Sickness and Salt

As we finish up the Epistle of James, James brings us back to some basics of the Christian faith. For the core of Christianity has never been the Ten Commandments, a series of rules that must be followed to keep away the wrath of an angry God, but the core has been the Gospel, the story of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, part of God, who came to earth to teach us and sacrifice Himself that we might have our relationship with God the Father restored, and that we might realize the depth and breath and height of God’s love for us. And so James reminds us that we do not run from a wrath-filled God as children might run and hide from an abusive alcoholic father, but instead, Christians turn toward a loving, helpful Father who cares deeply about our struggles and delights in a mutual, loving relationship with us. James tells us:

¹³ Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. 

When in trouble, we should turn to God in prayer, asking for help. When happy, we should also thank God with songs of praise. In both cases, we acknowledge the power and love of God – and our comparative weakness in front of God.

James continues:

¹⁴ Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. ¹⁵ And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. ¹⁶ Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

James tells us that when we are ill, we need to turn to God, asking the elders, those of a deep, mature faith in the church to pray over us and anoint us with oil in the name of the Lord, of Jesus. And James tells us with full confidence that these prayers will make a sick person well because the Lord will raise us up.

Our illnesses have always been of two sorts. In 1900, people mainly died from infections – Pneumonia, flu, tuberculosis, cholera, diphtheria. Today, people mainly die from sin-related diseases - heart disease, cancer, diabetes, suicide, accidents, stroke. COVID is unusual and scary for us because we’ve mostly prevented infection-related death through vaccinations and antibiotics.

You see, there are the illnesses of infection – common in crowded cities, but less common on small farms. In ancient times, many deadly infections came about through accidents – a minor cut may become infected. Before antibiotics, a good cure for many of these wounds and abrasions and cuts was to apply oil to the wound. The oil suffocated the bacteria and led to healing – some of you may remember the old remedy of applying butter to a burn to help it heal – the butter was more common on our American farms than olive oil, and had the same effect.

The second type of illness found throughout time are the illnesses of sin, which we still have today. Cirrhosis of the liver mainly due to too much alcohol, heart disease mainly due to eating too much fat which the ancients called gluttony, diabetes mainly due to eating too much sugar, COPD and lung cancer and other cancers due mainly to smoking and too much alcohol, Congestive heart failure because of too little exercise which the ancients called sloth, high blood pressure due to eating too much salt as well as stressing ourselves out because of greed, envy, pride, and anger – what the ancients called wrath . Various other diseases because of too many sexual partners which the ancients called lust. Sometimes, the sin illness is caused by the sin of another - 2nd hand smoke, toxic-chemical caused cancers, etc. 

Yes, the illnesses of sin are still among us. James’ answer? “And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. ¹⁶ Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”

James’ prescription is quite simple. Turn to God and ask for help and forgiveness. Implicit in turning to the elders is also the idea of getting good advice. For, like today, people did not call in the elders until they were worried. Prayers were asked for when the normal remedies failed and the patient grew worse. Miracles were needed in those days, just as in these difficult days of COVID. And God delivered the goods. Confession is the first step to reducing stress as forgiveness is granted.

Every year at Annual Conference, there is a service of Remembrance for those pastors and their spouses who have transferred to the Church in Heaven over the previous twelve months. And I am constantly amazed at the very high ages of those who passed on – heavily weighted to the upper 80’s and 90’s. Perhaps there is something to this praying for good health?

So who should you call? Myself, of course. But also whoever you think of as elders in the church, people like Brooks and Donna and Patty and Terri and Pauline and Gene and Karen and Larry and Sam and Darla and Phil and Traci and whoever else you look up to in the church! This is not a ministry you decide you have – it is a ministry that other people decide that you have. It is not age-dependent – if you are called upon, pray for the person! If you feel you need oil, take some olive oil – or purchase some fragrant healing oil at Mardel, the Christian store beside Hobby Lobby.

Notice that James believes this is a ministry that many, many people can have, because this is not a special power given to only a few people – the Lord is the one with the power. James says:  “And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. ¹⁶ Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

This is to be a mutual ministry, regular Christians praying for each other. And James uses Elijah as an example.

¹⁷ Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. ¹⁸ Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.

And James goes on to tell us that there is another mutual ministry, another ministry for all Christians. He says:

¹⁹ My brothers and sisters, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring that person back, ²⁰ remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins.

My friends, Christianity was never meant to be a spectator sport, a sport with a few professionals and many observers. No, Christianity is something where everyone gets onto the field, gets their hands dirty, works to help each other, lifting each other up, working together like an ant colony that has found an open sugar bowl or an Amish community trying to build a house with a line of thunderstorms moving in. They have it right, working together for God’s glory.

Jesus established this idea of working together. One day the disciple John came to Jesus, all in a tizzy. “Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.”

“Do not stop him,” Jesus said, “For no one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, for whoever is not against us is for us.”

Jesus never tried to limit people from joining His cause – and He never tried to restrain people from doing good. It is a good policy for the church to follow – if you have an idea for a ministry, talk it over with a few people and then, after getting advice, DO IT! The church should not be a controlling entity, but instead should be an encouraging entity.

Do you realize that there are only three things which I can do in the Methodist Church which you cannot do? Those three things are to baptize, to bless communion, and to perform a wedding. Do you want to preach? We have a Basic Course that will take you a day plus a few hours of prep work and you can preach. Do you want to do a funeral? There’s a track for that in the back of the hymnal. And I’ll tell you this – in a pinch, if someone is dying and you are at their death bed and I’m not able to be there – go ahead and baptize them.

You see, Jesus has given permission to you to do ministry. In fact, Jesus has asked you to do ministry. Lift up other people, pray for their healing, anoint them with oil, take up the mantle and act like a Christian leader and you will be blessed by God. As Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to the Messiah will certainly not lose their reward.” Do the least good, do it to anyone – that is what Christians do.

Jesus then spent some time talking about things that cause us or another to stumble. And His prescription is – get rid of what is causing you to stumble, get rid of what is blocking your path. He even says that if your hand or foot or eye causes you to stumble cut it off or pluck it out because it is better to enter life handicapped than to go to Hell with a perfect body.

What is preventing you from doing good? What is preventing you from helping people? What is preventing you from going to church?

Is it Sunday work? Go to the Cedar Grove United Methodist website and watch or listen to the service when convenient.

Is it too much attention paid to a television show? Call a person each day and speak with them about Jesus!

Is it time spent endlessly scanning Facebook? Post uplifting messages or texts.

Is it time watching football? Invite friends over and tell them about what you’ve learned in church over the years.

Is it a fear of dialing the phone? Walk next door and take your neighbor some dessert.

Is it fear of speaking to your neighbor? Put the dessert on the porch with a kind note, ring the doorbell, and run away!

Is it fear of COVID? No one has yet contracted COVID through the telephone lines. Call someone – start with people in the directory you don’t know and introduce yourself as attending the church.

For it is better to cut off, to throw away what ever is making you stumble, whatever you fear, whatever is keeping you from loving God and serving God than you should go to Hell.

Have you considered that your health, your diabetes, your heart failure, your trouble breathing has a cause and it may be something under your control with God’s help? Have you considered that your tiredness is causing you to stumble, that your inactivity is the direct cause of people dying and NOT going to Heaven, for you believe that your health, your energy level is not under your control? If you had more energy, would you feel more like serving God? The two are connected, but many of us actually enjoy not having energy, we enjoy being couch kittens, we love the excuse that our health gives us. Satan loves our excuses, also. Satan loves that we do not follow James’ advice to invite the elders of the church over to pray over us. For tiredness, hurting joints, poor health can be cured by God. And we can join in His mission. If we want – and follow the biblical advice of James and Jesus.

And now the deep part of this reading. Now for the deep water.

After telling people to cut off offending members and pluck out offending eyeballs that cause us to stumble, Jesus says this difficult to understand pair of verses:

⁴⁹ Everyone will be salted with fire.

⁵⁰ “Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again? Have salt among yourselves, and be at peace with each other.”

These verses draw upon two ideas.

First, as part of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew Chapter 5, just after the part where Jesus speaks the Beatitudes – you know, “blessed are the poor…blessed are the peacemakers, etc.”?, Jesus tells His listeners that ¹³ “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.”

Let’s understand this in more detail.

Today, we buy salt for less than a dollar a pound. But in ancient times, salt was expensive to buy and transport. Even in the 6^th Century, a caravan of horses and camels left the Mediterranean coast of Africa, the north coast, and traveled to Timbuktu in the western part of the Sahara desert carrying gold. In Timbuktu, the gold was exchanged for an equal weight of salt, which was then carried back to the coast and shipped to Europe. Salt was literally worth its weight in gold. In today’s money, it would have had a value of about $28,000 per pound.

Why so valuable?

First, salt is necessary for life. I know you’ve been told to cut back on your salt, but if you cut it out completely, you will die. It is so important that one of the basic types of taste buds on the tongue is devoted to finding salt. That’s why salty food tastes good. Many animals get their salt from the blood that remains in the meat they eat – and plant eaters, like deer and cattle, get their salt from licking salty rocks. But without salt, we all die. Salt gives life.

Second, salt is a great way to preserve food. Have you noticed that ham is often preserved with salt, spam is filled with salt, even sauerkraut has much salt in it. Salt keeps food from rotting – it preserves it. Wherever the salt touches the meat, the bacteria that would rot the meat die. Salt defeats corruption – salt preserves.

In Numbers 18, verse 19, the offerings that are sacrificed by Israel are said to make “an everlasting covenant of salt before the LORD.”

The followers of Christ - We are to be the salt of the earth, giving the earth good flavor, giving life, destroying the sin, preserving the good, keeping the covenant with the LORD. Not just pastors – all Christians. All people who follow Christ.

And…Christians should remember…on the Day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit arrived as tongues of fire.

And so, Jesus, speaking here months before Pentecost, is speaking about how “everyone will be salted with fire.” Imagine flecks of the fire of the Holy Spirit being sprinkled over each of us, God’s grace entering us, giving us life, preserving us from decay, destroying sin in us like a kernel of salt will kill the bacteria in meat. We have been sprinkled with the holy fire, like you might sprinkle salt on a steak. That’s verse 49 – “Everyone will be salted with fire.”

And verse 50? “Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again?” Of course, the question is rhetorical – you can’t make salt salty if it loses its flavor. And if we are to be the salt of the earth, then Jesus is asking us – what happens if we lose our saltiness? What happens if we stop being a good seasoning in the culture? How can our goodness be restored if we lose it?

Yet, many Christians have lost their saltiness. They cannot be distinguished from the bland, ordinary people of the world – fighting, bickering, whining, worrying, complaining. Christians should be easy to spot, for they are the people who everyone should want to be near, for they bring life, they do not carry the sin of decay, they are constantly seen as valuable. Do you have the salt of the Spirit – or have you lost your saltiness? If you have, dig deeply into scripture, pray strongly, and ask for God’s help restoring your saltiness!

He commands us: “Have salt among yourselves, and be at peace with each other.” We are to remain faithful, healing each other, lifting each other up, giving life to each other, praying, healing, helping each other when we drift away, pulling together, preserving the good, destroying the sin and evil among us, and remaining known as the salt of the earth. We are to be human salt shakers, sprinkling that powder of the Holy Spirit that God has given us all around, like a magic dust that gives life, preserves goodness, and destroys evil and sin. Shake your salt everywhere you go!

We are to jointly give our community a good flavor. We are to be responsible to and for each other – there is no sitting in the stadium watching – we are all players on the field in this game. Or we will be overwhelmed by the evil of the world. What is your part? What will you do to support the mission Jesus has given us? Who will you heal? When will you step forward and join us in that mission? Where does your salt fly?

And this does not take extreme work – it does take a radical change in attitude, for every time we walk past a person we can speak to them words of life, spreading salt. Every time we sit beside a person we can speak more words of life, spreading the Gospel. Every time we meet someone, we can either act like the bland people of the world – or spread a little bit of Holy Spirit salt. Following Christ is not measured by a couple big events in our lives – following Christ is something we do daily, hourly, even every minute. A grain of salt here, a grain of salt there – and the world tastes better for all.

John Wesley spoke of the “Character of a Christian”. It is a character that is always looking to improve both ourselves and the world around us. It is a kindly character, a friendly character, an uplifting character, a pleasant character who loves everyone – even our enemies, even those who are unpleasant, even those who would banish us from this life. It is an active character, people who have eternity on their mind rather than the little, trivial things of the moment. The Christian character is striving to become holy, separate from the world, closer to God and Christ – and wants to lead others toward this better life, this better character. We want to change the world for the better – and then go onto eternal life with Christ much changed from the day we met Him.

We each have a different way to contribute, but we come together as a team. We each have a different way to support God’s mission but each way supports other ways. Consider your way to help others heal – listening, laying on hands, prayer, anointing, spreading the salt of the Holy Spirit, teaching, donating money, sharing uplifting posts and sermons, singing, calling up people and praying with them. Heal others – and yourself – through your gifts. Heal the rot in the world by sprinkling the salt of the Spirit all around!

Amen!

Cravings

When I graduated from college in 1983, I took a job with Texas Instruments in Johnson City, TN. At that time, the town had a population of about 40,000, which made it about the same size as Parkersburg. I described it to my father as “Parkersburg with new cars.” Over the next ten years, Johnson City added almost ten thousand people while Parkersburg lost 7000 people. The trends continued – Johnson City has over 70,000 people today while Parkersburg has a bit less than 30,000.

One of the great things about Johnson City were the restaurants. I particularly liked one called “Fire House Barbeque”, which occupies an old fire house. It has a spicy, sweet barbeque sauce – many of my friends and I would eat lunch there. I came back in the evenings and ate there often.

But I moved on and lived in many other places. And from time to time we’d travel through Johnson City on our way to or from Atlanta – but Firehouse Barbeque was usually closed before we got there, or closed on Sundays. But I could remember the wonderful taste of the smoked beef brisket and the spicy, sweet sauce. For years afterwards, I craved that barbeque.

And so last week, when Saundra and I returned to Johnson City to bury her brother, the cravings got the better of me and we had dinner at the Firehouse. Unfortunately, now I’d love to have them mail me 25 pounds of the brisket and a couple quarts of sauce. Those cravings, when fed, only get stronger.

Do you have cravings? Are there desires or passions that tug at your heart, your mind, your body? Do some of these cravings cause trouble in your life – or the lives of friends, family, or neighbors?

James, the brother of Jesus, wrote in his letter to Christians that fights and quarrels come from the desires or passions or cravings that battle within us. He pointed out in Chapter Four that we desire but do not have, so we kill. We covet but cannot get what we want, so we quarrel and fight.

What James saw as true in the First Century AD is still true today. Cravings and passions and desires still cause trouble. How many shootings and murders do we have locally because of “love triangles”? These aren’t love triangles – there is little love there, but there is a lot of coveting. He wants her to himself – and another guy also wants her, so one of them decides to kill over this. A craving, a coveting, a desire which we cannot have – so we kill or quarrel and fight.

And if the fight is not over who is with whom, then the fight is over drugs. A craving that one must have, a desire that needs to be fulfilled. Take the drugs and/or the money – whatever the cost. The craving is so strong, the desire, the passion is so high, that quarrelling or fighting or even killing is done.

And we in the church are not immune to these cravings. Ours are just more common, and so more socially acceptable. Our morning coffee, our dose of chocolate, our ice cream, and our potato chips. A cigarette, a cheeseburger, a Coke or a Pepsi or a Budweiser. Perhaps an energy drink or a lollipop. Maybe a need to check our emails or Facebook for the third time this hour. Maybe a quick stop by the video poker shop.

Cravings can be good – they tell us when our body needs something. The pickles and ice cream of the pregnant woman is simply the body saying “I need more salt and calcium to maintain my energy balance.” The thirst for water on a hot day is the body saying “I’m dehydrated and need water so I can sweat and cool down.” The hunger of the teenager for another cheeseburger and more fries is the body saying “I am growing and need protein and calories to do that!”

And you know what? Scientists have found that the body has a mechanism between the gut and the brain to make us feel good when we need something and reward that craving with the right type of food. Serotonin is generated by the intestines, it moves to the brain and the brain releases dopamine and we feel good. Dopamine makes us feel good when we fill the cravings.

God designed our brain to release dopamine when we satisfy cravings. Cravings hit the brain as a not-so-good feeling, something is missing, something is wrong. When we drink that water on a hot day, the brain rewards us by releasing dopamine and we feel good again. Our balance has been restored – life is good.

When we run or swim or dance, it is painful. But if we run or swim or dance long enough, the brain releases dopamine and we get the runner’s high, we feel good for another hour or so. And we all know that running and swimming and dancing – or just walking – is good for us. So God designed the brain to reward us and remove the pain when we do something that is painful, but good for us.

But sometimes we eat or drink or smoke or do something that hijacks this dopamine system to make us do things that are harmful to us. When we take a drag on a cigarette, when we take drink a cup of coffee, when we have a beer – dopamine is released and we feel good. Our heart races to the nicotine in the cigarette, the caffeine in the coffee or we relax to the alcohol in the beer. We feel better than before, and our brain remembers.

And so, when we are in pain a few days later – our deep brain remembers this and says – have a cigarette, have some coffee, have a beer – and a craving is found. We want to have the cigarette, the coffee, the beer to feel good again – not great, but just back to normal, to being in balance. We begin to need that cup of coffee, that cigarette, that beer every day, just to feel normal. In fact, we feel terrible without that daily dose. This is how we know we are addicted. We have a very hard time when we miss a day. In fact, the psychologists tell us we’ll need to go a solid month to break the addiction – and we’ll feel terrible for the first couple of weeks.

When I was single and in my twenties, I became addicted to the caffeine in Coke and Pepsi. While my friends were drinking a half-dozen beers on a Friday night, I was right beside them – drinking a half-dozen Cokes a night. I’d stay out with friends until 2 am, then go home. I often had trouble sleeping until about 5 am. I’d sleep until noon on Saturday, go out again that evenings, drink more Cokes – and then sleep in on Sundays. And I’d feel rotten on Mondays. I was always tired by early afternoon. My body craved caffeine to keep the dopamine balance like it was on Friday and Saturday evenings and made me feel tired and depressed the rest of the week. I was grumpy.

Eventually, I began to have a pain in my stomach, an ulcer from the pressure at work, I told myself. Then I was hit with a kidney stone. The doctor told me I had to stop drinking caffeinated drinks, for they were keeping me dehydrated. I needed to drink more water. And I followed his advice. I slept twelve hours a day that week. And, believe it or not, after about 6 weeks, I noticed the pain in my stomach was gone.  I had much more energy and very little trouble getting up in the mornings. My brain had restored the old healthy balance of dopamine.

With some things, the dopamine hit is very large, such as cocaine, opioids, or meth. The drug causes twice or even ten times the dopamine rush that a cup of coffee or Coca-Cola might. We feel wonderful – for a while. And then we crash, we experience withdrawal, we don’t have the dopamine and feel terrible. We have to have another hit of the drug just to get back to normal. And so, there is a very high chance that our brain will quickly get addicted to needing the drug to stay in balance. And it might take a year without the drug before the cravings go away. And every time the cravings are there – every time the drug isn’t there, James’ words come back - 4 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your cravings that battle within you? ² You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight.”

Addictions don’t have to be for hard drugs to be bad – my caffeine addiction was harming my health and my personality. I was grumpy, my stomach hurt, and I developed kidney stones. And food addictions cause many health problems – after all, would there be thousands of diet books if people didn’t have food addictions? But there are ways that we can overcome food addictions – over the last four years, I have lost almost 60 pounds. Here’s how I did it:

I realized I was drinking caffeinated sodas and tea again. Now we may not realize it, but caffeine of all forms – coffee, colas, Mountain Dew, tea, chocolate, energy drinks – what ever method we take it into our body, caffeine speeds us up. That’s what gives us the dopamine hit. What we don’t usually realize is that that caffeine speed-up also makes us just a little bit anxious, since our senses are turned up and our body is ready to react quicker to the slightest danger. You’ve heard of the jitters or the person wired on caffeine being jumpy? That happens to all of us on caffeine at least a little bit, so we grow anxious – at least a little bit.

And what happens when we get anxious? Most people want to eat, because the serotonin that the intestines release with food gives us more dopamine and makes us feel better, less anxious. So we eat. So if we could stop feeling anxious, we’d eat less, right?

So I did two things about four years ago. I stopped drinking caffeinated drinks and chocolate – and I began walking more – in my case mainly on a treadmill. And I bought a simple Fitbit – a pedometer that counts my steps and that I wear on my wrist. I began trying to set a new step record every day, starting around 1000 steps a day, until I finally was walking about 5000 steps a day – it took me a couple of months to reach that point.

And I also told myself a third thing which a wise doctor had told me several years before – I have the rest of my life to lose the weight. It took me over fifty years to gain the weight – I can take ten or twenty years to lose half of it. And that took off the pressure and so I didn’t feel bad – Feeling bad, you see, is what causes many cravings. The shame we feel when we overeat makes us feel bad, and so we eat more to get the serotonin and dopamine hit to feel better. A vicious cycle that we can break only when we realize what’s happening and stop kicking ourselves for natural behavior.

So I did a fourth thing. I asked God for help. James says “You do not have because you do not ask God. ³ When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.”

I asked God to help me lose weight. I asked God to take away my cravings and to control them. I told God I couldn’t do this myself and needed God’s help. My eating was out of control – but I knew God had the power and love to help me.

And I began to lose weight – about thirty pounds in the first six months and about 10 pounds a year since then. I feel much better, walking is much easier. I can leave good-tasting food on the plate – I even leave restaurants without a doggie box. But it wasn’t anything I did except to turn to God, asking for God’s help.

For I have gained wisdom which God has sent me. As James says, “the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.” The wisdom that God has sent has helped me to conquer my cravings – and because of that my life overall has improved as I have moved toward peace.

Whatever your cravings, whatever your addictions, whatever your bad habits – God wants you to be set free, has the power to set you free, and loves you enough to set you free. So why doesn’t God set us free? Because we often don’t want to be set free.

We are in slavery to demons, addictions, unclean spirits which keep us from being free to do good. In his book, The Great Divorce, C.S. Lewis wrote of people who were given a daytrip from Hell to Heaven. First of all, few people take the opportunity, preferring to argue with others in the line for the bus and leaving the line. Then, when they get to Heaven, a man has an evil creature holding onto him, like one of those controlling aliens we see in science fiction movies. A powerful angelic creature is standing at the entrance to Heaven, saying, “I can remove that if you will let me.” The man replies, “I’m not sure I want you to remove it.” And so it is with many of the bad habits, the cravings, the addictions we have. We aren’t sure we want them removed. We kind of like our bad habits and our addictions. And our ever-so-polite God waits for us to ask for them to be removed.

But when we ask in prayer, in truth, in faith – God will step in and break the chains. Jesus died to demonstrate God’s love for each of us – and Jesus died while we were still bound in slavery’s chains. We don’t have to be perfect people for Jesus to help us – we simply need to acknowledge that we can’t do it and ask Jesus for the help that only the Son of God can give us, bowing to His power and love. The demons use shame to keep us in bondage – opening up to God will set you free.

And these are the steps in all of the Twelve Step programs, from Alcoholics Anonymous to Weight Watchers to Narcotics Anonymous to Gamblers Anonymous. Only the name of the problem changes. These steps are listed in your bulletin. Let me read them.

The Twelve Steps

1.     We admitted we were powerless over our problem—that our lives had become unmanageable.

2.     Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

3.     Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.

4.     Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

5.     Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

6.     Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

7.     Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

8.     Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

9.     Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

10. Continued to take personal inventory, and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.

11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to other people with our problem, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

Based upon Alcoholics Anonymous

Whatever you are struggling with, know that this system works only as much as you desire to change your life from slavery to your habit into freedom. If anyone listening needs connection to a group for a particular problem, feel free to contact me.

May these examples and this knowledge help set you free, as well as your friends and family and neighbors who are in bondage to cravings and addictions.

Amen.

Be Opened

My friend, the elderly woman in the hospital bed was dying. She had developed a brain bleed the day before, on Friday morning. It was Saturday evening, her children had gathered, and she would be with Jesus by morning. The family were singing hymns which guided me down the hallway, for they had all been raised in church by a woman who had played the piano and violin, taught music in the school system, gone to church all of her life, and showed compassion and generosity to her students and the people she met along life’s pathway.

She had come to church on Sunday – I played piano that Sunday because her fingers were stiff with arthritis, but she sang. On Tuesday evening, she then sang gospel songs at the hospital with her son, as they did most Tuesday evenings, for she believed in cheering up the sick. Wednesday, she had closed our Bible Study with prayer and driven home in the dark by herself, for she was still learning about Jesus. Friday, she had been preparing to go to the other church on the charge to work her usual weekly 11 am shift in the food pantry, helping the poor, when something happened. We weren’t sure whether the bleed happened first and she fell, or she fell first and that caused the bleed. But her son checked on her because her car was still at home and it was after eleven. And now she was in the hospital, repeatedly praying to Jesus to have mercy on her. She was three days short of her 93^rd birthday.

She saw me enter the room and motioned to me. Her speech was slurred, she spoke quickly, too quickly, and she spoke to me in a voice no one could understand – but the Spirit spoke to me and I understood. She was saying, over and over, “tell them, tell them, tell them.” And I told her I would tell them. There was no way to keep it a secret – for she had already told them in word and deed over her lifetime.

A week later, the funeral home was packed. I knew it would be so, because the previous fall there was a reunion of her family – a hundred fifty people showed up. And I told them. I told the family what most of them knew already, that their mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, great-great-grandmother, and even a few who knew her as their great-great-great-grandmother, had been a solid believer in Jesus Christ. I told them that all the good they had loved in her had been what she had been given by Christ. I told them that she was not dead – but now she was more alive than she had ever been. I knew that most of her family were believers – but some were not. I told them of her life – and how that life had happened because of her strong faith in Christ. A grandson who is also a pastor stepped forward to speak; a son who pastors a small church in the hills sang a song. 

And we sang hymns. At this funeral, it was not the typical funeral where a bit of piped music comes over the speakers, speaking of a mansion in Heaven, of being buried high on a mountain, or traveling across a rainbow while people sniffle and weep. No, at this funeral, ancient hymns were sung in full voice by the assembled congregation of the family and friends. “Amazing Grace” was sung at full volume; “It is Well with My Soul” was sung with parts and echoes. Other songs were sung as though a thousand voices were present. It was the most joyous expression of love and faith that I have ever heard!

And it was all because of what she had made her priority in life. Her family understood that she was not dead – that her life was continuing. And so, this funeral was like the celebration of a new birth, a child of God had arrived in that permanent new home. There was no way to keep her faith a secret if I had tried. Everyone who knew her told others in the crowd about her faith, her deeds, her kind words, her gentle way. You usually knew if she disagreed with you, but you always knew she loved you, because nothing was critically important to her except the Gospel, she had lived long enough that she knew most things were inherently trivial. What was the core message I was to tell them? What did we find earlier in Isaiah today?

“Say to those with fearful hearts, “Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, …he will come to save you.”

Simply enough, my friend wanted me to tell those family members who did not know about meaning of the Gospel. God does not seek to destroy us for our sins, but loves us so much God sent His only Son to die in our place, as a substitute sacrifice, that we might spend eternity with God. I told them.

So many people today believe that God is like most of the people they know. Some people are good and nice; others are rough and unfriendly. And most people judge others by these behaviors. I like you because you help me – I don’t like you because you are odd, different, you’ve hurt me. We play favorites. We decide whether or not you will be my friend or my enemy. We put you in one of those categories and leave you there for years and years, if not forever. Friends forever – or enemies forever.

And we largely do this because of social class. We look at how much money people make, we look at the clothes they wear, we listen to how they talk and we decide, “I’m better than you” or “I’m not as good as you”, and it mostly – not completely – but mostly depends upon looks and clothing and speech. James, the brother of Jesus who led the early church after Jesus returned to Heaven, wrote strongly about this.

2 My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. ² Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. ³ If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,” ⁴ have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

⁸ If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right. ⁹ But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers.

And we do this – at least, in the church, we usually realize that it is wrong to show favoritism, for we realize that God doesn’t show favoritism, even while those who simply live in our society around us show favoritism without realizing the evilness of it. Because everyone shows favoritism, most people believe that God shows favoritism – even though God doesn’t.

We even show a reverse favoritism. We are most comfortable with people who speak like us, look like us, dress like us, live in homes like ours and drive cars similar to ours. We make friends of those we work with and who live nearby. We are mostly uncomfortable around people who have much less than us – and but also around people who have much more than us. This is reverse favoritism. After all, how many of you have invited your doctor over to your home for dinner? How many of you have invited your doctor to church? Have you ever thought of it?

But James tells us that showing favoritism is a sin. James does not put tight boundaries on what constitutes favoritism, but simply tells us to love our neighbors as ourselves. All our neighbors. Anything less is favoritism. And we are to avoid it because it is a sin which harms people.

A great wave of sin is passing over our land at this time. Almost everyone is harshly judging other people in our country rather than loving them. We judge politicians, we judge those who disagree with us about masks, we judge people who have different opinions about vaccines, about different politicians, about ways of speaking, about just about anything that we can hold opinions on. We narrow down the list of people who can be our friends as we learn their opinions on this and that. Do you like masks or not? Are you vaccinated or not? Are you a Republican or a Democrat? Ford or Chevy? Steak or chicken? Jeans or khaki’s? Marshall or WVU? Dresses or slacks? PHS or South? Anything to divide you and me. Anything to justify rejecting you or accepting you. And the number of people whom we allow to be friends keeps getting smaller and smaller as the vital issues all become political. We judge based upon the least little thing – Kroger or Piggly Wiggly or Wal-mart?

And we rarely show mercy or kindness in our judgements, because even showing mercy will bring the judgement of others upon us, because, as I mentioned before, everything is becoming a political statement, a statement worthy of fighting over, everyone is either a friend who will be defended until death - or an enemy who deserves to be canceled and die and never be heard from again. If he is your friend, then you must be a spawn of Satan, also!

Where’s the mercy? Where’s the kindness in our society? Freedom of speech isn’t found in the Bible, just in our country’s founding documents, but showing mercy to others for their comments and their actions and their opinions is Biblically highly suggested and even commanded. Why? To save us from judgement by God. “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Where has mercy gone to? Where has love gone to? Where has the ability to pleasantly disagree and discuss ideas disappeared to?

James says:

¹² Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, ¹³ because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

But in our society today, judgement is preferred – mercy – which is love in action - is almost non-existent. That is a key way that we know our society is becoming evil. Outside of our walls, forgiveness has been forgotten.

But we can be different, we must be different, and we shall be different inside these walls. We can constantly show mercy and love rather than judgement. You may think your brother or sister holds poor opinions, acts poorly, makes poor decisions. But if you do not show mercy, you have forgotten to love your neighbor. I can – and should – pray and use wisdom to pick a particular politician for a particular office. But mercy and love say I should pray and use wisdom to understand why that politician makes his or her decisions that I disagree with – and show mercy in my speech – and even in my thoughts. After all, I don’t have all the information that politician does. It is always easier – and more fun – to make fun of, to tear down, and to insult a man and his decisions after the fact than to run for the office and make the decision ourselves. It has always been safer to throw stones than to step forward where people might throw them at us. But James asks us to show mercy to people, to leaders, to celebrities, even to politicians. Perhaps most especially to politicians.

And perhaps we might choose to reduce our support of those people who like to tear down others. Perhaps we might suggest a bit of mercy, and if they will not give mercy, we might just walk away, hide their posts on Facebook, not share their comments, simply close our own mouths, control our own tongues, and walk away from those who destroy our society. And I’m not focusing upon one particular political point of view, for I’ve seen this on all sides, on too many postings, with too many people. James would ask us to show mercy, to speak graciously or not at all, to love all of our neighbors, even the loud fools. James would ask us to have faith that God will take care of the situation, especially if we choose to open up and be kind and merciful to others. The judgement is not up to us, but to God.

James finishes up this section with a disturbing discussion of faith and deeds – some translations say “faith and works”. Many people think that James is opposing Paul’s comments in the Book of Romans and Ephesians about faith saving us. This wisdom has caused many theological arguments over the centuries – until we sit down and calmly understand that James is not in opposition to Paul, but is extending what Paul says.

¹⁴ What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? 

Most of the conflict in this passage with James and Paul lies in the idea that we are saved by faith and not by works. Have you heard this before? “We are saved by faith and not by works”, as the Apostle Paul tells us in Ephesians 2:8-9

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

This is true, but this is also a case where a little bit of knowledge is dangerous. We must look deeper to resolve this conflict.

In the days of the reformers, 400 years ago, the great debate that developed was whether or not people were saved solely by their faith in Jesus Christ – or by “works”. In that time, the “works” that were talked about were primarily the works of the priesthood. The question was whether or not the seven sacraments of the Roman Catholic Church, administered by properly ordained priests of the Roman Catholic Church were necessary for salvation. Those sacraments were baptism, confirmation, Holy Communion, marriage, confession and penance, ordination, and extreme unction, commonly known as “last rites”. According to Catholic belief, these sacraments administered properly were needed for salvation, with certain exceptions.

The reformers, beginning with Martin Luther, Jean Calvin, and continuing with such people as John Wesley, maintained that these sacraments, or “works” would not save us, but instead, we must believe that Jesus is the Son of God – this is the faith part - and be baptized. Various groups developed shades of meaning around this, mainly around the question of whether baptism was strictly necessary, but you get the general drift.

And then, we run into James.

¹⁴ What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? ¹⁵ Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. ¹⁶ If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? ¹⁷ In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

Most who have put this together understand this. The question the Reformers answered – that faith is critical and works do not save – was to reject the idea that some ritual performed is all that is needed. James asks the next level of question. “Okay, you have great faith – but you never do anything that actually shows love for anyone. What good is your faith?”

In other words, while your actions will not save you, it is highly questionable whether you’ve “got it”, whether you are actually saved, whether you actually have faith in Jesus – if you never do anything that might cause you some inconvenience. Do you really trust in Jesus, do you really have faith in Jesus, if you won’t share your wealth, your food, your clothing, your home with others who are not in your family? Where is your faith? You must be opened up and become vulnerable, trusting in Jesus to handle things for you. Prove your faith to me!

Once, many years ago, my wife and I were having a tough time in our business. A couple of large customers had chosen to take their good ole time paying us – and we owed our suppliers for the goods. I got a phone call from a collection agent who was demanding money. Saying a quick prayer, I said, “I will get you $500 this Friday, $500 next Friday, and the balance a month from Friday.” I just had a slight glimmer of a hope that this money would come in, but I trusted in Jesus to provide. We made the payments, for Jesus honored my faith. But it was a necessary test for me so that I would know I could trust in Jesus.

So many times, we do not step out in faith because, frankly, we don’t really have faith. We aren’t willing to open ourselves up, to become vulnerable. We don’t put the extra money in the offering plate, we don’t raise our hand and say, “I’ll do that”, we don’t speak to the waitress about what Jesus can do for her because we are afraid. We don’t really have faith that Jesus will back us up.

But if we truly have faith that Jesus is the Son of God and loves us very much – then do you really think Jesus will let us down when we start to talk to someone about His love? James is telling us – if you won’t talk, you really don’t have faith, because if you had a deep faith, you wouldn’t be scared and you wouldn’t be making excuses.

The more you go out on a limb for Jesus, the more He will get involved in your life.

But don’t test Jesus. Remember his words when the devil asked him to climb to the top of the Temple and jump – “You will not test the Lord your God.”

Instead, gradually go toward the point of some inconvenience, some minor pain, I’ve seen situations where I or Saundra gave up a modest amount of money to help another – and each time, the money has come back from another source, unexpectedly, within a week. Not a profit like the prosperity preachers would have you believe – but a match. $100 out - $100 back in. $300 out, $300 back in. $20 out, $20 back in.

You see, Jesus understands that developing faith is difficult and scary. So He’s there, ready to reward us for our faith, like a father in a swimming pool teaching us that we will not drown, that He’s there to catch us until we can swim everyday with faith.

In our Gospel reading from Mark, Jesus has traveled to Tyre in modern Lebanon, near Beirut. He has left the Jewish area around Galilee and gone into a Greek-inhabited part of Syria. He goes to stay at a house – trying to get a few days vacation, peace, rest, perhaps. He wants to keep His presence a secret. But the people of the town find out and suddenly, it is like finding out that Prince Harry and Meghan are staying over at Donna’s house, everyone wants to visit.

A local woman, not a Jew, has a daughter who has been possessed by a demon. At her wit’s end, desperate, she goes immediately to find Jesus and beg him to heal her daughter.

Jesus, uncharacteristically, turns her down. And He does it with rather harsh words.

“First let the children eat all they want,” he told her, “for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”

Yes, Jesus has called her a “dog”.

²⁸ “Lord,” she replied, “even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”

You can see the smile creep onto the Son of God’s face, for He has seen her love for her daughter, her understanding of what is right – and her faith in Him. Even after a refusal, she still had faith that Jesus would do the right thing! She has opened up herself to a terrible scolding, to verbal abuse, even possibly to a beating because of the way people related to different groups back then. He rewards such openness and vulnerability.

²⁹ Then he told her, “For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter.”

³⁰ She went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

Yes, Jesus tests our faith now and again. He wants us to be opened to Him. It is easy to say at first, “I trust in Jesus.” But, like Job, will you trust in God after your home has been destroyed, your wealth taken away, your children lost, and you are sitting around a campfire scratching boils on your skin with a piece of pottery? How strong is your faith?

Will you still trust like Hezekiah, King of Judea, even though your city is surrounded by enemies, even though you are outnumbered three to one, even though there is no escape? How strong is your faith? Will you still pray for salvation?

Will you still trust like Jesus of Nazareth, arrested, beaten, hoisted upon a cross to die, all your disciples leaving you to your fate? How strong is your faith?

God restored Job his health, wealth and children, doubling what he had before his difficulties. God rescued Hezekiah by destroying the besieging army with a plague. And God resurrected Jesus from the dead.

How strong is your faith?

Jesus walked back to Galilee and traveled to the Decapolis, the region of ten cities on the southeastern side of the lake. There, he encountered a man who was deaf and could hardly talk. He examined the man, poking fingers in his ears, touching his tongue. He then looked toward Heaven and said, “Ephphatha!” (which means “Be opened!”). And the man could hear and speak plainly.

In our lives, we mostly live a life where we do not fully see or hear the life that God would have us live. It is almost like we live in a dream, not fully awake, stuck in a world where we cannot speak or hear everything that is going on around us. We stay closed to God, avoiding God, hiding from God.

We work hard but there is quicksand and there are spiderwebs that keep us from freely living in the world. We often feel like men and women who are trying to run a race with a couple hundred pounds of weight upon our back, thirty pound weights on our legs, and twenty pound weights on our arms. And the world is black and white and gray like Dorothy’s Kansas in the Wizard of Oz – and all the while, we can feel and hear the tornado coming at the edge of our senses.

There is a reason for this. We are trying to use our bodies, our natural bodies to run the race. Our pride is so strong that we must do it by ourselves. But we were not intended to rely just on our bodies and our minds to succeed. We were intended to be opened up to the Holy Spirit of God to energize us so we can double our speed, to lift us so we can jump hurdles, to help us see in color, to open our ears so we can hear a symphony around us, to loosen our tongues so we can shout and sing praises to the One who created us. We were intended to be living with God who can ride the tornado!

Do you feel down, sluggish, lonely, depressed? Are you burnt out with the pandemic, looking with dread at the next few months as more and more cases build in our community, locking us down, masking us up, keeping us inside? Again?

Then turn to the One who created us. Be opened! Become vulnerable to God. Turn to Jesus, to God, to the Holy Spirit, with a deep faith and ask “What’s up? What shall I learn from this? How shall I learn to hear and to see and to speak and to do better than I do today? What great things would you do through me?” Allow yourself to be opened up to the working of God.

The other evening, I was sitting on the back porch. In the dark. Despite the fact that this is Charge Conference season, a time when I have considerable paperwork to prepare in addition to the sermon, Facebook postings, selection of music and prayers and such for the bulletin, despite the fact that people needed called – I was sitting on the porch. I wasn’t reading – although I do read a lot. I wasn’t watching television. I wasn’t planning anything or cleaning or getting ready to mow the lawn. I was just sitting there on the porch, for I learned a few years ago that sometimes the very best thing I can do is to sit there, apparently doing nothing.

But I was doing something. I was being open to God.

I was sitting there quietly, asking God to speak to me. And I was listening.

Various sounds were there. I could hear thunder in the distance and see lightning. I could hear a bird calling and a cricket chirping. Water ran over the little fountain we have on the porch. A couple of bats flew by. The clouds moved above me. Cars drove by. All this was pleasant. But I was listening for God’s voice.

And then, deep in my mind, far in the back, was a voice saying that we would need to draw closer together. It was a voice saying that Covid was just a preparation, that Afghanistan wasn’t the important thing the news said it was, that there would be flooding from Hurricane Ida, but I needed to tell the people to begin to act as James said, loving people and not having favorites. For we would lose people this winter and the remainder would need to help the people around us. As a church, we are ideally positioned to help those around. We need to be opened up.

And the Voice told me that there are people listening to this sermon who are looking for a home, a place where people will treat them well, a place where they can speak safely, where their children will be safe and they will find friends. We are to become a refuge for many, a welcoming home for men and women who have met with trouble over the last couple of years. And we will change this town for the better. But, most of all, we will be safe because of God’s protection. And I felt at peace, sitting there on the porch.

How about it? Do you have the faith in God that will help you to trust Him? Will you grow closer to Him, opening up to Him, sitting and talking to Him as though He were sitting next to you, which, of course, the Holy Spirit is? More importantly, will you take time to speak with the Spirit, to turn away from the things of this world, the distractions, the fears, the loudness of the world, to read our Bible, to ask God what we should each do, to listen for that quiet, whispered reply? And then, will you help your brother or sister without favoritism?

On the last evening before He was arrested, Jesus told His disciples to remember Him every time they ate bread or drank wine, that He would give his body and His blood for them – and us. He opened up to them. And that evening, He was arrested. But they understood His love for them because of it.