Whose Will Is It, Anyway?

                    Matthew 7: 21-29

            Remember tent revivals? They’re not as popular now as they once were, but they still exist. When I was young, I remember them coming to town. As a boy, I sometimes got it confused with the circus. After all, both came in tents and both could be exciting. One night, there would be an open field on the edge of town. The next night, there would be a tent there with lots of folding chairs. Flyers would appear on telephone poles. A tent revival had a sort of circus atmosphere about it. It was unusual and it was portable. There were often testimonies of miracles happening. Sometimes someone would apparently be healed right then and there.    

As television gradually entered the dens of virtually every American home, the tent revival became less popular. Televangelists took the place of tent preachers. Successful televangelists have started all sorts of organizations from resorts to universities. Many of these ministries have done a lot of good for a lot of people. I used to have my doubts about all the healings that take place, but as I have matured, I realize that even a fraud can get a lot of mileage off a believer. It happened in Jesus’ day too.

Selling Jesus can be a very lucrative endeavor. Some of our celebrity evangelists are worth tens of millions of dollars. Some live in million dollar homes and drive very expensive cars. The gospel has taken on many shades of color, and often the dominant color seems to be green. It’s hard to know who is working for God and who is just working the crowd.

Jesus warned of such people in his Sermon on the Mount. In the 7^th chapter of Matthew, Jesus warns us not only of false prophets, but also of false followers. Remember how Jesus started out his sermon? Near its beginning in Chapter 5, Jesus warns that “unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Calling out “Lord, Lord;” that is, calling out in Jesus’ name as though we know him, is not a ticket to the dance. Jesus cautions us as followers the same way he cautions those would-be prophets. He first tells us that prophets will be recognized by their fruits. So it is with followers, for Jesus tells us that saying the words does not get us to heaven. It is, rather, the doing of God’s will that grants us entry.

How can that be, you ask. Doesn’t Paul tell us that it is only by God’s grace that we are saved? Yet, Jesus seems here to be saying that it is our works by which God evaluates us. Are these two views at odds? Of course not. Paul says that by grace we are saved through faith. What is it that people of faith do? They act out their faith. How do they do that? They are obedient to the will of God the Father as they discern it. And we are right back to what Jesus said. We return God’s love and grace as our faithful act of love by being obedient to his will. That’s not works. That’s love proved by faith and acted out by works.  Put very simply, Jesus is saying that your heavenly Father will know by what you do, not what you say you will do. All the apparent reverence in the world will not get you there. You have to act on it. It’s your heart that will get you to heaven, not your mouth.

Jesus talks about the end times, the day when he shall return, He talks about judging, about who will enter the kingdom and who will be left behind. And here he redefines, or at least makes abundantly clear, the definition of righteousness. He tells us what it isn’t. It isn’t prophesy. It isn’t casting out demons or any other mighty works or deeds, even if done in Jesus’ name. Mighty works are not proof of God. Mighty works can come from God, but they can also come from man or Satan. Mighty works can be real or contrived, genuine and illusion. Mighty works can drum up a lot of business.

But righteousness isn’t necessarily about mighty works. Righteousness is all about attitude. If your heart is right, then you are righteous. Then you might very well do some mighty work, but if you do, you will not be looking for credit. You will be thanking God. The thing is, if your heart is right, you will be doing God’s will, and doing God’s will can be as small as a widow’s mite laid in an offering plate to as big as an ark built to carry all the animals of the earth. Obedience looks the same on a world leader as it does on a first grader.

Note that in verse 21, Jesus uses the term “my Father.” This is the first time in Matthew’s gospel that this term is so used, and it is important because it signals Jesus’ acknowledgment of his identity. His authority is not that of a prophet, through who God speaks, but of God himself. Jesus does not need to quote scripture, although he does fairly often. Jesus is the living Word and carries within him the authority of God himself. The crowds realize this, and more and more people begin to follow Jesus as his fame spreads throughout the region.

In verse 24, Jesus uses his first parable in Matthew’s gospel. We are all familiar with the parallel stories of the houses built on sand and rock. The rock represents wisdom and is compared to the person who shows obedience to God. It should also be noted that in this parable, Jesus promises no favoritism, no exemption from hardship for those who are obedient. We who follow God are not without our troubles. Indeed, we are promised a gracious allotment of trials. The difference is not what we face, but how we deal with it. Houses built upon sand will wash away. If we only pretend to have faith, then when the real storms of life come along, and come they will, those who have not prepared, not obeyed, will find their structures so flimsily constructed that they cannot weather that which befalls them.

Mary Poppins sang to her charges that a spoonful of sugar would make the medicine go down. That’s good advice for children, but of little value to the Christian existence. A spoonful of Christianity won’t get it done. Taking Jesus in small doses is sort of like taking a needle in the arm without the plunger. We get the pain, but not the medicine. That just makes us join the ranks of the foolish builder.

Being obedient to God is not in our natures. For that, we will need God’s help. It is much more natural to go it alone. Even when we are doing God’s business, we would rather build our churches and run our meetings with elbow grease and Yankee knowhow and a polite thank you to God for giving us the expertise. That’s getting perilously close to the sand, don’t you think?

Jesus showed us the way. We need not only to lead through God, but also to follow through God. Our failure to do so will find us unrecognized and unacknowledged on judgment day by the very person whose name we invoked to do all those deeds. If we did these things for ourselves or for earthly recognition, then Jesus warns us that such selfish behavior will render his judgment that we were not his followers at all, and he will turn his back on us.

Make no mistake about the meaning of this passage. It is strong and it is clear. It doesn’t matter your station in life, whether you lead or follow. What matters is whether you submit, really submit, to the exclusive lordship of Jesus Christ in your life. Why do you do what you do? Do you do it for you? Or do you do it for Him? Only one way will open the door of God’s kingdom.

Let us pray

3/9/14

       Silent Trumpets and Secret Hands

Matthew 6: 1-6, 16-21

 Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the season of Lent. During this time, Christians prepare for Easter by fasting, repentance and observance of spiritual discipline. The period reminds us of the forty days that Jesus spent in the wilderness just before beginning his ministry. We try to identify with the fasting and preparation of our Savior in the desert. We do so knowing that while his temptation was a tremendous ordeal, it paled in comparison to that which awaited him on the cross.

In the season of Lent, we spiritually relive the sacrifices of Jesus that helped to prepare him for what would follow. We impose ashes on our foreheads as a sign of our repentance. While we are taught to pray in private and without seeking the approval of men, we now publicly acknowledge our desire to be forgiven for our part in that which made his sacrifice inevitable. We remove the flowers and adornments from our church buildings and we stand with our ashes marking us, for God has come into our midst to pay the price we could never hope to pay, to bridge the unbridgeable gap between Savior and saved.

In the gospel of Matthew, Jesus is instructing his disciples. They are his followers. When he is gone, it is they who will spread the gospel. Christianity will rest on the shoulders of a few fisherman, a tax collector, a zealot and a few more unlikelys. Jesus tells them to give to the needy, but to do so in secret. The giving is to be without fanfare. The hypocrites sound trumpets in order to be noticed. Jesus wants the disciples to be noticed only by God. Even their own hands should not know what each other is doing. Then Jesus gives them instructions on fasting. Fasting was something they understood. It was a way of preparing, of showing repentance. Jesus told them to disguise their actions, to look normal and well fed by all outward appearances. Again, their actions were to be private communications, tender obediences between them and the Lord. Jesus was preparing his followers for true discipleship.

Worship is more than ritual, fasting more than form. The appearance of humility inside this sanctuary impresses little if thrown aside like a cloak once we leave. We must act our testimony and not just ritualize it. We must do so to the tune of silent trumpets. If our prayers are to be heard by our heavenly Father, they must arrive on the wings of our witness. Our testimony must be real and transparent. If our worship is relegated to sanctuaries and church pews, then our daily life is not worship and we are not righteous. Our true worship is that we act as God’s people. In this new season of Lent, we are again presented with the opportunity to repent and the obligation to witness.  On our way to Easter, may we find that true character reserved for each us by our Creator. Let our hearts become more pure, our hands more busy as we lay up treasure in heaven…in Jesus’ name.

Let us pray.

2/22/12, Rev. 2/13/13, Rev. 3/2/14

Priorities

                    Matthew 6: 24-34

            Are you ever anxious about your life? Want to know that you have everything covered? What happens if your husband gets laid off? What happens if you get laid off? Do you have enough in savings? What if you get pregnant? What if you don’t get pregnant? How much life insurance do you need? How will you pay for braces, buy a house, save for college, take a vacation?

          The list goes on and on. No matter how many things you check off, there are always many more waiting to make the list. As you age, doctor bills and health problems take the place of housing and college for the kids. It never ends. What if I die? What if I am disabled?   How will my spouse get along? What if?

The disciples of Jesus had questions too. What if we run out of food? What if our clothing wears out? What about these old sandals? We no longer have jobs. How will we get along? They had priorities.

Jesus encountered a rich young ruler who had questions. How will I get to heaven? Jesus said, come, follow me, and the young man said, not now, I have to bury my father, meaning he had responsibilities and if he left, his inheritance would be cut short. He had priorities.

          A young girl has a soccer game and her mom has a job conflict. Mom has an important meeting. It could mean good things for her future. Her daughter needs her at the game, but her boss needs her at the meeting. She must decide. What are her priorities?

          There are so many things to worry about. There are so many decisions to be made. Every day there are those decisions. Do I tithe? If I do, how will I ever make ends meet? Do I go out with these new friends? Are they really my friends, or just people trying to take advantage of me? Why can’t I put down my cell phone and do the chores I have? Why can’t I lay off the video games and concentrate? I try to get my priorities right, but it’s so hard! It makes me anxious all the time.

          Jesus goes up on a mountain and talks to his disciples. He talks to them about lots of things. While he talks, don’t you think his disciples are probably asking him questions? We don’t have the questions, but I bet there were plenty. Some of them almost certainly had to do with the worries and anxieties of those disciples. They didn’t know what was coming and it worried them. Like so many of us, they worried about tomorrow. Jesus tells them to reach higher, to replace their goals with kingdom goals.

          Jesus uses tools of rabbinic argument common to the day. Using food to compare with life, he works from the major to the minor. If God gave you life, which is major, then surely he will give you food, which is minor, to sustain that life. Then Jesus switches, moving from the minor to the major. If God takes care of birds and flowers, the little things, how much more will he take care of people. What are you worried about?

          Does Jesus mean that we are not to work? Hardly. Does Jesus mean that we are not to plan? I don’t think so. Jesus means that we have to see our priorities. We have to know what is important and distinguish it from that which is secondary. The point is not that we stop working, but that we stop fretting. If we spend all our time and energy planning for tomorrow, we have forfeited today. What if today is all we are given? After all, tomorrow is not guaranteed. 

          Priorities. I remember once being courted by a big client. He liked my style and was considering me to do all his legal work and it was a big account. I was a single parent struggling to make ends meet and this guy was a rainmaker. He sent word to me that he wanted me to join him one Sunday afternoon in his private box at the raceway during a big race. I politely declined. It was explained to me that declining was not something to do with this fellow. I explained back that Sunday was not a workday for me and that it was a time I spent with my children. I lost the account. But I understood. That fellow wanted to be my priority. That day, I had the good sense to see that and say no. There was a cost to pay. I lost business I needed. Better to pay that cost than the cost of compromising my values and beliefs. That day, I had my priorities in order.

          Jesus reminded his disciples that the Gentiles sought all those earthly answers. He was saying that those who know no better seek such things, but those who know God know better than to seek such trifles. There are real concerns in this life, but to see them, we must have our priorities straight. God’s people should be able to do that. Jesus told the disciples: “your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.” But there are priorities, and these things are further down on the list.

          What comes first? When I was confronted many years ago with a choice between the possibility of a big account and letting down the children who trusted me, God allowed me to see the big picture and to make the right choice. Sometimes I have not been so fortunate. What comes first when the boss wants you to work on Sunday and you have already made promises to God, to family, to church? What comes first when the bills are there to be paid and there seems to be nothing left for the offering plate? The world crowds in on us and in spite of all our good intentions, we find ourselves compromising. When we do, the world overwhelms us with all the possibilities of failure with which we are confronted. The great poet William Wordsworth penned these famous thoughts in 1806:

                  The world is too much with us; late and soon,

        getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:

                  little we see in Nature that is ours;

                   we have given our hearts away…

                   The Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;

                   the winds that will be howling at all hours…

                   for this, for everything, we are out of tune;

                   it moves us not…

            Jesus sat on the mountain with his disciples and gave them the answer. He told them how to have what they sought. He told them how to solve their anxiety. He ordered their priorities. His solution was captured in one simple sentence, but in that advice lay the key to their happiness and our peace. Jesus said: “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” 

            Seek God’s kingdom first. How simple that sounds. It’s not. Sometimes it can be very hard. Ask a mother sitting by her newborn, but premature son in the NICU, unable to hold him except at feedings, hanging on every breath he takes. Ask a father holding down two jobs trying to make ends meet. Seek God’s kingdom first. It sounds almost like a dream…but it isn’t. Ask Joseph or Paul in their prison cells or Daniel in the lion’s den. Seek God’s kingdom first. Do that and everything else will work out. Jesus has promised us that.                      

            When you have the faith to put God first over all things, and I do mean all things…then, Jesus says to seek God’s righteousness. Put very simply, that just means, live in discipleship to God… be in submission to him. Don’t put God on your list. Give your list to God.

            So how’s that working for you? You might think of it this way. Give God today. Give it over completely to him. His grace is sufficient. Tomorrow is another day and God has a plan for it too. How much grace do you need? It has been said that today’s grace is only sufficient for today, so why waste it on tomorrow. 

            What’s your priority for today? Will you seek God first? If you do, you really have no need to fret about tomorrow.

Let us pray

3/2/14

In His Holy Temple

          1 Corinthians 3: 10, 11, 16-23

            In the third chapter of Exodus, Moses approaches the person of God, represented by a bush on fire but not consumed. Moses is arrested by God before he can get too close. He is told to remove his sandals, for he is standing on holy ground. In the twenty fifth chapter of Exodus, God again speaks to Moses. Moses is told to speak to the people, to gather contributions from them. In verse 8, God says to Moses “and let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst.” In both passages, we are confronted with the concept of holiness, here being connoted as a holy place. What is “holy?” It is that which has been consecrated, or set apart. Why set apart? Because such places are where God dwells. They are made holy by the presence of God.

          Flash forward to the third chapter of 1^st Corinthians, where the apostle Paul addresses the new Christians in the city of Corinth. Paul probably wrote the letter while in Ephesus, where he was laboring to establish a church plant as he had done in Corinth. The Corinthian church was plagued with problems of immorality, of leadership and of pride. Paul sought to help his flock right their course.  “Do you not know you are God’s temple?” asked Paul. Do you not know “that God’s spirit dwells in you?”

          In Exodus 3, God is talking to Moses. God says: I am here. Don’t come any closer. You’re standing on holy ground, a place I have set aside for myself.  Again, in Exodus 8, God says to Moses that he wants God’s people to build him a sanctuary, a place for God to dwell in the midst of his people.

          So what is Paul getting at in Corinthians? Do you know that you are God’s temple? he asks.  Who is “you?” Paul must be talking about the corporate body known as the church. If the temple is a place, then “you” must be the church. Certainly Paul is writing to the church, specifically the church in Corinth and universally, churches everywhere. “You are God’s temple” must mean that you, the church, are God’s temple.

          That could hardly be called wrong. Surely the church is the temple where God dwells, the sanctuary where God’s Spirit is in the midst of his people. But as surely as such an interpretation bears a ring of truth, it just as surely sells Paul’s message short of its mark. The Greek word for church is ecclesia or “gathering”…a gathering, in this instance, of God’s people. So we may fairly read this sentence as saying that “you, the people of God, are God’s sacred dwelling place.” When read in this light, it becomes more personal. Each of us is the dwelling place of God. Each of us is that sacred place, that sanctuary, set aside by God for his Spirit to live.

A young couple in our church was recently blessed with the arrival of a baby boy. I know they are very happy to be parents and to have their son Luke, as are his grandparents. But I can’t help but wonder if they were really ready for a baby who came six weeks earlier than expected. Was the nursery ready? Was the crib assembled and the linens bought? Were all the many things in place that go with receiving an infant into a home?

I remember when my first child came. Rebekah was adopted and came to us at three months of age. We had one day’s notice. I remember my church throwing an “emergency” baby shower for us the next week. We were not prepared for what came our way. If I were meant to be Rebekah’s sanctuary, I had to catch up fast to be able to bring her into my midst.
          Well, of course, we got prepared in a hurry for our new baby. I’m sure that the new parents, with plenty of assistance offered by their families, also got all their final preparations completed in a New York minute for little Luke. That’s what we do for our children. We look after them. We move mountains for those we love simply because we love them. They are in our midst and we will give them a dwelling place with love. We offer them sanctuary, a place set apart. 

Shouldn’t we do at least as much for our father God, for his Holy Spirit, as we do for our children? God is living in you right now. His Spirit is roaming around inside you, trying to find a place to sit down and get comfortable. What does the living room of your heart look like? Have you got the home fire burning? Did you leave the light on at the door? After all, God gave you that body. He gave you that conscience and those gifts.

What does Paul say about that? He says that “God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.” And think about this. Paul does not qualify the condition of that temple. He says that we are the temple of God, ready or not. Even if we’re all mixed up and messed up, God comes calling and wants to dwell within us. If we believe in him, then God’s Spirit dwells in us in sanctuary. Do you have room? Do you have God’s temple in order?

Church buildings are important. They are meeting places for God’s people to gather, to worship, to fellowship. But they are not God’s temple. God cannot be confined to a few buildings scattered across the landscape. God is the author of that landscape, and the jewel in the crown of that creation is his people! The temple of God is not the buildings in which we meet. The temple of God is the people of God. That is where God’s Spirit dwells. When God says he wants to be in our midst, he takes center stage in the heart and body of every single believer!

Before we leave this passage, we would do well to observe Paul’s warning. “If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him.” There’s really no need for interpretation here. It is a stern warning to God’s people of every age. There will be judgment for those who choose to mistreat God’s temple.

Origen was a great 3^rd century philosopher and theologian. Some of his ideas have not held up over time, but many have. He has this to say about the subject: “We are most of all God’s temple when we prepare ourselves to receive the Holy Spirit.” I think that exactly what Paul was trying to point out to the early church. We need to be prepared to receive God’s Spirit. And when we do, then he is truly in our midst. He has picked us as his dwelling place. He has picked each of us as his temple.

Throw on a log, vacuum the rug, sweep off the porch and light a candle. God is coming for a visit and you need to be prepared. He wants to stay…in his holy temple…and that temple is you.

Let us pray

2/23/14

Setting the Record Straight

Matthew 5: 21-48

          Outside St. Giles Church in Oxford, England, stands a beautiful neo-gothic spire known as Martyr’s Memorial. It was erected in 1842 as a tribute to three men who were burned at the stake for heresy in the reign of Bloody Mary during the sixteenth century. If you walk about twenty meters down Broad Street, you will come to a cross of bricks set in the road, the actual site of the execution of Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley, two Anglican bishops, and Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury. It’s just a small place in the street where the pavement is peeled back. Cars drive over it all the time. Those men lived during the English Reformation, the time when the Church of England broke from the Roman Catholic Church. During the short reign of Mary after Henry VIII died, she wanted to return the Church to Roman Catholicism. The Oxford Three resisted her and found themselves convicted of heresy. Mary had her own set of rules. They wanted to set the record straight, but it would cost them. It was a tough time to be a Christian in England.

          Forty years earlier, across the English Channel in Germany, a young college professor named Martin Luther was struggling mightily with the many rules of the Church. The printing press had been operating for almost sixty years and people were learning to read, as reading material was becoming accessible to everyone. The Church didn’t like this, but Luther became convinced that the Church had lost sight of its central truths. It was 1517. Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the church because he wanted to set the record straight. Luther knew that salvation comes from God’s grace, and God’s grace cannot be bought with tithes and indulgences.  The Protestant Reformation had started.  

So many more, before and after, from Steven, the first martyr for Christ, to Paul, to Thomas Beckett, to Dietrich Bonheoffer. Foxe’s Book of Martyrs is full of stories of heroes of the faith. Why did they try so hard? Why didn’t they learn to compromise? Why did they have to die just to make their point?

Chapters 5-7 of Matthew’s gospel are loaded with pearls from Jesus as he teaches his disciples. In this passage, Jesus says not once, but six times the phrase, “You have heard that it was said, but I say…” or something close to it. This section is often called the six antitheses because all six sections begin with this phrase. Jesus uses it as a setup phrase. In each case, he is about to clarify the meaning of Scripture or to correct some misinterpretation of it.  Jesus talks about murder and anger, adultery, divorce, oaths and swearing, retaliation, and treatment of our enemies. All the Scriptural references except one seem to come from the Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament. In looking at what Jesus is teaching, it is again helpful to understand what he is not doing before we move on to what he is doing. Jesus is not saying that what they know is false and what he teaches is true. He does not contradict the Scriptures. Also, he is not trying to play legalism against real commitment. So what is Jesus doing?

Like so many other times in Scripture, we need to feel our way. God speaks to us in Scripture. God speaks and things happen. Oceans and mountains are formed. God breathes and mankind comes into being. The Hebrew word is ruach, meaning breath, or wind, or spirit. When God speaks though the written word, we must wait for it to come alive in our hearts, to quicken and be breathed into our souls.

Jesus talks about murder and says that anger can be a sin just as grievous. He tells us to apologize and make up before we ask for God’s forgiveness. He talks about adultery and tells us that the lust of our minds wounds God as deeply as the act itself. He condones adultery only on the grounds of sexual immorality.

When it comes to oaths and swearing, acts that had severe consequences in the first century, Jesus says speak the truth grown from  your own character and let that be enough. As to the old law of retaliation, called lex talionis, an eye for an eye, Jesus seems to be saying that the law was meant to purge evil from among us and that the best way to do so is to act from charity and generosity.

The last item on the menu is loving one’s enemy. The Old Testament never said that we should hate our enemy. It was a given that God hates evil, so it wasn’t such a leap to think that we must be correct in hating those who embody evil. The thing is it’s not there in Scripture. We are to love our neighbor and we know that neighbor is a pretty comprehensive term. So what does Jesus say? He says leave the judging to God. Emulate his love and leave the rest to God.

In all these teachings, Jesus clarifies misunderstandings and points to the truths contained in the law of God. The law of God is not a “don’t” religion, but rather a “do” religion. It is not the letter of the law that brings us to the throne of grace. It is, rather, the spirit, the ruach, of God breathed in us and through us that captures the essence of the gospel.

          During his short ministry here on earth, Jesus broke a lot of rules. He healed on the Sabbath. That was “work” according to the Pharisees’ application of Jewish law. He overturned the tables of the money changers in the temple courtyard. He equated himself with God. Breaking the Sabbath, causing a near riot at the temple and blasphemy. Jesus was a rule breaker. He didn’t play by the rules of the day. The rules of the day were made by men. Even when they quoted Scripture, they applied their own limited understanding to the interpretation of those rules.

Jesus taught his disciples, and we are numbered among that group, the law of love. It is a simple law. Love your way through the hurt. Love your way through the pain. Love your way through the darkness and back into the light.  1 John 4: 8 tells us that God is love. Listen to that again. God is love! Play it backwards. Love is God! Pass it forward. God is love. Want to be with God? Love somebody. Love somebody who is hard to love. Love is hard. Love is rich but it is costly. Love hurts. Love heals.

Jesus never changed a single word of Scripture. Jesus never broke a single law of God. He just applied the rules with love. Why was it so important to set the record straight? After all, he could have lived much longer if he had just stayed inside the lines with the religious rulers.

Jesus had no choice. He loves us. Love does. There is no bending the rule of love. Love is the ruach, the spirit, of life.  When Hugh Latimer went to the stake with his friend Nicolas Ridley, he uttered these famous words: “Be of good cheer, Master Ridley, and play the man, for we shall this day light such a candle in England as I trust by God’s grace shall never be put out.” What a candle they and others lit for the Reformation! But we don’t have to burn at the stake to keep God’s record straight in our own lives and our own homes. We just have to see the rules for what they are and know how to color outside the lines when we are called upon to do so.

So when you read God’s Word, feel your way. From the light God created in Genesis 1 to the light God supplies in Revelation 22, God is our light. He is loving you as you pour over his Word. There is a message there for you and it is pure. Read for the dos, because love does. The record is straight on that, too.

Let us pray

2/16/14

Let It Shine

Matthew 5: 13-20

            In the gospel of Matthew, the author wastes no time getting into Jesus’ ministry. Chapters 1 and 2 contain the genealogy, the birth narrative, the flight to Egypt and the return to Nazareth. Chapters 3 and 4 cover Jesus’ baptism, his temptation, his calling of the first disciples and the beginning of his ministry in Galilee. Chapter 5 opens with the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus appears to be teaching his disciples. Immediately after the Beatitudes, Jesus continues with his famous salt and light statements. Apparently still talking to the disciples, he says to them, “You are the salt of the earth…You are the light of the world.” He then goes on to explain a little about what he means when he uses these terms to describe his followers.

          What does salt mean to you? You use it on food. Why? To give it more taste, of course. Salt is essential to our taste buds, so much so that the human tongue is actually designed to feel four different taste sensations: salt, sour, bitter and sweet. Salt is that important to our taste. Salt enhances and enriches the flavor of food.  For most of us, and many four legged friends as well, salt is like a magnet. Hunters of generations past used to scout for salt deposits along river banks, called salt licks because deer would come to them to do just that…to lick the salt. So hunting deer became a salty proposition.

Salt has another use. It is a natural preservative. We are not so far removed that we don’t have some knowledge of our grandparents curing ham and other meat by salting it down and letting it hang in a dry space until it cures. Salt is still used in some form or another as a preservative in many of the foods we buy.

Salt is also a healing agent. We gargle with salt water to soothe our sore throats and soak our cuts in salt water to speed the healing process. Whether enriching our taste or preserving our food or speeding our healing, salt has always been a valuable commodity in our lives.

But what if salt loses its flavor? What if it somehow sours? What is its use then? Can it be restored? My scientist friends tell me that salt is a very stable chemical compound. As long as it remains dry, it can retain its saltiness virtually forever. As we all know from common sense, salt dissolves in water. The more it is diluted, the less it remains salty until finally, it completely disappears. Even though it is still there, it has changed its properties and is no longer recognizable or useful.

About now, you might be thinking how amazing our Lord was in being able to define us in the most simple ways. If we are his disciples, then we are the salt of the earth. If we are his disciples, we enhance and enrich the lives of all those with whom we come in contact. If we are his disciples, we help preserve his kingdom and we even help heal those within it who need help…just like salt. But…if we allow ourselves to become diluted by introducing other things into the mix, then sooner or later, we lose all our taste, all our healing power, all our usefulness, to the point where we are not even recognizable or useful as disciples anymore.

“You are the light of the world,” says Jesus to his disciples.  Light is a big theme in the Bible. The King James Version uses it about 272 times. Light is associated with Jesus, with understanding, with discernment, to name a few concepts. John called Jesus the light of the world and here in Matthew, Jesus uses the same term to refer to his disciples. Notice what Jesus doesn’t say. He doesn’t say you will be the light or you could be the light or even you should be the light. Jesus says you are the light!

A little light goes a long way. There’s an old story about three youngsters who were each given money by an old fella with instructions to go into town and buy as much as they could to fill up a room. The first youngster bought hay with his money and it filled up a whole side of the room. The second child bought straw and it filled up almost half the room. The third child came back with only a small candle and a flint. But then as he struck the flint upon a rock and caused a spark to light that little candle, the whole room was flooded with light. All that light from one candle… A little light goes a long way.

A few years ago, Cindy and I were blessed to tour some old churches and cathedrals in Scotland and England as part of a religious history course that I was taking in seminary. For almost two weeks we wandered through some of the great churches in those countries, some over a thousand years old. We marveled at the architecture, the arches and the stained glass windows. We marveled at the stories of many who gave their lives during various points in history for the advancement of the Gospel. Inside those cathedrals, the awesomeness of God was somehow more real to me. I was reminded of a story I once read about a young man who took a similar tour and upon his return was asked by his Sunday school teacher how he would define a saint. His answer was classic. He said “A saint is a person the light shines through.”

“You are the light of the world,” said Jesus, not to everyone, but to his disciples. You build a city on a hill, he said, and you can’t hide it. It can be seen from miles around. It you light a light, you don’t hide it. That defeats the purpose of the light. Light is to give off illumination for all around it to see. If you let the light shine, then it gives light to all around it. If you hide the light, none will benefit. It will be as useless as salt diluted in water.

In the same way that we light each candle from the candle of another in an evening church service, Jesus stood in front of his disciples as both human and divine light. His disciples became the human counterpart of the candles we light, and they became the reflection of that divine light. They became saints, just like the boy in our story told his Sunday school teacher. They let the light of Jesus shine through them.

Jesus said it. “In the same way [that a lamp gives light to all the house], let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

Let me take a minute here to show you a little film clip from another disciple, a twentieth century disciple named Billy Graham. It’s a humorous anecdote, but it illustrates a point that needs to be made.

 Youtube clip of Graham, Shea and Barrows singing Let It Shine

Billy Graham always left the singing to Bev Shea and Cliff Barrows, but in this one moment, he surprised everyone by poking a little fun at himself while making a huge point. Reverend Graham laughingly said that This Little Light of Mine was the only song they could do. I doubt that, but if it were true, wouldn’t that be just fine. If you have only one thing to do, only one song to sing, what better choice!

                             This little light of mine.

                             I’m gonna let it shine.

                             Hide it under a bushel,

                             No!

                             I’m gonna let it shine.

Let it shine, Let it shine, Let it shine.

          Be salt. Stay salt. Stay tasty and help preserve the good. Don’t let your character get diluted by the showers of life. Be light, and reflect your Savior. Let his light shine through you. And to God be the glory!

Let us pray

2/9/14

The Word of the Cross

1 Corinthians 1: 18-31

            In the twenty first century, nations are still striving to govern themselves under a variety of forms. In the Middle East, many nations are still governed as religious states. In Africa, new labels have hardly replaced old tribal dominance. Communism and Socialism still survive in various forms. Democracy, the form that George Washington called an “experiment,” still thrives in the United States and is practiced in some form number of other countries. After all these centuries, we have yet to settle as a planet on the best form of government. There’s a good reason for that. Governments in whatever form are still run by people, and people can get selfish, greedy and prideful.

The situation was not much different in Paul’s day. In first century Corinth, the subculture of Judaism competed for space with the dominant Greek culture brought by Roman occupation and rule. Corinth was a place where many cultures and religions co-mingled. In Paul’s day, it was a wide open town where anything could happen and generally did. The worship of pagan religion stood side by side with Judaism and this new cult called Christians. The new church plant was struggling. It had many questions for Paul and wrote to him about a number of issues from marriage and divorce to bodily resurrection. They were struggling to find their identity amid much competition for their attention. Paul, probably in Ephesus at the time, wrote them back and let them know that they were out of step with the gospel and had their priorities and loyalties out of order. 1 Corinthians is a love letter, but it is a “tough love” letter.

Paul talks about the “word of the cross.” What a strange phrase! “Word” in John’s gospel is God come to earth in human form. We think of the “Word of God” as the Bible, the written word of God, the collection of all the Holy Scriptures.  We think of Jesus as the “Living Word” of God, the conqueror of death. He lives today and speaks to us through the promised Holy Spirit.  

The word of the cross. What is it?  I think Paul is saying something different from John’s gospel. He takes us to another level of understanding. It does speak to us, but what does Paul mean? Well, in true Presbyterian fashion, I’m going to suggest three things that it means.  First, it is the zenith of God’s self-disclosure.  God reveals himself through nature. God reveals himself through the prophets. God reveals himself through his Son Jesus. But most of all, God reveals himself through the love act that takes place on the cross. Want to really know God? Meet him at the cross!

Secondly, that “word” represented by the cross requires an act of faith. Paul points to the Jews, who demand signs, as if the mighty acts of Jesus were anything less. He then mentions the Greeks, who seek wisdom, as if the teaching of Jesus imparted something less. His answer is our answer. Paul says that “we preach Christ crucified,” meaning that the atonement of our Savior for our sins is the defining moment in history. It has only one correct response. That response is neither sign nor wisdom but faith… faith alone in Jesus alone.

Last, the word of the cross is that God’s grace, not money or power or pedigree, informs us of the membership in this royal family. But as much as the lowly and the meek now take their place at God’s table, we who would do so are warned that pride is the enemy of both low and high. We cannot take any pride in the fact that we are called, for it is the grace of God that calls us. It is the power of God that saves us.

How can we find this power, this grace, this wisdom? Paul’s answer is painfully simple. We can find it at the cross. When Paul says this, when Paul talks about the word of the cross, he is talking about Jesus. The revelation of God, the complete disclosure that leaves nothing back, is Jesus. The act of faith that brings us to the foot of the cross is the act of believing in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. The wisdom we must obtain is that the source of it all is God’s love and God’s amazing grace. We can never boast or take credit for that.

“We preach Christ crucified,” said Paul. What he meant to the Corinthians still holds true today. God has revealed himself in his Son. Christ is our wisdom. Christ is our righteousness. Christ is our redemption. He is the power of God and the wisdom of God incarnate for all to see, but our vision will not come through anything short of grace itself. This is real wisdom, when we meet Jesus at the cross, when we recognize the overwhelming love contained in that act of sacrifice.

The wisdom of this world cannot save us. Only our obedience to the Word…the word of the cross…to the gospel of Jesus Christ, can save us. When we understand this word, the word of the cross, then we, too, can preach Christ crucified…and risen!

Let us pray

2/2/14