Wisdom From the Spirit (1 Cor. 2: 1-16) 11/18/12

We are in the information age.  Technological advances of the last two decades are mind boggling. Today we can calculate, process data, see each other through webcams, access music, books, even entire libraries on a wireless cellphone. We can read a book on an electronic tablet. We can buy groceries, have pizza delivered, check our bank accounts, pay our bills and much more without leaving our den. Television broadcasts hundreds of channels from all over the globe. You can make quality photographs on your printer, get news almost instantly from around the planet on your laptop. Information is at our fingertips.

Medical science has made huge advances. Dozens of diseases have been almost entirely eradicated. Hip and knee replacements are common. Organ transplants occur routinely. We can get lung, liver, kidney, cornea, even heart transplants. We know lots more about health and hygiene, what’s healthy for us to eat, what food portions are good for us, the importance of regular exercise. We are taller and stronger and live years longer than we used to.

We can propel vehicles with gasoline, ethanol, electricity and in the not too distant future, even solar power. We can produce energy not just with fossil fuels, natural gas and water, but also through wind and solar cells. Eight countries now have nuclear weapons capability, each with the power to blow up whole cities.

We have nations rich in foodstuffs, other nations rich in oil reserves, yet others rich with plentiful workforces. As a planet, we have enough resources to feed and clothe and heat and cool the world.

With all the information now available to us, we must be more educated. Well, at least more informed, more savvy. We have so much information at our disposal; we should be in the age of wisdom.

And yet, on any given day, 25,000 men, women and children die from hunger. Another 1.6 million die every year from poor drinking water. At least a dozen nations are in some stage of war at any given time. AIDS is in epidemic proportions in many African nations. One person dies from AIDS every 15 seconds. Measles kills a million people every year, even though a measles vaccination can be obtained for less than $1.00.  Human rights are trampled upon in much of the world. In the United States, almost 37 million people are on the welfare rolls, and we still have soldiers on the battle line in at least three countries. Many countries view the U.S. as the deliverer of democracy with a rifle.  Even in the information age, poverty and war remain familiar companions to our society.

So, where do we find wisdom? Is it in our elected leaders, or the stock market, or our personal banker? Sadly, we have many resources to inform us of the state of the world, but few who advocate the true road to wisdom. Often, we draw upon the wisdom of the world in which we live and work to get our answers about what to do with our time, and our talents, and our money. Is there wisdom in this approach?

1^st Corinthians is a letter from the apostle Paul to the Corinthian Christians. There is more Pauline correspondence to Corinth than to any other place. Corinth was multi-ethnic, multi-racial and cross-cultural. In other words, it was a lot like a modern U.S. city. The Pauline letters to the church in Corinth have much in common with issues in the church today. Paul had come to Corinth from Athens, where he had tried philosophical arguments to make his point. He was unsuccessful. In fact, he was run out of town. He changed his tactics in Corinth. By his own words, he preached “Christ crucified” [1:22].  In other words, he relied on Christ’s message to put the right thoughts in his head and the right words in his mouth.

 In today’s Scripture, Paul writes a message to the members of the new church in Corinth. Although almost two thousand years have elapsed since he set pen in hand, his advice to the church is still as timely as it was in the first century.

Paul says this: “We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing” [v.6]. Paul reminds us that worldly wisdom is virtually useless to us when trying to discern the ways of the Spirit. He goes on to say that this “wisdom” is hidden, secret to God, revealed only from God, and only to those who believe. If one does not hear through the Spirit of God, then one cannot hear the message… or gain the wisdom, of the Spirit.

Now, doesn’t that sound like circular reasoning? If you don’t believe in God, then you can’t get the message. If you can’t get the message, you can’t become wise in the Spirit. If you can’t acquire Spiritual wisdom, how can you deal with this world spiritually? If you can’t deal with this world spiritually, how can you really say that you believe in God?

Paul’s answer is deceptively simple. Believe in God, and seek the truths of the Spirit in order to find Spiritual wisdom and direction.

So how can you come to believe in God when you are raised not in heaven but in this flawed world? Again, Paul’s answer is simple: Believe in God and seek His face. How? God will give you what you need to seek Him. God has already equipped every one of us with the grace required to seek Him, with the heart necessary to find Him, with the Word written to reveal Him. What do we have to do? Listen. Christian wisdom comes not from human discovery, but from divine disclosure.

 Watch or read the news or listen to it on the radio, and you read or hear about the issues of the country from the media. The major issues before us are how to get the economy going again or healthcare reform or illegal immigration or pro-life or pro-choice, to name a few.

Depending upon which political party or which media center or which state they are in at the time, our elected leaders offer us various solutions. No matter who we elect, our problems aren’t going away. Our country has got to get along with the rest of the world because we have become interdependent upon one another, and sadly, it has become out of vogue to look toward divine guidance as a source of direction. The concept of separation of church and state, designed to protect us from a state controlled church, has wrongly become separation of governmental policy from Christian policy.    

The real policy that God’s people should endorse is found in the 21^st chapter of John. Jesus has risen from the grave and has joined the disciples on the shore of the Sea of Tiberias.  Jesus asks Peter three different times if Peter loves Him. Each time Peter says yes. As if to answer Peter on how to show his love, Jesus says three straight times: “Feed my sheep.”

          What was Peter told to do? Feed the hungry, shelter the poor and the widows. These are the mandates of the early church. These are the mandates of Jesus Himself. Jesus never said: Go ye therefore and build buildings. He said “teach all nations.” He never said: And now I am with you, even until the end of worship service. He said “even until the end of this age.” The job of the Church has never changed. It is the same, whether the church has 40 members or 400 or 4000 members. Feed my sheep. Jesus was referring not only to food for the belly, but also food for the soul.  Jesus wed himself to the Church through His disciples in order that they, and we, would feed the world with the Good News of Jesus Christ. That Good News is his life, death, resurrection, ascension to heaven and the saving grace he made freely available to every single one of us.

          “We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing,” says Paul. What is this message of wisdom? “Christ is our righteousness, holiness and redemption” [v.1:30]. Paul says that the only person who can tell us about God is the Spirit of God. This by no means frees us from the responsibility of human effort. If you want to receive the full measure of great teaching, you have to work at it. We must pray to have the mind of Christ, for only when he dwells within us can we deal effectively with the influence of this material world upon our thoughts and our actions. By prayer, by time spent in God’s Word, by cultivating relationships with other Christians, we come to the wisdom that is Christian maturity.

 If, according to Paul, only God’s people can understand Spiritual wisdom, then how do we convey our understanding to others not yet so inclined? Not everyone grows up in church, and even of those who do, the Church has been losing them in record numbers. So how do we talk to people who don’t as yet have the Spiritual wisdom to hear us?  

First, we don’t need to “talk” people into belief in Christ; we need to “live” them into it. Ever tried to make a green bean? Can’t be done. But you can plant bean seeds. And if you do, chances are you’ll have more green beans than you can eat. The harvest belongs to God. Always has. But the planting: now that’s a different story. God has given that task to us, the people of God. In Matthew 5: 16, Jesus says: “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”

Secondly, we do not know who God’s people are. God created every one of us.  Everyone is a child of God. My job is not to identify. My job is to go, teach and baptize, and that is the job of every Christian.

Do you believe in the Good News of Jesus Christ? Has that belief changed your life? If is hasn’t, you need to seriously re-examine your commitments. If it has, then please, for God’s sake, don’t keep it a secret. Don’t be fooled by our material world. Wisdom is much, much more than knowledge. Walk the walk. Plant the seeds.  That, brothers and sisters, is Spiritual wisdom.

The Mighty Mite (Mark 12; 39-44) 11/11/12

In the 1950’s and ‘60’s, one of the most beloved super heroes on Saturday morning television was an animated character produced by Terrytoons. He was about as small as one could get, but he could fly and he could fight. His name was Mighty Mouse. The theme song started out “Here I come to save the day. That means that Mighty Mouse is on the way.” Mighty Mouse was a mouse; he was tiny; he was a cartoon character. But I watched that little guy take on the bad guys over and over. He never quit and he never lost. That little cartoon mouse was a serious role model for me. It always fascinated me that something so small could possess so much power. Such is the lesson to be learned from Jesus’ teaching in Mark 12 about the scribes and the widow.

Walking through the grounds of the temple in Jerusalem, Jesus is engaging the Pharisees and scribes on a number of subjects. A scribe questions Jesus about the greatest commandment. Jesus tells the scribe about love of God and neighbor. Then Jesus turns to the subject of kingdom behavior. To make his point, he tells two stories. Each is instructive about true Godly leadership; true Godly obedience.

Jesus first warns those who would listen to beware of the scribes. Jesus says they walk around in long robes that prevent them from working, that they sit in the best seats in the synagogue, in the places of honor at feasts, that they devour widow’s houses, that they make long prayers for the pretense of being important. This is quite an indictment.  The scribes are among the best educated religious people in Israel and yet Jesus says to be wary of them. Notice that Jesus does not condemn all the scribes. Indeed, he has just complimented a scribe in the previous passage for being not that far from the kingdom of heaven. But for those who practice the kind of behavior to which Jesus is calling attention, Jesus says that they will receive the greater condemnation.

It was typical of the time for scribes to wear long, flowing robes which swept the ground. This was the sign of importance. You can’t hurry or work when your clothing is dragging the ground. The same kind of thing is true for the seats of honor which the scribes demanded. On the right hand of the host at dinner. Up front in a place of prominence at the synagogue. Everything said “Look at me. I’m important.” The charge about the widow’s houses is also mentioned by the Jewish historian Josephus, in connection with the Pharisees’ taking advantage of gullible widows and literally taking over their homes. They were Rabbis, and they conveyed the thought that nothing could be more rewarding than to put up and feed a man of God so that he could concentrate on his studies.

So Jesus says beware. Beware of those who would have you believe they are men of God. His indictment says look to their behavior. Do they act like men of God? He has only just finished talking about the greatest commandments. Then he turns his attention to the so-called religious leaders of the nation, and he says watch out. Do these men act with love? What is their real motive? The loudest prayers and the slowest walkers and the people always up front are not necessarily who they say they are. They are using religion for self-advancement. They are using their religious connections for personal gain. This is not the kind of leadership or example that Jesus teaches.

Then Jesus takes a seat in the courtyard. He is people-watching. I love to do that, don’t you? You can learn so much if you camp out on a park bench or sit on a towel on the sand at the beach. It’s better than going to the movies.  Jesus does it in the temple courtyard.  William Barclay says that Jesus was probably sitting at a place called the Gate Beautiful, a spot between the Court of the Gentiles, where he had been speaking, and the Court of the Women. This makes good sense, because Mark describes a donation being made by a woman. Both men and women were allowed in the Court of the Women, but this is where women would have made their donations. The temple treasury was also located there, and there were thirteen different trumpet-shaped boxes used for collecting those donations.   

While Jesus watches, many rich people are coming by and making large contributions.  Then Jesus spots a woman making a donation. She is a widow, and she is obviously poor. She puts in two mites, or two copper coins, the value of which is about a half of a penny.  We know this as the story of the Widow’s Mite.

How powerful! Less than a penny, and Jesus calls over his disciples to tell them of this major contribution, for the widow has given all that she had. The widow didn’t hold back anything. While others gave from their excess, the widow gave from her essence. The smallest gift became packed with power.

In this story, the final incident in Jesus’ public ministry, we can clearly see a foreshadowing of what Jesus was about to do for us. The widow gave all she had for her Lord; Jesus gave all he had for humankind. Mark uses a poor widow to make his point, that it’s not the market value of the gift, but rather the cost to the donor, that counts.

Today, we come to donate not only our tithes and offerings, but also shoeboxes—shoeboxes filled with socks and shoes and pencils and tee shirts and school supplies. To that will be added a little tract called “The Greatest Gift of All.” The booklet will tell the story of Jesus and his love for all of us. It will tell how he died for us; how he gave all that he had for us. Operation Christmas Child is a Christian effort to reach those who have nothing. They can relate to the widow better than we can. The shoeboxes we have packed will find their way to countries and villages we have never heard of, to children we will never see. But God will. God will count the smiles that this effort reaches, the lives that it touches. These gifts that seem so small are packed with God’s power.

The cost for Jesus was supreme. There was nothing held back. Today on this day that we remember those who have served our country, some with the last full measure of devotion, it is a day to also remember the cost of giving that our Lord spent for us. Today as we celebrate this truly American holiday commemorating harder times survived and thanking God for our abundance, it is also a day to remember that it is not that way for many of our fellow man all over our world. They not only do not have the abundance; they lack the very necessities we have come to take for granted; plentiful food, warmth and shelter, basic nutrition, running water, sanitation.  It is a day to understand how mighty even a widow’s mite can be…when given at the cost she paid.

While we carve the Thanksgiving turkey and dine on the dressing and all the other trappings of our feast, let us give pause to remember why we filled those shoeboxes and where they are headed. Let us give pause to remember the sentry walking his post, the sailor standing his watch, the airman doing the maintenance. Let us give pause to remember the might of the widow’s gift, the cost of salvation to our Lord…and the power of love that each of us has been given to give away. Let us all find the power of God that lies within us, and let that be our gift to our Lord this day…and every day. 

It's Not That Far (Mark 12: 28-34) 11/4/12

             It’s Not That Far

               Mark 12: 28-34

          In the Sinai desert at the base of the mountain, Moses assembled the people of Israel. He had been on the mountain for several days communing with God and came down bearing the tablets of the Law. The people had sent him up the mountain because they were afraid to hear the voice of the Lord. So Moses went for them. After reading them the Ten Commandments, Moses says “Hear, O Israel.” What comes next is known as the Shema, from the Hebrew meaning “Hear.” The Shema says this: “The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart” You can find these words in the sixth chapter of Deuteronomy (6: 4, 5).

          The 19^th chapter of Leviticus is a call to Holiness and refers often to the Ten Commandments. In verse 18, it is said that “You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.”

          Both of these statements are directed to God’s people of the Exodus, the nation of Israel. In the intervening years from the Exodus to the life of Jesus, about 1200 to 1400 years depending on which scholar is doing the counting, the Jewish leadership managed to turn the Ten Commandments into 613 laws, 365 negative and 248 positive. The Pharisees of Jesus’ time were the proud guardians of those laws. They were the meticulous observers of each and every law. The scribes, those entrusted with the interpretation and writing of the law, were also involved in this observation of ritual legalism. No wonder that even among a sea of questions designed to trap Jesus, a scribe would come forward with a legitimate question. What’s the most important? In a book full of laws, which is the one that surpasses the rest?

          Others had a similar idea. David recited eleven precepts in Psalm 15, from walking blamelessly to not taking a bribe.  Isaiah cut the list to six (Is 33:15) and later to two (Is 56: 1). Micah is my personal favorite. His list of three included to “do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly before your Lord.” (Mi 6: 8). And Habakkuk said simply: “The righteous shall live by faith” (Ha 2: 4).  But in the Synoptic Gospels, Jesus quotes Deuteronomy and Leviticus, calling them the Great Commandments (Mk 12: 28-34, Mt 22: 34-40, Lk 10: 25-28).

Does it take 613 laws to follow God? Hardly! Jesus didn’t negate the law of the Old Testament. He told us that he came not to do away with it, but to fulfill it. But Jesus wasn’t talking about 613 regulations designed by men as interpretation of what it takes to be obedient to God. Jesus knew full well the law of God and how to be obedient to its spirit. What Jesus did in our passage today was to prioritize the law. Love the Lord with all you have and love your neighbor as yourself.

Martin Luther put it this way: “Love God, and do as you please.” Could it possibly be that simple? Of course it can. It’s mankind which makes it hard to follow God. God’s law couldn’t be more simple. But simple is not the same as easy. In his blueprint for mankind, God chose to make us in his image. In the bundle of gifts that go with that design, he included free will. After all, that’s part of his image, too. Free will in the garden meant the ability to turn away just as much as it allowed Adam and Eve to follow. They chose to disobey, and here we are. We are still making those choices, still flexing our disobedience. In our God-instilled consciences, we reach out to him, make laws and erect traffic lights to regulate ourselves. In our God-breathed free will, we turn our backs on him, on our families, his church, our fellow man. Following God’s law couldn’t be more simple, but easy? No.

Ever been on the way to church and passed a car in distress, only to keep on going? Stopping to help would make you late for church and you have to teach. Ever stood in front of church and watched some one walk down the sidewalk looking hungry, homeless and lost? Maybe you thought about helping, about inviting him or her in, but she would probably just say no. And what would you do with her after church? The kingdom of heaven is beautiful, but planet earth is just plain messy.

In John Bunyan’s great classic, Pilgrim’s Progress, our hero Christian embarks on a journey from his home (earth), to the Celestial City (heaven). He is seeking deliverance from the sin he discovered about himself by reading the Bible. Along the way, Mr. Worldly Wiseman and Mr. Legality divert Christian from his path, persuading him that he will find his deliverance through the Law. Christian barely escapes the crushing burden of the law, being pulled back on the right path just in time by Evangelist.  Back on the King’s Highway, it is Goodwill who directs Christian down the straight and narrow path to the Celestial City. It should come as no surprise that Goodwill turns out to be none other than Christ himself.

It’s not that far, you see. If you walk down the straight and narrow and listen to and obey the urging of Goodwill, you will be on the King’s Highway, and it is a much more level climb to the top. Like the Pilgrim of John Bunyan, you too will find deliverance at the Cross of Calvary. Just like that Christian of old, you will climb the Hill of Difficulty, pass through the Valley of the Shadow and have many other experiences on your way to the Holy City. Hopefully, like Bunyan’s Christian, you will find the House Beautiful, which is the church, and there you will find fellowship and comfort in your pilgrimage. You will learn to turn away from would-be friends like Ignorance, who would have you to believe that good deeds are enough to get you to heaven, only to arrive without a passport and be turned away.

If Christian’s character sounds familiar, he should. He is the allegorical Everyman of literature. We all have hills to climb and valleys to cross and rivers to ford. But in the twelfth chapter of Mark, Jesus points us to the King’s Highway. “…and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” Live by that rule and the kingdom of heaven will be close enough to touch.

Jesus added another commandment. I think the love of neighbor is implicit in the first commandment to love God. I expect that Jesus thought so too. So why did he add it? I think he did it to clarify that which was commanded in Leviticus. In that Old Testament command, it was directed to the people of Israel. “You shall not take vengeance…against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus removes the condition about one’s own people. He says simply: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” No restrictions, no conditions.  With Jesus, the question is not who your neighbor is, but who your neighbor isn’t. He doesn’t limit his interpretation of the commandment. And neither should we.

Can you see the King’s Highway now? Look for the road signs. They are in the eyes of the people you meet. They are in the open hands you present to them. They are in the hugs and embraces you give to them and in the time you take with them. This is worth much more than all the burnt offerings and sacrifices the scribe could make. This is worth much more than all the tithes and offerings you will ever make.

God’s kingdom is not just where you end up. It’s in the journey, too. Don’t work for your reward. You can’t earn it. Instead, experience the journey. Let grace be your watchword, both in how you extend a helping hand and in what you hope for in return. Make your pilgrimage be a kingdom experience. “And when Jesus saw that the scribe answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not that far from the kingdom of God.”

Let us pray.     11/4/12

Satan's Curse or God's Caress? (2 Cor. 12: 7-10, Job 2: 7-10) 10/28/12

A neighbor of mine spent 45 years as a paraplegic. The accident happened when she was returning from a beach trip following her high school graduation with distinction. She was on the way to college. Her little sister was in the same van and wasn’t hurt. A church friend lost his only child to drug related suicide and his only granddaughter to a fatal auto accident at the age of 14. Famous people are not exempt. The actor Christopher Reeves, in the prime of his life, took a tumble on a horseback ride, and spent the rest of his life as a quadriplegic. Why is that? Why do such bad things happen to such good people?

           It happens to us as well. I’m betting that you, or your brother, or sister or mother or cousin or friend…have been there. When I was sixteen, my wonderful mother went into deep depression. Over the next 18 months, she spent 12 of them in a mental institution. My father lived in denial to get through it all. He coped by diving into his work. Since I was the oldest still at home, I became the head of the household by default. Why is that? What did I do to deserve that? What did my mother do to have to undergo such an experience?

            When you see someone at the bottom or you think that maybe you yourself are going there, it’s a very scary place, not just for the one who suffers, but also for the caregiver involved. It will change the way you look at life. It will change the way you live it.

          The Bible is full of such stories. Two of the most familiar are about Job in the Old Testament and Paul in the New Testament. Let’s take a few moments to look at these two men, as well as Sarah, Ruth and Barnabus, three of the caregivers in the Bible. Each has a story to tell us about why bad things happen to good people.

          First, the Scripture.  Several books and part of the Psalms comprise a collection of Old Testament books commonly known as wisdom literature. Prominent among this small collection is the Book of Job, a story of a righteous man upon whom Satan is loosed with God’s consent. Satan visits a series of misfortunes upon Job, any one of which would destroy most people. As Job labors under the strain of devastating loss, from fortune to family to health, he perseveres in his faith. His righteous example is held up for all to see. In Chapter 2, after having already lost virtually everything, he is beset with boils. He scrapes his skin with a flat stone, continually re-opening the wounds. His wife, who has “had it”, challenges him: “Are you still holding on to your integrity?” she asks. And she follows with: “Curse God and die!” Job responds: “Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?”

          In the 12^th chapter of Second Corinthians, the great apostle Paul refers to a thorn in his flesh. He says that on three different occasions, he prayed that he would be delivered from this unknown, but terrible, affliction. God’s answer is to rely on His grace; that God’s power is made perfect in weakness. Let’s say that one again. God’s power is made perfect in our weakness.

 In the days of the patriarchs, God is described as coming down to earth for occasional visits. On one such occasion, God, apparently accompanied by two angels, comes to see Abraham. He promises that Abraham will be the father of nations. He promises that Sarah will have a son. Sarah, now ninety years old, overhears the conversation and laughs out loud. Indeed, at the birth of their son the next year, the child is named Isaac, which means “laughter.” But the upshot of Abraham’s faith is that Sarah, at ninety years of age, sustains a pregnancy and begins rearing this child promised by God. Abraham gets the fame; Sarah gets the morning sickness, the labor of pregnancy and childbirth. Sarah is one of many caregivers in the Bible.

 Ruth is a beautiful but widowed Moabite woman. Naomi, her mother in law, is Jewish. Naomi outlives her sons, ande is forced to return to her homeland of Judah, as she is penniless and must live at the mercy of her family of origin. She releases her daughters in law to remain in Moab, but Ruth protests. She pledges to stay at Naomi’s side, even though it means going to a foreign country. In chapter 1, Ruth utters the words so familiar to us now: “Where you go I will go and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.”

          And then there is Barnabus, perhaps my favorite among the Bible’s caregivers. Barnabus traveled with Paul on their first missionary journey. Embarking from Antioch, they went to the island of Cyprus and on to the province of Galatia.  A young John Mark accompanied them, but left them in Perga to return home for reasons we do not know. The always opinionated Paul was not happy about this turn of events. Upon their return, Paul and Barnabus went to Jerusalem to make their case to the Church leaders there. Paul needed Barnabus, who was highly respected, to help make their case, as Paul’s credibility in Jerusalem was not yet sufficient. Paul and Barnabus got the recognition and approval they sought. Yet on the next missionary journey, Paul dismissed Barnabus because Barnabus wanted John Mark to go with them again. So they went their separate ways.

Why do bad things happen to good people? How can some people continue to give and give, facing nothing but thankless praise, empty promises or rejection from the very persons to whom they bring care? Why does God put you in a place where you have some control over your life and then uproot you to start over somewhere else with something or someone entirely different? You’re not going to get the final answer to any of these questions today, but maybe you will get some amplification on the subject that will help you grapple with these age old questions.

          Paul says “there was given me a thorn in the flesh,” implying that God is the giving agent. He describes his affliction as “a messenger of Satan to torment” him. This is not unlike what God allowed to happen to Job. Whether God sends the problem or just doesn’t stop Satan from his delivery, we don’t always know. Sometimes I think our Creator just picks righteous men and women from our midst and holds them up as examples to the rest of us. At the end of the day, it is the learning, the spiritual maturity and the trust that counts, not whether the event is God inspired or Satan sent. Regardless of the origin, the outcome for the believer is ultimately the illumination of God’s power and grace. From each experience, our trust in God grows. As Paul says, take delight in the hardships, for when you are weak, you are made strong through God’s grace.

  “Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” asks Job. My neighbor would say you have to accept both. In an adult life lived as a paraplegic, she learned to do tax returns and worked from home, volunteered regularly at the hospital, drove a car and still remained a caregiver to her aging parents. She died not too long ago after a life of giving and caring for others. She would not describe herself as handicapped.

“Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” My church friend would say you should accept both. With God’s help, he has risen above family tragedy. He says humbly that the death of his granddaughter at such a young age has probably had more influence on her peers than her life may have had. Even now, young men and women flock to a website to remember her and to remark how they have been touched in some positive way by an encounter with her. My friend works faithfully to cook meals for church events and knows God more personally and deeply than ever before.

Christopher and Dana Reeves would say we must accept both. Christopher ultimately died as a result of his severed spinal cord, and Dana from lung cancer though she had not smoked for years. But after Reeve’s injury, those two set the world on fire with their achievements in the field of spinal cord injuries. Even now, the foundation they started continues to raise money and awareness to sponsor medical research in that field.  

“Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” Look at the lives of Job and Sarah, Ruth and Barnabus. Nations have sprung from that one seed that Sarah bore. As surely as Abraham is the father of those nations, so Sarah is the mother. You know the rest of Ruth’s story. She journeys to Judah, works in the fields, meets and ultimately marries Boaz. Naomi is provided for and Ruth becomes one of the matriarchs in the genealogy of Jesus. And what about Barnabus?  At the end of Paul’s life, it is faithful Barnabus who is there with Paul giving him aid and comfort. I get the feeling that Barnabus was always there for Paul, even though Paul was often so intense that he didn’t realize all that Barnabus meant to him and his ministry.

“Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” asks Job. It is a question for each of us to answer in our own hearts. I can tell you this from personal experience. I have learned that I need all that God sends. That time I spent as a teenager with a mentally ill mother is still hard for me to talk about. It was sometimes embarrassing, always lonely, often just plain scary. But church friends and one high school teacher found me, checked on me, put their arms around me, and I found meaning in the saying that “it takes a village to raise a child” I began to experience God’s grace at work in me.

Years later, other events were to come my way that would make that time pale in comparison, and I was destined to learn in a very personal way that God does not move. It is we who are like the tide, ever ebbing and flowing. We are the ones that move. Sometimes, as in Paul’s case, a “thorn” comes along and can help prevent spiritual conceit. Sometimes, God will vaccinate us with a misfortune or misstep in order to immunize us from a future and otherwise paralyzing blow. And sometimes, I think, God will use us precisely because of the good we can do others by remaining people of faith through trials and adversity.

For 33 years, He walked among us. He ate our food, drank our wine, toiled and labored under the same sun. For 3 years, He told us who He was and why He had come. He never sinned. He did good to everyone with whom He came in contact.  One fateful night, He went into a garden and prayed, and He prayed the same prayer you and I have prayed before. Deliver me, He prayed. Don’t make me go there. But in the end, he prayed one more line, “Not my will, but thy will be done,” He said. Less than twenty four hours later, they took His speared and spent body down from a Calvary cross and handed it over to a few broken hearted women for burial. They collected His body, but they could not break the immortal seal of His soul, for He was already atoning for the sins of all for all time. It was the ransom that bought and paid for you and me. And the gates of Hell could not hold Him. He rose and he lives today and forever.

Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble? Jesus is our model. He came for trouble. He asked for trouble. And when trouble sought and found Him, He did what you and I must do today. He placed Himself squarely in the hands of God and said, “Thy will be done.”  What followed changed the course of history.

So when Satan decides you’re looking a little too close to God and throws temptation in your way, or when God decides to work on your character or just to use you to testify for Him through your life, let it come. God may test you, but He will never tempt you. Satan may send the curse, but it is the caress of God Himself that you will ultimately experience. It won’t be easy, and you will shed some tears. But God will not send more to you than you can bear, and He will remain right at your side. God’s overarching providence always produces good, even from evil.

It has been said that God is not nearly so concerned with our comfort as He is with our character. Character is not a DNA thing. You aren’t born with it. You have to earn your stripes. Good character is most often forged in the fire of adversity and hammered into shape in the hands of experience. In the process, and in our weakness, God’s awesome power and love can be reflected in the likeness that emerges. And what an awesome reflection that can be. You just won’t believe how strong and beautiful that reflection might become.

The Basket Revisited (Gal. 5: 22-25) 10/14/12

On a really good day, I wake up almost in prayer as my eyes open. On those days, I feel the presence of God with me from the razor on my face in the early morning to walking the dog right before bedtime. On those days, I have self control. I can field the calls of impatient clients, deal with the irritating emails of vendors and put up with the lack of time to finish even half the chores of the day. On those days, I have patience to deal with the world. When I have self-control, I have patience, I can be gentle; I can be good. I am able to be kind. All of this because I wake up with the Spirit of God and don’t push him away. Being obedient to that call makes me faithful. Those are the best days. Those are the days and the ways that bring my life fully into the experience that God planned for me long before I was born. Those are the days that I find love…and joy…and peace in the life that God designed for me long before there was even a word for church. Love, joy, peace—they are the produce of the garden of the Fruit of the Spirit.

I was walking through the cemetery here at Rocky Creek last week. I do that from time to time, trying to become familiar with the names of some of the saints who have passed this way. I came upon a stone marked Angus Johnson. Many of you know that name. Many of you can trace your ancestry back to Angus Johnson. Or to the Johnson girls, Kat and Crit, John’s daughters. They donated part of the land the church sits on today. That’s another fruit to go in Paul’s basket—the fruit of generosity. But Johnson is only one. There are many other names listed on those markers next door to the church. The heritage of service to God from this area goes back well over a hundred years.

The seeds of this church trace back to 1848 in our recorded history. That’s about the same time they discovered gold in California and the Gold Rush started in the West. As some journeyed in Conestoga Wagons to make their fortune in California, others were laboring in Chesterfield County here in South Carolina to make their community a place where God could be worshipped. Yoked with the churches of Jefferson and/or MeBee for over ninety years, this church struck out on its own only a few years ago. The little church planted so many years ago in a field of three now stands on its own, awaiting and pursuing God’s call to make new fruit for this community.

Fruit makes a great analogy for lots of things. It has variety. It has many flavors. It is healthy and good for us. It is colorful. Fruit comes in all shapes and sizes, from a grape or cherry to a watermelon. God’s church is like that. There are Presbyterians and Lutherans and Methodists and Episcopals and Baptists. There are Roman Catholics and Orthodox Catholics and Coptics. There are conservatives and liberals and Evangelicals and Pentecostals. We worship in cathedrals and temples and chapels and gymnasiums… and even under shade trees. It takes a basket to hold all the different churches and denominations that have sprung up to worship God.

What’s your favorite fruit taste? Is it the sweetness of a cherry? The wetness of a watermelon? The crisp, sweet bite into an apple? The tanginess of an orange or a grapefruit?  The meatiness of a banana? The fruitiness of a pineapple? And then, there are peaches! You can’t talk about fruit in this area and not mention peaches! Fruit comes in shades and variations of sweet and sour and salty. It comes in green and pink and red and yellow and orange and blue. It is long or round or smooth or fuzzy or ribbed. It is like people, isn’t it? They too come in all shapes and sizes and colors. And just as God made all those different fruits, he also made all those different people. It takes a basket to cover Americans and Europeans and Africans and Eskimos and Aussies and Asians. Like the song says: “Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight.” Every one of us made by God.

The Fruit of the Spirit is a wonderful concept. Nine virtues are mentioned by Paul, but I don’t think they are an exclusive club. This message has added generosity to the list. Can you add one of your own? Paul’s point is not that these nine virtues are the magic beans that will make everything work. Paul’s point is, rather, that living the Christian life means living out a menu of character traits that come together to make us complete as witnesses to our risen Lord. These are virtues that work together to hammer out a complete package of humanity. Take out any one and you suffer. They go together.

Most of you know that my son is a helicopter pilot.  His job is a pretty good example of what I mean about our lives needing the whole basket of virtues to find the peace and joy and love that God promises us. My son Ethan uses his hand and both feet to guide, maneuver and fly that bird. He uses his eyes to see not only where he is going but also to take in the information flashing on dozens of instruments in the cockpit. It takes practically every part of his body to fly, together with lots of concentration. If he tries to fly without benefit of all that integration of body and mind, he won’t fly well or long. So it is with the Fruit of the Spirit. Our love and joy and peace come from applying all those other fruits in a way that honors our Savior.  

Sometimes we hear statements that seem to imply that God wants us all to be the same. And yet, we have all these nations, all these forms of government? Why can’t we all be one color? My youngest daughter asked me just the other night why we had to have so many different denominations.  Perhaps the answers to these questions have more than one layer. First, I don’t think that God wants us all to be the same, at least in those sorts of ways.  I think God likes diversity. Look at what he did to fruit. Fruit comes, as we have noted, in all shapes, sizes, colors and tastes. So does geography and weather and yes, people too. God made sure of that diversity in his treatment of the Tower of Babel. In Genesis 1:28, God says to Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. In Genesis 10, the writer tells us that the whole earth had one language and the same words. The people began to build a tower. They began a work to keep them in one place where they could obtain great power. God saw it and changed it. He confused their language and dispersed them “from there over the face of all the earth” (10:7). God made sure that his mandate to fill the earth would come to pass.  God likes variety. We can all be very different and still be loved by God.

On another level, the very first chapter of the Bible also reminds us that each of us is made in God’s image (1:27). God’s image. We are made like him. God has made us all. He has made us short and he has made us tall. He has made us Greek and he has made us Cherokee. He has made farmers and machinists and paupers and kings. So from that I think we should conclude that God is not concerned about gender or color or height or weight or geography or language or nationality or really anything that we members of the human race count as our differences. We are made is his image. We are the people of God. Our God-DNA is not chemistry; it’s our fruit! It’s that basket of character traits we have been talking about. It’s the Spirit of God himself manifested in our thoughts, in our actions, in our lives. God did make us the same, but not in our color or language or tastes. He made us the same in the way our Spirits are like his.

In a few minutes we will all be blessed by the benediction and end this service, only to reconvene in our fellowship hall to celebrate Homecoming for this church. Similar activities are going on all around the Presbytery this month. This reminds me of yet another fruit to go into our basket, the fruit of hospitality. In fact, Paul mentions hospitality elsewhere in his letters.

Ever played the game “Hot and Cold?” As you get closer to the target, you get warmer. You get colder as you move further away. The Fruit of the Spirit is to me the hot side of Christianity. It’s where all the warmth comes from. Only a few verses earlier, Paul talks to the Galatian churches about all the bad things to stay away from. These are the cold parts that keep us from God. Partaking of and growing the Fruit of the Spirit keeps us from ever having to even deal with all those cold, negative things. When we call on the Holy Spirit to guide us, we stay in his warmth. The bad seed has no place to grow. We choke it out with a garden full of God’s fruit.

Fill your basket of life with this fruit, from patience to self-control. Fill yourself with the Spirit of the living God and you can trust that you will experience love and joy and peace. It is part of that great mystery that our Savior has brought us. He came to earth and in his coming he ushered in the kingdom of God there and then and here and now. That is what we call the “already.”  And yet we know that there is more to come. He will come again. Now we see partly. Then all his glory will be revealed. That is what we call the “not yet.”

Do you have the Fruit of the Spirit? Fill up the basket of your heart with these virtues and you will experience real love, real joy, real peace. That is the promise. Will you claim it?       

          “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” It takes the whole basket. Want to live in the Spirit? Walk in it! And bring your basket!

Enkrateia (Gal. 5: 22-25) 10/7/12

                Self-control. It’s a lot of different things all rolled into one term. It’s restraint in the face of provocation. It’s rejection at the point of temptation. It’s keeping your mouth shut when every fiber of your being is calling out for you to shout and scream. It’s your grandmother reminding you that if you can’t say anything good about the person, then don’t say anything at all. Self-control. The Greeks had a word for it, too. They called it “enkrateia.” It has to do with mastery…mastery or the lack of mastery over one’s tongue and one’s actions. Self control is the last of the six inner virtues that Paul names as the Fruit of the Spirit. It’s last but far from least.

In many ways, self-control is the key to unleashing the power of all the other virtues. If you don’t have self-control, you are not going to have enough patience for the situation you confront. If you don’t have patience, you won’t have enough kindness or gentleness. Then you can’t be as good or as faithful as you meant or need to be. If we can control our actions and reactions, many things are possible. If we cannot, well…it’s liable to become a long day. 

Self control is not some abstract term peculiar to Christianity. Plato used the term with the ancient Greeks to define self-mastery, the trait we need to harness our desires, to keep our pursuit of pleasure at the appropriate level. The apostle Paul uses an athlete in 1 Cor. to illustrate his point. Paul says that athletes exercise self-control in all things in order to be able to compete and not be disqualified. He uses the word with modesty and later alongside holiness in I Timothy 2. He uses it beside power and love in 2 Timothy 1 and in 2 Timothy 2, Paul reminds us that the lack of self-control can result in slanderous talk that is harmful to others. 2 Peter tells us that the road to love requires self-control, and that it and other qualities help us from being ineffective and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord (2 Peter 1:6-8).  

 I don’t want to be unfruitful, especially in the knowledge of my Lord. I want to bear fruit. But sometimes I feel like if I have to ignore one more act of immaturity, one more act of selfishness from someone close to me, I am going to implode. Sometimes I do. And every time, the result is the same. I am so unfruitful I feel like a prune. It’s not that I am wrong. It’s not that I don’t have every right to feel angry or hurt or slighted. It’s just that no matter what has been done or not done, said or withheld, losing my self-control shows my lack of knowledge of my Lord and, perhaps even more, it shows my lack of grasping what servant hood is all about. Losing control only hurts. It hurts the person targeted and it hurts me.

Thomas a Kempis once said that one should “be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be, since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be.” Sad but so true. If we were to spend our time on that which is required for us to come to grips with our own emotions, our own stresses, we would have little trouble with those occasions where people do not act as we might want them to act. In the end it’s all about who we are, and the way someone else acts or fails to act is precious little justification for the behavior we exhibit in response.   

We all admire those who can show restraint. What is it about those people who never seem to lose their temper, never seem to lose control? How do they do it? What is it inside them that makes them able to do that which we find so difficult. Sometimes, it’s as simple as the amount of the investment. If it’s your friend’s great-nephew visiting from North Dakota who offends you, it’s only a matter of time until that situation will disappear. Not much investment. Oh the other hand, if it’s your son or daughter, your parent, your best friend, and that person hurts or insults you, it’s hard to hold back. And what if it’s been going on for months? Isn’t there a point? Doesn’t there come a time when enough is enough? Of course.  But the point we need to see is that whatever we do, whatever we say, however we act, it should be in control. We should act, not react. Reaction is for a burn or a bite. Reaction is the recoil of the body. Action is the deliberate response of the mind and heart. Self-control does not hinder bodily reaction nor should it. But it is our best weapon against the poison that can come from our lips in anger or disappointment.

In the book of Proverbs, the writer warns us that “a man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls” (Pro. 25: 28).   Think of that in the context in which it was written. No ancient city would have left itself defenseless. Walls helped prevent cities from being taken over by enemies. They provided a safe haven for those who could come in from outside when under attack. Walls provided stability. Self-control does that for us in our behavior. When we find ourselves under attack, we can find stability and take refuge behind the walls of self-control. When we lose it, our defenses cave in and we are at the mercy of our base instincts. Don’t you know that Satan does so love that kind of company!

 Theologian William Barclay tells us that “self control is the virtue which makes a man so master of himself that he is fit to be the servant of others.” While I would not ever dispute such a learned Christian, I would like to just add a bit. Yes, as Barclay says, self-control does indeed help make a man fit to serve others. Barclay also says that such control makes a man master of himself. What I would like to add, what I truly believe, is that such control, at least in the context of real servant-hood, is just not attainable except by the grace of God. We can do it, but not by ourselves. We can have self-control for a moment or an hour or even several days. But we cannot maintain it without the grace of God given through the Holy Spirit. This is the true way to self-control. Don’t even try to do it by yourself. Lay it at the feet of the Master. Then it is not only possible; it is a promise claimed. Try it. See what it can be like to finally have real self-control, compliments of the Holy Spirit.

          But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

Prautes (Gal. 5: 22-25; Mat. 11:29) 9/30/12

                I love to watch my dog Sadie. My wife Cindy will tell you that Sadie is her dog and my daughter Ellie will probably say that Sadie is really her dog. The truth of the matter is that it’s more accurate to say that we are Sadie’s family.  But that’s not the point. The point is that I love to watch Sadie, particularly around young animals or people.  Sadie is about 75 pounds of energy and she can play rough. But when she is exposed to kittens or babies or most any kind of newborn, she goes into her mothering instinct. She gets down on all fours, her tail wagging goes into overdrive and she just wants to lick and cuddle. She gets so intense and so happy, it makes me wish I had a tail of my own to wag. When a defenseless creature is present, our big strong playful dog becomes gentle as a lamb.

          People act little differently. Watch a mother of a newborn child. She instinctively holds and protects her baby, letting it find security in her arms. You don’t really have to teach a young mother how to hold her baby. Fathers do pretty well themselves. Perhaps it is just in our nature to become softer when it is required of us.

          Gentleness. That’s what the Greek word “prautes” means. Its synonyms are humility and courtesy. I like that. I think those words are good descriptors for gentleness, but I also think that gentleness has a meaning distinctly its own. You can see it in the eyes of my dog Sadie and in the eyes of any young parent cradling a newborn. Gentleness. It’s not just a state of mind. It’s a state of being.

          I want you to think about gentleness. You have been gentle. Think about when you were gentle for some reason. Think about how you felt. Gentleness is instinctive for us in many situations. It’s a good feeling and we know it’s the right way to be. But then, we walk away and the gentleness melts away. Most of us seem to be able to summon it for a season, but we don’t wear it as a way of meeting life.

          The Psalmist tells us that “a gentle tongue is a tree of life” (15:4). When Paul writes to the church in Thessalonica, he characterizes his stay among them as “gentle, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children” (1 Thes. 2: 1). In his letter to Timothy, he mentions gentleness as a needed character trait for elders and contrasts it with being quarrelsome (1Tim. 3: 3). So part of being gentle is to not be quarrelsome. Paul tells Titus to “be gentle and to show perfect courtesy toward all people” (3:2). James characterizes wisdom from above as “pure, peaceable and gentle” (3:17). Peter challenges us to be gentle to the unjust as well as the just (1Pet. 2:18) and later invites us to make our adornment not external but rather to cultivate hearts with the “beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious” (1 Pet. 3:4).

          The first five books of the Old Testament are called the Pentateuch, which means five. They are also called the Law, for they contain not only the Ten Commandments, but also the various laws and regulations that accompanied the commandments from Mt. Sinai. Traditionally, the author has been thought to be Moses, although twentieth century scholarship has argued about that without reaching any final conclusions. Whether or not he wrote the books, Moses is certainly one of the most prominent characters of these books. In the final chapters of Deuteronomy, God comes to Moses and tells him his fate. After forty years of leading God’s people and preparing them for the next step, Moses will have to watch his people enter the Promised Land from a mountaintop. God gives Moses the words for a song and the entire 32^nd chapter of Deuteronomy records that song. Moses spoke the words of the song to the people of Israel before they crossed the Jordan. Contained within it is a verse on teaching, and God through Moses declares:

                   May my teaching drop as the rain,

                             my speech distill as the dew,

                   like gentle rain upon the tender grass,

                             and like showers upon the herb,

                   For I will proclaim the name of the Lord;

                             ascribe greatness to our God!  

                                                                   Deut. 32: 2

Teaching as gentle as dew on tender grass. What a poetic way to describe the teaching of our Lord.

          Gentle goes with grandmothers and Sunday lunches with family. Gentle goes with infants and puppies. Gentle goes with parents of newborns. It is the softness in our eyes and the tenderness in our touch. It is the way we treat those who are infirm or weak or small or very old or very young. And yet, we see nothing in the Bible about having to qualify to receive gentleness. In fact, we see quite the opposite. When we look at these passages, we see what we are supposed to do, how we are supposed to act. We see nothing about the objects of gentleness. The very act of being gentle is an end in itself. It is part of the attitude of those who would be soldiers in the army of God. It is part of the Fruit of the Spirit. Gentleness is one of those essential fruits in Paul’s basket of righteousness, and it needs to be part of who we are and how we handle life.

          Well, we have heard from about everyone, haven’t we? We have heard from God though the song of Moses, We have heard from Paul and James and Peter. Before we leave this subject, let’s look at one more line from scripture. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus has finished the Sermon on the Mount and has begun the second of five discourses to be found in that Gospel. He is engaged in teaching in cities of the region of Galilee. He makes it clear that not all who hear will understand. He invites his audiences to trust him, to look beyond the historical facts of who he seems to be and where he apparently comes from. He invites those who have ears to hear to come and receive the message that the kingdom of heaven is at hand, that those who are oppressed by the burden of religious legalism can now have their rest. Where is their rest? Indeed where is our rest in this world of taxes and rules and regulations and laws and deadlines? Their rest, as is ours, is in the man from Galilee, Son of Man and Son of God, He promised them and he promises us, rest for our souls. He says “take my yoke upon you, and learn from me.” He says that his yoke is easy and his burden light. He says to take him on as our way of life. He says: “For I am gentle…” says Jesus (Mat. 11: 29).

          He is, you know. He is prautes, gentle. He is the newness of puppy breath, the softness of a baby’s skin, the tenderness of the dew on new grass. He is all of those things and so much more. He is the Christ, the son of the living God. He is our Savior. Come now and bow your heads. Close your eyes. It’s OK. Go ahead. Feel him at your side. Find the rest for your soul that only the gentleness of his Spirit can bring. His yoke is easy and his burden is light, for he is gentle.

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