Lead Them Not Into Temptation

Mark 9: 38-50

 

 

          A young couple came to town because the husband had gotten his first job in the plant. They were new Christians and tender in their faith. They started visiting churches. One Sunday, they visited a church I know. They sat near the front in a pew that was usually occupied by the Petersons. The Petersons liked to sit down front. Same pew every week. They were big givers to the church. Several things around the church had been donated by them and bore inscriptions to that effect. That morning, they had arrived a little late. As they started to enter the sanctuary, they noticed the young couple. Mrs. Peterson looked sharply at her husband. He was up to the task. They marched down the side aisle and Mr. Peterson leaned over and spoke to the couple. The couple got up and moved to another pew. That was the last that church ever saw of them. I did run into him later at a business meeting. I asked how they were doing and whether they had found a church. He said they had looked around when they first came to town, but had a bad experience in one church and decided church just wasn’t for them.

          One Christmas, a family came to church. The church had sponsored this down and out couple as a love offering during the Christmas season. They came largely to see what church was like. Their children had never been to church. They were loud and pretty unruly. The couple behind them, established members, leaned forward and asked them to get control of their children. They did. They walked out as quietly as they could and never came back. Efforts to repair the damage were unsuccessful.

          Have you seen things like that happen? It doesn’t just happen in church. It happens everywhere. We are looking at an opportunity and we call it an inconvenience. More importantly, according to the gospel of Mark, we are looking at the loss of our own souls as we cause others to turn away from God by our selfish, petty actions. There is much more at stake here than meets the eye.

          Speaking of eyes, the prophet Zechariah has something to say about the subject. Zechariah prophesied to the nation of Israel in the post-exilic period. Those who had returned were a dispirited group. The foundation of the new temple had been laid but there was still much opposition. It was high taxes, hard times and little progress. The promises of glory from past prophets seemed far away. But Zechariah came to remind God’s people to be obedient; that God would indeed restore his people to glory. Zechariah has a vision and part of that vision is a call for those still in exile to return to Jerusalem. And Zechariah 2: 8 says this: “For thus said the Lord of hosts, after his glory sent me to the nations who plundered you, for he who touches you touches the apple of his eye.” Would you poke a bear or a lion in the eye? Better to do that than to mislead one of God’s people. In Hebrew, the apple of one’s eye is the pupil, the center of the eyeball. To mislead one of God’s people is to poke God in the eye.

          In Genesis 12, God calls Abram. Abram is elected to go on an errand for God. It will involve all his obedience and all his will, for he is to leave his own county on his way to wherever it is that God is ultimately sending him. His journey will be to a land known only by God. God says to Abram, soon to be Abraham, which means father: “And I [God] will make of you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you, I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” The people of God are to be blessed, and those who dishonor them are to be cursed.

          Fast forward a few thousand years. It is the first century and Jesus is full blown into his teaching ministry. In the gospel of Matthew, Jesus is delivering the Sermon on the Mount and he teaches his listeners how to pray. The result is what we call the Lord’s Prayer. In the eleventh chapter of Luke’s gospel, a shorthand version of the same prayer appears. This time it is in the context of a request from one of the disciples that he teach them how to pray. Because of Luke’s version, it is sometimes called the Disciples’ Prayer, for Jesus taught the disciples. In both versions, Jesus prays “Lead us not into temptation.” 

          In today’s passage, Mark takes an expanded approach. He doesn’t use the “lead us not” term from the other gospels, but he gets across the same idea with a more pointed emphasis. Not only are we asking God not to lead us into temptation; we are being warned not to lead others there. Jesus is asking for radical discipleship. The language is severe. He is concerned not with us here, but with whom we come in contact, particularly children and new Christians.

          Look how Jesus makes his point and how many times he makes it. Cause someone to sin? Better to have a millstone around your neck and thrown into the sea.  Is it your hand? Cut it off! Is it your foot? Cut it off! Does your eye cause someone to sin? Tear it out! These are really harsh words, and they come directly from Jesus. The author of love and forgiveness and salvation itself is giving us a deadly warning. Don’t mess with God’s people! If you lead them away, you are playing with fire, God’s fire! You might think of it as though you have been informed that you have a malignant cancer growing in your body. If you act now, it can be cut away and you can live. If you wait…well, it will cost you your life. Such is the gravity of causing others to stumble. Do whatever you have to do to keep from intentionally or negligently leading someone away from the truth of the gospel.

          Maybe the point of all this is that we are responsible. We are accountable. Are you a Christian? Then you are a witness to the gospel. Are you a believer? Then you are a disciple. As a witness, as a believer, you are going to come in contact with children and other new believers. They are tender. Age doesn’t matter. They are tender because they are new in the faith. If you are in their sphere of influence and you lead them away from God in what you do or say or what you don’t do or say, there will be hell to pay and not by them but by you.

          We know sin is bad. It is disobedience of God. But there is apparently something worse if we can understand the gravity of Jesus’ words. To teach another to sin is much worse. Scottish theologian William Barclay tells an old O. Henry story.  O. Henry wrote back in the early 1900s. He grew up just up the road a ways in Greensboro and gained some fame as a writer of short stories. The story goes something like this:

          There was a little girl whose mother died. Her father would come home from work and get comfortable and read the paper. The little girl would come in and ask him to play, as she was lonely. Over and over, the father said he was tired and sent her out to the street to play. She got the message and took to the streets for good. Some years, not nearly enough--passed and she died. When her soul arrived in heaven, St. Peter recommended to send her to hell because she was a bad lot. But Jesus said gently: “Let her in.” And then his eyes grew stern, the eyes of our Savior, and he said this to Peter: “But look for a man who refused to play with his little girl and sent her out to the streets—and send him to hell.”

          You see, it’s not just about being openly sinful, intentionally disobedient to God. Those things are easy to spot. Those are not the things that trip us. It’s the sand in our shoes. We’re too tired or too involved in other matters at the moment. We’re too involved with our own pursuits to see the need of someone else. Even though that need, that person may be standing right in front of us, we sometimes cannot see. But what does that person see? What does that person feel? Whether it is intentional or just thoughtless and plain selfish really does not matter to Jesus. If it creates a stumbling-block for that person, if it causes him or her to doubt who Jesus is or whether Christianity is worth it…we are diluting the salt that makes that person unique and in God’s image. And once the salt has been made sufficiently impure, its saltiness is lost, not just for now but forever.

          And Jesus said to John and his beloved disciples: “It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell…”  From Genesis to the prophets to the words of Jesus himself, we are warned not to mess with the people of God. Do nothing—nothing--to impede their progress toward God! When it comes to those new and tender in the faith, beware. They are walking on holy ground. Lead them not into temptation.

In Search of Fools

2 Samuel 6: 12-14

 

 

          I used to hate being caught unprepared. I’ve gotten better about it over the years, but it still bothers me. I was taught in trial practice that if I didn’t know the answer to the question before I asked it, then don’t ask the question. Growing up, I was taught  to never be underdressed for an event. Never be overdressed either. Don’t talk with food in your mouth. Don’t talk when your elders are talking. Don’t appear to be too enthusiastic. When I was grown, it was don’t volunteer. Don’t take big chances.

          The rules spilled over into church as well. Be reserved. Be respectful. Don’t sing too loud. Do everything in moderation and control. Don’t get carried away.  Don’t be churchy and don’t go around talking about God all the time. There is a place for everything, and everything has its place.

          The message for me growing up was subtle but plain. Know your place. Always be in charge of your emotions. Never be caught “out” of your comfort zone. Never show that you are vulnerable. Be “nobody’s fool.” Keep your nose down and don’t show all your cards. Take care of yourself because nobody else will.

          In the name of being prepared, what I was really taught was to be selfish and play it safe. Chances are that many of you were raised the same way. Now we find ourselves living in an age which we helped build. It is calculating, un-committing, relative. We play it safe. We live our lives in such a way that we are not likely to be surprised or embarrassed.

         Such a lifestyle has little to do with the teachings of God. God requires much more from us than playing it safe. Look at some examples from scripture. When David has recaptured the Ark of the Covenant, he eventually brings it to Jerusalem. The people are celebrating and so is David. He is dressed in priestly, or religious, garments, and he literally dances in the street. He looked so foolish that his own wife called him a fool [1Sam 6: 12-14], but David didn’t care. 

          When God called the prophet Isaiah, a prominent man with royal connections, God told him to take off his clothes and walk around naked and barefoot, not for an afternoon, but for three years…and Isaiah did what God asked [Isaiah 20:1-3].

          When God wanted to make his point to King Zedekiah, he used the prophet Jeremiah, telling him to wear a wooden yoke around his neck to symbolize God’s desire for the people to serve the king of Babylon for a time.  Jeremiah was a laughingstock for a whole generation, but he did God’s bidding.

          Ezekiel was commanded to eat barley cake cooked over human dung [Ezek. 4: 12], Hosea to marry a prostitute [Hos. 1: 2]. Then there is Noah, the guy who built a monster ship on dry land in the middle of a drought.

          The Bible is full of examples of people called by God to make fools of themselves in order to make God’s point. As scripture tells us, the world sees itself as wise. For it to do so, it must see God’s wisdom as foolishness. So if we are to follow God, sometimes our discipleship will look downright foolish to others. This is just one of the prices of discipleship.

          Isn’t it funny how grown men will yell and scream at a sporting event? They don’t even have to be there. They can watch it on TV and get so into it they leap from their chairs. Women will get down in the floor and play with their children, making complete fools of themselves. Fathers, mothers and grandchildren make the most ridiculous sounds and faces in the world to get a child to smile for them, and think nothing of it. They are not being fools for those children; they are being fools for those children’s sake. There is a big difference.

          Is it not the same with our God? If the world does not teach us how to be loyal to God, but rather to ourselves, will we not, at some point, have to choose? Will we not have to be willing to be fools for God in the eyes of the world? We do not have to literally be fools, but the concept is important, for we do need to be prepared to be seen, and even to be treated, as fools for Christ’s sake. Sometimes that might mean dancing or dressing strange or just standing up when others sit down.

          So often, the world in which we live must be looked at upside down or inside out if we are to see God. Everything around us says to be still, be quiet, to be in control.  But if we do that, we cannot hear him calling. Sometimes holy folly, that commitment to follow even when to do so might bring ridicule upon us, is the way we answer the call to discipleship.

          The thing is, we Christians in America have fallen so deeply into the easy life that we have long ago forgotten the cost of discipleship. We are not subject to starvation or jail or exile or genocide, all of which are or have happened around the world to Christians in our generation. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the great German theologian of Hitler’s time, taught that “the cross is laid in every Christian.” He also taught that there are different kinds of dying. Martyrdom can be red, by blood, or green, to denote abstinence, or white, by abandoning everything for the love of God. If we are to really follow God, then we must conduct our own “white funerals.” Real discipleship is the burial of our own independence and surrender to God’s will in our lives.

          It’s not attractive to talk about surrender, much less becoming a fool for Christ’s sake. But while we’re bemoaning the loss of our independence, we might want to remember the biggest fool of all. He was in heaven and yet came to earth. He had immortality and swapped it in for humanity. He could have come as a televangelist, but instead came as a carpenter. He could have established his kingdom on earth, but decided instead on a date with a cross. Jesus was a fool for our sake.

          The church has always maintained a tension between world-affirming and world-denying. The modern world has seemingly, for the moment, swung the pendulum toward affirming. The deserts have become playgrounds and the ghettos have Wi-Fi. In our urge to be relevant, we are “seeker-oriented’ or “user-friendly.” In our desire to remain firmly planted somewhere between the bookends of “traditional” and “contemporary,” we become “blended.” Too many terms about too little tension. Why don’t we just try to become disciples, and if that means becoming fools for God, we are in good company.

          Os Guinness says that the problem with Christians today is not that we are foolish when we choose God over current society, but that we wait too long and choose too little of that which would separate us. We would do well to be thought more foolish than we are.

          Being a fool for Christ sake is claiming the promise of pain. The internal cost is burying self. The external proof is doing God’s will. Being Christian is transformational. We can’t remain the same. At times, it means looking like a fool to those around us. It is a small price to pay. At the end of the day, we are only as obedient to Christ as we are prepared to pay that cost.

          This message may sound angry to you. My wife told me it was like a punch in the stomach. If so, that is not my intent. It is my intent to sound passionate. Discipleship--following Jesus—is not for the faint of heart.  The call to discipleship echoes God’s call to Jesus. We are called to serve, to obey, sometimes even to play the fool. Discipleship sometimes means looking like a fool to your friends in order to act like a follower of your Savior.

          It’s not easy being a disciple, but then Jesus never said it would be easy. He just said it is the way to heaven. The world is a place in which we plant our feet, but not our souls. They are for a higher and better use. We cannot package the gospel neatly and put a bow around it and park it on a pew to open every Sunday for a couple hours. It won’t be contained. God meant for it to grow and he will grow it.

          “Thy will be done” cuts both ways. Just who is “Thy?” Is it you--or is it God? The answer to that question is the difference between heaven and hell.  Be a fool for Jesus!

Fulfilling the Royal Law

James 2: 1-10

 

 

          When you stand back and look at the New Testament as a body of work, it begins to speak to you. There are the Gospels, the semi-eye and ear-witness testimonies to the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. They are followed by Acts, the history of the early Church. Then comes Paul and his letters to the church plants all over the region and to some individuals, all espousing the grace of God through the gift of Jesus and the gospel he brings. Paul’s letters are joined by those of others, including Peter, John and the writer of Hebrews. Revelation ends the New Testament with a form of apocalyptic, (end times) literature.

          Then there is James. James is the misfit. James quotes less Scripture than any other New Testament writer. His book would be more at home in the writings section of the Old Testament with Proverbs. It is an essay on ethics and seldom mentions Christianity at all. Martin Luther called it an “epistle of straw” and thought it lacked the standard of the other New Testament texts.

There has always been a debate among the heavyweights in theology as to whether James’s emphasis on works is at the expense of grace.

          If James were to come to market today, it might be placed in the “how-to” section of Christian living and ethics. In five chapters, he takes up the subjects of testing and trials, hearing and doing the Word, the sin of partiality, faith without works, taming the tongue, being too worldly, boasting of the future, being rich and suffering with patience. He ends his circular letter to the Jews outside Jerusalem with a call to pray in faith. It is a pep talk, a warning and a call to action all rolled into one short letter.

          Now, James is not the Son of God. Only Jesus could claim that. But when reading James, one cannot help but notice the brotherly connection in the way he writes. James writes not with a bucket load of quotes and arguments like Paul, but rather with an authority that reminds us of his half-brother. James writes with a “been there, done that” sort of approach. He wastes no time or words and gets right to the point.

          Curiously, the one Scripture that James does quote is Leviticus 19:18, where the Lord is speaking to Moses to tell the people and says: “you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” James is in good company, Jesus himself quoted the same scripture. In Matthew 22, Jesus responds to the question of a Pharisee, a lawyer, about the Law, saying that “you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like unto it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. In these two commandments depend all the Law and the prophets.”

          James called this the royal law. What did he mean? Was it the highest? The law of kings? The law of supreme excellence? Leviticus didn’t call it the royal law, so what does James mean? I think this is where James’ practical, down to earth style can get lost in a sea of study throughout the centuries. But what James says is not hidden. It just has to be sifted a little to see his connection to Jesus and the gospel.

          First, In James 1: 22, he says to be doers of the word, to not just be hearers of the word. Then, back up to James 1: 18. James refers to the word of truth. What word is James talking about? Is it the written Word of God or the living Word of God? Later, in chapter 2 at verse 12, James talks about being judged under the law of liberty. So James talks about the word and the law, but what word and what law? What does James mean and to what or whom is he referring?

          As Christians, we speak of God’s Word in two ways. Either it is scripture, the written Word of God, or it is Jesus, the living Word of God. They don’t contradict each other, but they are two different ways to see God. When we think of the written word, we normally are talking about the Old Testament and, in many cases, the Law given as the Ten Commandments and that scripture which accompanies them. I have long thought that James, who was speaking to the Jews of the diaspora, that is, those outside Jerusalem, was referring to the Scripture when he talked about the word in his letter. I don’t think so anymore.

          James talks about the “word” three times in Chapter 1. Verse 18 sets the tone of his meaning when he says that God brought us forth by the word of truth. He goes on to say that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. That just doesn’t make much sense when read in light of Old Testament scripture. But when we read it in light of the gospel, it makes perfect sense. We are the firstfruits of the word of truth as revealed by Jesus, the living word of God.

          Later, when we read that we are called to be doers of the word, we can interpret this to be called to do the will of God as revealed by his living word, Jesus Christ. Again, in James 2: 12 and 13, James tells us that mercy triumphs over judgment; that we should speak and act as those who are judged under the law of liberty. James is speaking of the liberty obtained through the mercy and grace of Jesus Christ, the living word, not the liberty gotten through the meticulous observation of Old Testament law. Indeed, James reminds us in verse 10 that whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. This is not only James’ point. It is made over and over by the apostle Paul. If we live by the law, we must be judged by the law and will die by the law. To live in the gospel is to find the law of liberty and the love of God through the grace of the gospel of Jesus.

          This brings us back to our original question. What did James mean when he talked about the second great commandment as the royal law? If we read his comment in the context of his other references to the gospel of Jesus, we must and should conclude that James saw loving our neighbor as ourselves as a law handed down from Jesus, the king of kings. No matter that it was first written in the Old Testament. The words are from God and Jesus is his son, now laying down the law of love in his gospel. It is Jesus to whom James refers. It is Jesus to whom every knee should bow, that every tongue will confess, that Jesus Christ is Lord [Phil 2: 9-11]. It is Jesus who came to save and who gave us the law of liberty and the word of truth.

          So what do we glean from this “royal law?” Simply this. We are to show no partiality. Money doesn’t matter. Power and influence don’t matter. The only family pedigree that matters is the line leading to belief in the gospel. It’s not faith trumping deeds, but deeds proving faith. Douglas Ward puts it this way: “James reminds his community that the behavior that demonstrates faith is the behavior that is obedient to God and lifts up others. Likewise, the behavior that is obedient to God (love the Lord your God…) and lifts up others (love your neighbor…) is behavior that demonstrates the content of a person’s faith.”

           Partiality is prejudice by another name. Jesus knew no prejudice. He knew only a bias toward love and a heart for forgiveness. Prejudice strikes at the very heart of the Christian faith. We should oppose it and oppose it vigorously wherever it rears its ugly head. Fulfilling the royal law is opening the doors of our church and our hearts to the poor, the stranger, the lost. Fulfilling the royal law is seeing everyone as your neighbor and seeing your neighbor as good as you.

          And that’s the gospel truth!