Look And See (John 1: 43-46; Matthew 13: 10-13) 7/29/12

          Look and see! Come and see!  How many times have you heard these sayings? Why? Why do we use two verbs? Are these separate actions? Look and see. Come and see. What’s that all about?

The last several months, I have been waiting to have cataracts removed from my eyes. The first of those was removed this week. The lens in my left eye was replaced by a man made lens. Now several days later, the change in my eyesight is nothing less than miraculous. The detail is magnificent, the contrast striking, a kaleidoscope of brilliant color. I had no idea how much my sight had deteriorated. There is more beauty and color in a simple blade of grass than I ever thought possible. Clouds now paint sky pictures that make me stop to look…and to see.

That’s the point, you know. We look, but do we see? I think that is why we formed the phrase, because there is a difference between those two verbs. Look…and see. They are two different activities. We are always looking, but we don’t always see. There is sight, but that is a far cry from vision. We look, but do we see?

In the gospel of John, Jesus is at Cana. So is Philip and he has brought his friend Nathaniel. Philip comes to Nathaniel and says “We have found him! We have found him of who the law and the prophets spoke. It’s Jesus of Nazareth.” Nathaniel laughs. “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” he says. “Come and see,” says Phillip. Nathaniel approaches Jesus and he knows. He is lucky. He has the eyes to see. He asks Jesus how he knows him. Jesus just says “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.” And Nathaniel knows that everything has changed. He calls Jesus the Son of God and for Nathaniel, his understanding of the world will never be the same. Nathaniel came and he saw.

For four months, I have known that I had cataracts. They were attached to the back of the lenses in my eyes, forming a gray cloud over everything that I viewed. It happened gradually over a period of several years. Once I had been diagnosed, I tried to make it a point to remember how I saw, because I knew it was going to change and I wanted to remember the difference. I didn’t realize how much I was missing. This week I rediscovered things I had forgotten or could no longer see. I have hair on my arms, lots of gray in my beard, a wife even more beautiful than I saw the week before. I saw crepe myrtle trees and oak leaves almost as though I had never seen them before. I had forgotten how lustrous is this world that God has given us for a playground.

In the thirteenth chapter of Matthew, nestled among a series of parables, Jesus tells his disciples the purpose of using parables. Jesus says: You (the disciples) get to know the secrets of the kingdom, but they don’t. You have listened, so you get to hear more. To the one who does not listen, even what he has will be lost. “…seeing, they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand” [12: 13]. Jesus quotes the prophet Isaiah, saying that “their eyes they have closed.” For those who do not listen to God’s Word, they are like the cataracts that covered my vision in a shroud of fog until I no longer saw what was there in plain view. After a while, even what I saw, I didn’t really see any more.

It’s a funny thing the way God works in our lives. He has certainly been working on me the past few years. This last year, it is as though my eyes finally opened. God had planted the seeds of change in my life and he has given me plenty of signs to confirm his direction for me. The question is not whether God has made himself known. The question is whether I am ready to lay down my need to self-direct and follow God’s clear and present lead. The fact that I have spent many years in one profession is no reason that I am intended to continue to labor there. The fact that I have spent many years in one location is no reason that I am intended to remain there. The fact that I had a plan for retirement is no reason that I am intended to carry out that plan. The vision is there, but I have to do more than look. I have to see.

In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul gives us his beautiful discourse on love in chapter 13. After telling us the attributes of love, Paul reminds us all that now he sees only though a “glass dimly”, or a “mirror darkly.” Then, he says, referring to when he meets God in heaven, then he…and we, will see face to face. Paul reminds us that even at our best, we see only a vague image of that which we will ultimately see. In Paul’s day, the Greco-Roman version of a mirror was some highly polished metal. There was no glass. That view sounds a lot like the way I have been seeing through cataracts. The vision is incomplete and veiled at best. That is what a “glass darkly” looks like.

My travels through the world of dimmed vision have been quite a revelation. I can’t help but think of Paul. Blinded in order that he might really see, the book of Acts tells us that “something like scales fell from his eyes and he regained his sight” [9: 18].  The loss and restoration of Paul’s physical sight was only a metaphor for the main event. The real deal was that now Paul didn’t just look at Christianity. He saw it for what it was. From that moment on, Paul’s spiritual vision became a light to the Gentiles and still illumines all who read the Scriptures.

Paul’s experience with God is not unique. It happens to all of us who come to see God. And in this case, seeing is believing!  My own experience is like that. How ironic that God would bring me limited physical sight at the very time he was opening my heart to see him more clearly on a spiritual level. I am grateful for the physical vision that is being restored to me, but I’m much more grateful for the vision that God has planted in my heart, for that is the place where we really see.  That is the place where the Holy Spirit meets us and fills us with the faith that lets us turn our lives over to God.

In 1895 while living in Dubuque, Iowa, Clara Scott penned the hymn “Open My Eyes That I May See.”  The first verse goes like this:

          Open my eyes that I may see 

Glimpses of truth Thou hast for me;

Place in my hands the wonderful key

That shall unclasp and set me free.

Silently now I wait for thee,

Ready my God, Thy will to see.

Open my eyes, illumine me.

Spirit divine!

Illumine me. Illumine us. Let those who have eyes to see, see what God has in store. Let the film be removed, let the scales drop from our eyes. The vision that awaits each and every one of us is nothing less than miraculous!      

Putting On Christ (Galatians 3) 7/22/12

          We have been taking a look at the Book of Galatians. Galatians is thought by many scholars to be the oldest published work of the apostle Paul. Except for the book of James, Galatians may be the oldest book in the New Testament, written about 48 A.D. Paul wrote it as a letter to the churches in Galatia, a region in Asia Minor that he visited during his first missionary journey. In our first lesson, we noted that Paul was upset about the false gospel that he said was being spread by Judaizers. It was a teaching that encouraged these Gentile Christians to observe and follow the rules and customs of Judaism, including circumcision. Paul angrily and emotionally appealed to his converts to follow the only true gospel. In our second lesson, Paul continued to remind his flock that the law—or works—cannot get us to heaven. Paul argued that the only way to salvation was to be justified by faith through the grace of God. In that way, it would be just as if we had not sinned. We become justified.

          Today, we look at the third chapter of Galatians, a chapter rich with ideas. Theologian William Barclay divided it into five major subsections in his Study Bible series in an attempt to analyze its many points. Barclay’s divisions are the gift of grace, the curse of the law, the covenant that cannot be altered, shut up under sin and the coming of faith. We could easily spend several lessons just on chapter 3 of Galatians, so this message is nothing more than a highlight reel.

`        Chapter 3 of Galatians is of great importance to understanding the Christian faith and of understanding the call of God to all his people. Paul speaks of the Abrahamic covenant. It was a dual promise of seed and nations. The nation of Israel had looked to it for hundreds of years as its sacred birthright. Abraham was to be the father of nations! His seed is traced by Matthew all the way to Jesus. From Abraham came Isaac. From Isaac came Jacob. From Jacob came the twelve tribes of Israel. You know the rest of that story. By the time of the Exodus, the male heirs of Abraham numbered over four hundred thousand! And yet in Galatians 3, Paul declares that the seed to which God referred is not genetic at all, at least not in a bloodline.

Paul tells us that the covenant of God with Abraham was much bigger even than the one to which the Jewish nation had been wedded.  Paul says that the real covenant was a covenant of faith. The admission ticket to coverage under God’s covenant is not blood. It is not lineage. It is not ethnicity. It is faith.  And Paul says that this covenant is and always has been just what he describes. As surely as Abraham could not and did not reach God through his acts or even his obedience, but rather through his simple faith, so then, faith is the heritage passed down and made available to all people.

Paul argues that the offspring of Abraham is not all the generations of Jews, but Christ and Christ only. He goes on to remind us that the covenant preceded the law. The covenant was a unilateral promise from God and it came before and stayed long after the law. Where is the inheritance? asks Paul. The inheritance is God’s promise. It was made to a man, but not dependent on any act of that or any other man. The promise is from God. It is binding and unbreakable.

Now I know something about covenants. The law is full of covenants. Contracts are basically a recital of covenants. My law school professors taught me that a covenant is a promise; that a contract is a promise for a promise. They taught me that no contract can be enforceable unless there is mutual consideration. There must be a thing for a thing.  So a covenant given unilaterally -–from one person to another with no consideration—is a non-binding contract. It’s like saying that there must be some condition to be fulfilled in order for a covenant to work. Well that is certainly true in the civil law, but God needs no law for his covenants to be binding. God needs no conditions to hold him to his word.  Paul reminds us that God is not like us. God can covenant with himself. He doesn’t need a mediator to stand between him and us.  He has no need of our agreement or even of our faithfulness. He can and does supply it all.        Man-made covenants need consideration. There must be a trade-off of some sort. God-made covenants have no such needs.

So the law becomes a method of revelation. If you don’t have a set of rules of some sort, a guideline, a manual, then how do you know when you have crossed the line? If no line is ever drawn, there is no place we may not cross, no limit beyond which manners or courtesy or tact or humanity draws us back. In faith Abraham followed God. In faith, Moses delivered from God to us a set of ten rules of life. In their search for the proper application of these broad rules of life, the Israelites codified them into hundreds more man-made regulations. Before we get too stuffy about those silly religious regulations, we might want to see what we Gentiles have done. The new Book of Order in PCUSA numbers 217 pages and there are about 60 more pages of Appendices. My law office contains about twelve board feet of shelving just to house the North Carolina General Statutes. Man’s attempt at self-governance is noble but severely flawed.

What is Paul’s answer? It is not by the law that we are saved. It is not by its knowledge, nor by its application. To know the law is to recognize something about what it is we are not to do. To know God through faith in Christ is to recognize what it is we are to do.

I love the seasons. They are the annual promise of both constancy and change. Here in the upper South, we can normally enjoy a real taste of each and every season not only on the calendar, but also on the thermometer. Judging by my wife Cindy, I think women may relish the change of seasons even more than men. For me, fall is football and gathering leaves, winter is a taste of snow and the Super bowl, spring is newness all around and flowers and birth to all creation. Summer brings the heat, and mowing and the green of summer. It is vacations and picnics and trips to anywhere with water, from the lake to the river to the ocean. For Cindy, it is all that, but it is also a change of wardrobe. Closets exchange their inhabitants as sweaters and coats make way for sandals and shorts.

The apostle Paul could certainly have appreciated all this fuss about the change of seasons. He was a man on the move and weather more than once made him change his plans or even spared his life. But when it came to faith, there was only one change of clothing for Paul. Paul said to his beloved Galatians as he says to us as well, that when we are baptized into Christ, we have “put on Christ.” The Greek verb here is enouw which, in addition to meaning “put on,” means “to clothe.” When you are baptized, when you believe, when you have faith, you clothe yourself in Christ. It is your uniform.  Neither Jew nor Greek. No more male or female. Neither slave nor free, says Paul. One in Christ. No more ethnicity, no more gender, no more class system.  We share a common faith. That is the real promise of God, revealed all the way back to Abraham! By faith we are saved through grace. No matter how many times we say the words, they become no less miraculous, no less loving. And that, friends, makes us all heirs—heirs according to the promise. Isn’t it nice to know that you are included in His will! 

KNEEWALKING (Galatians 2) 7/8/12

          In the cotton mill, one of my bosses was named Fred. Fred was my favorite boss, but then, he was just about everyone’s favorite. The years I worked in the mill were a time of construction. Everything was being updated or replaced or added on to. My department had many work crews, and they would get into disputes about how to do a job. Fred would come out to troubleshoot the problem. Usually, it was more about psychology than construction. Fred would tell a story. At the end, he had everyone laughing. I can’t remember him ever actually offering a particular solution. He just got everyone cooled off and they saw what they needed to do.

          In the second chapter of Galatians, the apostle Paul tackles a number of issues. He points out the unity of leadership that arose from the famous Jerusalem conference. He states his own case for independence from group opinions. He takes on the behavior of Peter himself at Antioch. He ends by emphasizing the doctrine of justification by faith. I think Paul could have used my boss Fred in his dealings with the apostolic fathers and the Galatian churches. Paul got so passionate, he couldn’t keep his cool.  I don’t want to minimize the great struggle about the true gospel that Paul articulated so well. He probably single-handedly pre-empted the idea of a works-required approach to faith. I use this opening just to emphasize that even the great theologian of the New Testament had so much passion for the true gospel that sometimes he just could not muster very much tact. It must have been really tough at times to work with him.

          Fourteen years in the field. If you were in the army, you would be wearing three stripes by then. That’s plenty long enough to prove your credentials.  That’s when Paul finally went up to Jerusalem to talk to the leaders of the Jerusalem church about his work with the Gentiles. He had formed churches in Asia Minor, been shipwrecked, run out of town, thrown in jail and beaten. He had earned every one of those stripes. So when he came to town with Barnabus and Titus, his opinions and his beliefs were well formed and tested. Paul says he went up because of a revelation. In other words, he was not summoned by church leaders, but called by God. Titus, his Greek helper, seems to have been the focus of some attention. The Jewish faction, the Judaizers--Paul calls them false brothers--wanted to see Titus circumcised. Paul’s position prevailed, apparently with support from Peter, James, and John. By the way, the James about whom we read here is not James the apostle, but rather James, the half brother of Jesus and leader of the Christian church in Jerusalem.

Even here, Paul is not happy with the church fathers. He claims that they added nothing to the decision about Titus. Yet his declaration is still one that seems to echo unity among his apostolic peers. Paul identifies their differences in terms of audience. His is the uncircumcised-the Gentiles, while Peter evangelizes the circumcised, that is, the Jews. But Paul acknowledges that Peter is indeed entrusted with the gospel just as much as he, Paul, is.

          Though the “pillars,” as Paul referred to them, had extended him the right hand of fellowship and had endorsed his ministry to the Gentiles, this did not stop Paul from a public censure of Peter in Antioch. Apparently, Peter had come to Antioch and was taking meals with both Jews and Gentiles without observing the ritual purity laws. You will remember that Peter had a vision which convinced him that such laws should not prove a stumbling block to the spread of the gospel. Yet when certain church leaders showed up in Antioch and complained of his liberality, Peter backed down and ceased eating with the Gentiles. Paul erupted. He called Peter a hypocrite.  He said Peter was not in step with the gospel. So much for tact.

          Are you? Are you in step with the gospel? If Paul were here, would he eat dinner with you or call you out in public and label you a hypocrite? He was right, you know. Peter was acting like a hypocrite.  He was a Jew living like a Gentile, yet as Paul said, he dared to ask Gentiles to live like Jews. Poor Peter. He is our example in more than one way. He took giant steps of faith. But he also took giant falls. In this case, I think God provides us yet another view of how human and frail are even the best of us. If Paul is our role model, Peter is our brother, standing beside us, looking for the truth as he tries to preach it.  

Paul is a shining light of courage and commitment here, but his story is much more complicated. This is the same man who stood by earlier in his life and watched Stephen being stoned in the name of Christ. Paul’s hands are clean only by the grace of God. But that’s the point, isn’t it? Just as if I had not sinned.

In the rest of this passage, Paul gives a summary of the theology that he more fully develops in the coming chapters. While the first part of the chapter is an assertion of unity, of independence, even of Paul’s challenges of the patriarchs of the church, the balance of the passage is laced together with humility. Paul has spent a lot of time kneewalking. He knows what God looks like from the ground up and his point of view takes dead aim at everything that is important to the understanding of the gospel.

Kneewalking is not a technical term. I googled it and turned up a few references to a new kind of dance. It hasn’t caught on anywhere, so I think the term is up for grabs. To me, it describes a state of mind, of communication, maybe even a state of grace---in which the kneewalker has spent a lot of time in prayer---on his or her knees. It’s different down there. If you haven’t tried it, I highly recommend it. It helps get rid of a lot of distractions.

Paul articulates the central theme of the letter. You could argue that it is the central them of Christianity. Justification by faith. Just as if I had not sinned. It is the belief whereby we are transformed from sinners without hope to believers who share in God’s righteousness. Paul uses words like “death” and “crucified” to describe the process by which his fleshly, selfish existence has undergone a life-changing metamorphosis. It is every bit as powerful in its effect as that which occurs when an ordinary caterpillar emerges a beautiful butterfly from its cocoon. Kneewalking can get you there.

Paul contrasts grace from law. The law is insufficient. It is man-made, man-interpreted. It is not the Ten Commandments, but rather the 631 regulations that make up the Jewish law.  Grace, on the other hand, is from God. It is John 3:16 faith. Believe in Jesus Christ. Believe what he did and why he did it. That is God’s gift and it is for those who believe. It’s that simple.

Of course, with belief comes acknowledgment. Or maybe it’s the other way’round. I must acknowledge my sin and my inability to come to God on my own. I must accept his invitation. When I, like Paul, hit my knees and put God in charge and thank Jesus for the day I have been given, I can feel the grace.

Paul, like the apostle John, says that Christ lives in us. Think about that. Christ lives in us. If you can accept this, and heaven can’t help you if you can’t, then you can understand that feeling to let go. You can understand why those hairs bristle up the back of your neck or up your forearm when a certain hymn is played or a child gives you a kiss or hug. You can understand that those good things, those good feelings, don’t really belong to you at all. You don’t earn them. God gives them to you. Just as if you had not sinned.

If Christ lives in us, we are the house of God! No work of man can bring about that end. And that is precisely the point Paul makes. Work is done, all right, and the work is God’s. We are God’s handiwork. In fact, we are his masterpiece. Just as if I had not sinned. That is what happens when we believe. We die to the sinful life and are reborn as the adopted children of God. Oh yes, we still sin. We always will. But it is different when you are God’s child. Sin no longer holds the fascination that it once did. Pride and accomplishment no longer hold your attention like they did before.  You find it oddly painless to go kneewalking when looking for the Master.

             Perhaps at the end of the day, it is fitting that Paul got so hot under the collar. What if he had been more concerned with getting along and had compromised his beliefs in justification by faith? What if he had not taken on Peter and the other church fathers? Would we be reading a different Bible today? Would we be reading a Bible at all? Thank God, we don’t have to answer that question. Paul fought that fight for us with the church fathers and with the early church. He was certainly not by himself. Others were to take up that banner. But Galatians is, if nothing else, a primer on the doctrine of justification by faith. Stay tuned for next week.

 

One Gospel (Galatians 1) 7/1/12

Remember when you left home; when you went off to college or the military or that first job? Remember when you started sowing some oats or getting in with the wrong crowd? Remember that letter or phone call from your mother or father? You know, the one that reminded you who you were and where you came from. We all have memories like that. My parents saw where I was headed and they loved me enough to try to re-point me in the right direction. Thank God for parents who don’t meddle, but never leave us completely alone.

Several of Paul’s letters are like that, trying to re-direct his followers down the right path. Galatians is perhaps the most pointed. Paul’s letter to the churches of Galatia is not an exercise in tact and diplomacy.  It is, rather, an indictment of his flock for their poor judgment.

  Galatia was a region that Paul visited during his first missionary journey. These were Gentiles brought to the saving knowledge of Christ by Paul himself. Paul loved these people and felt directly responsible for their conversion to Christianity.  The book of Galatians is an appeal to these same people to take a hard look at what, and whom, they are following.

Paul wastes no time. He states his credentials in the very first line of the letter, saying that he is an apostle called not by men but by Jesus Christ and God the Father. He says that he speaks from personal revelation, the same as the twelve apostles. He offers grace and peace to the churches on behalf of God. Having observed the niceties, Paul then skips the thanksgiving that we customarily see in his letters and goes immediately to the heart of the matter. His agitation and alarm are more apparent as the letter unfolds.

Astonished, deserting, turning away, distort, accursed. These are some of the verbs that Paul uses next to describe the state of affairs in the churches of Galatia. He is angry and hurt and perhaps even more, he is anxious for his flock. He knows that their decision to follow the Judaizers takes them away from the real gospel. To do so is a breach of faith. Paul is passionate here. He realizes that the future of this church hangs in the balance.

The Galatian churches had been infiltrated with Judaizers; people who told them they were welcome to worship with the Jews if they would submit to circumcision. Apparently, there was some merit for these so-called church leaders to bring Gentiles into worship with the Jews. On its face, that didn’t sound so bad, but the Gentiles had to submit to Jewish ritual, including circumcision, in order to come in to the church.

Perhaps these leaders actually believed what they were selling. Perhaps they were only courting the favor of the religious establishment. Either way, this infuriated Paul. Paul saw the gospel as God’s promise of justification by faith alone. For Paul and for us as well, this was the whole point of the atonement of Jesus. The thought of circumcision was to him a departure from faith. It was a return to the law, to a faith that depended on works of some kind. This was nothing short of apostasy, of betrayal of the very heart of the gospel message.

The Judaizers thought that Paul had made it too easy to become Christian. Where were the rules? Where were the rituals and regulations that set them apart from pagans? As Paul begins to speak to the issue, he first addresses his converts, the members of the Galatian churches. He calls them deserters, accusing them of turning to a different gospel.  He reminds them that there is only one gospel. He reiterates in the strongest possible terms that the only acceptable gospel is the one they received from him, the one that he received from Jesus himself.  Understand that it is not Paul’s gospel. It is the gospel of Jesus Christ, the good news of Jesus Christ, to which Paul is referring.

          Paul says there are those who trouble and want to distort. Do you know anyone like that? The bookstores and newsstands are full of peddlers of half-truths. Today, the prosperity gospel is preached and hawked as though it will transform our lives to material wealth and prosperity. Others preach equally distorting messages far from the real truth of the gospel. The gospel to which Paul refers is not composed of observance of a set of don’ts. It is one of love returned for love; servanthood practices and redemption received. The grace of the Lord supplies all the entrance requirements. We have only to accept the love that has been offered.

          But what if the gospel proponents are famous politicians or university professors? What if they are religious leaders? What if they are the teacher of your class or your favorite writer? Paul says that if they say something different from what Jesus has handed down, then they are frauds. Does that happen? A seminary friend of mine told me of being welcomed into her Presbytery not too long ago. An area religious leader and Presbyterian minister called himself “Christian,” but said he didn’t believe in the resurrection. And Paul says “even if an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.”

We don’t have to worry today about being circumcised. We don’t even consider that as a religious act. We look at it rather as a medical procedure routinely performed on infant males. But we are constantly barraged in our culture to be self-reliant, to look after number one, to save for a rainy day. Sometimes our religious practices run afoul of others’ freedoms. Sometimes democracy or science or relativism seem to become the new religion. The voices of many teachers echo through our classrooms and living rooms as we seek to find the filter that will bring us in line with the truth.

Is there still truth in the world? Of course there is. The great truths of this world are changeless and timeless. Paul reminds us the greatest truth of all is the gospel. He reminds us that while there may be many wanna-bes, there is only one gospel. The gospel is not about rules and regulations. It’s not about observation of all the ways to do wrong. It’s not about debits and credits. That’s accounting. If that is what we must do to get to God, we are lost before we start. The gospel is not really about restraint at all. It is much, much more about empowerment.  The gospel is servanthood. It is the good news of Jesus Christ, not the good news of Paul or the Pastor, and the good news of Jesus Christ is that he has already saved us if we will believe that he is who he says he is.

The Judaizers and the apostle Paul had something in common, though it was hard for them to see it at the time. They both were talking about what it takes for us to form lasting relationships between ourselves and God. How can you find peace with God? How can you live in harmony with him? The answer, as Paul correctly discerned, is through faith, not through an additional layer of  man-made requirements. The message of the gospel is simple, but the practice of it is far from easy. Which would you rather do? Be circumcised and observe a list of requirements, through which you can grade yourself and present your report card to Jesus? Or live by faith, all day, every day, never knowing what God will have you to sacrifice in his name, never knowing where he may send you, to what lengths or depths you will be called in his name. No, the gospel of which Paul talked has but one requirement, but it is far from easy. Take it from a lawyer. Legalism is not the way to God. It appeals to pride, and that gives us something to crow about. Faith, on the other hand, gets self out of the way. Then, the glory of the gospel can shine right through the cracked vessels that we call our lives.

Do you believe? Do you believe in the one gospel? It’s right here. You can read it for yourself. The message is strong and powerful and as new today as it was at Pentecost. There is but one gospel. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him---should not perish---but have everlasting life.”     

Equipped for Good Work (2 Timothy 3: 14-17) 6/24/12

          Looking for a “pass it forward” message? Maybe a good locker room speech for halftime? Need to challenge your child or student or young friend before you retire? You could do worse than the letter of 2^nd Timothy as the source of your inspiration. Paul pours his heart out to his young protégé. 2^nd Timothy is perhaps the last writing that Paul sent before his appointment with the Roman justice of Nero and the axe of his executioner. The book is one of a small collection of three letters that we call the “Pastorals,” two to his young friend Timothy and one to Titus. They are mentoring letters. They are both witness and guidebook to these young men. In that sense, they are instructive to us as we endeavor to find our way through the maze of life’s decisions. It’s always nice to have a GPS when you’re trying to find your way home.

          St. Timothy is an interesting character. He was the son of a mixed marriage. His father was Greek, his mother Jewish. Eunice, Timothy’s mother, is mentioned kindly by Paul in his writings and is thought to have converted to Christianity. Timothy accompanied Paul on his second missionary journey, replacing Barnabus. Paul saw to it that Timothy was circumcised in order to be more acceptable to the Jews. Timothy was probably with Paul at Caesarea and Rome when Paul was imprisoned. He was later sent to Ephesus, where legend has it that he became its first bishop. Timothy remained in Ephesus for some fifteen years until he was stoned trying to stop a pagan parade. Paul was very fond of Timothy, referring to him as his son in the faith.

Today, we recognize several young men who have come of sufficient age to determine for themselves to join the church. Like Timothy, they have “from childhood…been acquainted with the sacred writings.” For Timothy, it was probably the Septuagint, the translation of the Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament) into Koine Greek. For us and these young men, it is the Bible, both Old and New Testament. For some weeks, we have met and talked about what it means to be Christian; what is means to be Presbyterian. We have talked about lots of things, but we have focused on the Apostles Creed because it is a shorthand version that embodies much of what we hold dear as the sacred tenets of our faith. There are other creeds and confessions that are of equal weight in our church and we have taken a brief look at them as well. We have used the Apostles Creed because it is perhaps the one with which they had the most familiarity.

Those of you who are older have had more occasion to have those significant conversations with someone for whom you held great value. We tend to receive such advice on graduation from high school or college, prior to marriage, on going off to serve in the military or moving away from home---or perhaps at the imminent passing of a loved one from this life. These are the times when those precious nuggets of wisdom flow from the lips of those whom we love and respect. Such is the occasion for which Paul wrote his young friend and such is the occasion in which these young men find themselves this morning.

Joining the church is a right of passage. As infants, our parents brought us before this throne of grace and promised to raise us in the nurture and admonition of God. The members of the church made a similar vow. That has been the task of both family and church. But today, you are taking a step on your own. We in the church have tried to make it an informed step for you, but now you step out from under the care and protection of that umbrella where you had no decisions to make. Today, you say to yourself, your family, this church and God that you choose this, that you choose him; that you of your own choosing turn to Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. And so, it is fitting that you be armed with some advice with which to carry out your decision.

          Paul tells Timothy to continue. Timothy is charged to continue in what he has learned, in what he has believed, in what he has been acquainted with since childhood. Paul is talking about the Scriptures. Paul says that through faith in Jesus Christ, Scripture can make us wise for salvation. You, like Timothy, are privileged to have been brought up in Christian homes, in a church community. You are already prepared much more than many young men and women all around the world who have not been so lucky. The writer of Proverbs 22 tells us to “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it” (v.6). You already have tools in your spiritual belt that will stand you well for the many tests that lie ahead. ]

          When I was eighteen years old, I went to work in the cotton mill for the summer before I went off to college. I worked in a shop where I learned how to install gauges and instruments on machinery. In order to do the work, I needed a number of tools which I was to wear on a tool belt. I can remember showing up early into the job and being asked where my tools were. My supervisor told me very matter of factly that I would never be able to fix or install anything if I didn’t bring the right tools to the job. I never forgot that. To this day, the back of my car has a toolbox which goes everywhere with me. It still has tools in it which were purchased forty five years ago. They still work as good today as they did so long ago. They have stood the test of time. The Scriptures are like that. The Bible is timeless. Give it high priority in your toolkit of life and you will come to your job equipped for the work God has planned for you. 

          Paul reminds Timothy that he knows from whom he learned these things. This could have several layers of meaning, including faith in Christ and dedication to Scripture. It might also mean family. In Timothy’s case, it is Eunice, his mother and certainly Paul, his father in the faith.  Understand this in your own context. Look around at who is here for you today. You have parents and grandparents, maybe even uncles and aunts. You have church family. In Paul’s words, understand from whom you have learned how to be the person you are—how your value system has been shaped to this point in your life.

          Paul ends this passage to his pupil by focusing on the source of true knowledge. It is Scripture. Paul says that all Scripture is God-breathed. Think about this. All Scripture is God-breathed. Scripture can be confusing. Scripture can be complex, even apparently contradictory. It was written by men, copied by men into additional manuscripts. It was written in different times, in different places, by men with different backgrounds. But…taken as a whole, the message of the Scriptures is breathed from God himself. Believe it! Believe it as Paul did and let it be your map from now on. Paul says the Scripture is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and…and this is the biggest one of all…for training in righteousness. The Scriptures are all these things and so much more. They are God talking to you. Are you listening?

          What is the result? Paul starts out by telling his student to continue, to continue doing what got him there to begin with. How many times have you heard a coach or player interviewed before a big game as to strategy and what is the typical response? Consistently, they say the same thing: they’re going to continue to do the things that got them there. They must have read 2^nd Timothy 3.  The result is that you will become men and women of God. What better aspiration could there be? And Paul says that if you have continued to read and practice what you learn from Scripture, then you will be competent, able. You will be equipped. You will be equipped not just for some good work, but for every good work. That is the advice of the old teacher Paul to his young student Timothy. He gave it when he knew he was out of time. He gave it when he waned to give Timothy the absolute best advice he could, for he knew it might be the last advice he would ever give him. That is the advice that I give you today on behalf of your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and on behalf of your families and your church. Continue. Read the Scriptures. Learn God’s Word. Become equipped for every good work!

Kingdom Seeds (Mark 4: 26-34) 6/17/12

          My wife Cindy loves to plant. Every spring, she starts her exodus back and forth to Lowe’s and the Farm Fresh Market and various other stops to gather annuals and perennials for planting. I used to get after her about buying annuals because they don’t come back the next year. She finally made me understand that different flowers bloom at different times. She wants to have colors decorating our landscape as much of the year as possible and that takes annuals as well as perennials. So we have our share of azaleas and dogwoods and crepe myrtles and camellias and gardenias and hydrangeas and lilies to go with the pansies and snapdragons. We used to plant vegetables, but somewhere along the way the vegetables gave way to flowers. Cindy is a “plant it all and see what happens” sort of gardener. Being a much more dull personality than my wife, I thought you just plant one or two groups of things in a flower bed. That is not the way my wife plants. She wants things blooming all year long, splashing color as they come up in their season. She mixes the annuals in the beds for extra pizzazz. Every year, something different seems to be coming up in her flower beds. Funny thing about all those different flowers. They seem to live together just fine. Each comes up when it’s ready, stays for awhile and then makes room for the next show. But that’s another sermon.

          In the gospel of Mark, we are told a number of parables. The parable of the secretly growing seed is found only in Mark’s gospel. It is a short but powerful lesson about the kingdom of God, immediately followed by the parable of the mustard seed—another parable about God’s kingdom. Between the two, Jesus gives us a glimpse of some of the characteristics of the kingdom of heaven.

          Jesus says that a man scatters seeds on the ground. Without doing more, the earth by itself produces a harvest. The man does not know how it happens, but it happens. The man can contribute to that harvest by preparing the ground, by tilling the soil, by cultivation and watering and weeding. All these things will help the harvest, but the harvest will come regardless. Indeed, if the man does not scatter the seeds, perhaps the birds will do it for him. The seeds will be scattered and the harvest will come, for such is the nature of the kingdom of God. It is not created by man. It is not under the power of man. It is under the power of God. Man’s most clear duty is to be patient and wait for the harvest that God will bring.

          Perhaps you have heard the story of the kernels of wheat lying on the threshing floor. The farmer comes to them and offers them the chance to be planted. He tells them that they will be planted in the cold ground and covered from the sun, that they will have to die, but that if they do this, they will be reborn into many, many grains of wheat. The first kernel says to the other: “It is quiet and warm here in the barn. I am safe here. I think I would like to stay where I can be quiet and warm and safe.” The other kernel decides to take the farmer’s offer. He volunteers to be planted in a new field that has just been cleared. The kernel that stayed behind was warm and dry, but without any companionship. His life never changed. The kernel that volunteered to be planted was slipped into the cold ground and covered up. It was cold and lonely for awhile. He felt himself slipping away and he indeed died just as the farmer had promised. But soon, a new shoot poked its way through the soil. As the seasons passed, the whole field was populated by beautiful wheat crops that fed the people of the village. All those crops had descended from that one small volunteer kernel.

          The kingdom of heaven is like that kernel of wheat. God allows us to help with the planting and cultivation. He wants us to help, but understand, the kingdom is coming whether we help or not. The growth of something new often involves sacrifice. But is it really sacrifice to help harvest those whom we love, who God himself committed to be the harvest? Who will you be? Will you stay in the barn, safe and warm and left out of the cycle of life? Or will you take your chances for God?

          In the time of Jesus, a mustard seed was regarded as the example of the smallest seed to yield the biggest fruit. A mustard seed is about the size of a pinhead, and yet a mature mustard plant may reach a height of twelve feet and look more like a tree than a plant. It fact, it reaches such heights that birds nest in it and gather upon it to harvest the very seeds that gave it life. From the smallest, most unlikely of seeds comes the largest plant.

So it is with the kingdom of God. From the smallest gesture comes the greatest good. Two thousand years ago, the kingdom of God was re-introduced to God’s people by God himself in the form of a man names Jesus. He gathered a small band of followers to himself and instructed them and taught them the love he had in his heart for all God’s people. The Holy Spirit completed their revelation at Pentecost and the world was transformed by the message of the gospel.  It too began as nothing more than a mustard seed scattered on hard ground. But look at what happened. Today, the shade from that tree of Christianity covers our planet. While many have yet to hear or understand the power of that message, many others have heard and responded. The harvest continues for our God who continues to sow and save. We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. We are the seeds of the kingdom of heaven. From a little can grow so, so much more!

I have another little story about my flower growing wife. We used to buy geraniums every spring. People tell me that geraniums are good for one season. We have geraniums that are five years old and blooming up a storm! Every fall when they are spent, Cindy cuts them back and puts them in the dark in an outbuilding. They have little sun and no artificial heat all winter. She waters them a little about once a month. In the spring, they begin to germinate. She pulls them out and they come out of hibernation and back into full flower. I think sometimes God works that way with us. It may seem like he has moved away from us when we face trials and temptations. It may seem that we have been separated from the light of his presence and thrown out into the cold to wither and die. Don’t believe it! Our God never separates himself from us. We separate ourselves from him! We may indeed be out in the cold and away from the light, but the kingdom is as close as our petition to belong to him. Bring the prayer and watch as God answers.

We live in a time which idolizes the power of science. It is called the Post-Religious Age. If it cannot be rationally explained and quantified, then it must not be real. This great age of information and its lightning dissemination of data fails to take into account the order of the Creator—the absolute truths upon which our entire existence is built. Among those are the revelations that we are created beings. Mankind did not make itself or spring from some chemical aberration. We are creatures carefully formed by our Creator God. Among the lessons that Mark’s gospel brings us are those of power—the power of God in all his glory to create from nothing, to shape the biggest from the smallest, to bring about the most unlikely of results to demonstrate his Godliness.

These parables also bring us the lesson of patience—the patience that comes from our trust that God is in charge; that God will bring about all the change we need if we will but allow him to work in our lives and in the lives of our brothers and sisters.

God’s power can bring perfection in our hearts that can only come from God. It is a perfection wrought over time, carved out of the patience of lives made obedient to him. The kingdom of God is coming and it is here. You can replace those cold and damp and dark spots in your life with the peace that comes from turning over your life to him. When you have those feelings, you are already a step into the kingdom. It is a foretaste of the divine. Let go, be patient and watch those kingdom seeds at work.           

Our Many-Splendored God (John 14: 15-21, 25-27) 6/3/12 Trinity Sunday

          It is Trinity Sunday. Trinity. It is an interesting word with a long religious history. Although both the Apostles Creed and the Nicene Creed state our belief in Father, Son and Holy Ghost, and although these creeds reflect the belief of Christians from very early in Christian history, there is no mention in them of the word Trinity. The word is not used in the Bible. Yet the concept behind this word is foundational to much of what we believe as Christians.

          Christians have always believed in Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The problem was never whether they existed. The problem was more about whether they existed separately, whether there was a pecking order; a hierarchy. The problem was whether one came before the others, was superior to the others. Christians argued about this for several hundred years. Without getting into a big history lesson, suffice it to say that in the fourth century, a fellow name Arius came along. He maintained that Jesus came after God; that because of this, Jesus had to be in a secondary position to God. The early church fathers debated this and similar propositions for a long time. There were several major councils of church fathers that met, seven in all. They are often generically referred to as the Councils of Nicaea. It was from one of these councils that the Nicene Creed emerged.  They debated and debated. They ex-communicated each other. In the end, a series of statements arose that helped define what the Bible meant by the concept of Trinity. Today, it seems so simple, but it was not always that way.

          Forms of Arianism exist today. Perhaps the most familiar to us are Jehovah’s Witnesses, who believe the Holy Spirit to be the breath of God rather than a person, and who see Jesus as God’s Son who came after God and is separate from him. This is not the concept of Trinity that is accepted in mainline Christianity.

So what is the Trinity? It is God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. They are separate in their attributes. They move and exist separate from each other. Oh yes, and they are one. You can’t get there from here. It’s a God thing.

Is water ice? Yes. Is ice water? Yes. If you heat either one of them enough, they will turn to steam and evaporate. That’s three things from one entity. They have common characteristics and common chemistry. But are they three things in one? No. To change one into another, you must change its composition through temperature change. To change one into another, you must give up the one to have the other. Not so with the Trinity. It always exists and it always has.

In the fourteenth chapter of John’s gospel, Jesus is talking to his disciples. He is in the middle of his last discourse to them. He recites the new commandment to love one another. He deals first with Peter, then Thomas. Then he handles Phillip’s request to see the Father. First the impatient, then the skeptic, finally the realist. Then Jesus returns to the main question; preparation for his departure. He knows that his impending absence is of great concern to the disciples and his promises are meant to reassure them that they will not be alone. In giving them the reassurance they need, Jesus sheds light upon the concept of Trinity.  He promises them that he will appeal to his Father to send the Spirit of truth, the Helper, to be with them forever. Here in one sentence, we see the Trinity. God the Son is going to talk to God the Father about sending God the Holy Spirit to the disciples. The English translation here is Helper or Counselor. Other English translations include intercessor, advocate, and mediator. The Greek word is parakletos, which means literally “a person summoned to one’s aid.”

How far back does the concept of Holy Spirit go? Look at Genesis 1:2, where it says the “the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” How far back does the God the Son go? In the first chapter of John, he pens the famous words: “In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God,” and in verse 14 of that opening chapter: “and the word became flesh and dwelt among us.” How far back does God go? He is the author of creation. “In the beginning God,” read the first four words of the Bible. In the third chapter of Exodus, God tells Moses “I am that I am.” He is without beginning or end. God is outside time.  In the very first chapter in the Bible, God says “let us make man in our image.” It is no accident that the pronouns here are plural. Even from the beginning as we understand it, God was not alone. Even then, he was self-contained in the Trinity.

Other references to the three persons of the Trinity are around. One of my favorites in contained in the Great Commission in Matthew 28: “Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Another is found in the synoptic gospels in the account of the baptism of Jesus by his cousin John. As God the Father speaks from heaven, God the Holy Spirit descends in the form of a dove toward God the Son.

It is important to understand the concept of Trinity in the light of what was studied and fought for over many generations of the early church. It is important because to misunderstand it could be heretical. Heresy is one of those old fashioned. somewhat out of vogue, seldom used words. Even in religious circles it has more than one meaning. The definition of heresy that is intended here  is that heresy is a belief that results in one being unable to achieve salvation. That’s where the word Trinity becomes important. I have heard it said that if Jesus were not who he says he is, fully human, fully God, in the Father and the Father in him, then he could not do what he was sent to do. It took a man to feel the pain of men. It took God to deliver them from the sting of death. Jesus was both.

Jesus promised the coming of the Spirit. Come it did in tongues of fire at Pentecost. With it came the realization that God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are united in purpose. God is Triune. He has one purpose, but carries it out through the manifestation of the Trinity. The coming of the Holy Spirit to the fellowship of the believers gives us an open door to the most intimate of all relationships, that which can now exist between us and our triune God of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

In The Shack, the best-selling book by William Paul Young, God is portrayed as a large, beaming African-American woman called Papa. Jesus appears as a Middle-Eastern laborer with a kind, but forgettable face, wearing a tool belt. He likes to use his hands. A small, Asian woman named Sarayu shimmers from place to place as the Holy Spirit, being felt as much as seen as she passes from here to there. Some have criticized Young’s theology. Some say he pokes too much fun at long accepted images of God. Like any work of fiction, he takes some license with his characters. But Young’s descriptions remind us that the Trinity is revealed in ways and means and images that take the form most likely to awaken our belief and faith, to break down our assumptions and help us see and understand. God is not confined to earthly forms or even one form.

And yet, when Mack, the dad who lost his child to a kidnapper, asks of them: “Who is God?”, their answer comes in tripartite unison: “I am,” say they all. Indeed, when Mack asks Papa, or God, about the cross, the answer he receives is the answer we must hear and believe if we are to grasp this great mystery. God says simply: “We were there together.” In the book, Mack can see them, and the scars on the wrists of all three persons of the Trinity bear witness to their presence at the cross. Can there really be any doubt of that truth? Not for a Christian.

Yes, our God is a many-splendored God. He is God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. He is three in one. He is one. He is three. He is the beginning and the end, the Alpha and the Omega. We do not need the word Trinity in the Scripture to see its existence. He is our Father. He is our Brother. He is our fellow traveler and our Redeemer. He is in our hearts, each and every one. He is all that is good and perfect in us. How can all this be? That is the splendor of our Creator. That, friends, is the miracle of the Trinity.