different things. They murdered the Japanese and this is not normal, for the Japanese have never done anything to the people of the Middle East. Next, they burn the Jordanian pilot – a fellow Moslem – and the Jordanian air force strikes back.
And now, they have beheaded 21 Egyptian Christians in Libya. Why? Egyptians aren’t the hated Western enemy.
So they’ve killed by particularly brutal means some people that would be considered pagan, at least one Moslem who was fighting them, some Western Christians that they might consider “crusaders” – and Egyptian Christians. Why kill the Egyptians? Killing Christians is NOT part of the commands of Mohammed, except soldiers during warfare. And these were innocent workers, not soldiers.
And then I began to suspect the motives of the leadership.
Did you notice? Those 21 innocent Egyptians were each killed by a different man standing behind them. And while those innocent Christian martyrs – a Greek word which means “witnesses” - will be greeted by Jesus Christ and given beautiful white robes, hell has just begun for those executioners. They are the ones who truly need to be prayed for.
When a man or woman harms another man or woman, it harms their own soul. If you do something which you know deep in your heart is wrong, such as killing an innocent person or brutally harming another person, you will feel shame. And shame is a powerful way of maintaining control.
You see, those 21 executioners will now be loyal. They carry such shame at killing innocent men, that they will never again be able to associate with anyone outside of the Islamic State. They will follow any command, do anything they are asked to do. You see, in the Islamic State, they are greeted as heros. But anywhere else, people who find out who they are will greet them with horror. Because those men know what they have done is wrong in the sight of all gods, in all moral codes, they must put their hope in the so-called Islamic State and its assurances that if they continue the jihad, the struggle, that they will win paradise when they die in battle. It is the only hope they can see.
David, the writer of our Psalm wrote:
3 No one who hopes in you
will ever be put to shame,
but shame will come on those
who are treacherous without cause.
Shame. These men know shame. And outside of Christ’s love, they can never know forgiveness. There is nothing they can do to ever remove the damage that has been done to their souls – unless they come to know Jesus Christ and His Good News that God will forgive all.
And Christ is ready to forgive them. He forgave Saul of Tarsus. He has forgiven many other people who were guilty of terrible crimes throughout history. It is perhaps the core part of the Good News, that Jesus Christ and God will forgive you if you repent and decide to follow Him. God’s forgiveness rate is 100%.
What have you done in your life for which you feel shame? Here, in this place, we find forgiveness. You see, shame comes upon us when we feel that we have done something for which we will one day be punished, when we’ve done something that we personally feel is terrible, when we feel we have broken a moral code that we once swore never to break. We feel shame when we recognize that our moral code is lying in pieces around our feet, and when we feel shame, we see our personal image lying broken and stomped upon – by our own actions.
What have you done in your life for which you feel shame? We all experience this shame to one extent or another. The only people who have never experienced shame are the true sociopaths, the really scary people who have no moral code except “I want” and so it must be right, those who have hearts made not of stone but of inflexible steel. If you have a heart at all, it is a good thing when you say to yourself – or another – “I’m ashamed.”
Our shame affects us deeply. As we recognize our shame, there are two courses that we can take.
Some people attempt to work off their shame and guilt. These people work hard, killing themselves with hard work to try to pay for their crimes and guilt. They may do something directly for the people they’ve hurt – or they may simply try to become someone worthy. We saw this in the movie “Saving Private Ryan”. We find that the captain and the other men died to save Private Ryan, and he worked hard after the war so that their sacrifice would be “worth it.” Are you attempting to earn back the sacrifices someone made for you, perhaps a parent or a friend, to compensate them or someone else for all they once did for you which you did not appreciate at the time? Are you trying to pay back a debt that can never be repaid and you are ashamed that you cannot repay it? Perhaps you have outlived another person. Do you feel guilty that you are alive and they are not? Do you feel ashamed that they did good things for you and you feel that you did not do enough for them?
Other people go through the long dark night of the soul. They recognize their shame and a terrible sense of approaching punishment takes ahold of them. They retreat from the world into a darkness that is theirs to live in, a depression and sadness that comes when they believe their actions will naturally mean that they can have no joy in their world. The long dark night of the soul goes on for years, as they punish themselves for what they have done, and they cannot accept that joy should be part of their lives. Are you in that long dark night, punishing yourself, expecting at any minute to run off the highway of despair and it be the end of everything?
If you are ashamed of something you’ve done – or not done – in this life, then there is a three-step process for recovering from the shame. Perhaps you might want to bow your head.
First, admit the shame. Say to yourself and God “I’m ashamed of ….”and fill in the blank.
The second step is for you to apologize to God. “God, I’m sorry. I wish I hadn’t done it. Will you please forgive me?”
The third step, then, is to hear these words: “In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven!” Take these words as the Holy Spirit speaking through me to you, for that is what these words are. You are truly forgiven by God. God loves you. Completely.
God forgave Paul of Tarsus of the terrible deeds he had done. Christ forgave Jeffrey Dahmer of the horrific deeds he did. And if they choose to come to Him, Jesus will forgive the men of the Islamic State for their deeds. But most importantly, God has forgiven you. God has forgiven you and welcomed you back into His arms. Christ will once again walk with you.
I’ve spent some time talking about how the victims of shame can break that control, how God’s forgiveness can set you free from that control. But I’d like to take just a minute to speak about leaders who would order the atrocities we’ve seen the Islamic State commit.
C.S.Lewis pointed out that when we see great evil, we must remember that the vast majority of the people involved in the evil are not evil themselves – they are just the greatest victims of the evil. Those Christians who are killed by the Islamic State die and go to Heaven, where they will meet with our first martyr, Christ Himself. – those who do the killing lose their souls. But what of those who set up the system?
Throughout history, we see that there is a great evil which moves from place to place around the world. Caligula, Nero, Attilla the Hun, more recently Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot in Cambodia, the initiators of the Rwandan genocide, the Yugoslavian genocides led by Slobadan Milosevic, and the evil in Uganda. Now, we see that the great evil is leading the Islamic State. It is at the top that the great evil persists, it is at the top that the lies about God and Christ are declared, it is at the top that the great deceiver works. The Bible tells us his name is Satan.
The demon that leads the Islamic State is moving us once again toward a great war. The attack on the Egyptian Christians has forced a response from the Egyptian president, a man who is not well liked by his countrymen, a man who teeters on the edge of being overthrown. Egypt is the prize, a country of a hundred million people, which can provide thousands of recruits for the Islamic State. Soon, you will hear the propaganda explaining why the Egyptian president is just a pawn in the back pocket of the “evil crusading West”, and then you will know that the troubles are upon us, when a new great war will be fought, the four horsemen will ride forth, and there will be war once again between the people of God on one hand – Christians and Jews – and the people who are led by hatred and shame on the other side, with many ordinary, peace-loving Moslems forced to make a difficult choice. And we will not escape being drawn into that war.
Pray, my friends. Pray as you have never prayed before that the evil be stopped now by God. Pray for our world and that the hearts of all men and women be changed to follow Jesus. Pray for Christ to return. Pray that God’s glory shine to everyone!
Over the next few weeks of Lent, those forty days – not counting Sundays – when we look inward to prepare ourselves for Christ – we will look inward. We don’t count Sundays because every Sunday is a celebration of the Resurrection, a miniature Easter celebration !
On Sunday afternoons at 2 pm, we will have the confirmation class, appropriate for anyone 12 years or older who wants to understand much deeper about what Christianity and the Methodist Church is all about. On Wednesday Evenings, at 6:30 Anita will be helping you get closer to God and be transformed through deep prayer – speaking to God and listening for God’s response through the Holy Spirit. Naturally, the Pioneer Clubs will continue. And on Sunday Evenings at 6 pm, we will be focused upon answering questions about how to share the Gospel with another and answer their questions about God, Jesus Christ, and Christianity.
Be forgiven – and leave the long dark night of the soul for the light and heavenly joy that comes with the love of Christ.
Monday, February 23, 2015
Monday, February 16, 2015
A Transformation of View
2 Kings 2:1-12; Psalm 50:1-6; 2 Corinthians 4:3-6; Mark 9:2-9
(Most of this sermon is available on video at http://youtu.be/ESxzZDBPPlc .)
As many of you know, we still have a house and property in Ohio, just north of Marietta on the Muskingum River. On those 2 and a quarter acres, a decade ago I planted about 80 fruit trees, mostly apple, but also with apricot, almond, pear, peaches, nectarines, cherries, plums, persimmons, and even a lonely prune tree. And in past years, this time of the year is when people who own orchards begin to spray. For if we do not spray, we do not have fruit.
The first spray, the spray that we make this time of the year is called “dormant oil”. Dormant oil is very simple – we simply take a form of vegetable oil and spray a dilute form of it over the trees. This oil then coats all of the egg cases of the damaging insects and the cocoons of all the moths and butterflies that would result in caterpillars and more eggs laid to turn into more caterpillars which would eat the leaves and flowers and fruit that was trying to grow, and that would infect the fruit with different diseases and rots. So we spray the trees with the oil so the eggs and the cocoons will suffocate. It is simple, environmentally friendly, and does little more than put a gallon of thinly spread vegetable oil over the orchard.
But it is amazing, isn’t it, those cocoons where the last surviving caterpillars of fall hibernate and slowly change over the winter. The biologists called it a “meta-morphesis”, which is from two Greek words that mean “ beyond” and “change”. So a metamorphosis is a “change beyond” the normal change. A morphosis is a normal change, like a puppy becoming a dog. But a metamorphosis goes beyond a normal change and turns a caterpillar into a butterfly.
Recent research has shown us what happens. We’ve all seen how the caterpillar forms a cocoon, a tough fibrous outer shell that protects the caterpillar from the cold, the snow, the rain, and most predators. The cocoon forms a snuggly little place where the caterpillar will be safe during the next few weeks or months. But it also forms a prison for the developing butterfly. If the butterfly cannot one day break through the cocoon, the butterfly will never fly.
Scientists have found out even more details about how the caterpillar changes in the cocoon. Most caterpillars are born with the normal digestive organs, a brain, etc. But caterpillars are also born with small organs called “imaginal discs”. Imaginal discs – from the same root as the word “imagine”.
These imaginal discs do very little in most caterpillars. But when the caterpillar is ready to make it’s cocoon, the tough outer coating that will protect it during the metamorphosis, some changes happen inside the caterpillar.
First of all, the caterpillar almost completely digests itself. It turns the inside of the caterpillar into a gooey substance that has no structure. It is just digested caterpillar. It has literally eaten itself. If you open the cocoon at this point, the goo just oozes out and the creature will die.
But the imaginal discs are NOT digested. Those little organs survive the digesting process and they begin to grow. Some turn into a new brain, some turn into wings, some turn into digestive organs, some turn into muscles, some turn into eyes. The use the gooey stuff as their food and use the old digested caterpillar goo to build the new creature.
Then, one day, when everything has been put back together the right way, the cocoon bursts open and a beautiful butterfly crawls out, sits for a few minutes in the sun, and then flies away!
In our Gospel reading today, Jesus has been doing his ministry in the lands north of Galilee, the area near Caesarea Phillipi. One day, he takes his core group of disciples – Peter, James, and John, up onto a high mountain – many people think it was Mount Hermon, which is a large mountain which is on the Lebanon-Syria border. The snow from Mount Hermon supplies the Sea of Galilee with water, which then becomes the Jordan River which flows into the Dead Sea. It is the northern part of what today we call the Golan Heights. Here on top of Mount Hermon, there were small temples which had been set up to Baal, to Greek and Roman gods and goddesses, and to other gods and goddesses. There was a long history of setting up temples and shelters for various deities and demi-gods here.
When the small party reaches the top of the mountain, something extraordinary happens. Jesus changes His appearance. He is no longer a tired man who has just climbed several thousand feet – the peak is over nine thousand feet above sea level. No, Jesus suddenly is wearing dazzling white clothing – “whiter than anyone can bleach them”. He has changed – His divinity is showing through.
Elijah and Moses are talking with Him. Elijah, who was taken to Heaven in a whirlwind after a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared is there. Moses, whose body was never found, is there. As far as anyone can tell from the Old Testament scriptures, these two men never died, but were taken to Heaven while alive. And Peter, James, and John are watching all this happen. What would you do? What would you think? What would you say?
It’s all too much for Peter. Peter, the man of action, simply cannot contain himself and watch. 5 Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.”
Peter wanted to honor Jesus. He wanted to put him “up there” with Moses and Elijah, two of the greatest prophets in Jewish history. But Peter wasn’t quite there. Peter didn’t quite grasp who Jesus was. Peter thought that he would do like so many other people had done and build a shrine on Mount Hermon. And Peter was about to go down in history as the first man whom God had told to “shut up”!
7 Then a cloud appeared and covered them, and a voice came from the cloud:“This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!”
Imagine the embarrassment for Peter when God tells him, in essence – “Don’t insult Jesus by comparing Him to Moses and Elijah – This is my SON. Now shut up and “Listen to Him!”
I suspect that there was a new respect for their rabbi that day as the three disciples came down off the mountain.
On the mountain, Jesus was transfigured. His appearance changed – and He changed. For just a few minutes, the disciples saw the beautiful God-man that was locked inside the human body. For just a few minutes, the disciples had a glimpse of Who they were walking beside and talking with every day. For just a few minutes, the disciples were shaken to the depths of their hearts by their encounters with God the Father and God the Son.
In the beginning of the Lord of the Rings books and movie, the kindly wizard Gandolf comes to Hobbiton, a quiet village where he is known as the gentle old, perhaps slightly doty man who can make fireworks. But later on in the first book, in the first movie, there is an episode where this kindly old wizard is face to face with a great evil demon. Suddenly, we find out the hidden power and strength in the old man. Suddenly, we find out that this man who was simply known for making fireworks can also stand up to the greatest evil the party has encountered and say, like a prophet of old: “You shall not pass”. And suddenly, we see that hidden within the wrinkled human body is a tremendous power for good.
Peter and the other disciples also had looked at Jesus and said to themselves, “He’s a lot like me.” They thought he was a really good teacher, a man who knew a great deal about scripture, and who somehow could perform healing miracles. But they had not realized the depth of the difference between them. They, who had looked up their entire lives to the stories of Moses at the Red Sea and Elijah fighting the battle of the gods on top of Mount Carmel, they had been excited to put Jesus into that same class of man, sort of like we might take a particularly good politician and say that he is like John F Kennedy or Abraham Lincoln.
But God the Father would have none of this. Just for a few moments, the divine nature of Jesus came forth and he shone with the pure white crisp brilliance of Heaven. Just once, God the Father spoke to Peter and told Peter in no uncertain words that Jesus was far more than Moses, far more than Elijah, far more than any mere human who had ever walked on the planet. And just for once, we see part of what led Peter and the others to spend the rest of their lives telling people about Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The transfiguration was the defining moment in the relationship of Jesus to those three disciples. It was the moment when they realized that they had been walking around with God Himself every day – and that shocked them to the very core of their hearts.
For you see, Peter, James, and John were also transformed that day. Except for a brief vacation after the Resurrection, these three fishermen no longer fished on the Sea of Galilee. Peter traveled to Babylon and Rome spreading the Gospel of Christ. John traveled to western Turkey and led the growing church in Ephesus until his exile on the island of Patmos in the Aegean Sea. James was killed in Jerusalem by King Herod. They all lived – and died – spreading the Good News of Christ.
The effect upon the disciples reminds me of the day when Saundra and I had spent an hour after church explaining to two of our dear International Students from China who Jesus was. I mentioned that we had writings that indicated that over 500 people had witnessed the resurrected Christ, and one of the girls looked up in shock and said, “So, it is TRUE?!?” You could almost see her world spin around as she realized that what she had believed for her entire life was shaken by this new fact.
And what about us?
The Transfiguration changed Jesus by showing His divine nature. Much as a caterpillar turns into a butterfly, Jesus showed the three disciples what was inside His human skin. And later, when He arose from the dead, He was changed again. He walked about in a new, glorified body, new to the world, changed enough that His disciples and followers did not recognize Him at first.
And we, too, are to be changed by the Transfiguration. We are to be transformed. When we recognize that Jesus truly is God’s Son and to be listened to, we are transformed. Inside us, God has put the seeds of imagination, those soul-seeds that allow us to be transformed as we hear the Word of Christ, the Word of God, the gentle voice of the Holy Spirit.
Yet, just like the caterpillar, we must let our old self die away and be consumed. Consumed, yet not forgotten, for it is out of our recognition and repudiation of our sin, our desire to change from our sin nature into something desired by God, that we can grow into a beautiful person, led by our imagination and the transforming acts of the Holy Spirit of God.
When we live in the world, the world beats us up. Eventually, it is easy to retreat into a cocoon, to hide from the world under our bed, to curl up at home and stay away from those things that might hurt us. Our spirit melts down, we move less and less, and finally, our spirit becomes a messy, human goo that is vulnerable and may never come out of the cocoon in which we’ve placed ourselves. We may withdraw from the world, never to return.
But if we take this time to read the Word of God, to pray to our Creator, to listen to the Holy Spirit, something miraculous can happen. If we take time to contemplate the life, teachings, and sacrifice of Jesus Christ, then something wonderful can happen to us. If we invite the Holy Spirit to take over from our old self-spirit, a new Spirit will begin to come together within us as the thoughts and imaginations and dreams that the Holy Spirit gives us grow together in our mind. This is the transformation that Anita’s new Wednesday evening class hopes to generate. I hope you’ll consider coming to the transformation time at 6:30 each Wednesday.
As our old self-spirit melts down and becomes human goo, our new spirit, guided by the Holy Spirit can grow and become something wonderful, something beautiful, something that can fly far above what our old caterpillar-self could ever hope to venture to, bound down as it was by the weight of sin and self-destruction.
Use your imagination, guided by the Holy Spirit. We are told that we are to become Christ-like in all ways we can. When we die, we will receive at our Resurrection a glorified body just as Christ was. But before we die, how will we be transformed? How can we who have darkness in our lives become brightly shining like Jesus was at the transfiguration?
As Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 4:
6 … God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory…
Take the story of the Transfiguration inside yourself. Let it do its work, digesting your old view of Jesus as a wise teacher, destroying your old view that this world around us is what counts, eliminating the limitations on your old view that keep you tied down to what ordinary men and women can do.
Perhaps you have been walking around in this world for years since you came to know Jesus. Perhaps it has been decades since your baptism and you, like a caterpillar, have been walking around, eating the leaves of the Word of God for many years. Perhaps you have been earth-bound, held down by your awareness that you are just a caterpillar, and that caterpillars never fly.
But instead, like the caterpillar’s imaginal discs, let the seeds of imagination, guided by the Holy Spirit, remake you into something beautiful. The Holy Spirit, which is now in your heart, will make the light of the knowledge of God’s glory shine from your heart into your new life.
Consider what heights you can soar to if you are lifted up by Holy God, the Creator of the Universe. Consider the evil that you and God together can destroy. Consider the good that you and God together can do. Consider a complete metamorphoses that can happen if you will let your imagination follow the leading of God’s Word, Christ’s sacrifice, and the Holy Spirit’s gentle voice.
The Spirit may be speaking to you now. What are you to do? Is there a barrier in your way? Could you ask God to remove it? The butterfly must first make its way through the tough protective coating that surrounds the cocoon before it can fly. Remember, the cocoon is safe and protective for the caterpillar – but if the butterfly does not break out of the cocoon it will die. Ask God for help breaking through your cocoon.
· Is your cocoon made of safe, long-established habits? Ask God to cut through your old habits. Hold onto the Creator as you become a new creation.
· Is your cocoon the cocoon of feeling like you don’t know the answers? Ask God to give you the education and knowledge you need, and the answers you need. God knows all things and can show you all things.
· Is your cocoon the cocoon of thinking you are too old? Ask God to show you how to be young again in your spirit. After all, you have tens of thousands of years still to live, my eternal friend. Begin again today.
· Is your cocoon the cocoon of thinking that you are too young or too small to make a difference? Ask God to make a way for you. Ask God to use God’s ultimate, Universe-building power to make a difference and change the world through you.
· Is your cocoon the cocoon of can’t, shouldn’t, don’t wanna? Ask God to show you how to break past those old cords that mind you down. Ask God to DO, and ask God to bring you along in the journey.
What is your cocoon called? What do you need God’s help breaking free of?
In Romans, Paul also wrote: “If God is for us, who can be against us?”
It is time to break out of your cocoon, your place of safety, your prison of protection, your binding that holds you in one place. It is time to fly with the Holy Spirit of God. Stop looking at the world through caterpillar eyes and look through the eyes given to you by God, the God that wants you to fly!
If you are ready to drop behind the things that have held you back, whether it be what someone once told you, or what someone once did to you, or what you have limited yourself to – Come forward to the altar during our song today. Do not let your exceptions define you, do not lot those exceptions hold you back. Too often we have dreamed great and wonderful dreams that will honor God and we let the human perceptions stop us. YOU KNOW those exceptions – we’d like to do something wonderful and would – except for our finance, or except for our lack of skills, or except for our lack of knowledge.
As my son Andrew said last week, we are not called to be people of exceptions, but we are called to be an exceptional people.
Consider the caterpillar. We all begin life that way, bound to the earth around us. But Christians are not to be caterpillars. After we encounter Christ, we are to be butterflies. What could you look like to God? Look at this video for some ideas. (Skip ahead to the 0.55 point.)
We are to be butterflies, transformed into a new creation, flying toward God’s Son, free to do what is right and good and wholesome for us – and for everyone we meet. This is the essential difference between us and the world. We have the transfiguring power of God speaking to us daily through God’s Word and the Holy Spirit. Listen and be changed!
Break free today. Come to the altar during our song. Speak to God and ask for the Holy Spirit to guide you as you throw off your cocoon. Talk with the Creator who made you and ask Him how to become a butterfly. Kneel before the One who loves you and died so that you could be free from your bonds. Come to the altar during our song.
Consider the words of the Hymn of Promise https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vljO26OhOXQ .
(Most of this sermon is available on video at http://youtu.be/ESxzZDBPPlc .)
As many of you know, we still have a house and property in Ohio, just north of Marietta on the Muskingum River. On those 2 and a quarter acres, a decade ago I planted about 80 fruit trees, mostly apple, but also with apricot, almond, pear, peaches, nectarines, cherries, plums, persimmons, and even a lonely prune tree. And in past years, this time of the year is when people who own orchards begin to spray. For if we do not spray, we do not have fruit.
The first spray, the spray that we make this time of the year is called “dormant oil”. Dormant oil is very simple – we simply take a form of vegetable oil and spray a dilute form of it over the trees. This oil then coats all of the egg cases of the damaging insects and the cocoons of all the moths and butterflies that would result in caterpillars and more eggs laid to turn into more caterpillars which would eat the leaves and flowers and fruit that was trying to grow, and that would infect the fruit with different diseases and rots. So we spray the trees with the oil so the eggs and the cocoons will suffocate. It is simple, environmentally friendly, and does little more than put a gallon of thinly spread vegetable oil over the orchard.
But it is amazing, isn’t it, those cocoons where the last surviving caterpillars of fall hibernate and slowly change over the winter. The biologists called it a “meta-morphesis”, which is from two Greek words that mean “ beyond” and “change”. So a metamorphosis is a “change beyond” the normal change. A morphosis is a normal change, like a puppy becoming a dog. But a metamorphosis goes beyond a normal change and turns a caterpillar into a butterfly.
Recent research has shown us what happens. We’ve all seen how the caterpillar forms a cocoon, a tough fibrous outer shell that protects the caterpillar from the cold, the snow, the rain, and most predators. The cocoon forms a snuggly little place where the caterpillar will be safe during the next few weeks or months. But it also forms a prison for the developing butterfly. If the butterfly cannot one day break through the cocoon, the butterfly will never fly.
Scientists have found out even more details about how the caterpillar changes in the cocoon. Most caterpillars are born with the normal digestive organs, a brain, etc. But caterpillars are also born with small organs called “imaginal discs”. Imaginal discs – from the same root as the word “imagine”.
These imaginal discs do very little in most caterpillars. But when the caterpillar is ready to make it’s cocoon, the tough outer coating that will protect it during the metamorphosis, some changes happen inside the caterpillar.
First of all, the caterpillar almost completely digests itself. It turns the inside of the caterpillar into a gooey substance that has no structure. It is just digested caterpillar. It has literally eaten itself. If you open the cocoon at this point, the goo just oozes out and the creature will die.
But the imaginal discs are NOT digested. Those little organs survive the digesting process and they begin to grow. Some turn into a new brain, some turn into wings, some turn into digestive organs, some turn into muscles, some turn into eyes. The use the gooey stuff as their food and use the old digested caterpillar goo to build the new creature.
Then, one day, when everything has been put back together the right way, the cocoon bursts open and a beautiful butterfly crawls out, sits for a few minutes in the sun, and then flies away!
In our Gospel reading today, Jesus has been doing his ministry in the lands north of Galilee, the area near Caesarea Phillipi. One day, he takes his core group of disciples – Peter, James, and John, up onto a high mountain – many people think it was Mount Hermon, which is a large mountain which is on the Lebanon-Syria border. The snow from Mount Hermon supplies the Sea of Galilee with water, which then becomes the Jordan River which flows into the Dead Sea. It is the northern part of what today we call the Golan Heights. Here on top of Mount Hermon, there were small temples which had been set up to Baal, to Greek and Roman gods and goddesses, and to other gods and goddesses. There was a long history of setting up temples and shelters for various deities and demi-gods here.
When the small party reaches the top of the mountain, something extraordinary happens. Jesus changes His appearance. He is no longer a tired man who has just climbed several thousand feet – the peak is over nine thousand feet above sea level. No, Jesus suddenly is wearing dazzling white clothing – “whiter than anyone can bleach them”. He has changed – His divinity is showing through.
Elijah and Moses are talking with Him. Elijah, who was taken to Heaven in a whirlwind after a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared is there. Moses, whose body was never found, is there. As far as anyone can tell from the Old Testament scriptures, these two men never died, but were taken to Heaven while alive. And Peter, James, and John are watching all this happen. What would you do? What would you think? What would you say?
It’s all too much for Peter. Peter, the man of action, simply cannot contain himself and watch. 5 Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.”
Peter wanted to honor Jesus. He wanted to put him “up there” with Moses and Elijah, two of the greatest prophets in Jewish history. But Peter wasn’t quite there. Peter didn’t quite grasp who Jesus was. Peter thought that he would do like so many other people had done and build a shrine on Mount Hermon. And Peter was about to go down in history as the first man whom God had told to “shut up”!
7 Then a cloud appeared and covered them, and a voice came from the cloud:“This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!”
Imagine the embarrassment for Peter when God tells him, in essence – “Don’t insult Jesus by comparing Him to Moses and Elijah – This is my SON. Now shut up and “Listen to Him!”
I suspect that there was a new respect for their rabbi that day as the three disciples came down off the mountain.
On the mountain, Jesus was transfigured. His appearance changed – and He changed. For just a few minutes, the disciples saw the beautiful God-man that was locked inside the human body. For just a few minutes, the disciples had a glimpse of Who they were walking beside and talking with every day. For just a few minutes, the disciples were shaken to the depths of their hearts by their encounters with God the Father and God the Son.
In the beginning of the Lord of the Rings books and movie, the kindly wizard Gandolf comes to Hobbiton, a quiet village where he is known as the gentle old, perhaps slightly doty man who can make fireworks. But later on in the first book, in the first movie, there is an episode where this kindly old wizard is face to face with a great evil demon. Suddenly, we find out the hidden power and strength in the old man. Suddenly, we find out that this man who was simply known for making fireworks can also stand up to the greatest evil the party has encountered and say, like a prophet of old: “You shall not pass”. And suddenly, we see that hidden within the wrinkled human body is a tremendous power for good.
Peter and the other disciples also had looked at Jesus and said to themselves, “He’s a lot like me.” They thought he was a really good teacher, a man who knew a great deal about scripture, and who somehow could perform healing miracles. But they had not realized the depth of the difference between them. They, who had looked up their entire lives to the stories of Moses at the Red Sea and Elijah fighting the battle of the gods on top of Mount Carmel, they had been excited to put Jesus into that same class of man, sort of like we might take a particularly good politician and say that he is like John F Kennedy or Abraham Lincoln.
But God the Father would have none of this. Just for a few moments, the divine nature of Jesus came forth and he shone with the pure white crisp brilliance of Heaven. Just once, God the Father spoke to Peter and told Peter in no uncertain words that Jesus was far more than Moses, far more than Elijah, far more than any mere human who had ever walked on the planet. And just for once, we see part of what led Peter and the others to spend the rest of their lives telling people about Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The transfiguration was the defining moment in the relationship of Jesus to those three disciples. It was the moment when they realized that they had been walking around with God Himself every day – and that shocked them to the very core of their hearts.
For you see, Peter, James, and John were also transformed that day. Except for a brief vacation after the Resurrection, these three fishermen no longer fished on the Sea of Galilee. Peter traveled to Babylon and Rome spreading the Gospel of Christ. John traveled to western Turkey and led the growing church in Ephesus until his exile on the island of Patmos in the Aegean Sea. James was killed in Jerusalem by King Herod. They all lived – and died – spreading the Good News of Christ.
The effect upon the disciples reminds me of the day when Saundra and I had spent an hour after church explaining to two of our dear International Students from China who Jesus was. I mentioned that we had writings that indicated that over 500 people had witnessed the resurrected Christ, and one of the girls looked up in shock and said, “So, it is TRUE?!?” You could almost see her world spin around as she realized that what she had believed for her entire life was shaken by this new fact.
And what about us?
The Transfiguration changed Jesus by showing His divine nature. Much as a caterpillar turns into a butterfly, Jesus showed the three disciples what was inside His human skin. And later, when He arose from the dead, He was changed again. He walked about in a new, glorified body, new to the world, changed enough that His disciples and followers did not recognize Him at first.
And we, too, are to be changed by the Transfiguration. We are to be transformed. When we recognize that Jesus truly is God’s Son and to be listened to, we are transformed. Inside us, God has put the seeds of imagination, those soul-seeds that allow us to be transformed as we hear the Word of Christ, the Word of God, the gentle voice of the Holy Spirit.
Yet, just like the caterpillar, we must let our old self die away and be consumed. Consumed, yet not forgotten, for it is out of our recognition and repudiation of our sin, our desire to change from our sin nature into something desired by God, that we can grow into a beautiful person, led by our imagination and the transforming acts of the Holy Spirit of God.
When we live in the world, the world beats us up. Eventually, it is easy to retreat into a cocoon, to hide from the world under our bed, to curl up at home and stay away from those things that might hurt us. Our spirit melts down, we move less and less, and finally, our spirit becomes a messy, human goo that is vulnerable and may never come out of the cocoon in which we’ve placed ourselves. We may withdraw from the world, never to return.
But if we take this time to read the Word of God, to pray to our Creator, to listen to the Holy Spirit, something miraculous can happen. If we take time to contemplate the life, teachings, and sacrifice of Jesus Christ, then something wonderful can happen to us. If we invite the Holy Spirit to take over from our old self-spirit, a new Spirit will begin to come together within us as the thoughts and imaginations and dreams that the Holy Spirit gives us grow together in our mind. This is the transformation that Anita’s new Wednesday evening class hopes to generate. I hope you’ll consider coming to the transformation time at 6:30 each Wednesday.
As our old self-spirit melts down and becomes human goo, our new spirit, guided by the Holy Spirit can grow and become something wonderful, something beautiful, something that can fly far above what our old caterpillar-self could ever hope to venture to, bound down as it was by the weight of sin and self-destruction.
Use your imagination, guided by the Holy Spirit. We are told that we are to become Christ-like in all ways we can. When we die, we will receive at our Resurrection a glorified body just as Christ was. But before we die, how will we be transformed? How can we who have darkness in our lives become brightly shining like Jesus was at the transfiguration?
As Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 4:
6 … God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory…
Take the story of the Transfiguration inside yourself. Let it do its work, digesting your old view of Jesus as a wise teacher, destroying your old view that this world around us is what counts, eliminating the limitations on your old view that keep you tied down to what ordinary men and women can do.
Perhaps you have been walking around in this world for years since you came to know Jesus. Perhaps it has been decades since your baptism and you, like a caterpillar, have been walking around, eating the leaves of the Word of God for many years. Perhaps you have been earth-bound, held down by your awareness that you are just a caterpillar, and that caterpillars never fly.
But instead, like the caterpillar’s imaginal discs, let the seeds of imagination, guided by the Holy Spirit, remake you into something beautiful. The Holy Spirit, which is now in your heart, will make the light of the knowledge of God’s glory shine from your heart into your new life.
Consider what heights you can soar to if you are lifted up by Holy God, the Creator of the Universe. Consider the evil that you and God together can destroy. Consider the good that you and God together can do. Consider a complete metamorphoses that can happen if you will let your imagination follow the leading of God’s Word, Christ’s sacrifice, and the Holy Spirit’s gentle voice.
The Spirit may be speaking to you now. What are you to do? Is there a barrier in your way? Could you ask God to remove it? The butterfly must first make its way through the tough protective coating that surrounds the cocoon before it can fly. Remember, the cocoon is safe and protective for the caterpillar – but if the butterfly does not break out of the cocoon it will die. Ask God for help breaking through your cocoon.
· Is your cocoon made of safe, long-established habits? Ask God to cut through your old habits. Hold onto the Creator as you become a new creation.
· Is your cocoon the cocoon of feeling like you don’t know the answers? Ask God to give you the education and knowledge you need, and the answers you need. God knows all things and can show you all things.
· Is your cocoon the cocoon of thinking you are too old? Ask God to show you how to be young again in your spirit. After all, you have tens of thousands of years still to live, my eternal friend. Begin again today.
· Is your cocoon the cocoon of thinking that you are too young or too small to make a difference? Ask God to make a way for you. Ask God to use God’s ultimate, Universe-building power to make a difference and change the world through you.
· Is your cocoon the cocoon of can’t, shouldn’t, don’t wanna? Ask God to show you how to break past those old cords that mind you down. Ask God to DO, and ask God to bring you along in the journey.
What is your cocoon called? What do you need God’s help breaking free of?
In Romans, Paul also wrote: “If God is for us, who can be against us?”
It is time to break out of your cocoon, your place of safety, your prison of protection, your binding that holds you in one place. It is time to fly with the Holy Spirit of God. Stop looking at the world through caterpillar eyes and look through the eyes given to you by God, the God that wants you to fly!
If you are ready to drop behind the things that have held you back, whether it be what someone once told you, or what someone once did to you, or what you have limited yourself to – Come forward to the altar during our song today. Do not let your exceptions define you, do not lot those exceptions hold you back. Too often we have dreamed great and wonderful dreams that will honor God and we let the human perceptions stop us. YOU KNOW those exceptions – we’d like to do something wonderful and would – except for our finance, or except for our lack of skills, or except for our lack of knowledge.
As my son Andrew said last week, we are not called to be people of exceptions, but we are called to be an exceptional people.
Consider the caterpillar. We all begin life that way, bound to the earth around us. But Christians are not to be caterpillars. After we encounter Christ, we are to be butterflies. What could you look like to God? Look at this video for some ideas. (Skip ahead to the 0.55 point.)
We are to be butterflies, transformed into a new creation, flying toward God’s Son, free to do what is right and good and wholesome for us – and for everyone we meet. This is the essential difference between us and the world. We have the transfiguring power of God speaking to us daily through God’s Word and the Holy Spirit. Listen and be changed!
Break free today. Come to the altar during our song. Speak to God and ask for the Holy Spirit to guide you as you throw off your cocoon. Talk with the Creator who made you and ask Him how to become a butterfly. Kneel before the One who loves you and died so that you could be free from your bonds. Come to the altar during our song.
Consider the words of the Hymn of Promise https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vljO26OhOXQ .
Monday, February 9, 2015
The Prodigal Son’s Brother - by Andrew Boley
Isaiah 40:21-31; Psalm 40; 1 Corinthians 9:16-23; Luke 15:11-31
Before I begin, I’m going to confess something.
I have a weakness. I'll tell you about it later in this talk.
But for now, let me tell you two stories.
This is a story of two sheep who wanted to get clean.
Now, these two sheep had been doing the sort of stuff that wild sheep do; getting dirty. Both were covered in mud, caked in dirt, and their once pristine fur was now quite filthy. One sheep found a fast-flowing stream, and waded into it, standing near the middle where it could be cleaned by the rushing, safe, shallow waters. Naturally, the sheep got mostly clean. Not perfectly, because there would always be fine particles of dirt and mud and the like which would travel with the water and get in the wool, but on the whole, the sheep was getting –Cleaner-, but he was –still- dirty.
The other decided against it, thinking “it’s too much trouble to be worth the effort.” Instead, the sheep went to find a nearby stagnant bog. This swamp had dead waters, which didn’t flow at all. As soon as the sheep waded in, the mud at the bottom of the bog filtered up and just got the sheep wet, and filthy. ACTIVELY filthy. Instead of getting cleaner by getting in the bog, the sheep was just getting more dirty.
We’ll come back to these two sheep in a couple of minutes. Don’t forget about these sheep – they’ll appear again.
Now, I want to tell you a second story.
It's the story of the Prodigal son, and I'd like for you to see the story from the perspective of the older brother.
Luke15:25-31
“25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 27 ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’
28 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him.
29 But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’
31 “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.”
Most of the time, the meaning we draw from the prodigal son is that:
(A) If you leave home, you can always come back.
(B) God will love you no matter how lost you are.
(C) Don't judge those who are trying to be redeemed.
All valid points. ALL TRUE.
I've had the blessing of meeting a few people in my life who were once not-so- very-great people. I've met people who were once involved heavily in street crime, got frequently into fights, used restricted drugs, and lived not-so-very-pleasant lives. I once told one of them that I felt somewhat envious of how his heart was burning with the Holy Spirit after his conversion.
He told me something very humbling; he told me, "Don't be envious at all. The pain I suffered from being part of this world has left deep scars on me to this day. But Jesus brought me back, and I will fight for Him, not for the drugs or the money anymore."
I don't think I'll ever be able to capture the essence, the passion which burned in those words when he spoke them.
"Jesus brought me back, and I will fight for Him, not for the drugs or the money anymore."
Now, let me share what I have found out about the story of the Prodigal Son:
Let’s say that the older brother is a steadfast Christian. Born and raised into the faith for life, he or she has a far more mature Christianity than anything that the younger son has. So; the more mature Christian weeps and is saddened by the loss of the younger son's faith... But as we watch more and more of the horrible things the younger son is doing on the news, we grow more and more doubtful of if the brother is worth saving.
It's a human flaw; we do it all the time.
My friend had what we in the world consider to be -serious- issues. But to God, he was rebelling just as much – or just as little - as the person who classically 'kill someone in their heart' or 'steals a pen from work'. By the time we were finishing our conversation, I could tell; he probably wept over what he had done. Several times.
Yet, when we hear about someone who is crying about stealing a pen from work, and how that makes them think they’re a bad person, we assume that they must in fact be a GOOD person who is trying TOO hard.
In all honesty; my friend and the person who stole the pen or killed “in their heart” are -no- different. Let me say that again; NO DIFFERENT. From God's perspective, both have broken His commandments. Both have sinned. Both are in rebellion. So why do we assume that the person who “just” stole a pen and breaks down in tears over it is a good person, worthy of being in our flock, while the drug dealer, the scam artist, the murderer is not? They are both God's children. Both God's sons and daughters. One might be older and wiser than the other, less prone to stray... But BOTH stray from His side.
It’s like two sheep out in the water; one in the dirty stagnant bog, the other in the clean flowing stream. They are BOTH dirty, and both keep getting dirty, but the one in the flowing stream is actively wanting to, and trying to get clean. The one in the bog is wallowing in the comfortable, stagnant waters.
It's not so much judging, more along the line of smugness.
Yes! Smugness!
We start to feel smug and secure in our own self-righteousness when in fact, God will take into our very same fold, even go so far as to put -THAT- dirty sheep right next to us in the pew. Ah, I mean sheep-pen, of course.
So, it comes as an absolute shock to us that God would take someone so filthy... So horrible and put them on the same path we're walking. Even go so far as to have, as Jesus said, (Luke15:7) "More joy in Heaven over one sinner who repents, than over ninety-nine righteous people who don't need repentance."
"More joy in Heaven over one sinner who repents, than over ninety-nine righteous people who don't need repentance."
Fellas, that means that Heaven is happier over one poor drug user who changes his way today, than all of you sitting out here today combined!
Now, I have a very ugly question to ask.
If someone out there had stolen your wedding ring or heirloom which had been in your family for generations, sold it, and used the money to host a party which burnt down your house while you were gone, some total stranger... If they were able to listen to the Holy Spirit because you were -gracious- towards them, would you press charges? Would you want your money back?
If there was just the slightest chance that your actions could calm their heart enough that they could listen to the Holy Spirit – and come to Christ... Tell me, would that not be worth it? ALL of Heaven would REJOICE over it!
You would have allowed the Spirit to speak with someone, allowed yourself to be an instrument through which the heartstrings of another could be tugged and led to the Lord, and you filled that role willingly, even in the face of terrible acts against you, and that person felt the Holy Spirit speak... You made ANGELS -SING-!
Isn’t that a beautiful thing?
Jesus said love your neighbor as yourself, and love the Lord your God with all your being.
He didn't say, love your neighbor as yourself, EXCEPT when he made a complete donkey of himself by dropping your favorite hammer under his truck and breaking it by accident. He didn't say, love your neighbor as yourself, EXCEPT when he punches you in the face. He didn't say, love your neighbor as yourself, EXCEPT when he's a scamp who does not deserve your daughter, or EXCEPT when she's that lost woman who has caught the eye of your son.
GOD DID NOT CALL US TO BE PEOPLE OF EXCEPTIONS, HE CALLED US TO BE EXCEPTIONAL PEOPLE!!!!
Earlier, I said that I have a weakness. My weakness is that I don't get things done when they need to be done. And sometimes, people suffer because of that. I don't love my neighbor as myself, and God forgive me, but I don't love Him with my full being.
That is my weakness. This rock represents my weakness. It's dirty. It’s from the bog. It is of this world. I don't enjoy showing it to others.
But I'll show it to God. I'll tell God, "Hey, God? Jesus told me that You're not really mad like I think You are. I have sinned in Your sight, though. I want to try better, but I want to do evil more. Help me, please? I want to walk closer to You."
I invite each of you to do the same. Be strong and confess to God your weakness. Silently or aloud. We all have one. Please do so now, if you feel led.
[Pause for prayer.}
I tell you this; when you do these things for God, it is the most beautiful thing that this universe has ever seen.
More beautiful than gold, more beautiful than diamonds, more beautiful than stars, God sees His child returning home and saying to Him, "Hey, God? I'm sorry I've done wrong. I'm sorry I left You. Can I come home now and work on getting better?"
We each have a weakness. Share yours with God right now. Devote to Him your life, and if not your entire life, then at least these next few moments of it. Give to Him your weakness.
And don't stop showing God your weakness; for then, you are walking beside Him.
(After sermon)
Let us pray.
God of grace; hear our prayer. I come before You with those gathered here, asking that You would pour out Your Holy Spirit like cleansing water over our hearts. That You would transform them, that we might walk closer to You. For those of us who have not repented; Lord, I ask that You would speak in their hearts. That they would be surrounded by people who can calm their minds enough that they might understand Your voice in their life. Let them no longer fight for the things of this world, but instead fight for Your name, by making disciples and praising You for Your mighty acts.
Assure those who are Yours, show them the sureness of their salvation, that they might do wonderful acts which are NOT OF THIS WORLD and DEFY those who say to them, stay in the pools and bogs of stagnation. Let them lead people to listen to Your Holy Spirit, let them be instruments for Your Kingdom.
In Jesus' Holy name we pray, Amen.
Before I begin, I’m going to confess something.
I have a weakness. I'll tell you about it later in this talk.
But for now, let me tell you two stories.
This is a story of two sheep who wanted to get clean.
Now, these two sheep had been doing the sort of stuff that wild sheep do; getting dirty. Both were covered in mud, caked in dirt, and their once pristine fur was now quite filthy. One sheep found a fast-flowing stream, and waded into it, standing near the middle where it could be cleaned by the rushing, safe, shallow waters. Naturally, the sheep got mostly clean. Not perfectly, because there would always be fine particles of dirt and mud and the like which would travel with the water and get in the wool, but on the whole, the sheep was getting –Cleaner-, but he was –still- dirty.
The other decided against it, thinking “it’s too much trouble to be worth the effort.” Instead, the sheep went to find a nearby stagnant bog. This swamp had dead waters, which didn’t flow at all. As soon as the sheep waded in, the mud at the bottom of the bog filtered up and just got the sheep wet, and filthy. ACTIVELY filthy. Instead of getting cleaner by getting in the bog, the sheep was just getting more dirty.
We’ll come back to these two sheep in a couple of minutes. Don’t forget about these sheep – they’ll appear again.
Now, I want to tell you a second story.
It's the story of the Prodigal son, and I'd like for you to see the story from the perspective of the older brother.
Luke15:25-31
“25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 27 ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’
28 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him.
29 But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’
31 “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.”
Most of the time, the meaning we draw from the prodigal son is that:
(A) If you leave home, you can always come back.
(B) God will love you no matter how lost you are.
(C) Don't judge those who are trying to be redeemed.
All valid points. ALL TRUE.
I've had the blessing of meeting a few people in my life who were once not-so- very-great people. I've met people who were once involved heavily in street crime, got frequently into fights, used restricted drugs, and lived not-so-very-pleasant lives. I once told one of them that I felt somewhat envious of how his heart was burning with the Holy Spirit after his conversion.
He told me something very humbling; he told me, "Don't be envious at all. The pain I suffered from being part of this world has left deep scars on me to this day. But Jesus brought me back, and I will fight for Him, not for the drugs or the money anymore."
I don't think I'll ever be able to capture the essence, the passion which burned in those words when he spoke them.
"Jesus brought me back, and I will fight for Him, not for the drugs or the money anymore."
Now, let me share what I have found out about the story of the Prodigal Son:
Let’s say that the older brother is a steadfast Christian. Born and raised into the faith for life, he or she has a far more mature Christianity than anything that the younger son has. So; the more mature Christian weeps and is saddened by the loss of the younger son's faith... But as we watch more and more of the horrible things the younger son is doing on the news, we grow more and more doubtful of if the brother is worth saving.
It's a human flaw; we do it all the time.
My friend had what we in the world consider to be -serious- issues. But to God, he was rebelling just as much – or just as little - as the person who classically 'kill someone in their heart' or 'steals a pen from work'. By the time we were finishing our conversation, I could tell; he probably wept over what he had done. Several times.
Yet, when we hear about someone who is crying about stealing a pen from work, and how that makes them think they’re a bad person, we assume that they must in fact be a GOOD person who is trying TOO hard.
In all honesty; my friend and the person who stole the pen or killed “in their heart” are -no- different. Let me say that again; NO DIFFERENT. From God's perspective, both have broken His commandments. Both have sinned. Both are in rebellion. So why do we assume that the person who “just” stole a pen and breaks down in tears over it is a good person, worthy of being in our flock, while the drug dealer, the scam artist, the murderer is not? They are both God's children. Both God's sons and daughters. One might be older and wiser than the other, less prone to stray... But BOTH stray from His side.
It’s like two sheep out in the water; one in the dirty stagnant bog, the other in the clean flowing stream. They are BOTH dirty, and both keep getting dirty, but the one in the flowing stream is actively wanting to, and trying to get clean. The one in the bog is wallowing in the comfortable, stagnant waters.
It's not so much judging, more along the line of smugness.
Yes! Smugness!
We start to feel smug and secure in our own self-righteousness when in fact, God will take into our very same fold, even go so far as to put -THAT- dirty sheep right next to us in the pew. Ah, I mean sheep-pen, of course.
So, it comes as an absolute shock to us that God would take someone so filthy... So horrible and put them on the same path we're walking. Even go so far as to have, as Jesus said, (Luke15:7) "More joy in Heaven over one sinner who repents, than over ninety-nine righteous people who don't need repentance."
"More joy in Heaven over one sinner who repents, than over ninety-nine righteous people who don't need repentance."
Fellas, that means that Heaven is happier over one poor drug user who changes his way today, than all of you sitting out here today combined!
Now, I have a very ugly question to ask.
If someone out there had stolen your wedding ring or heirloom which had been in your family for generations, sold it, and used the money to host a party which burnt down your house while you were gone, some total stranger... If they were able to listen to the Holy Spirit because you were -gracious- towards them, would you press charges? Would you want your money back?
If there was just the slightest chance that your actions could calm their heart enough that they could listen to the Holy Spirit – and come to Christ... Tell me, would that not be worth it? ALL of Heaven would REJOICE over it!
You would have allowed the Spirit to speak with someone, allowed yourself to be an instrument through which the heartstrings of another could be tugged and led to the Lord, and you filled that role willingly, even in the face of terrible acts against you, and that person felt the Holy Spirit speak... You made ANGELS -SING-!
Isn’t that a beautiful thing?
Jesus said love your neighbor as yourself, and love the Lord your God with all your being.
He didn't say, love your neighbor as yourself, EXCEPT when he made a complete donkey of himself by dropping your favorite hammer under his truck and breaking it by accident. He didn't say, love your neighbor as yourself, EXCEPT when he punches you in the face. He didn't say, love your neighbor as yourself, EXCEPT when he's a scamp who does not deserve your daughter, or EXCEPT when she's that lost woman who has caught the eye of your son.
GOD DID NOT CALL US TO BE PEOPLE OF EXCEPTIONS, HE CALLED US TO BE EXCEPTIONAL PEOPLE!!!!
Earlier, I said that I have a weakness. My weakness is that I don't get things done when they need to be done. And sometimes, people suffer because of that. I don't love my neighbor as myself, and God forgive me, but I don't love Him with my full being.
That is my weakness. This rock represents my weakness. It's dirty. It’s from the bog. It is of this world. I don't enjoy showing it to others.
But I'll show it to God. I'll tell God, "Hey, God? Jesus told me that You're not really mad like I think You are. I have sinned in Your sight, though. I want to try better, but I want to do evil more. Help me, please? I want to walk closer to You."
I invite each of you to do the same. Be strong and confess to God your weakness. Silently or aloud. We all have one. Please do so now, if you feel led.
[Pause for prayer.}
I tell you this; when you do these things for God, it is the most beautiful thing that this universe has ever seen.
More beautiful than gold, more beautiful than diamonds, more beautiful than stars, God sees His child returning home and saying to Him, "Hey, God? I'm sorry I've done wrong. I'm sorry I left You. Can I come home now and work on getting better?"
We each have a weakness. Share yours with God right now. Devote to Him your life, and if not your entire life, then at least these next few moments of it. Give to Him your weakness.
And don't stop showing God your weakness; for then, you are walking beside Him.
(After sermon)
Let us pray.
God of grace; hear our prayer. I come before You with those gathered here, asking that You would pour out Your Holy Spirit like cleansing water over our hearts. That You would transform them, that we might walk closer to You. For those of us who have not repented; Lord, I ask that You would speak in their hearts. That they would be surrounded by people who can calm their minds enough that they might understand Your voice in their life. Let them no longer fight for the things of this world, but instead fight for Your name, by making disciples and praising You for Your mighty acts.
Assure those who are Yours, show them the sureness of their salvation, that they might do wonderful acts which are NOT OF THIS WORLD and DEFY those who say to them, stay in the pools and bogs of stagnation. Let them lead people to listen to Your Holy Spirit, let them be instruments for Your Kingdom.
In Jesus' Holy name we pray, Amen.
Monday, February 2, 2015
Food Which Kills
Deuteronomy 18:15-20; Psalm 111; 1 Corinthians 8:1-13; Mark 1:21-28; Romans 14
One of the things my wife and I do is we try to go to the movies about once a month. Since we moved here, we’ve found that the Mall Theatre has matinee pricing all day and evening on Tuesdays. We’ve found that a movie date and dinner helps to keep us connected when the demands of jobs and kids drive us crazy.
A few years ago, my wife and I went to see a movie. That particular evening, we decided that the movie to see would be the George Clooney movie, “The Men Who Stare at Goats”, which was about a supposedly super-secret Pentagon program to develop psychic soldiers who could stare at a soldier and stop his heart with just mental force. Clooney and the others practiced, by staring at goats.
Well, we saw the movie and then we headed home. Along the way, we stopped at the store and Saundra got a quart of mint chocolate ice cream, which is my favorite. Unfortunately, Saundra purchased the brand that was on sale, which was a sugar-free ice cream. Now, NutraSweet and aspartame are known to make some people sick, and also are known to cause MS-like symptoms in some people, so those sweeteners affect the mind. We got home, I had a bowl, and we went to bed around 11 o’clock.
About midnight I woke up with a terrible feeling in my stomach and I headed downstairs to the bathroom and became violently ill. After tossing my ice cream a couple of times, I settled down into a routine where I laid down in the floor, drifted off to dreamland, and woke every half hour or so to throw up again. And all night long, there were goats dancing in my dreams.
Finally, about 4 am, I realized that I was getting dehydrated, but by this time I was too weak to yell upstairs for help or get up. So I prayed for the Holy Spirit to wake Saundra and about a minute later she knocked on the door and was able to get me some water. God is good.
Well, I think most of us have been through times when we thought something we ate was going to kill us, but in ancient times, food was intimately tied up with religious worship. Some food killed us spiritually – and some food gave us spiritual life.
For example, in the town of Corinth, a town in Greece where Paul ministered for a couple of years, most of the meat in the town came from the temples. It was quite a racket.
If you were a believer in a particular Greek god or goddess, you took your cattle or sheep to the temple to become a sacrifice. There was a long history of the temple priests being entitled to eat the sacrificial leftovers. Since Corinth was a large city with many travelers, there were more sacrifices than the temple priests could eat, so they took the extra meat and sold it in the marketplace. Almost all of the meat sold in Corinth and in many other cities had been offered as a sacrifice to some particular god or idol. This food was deemed by believers of that particular god to be superior, to somehow have spiritual value, and would help that person become a better follower of that god. And the people of the Christian church in Corinth had written to Paul asking him what he thought about eating meat that had been offered to idols.
There were two opinions about this, and Paul mentions them in his response. First, there were the people who said that eating meat offered to idols was supporting a false religion, and in some way this meat was now evil, because eating it demonstrated a belief in that idol or god.
On the other hand, there were people, a bit more sophisticated in their beliefs, perhaps, who said, “Idols and other gods are not real, so meat offered to them in sacrifice is the same as offering some meat to your doorknob – how can a piece of wood make the food evil? Besides, it was the best meat in town and it was even difficult to buy meat that had not been offered to some idol.”
But Paul said for us to look a little bit deeper. Paul said that we are free to eat the food, agreeing with those who said the idols were just pieces of wood and metal. But, Paul continued, we still should not eat it, because other people, new to the faith, might see us eating the food and think that we were still supporting those idols and gods. That fact that we were eating the meat meant that our action of eating would kill the faith of another person – and kill them eternally. And so, out of love for God and other people, we should avoid eating the meat, and Paul would go so far as to avoid eating meat altogether so others would not be harmed. Paul wrote more about this in Romans Chapter 14, which you might want to read.
Well, today we don’t have this particular concern about meat. Except in some very limited cases, meat today is not offered to idols.
But there are similar cases where Paul’s principle applies.
As we walk throughout our life, there is a tension which is constantly at work in the Christian life. On one hand, our relationship with God, and our heart-change that occurs in baptism means that we have freedom – the freedom which comes from being set free from sin and bondage to sin. We are truly free to follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit and do what is right.
But on the other hand, we hear from many people that Christians must live a holy life, and we are told that there is a huge list of things Christians must not do. So the question arises: Are we free or did we just go under a new list of behaviors that binds us worse than the sins did before we found Christ?
Let’s look at this in some detail.
Before we encounter Jesus and choose to follow Him, there are two things at work in our life. First, to be good, we try to follow the Law. Now this may be the Law of Moses, or it may simply be our own list we’ve pulled together about what is right and what is wrong. “Don’t drink, smoke, or cuss” is an example of “the Law” which we might follow. “Be nice to your parents and don’t speed when driving” is another example.
But we can’t follow the law. No matter what the list of do’s and don’ts, we break those laws.
And then, there is bondage to sin. The natural person who has not yet admitted weakness and asked for help from God is under bondage to sin. That sin varies with the person. You may find you can not stop with a single drink of alcohol, or you must have coffee every morning. You might find that you tell lies even when the truth would be better. You gossip about neighbors and friends, or you sleep through your alarm every morning. Perhaps you can’t help insulting people. I’ve had people say to me, “This is who I am” even though it has cost those people friends, money, health, and happiness. They are in bondage to their particular sin, feeling that they cannot break free. Their sin has enslaved them.
But when we admit to God that we cannot follow the Law and are in bondage to sin, He takes over for us. When we are baptized, God reaches down into our hearts and sets us free from that bondage to sin – and that need to follow the Law. Now we are free, truly free.
But what about “acting like a Christian”?
That is not what you think it is. The Law is not what governs our behavior.
When we were under the Law, we found some odd situations happened. We found that if we followed the Law, people got hurt. In fact, our need to follow the Law was what hurt them. Breaking the Law would do more good than following the Law. Let me give you an example.
There are some people who say that a Christian should never go into a bar. Now this is a reasonable rule to follow – most of the time – because there are many people in this world to whom going into a bar is very dangerous. These people are alcoholics – or potential alcoholics. You may be one. If you take even one drink, you will end up drunk. Taking a drink is simply poison for you – and puts you under bondage. It is sinful.
But there are other people for whom alcohol holds absolutely no attraction. There are people in this world who have no desire to drink and if they did drink they could drink a half glass of wine and stop immediately, never desiring it again.
These “alcohol-immune” people can actually do good ministry in a bar setting. They can go into a bar, meet people, listen to them, become friends with them, and help them with their problems, the problems that brought them to the bar in the first place, problems of loneliness, problems of despair, problems of desperation.
But it depends upon the person. If the wrong person goes into a bar, they will fall into the darkness. The law is good in that it tells people to avoid a place where they can fall into trouble. But it is important to know who you are. For others, following the law of avoiding bars condemns other people to a life of misery without hope. And so blindly following the law leads to more misery than following Christ.
When Christ came, He pointed out that love trumps the Law. Never, ever let the Law keep you from doing good to people. Time and again Jesus associated with people who were committing terrible sins, even though the Law of Moses told everyone not to associate with those people. Rather than blindly follow the Law of rules – Jesus followed two simple rules: Love people, and bring them to God. He demonstrated what freedom is: Freedom from the constraints of the Law and of sin which keep us from doing good. The use of wisdom and the Holy Spirit to help us to understand when to follow the law and when to break the law so we can do good.
So what about “acting like a Christian?”
Here is what a Christian should act like: Real Christians love God and other people. They are constantly looking toward their own behavior and how it attracts people instead of repelling people. For you cannot be effective in loving other people and bringing people to God if your behavior is obnoxious and abrasive, if it keeps you from other people, if you demand that we follow rules that keep us from helping people.
Too often, we use the phrase “act like a Christian” to mean that OTHER people should act differently. We go back and pull the Law down upon other people while ignoring it ourselves. We tell people to dress this way and don’t dress that way. We tell people to do this and don’t do that. We tell people how to live and how not to live. And then we complain because other people ignore the Law. And because we ignore the Law, people call us hypocrites and that makes us angry. But the real problem is that we have chosen to attempt to control people by using a club on which we engraved the words “Christian behavior”.
Jesus said that He came to fulfill the law and not destroy the Law. He came to show us how to follow the Law AND love other people. And here’s how He did it.
Jesus personally followed the Law. But He never insisted that the person He was talking to follow the Law. Instead, He just asked them to follow Him. In a modern context, Jesus would not order a man or woman to stop drinking. He’d just ask them to follow Him, and watch and imitate Him. And then, they’d see He never got drunk, yet was able to be happy, and they’d ask Him how to keep from getting drunk. He respected them enough to understand that adults need to work through their own issues and ask for help. Respecting others is part of loving them. Being humble enough to ask for help is a necessary part of developing a mature spirituality and relationship to God.
You see, you can’t be someone else’s Holy Spirit. My job – and your’s, if you want to follow Christ fully – is to connect people to the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ, and then help them listen to that Spirit. When you listen to the Holy Spirit yourself, and read the Word of God yourself, much greater things will happen than anything I can teach you.
Now this is not to say you shouldn’t teach your children what the Law requires. Teach your children the Ten Commandments, teach them right and proper behavior, teach them what is good and wholesome and to avoid evil.
Part of what needs to be taught, though, as they grow older is the basic respect for other images of God, other people, where we remember that the Holy Spirit of God is in all baptized Christians, and can speak to the pastor – and the Sunday School leader – and the newest person in the church equally well. The only differences between us are how well we listen.
Teaching adults right and wrong behavior should only happen when the adult asks us for advice, asks us to be taught, voluntarily comes to us and says, “teach me.” And on the other side, when you ask someone to teach you, go the extra mile and learn when to apply the rules – and when to break the rules. For the rule of “love thy neighbor” is second only to the rule of “love the Lord your God with all your heart and mind and strength”. “Love thy neighbor” never comes behind “unless your neighbor drinks, or does drugs, or beats his wife, or doesn’t take a shower, or uses rude language, or has bad English, or creeps you out or has hurt you in the past.” “Love thy neighbor” has no qualifiers and it does NOT mean “Control thy neighbor’s behavior” as much as we want it to mean that.
But how and why do I tell another person about God and Christ if I can’t tell them how to live?
If you have to ask that question, you’ve missed the point. Christianity is not about a code of ethics and a set of rules for living. That simply happens after we get the important stuff under control. No, Christianity is actually about reconnecting with the God who created you, about developing a deep relationship with the Being that built and maintains the Universe. Christianity is about falling in love with the One who has loved you since the beginning of time. All of Christian ethics, Christian attitudes, and Christian behavior is simply our response to that deepening relationship with the all-powerful God, initiated by an encounter with a caring Jesus Christ, and communicated through the Word of God and the gentle whispers of the Holy Spirit.
The best way to tell people about Jesus is first of all to be a pleasant and attractive person. If you are joyful, if you are pleasant, if you show a smile when things are going wrong, people will follow you. And then, if you are always sincerely giving credit to God and Christ for your joy, the good that happens in your life, and loving God when bad happens, people will always be asking you why. Why are you so happy? What is your secret? Why aren’t you falling apart? And then you tell them that it is your faith in Christ that keeps you going, your friends in Christ that lift you up, and your love of Christ that sustains you. “By the way, where do you go to church?” you can ask back, and you can tell them more about the God you love.
But notice that you are not telling people how to live. Once again, that is the job of Christ, the Word of God, and the Holy Spirit. They will speak to your friend. Give advice if asked, but not unless asked. Instead, simply attempt to follow Christ’s example of being attractive – and different, set apart from the normal cares of the world. You, simply put, are to be holy.
So jettison the rulebook for others. Instead, follow Jesus and do what the Holy Spirit and God’s Word ask you to do. That’s what freedom in Christ means. That’s what “acting like a Christian” truly means.
In Paul’s day, the question was whether or not eating the wrong food would spiritually kill you. Today, that issue is behind us, but we still have a final question: How should a Christian behave?
The answer is simple. Love God. Love others. Be personally holy. Do what shows the most love for God and the people around you. And remember that the single most important thing you can do for another person is not to stop them from “drinking, smoking, or cussing”, but it is to introduce them to Jesus Christ in such a positive manner that they choose to follow Christ. That is the only thing you can do for them that has eternal consequences. Helping a smoker stop smoking may give them an extra 5 years on this planet, but bringing a friend to Jesus gives them eternal life, ten thousand years or more of wonderful time in New Jerusalem.
Remember Paul’s principle: “if what I eat causes my brother or sister to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause them to fall.”
Or we might state it this way: “If what I do causes my brother or sister to fall into sin, I will never do it again, so that I will not cause them to fall.”
Thinking of others first is a key part of loving others. Be conscious of those around you who watch you, Christian. Be holy – don’t control others.
Let us pray:
Holy God:
As we go about our way this week, send us into situations which will grow our faith in You.
As we go about our way this week, send us people who need to have a faith in You.
As we go about our way this week, guide us to demonstrate for others our faith in You.
And when the week is over, let us look back and say, “You were truly with us this week, and we have new friends in Christ because of You.”
This we pray in the name of Your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.
One of the things my wife and I do is we try to go to the movies about once a month. Since we moved here, we’ve found that the Mall Theatre has matinee pricing all day and evening on Tuesdays. We’ve found that a movie date and dinner helps to keep us connected when the demands of jobs and kids drive us crazy.
A few years ago, my wife and I went to see a movie. That particular evening, we decided that the movie to see would be the George Clooney movie, “The Men Who Stare at Goats”, which was about a supposedly super-secret Pentagon program to develop psychic soldiers who could stare at a soldier and stop his heart with just mental force. Clooney and the others practiced, by staring at goats.
Well, we saw the movie and then we headed home. Along the way, we stopped at the store and Saundra got a quart of mint chocolate ice cream, which is my favorite. Unfortunately, Saundra purchased the brand that was on sale, which was a sugar-free ice cream. Now, NutraSweet and aspartame are known to make some people sick, and also are known to cause MS-like symptoms in some people, so those sweeteners affect the mind. We got home, I had a bowl, and we went to bed around 11 o’clock.
About midnight I woke up with a terrible feeling in my stomach and I headed downstairs to the bathroom and became violently ill. After tossing my ice cream a couple of times, I settled down into a routine where I laid down in the floor, drifted off to dreamland, and woke every half hour or so to throw up again. And all night long, there were goats dancing in my dreams.
Finally, about 4 am, I realized that I was getting dehydrated, but by this time I was too weak to yell upstairs for help or get up. So I prayed for the Holy Spirit to wake Saundra and about a minute later she knocked on the door and was able to get me some water. God is good.
Well, I think most of us have been through times when we thought something we ate was going to kill us, but in ancient times, food was intimately tied up with religious worship. Some food killed us spiritually – and some food gave us spiritual life.
For example, in the town of Corinth, a town in Greece where Paul ministered for a couple of years, most of the meat in the town came from the temples. It was quite a racket.
If you were a believer in a particular Greek god or goddess, you took your cattle or sheep to the temple to become a sacrifice. There was a long history of the temple priests being entitled to eat the sacrificial leftovers. Since Corinth was a large city with many travelers, there were more sacrifices than the temple priests could eat, so they took the extra meat and sold it in the marketplace. Almost all of the meat sold in Corinth and in many other cities had been offered as a sacrifice to some particular god or idol. This food was deemed by believers of that particular god to be superior, to somehow have spiritual value, and would help that person become a better follower of that god. And the people of the Christian church in Corinth had written to Paul asking him what he thought about eating meat that had been offered to idols.
There were two opinions about this, and Paul mentions them in his response. First, there were the people who said that eating meat offered to idols was supporting a false religion, and in some way this meat was now evil, because eating it demonstrated a belief in that idol or god.
On the other hand, there were people, a bit more sophisticated in their beliefs, perhaps, who said, “Idols and other gods are not real, so meat offered to them in sacrifice is the same as offering some meat to your doorknob – how can a piece of wood make the food evil? Besides, it was the best meat in town and it was even difficult to buy meat that had not been offered to some idol.”
But Paul said for us to look a little bit deeper. Paul said that we are free to eat the food, agreeing with those who said the idols were just pieces of wood and metal. But, Paul continued, we still should not eat it, because other people, new to the faith, might see us eating the food and think that we were still supporting those idols and gods. That fact that we were eating the meat meant that our action of eating would kill the faith of another person – and kill them eternally. And so, out of love for God and other people, we should avoid eating the meat, and Paul would go so far as to avoid eating meat altogether so others would not be harmed. Paul wrote more about this in Romans Chapter 14, which you might want to read.
Well, today we don’t have this particular concern about meat. Except in some very limited cases, meat today is not offered to idols.
But there are similar cases where Paul’s principle applies.
As we walk throughout our life, there is a tension which is constantly at work in the Christian life. On one hand, our relationship with God, and our heart-change that occurs in baptism means that we have freedom – the freedom which comes from being set free from sin and bondage to sin. We are truly free to follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit and do what is right.
But on the other hand, we hear from many people that Christians must live a holy life, and we are told that there is a huge list of things Christians must not do. So the question arises: Are we free or did we just go under a new list of behaviors that binds us worse than the sins did before we found Christ?
Let’s look at this in some detail.
Before we encounter Jesus and choose to follow Him, there are two things at work in our life. First, to be good, we try to follow the Law. Now this may be the Law of Moses, or it may simply be our own list we’ve pulled together about what is right and what is wrong. “Don’t drink, smoke, or cuss” is an example of “the Law” which we might follow. “Be nice to your parents and don’t speed when driving” is another example.
But we can’t follow the law. No matter what the list of do’s and don’ts, we break those laws.
And then, there is bondage to sin. The natural person who has not yet admitted weakness and asked for help from God is under bondage to sin. That sin varies with the person. You may find you can not stop with a single drink of alcohol, or you must have coffee every morning. You might find that you tell lies even when the truth would be better. You gossip about neighbors and friends, or you sleep through your alarm every morning. Perhaps you can’t help insulting people. I’ve had people say to me, “This is who I am” even though it has cost those people friends, money, health, and happiness. They are in bondage to their particular sin, feeling that they cannot break free. Their sin has enslaved them.
But when we admit to God that we cannot follow the Law and are in bondage to sin, He takes over for us. When we are baptized, God reaches down into our hearts and sets us free from that bondage to sin – and that need to follow the Law. Now we are free, truly free.
But what about “acting like a Christian”?
That is not what you think it is. The Law is not what governs our behavior.
When we were under the Law, we found some odd situations happened. We found that if we followed the Law, people got hurt. In fact, our need to follow the Law was what hurt them. Breaking the Law would do more good than following the Law. Let me give you an example.
There are some people who say that a Christian should never go into a bar. Now this is a reasonable rule to follow – most of the time – because there are many people in this world to whom going into a bar is very dangerous. These people are alcoholics – or potential alcoholics. You may be one. If you take even one drink, you will end up drunk. Taking a drink is simply poison for you – and puts you under bondage. It is sinful.
But there are other people for whom alcohol holds absolutely no attraction. There are people in this world who have no desire to drink and if they did drink they could drink a half glass of wine and stop immediately, never desiring it again.
These “alcohol-immune” people can actually do good ministry in a bar setting. They can go into a bar, meet people, listen to them, become friends with them, and help them with their problems, the problems that brought them to the bar in the first place, problems of loneliness, problems of despair, problems of desperation.
But it depends upon the person. If the wrong person goes into a bar, they will fall into the darkness. The law is good in that it tells people to avoid a place where they can fall into trouble. But it is important to know who you are. For others, following the law of avoiding bars condemns other people to a life of misery without hope. And so blindly following the law leads to more misery than following Christ.
When Christ came, He pointed out that love trumps the Law. Never, ever let the Law keep you from doing good to people. Time and again Jesus associated with people who were committing terrible sins, even though the Law of Moses told everyone not to associate with those people. Rather than blindly follow the Law of rules – Jesus followed two simple rules: Love people, and bring them to God. He demonstrated what freedom is: Freedom from the constraints of the Law and of sin which keep us from doing good. The use of wisdom and the Holy Spirit to help us to understand when to follow the law and when to break the law so we can do good.
So what about “acting like a Christian?”
Here is what a Christian should act like: Real Christians love God and other people. They are constantly looking toward their own behavior and how it attracts people instead of repelling people. For you cannot be effective in loving other people and bringing people to God if your behavior is obnoxious and abrasive, if it keeps you from other people, if you demand that we follow rules that keep us from helping people.
Too often, we use the phrase “act like a Christian” to mean that OTHER people should act differently. We go back and pull the Law down upon other people while ignoring it ourselves. We tell people to dress this way and don’t dress that way. We tell people to do this and don’t do that. We tell people how to live and how not to live. And then we complain because other people ignore the Law. And because we ignore the Law, people call us hypocrites and that makes us angry. But the real problem is that we have chosen to attempt to control people by using a club on which we engraved the words “Christian behavior”.
Jesus said that He came to fulfill the law and not destroy the Law. He came to show us how to follow the Law AND love other people. And here’s how He did it.
Jesus personally followed the Law. But He never insisted that the person He was talking to follow the Law. Instead, He just asked them to follow Him. In a modern context, Jesus would not order a man or woman to stop drinking. He’d just ask them to follow Him, and watch and imitate Him. And then, they’d see He never got drunk, yet was able to be happy, and they’d ask Him how to keep from getting drunk. He respected them enough to understand that adults need to work through their own issues and ask for help. Respecting others is part of loving them. Being humble enough to ask for help is a necessary part of developing a mature spirituality and relationship to God.
You see, you can’t be someone else’s Holy Spirit. My job – and your’s, if you want to follow Christ fully – is to connect people to the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ, and then help them listen to that Spirit. When you listen to the Holy Spirit yourself, and read the Word of God yourself, much greater things will happen than anything I can teach you.
Now this is not to say you shouldn’t teach your children what the Law requires. Teach your children the Ten Commandments, teach them right and proper behavior, teach them what is good and wholesome and to avoid evil.
Part of what needs to be taught, though, as they grow older is the basic respect for other images of God, other people, where we remember that the Holy Spirit of God is in all baptized Christians, and can speak to the pastor – and the Sunday School leader – and the newest person in the church equally well. The only differences between us are how well we listen.
Teaching adults right and wrong behavior should only happen when the adult asks us for advice, asks us to be taught, voluntarily comes to us and says, “teach me.” And on the other side, when you ask someone to teach you, go the extra mile and learn when to apply the rules – and when to break the rules. For the rule of “love thy neighbor” is second only to the rule of “love the Lord your God with all your heart and mind and strength”. “Love thy neighbor” never comes behind “unless your neighbor drinks, or does drugs, or beats his wife, or doesn’t take a shower, or uses rude language, or has bad English, or creeps you out or has hurt you in the past.” “Love thy neighbor” has no qualifiers and it does NOT mean “Control thy neighbor’s behavior” as much as we want it to mean that.
But how and why do I tell another person about God and Christ if I can’t tell them how to live?
If you have to ask that question, you’ve missed the point. Christianity is not about a code of ethics and a set of rules for living. That simply happens after we get the important stuff under control. No, Christianity is actually about reconnecting with the God who created you, about developing a deep relationship with the Being that built and maintains the Universe. Christianity is about falling in love with the One who has loved you since the beginning of time. All of Christian ethics, Christian attitudes, and Christian behavior is simply our response to that deepening relationship with the all-powerful God, initiated by an encounter with a caring Jesus Christ, and communicated through the Word of God and the gentle whispers of the Holy Spirit.
The best way to tell people about Jesus is first of all to be a pleasant and attractive person. If you are joyful, if you are pleasant, if you show a smile when things are going wrong, people will follow you. And then, if you are always sincerely giving credit to God and Christ for your joy, the good that happens in your life, and loving God when bad happens, people will always be asking you why. Why are you so happy? What is your secret? Why aren’t you falling apart? And then you tell them that it is your faith in Christ that keeps you going, your friends in Christ that lift you up, and your love of Christ that sustains you. “By the way, where do you go to church?” you can ask back, and you can tell them more about the God you love.
But notice that you are not telling people how to live. Once again, that is the job of Christ, the Word of God, and the Holy Spirit. They will speak to your friend. Give advice if asked, but not unless asked. Instead, simply attempt to follow Christ’s example of being attractive – and different, set apart from the normal cares of the world. You, simply put, are to be holy.
So jettison the rulebook for others. Instead, follow Jesus and do what the Holy Spirit and God’s Word ask you to do. That’s what freedom in Christ means. That’s what “acting like a Christian” truly means.
In Paul’s day, the question was whether or not eating the wrong food would spiritually kill you. Today, that issue is behind us, but we still have a final question: How should a Christian behave?
The answer is simple. Love God. Love others. Be personally holy. Do what shows the most love for God and the people around you. And remember that the single most important thing you can do for another person is not to stop them from “drinking, smoking, or cussing”, but it is to introduce them to Jesus Christ in such a positive manner that they choose to follow Christ. That is the only thing you can do for them that has eternal consequences. Helping a smoker stop smoking may give them an extra 5 years on this planet, but bringing a friend to Jesus gives them eternal life, ten thousand years or more of wonderful time in New Jerusalem.
Remember Paul’s principle: “if what I eat causes my brother or sister to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause them to fall.”
Or we might state it this way: “If what I do causes my brother or sister to fall into sin, I will never do it again, so that I will not cause them to fall.”
Thinking of others first is a key part of loving others. Be conscious of those around you who watch you, Christian. Be holy – don’t control others.
Let us pray:
Holy God:
As we go about our way this week, send us into situations which will grow our faith in You.
As we go about our way this week, send us people who need to have a faith in You.
As we go about our way this week, guide us to demonstrate for others our faith in You.
And when the week is over, let us look back and say, “You were truly with us this week, and we have new friends in Christ because of You.”
This we pray in the name of Your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.
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