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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

                             Jesus take the wheel

                             Take it from my hands

                       ‘Cause I can’t do this on my own

                                     I’m letting go

                           So give me one more chance

                        To save me from this road I’m on.

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

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

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

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

 

         

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

                   Once upon a prayer,

                   Born of earth and borne to him

She came,

And now, upon that prayer renewed,

She goes forth, born to the world.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.