Bread and Busybodies

2 Thessalonians 3: 6-13

            Ever been on a mission trip? There are always surprises. Sometimes, people come to Christ right in front of our eyes. Sometimes, nothing much seems to be working, but in every case, things happen, both to those who are served and to those who serve. Often, it takes time to see the evidence of the seeds that we plant. Christian leadership is not only a process of delivering truth; it also is an art form. It can be done effectively through the sheer will power of one, but it works better through the mutual cooperation of many. While he was still a general, Dwight Eisenhower used to demonstrate the art of leadership with a simple piece of string. He’d put it on a table and then he would say “Pull it, and it’ll follow wherever you wish. Push it and it will go nowhere at all.” 1

          Thessalonica was one of the strings that Paul had to learn to pull. It was a stop on Paul’s second missionary journey. Silas and Timothy were his companions on this three year trip to the port cities around the Aegean Sea. Paul preached there in the synagogue for three straight Sabbaths. Obviously, he and his companions had quite an impact, as they ended up having to leave town under cover of night. Their teachings were taken as a threat by local businesses and some of the local tradesmen wanted them run out of town.

          Although Paul preached in the synagogue, he obviously found time to preach to the pagan Gentiles there as well. Apparently, Paul succeeded in his efforts in Thessalonica, for the seeds of his ministry surfaced in the form of a church there, which was composed mostly of Gentiles. Paul’s first letter to that church is probably his first writing preserved in the New Testament.

In Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians, he dealt with some community issues. Some people were not working. They were waiting for the second coming of Christ. They were worried about what would happen to them if they died before he came. In his second letter, he again addresses some of these same issues. This time he is more forceful about what should be done. Even here, though, we can feel Paul engage in the push and pull tensions of leadership as he tries to help this new church.

Paul talks to the Christians in Thessalonica about idleness. There are people who are not pulling their load. Some of these same people are using that spare time to no good use. Paul calls them busybodies.  He says that if you are able to work and don’t, then don’t eat from the table where the church provides food. Either help to put it there or don’t partake.

Paul is not talking to those who cannot work. On the contrary, that is one of the ways in which the church served. It helped to provide food for the needy and less fortunate. This issue is not about work, but rather the willingness or unwillingness to work.  Paul reminds them of his own example. He talks about the time he was with them and his refusal to take money from them. He earned his own way. Elsewhere in Scripture, Paul has pointed out that it is his God-given right to be supported in ministry. [1 Cor. 9: 13-15, 2 Cor. 11: 7-9, 1 Thes. 2: 9] Nevertheless, he chooses not to exercise this privilege. He did not want to be a burden on the people he served.  Paul may have taken his example from Jesus himself. Legend has it that before his ministry, Jesus made the best ox-yokes in all of Palestine and that men came from all over the country to buy them.  So Paul says that idleness and Christianity don’t mix.  No work, no food. That covers one point in today’s passage, but Paul is not done.

Not only does Paul not like idleness, he also doesn’t like what these folks are doing with their new found spare time. These idlers are stirring the pot with gossip. Paul doesn’t like busybodies. He doesn’t like them so much that he tells his church friends to keep away from them. He still calls them brothers, so he is not dismissing them from the congregation. In fact, he talks directly to them in verse 12, saying that they are both commanded and encouraged to “do their work quietly and to earn their own living.” Why would Paul give such strong advice and yet not dismiss these people from the congregation?

Last week, a friend and neighbor of mine underwent a complicated surgery to remove a tumor from his brain. Examination of the tumor prior to surgery had indicated that it was growing, that it was invasive and that it was probably cancerous. But my friend is not a young man and such a surgery has risks. Why would he allow the surgeon to cut so close to the source of all his thinking, to the command center of his life? His decision was based upon the surgeon’s advice. Better to take the risks associated with the loss of some brain function than to allow the cancer to continue to grow and take over his ability to think.

Such was the case with Paul and the Thessalonian church. The idleness and the inevitable gossip that flowed from it were like a cancer on the congregation. Left alone, the situation would continue to deteriorate and the problem would continue to grow. Theologian William Barclay says that there may be greater sins than gossip but there is none which does more damage in the Church. Paul’s suggestions were like those of the surgeon. He advised cutting the idlers off from normal contact. But he didn’t go to extremes. Like the surgeon cut away the damaged tissue from the brain, so the idlers were cut away from the communication of the church. But also like the surgeon leaving the rest of the brain to function, the idlers were not cut off from the church itself. The cancer was their behavior, not themselves. They were not to be regarded as enemies, but rather warned as brothers, and Paul continues to refer to them that way.

How important was it for this action to be taken? In the case of a growing brain tumor, it must be cut away or its tentacles will reach out and co-mingle with good tissue. After awhile, you can’t tell the good from the bad. In the case of a group of idlers and gossips in a church setting, it is only a matter of time until they infect the healthy members of the congregation. Paul felt so strongly about this that not once but twice, he commands them in the name of Jesus Christ. This places his instructions in the strongest of language.

It’s a tough act to push someone away and yet do so in a manner that says they are not banished. It’s tough to accept the person while condemning his actions. It’s tough but it’s certainly doable. When our children get in trouble or do something out of line with what they have been taught, we don’t throw them away. But neither should we accept their behavior. To do so would be to put the proverbial fox in charge of the henhouse. Christian discipline is between brothers, ignoring anger, rejecting contempt and always acting in love.

Paul closes with an exhortation to the good guys in the church. He has chastened the idlers and the gossips. He has given advice as to how the situation should be handled. Now he turns to the faithful. Like the coach in the locker room at halftime, he exhorts and encourages. “Do not grow weary in doing good.” he says. That too is a tall order, but an order that we as Christians know all too well. The Christian life is not a sprint, but a marathon. We must never cease our efforts in Christ’s behalf. This is our act of love and it plays out on the stage of life in the ways we deal with our friends, our families and our brothers.

Do not grow weary of doing good. Do good to your friends. Do good to your neighbors. Do good to your family. Do good to that person who acted so nasty to you for no good reason yesterday. How can we live up to that standard? Easy! Do it in the name of Jesus Christ.

Let us pray.

11/17/13

1 1001 Quotes, Illustration & Humorous Stories, Edward K. Rowell, baker Books, 2006.

Sons of the Resurrection

Luke 20: 27-38

          Did you watch the Presidential debates last year? It’s not important whose side you were on. All that was decided last year at the ballot box. But the debates themselves were quite interesting, especially the second one. That was the debate that the sitting president pretty much blew. He was not well prepared and it showed. He didn’t measure his opponent or his knowledge well enough. In fact, the political scientists of the day said that if he didn’t recover in the last debate, that one event could decide the presidency.  

A similar point was hammered into me in law school. It was about trial law and it was this: In cross examination, never ask a question unless you already know the answer. That was a very good piece of advice. Every time I forgot it, I got reminded the hard way why I should have heeded that advice. I won about as many cases not asking the wrong question as I did asking the right question.

           Apparently some Sadducees in first century Palestine didn’t get the memo. Teacher, they say mockingly, Moses wrote the law. He said you have to marry your husband’s widow if he dies and you’re still single. He said you have to bear children with her. What happens when seven brothers marry the same woman and none bear children? Who is she with in heaven? The Sadducees were happy with themselves. They had come up with a riddle to stump the teacher.

          They had done it to the Pharisees. The Torah, the first five books of our Old Testament, was their bible. The passage they used was from Deuteronomy 25, which mandated such a practice. It required a brother to marry the widow of his brother to produce children, or seed.  No matter that almost certainly the practice was no longer used in Jesus’ day. There it was in the Old Testament law. The Sadducees paid no attention to the writings or the prophets. The recognized only the law. They did not believe in a bodily resurrection and they used that passage as one of their bases for denying the resurrection of the body. The Pharisees, who did believe in such a resurrection, had no comeback. If the law-fastidious Pharisees couldn’t give an answer, neither would Jesus.

          The Sadducees partially based their unbelief in some practical reasoning which went roughly like this: If there is a bodily resurrection, then we have our bodies in heaven. We must, therefore, have our relationships in heaven. That would include marriage. Marriage would include conjugal relations between spouses. For the Sadducees, the case of the seven brothers with one wife illustrated the sheer impossibility of sorting out such relationships, so bodily resurrection could not be true.  One can’t really fault the Sadducees for such reasoning. The problem is that it didn’t apply.

          Ever been around a know-it-all? I don’t mean someone smart and well prepared. I mean the kind of person who has some power and can’t be told anything. That person has all the answers. The Pharisees could be a pain in the side for all their legalism, but they were a religious body that rigorously studied all the scriptures of the time and cared nothing for personal gain. The Sadducees, on the other hand, were the ruling class of their people. They are mentioned only once by name in Luke’s gospel, but indirectly on a number of other occasions, for theirs was the sect from which came the high priests. They were very political and wealthy. They were used to being right because they wielded the power. The Sadducees were the know-it-alls of Jesus’ day, even more than the Pharisees.

So Jesus takes the priests to Bible school.  He talks of “this age” and “that age.” “This age” is the one in which we live, the one in which the Sadducees lived.  In this age, we marry and we are given in marriage. We have children. We have families. We die. “That age” is the age to come, the age in which, thanks to Jesus and the grace he brought to earth for us, we have one foot in the door, the age of the already, but not yet. As believers, we already participate in that life through our relationship with Jesus. The full expression of that life is yet to come. It awaits the promised second coming of our Savior and in that moment, our bodies, our resurrected bodies, will join our immortal souls in heaven. That is part of what awaits us in “that age.”

What’s it like to be in “that age?” Well, we don’t know a lot, but what we know is wonderful. Jesus tells the Sadducees and us that in heaven, there will be no marriage and no one given in marriage. There will be no death. He tells us that those who are resurrected from the dead…that’s right: Jesus refers specifically to the resurrection of the dead…will be equal to angels and sons of God, that we will be sons of the resurrection. These are not the revelations of Paul or Peter or John. They are not the predictions of some Old Testament prophet, as powerful as those testimonies and prophecies may be. They are the statements of Jesus Christ himself.

What is Jesus telling us? For one thing, he tells us that we cannot understand the character of heaven by understanding how things work on earth. Heaven is much more than a perfect earth. Heaven is not a daily string of 68’s on the golf course or a constant series of perfect shots at a 14 point buck or a size 2 dress figure. Heaven is wonderful, but the details are a mystery to us. Little has been revealed, and yet more than enough is known to make us hungry for it. We can infer from Jesus’ comments that earthly relationships, while instituted by God as one way in which we can begin to understand the love and character of our Creator, are not a barometer for heavenly relationships. On earth, we think of husbands and wives and brothers and sisters and children. In heaven, says Jesus, we are sons of God, sons of the resurrection. Does this mean that we will not recognize our loved ones? I doubt it. I just think it means that the most important, the most intimate, the most compelling, relationship, will be the one we each will share with our Savior and our God.

Back to the know-it-alls, the smug quoters of scripture. Jesus turns again to the Sadducees and in the same way he answered Satan in the desert, Jesus quotes Scripture to answer Scripture. He refers to the third chapter of Exodus, where Moses refers to the Lord as the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. This is not a history lesson. This is a pedigree. Jesus says further that God “is not God of the dead, but of the living…” What is the inference? Clearly, it is that the patriarchs are not dead. Yes, their bodies are at rest, but if God is God of the living and not the dead and if God is addressed as God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, figure it out. They may have changed state, but they are not dead! The Sadducees are silenced. The scribes, part of the Pharisaic sect, were so impressed that the Sadducees had been silenced that they actually complimented Jesus. They also quit asking questions.

Our Savior has never been without an answer for our questions. Sometimes, the answers may be out of this world, but he has all the answers we will ever need. What is heaven like? I don’t know. I just know that my Savior promised me that if I am considered worthy to attain to that resurrection, I will be equal to angels and I will be a son of God. That’s enough explanation for me.   

In the children’s praise song Heaven Is a Wonderful Place, Salty is asked if he knows anything about heaven. He says “Sure. I know that Jesus is there, and if he’s there it must be a wonderful place.” He sings a song adapted from Psalm 53:

Heaven   is   a wonderful place

Filled   with  glory and grace

All I wanna see is my Savior’s face

‘Cause heaven is a wonderful place.

“Then some of the scribes answered. “Teacher, you have spoken well.”

Let us pray.                   11/10/13

Lost and Found

Luke 19: 1-10

            Remember when you lost it? The engagement ring…or the class ring. Maybe you lost something with which you had been entrusted. Remember that initial panic? Then the systematic search with no results. Finally the admission to someone what had happened and then more searching. Most of the time there is a happy ending. After all, lost usually just means misplaced. As you re-trace your steps, eventually that which was thought lost is retrieved. It was never really lost…just out of place.

           My wife is forever bringing me stuff from the lost and found basket at her work. She always waits until it’s time to either throw it out or take it home. You know the story: “one man’s trash…” I really appreciate all those forgetful people. They have enhanced my wardrobe.

          Sometimes today, and in Jesus’ day too, “lost” is the word used to connote the absence of purpose or direction or conviction. Sometimes ministers and evangelists talk about saving the “lost.”  By implication, I guess that means that those of us who are not “lost” must be “found.”

I’m not sure that on occasion, one can’t be a little bit of both. I know I have days when my belief in God may not be in question, but about everything else is. Does that make me lost? I guess it depends on one’s frame of reference.

          Today’s frame of reference involves a big wealthy city, a small wealthy man, a sycamore tree, and a Savior. The bit players are the Pharisees and other doubters. The scene moves from street to dinner table. These are the props and players. The story is salvation: where it is, what it is and what it isn’t.

          We think of a person as lost when he or she has wandered away from God. That’s fair enough, although I think we ought to expand the definition to include someone who has never really been introduced properly to God. Like rings and other lost things, we might say that when one is away from God, then he or she is misplaced. If that’s the case, then taking our rightful place with God would amount to being found.

           There are lots of misplaced people wandering around. The situation is more complicated than it first appears. Sometimes, those misplaced people, those lost people, are sitting right down front in church. We don’t have a list of those who are found and those who are not. If only we had some way to know who is and who isn’t. Then we could be more effective in our witness. Actually, Jesus had something to say about that. In fact, he had quite a lot to say about it. We can find some of that advice in the passage for today.

           The first ten verses of Luke 19 are a multi-colored palette of themes. There is the universal appeal of the gospel (vs.2-4), evidenced by the crowd that continues to follow Jesus. There is the ethical problem of wealth (v.2). We have seen this before in Jesus’ encounter with the rich young ruler. There is Jesus’ “call” of a person in social disfavor (v.7). The religious leaders called these people “sinners” and criticized Jesus for frequenting with them. There is the very real presence of urgency in the way that Jesus goes about injecting God’s presence into the scene (v.5, 9). There are also sub-themes of necessity, joy and outreach to the poor. All the themes and sub-themes work together to tell this story of the little man in the sycamore tree, the seeker. They tell a story of how he finds Jesus, but the real story is how Jesus finds him.

           Then there is Verse ten, considered by many to be the key verse of Luke’s gospel. Jesus states the reason for it all. It is often said that if you want your argument to be remembered, then you must observe the rules of primacy and regency. Put more simply, people will be more likely to remember the first and last things you said.  Let’s apply that to this passage. Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. He came to seek and to save the lost.  Who was lost? Zacchaeus. Where was he? Lost in the crowd. Lost in his selfish life and pursuits. What did Jesus do? Seek him and save him. Why? To save someone. That’s the message of this passage, the message of Jesus. It is the message of salvation. Jesus says: “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”    

Jesus talks about money a lot in Luke’s gospel. He talks about it more than he talks about heaven and hell combined. The subject of money comes up once every seven verses in Luke. Eleven of his parables (39 total) contain some reference to money.  Remember the story of the rich young ruler? He had a lot of money and he just couldn’t deal with giving it up. Or the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector praying together? The Pharisee was rich with pride and the tax collector’s riches plagued him to ask forgiveness.  Now we have Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector. This is a guy at the top of the financial ladder. And yet, Jesus is about to hand him the keys to the kingdom. You see, it’s not about the money. It never was. It’s about our attitude with the money. Are we generous with what we have or do we horde and protect it as if it were our salvation and security? How we answer that question will have a lot to do with whether we meet Jesus. I’m afraid it applies equally at every financial level. Ask the widow who gave her last penny. The fact that she had little did not exempt her from her responsibility to give of that with which she had been blessed.

          The thing that most captures my attention here is that Jesus is doing the seeking. While Zacchaeus is curious and is bounding down the street to climb the sycamore tree to get a better look at the local hero, we have no reason to think it is more than curiosity. We might surmise that Zacchaeus is probably more than a little dissatisfied with the way his life is turning out. He has every material thing he could want and it’s boring. It isn’t all it was cracked up to be. He has all this money, but no one respects him. He’s probably having trouble buying friends.

          But look at what’s going on with Jesus! He comes to the tree and he looks up and calls Zacchaeus by name. By name! This is Jericho, the City of Palms. It had aqueducts, a winter palace for Herod, even a hippodrome. This was a flourishing city with a large population. These two men did not run in each other’s circles. And yet Jesus calls the man by name. Not only that, he tells Zacchaeus to hurry, that he must stay at Zacchaeus’ house today! Zacchaeus may have wanted to see Jesus but Jesus wanted to see Zacchaeus even more.

           This is a classic example of Reformed belief, which reminds us that God is sovereign and that we cannot even reach for God until he has first reached for us. Before we ever make a move, God draws us to him. He plants the seed in our hearts. He reaches out to us. He activates that seed and then we receive him joyfully just like Zacchaeus.  Jesus tells us in John 6 that “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.” Jesus has sought out and found Zacchaues. The lost is now found.

          The church leaders are grumbling. He doesn’t come to synagogue, they say. He is a tax collector, a sinner. Look at him. He makes a fool of himself, a grown man climbing a tree to see this Jesus. Everything is out of order. There are systems for this sort of thing. There are rules to be observed. No self respecting churchman would be caught in the house of a sinner! Jesus is a rule breaker, a regulation buster. He must be a fraud! And he most certainly can’t be successful this way!

          But Jesus was successful. He sought Zacchaeus and he saved him. Zacchaeus set new records for giving and doing penance for his past acts of selfishness. He went far beyond the requirements of the Jewish law.  Jesus called him a son of Abraham, not because he was Jewish, but because he was a believer and thus a spiritual descendent of Abraham.

It didn’t matter that Zacchaeus was a sinner. We’re all sinners. It didn’t matter to Jesus that Zacchaeus was not a churchman, that he was in a business known for cheating. It didn’t matter to Jesus what other people thought about his actions. It didn’t matter where or how they met. What mattered to Jesus was Zacchaeus. Jesus didn’t come to preserve institutions. He came to save people. What mattered to Jesus was that he had come to seek and save the lost. In that one afternoon, a man went from lost to found. Jesus sought him, Jesus found him. Jesus saved him.

Though the setting of this story is first century Palestine, it sounds all too familiar, doesn’t it. We sit in our pews and wonder why they aren’t full. And all the while, Jesus is walking around out there in the street. He still does that, you know. The history we read in Luke is most relevant when we realize that at some point we are the Zacchaeus’s, and that Jesus is looking for us, drawing us to his arms of grace. He seeks us, he finds us, he saves us.

I heard it said recently that the thing about grace is that it always finds us right where we are, but never leaves us where it found us. Doesn’t that make the hair stand up on the back of your neck! That’s Jesus. He’s calling your name. Hurry down from your perch wherever that might be, for he may be having lunch at your house today.

10/20/13

Fighting the Good Fight

2 Tim 6-8, 16-18

            He was only thirty nine years old when he was killed in a German concentration camp. Already famous in Christian circles for his profound writing, which included The Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was in America when Nazi Germany declared war on Europe and Britain. He could have stayed in the United States, but he chose to return to Germany. Hitler had ordered the Jews expulsed from Germany and this meant that Jesus’ teachings would also be banned.  Indeed, Hitler ordered that the Church would become an agency of the state. Bonhoeffer returned to Germany where he worked underground to preserve the church. He helped to write the Barmen Declaration, one of the confessions of our church today. That declaration asserted that the Christian church could never become subject to the rule of any human government and that it answers only to Jesus Christ. Bonhoeffer lived his life…and ultimately gave it…for his belief in Christ and the church.

In the book of Numbers [28: 24], we find God instructing Moses on how and on what occasions to make public offerings. Such practices included drink offerings. These offerings were made daily as well as on special occasions. The drink offerings were wine and were used in conjunction with meat offerings. They were designed to remind God’s people that they owed their lives and livelihoods to him.

          In the book of Philippians [2: 17], we find the apostle Paul writing a very upbeat letter to his friends in the church there. He is most probably in Rome and under house arrest. He refers to himself in a sacrificial manner, saying that even if he may be poured out like a drink offering upon the sacrificial altar of their faith, he will do so gladly and rejoicing.

          The book of Second Timothy finds Paul much closer to the end of his life and he seems well aware of it. There is no more “even if” in his language. He is still in prison, but no longer under house arrest. He is in a prison cell and soon he will be martyred for the cause of Jesus. Now he says “I am already being poured out as a drink offering [4: 6]. Paul’s time has come.

Drink offerings offer us a vivid image of the meaning of sacrifice. In the time of Moses, they were used to sweeten the savory aroma of the best meat of bulls and rams brought to the altar to sacrifice to God. The first and best fruits were regularly offered to God as a sign of reverence and loyalty and trust. The best wine was poured over these sacrifices as a drink offering to complete the gift.

Paul uses this custom to describe his impending martyrdom. Twice in scripture, Paul refers to being “poured out.” The image is one of generosity, of a covering, of saturation. His offering is that of himself, poured out like so much more wine as an act of loyalty to God. It is not lost on us that the blood of Paul would remind us of the wine of an Old Testament drink offering. It is also not lost on us that Paul is not unhappy. Nor does he appear afraid. If anything, he seems almost eager for the next step.

Why did Dietrich Bonhoeffer return to Germany? Why did Paul continue to preach the gospel and get run out of city after city? Why do people intentionally put themselves in harm’s way? The answer is not complicated. We do so because we believe in the cause for which we sacrifice. We do so because we love. We do so because the reason for the sacrifice outweighs the sacrifice itself. Sometimes we do what we do as a pattern, like Bonhoeffer and the apostle Paul. Sometimes we do so out of reflex, like Mike Landsberry did last week in a Nevada middle school. He stepped into the path of a semiautomatic weapon wielded by a troubled teenager and it cost him his life. He was just another middle school math teacher until fate dealt him a choice. He could save himself…or he could stand in the gap. He chose honor. He chose sacrifice. He believed in the cause for which he made his sacrifice. He acted in love. Children’s lives were saved.

Psychiatrists tell us that people who lead the fullest lives seem to fear death least. Certainly the examples here would qualify in that respect. That includes Mike Landsberry, who had served two tours in Afghanistan as a Marine. Mike had no chance to think. He just acted out of reflex developed long before this particular event. He knew what he needed to do. He lived his life in such a way that when he was in a position to make a difference, he didn’t hesitate.

Paul has had plenty of time to contemplate and yet the result is the same.  He acts out his faith. In his advice to Timothy, he uses athletic metaphors to describe his fate. He has fought the good fight. He has finished the race. He has kept the faith, played by the rules, stood his post to the end. Paul’s life has been full. He has no regrets. He has lived the slogan he coined in Philippians: “to live is Christ; to die is gain.”

There is an old adage that says: to the victor go the spoils. Paul now claims his reward. He says that from here on there is reserved for him a crown of righteousness to be awarded to him by the Lord. Like the victorious athlete at the end of a contest, Paul looks forward to the crown, the trophy. Interestingly, Paul points toward a crown of righteousness as though he has not yet received it. Does that mean that Paul is not yet righteous? Does that mean that Paul is partially righteous; that in his death, he will cross over to full righteousness? It may even mean both. If we may compare Paul’s teachings on sanctification to this comment on righteousness, it would seem that in his earthly death, Paul will be elevated to a state of true righteousness that can only be achieved in his unity with God. Our earthly walk is a process of sanctification that is completed in our death and resurrection, for indeed, we will be resurrected. We have God’s promise on that.

In Paul’s final thoughts in this passage, he forgives those who have deserted him in much the same way that Christ forgives his persecutors while hanging from the Cross. Paul then gives credit to God for the numerous times that Paul has been rescued in order to bring the gospel to the Gentiles. Then Paul talks about his final rescue, where God will deliver him from every evil deed and bring him safely into his heavenly kingdom. It is a remarkable tribute. It is also a faith statement. Paul knows full well that his end is very close. He also knows that it will be painful. He fully expects to be executed and soon. And yet, Paul’s statements ring of optimism and faith of the highest order. Death holds no power over Paul.  On the contrary, he looks forward to his deliverance to God. He pays homage to God and gives God the glory for all that will happen. 

This is what we as Christians need to hear. This is what we as Christians need to be about. Like Paul and the heroes we have mentioned today, we need to fill our lives with all things good and righteous. We need to experience what it is to work for God, to commune with God. We need to train ourselves so that our reflexes will not betray us when we are tested. We need to remember that Paul’s life, while a great role model, is not unique. It is repeated daily by countless disciples of Christ all over God’s creation. The real question is whether you and I can be counted in that number.

Fill your life with the right things. Don’t wait for that moment when you might be asked to offer the ultimate sacrifice. Start now. Become an arm or a hand for your Savior. Extend yourself. Pour yourself out like a rich drink offering so that your love and your belief can be seen and heard by all those around you. 

The true fullness of God’s kingdom must wait for that day when we meet God in heaven, but the taste of it is here and now. Fight the good fight. Run the race. That crown of righteousness is for all who believe, so live…and live for Christ.

Let us pray.

10/27/13

What Will He Find?

Luke 18: 1-8

            Seventy six years. That’s a long time to wait. Seventy six years from birth to becoming a Nobel Peace Prize winner and the first democratically elected President of the government of South Africa. Along the way, Nelson Mandela spent twenty eight of those years in prison. He didn’t commit a crime as we understand crime. His crime was that he wanted to effect change. We could call him a civil rights activist and we would be right, as long as we understand that Mandela stood not for dominance by any particular ethnic group, but rather for freedom based upon fairness and equality, not race. Twenty eight years in prison is a rather strange way to train for political office. It’s an awfully long time not to lose heart.

          In a life that spanned seventy nine years, Mahatma Gandhi found his most effective witness in fasting. Imprisoned numerous times, this well educated man used peaceful civil disobedience as his most effective weapon against injustice, but in a lifetime of protests, he was still misunderstood by many and assassinated in 1948. He spent his life leading others to understand the consequences of commitment; that faith holds the hand of persistence or holds nothing at all.

In Luke 18, Jesus tells a parable about a widow seeking justice. It’s not the easiest thing in the Bible to understand, but it carries a valuable lesson. It is another of those “how much more” stories that Luke likes to tell about Jesus. Remember back in Luke 11 when Jesus directs us to ask, seek and knock? That too was a story of persistence, as the man knocked on his neighbor’s door until the neighbor finally gave in. Remember how we see sinful people giving good gifts to their children, and Jesus reminding us how much more our heavenly Father, who knows no sin, can do for us.  Luke employs the “how much more” device to illustrate how much more God can do than we humans can do, even in the best of our efforts.

A widow goes to court. More accurately, a widow goes before a magistrate. This is not a Jewish court or a Jewish judge. In Jewish civil court, there would have been three judges: one picked by the plaintiff, one picked by the defendant and one picked by the two judges. This was instead a civil proceeding before a civil authority. It was a one judge panel, probably a magistrate. The scenario that Luke describes here is one where money and power will buy you the justice you seek. If you don’t have one of these, you are out of court before you even start. Nevertheless, the widow keeps coming back. She won’t quit seeking justice. The very fact that she is a widow implies that she is powerless, but she won’t go away. Like the Mandelas and the Gandhis of our time, the widow is persistent. She doesn’t lose heart. The judge finally relents, not out of any sense of fairness, but rather because she is an inconvenience to him and he wants to be rid of her.

So how can this story have anything to do with Christian faith? The unrighteous judge finally renders justice just to get shed of the pesky widow. Even those who do no more than persist will ultimately have some reward. Is that the lesson? Only in the sense that God wants us to not lose heart. This is a lesson of both comparison and contrast. We compare our persistence to that of the widow. God wants us not to lose heart, to keep coming back just like the widow. We contrast the magistrate’s justice and attention to that of God. If a sorry unrighteous judge can eventually mete out justice, how much more can God do for those in his flock! We who believe should never lose heart in our God and Savior. He loves us and takes care of us.

The danger, of course, for the people of God is that too often we fail to remember whose rulebook we play by. God has no watch, no calendar, no orbit. God is not even BC or AD. God is! His name means “I Am.” There is no past, no future. God has only one tense: “I Am.” Our telescopes can now see outside our galaxy, the Milky Way. It has taken us thousands of years to build a telescope powerful enough to see that far, and that is only one galaxy. God is not of this galaxy. God is not from another galaxy. God is outside ALL the galaxies. He is out there. He is right here. God is not confined, not defined. He is both Lord of the cosmos and Shepherd of our souls. He is the great “I Am.” So when we try to describe time, we come up with words like “wait.” What does that mean to “I Am’? God must chuckle at our attempts to define and limit him who is by definition without limits. 

And Jesus says to his disciples that God’s people cry to him both day and night, that God will not delay, but rather give justice to them speedily. We are God’s people. Are you crying to him? Is he answering you? Do you think he is speedy? Do you think he is fair? Do you think he is just?

I cry to him. He answers me, too. I don’t doubt that he is speedy. I just don’t know how to define that in human terms. I know he is just. I know he is fair. I know what that means for me and so I thank him for sending his Son to even up my ledger. If it weren’t for that, I would want God’s justice postponed forever.  But because of Jesus, I can believe and not fear. I am saved.

But then, after promising us that God hears and God gives justice, Jesus asks this haunting question. For all that God has done, for all that God will do, what will the Son of Man find when he returns? When I return, says Jesus, What will I find? Will I find faith on earth? Later in the chapter, Jesus muses that people may find their own justification, that they may find and define their own brand of righteousness.

Jesus’ question still haunts us. He put that question not to just anyone, but to his disciples. He is asking the faithful. He is asking us. When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth? If he came today, he would find both faith and the lack of it. If he came today, he would find both righteousness and idolatry.

If Jesus comes today, where will he find you? Will you have persisted? Will you have kept the faith? Will he find you his faithful disciple or will he find you trusting in yourself? We are all sinners saved by grace. Not one of us is righteous. If Jesus comes today, where will he find you? Let each of us pray always and not lose heart. Let him find us waiting, worshipping, prepared for his coming. Let him find us all doing as the tax collector in the next parable of Luke 18, standing head bowed, saying ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’

Let us pray.

10/20/13

Strengthened By the Grace

2 Timothy 2: 1-15

In 1848, about twelve miles east of Rocky Creek, a preaching point took root. John Graham and some like minded friends built a little chapel in which to worship. Some thirty five years passed before a frame house was erected three miles east of that site and church services were held there.  Over the course of the next hundred or so years, the Rocky Creek church became part of three yoked congregations. McBee withdrew from that union in 1974 and in 2007, the downtown Jefferson church also became independent, leaving Rocky Creek Presbyterian on its own. Along the way, many men and women joined together to keep this church alive and moving along in God’s will. Each generation passed its toil, triumphs and tithes to the next, and the cemetery adjoining the church reflects that the church has survived, and even thrived, for a considerable time and a number of generations. Mothers and fathers have bequeathed not only their property and fortunes to their children, but have also entrusted to them the perpetuation of this church and its service to God. Their legacy became our responsibility.

Second Timothy is such a thoughtful epistle. It is one of the three Pastoral Letters of the New Testament, the others being First Timothy and Titus. Their title reflects their content; they are letters from the “Pastor” to his students…his closest disciples. Second Timothy is probably the last of the three, indeed the last letter that the great Apostle Paul wrote. It was almost certainly written while he was in prison. He wrote a very personal letter to his favorite, his “son” in the faith. He gave Timothy advice about what to do when Paul was no longer there to ask. His advice, while very personal, reaches out to us as though he might have been writing to us as well.

Be strengthened by the grace of Christ, says Paul. Entrust what you have heard from me to faithful men who will carry it to others. Share in suffering as a good Christian soldier must. Remember Jesus, for he brought salvation to those who believe. Remind them, charge them, and you: you do your best to present yourself before God as one approved, God’s worker.

Thank God for Timothy. He was Paul’s personal helper for many years of Paul’s ministry. He is given credit by Paul as a co-author of six of Paul’s letters. He is known as the Bishop of Ephesus and he is one of the great first century missionaries and disciples of Christ.  But Timothy should be remembered most of all for one simple thing. He didn’t drop the baton.

One of the most signal characteristics of Jesus’ ministry is that at the end of the day, he picked out a handful of devoted followers and entrusted them with his gospel. They didn’t let him down. Peter, James, John and company, later joined by Paul, spread the gospel fearlessly and relentlessly for the rest of their lives. They martyred themselves for our Savior and his message. Timothy, Silas, Titus, Stephen and many other unnamed disciples witnessed to the truth of Jesus’ message as taught to them by the apostles. They took the baton from their teachers and passed it forward.

I don’t know the history of this region very well, but it seems to me that the Sand hills of South Carolina are not the easiest place to carve out a living. Nevertheless, some very hardy and stubborn families tamed this area many years ago and found ways to make the land yield up its resources. Along the way, they started churches like this one. Like Paul to Timothy, they entrusted family and friends to carry on that work. No doubt they had their share of suffering, but they persevered.

The seeds that were planted over a hundred and fifty years ago continue to yield their harvest today.

Paul, speaking from a prison cell near the end of his life, encourages Timothy to be strengthened by the grace of Christ. He has heard the word from Paul and he has heard it in the presence of other Christians for whom he has respect. So the grace of Jesus strengthens Timothy… and those who come after… to receive the Word. But receiving the Word is not enough. Paul exhorts his disciple to entrust the Word to others, to faithful men who will pass it on. After we receive the Word, we have a duty to transmit it. We need to witness that which we believe. You can almost hear Jesus in the background, saying, go…teach…baptize! God’s legacy comes in many forms, but it is always very personal.

Where would Rocky Creek Presbyterian Church be today if faithful men and women of God had not toiled and labored to not only give it life, but keep it vital in its sustained ministry these many years? Where would the Christian Church be today but for the martyrs of the faith? The church is only as strong as those who support its work and carry that baton. The race is not won. When we fail to witness to our faith, the buildings and steeples that dot our landscape will become little more than monuments to a world that used to be, to a faith that should have been,  rather than to the sanctuaries of both saints and sinners of today.

As we celebrate another anniversary in the history of our church in this community, let us give pause to think of that which we properly enshrine. It is not the church building, though it is a wonderful place to gather and worship. It is not the fellowship hall, though that is a perfect spot to break bread with one another. As we celebrate homecoming, let us give thanks for lives well lived, for men and women who faithfully served our Lord and left an indelible witness for us to emulate. We have a great heritage at this church, but the legacy is one of witness born of sacrifice, hard work, faith and God’s grace. Any track coach will tell you that in a relay race, it takes two to pass the baton. Drop it and your race is over. You forfeit. The race to salvation is like that. We must follow in the footsteps of Paul and Timothy and so many more through the ages who have been “strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus.”

Why do we teach? Why do we share in suffering? Why do we work and witness? We do so because we remember. We remember Jesus Christ. We endure not only for ourselves, but for the sake of those who will follow us. Paul passed the torch to Timothy. Timothy passed it to others. So it is with the Christian life. We teach and suffer and endure because we are part of a long line of keepers of the promise, the promise of salvation that lies in Christ Jesus.

Millstones and Mulberries

Luke 17-1-10

            Ever wish the Bible were longer? I certainly do. I feel that way especially when I read Luke and Acts. Luke is a great reporter, but sometimes I just wish I had more than the bare bones. Such is the nature of the first ten verses of Luke 17. There are four separate pieces of instruction here, each apparently independent of one another. Luke shoots them out to us rapid fire. Bang, bang! Do this. Do that. Beware this. Beware that. Then, just like that, Jesus is on to other things. Together, these instructions constitute what could be called Jesus’ expectations of his followers about faith and faithfulness. But it’s all meat with no garnishment. Pay attention or you’ll miss it. Beware, first of your example and last, of your pride. Learn how to forgive and find your faith in God’s power. Those are Jesus’ instructions.

          Ever been a teacher or a coach? Almost everyone here has. Even if you don’t know it, you are teaching. If you have children or grandchildren, you’re teaching. If you go through a grocery checkout line, you’re a teacher. If you’re a softball or baseball coach, you’re a teacher. Sometimes, you even get to teach the game, but often, that’s not what your students are learning. They’re watching to see if you will remain patient. They’re waiting for you to curse. They’re wondering if you know their name. They’re guessing who your favorites are. Everything you say, everything you express with your body language, teaches them who you are, whether you care and whether they care to learn from you.

          Jesus is on the way to Jerusalem and a date with the Cross. He knows it but his disciples don’t. I can almost see him walking up the road and as he walks, he starts teaching, not so much with long lessons, but with bullets. A coach says to a base runner: get a good lead. Jesus says just as cryptically to his disciples: don’t be the cause of someone’s sin! Don’t lead someone the wrong way. It would be better for you to hang a boulder on a chain around your neck and throw you overboard than it would to misguide a little one. Little ones are not just children. They are also those who are new and tender in the faith. Don’t lead them astray. Don’t be an offending brother.

          Jesus walks on up the road. He turns again and says: “Pay attention to yourselves.” Instruction number two. What if your brother offends you?  How far must you forgive as a Christian? If you were a Rabbi and forgave someone three times, it was said that you were a perfect man. What does Jesus say? Seven times, not three and if I read it correctly, Jesus is really saying to forgive as long as your brother repents. Forgive as much as it takes for as long as it takes, no matter how much that is.

          That woke the apostles up. They say to Jesus: “Increase our faith!” In other words, they don’t have that measure of faith. They don’t have a well of forgiveness that deep. And in this third instruction, Jesus answers not about how to find more faith, but rather how to understand what faith really is. His illustration is in the extreme. If you had enough faith as might be found in the smallest seed around, that would be enough to successfully root a mulberry tree in the ocean. Jesus is saying that it’s not the degree of faith that moves mountains; it’s the power of God that does it and faith is the key to unleashing that mighty power. A little faith goes a long way.

          Jesus resumes walking up the road. He’s probably walking “up” the road as opposed to “down” the road because the road from Galilee to Jerusalem is an ascent to higher ground. As he walks, he has one more lesson for his disciples. He warns them to beware of pride. He talks about servants who put in a good day’s work on the job, but who know better than to quit just because they have come in from the fields. There is always work to do. Jesus warns us not to sit on our assets. We can’t outwork God. We can’t earn God’s grace. The song doesn’t read “How Great I Art,” does it? 

Dean Smith, the hall of fame basketball coach at North Carolina for thirty six years, will be receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom this year. You have to do more than be a great coach to receive such an honor. Smith coached young men to be better human beings and used the game of basketball as his venue. Once, when he was still an assistant coach and before the restaurants at Chapel Hill were integrated, Smith was asked to join his pastor and a black student at lunch in a local eatery. Smith accepted and the trio was seated without incident, though that was far from a foregone conclusion when he accepted his pastor’s invitation. Actions such as this have earned suggestions that Smith was a civil rights pioneer. Smith never would have any of it. His response when questioned along these lines was as pointed as that of Jesus in Luke 17. “You should never be proud of doing the right thing. You should just do it,” said Smith.

          Jesus warns us to be aware of seeking praise for that which we were bound to do in the first place. Why should we get puffed up over doing the job we were sent to do? When we serve God, are we not doing that which we are supposed to do? We are given the gift of being able to serve he who has made us. There is no room for pride in that equation.

When you step back and look at what Jesus asks of us as his disciples, these four apparently disconnected instructions are actually steps to discipleship. Beware of wrong teaching and tempting. Forgive until it hurts, then forgive some more. Unleash the faith you have and watch it grow. And beware of the power of pride or you will find yourself an unworthy servant in God’s army. Just a few nuggets from the Master on the way to the Cross. Imagine what else was on his mind that day! Imagine how many other things were running through his mind to tell his disciples while there was still time. But Jesus knew that they could absorb only so much at a time, and so he gave them just enough to chew on for a while. Have you ever noticed that he does that to you and me in our walk with him? He never gives us more than we can handle. We may sometimes feel overcome or overwhelmed, but when we think it through, it’s never a result of the demands of Christianity. Those demands, difficult as they sometimes are, release us rather than restrict us, to do God’s work. As Jesus’ disciples were to learn at Pentecost, the power of the Holy Spirit can release ordinary men and women to great things. That is still as true today as it was on the road to Jerusalem with Jesus.

          The next story in Luke will find Jesus encountering ten lepers on the border territory between Samaria and Galilee. This will be a new lesson for the disciples. Ten believe. Ten are cleansed, but only one is made whole and he is a Samaritan, a half breed. Jesus is planting the mulberry tree in the ocean, and it WILL grow.

          “The Apostles said to the Lord: Increase our faith.” And he said to them: you don’t need more faith. You need to use what God has already given you. He will do the rest.