Pistis (Gal. 5: 22-25) 9/16/12

A quick look at the words faith, faithful, faithfulness indicates their use in either Hebrew or Greek some 337 times in the Bible, give or take a few. Paul uses one of these three words 127 times. That makes faith or some derivation of it one of the most worked nouns in the Scriptures. By that measurement alone, it would behoove us to know what the word means and how it is used. For starters, pistis is the Greek word for faithfulness and it is roughly synonymous with both belief and trust. If we looked up those words, I suspect we could add several hundred more references. Faithfulness: the act of being faithful. Let’s see, faithful is the adjective that modifies faith, so it must mean having faith. So there we are! All we have to do now is understand what faith means. Then we can get some and act on it and we will have faithfulness.

So what is faith? We’ve been down this road before. Remember? The writer of Hebrews tells us that “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (11:1). It almost sounds like doublespeak, but listen carefully, because it isn’t. The substance of things hoped for. Substance implies something tangible, something you can get your arms around, whether it is a thought or a thing. It’s real and substantial. That’s what this Scripture is getting at, that faith is a substance. It is something you can get your arms around. Faith is real and substantial. It isn’t a thing you can stick in your pocket, but it is a thought you can carry in your heart and mind and it’s just as real as the keys jingling in your pocket. So…now we know that faith is sort of like the meat on the bones of hope. But we still don’t exactly see how to put it to use. We need to do something with these things we hope for, don’t we?

Like all the other fruits we have studied, faith is of little good sitting on a shelf in our hearts. We have to get it down and take it for a walk out here in the world. How do we do faith? Well, that same writer of Hebrews gives us some examples from history. He chronicles a hall of faith. Abraham obeyed God’s call and “went out, not knowing where he was going” (v. 8). He did it on faith. He offered up his own son as a sacrifice to God, raised his knife to cut the throat of his beloved son and only withdrew upon the command of God’s angel. He did that on faith, too.  The list in Hebrews 11 covers an assortment of the faithful men and women who answered God’s call, starting with Abel and going all the way through the prophets of old. For their trouble, they were rewarded with mocking and flogging, chains and imprisonment, torture, stoning, destitution, affliction, homelessness and even death.

There is a good side to this hit parade of the faithful, Hebrews tells us also that these faithful “conquered kingdoms, enforced justice… stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight and last, but not least, were made strong out of weakness” (v. 33, 34).

Though their faith was certainly commendable and their lives made the better for their efforts, none of the witnesses—Hebrews calls them a “cloud of witnesses”-- mentioned in Hebrews received what was promised. They went to their graves believing…being faithful to the cause… without the proof of the pudding. They saw preliminary glimpses of what was to come, but like Moses gazing across the Jordan while he stayed back as his people crossed the river, they did not taste the promise fulfilled. That was for later. The New Covenant was going to be fulfilled and something better was coming. The cloud of witnesses had faith in the promise.

So even though it sounds like we’re going in a circle, having faithfulness really is being faithful. But being faithful is no easy chore. And what we are faithful to is going to make all the difference. We learn about being faithful to God through our earthly relationships. Are you faithful to your spouse? To your children? Are you faithful to those for whom you work? For those who work for you? Are you faithful and reliable in your dealings with others? In all these ways, we learn the meaning of being faithful. Put another way, you might say that being faithful is being trustworthy and reliable. Are you faithful in the little things as well as the big ones? In Luke’s gospel, Jesus cautions his disciples that dishonesty in the little things is the seed of bigger dishonesty. If you can’t be faithful in the wealth that comes from the things of the earth, don’t expect God to entrust you to the true riches of the kingdom. Jesus says we cannot serve two masters. We can’t serve both God and money (16:13). The Greek word here for money is mamona, which also translates as mammon or riches. The point goes beyond financial wealth. If you choose to serve God, you are also choosing to let nothing else take priority over that commitment. This does not mean that you neglect your family or your work. It means just the opposite. It means that in all your dealing, you bring your Christian beliefs to the table.

Think about your life. How do your children think of you? How does your boss think of you? How does your spouse think of you? How does your church think of you? Are you trustworthy? Are you reliable? This is the way you live out your faithfulness. This is what God wants from us. This is part and parcel of the fruit of the Spirit. Our Lord gives it first to us. We only return to him that faithfulness which has first been extended to us. God is our model. The Psalmist reminds us that the “the word of the Lord is upright, and all his work is done in faithfulness” (Ps. 34).

Since this a Sunday we set aside to celebrate the presence and contributions of the older adults among us, I want to mention just a few older adults in the Scriptures. Moses comes to mind, He stood poised to take over the reigns of Egypt at the age of 40, but God had other plans for him. That’s not so unusual but the story gets better. At the age of 80, God called Moses back into service to lead the Israelites from the slavery of Egypt. Moses continued to lead God’s people for another forty years to the ripe old age of 120 before he handed over the reins to Joshua, his general who was probably mature enough to handle it since he was 80 years old. Bear in mind that the story of God’s chosen people begins with Abraham and Sarah. Abraham has no children until he is about 100 years old. He has Isaac through Sarah when she is 90. The pregnancy of Sarah is so unlikely that Sarah laughs at the angel of God when she hears that she will conceive a child. In commemoration of this, their son is named Isaac, which means “laughter.” The apostle Paul didn’t even take his first missionary journey until well into his forties. The Bible is full of examples of persons whose greatest contributions came in their senior years.  

Thomas Obadiah Chisholm was born in a log cabin in Franklin, Kentucky in 1866, only a year after the end of the Civil War. By the time he was sixteen years old, he was teaching school. Eleven years later, he was converted to Christianity at a revival. He served one year as a Methodist minister, but had to resign for health reasons. He took up selling insurance, but he had a yen for poetry. Over the course of his life, he wrote over twelve hundred sacred poems. He sent one of those poems to a friend at the Moody Bible Institute. His friend William Runyan wrote the music to go with the poem and it was published. We know it as Great is Thy Faithfulness. Chisholm’s most famous poem was written in his fifties when he was apparently long removed from ministry. We sing it today as do many churches around the world. The chorus is a famous litany of faith:

                   Great is thy faithfulness,

great is thy faithfulness,

                   Morning by morning

new mercies I see;

                   All I have needed

Thy hand hath provided—

                   Great is thy faithfulness,

Lord, unto me.

As we go about our daily tasks, though they may be boring, though they may have been done ten thousand times before, though we may feel that they could not possibly have anything to do with the kingdom of God, let us give pause. It is not only what we do, but also the way we do it, that witnesses to the Lord and to his people. Are you being faithful?

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness…

Agathosyne (Gal. 5:22-25, Psalm 23) 9/9/12

In the 1950’s and 60’s, General Mills was king of the cereal makers. It had cornflakes and cheerios and boasted a pretty “G” in the upper corner of the box and that stood for General Mills. The ad slogan was “The big G stands for goodness.” Remember? Wouldn’t that be nice, if all we had to do was buy the right cereal and we would be filled with goodness.

          He’s a good man. She’s a good woman. I just wanna have a good time. Goody two shoes. Good job. Good food. Good night! The good, the bad and the ugly.  It’s been a good day. You’re a good friend. And the list goes on and on…and on. Good has more meanings and shades of meanings than you can shake a stick at. We all recognize an element within this word that we like, an element that we respect and desire. Good. It’s in food and cereal boxes and toothpaste and the workplace. It’s in books and literature, church and playgrounds. It’s the stuff of heroes but it’s also in the smallest corner of your home. Good. What does it mean? Is it so broad that it cannot be defined? Is it so deep that it cannot be confined, corralled, converted to some specific meaning? I don’t think so. I think that good is so easy to understand within our working knowledge that we instinctively know what it means. Good is hard to capture, elusive to define, but easy to spot. 

In the very first chapter of the very first book of the Old Testament, God creates. God creates and creates. For a whole God week, he creates and every time he does, he stands back, looks it over and calls it what? He calls it good. He saw that it was good. God saw that the light was good (1:4). God separated Earth from the Seas and saw that it was good (1:9). The earth brings forth vegetation and fruit bearing trees and God saw that it was good (1:12). The story of creation goes on—the setting of the sun, the moon and the stars into the heavens—and God saw that it was good (1:18). On the fifth day come sea creatures and birds. God saw that it was good and blessed them. Day six brought the jewels in the crown of creation. First, God created land creatures and creeping things and God saw that it was good (1:25).  Then man and woman were created in God’s image and God blessed them, commissioned them and gave them dominion over all the rest. The book of Genesis says that “God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good” (1:31).

Are you starting to get the picture? It helps me to see what God calls good. It helps me to understand something about his standards. Granted, they are Godly standards, but also granted that the Book of Genesis tells us that we were made in God’s image! Surely if we are created in his image, he meant us for good.

What does goodness look like? Ask Joseph. He went from being Jacob’s favorite son to running the kingdom of Egypt at the right hand of Pharaoh and his route included a nice prison stretch where he had no right to hope for anything more than a merciful death. But when his brothers stood before him, he explained to them that the evil they might have meant for him was all part of a Godly plan to save many lives. Being good looks like Joseph.

What does goodness feel like? Ask Barnabas. He was “let go” by Paul in a fit of temper because he would not betray young John Mark. He was the godly man left out of the equation by the Thirteenth Apostle. And yet, the eleventh chapter of Acts calls Barnabas a good man, full of the Holy Spirit. He was instrumental in reconnecting Paul with Mark, and then Paul with himself. Being good feels like Barnabas.

What does goodness taste like? It tastes alive! The fifth chapter of Amos tells us that you must “Seek the Lord that you may live.” Later in the chapter, the prophet tells God’s people that they should “seek good, and not evil, that you may live.” How do we live by seeking the Lord? We do it by seeking good. God is synonymous with good. To seek God is to seek goodness!  It’s the taste that satisfies and leaves you hungry too. Only God can satisfy your appetite and leave you hungry at the same time. Good is as simple as doing something unselfishly for someone else, and it tastes better than a gourmet meal. 

Good is connected to time; time to do good. Good is disconnected from time, because you don’t look at your watch or your calendar when something good is coming from you. You take whatever time it requires. Like God has done for you.

We have talked about what goodness looks like, feels like, tastes like. How do we do it? How do you do goodness? In the gospel of Luke, a rich young ruler comes to Jesus and calls him “good Teacher.” Some translations say Master, but I like “good Teacher” here. Jesus asks him: “Why do you call me good? No one is good, except God alone.” Third John 11 says it in a way that I get. There, John says that we are imitators. We either imitate evil or we imitate good. Now that’s a load. What it implies is that we are not evil, but that we imitate it; that we are not good, but we imitate it. John says: “Whoever does good is from God.” Another translation says that whoever does good is of God. We are not inherently good. Quite the contrary. It is the great inheritance of the Reformation and John Calvin that we understand ourselves to be totally depraved, incapable of goodness in and of ourselves. Yes, good is in us, but not of us. When we see good, feel good, do good, it is from God; it is of God.

How do we do goodness? John tells us how. We do that which is good because the Spirit of God is moving within us, whether or not we give him the credit! Sometimes we imitate God in spite of ourselves. The apostle Paul reminds us in Ephesians 4 that we express goodness by telling the truth, by not stealing, by doing useful, helpful, beneficial things, by keeping sin out of our anger. As we imitate God and Christ, we begin to show that image in which we were made. We begin to live in Christ and we allow Christ to live in us.

What is goodness? Goodness is living for others, living to serve rather than be served. Way back in Genesis, we watched as Joseph took hit after hit for the team. He was the one God picked out to look out for the many. This concept of the one for the many is not just for Joseph.

Throughout history, people have stood up in war and peace for

principle, for family, for country, for their fellow man, for God. Remember that fellow from Galilee with all those fishermen friends? He was the one, the one who laid it all down for the many. He was goodness personified. But you know what? I just get the impression that even if there was only one to die for, he would have done the same thing. God is so good. He’s so good…to me!

The final words of the Twenty Third Psalm have been the promise to God’s people all the way back to the reign of David. “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” We need to claim that promise. Let God be good to you!

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness…

CHRESTOTES (Galatians 5: 22-25) 9/2/12

It’s part of the Boy Scout law. I must have said it a thousand times or more as a teenager. “A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind…” I don’t think Paul was a Boy Scout, but his list of nine virtues comprising the fruit of the Spirit isn’t far off from the Boy Scout law. As to kindness, or chrestotes, as is its Greek counterpart, well, it’s number 5 on Paul’s list and second on the list of  outer character traits which will help to create and nurture the love, joy and peace that start the list.

          When I was young, every Thursday evening for several years found me in a garage building outside my church. In the summer, there was no circulation and it was hot. In the winter, there was a kerosene heater up front that was good for the first row. I don’t remember ever sitting on the first row. I do remember that grown men were there and they took it all very seriously, even that kindness thing. Every week, some scout was called on at random to stand and tell of the good deed that he had done that day. You see, that is the Boy Scout motto: “Do a good turn daily.” I grew up learning that being kind is part of being a Boy Scout. Scouting is close to my heart, and I learned to practice kindness.

In Paul’s day, he did not have the luxury of starting with eleven year old boys whose parents had sent them to be mentored. He had to start with us big kids and we are a whole lot more trouble and a whole lot more prejudiced. They were then, too. The book of Galatians was primarily written to a group who had already strayed from the truth that Paul had taught them. One gospel, he said. Salvation by grace through faith, he said. Adopted just as if we were born to it, he said.

          After all the chastising, Paul throws his arms around us and says that we need to be kind, that it is part of all that good fruit that the Spirit brings to us. This is golden rule stuff. Do unto others, remember? It is that divine kindness, that “God is so good to me” kindness out of which God acts toward mankind. It’s the kind of “kindness” that Paul uses to describe God in Ephesians 2 when he talks about God’s love, manifested in his kindness, by sending Jesus to redeem us.

          Kindness. Dr. Theodore Rubin says its more important that wisdom, so important that just the recognition of this fact is indeed the beginning of wisdom. Why is kindness so important? It’s an attribute of God! In Romans 2:4, Paul tells us that God’s kindness is meant to lead us to repentance. In Romans 11:22, comparing fallen Jews to converted Gentiles, Paul says that God is kind to those who believe, to those who continue in his kindness. In Ephesians 2, Paul talks again about grace through faith, about believers being seated in the heavenly places and being shown the “immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” Finally, in Titus 3:4, we are reminded that we were saved when “the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared.” Why is kindness so important? It’s an attribute of God!

          Why is kindness so important? It’s an attribute for Christians! “Love is patient and kind,” says Paul in 1 Corinthians 13: 4. In Colossians 3: 12, Paul talks about putting on a new self and this includes kindness.  And there is my personal favorite, Ephesians 4:32:  “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” There that’s golden rule again.

          Remember senior superlatives in high school. Chances are one or you was voted friendliest or smartest or most likely to succeed or prettiest by your senior class. I sort of like the idea, but I would like to change list to most gentle, most humble, most courteous, most kind-things like that. Wouldn’t it be cool to be voted kindest!

I like the Greek word for kindness. It’s a sweet word. In fact, that is one of the shades of its meaning: sweetness. Old wine is called chrestos. Think mellow.  In Matthew 11: 30, Christ’s yoke is called chrestos, meaning that it does not chafe. Chrestos has only one function  according to Dr. William Barclay, the Scottish theologian. It can only help. I think I also like it because it sounds so close to Christos, the Greek word for Christ. When I think of my Savior, kindness is one of the first words that come to mind to describe him. Christos is Chrestos.

Let me share a story with you written by Sherman Buford. Mr. Altar’s fifth-grade class at Lake Elementary School in Oceanside, California, included fourteen boys who had no hair. Only one, however, had no choice in the matter. In an Associated Press story that broke in March, 1994, a youngster named Ian O’Gorman was undergoing chemotherapy for lymphoma and was facing the unpleasant prospect of having his hair fall out in clumps as a result of the treatments. To avoid some embarrassment, he had his head shaved. Then something very nice happened. Something very kind happened. All his classmates shaved their heads as well, so Ian wouldn’t feel out of place. It only took one kid. Ten-year-old Kyle Hanslik started it all. He talked to some of the other boys, and it wasn’t long until all thirteen boys took off to the barbershop together. “We just wanted to make him feel better,” said Kyle. You think?  My wife has an old high school friend named Cindy. Cindy has had several bouts with cancer. The first time she went through chemotherapy, her hair began to come out. The minute it started, her husband Dennis pulled a Kyle and had his head shaved. Cindy is still around years later and I have no doubt that some of the credit has to go to a kind and loving husband whose vanity had no place in that marriage.

Now, this kindness thing can get to be a habit. When you do things for others, it makes you feel good. When I was eleven years old, it was my job as a Boy Scout. I wanted to be ready every Thursday night in case I was called on. Today, it’s sort of a hobby. It’s very contagious. If you haven’t tried it, you should.

By the way, kindness is one of those fruits. You know, the fruit of the Spirit. It is one of the ways to replace that emptiness you sometimes feel coming on.  Just reach out and touch someone, like the phone people say. And remember, there really is only one way to live by the Spirit. Walk by it!  

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness… 

Makrothumia (Galatians 5: 22-25) 8/26/12

Do you know anybody who has makrothumia? Have you ever experienced it? Small Eskimo villages in the northern tundra of the Arctic have been known to be widely populated with it. So have similar size villages far below the equator in East Africa and South America. Soldiers have experienced it in foxholes and sailors have also found it prevalent at sea. It is rarely terminal. In fact, it has often proven to be quite a useful experience. It is of great value in most cultures, but very easy to lose or misplace. Once lost, it usually takes awhile to work through the range of negative emotions that tend to follow its loss.  Makrothumia. I have it almost every morning when I wake. Usually, I have lost it before lunchtime. My wife is constantly urging me to find it again.

On a recent Friday night, we all came in from work about the same time. I had a long week and was really tired. My wife Cindy had put in a long day at her job too. Our youngest daughter came home from several days of having to be “on” for the public. We sat on the porch to let the work of the day slip away. As so often happens, we turned to serious discussion a little too soon. With the events of the day still fresh upon us, thoughts turned to our daughter’s job prospects. The thrill and accomplishment of graduation from college now a month old, I wanted to know about her job prospects. I wanted to know right then. I wanted my daughter to tell me all about how hard she had been trying and what her short term plan was. I wanted to tell her how I would handle it.

For some reason, my daughter wasn’t particularly interested in my plan for her. Furthermore, she wasn’t particularly interested in telling me her plan either. She was having a lot of trouble finding any makrothumia. It turns out that just when I needed it, I had lost mine as well. We both could have used a little makrothumia right then. Instead of trying to find mine, I just plowed right in and the result was way too predictable. Hurt feelings on both sides.

Have you figured out anything about makrothumia yet? You probably realize that it doesn’t come in a bottle and it is not a physical state. So what is it? I think that schoolteachers must have a lot of it. I think that women tend to have it more than men.  I can tell you that everyone needs it no matter what age they are and that few people ever seem to have enough of it. If they do, we tend to call them saints.  

In Galatians 5: 22, the apostle Paul talks about makrothumia. He places great value on it as well. In fact, it is fourth on his short list of nine virtues that make up the fruit of the Spirit. You see, makrothumia is the Greek word for patience. Paul likes this word. He uses it nine times in his New Testament writings. He uses it in a number of different ways and refers to a diverse group of sources for patience. Twice in the book of Romans (2: 4, 9: 22), Paul uses this word in reference to God’s patience with us. In 2 Corinthians (6: 6) and 2 Timothy (3:10), Paul uses it to call attention to his own patience toward his situations and his flock.  In 2 Timothy (4: 20), Paul speaks from his heart to Timothy, his son in the faith, about patience in preaching the gospel. Back in 1 Timothy (1:16), Paul comments on Jesus’ perfect patience as an example to those who want to believe in him for eternal life. Twice in the book of Ephesians (3:12, 4:2), Paul uses makrothumia as a trait essential for us in walking the Christian walk and even as a garment for Christians to wear. Finally, in the text for today, Paul tells the Galatian churches that patience is one of the nine traits comprising the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

In these passages, Paul characterizes patience as a Godly virtue, used by Paul himself, essential for those who would teach or preach the gospel, used perfectly by Jesus, paramount to us as we act out our Christianity and finally, as part of the fruit of the Spirit. Paul has used patience to describe interaction with the three persons of the Trinity, self, others, preachers and teachers and those who would call themselves Christian. Apparently, there is no one who cannot benefit from this fruit called patience.

Does patience mean hanging around in line long enough to get the ticket to the concert? Does it mean not getting mad when you can’t solve that math equation the first three times you try it? Does it mean waiting until you can pay cash for something instead of using that credit card? Maybe. Patience has a lot of nuances. In the world of the Christian, it is first on Paul’s list of those outer character traits which will help to create and nurture the love, joy and peace that we want to dwell inside us.  

Reading the Bible sometimes means reading other parts of the Bible to see if that helps to understand the part you are reading. It all works together. Since Paul puts a great deal of stock in makrothumia, or patience, it might do to pry a little more into what exactly Paul was getting at. Sometimes it helps to see how Paul uses words in other contexts. I looked a little further and it turns out that Paul used another Greek word that means patience. It’s a word we might pronounce as upomonan and it is also translated as patience.   The word is also translated as perseverance and steadfast endurance. Paul uses it 3 times in the New Testament. Makrothumia, on the other hand, is also translated as long-suffering and forbearing.

So the fruit of the Spirit is long-suffering. The fruit of the Spirit is forbearing. I don’t know about you, but I’m real glad that the Holy Spirit has fruit like that. I need a Spirit that can be long-suffering, willing to wait…and wait…and wait some more for me to get my act together. I need a fruit that will help me wait for the fullness of time, for the maturity and judgment that I need to bring to a situation. Long-suffering is something that God has been doing for his people literally since the beginning. It started in the Garden of Eden. It has never ended. Instead of ending a battered, embittered and splintered world, God came down and saved us. Instead of demanding that we reach up to him, he became one of us to show us how to come to him. God is the epitome of long-suffering. Think about that when you feel you are at your wits end. That’s where God’s day would begin, if God’s days had beginnings.

I don’t know about you, but I need the Holy Spirit to be forbearing. I need that fruit inside me as well. I need my character to be willing not to act, not to jump in too soon, not to rush to judgment. That’s forbearance! This is a fruit that I can taste. I know because I have tasted way too many times what it’s like to be impatient! We always want to act. There is an old saw that says “he who hesitates is lost.”  Compare that to what Jesus advised. Forgive your neighbor seventy times seven. If you want to follow Jesus, get prepared to walk against much of what society tries to teach you. To follow Jesus is to take that road less traveled.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience… there is more that Paul has to teach us, but that will do for this lesson. In fact that is quite a lot to digest. Patience in the context of makrothumia is not just holding back. It is the positive action of non-action. Do not mistake it for inaction. Far from it. Patience is the doing of that which may require numerous attempts at the same task, or even refraining from any attempt at all until the moment is right.

Is it God’s time? Paul says to live by the Spirit is to walk by the Spirit. Are you walking by the Spirit? If not, maybe you need a little more patience!                                       

It Takes A Basket (Galatians 5: 16-25) 8/19/12

          A child grows up in a Christian home. She attends church regularly. She graduates high school, goes off to more schooling, meets the guy of her dreams. He, too, is a Christian. They date and eventually marry. After a while they start a family. Along comes a new life and they bring the child to church for baptism. Promises are made by the parents and the congregation. Bring up the child in the nurture and admonition of God. Live the Christian faith. Teach it to your child. Turn to Jesus. Accept Christ. Be a disciple. Bring up the child in love.

          Bringing up baby. It’s a tall order. Scores of books have been written about how to do it right. I only wish the books could give us all the right information at the right time. I went to college with a fellow who became an expert on child psychology and chaired that department at a major university at a very young age. He wrote a book about parenting. Some time later, he fell in love, got married and started a family himself. After the parenting expert became a parent, he wouldn’t take his own advice. His book was an academic success and a common sense dud. Having a child changed his whole approach to child psychology.

We all want to get it right, don’t we?  It’s not easy to set the right example, the job never ends and there is no textbook.  Baby turns into toddler, then pre-schooler. Before we know it, baby is asking for the car keys. It happens fast and there is no way to rewind and start over.

          Even though there is no textbook on parenting, there is some very good advice given by the apostle Paul in the 5^th chapter of Galatians. He exhorts his converts to live and walk by the Spirit and he refers to nine traits that he calls the Fruit of the Spirit. They are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. The adult who can bring these fruits to his or her parenting style on a consistent basis will do just fine without any books. In fact, these traits are useful to everyone, not just parents.

If you love someone, will you always be patient with him? Kind to him? Good to him? If you love someone, will you always be gentle with her, exercise self-control around her? If you love someone, will that bring you joy and peace? Of course, the answer is “no” to all of the above.  Love is a big help. I don’t think we can get there without it. But even love is not enough. It takes a basket.

Many of you are familiar with the movie Love Story. It came out in the 70’s and launched the careers of Ryan O’Neal and Ali McGraw. Remember that famous line: “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.” That sounded good on screen, but it doesn’t play well in real life. I think it’s more like “Love means being constantly prepared to say you’re sorry.” Love is the motor that drives the Spirit to incredible sacrifice, unimaginable commitment and amazing loyalty. But motors need gas and water and oil. Motors need attention and lubrication. So do the motors of our lives. It takes a basket.  

If you look at Paul’s list, you might notice that the first three traits listed are love, joy and peace. They are all inner, spiritual qualities. 1  They are also qualities that can be shared with others. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 13 that love is the greatest virtue. He starts his list here with love. The other six traits are not so much inside us as they are a course of conduct, a way of dealing with others.  So you might say that we do love, find joy and experience peace by exhibiting patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. It takes a basket.

We all gather here every Sunday and at other times and we worship God and we try to feel the Spirit of God moving inside us, enabling us to respond in ways we find difficult to muster the rest of the week. It’s hard to live by the spirit. Paul recognizes that. He recites a whole menu of works of the flesh earlier in the same chapter from jealousy to envy, reminding us that if we continue to do such things, we are not going to inherit the kingdom of God. He contrasts these works of the flesh with the fruit of the Spirit, our nine watchwords for life. Notice that Paul says fruit. He doesn’t say fruits. An apple is not an orange and an orange is not a grapefruit. They are each fruits. But put them in a basket and what do you have? Would you say that you have a basket of fruits? No. You would say you have a basket of fruit. In other words, a basket of fruit is a collection of assorted plants that together make up something we collectively call fruit. It’s different from meat and vegetables, but it all comes from a common family. So it is with the Fruit of the Spirit. It takes it all to make it work. Ever tried to love someone without patience, without faithfulness? It takes a basket.

So how do we live by the Spirit? Paul tells us. He says that “if we live by the Spirit, let us walk by the Spirit.” We turn away from all those works of the flesh. They come in many colors and styles but you can put the label of self or selfishness on every single one. It’s not nearly as hard to turn away as you might think. Just take a bite of fruit. Sink your teeth into some juicy goodness. Slice off a little bit of kindness. You know how naturally sweet fruit can taste. Try making a diet of the fruit of unselfishness and you will be filled in a way that both satisfies and makes you hungry for more. This is walking by the Spirit.  Just don’t forget. It takes the whole basket to make that motor run the way God designed it.

Jesus Is the Sign (John 6: 25-35) 8/12/12

  

Signs are important. They keep us moving in the right direction and help us avoid the wrong direction. Miss a detour sign and you can wind up on a dirt road to nowhere. In baseball, miss a hit and run sign and your base runner is sliding straight into a sure tag. Signs are important. 

In this passage, Jesus is in the process of revealing his identity. He has already embarked on his ministry. The twelve disciples have been called and several miracles have already been performed. The latest was just the day before. We know it as the Feeding of the Five Thousand. It took place near the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee. The disciples had left Jesus behind that evening and took a boat to Capernaum on the western shore. The Sea of Galilee is about 7 ½ miles from east to west, and Jesus met them several miles out, but he didn’t use a boat! (That’s a sermon for another day). Capernaum is the site of many of Jesus’ miracles and he also taught there in the synagogue.

The next day, the crowd following this strange preacher got into boats to catch up with him. When they reached the opposite shore, they found him and wanted to know how and when he got there, for it is clear from Scripture that the crowd knew Jesus didn’t take the one boat available the night before. This is the setting in which we find Jesus dealing with this mixture of curiosity seekers, skeptics and followers.

The passage leaves out lots of details we would like to know, but there are still things we can infer. Since the crowd the day before was five thousand men, there would surely have been women and children with them. So this was a very large crowd. Apparently, it was not a holiday. This was an audience that was very probably disenfranchised. They might have been the unemployed, the sick, the widows. They more than likely didn’t have some place they had to be and the day before, their bellies had been filled. But this was a new day and they were hungry again. This miracle man Jesus was worth following, if only for the chance of another meal.

Now that we have the Bible to guide us, it seems pretty simple, but then, it was not so clear. Here is the Son of God offering these people Himself, telling them to trust and believe; to crave spiritual rather than earthly fullness. But these people were hungry; they were away from home and this new prophet was telling them he was their Messiah; the one sent from God. They asked what work they had to do, and Jesus told them just to believe in him as sent from God.  He didn’t talk about physical labor of any kind. Just believe in him. Jesus talked about eternal food. They scratched their heads. “Who is this guy?” they asked themselves.  They looked for signs, and he told them He was the sign. No wonder they missed it. They weren’t ready to think spiritually. They just wanted their bellies full again.

The conflict here occurs again and again in the Gospels. The people were looking for a Savior. They believed he would come. But they assumed he would meet their earthly definition. They would be delivered from Roman oppression. The temple would be restored. The Jews would reign supreme under their savior, an earthly king. They assumed they knew what their Savior would do and how he would act.  They couldn’t read the signs.       

There are all kinds of signs today. We have signs and bumper stickers on our cars and trucks that display our opinions to the world.  I have a bumper sticker that says Rocky Creek Presbyterian Church. I like that one. I used to have one other bumper sticker but it finally wore off. I really liked that one. It read: “If we don’t change directions, we’ll end up where we’re going.”

Think about it for a moment. Are you going in the right direction, because you will end up where you’re going! Are you reading the signs along the path? They are there, but you have to be looking for them. Otherwise you will keep on going down that same road, never knowing when to turn, when to wait, when to get off the bus.

What signs have you missed lately? Have you run a stop sign while your mind was elsewhere? I have. Have you dropped off meals to a relative instead of sitting down with him or her to eat? I have. Oh, not lately, but I have done all these things and more.

The signs are there, but you have to have the discernment to see them. You also need the courage not to avoid them. You might say: “I missed it because I’m just so busy!” Everybody is so busy these days. I once attended a service where the minister distributed thin round wooden wafers to the congregation. The wafers bore the legend "TUIT” on their face. Satisfied that everyone had received a wafer, he pronounced: “Now we can all get a lot more done. Everyone is always saying they will do this or that as soon as they can get around to it. Well, now you all have “a round tuit.”

The crowd following Jesus that day at the Galilean shore was looking for a quick fix. They wanted answers, but Jesus just wasn’t playing their song. Are we so different? We spend hours being entertained by television programs and ads streaming at hundreds of images every minute. We use microwave ovens to heat pre-prepared food that we eat on paper plates served on TV trays. We deplore rises in crime rates, lowered morality and social problems in the schools, and yet we don’t have time to visit the folks who moved in three doors away five months ago. We substitute entertainment items for relationships. And we wonder why our children…or we ourselves, have short attention spans. Relationships take time, and time is hard to come by in our warp speed society.

Those folks on the Galilean shore had had a treat and they wanted more. They looked straight into the eyes of the greatest miracle in the history of mankind and they saw a preacher, or a magician, or a fraud. They missed the signs completely, but they were really little different from the Christians of today.

In America, even in this recession we are now undergoing, we live in a storehouse of plenty. We have so much food; we pay farmers not to grow it. We are founded on principles of religious freedom and yet today less than half the people in the country are members of any church. We are the leading nation of the free world and yet we know all too well that most of us are looking for direction; for purpose. We are like the seekers at Capernaum. We are in trouble, both corporately and as individuals, because we’re not reading the signs correctly.

 Omar Bradley was known as the GI’s general in World War II because of his plain talk and manner. He was once quoted on his thoughts on the atomic age. He said: “We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount.”  General Bradley was commenting on the signs we are missing. What signs are you missing in your life?  

Back in Capernaum, the followers ask Jesus for a miracle. They want a sign in order to believe. They still have their minds on food, though. They point to Moses’ act of sending manna in the wilderness experience of their forefathers. For the second time in this passage, Jesus begins with the words “I tell you the truth.” Another sign. Whenever you see that in the New Testament, you need to just slow down and pay close attention. It wasn’t Moses, he said. It was God.  It wasn’t just earthly food; it was God in an act of saving deliverance, revealing himself to His people. It was grace in action.

The followers are still having trouble getting the big picture.  They are looking for the next meal, a “ham and eggs” sort of miracle, but Jesus is trolling for souls.  He’s talking about heavenly bread. And he says that it is he who comes down from heaven and gives life. He changes the menu from a morning’s fare to an everlasting feast. Life, not breakfast. Now that is a meal that keeps on feeding.  The grace in action of the Old Testament has become the grace in person of Jesus, the Christ. 

Some of those in the crowd say “Sir, from now on give us this bread.” They are really stretching, trying to get the signs right. Jesus answers with the first of seven “I am” statements found in John’s gospel. He says: “I am the bread of life.”

Can you see it? The people on the Galilean seashore that morning were looking for signs, and Jesus said: Look here. They looked for proof and he said: Look here. They wanted to fill that hole in the bellies of their lives, and he said: I have no shelf life. I am all the food you will ever need. He was the living, breathing extension of God’s grace. He was there not to give them a sign. He was the sign.

Signs are everywhere, aren’t they? They guide us to the bathroom, advise us what to buy, how to proceed, even how to be happy. The bookstores have entire shelves devoted to how to, where to, and why to. It keeps us awfully busy trying to read the signs, or read how to read the signs.

There is a story about two men on Mars looking down on earth, watching everyone scurrying here, there and everywhere. “What are they doing?” said one. “They’re going,” said the other. “But where are they going?” said the first. “Oh, they’re not going anywhere. They’re just going.” said the other. The world is full of people who are just going without knowing where they’re going or how to read the signs. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Jesus is the sign.

I started this message by saying that signs are important. Maybe I should amend that to say that there are quite a lot of signs out there. It’s important that you don’t miss the real signs while paying attention to the rest of them. Jesus is still God’s sign.

The apostle Paul knew the real sign. From a persecutor of Christians to a Damascus road conversion to missionary journeys to a Roman prison, Paul learned the real sign. In his letter to the Philippians near the end of his life, he said: “To live is Christ; to die is gain.”  For Paul, as it should be for us, Jesus was the sign.

Carrie Underwood sings a song entitled Jesus Take the Wheel. In it, a young mother spins her car out of control on an icy road with her baby in the back seat. She has missed one more sign in a world that is closing in around her. In her desperation, she cries out these words:

                             Jesus take the wheel

                             Take it from my hands

                       ‘Cause I can’t do this on my own

                                     I’m letting go

                           So give me one more chance

                        To save me from this road I’m on.

Where are you going? Do you know? Do you know the signs that will take you to where you want to go? Certainly, you are on the path, because you are here. That is no accident any more than it was for the people seeking Jesus that day. They had already been found by Him.  God’s redeeming grace had placed them there, was opening their hearts, and was coming in to save them. God came for them in the form of Jesus. They did not get the sign by coincidence. God’s grace opened the door of their hearts for some of them to believe, to get the right sign, but even before that occurred, he had sought them out, just as he seeks us out today. Look at v. 43 in this same chapter: “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.”

You are in the living room of the bride of Jesus and as surely as you are here, you can count on the presence of the groom. He, too, is here and He is calling you to come in and make yourself at home. Like the people who read the real signs at Capernaum, he has already sought you out. He is calling you to open your eyes to a light that never burns dim; to open your ears to the sweet, sweet music of eternal life; to open your hearts to a relationship that will never let you down.

Oh, you’ll still miss plenty of signs along the way, but that’s all right, because if you will let him, Jesus has the wheel.  Jesus is calling you, and he’s the only real sign you’ll ever need.

The Borne Identity (Galatians 4: 1-7) 8/5/12

 

         

In 1980, Robert Ludlum published a spy thriller novel entitled The Bourne Identity. It was the first of a trilogy of spy novels that became immensely popular and were eventually made into movies. On the silver screen, Matt Damon portrayed David Webb, a young Foreign Service officer stationed in Cambodia, whose wife and children were killed in an undeclared air strike. In his bitterness and confusion, Webb becomes an officer in the U.S. Army. He goes on to become the most successful paramilitary officer in the Army, a polite way of saying that he is a trained assassin.  He is given the name Jason Bourne and he becomes known as “Cain,” You will remember the name of Cain from the Bible as the man who killed his own brother. The movie plot develops around the attempted murder of Jason. A fishing boat crew happens upon him floating face down in the ocean and rescues him. He is suffering from amnesia. As Jason battles with would-be assassins and intrigue while he attempts to discover his identity, the audience is treated to his odyssey toward the truth. Who is this man? Is he Jason Bourne? Is he “Cain?” Is he David Webb? Regardless of the label, none of them disclose to him who he really is. What is the Bourne identity? Who is he and to whom is he connected?

The same year that Robert Ludlum was publishing The Bourne Identity, I was a bit busy myself. It was April. The bloom of promise and the rich new smells and colors that come with spring were everywhere. It was a Friday afternoon. The phone rang at my office. A Social Services worker on the line said she had good news; that our baby girl was waiting for us. Our adoption petition had been granted.

Our baby girl! Just like that. In the space of a weekend, we became parents. Our church threw us an “emergency” baby shower and we picked up our daughter. She came complete with two photographs of her first week of life, blue eyes and eyelashes long enough to be sinful. That was it. Bring your own diapers. We named her Rebekah, and then we set out to discover, and to help define, her identity. Who was she? To whom would she become connected?

Much as Jason Bourne searched through the cobwebs of his amnesia-stricken mind for the answers that would unlock the key to his identity, we watched Rebekah over the years as she puzzled and reasoned and searched her heart to find herself. But the task of finding one’s identity is not unique, nor is it confined to those legally adopted or suffering from amnesia. Far from it. The task of finding one’s identity is there for each of us to undertake. Who are we? To whom will we become connected?

The churches of first century Galatia also faced this problem of identity. So did the Corinthians and the Colossians and the Ephesians. So do the Protestant and Catholic churches of today. So do those who attend no church. So do those who profess no faith, no belief system. Who are we? To whom do we belong? How and to whom are we connected?

The apostle Paul has an answer for the churches under his care. He tells the Galatians that there is only one gospel. He tells them that they are justified by faith through the grace of God. He asks them to put on Christ like they would put on clothes; to wear him as they would their own skin. Then he tells them that if they belong to Christ, they are heirs. Paul is talking about adoption.

The concept of adoption was even more frequent and important in Roman society than it is today. Adoption was understood well enough that Paul used it five different times in his Biblical writing to illustrate the relationship between God and his people. Theologian Everett Ferguson tells us that the person adopted in first century Roman society “was taken out of his previous condition, all old debts were cancelled, and he started a new life in the relation of sonship to the new parent, whose family name he took and to whose inheritance he was entitled.” 1 It could happen at any age. It was a legal act attested by witnesses. Adoption law has changed very little in this regard since the days of Roman rule.   

Paul tells the Galatian Christians that they are heirs of God himself. They are heirs of the promise that God made to Abraham. They are heirs of the promise! Jesus comes to redeem them and they receive adoption. They are God’s children and because of that, they also receive the Spirit of God’s Son into their hearts. They are no longer slaves to the law, to sin, to their own selfishness. They are sons and daughters, heirs of God himself! And once adopted, the status is irreversible. One cannot un-adopt a child any more than he or she can deny the paternity of a blood related child. You can repudiate the relationship, but you cannot change its existence.  Paul reminds the Galatian Christians that in order to receive this greatest of all unions, all it takes is faith. His words speak as powerfully to the church today as they did so long ago. Through faith in Christ Jesus we are all sons of God.

          On her twenty first birthday, I wrote a poem for my daughter Rebekah. Actually, I think I wrote it more for me than her. I wanted a reminder of what God had done for me. One of the verses goes like this:

                   Once upon a prayer,

                   Born of earth and borne to him

She came,

And now, upon that prayer renewed,

She goes forth, born to the world.

The word “born” is like so many other words in our language. It has one pronunciation, but several spellings and uses. In the movie it was a proper name spelled B-o-u-r-n-e. In my poem, it has two more spellings. One is b-o-r-n, meaning one who is given birth. The last one is spelled b-o-r-n-e-, which can mean “to carry”. Being borne, or carried, becomes a familiar and welcome theme for the person seeking Christian identity.

          Identity can be as tricky as the words we use to describe it. Who are you? To whom are you connected? Are you like David, the young diplomat who let his bitterness change his personality? Are you like Jason, who came to be known by reputation as Cain, the taker of life? Are you like the new Jason, the man who found his real identity and wanted to know more?

          Galatians 4 reminds us that all that the heavy lifting has already been done. If we have faith we are adopted. If we are adopted we are in the family. Once when my first two children, only eleven months apart, were very young, I was pushing them around the block in a stroller. A woman came up to me, admiring the two blonde headed blued eyes toddlers. She complimented them and asked me: “Which one is your real daughter?” She got the only answer a real father would ever give: both! Take it from one who knows; there is no difference. The heart of a parent rises and falls for every child under his or her wing. It is not their DNA that matters. They are part of us because we have claimed them as our own. Paul reminds us that we only borrow that concept from God. He is the author of those feelings.

          Adoption is a two way street. Yes, God, or a parent, adopts the child. In the legal sense, it is a one-way process. But there is more to it than that. Along the way, the child adopts you right back. Law gives way to something much higher, much deeper. No papers are signed, no gavel is banged, but it happens. What starts out as an act of one becomes a mutual bond. Ask Rebekah. She’s not just my daughter. I’m her Daddy! Paul says as much in verse 6: “and because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying ‘Abba! Father!’ ”

I can still remember the feeling I had when they handed me that precious bundle of life. There was fullness in my heart that words cannot describe. Imagine what our heavenly father feels when we give our hearts to him. He loves us with a depth we cannot fathom and waits patiently for us to discover that he is our true parent.

Heirs redeemed in adoption as sons, with the Spirit of his Son sent into our hearts! This is God’s promise to us, articulated by the apostle Paul. Claim it. Claim it all! It just does not get any better than this. 

1 Backgrounds of Early Christianity, Third Edition, p. 65.