Luke 17:11-19
I love the way our story begins … on the border … an in-between place, a no-man’s land, neither here nor there …
On the border … between Judea and Samaria, neighbors and kinfolk, sharing the blood of Abraham and the Law of Moses, but no love lost – each believing the other to be defective.
Judea to the south, centered in Jerusalem … the City of David, the Second Temple built by Herod the Great … God’s dwelling place on earth … tens of thousands of lambs and goats, bulls and birds sacrificed … a place of atonement and hope … beauty, power and pomp.
To the north and west, Samaria, descendants of the 10 Northern Tribes – under the iron heel of Assyrian conquest in the 8th Century before Jesus, intermarriage, racial mixing, dislocation …
Judea looked at Samaria with contempt.
Samaria looked at Judea with disgust.
No love lost between these neighbors and kinfolk.
But on the border, things are different … in the in-between place … ten lepers, nine Judeans and one Samaritan … brothers in sorrow and suffering … leprosy … unclean and dismissed from family and town; objects of fear and loathing, under the wrath of God, so it was thought – to fend for themselves, beggars along the road.
We are the desperate
Who do not care.
The hungry
Who have nowhere
To eat.
No place to sleep,
The tearless
Who cannot
Weep. (Langston Hughes)
As of late, I’ve been reading two books, and only recently did I see their connection … Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol and John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath – portraits of the poor … trying desperately to make something of this life … but hamstrung by events and systems beyond their control.
Scrooge bah-humbugs his way through Christmas, believing the poor to be poor by their own hand, and if they want shelter, they can go to prison or a workhouse. A cold, mean-spirited man avoided even by the neighborhood dogs.
The Okies hit the road in rattletrap trucks and oil-burning cars, stacked high and deep with whatever belongings they can take – off to California, the land of dreams and opportunity … their farmland decimated by draught and dust, their farms swallowed up by banks and big corporations – homeless migrants on the road west … trying to make something out of this life.
On the border between Samaria and Judea … ten lepers … vagabonds, the abandoned ones, trying to make something out of life.
Jesus goes to border regions often … He moves with ease between places and peoples … Judea and Galilee, Samaria and the Decapolis … He shuns no one, welcomes everyone … pedigree and purity mean nothing to Him … ancestry and social position are irrelevant to Him … religious claims carry no currency with Him … He sees the heart and knows the soul … His love has no boundaries … there’s a wideness in His mercy.
The lepers call out to Him … forbidden by law to approach, they call out from a distance … with a loud voice, says the text – “Can you see us? Can you do something?”
“We know who you are … we’ve heard the stories … will you help us?”
With a marvelous simplicity, Jesus says, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.”
The priests determine who’s clean and who isn’t … who’s in and who’s out, who’s naughty or nice.
Jesus nods his head to convention … “Yes, show yourselves to the priests” … let the priests examine you, so they can declare you clean.
We might imagine the lepers saying to one another: “What’s up with this? Look at us, we’re lepers … we’re a mess … what’s to show the priests today any different than yesterday.”
But they go as Jesus says … simple obedience.
On their way, they’re made clean!
One of them, seeing that he’s healed, turns back and falls at the feet of Jesus, praising God with a loud voice.
Were the others not grateful?
They were all grateful for their healing … but only one returns to say it.
The other nine hurried home to greet their friends and attend to their business, intending, I’m sure, to return to Jesus and thank Him.
But things turned out otherwise; they were kept at home longer than they meant … and in the meanwhile, Jesus was put to death.
Albert Schweitzer writes:
We ought all to make an effort to act on our first thoughts and let our unspoken gratitude find expression. Then there will be more sunshine in the world, and more power to work for what is good.
Schweitzer reminds all of us that the waters of gratitude run deep in the human heart … but rarely rising to the surface, never coming up like a spring.
Jesus said: “The water that I give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.”
Schweitzer continues: “… we ourselves must try to be the water which does find its way up; we must become a spring at which men can quench their thirst for gratitude.”
Maybe that’s the point of the story … say it … put it into words … let someone know that you’re grateful.
Emerson said: “Words are alive. Cut them, and they bleed.”
The poet, George Herbert, noted: “Good words are worth much and cost little.”
One of the common stories throughout my ministry – someone says, “I know that my folks loved me, but they never said it.”
The story is told always in the same way, the same words, “I know they loved me, but they never said it.”
The story is told because something is missing … the words are missing, “I love you” … powerful words … words to finish the work of love. We are creatures of mouth and ear, as much as mind and heart.
People with whom I’ve counseled over the years all say the same thing, “I wish my father could have said it to me before he died. How I would have loved to hear those words.”
I know many a story wherein an adult child worked up the courage to sit beside a dying parent, take a hand, and say, “Dad, I love you” … and something like a dam breaks, a window is thrown open, a light turned on, a spring gushes up … and Dad says, “I love you, too” …
With tears and hugs – so long avoided, so long withheld … why?
Why the reluctance?
Why the restraint?
What’s to fear?
The words, “I love you” – frosting on the cake, butter for the bread, gravy ladled hot over mashed potatoes.
I know that my children love me, but I never tire of their words: “Love ya’ Dad.”
When we part and say goodbye, when we chat on the phone and have to go, we say to one another, “Love you.”
To put it into words …
Jesus asks, “Where are the others?”
That has to be the most poignant question ever asked by Jesus: “Where are the others.”
With a delightful tongue-in-cheek, a wink of the eye, Jesus says to the Samaritan at His feet, “What? Only a foreigner returns to say thanks?”
To put it into words … “Jesus my LORD, thank you.”
God longs to hear those words, and our soul longs to say them.
There’s something healthy and redeeming in speaking the reality … to let those words rise from the deeps, rumble through our throat and finally pass our lips: “Jesus my LORD, thank you.”
Jesus tells the man to get up and go on his way – “your faith has made you well.”
That day, there were two healings … a healing of the flesh, all ten of them.
A healing of the spirit, but one … the one who returns, the one who puts it into words.
Some years ago, I received a letter from a young mother who wrote: “Dear Rev. Eggebeen, perhaps you’ve forgotten me. You were my pastor when I was in high school, when my folks were going through a terrible divorce.
When I was able to make it to church, you’d give me a hug at the door and tell me that it’s going to be all right.
I made it through those hard years.
I’m married now to a fine man, I’m the mother of two young children, and in my Bible study group, we talked about people who made a difference in our lives, and we decided to write letters to them, and that’s why I’m writing to you, because you made a difference for me, your words of encouragement meant the world to me, and I want to say, “Thank you.”
She put it into words.
Some years ago, I wrote a note to one of my former pastors, when I was in high school and college, Grand Rapids, Michigan - Dr. Jerome DeJong – now at home with the LORD.
A passionate, articulate preacher … a man of the Word … who made it clear every Sunday, there’s nothing more important in this life than returning to Jesus, to fall at His feet, and with a voice of conviction and surrender, to put it into words, “Jesus my LORD, thank you.”
He wrote back a few weeks later: “Yes, I remember you, and how grateful I am to have received your letter. One always wonders if anyone hears or anyone cares. It’s gratifying to know that I had some small part to play in God’s work in your life.”
It’s more than gratitude … it’s putting it into words … it’s turning around and going back to Jesus, saying it loud and clear, Jesus my LORD, Thank you!
Amen!
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Sunday, October 7, 2007
Baloney - Oct 7, 2007
Luke 17:5-10
A fly was buzzing along one morning when he saw a lawn mower someone had left out in their front yard. He flew over and sat on the handle, watching the children on their way to school.
One little boy tripped and fell, spilling his lunch on the sidewalk. He picked himself up, put his lunch back in the bag and went on. But he missed a piece of baloney.
The fly real was hungry. So he flew down and started eating the baloney. He ate so much he couldn’t fly, so he waddled across the sidewalk, across the lawn, up the wheel of the lawn mower, up the handle, and sat there resting and watching the children.
There was still some baloney on the sidewalk. The fly was stuffed, but that baloney sure looked good.
So he jumped off the handle of the lawn mower to fly over to the baloney. But alas he was too full to fly and fell straight to the ground... splat!
The moral of this story is simple... don't fly off the handle when you are full of baloney.
Baloney … who likes it? … I do … I love a good baloney sandwich – white bread, Velveeta Cheese, mayonnaise and lettuce … in Oklahoma, you can go to a barbeque place and get it smoked … umm good, but don’t ever ask what’s in it.
“Baloney,” says Jesus … when the disciples say, “Increase our faith.”
Well, he didn’t exactly say “baloney,” but that’s how I read it … when Jesus says, “Faith, the size of a mustard seed, can uproot a mulberry tree and plant it in the sea.”
It’s not about having more faith, it’s about using what faith you have!
And it doesn’t take much faith at all … even faith the size of a mustard seed … a tiny, tiny, itty bitty bit of faith – more than enough to do great things.
The immediate context for this episode is forgiveness … how many times? As often as it takes … as often as the offender repents, and then some!
There is no other way to survive life – without forgiveness, we imprison ourselves behind heavy bars … bars of resentment and bars of dependence, debilitating dependence on what others say or do, or fail to say or do.
Forgiveness is our freedom …
Jesus makes it clear … go ahead and let someone know if they’ve hurt you … it happens, and it happens a lot … things said poorly, the flick of an eyebrow, the tone of voice, a misunderstanding, a miscommunication, a forgotten promise, or just a bad day, and we’re hurt by someone else’s behavior.
We all have a large book, many chapters, wherein is recorded a lot of difficult memories … parents berating us, teachers scolding us … our own personal faults and failings, and the various and sundry versions of unkindness that flow through our lives.
At the end of teaching for several days, Jesus ends with piece on forgiveness … what else is there, to set us free from the attitudes and behaviors of others.
Go ahead, and let someone know they’ve hurt you, and if they repent, forgive them … and if the sin occurs again, and again, and they repent, forgive them – as often as it takes. The name of the game is NOT the other person’s behavior, but our freedom to live and get on our with life.
But there’s more to this then meets the eye … think about Jesus … the ultimate moment of His suffering and humiliation – dying on the cross – bloody and beaten, stipped naked for all the world to see – those discreetly placed loin cloths we see in artistic recreations are not a part of the Roman crucifixion – criminals were hung on the cross, naked.
So there our LORD hangs, death approaching … in words so utterly profound they still leave us breathless, Jesus says, “Father, forgive them, they don’t know what they’re doing.”
Radical forgiveness … the Lamb of God dying for the sins of the world … not waiting for an apology, no waiting here for repentance … God goes way beyond our behavior.
Remember several weeks ago when the Words of Assurance came before our confession of sin? Remember when I said, “Confession doesn’t trigger forgiveness; forgiveness triggers confession.”
God acts before we do … because God is free … free to love and get on with it, to set us free, too.
Both God and humankind free from an endless cycle of hurt and recrimination … to close the book rather than writing new chapters – set free for higher and better things.
For this, the disciples say, “Increase our faith.” We need more faith to do this!
“Baloney,” says Jesus!
It’s not about having more faith; it’s using what faith you have!” Use it, and you will do great things with it.
The last part of Jesus’ teaching goes after a bad attitude … the attitude of entitlement … “Ill scratch your back, and you’ll scratch mine” – where things are done in order to gain something else.
Life in terms of reward and recognition … a crippling sense of entitlement.
Where good deeds and worthy efforts are undercut by our desire to be patted on the back and rewarded.
Talk about dependence … and we’ve all been there:
We invite Bill and Susie over for dinner, and six months later, no reciprocal invitation … we’re bummed – “That’s the last time we invite them over.” But Jesus asks, “Why did you invite them over in the first place?
We do something nice for Sam and Sally, and they don’t even bother sending an email, and we’re irritated. Jesus asks, “Why did you do the good deed in the first place?”
We work ourselves silly in our job, and no promotion. We grow resentful and jealous. Jesus suggests, “Let the quality of your work stand as it is – work for the sake of doing good work; don’t work for the sake of reward.”
We do a great deed, and there’s no recognition … or worse, our name is misspelled in the bulletin.
Speaking of bulletins – the following announcements actually occurred:
∑ "The cost for attending the Fasting and Prayer conference includes meals."
∑ The sermon this morning: "Jesus Walks on the Water.” The sermon tonight: "Searching for Jesus."
∑ "Ladies, don't forget the rummage sale. It's a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house. Don't forget your husbands."
∑ The peacemaking group scheduled for today has been cancelled due to a conflict.
∑ Don't let worry kill you off - let the Church help.
∑ Miss Charlene Mason sang "I will not pass this way again", giving obvious pleasure to the congregation.
∑ For those of you who have children and don't know it, we have a nursery downstairs.
∑ During the absence of our Pastor, we enjoyed the rare privilege of hearing a good sermon when J.F. Stubbs supplied our pulpit.
∑ The Rector will preach his farewell message after which the choir will sing "Break Forth into Joy."
∑ At the evening service tonight, the sermon topic will be "What is Hell?" Come early and listen to our choir practice.
∑ Eight new choir robes are currently needed, due to the addition of several new members and to the deterioration of some older ones.
∑ Please place your donation in the envelope along with the deceased person you want remembered.
∑ Potluck supper Sunday at 5:00 pm - prayer and medication to follow.
Well, who doesn’t need a little prayer and medication now and then? … and good prayer and medication is what our LORD is offering to us today. To set ourselves free – from what others have done or failed to do, to see ourselves free the crippling attitude of entitlement.
“LORD, increase our faith so we can do this!”
“Baloney,” says Jesus … “It isn’t about having more faith, but using the faith you already have.” Trust God, trust those around you, and trust yourself.
Let’s think a moment about self-trust … I use something inspired by Joel Osteen … a little mantra of sorts to pull myself back to center … “I am who God says I am. I have what God says I have. I can do what God says I can do.”
Self-trust … God created us, our gifts are good, abilities are more than sufficient … we don’t need more of anything; we already have all that’s needed.
We have to be clear how debilitating is this “increase my faith” thing … strangely shifting the blame to God … “God, I can’t do this, because YOU haven’t given me what I need.”
“I’ve asked for more faith, LORD, but you didn’t do it. It’s your fault, LORD, because I asked, and you didn’t follow through.”
The great “If only I had … (fill in the blank – more money, more brains, better parents, better looks, better children, a better boss, better employees, a better education, more faith … ) … if only I had, then I would … (fill in the blank – then I would be happy, satisfied, content, successful, joyful, be more available, go on that mission trip, teach Sunday School, share Christ and study the Bible … if only.
“LORD, increase our faith.”
“Baloney” says Jesus.
It’s not about having more faith. It’s using the faith you have.”
This week, a good conversation with Marj Miller … responding to my Genesis comments about today’s message …
Is self-trust a form of pride?
What about humility?
Self-trust is a form of gratitude – that our Heavenly Father did a good and decent job creating us …
Self-trust, a form of gratitude along the whole stream of life: our parents, though not perfect, did a reasonably good job raising us … all kinds of folks have helped us … life is good and we’re glad to be here.
Self-trust – a form of gratitude – a way of saying “Thanks.”
If one of our children constantly berated themselves, put themselves down, doubted their abilities, questioned their character, we’d finally say: “That’s not true. You’re capable, you’re gifted, you’re strong – you can do it, you can handle it, you’ll make it. Trust yourself,” we’d say.
On the flip-side of self-trust – humility - plain and simple recognition that life is a web of relationships – all the way from the butcher who helps us pick out a good cut of meat to our Father in heaven.
Thanks Mom and Dad, thanks teachers … thanks to all the world that made it possible for me to be who I am. And thanks to God: I have what it takes, and whatever it takes, I have..
Tomorrow, we’ll face all the usual challenges, and then some.
Jesus said it well, “occasions for stumbling are bound to come.”
But you’ve got what it takes … you already have the faith that can move mountains and transplant mulberry trees.
It’s not about having more faith; it’s about using the faith you already have.
I am who God says I am.
I have what God says I have.
I can do what God says I can do.
And that’s no baloney.
Amen!
A fly was buzzing along one morning when he saw a lawn mower someone had left out in their front yard. He flew over and sat on the handle, watching the children on their way to school.
One little boy tripped and fell, spilling his lunch on the sidewalk. He picked himself up, put his lunch back in the bag and went on. But he missed a piece of baloney.
The fly real was hungry. So he flew down and started eating the baloney. He ate so much he couldn’t fly, so he waddled across the sidewalk, across the lawn, up the wheel of the lawn mower, up the handle, and sat there resting and watching the children.
There was still some baloney on the sidewalk. The fly was stuffed, but that baloney sure looked good.
So he jumped off the handle of the lawn mower to fly over to the baloney. But alas he was too full to fly and fell straight to the ground... splat!
The moral of this story is simple... don't fly off the handle when you are full of baloney.
Baloney … who likes it? … I do … I love a good baloney sandwich – white bread, Velveeta Cheese, mayonnaise and lettuce … in Oklahoma, you can go to a barbeque place and get it smoked … umm good, but don’t ever ask what’s in it.
“Baloney,” says Jesus … when the disciples say, “Increase our faith.”
Well, he didn’t exactly say “baloney,” but that’s how I read it … when Jesus says, “Faith, the size of a mustard seed, can uproot a mulberry tree and plant it in the sea.”
It’s not about having more faith, it’s about using what faith you have!
And it doesn’t take much faith at all … even faith the size of a mustard seed … a tiny, tiny, itty bitty bit of faith – more than enough to do great things.
The immediate context for this episode is forgiveness … how many times? As often as it takes … as often as the offender repents, and then some!
There is no other way to survive life – without forgiveness, we imprison ourselves behind heavy bars … bars of resentment and bars of dependence, debilitating dependence on what others say or do, or fail to say or do.
Forgiveness is our freedom …
Jesus makes it clear … go ahead and let someone know if they’ve hurt you … it happens, and it happens a lot … things said poorly, the flick of an eyebrow, the tone of voice, a misunderstanding, a miscommunication, a forgotten promise, or just a bad day, and we’re hurt by someone else’s behavior.
We all have a large book, many chapters, wherein is recorded a lot of difficult memories … parents berating us, teachers scolding us … our own personal faults and failings, and the various and sundry versions of unkindness that flow through our lives.
At the end of teaching for several days, Jesus ends with piece on forgiveness … what else is there, to set us free from the attitudes and behaviors of others.
Go ahead, and let someone know they’ve hurt you, and if they repent, forgive them … and if the sin occurs again, and again, and they repent, forgive them – as often as it takes. The name of the game is NOT the other person’s behavior, but our freedom to live and get on our with life.
But there’s more to this then meets the eye … think about Jesus … the ultimate moment of His suffering and humiliation – dying on the cross – bloody and beaten, stipped naked for all the world to see – those discreetly placed loin cloths we see in artistic recreations are not a part of the Roman crucifixion – criminals were hung on the cross, naked.
So there our LORD hangs, death approaching … in words so utterly profound they still leave us breathless, Jesus says, “Father, forgive them, they don’t know what they’re doing.”
Radical forgiveness … the Lamb of God dying for the sins of the world … not waiting for an apology, no waiting here for repentance … God goes way beyond our behavior.
Remember several weeks ago when the Words of Assurance came before our confession of sin? Remember when I said, “Confession doesn’t trigger forgiveness; forgiveness triggers confession.”
God acts before we do … because God is free … free to love and get on with it, to set us free, too.
Both God and humankind free from an endless cycle of hurt and recrimination … to close the book rather than writing new chapters – set free for higher and better things.
For this, the disciples say, “Increase our faith.” We need more faith to do this!
“Baloney,” says Jesus!
It’s not about having more faith; it’s using what faith you have!” Use it, and you will do great things with it.
The last part of Jesus’ teaching goes after a bad attitude … the attitude of entitlement … “Ill scratch your back, and you’ll scratch mine” – where things are done in order to gain something else.
Life in terms of reward and recognition … a crippling sense of entitlement.
Where good deeds and worthy efforts are undercut by our desire to be patted on the back and rewarded.
Talk about dependence … and we’ve all been there:
We invite Bill and Susie over for dinner, and six months later, no reciprocal invitation … we’re bummed – “That’s the last time we invite them over.” But Jesus asks, “Why did you invite them over in the first place?
We do something nice for Sam and Sally, and they don’t even bother sending an email, and we’re irritated. Jesus asks, “Why did you do the good deed in the first place?”
We work ourselves silly in our job, and no promotion. We grow resentful and jealous. Jesus suggests, “Let the quality of your work stand as it is – work for the sake of doing good work; don’t work for the sake of reward.”
We do a great deed, and there’s no recognition … or worse, our name is misspelled in the bulletin.
Speaking of bulletins – the following announcements actually occurred:
∑ "The cost for attending the Fasting and Prayer conference includes meals."
∑ The sermon this morning: "Jesus Walks on the Water.” The sermon tonight: "Searching for Jesus."
∑ "Ladies, don't forget the rummage sale. It's a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house. Don't forget your husbands."
∑ The peacemaking group scheduled for today has been cancelled due to a conflict.
∑ Don't let worry kill you off - let the Church help.
∑ Miss Charlene Mason sang "I will not pass this way again", giving obvious pleasure to the congregation.
∑ For those of you who have children and don't know it, we have a nursery downstairs.
∑ During the absence of our Pastor, we enjoyed the rare privilege of hearing a good sermon when J.F. Stubbs supplied our pulpit.
∑ The Rector will preach his farewell message after which the choir will sing "Break Forth into Joy."
∑ At the evening service tonight, the sermon topic will be "What is Hell?" Come early and listen to our choir practice.
∑ Eight new choir robes are currently needed, due to the addition of several new members and to the deterioration of some older ones.
∑ Please place your donation in the envelope along with the deceased person you want remembered.
∑ Potluck supper Sunday at 5:00 pm - prayer and medication to follow.
Well, who doesn’t need a little prayer and medication now and then? … and good prayer and medication is what our LORD is offering to us today. To set ourselves free – from what others have done or failed to do, to see ourselves free the crippling attitude of entitlement.
“LORD, increase our faith so we can do this!”
“Baloney,” says Jesus … “It isn’t about having more faith, but using the faith you already have.” Trust God, trust those around you, and trust yourself.
Let’s think a moment about self-trust … I use something inspired by Joel Osteen … a little mantra of sorts to pull myself back to center … “I am who God says I am. I have what God says I have. I can do what God says I can do.”
Self-trust … God created us, our gifts are good, abilities are more than sufficient … we don’t need more of anything; we already have all that’s needed.
We have to be clear how debilitating is this “increase my faith” thing … strangely shifting the blame to God … “God, I can’t do this, because YOU haven’t given me what I need.”
“I’ve asked for more faith, LORD, but you didn’t do it. It’s your fault, LORD, because I asked, and you didn’t follow through.”
The great “If only I had … (fill in the blank – more money, more brains, better parents, better looks, better children, a better boss, better employees, a better education, more faith … ) … if only I had, then I would … (fill in the blank – then I would be happy, satisfied, content, successful, joyful, be more available, go on that mission trip, teach Sunday School, share Christ and study the Bible … if only.
“LORD, increase our faith.”
“Baloney” says Jesus.
It’s not about having more faith. It’s using the faith you have.”
This week, a good conversation with Marj Miller … responding to my Genesis comments about today’s message …
Is self-trust a form of pride?
What about humility?
Self-trust is a form of gratitude – that our Heavenly Father did a good and decent job creating us …
Self-trust, a form of gratitude along the whole stream of life: our parents, though not perfect, did a reasonably good job raising us … all kinds of folks have helped us … life is good and we’re glad to be here.
Self-trust – a form of gratitude – a way of saying “Thanks.”
If one of our children constantly berated themselves, put themselves down, doubted their abilities, questioned their character, we’d finally say: “That’s not true. You’re capable, you’re gifted, you’re strong – you can do it, you can handle it, you’ll make it. Trust yourself,” we’d say.
On the flip-side of self-trust – humility - plain and simple recognition that life is a web of relationships – all the way from the butcher who helps us pick out a good cut of meat to our Father in heaven.
Thanks Mom and Dad, thanks teachers … thanks to all the world that made it possible for me to be who I am. And thanks to God: I have what it takes, and whatever it takes, I have..
Tomorrow, we’ll face all the usual challenges, and then some.
Jesus said it well, “occasions for stumbling are bound to come.”
But you’ve got what it takes … you already have the faith that can move mountains and transplant mulberry trees.
It’s not about having more faith; it’s about using the faith you already have.
I am who God says I am.
I have what God says I have.
I can do what God says I can do.
And that’s no baloney.
Amen!
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Eyes - September 30, 2007
Last week’s message, a simple thought about money: make friends with it!
Use it to make a better world for someone … make a difference with it … make as much as you can, save as much as you can, and give a lot of it away.
Today’s message is a follow up … our LORD tells another story … that of a rich man without a name, and a poor man named Lazarus, a beggar by the side of the road, the lowest of the low, the least of the least … sitting by the rich man’s gate.
As I thought about the message this week, I recalled one of my all-time favorite films: Empire of the Sun, 1987, wherein a young English boy, separated from his parents in the invasion of Shanghai, struggles to survive in a detention camp.
Prior to the invation, and his family live in the lap of luxury – the English community of Shanghai – with the look and feel of Merry Olde England – on his way to school, in a limousine – he leaves the house down a long driveway, passes through the gated high wall and into the street – there, by the gate, a beggar – the young boy stares at him, mystified, uncomprehending – he’s too young to see.
The image poses a simple question: who sees the poor man at the gate?
Our LORD's story puts the same question – who sees the poor man at the gate?
A few things that catch our attention as our LORD tells the story:
The wealthy man has no name … that’s odd!
Wealthy folks have names, prominent names.
We know them by name - Donald Trump, Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey.
But in our story, the rich man has no name … in Medieval tradition, he became know as Dives, the Latin for “rich” … but he’s nameless in the text; it’s the poor man who has a name, he’s Lazarus.
There’s another story in the Bible about names … Exodus … Chapter 1.
Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, is out to do a little population control on the Hebrews … he instructs the Hebrew midwives, “If it’s boy, kill him; if it’s a girl, let her live.”
But the Hebrew midwives “feared God,” says the text; they defied the king.”
The great king of Egypt goes unnamed in his murderous plans … it’s the Hebrew midwives who’s names are recorded forever: Shiphrah and Puah.
It seems that God’s take on things is slightly different than ours.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor your ways my ways, says the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts,” says the LORD.
“The first shall be last; the last shall be first,” says our LORD.
A different accounting system; heaven’s social registry … God’s book of life.
The story goes on … Lazarus dies and angels carry him off to Abraham’s side.
The rich man dies and is buried.
The text is abrupt, without sentiment – the RichMan made choices – dead-end choices, choices that could only end this way: to the land of the dead … Sheol, Hades … torment.
He looks up – an unaccustomed posture for a man who spent his life looking down.
He sees Abraham, “far away,” says the text.
All of life is a vector, a direction, a heading … the rich man choose a road that led him further and further away from Abraham … how many chances lost for a turn-around? … how many lost opportunities to make it right?
But the man didn’t know how to make friends with his money; he could buy friends, he could buy fame and influence; he could make a name for himself … “But what good does it do to gain the whole world and forfeit your life?”
The poor old rich man cries out, “Father Abraham” … a glimmer of hope? Some possible restoration of spirit? Something good about to happen?
“Send your boy, Lazarus, to comfort me.”
Catch the drift of the story?
One rich man to another … “You’ve got a boy there, Lazarus.”
Irony: the RichMan knows the beggar’s name now … but remains entrenched in old ideas, old thoughts, stubborn pride, consummate self-interest.
“Send your boy to me … he can dip the tip of his finger in some water and cool my tongue” … a decadent image; a lascivious late-night party … power and command, money and control – “send your boy to comfort me.”
Poor old RichMan … still can’t see … blind as a bat … still giving orders; expecting folks to jump for his comfort!
Abraham speaks … “Son, you had your chance.”
Too late … a great chasm between us … no one crosses the great divide.
Why?
Why does no one cross the great divide?
Because they don’t want to.
They are where the want to be!
God never sends anyone to hell.
Hell is a choice.
Everyone in hell wants to be there!
C.S. Lewis writes of a bus tour arranged one day from hell to heaven … folks in hell board the bus and ride to heaven … they see the love of God, light and peace, but its painful and disturbing for them; loved ones beg them to stay, to let the miracle of love rework their minds and hearts, but at the end of the day, they can hardly wait to return to hell.
God never sends anyone to hell … hell is choice!
The RichMan: “Well, if you won’t send your boy to me, send him to my father’s house; I have five brothers. Warm them.”
The poor old RichMan knows how to give orders.
Abraham replies: “They have Moses and the prophets; they can listen to them.”
The rich man protests – “No, it’s not enough, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they’ll repent.”
Abraham: “If they can’t listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.”
End of conversation.
Jesus said, “Make friends with your money.”
Let’s think for a moment about life … things that capture our attention … and things we overlook …
No man on his deathbed ever says to his family, “I should have spent more time at the office.”
It isn’t so much a matter of choosing one over the other, but choosing things in proper sequence.
Did not Jesus say: “Seek first the kingdom of God, and all the other things that otherwise occupy your mind and unsettle your spirit, will they not also be added unto you?”
Have you noticed anything on the LORD's Table this morning? - a large jar of walnuts and rice.
Michelle and I did the jar on Friday – a simple exercise in priorities: if the rice is poured in first; no room for the walnuts.
Put the walnuts in first, then pour in the rice – everything fits!
Priorities!
Question on an application form for a newspaper job:
You have the choice of saving a drowning man or getting a Pulitzer Prize winning photograph. What type film would you use?
Two theatrical agents bump into each other on Wilshire Blvd.
One agent says, "Did you hear about Sam over at William Morris? He went into the hospital last week ... and the next day he died."
The other agent is shocked. "What did he have?"
"Not much, a few voice-over people, a magician, and two actors on a soap."
Priorities!
Walnuts in first … the kingdom of God first … faith, hope and love … kindness, mercy and gentleness; surrender and servanthood … Lazarus-at-our-gate.
Who is Lazarus-at-our-gate?
Mary Thompson meets Lazarus at the food pantry. Willie Hodges meets Lazarus at Living Water for the World. Leslie Evans meets Lazarus in Nicaragua.
Lazarus is real … the ragged man pushing the shopping cart along Manchester … the weary woman driving a beat-up car to her second job of the day … a family who can’t pay its medical bills … and you can fill in the rest of the story. Lazarus is real.
Lazarus could be a co-worker down the hall, in the next cubical - her car is clean, the home is large, but her life small and sad, neither purpose nor peace. Every day a grind; every night a weariness.
The Lazarus within each of us, our own spirit … the soul languishing at the gate, living on crumbs.
We leave the house with a fresh shirt and pressed pants, but our wounded soul is dressed rags.
Jesus says: “Life is more than food … more than clothing … don’t keep striving for what you are to eat and drink … it’s the way of the world to do these things … strive for the kingdom, and all the other things will be added unto you.”
The Apostle Paul tells his young pastor-friend Timothy: “As for those who in the present age are rich, command them not to be haughty, or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but rather on God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous and ready to share, thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life” (1 Timothy 6)
What goes into your jar first? I’ve spent many a day pouring in the rice and then trying to jam in the walnuts. It doesn’t work; it it never will.
Maybe it’s all about our eyes.
The way we see things.
“Your eye is the lamp of your body,” says Jesus.
“If your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light. If it is not healthy, your body is full of darkness.”
I want to see things like God sees them … and I know that you do, too.
Amen!
Use it to make a better world for someone … make a difference with it … make as much as you can, save as much as you can, and give a lot of it away.
Today’s message is a follow up … our LORD tells another story … that of a rich man without a name, and a poor man named Lazarus, a beggar by the side of the road, the lowest of the low, the least of the least … sitting by the rich man’s gate.
As I thought about the message this week, I recalled one of my all-time favorite films: Empire of the Sun, 1987, wherein a young English boy, separated from his parents in the invasion of Shanghai, struggles to survive in a detention camp.
Prior to the invation, and his family live in the lap of luxury – the English community of Shanghai – with the look and feel of Merry Olde England – on his way to school, in a limousine – he leaves the house down a long driveway, passes through the gated high wall and into the street – there, by the gate, a beggar – the young boy stares at him, mystified, uncomprehending – he’s too young to see.
The image poses a simple question: who sees the poor man at the gate?
Our LORD's story puts the same question – who sees the poor man at the gate?
A few things that catch our attention as our LORD tells the story:
The wealthy man has no name … that’s odd!
Wealthy folks have names, prominent names.
We know them by name - Donald Trump, Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey.
But in our story, the rich man has no name … in Medieval tradition, he became know as Dives, the Latin for “rich” … but he’s nameless in the text; it’s the poor man who has a name, he’s Lazarus.
There’s another story in the Bible about names … Exodus … Chapter 1.
Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, is out to do a little population control on the Hebrews … he instructs the Hebrew midwives, “If it’s boy, kill him; if it’s a girl, let her live.”
But the Hebrew midwives “feared God,” says the text; they defied the king.”
The great king of Egypt goes unnamed in his murderous plans … it’s the Hebrew midwives who’s names are recorded forever: Shiphrah and Puah.
It seems that God’s take on things is slightly different than ours.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor your ways my ways, says the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts,” says the LORD.
“The first shall be last; the last shall be first,” says our LORD.
A different accounting system; heaven’s social registry … God’s book of life.
The story goes on … Lazarus dies and angels carry him off to Abraham’s side.
The rich man dies and is buried.
The text is abrupt, without sentiment – the RichMan made choices – dead-end choices, choices that could only end this way: to the land of the dead … Sheol, Hades … torment.
He looks up – an unaccustomed posture for a man who spent his life looking down.
He sees Abraham, “far away,” says the text.
All of life is a vector, a direction, a heading … the rich man choose a road that led him further and further away from Abraham … how many chances lost for a turn-around? … how many lost opportunities to make it right?
But the man didn’t know how to make friends with his money; he could buy friends, he could buy fame and influence; he could make a name for himself … “But what good does it do to gain the whole world and forfeit your life?”
The poor old rich man cries out, “Father Abraham” … a glimmer of hope? Some possible restoration of spirit? Something good about to happen?
“Send your boy, Lazarus, to comfort me.”
Catch the drift of the story?
One rich man to another … “You’ve got a boy there, Lazarus.”
Irony: the RichMan knows the beggar’s name now … but remains entrenched in old ideas, old thoughts, stubborn pride, consummate self-interest.
“Send your boy to me … he can dip the tip of his finger in some water and cool my tongue” … a decadent image; a lascivious late-night party … power and command, money and control – “send your boy to comfort me.”
Poor old RichMan … still can’t see … blind as a bat … still giving orders; expecting folks to jump for his comfort!
Abraham speaks … “Son, you had your chance.”
Too late … a great chasm between us … no one crosses the great divide.
Why?
Why does no one cross the great divide?
Because they don’t want to.
They are where the want to be!
God never sends anyone to hell.
Hell is a choice.
Everyone in hell wants to be there!
C.S. Lewis writes of a bus tour arranged one day from hell to heaven … folks in hell board the bus and ride to heaven … they see the love of God, light and peace, but its painful and disturbing for them; loved ones beg them to stay, to let the miracle of love rework their minds and hearts, but at the end of the day, they can hardly wait to return to hell.
God never sends anyone to hell … hell is choice!
The RichMan: “Well, if you won’t send your boy to me, send him to my father’s house; I have five brothers. Warm them.”
The poor old RichMan knows how to give orders.
Abraham replies: “They have Moses and the prophets; they can listen to them.”
The rich man protests – “No, it’s not enough, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they’ll repent.”
Abraham: “If they can’t listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.”
End of conversation.
Jesus said, “Make friends with your money.”
Let’s think for a moment about life … things that capture our attention … and things we overlook …
No man on his deathbed ever says to his family, “I should have spent more time at the office.”
It isn’t so much a matter of choosing one over the other, but choosing things in proper sequence.
Did not Jesus say: “Seek first the kingdom of God, and all the other things that otherwise occupy your mind and unsettle your spirit, will they not also be added unto you?”
Have you noticed anything on the LORD's Table this morning? - a large jar of walnuts and rice.
Michelle and I did the jar on Friday – a simple exercise in priorities: if the rice is poured in first; no room for the walnuts.
Put the walnuts in first, then pour in the rice – everything fits!
Priorities!
Question on an application form for a newspaper job:
You have the choice of saving a drowning man or getting a Pulitzer Prize winning photograph. What type film would you use?
Two theatrical agents bump into each other on Wilshire Blvd.
One agent says, "Did you hear about Sam over at William Morris? He went into the hospital last week ... and the next day he died."
The other agent is shocked. "What did he have?"
"Not much, a few voice-over people, a magician, and two actors on a soap."
Priorities!
Walnuts in first … the kingdom of God first … faith, hope and love … kindness, mercy and gentleness; surrender and servanthood … Lazarus-at-our-gate.
Who is Lazarus-at-our-gate?
Mary Thompson meets Lazarus at the food pantry. Willie Hodges meets Lazarus at Living Water for the World. Leslie Evans meets Lazarus in Nicaragua.
Lazarus is real … the ragged man pushing the shopping cart along Manchester … the weary woman driving a beat-up car to her second job of the day … a family who can’t pay its medical bills … and you can fill in the rest of the story. Lazarus is real.
Lazarus could be a co-worker down the hall, in the next cubical - her car is clean, the home is large, but her life small and sad, neither purpose nor peace. Every day a grind; every night a weariness.
The Lazarus within each of us, our own spirit … the soul languishing at the gate, living on crumbs.
We leave the house with a fresh shirt and pressed pants, but our wounded soul is dressed rags.
Jesus says: “Life is more than food … more than clothing … don’t keep striving for what you are to eat and drink … it’s the way of the world to do these things … strive for the kingdom, and all the other things will be added unto you.”
The Apostle Paul tells his young pastor-friend Timothy: “As for those who in the present age are rich, command them not to be haughty, or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but rather on God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous and ready to share, thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life” (1 Timothy 6)
What goes into your jar first? I’ve spent many a day pouring in the rice and then trying to jam in the walnuts. It doesn’t work; it it never will.
Maybe it’s all about our eyes.
The way we see things.
“Your eye is the lamp of your body,” says Jesus.
“If your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light. If it is not healthy, your body is full of darkness.”
I want to see things like God sees them … and I know that you do, too.
Amen!
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Money - September 23, 2007
Luke 16:1-13
Jeremy Blake, age 35 and Theresa Duncan, age 40, filmmakers, artists, writers and lovers, ended their lives this summer – Duncan with pills and bourbon, and one week latter, Blake walked into the Atlantic Ocean.
Why begin on such a disturbing note?
To remember why we’re here.
For all the folks who can’t believe,
who struggle with faith …
who take drugs and abuse themselves …
who are bright and creative, sad and lost, fearful and hopeless.
For their sake, we’re here today.
“You are the light of the world,” says Jesus. “You are the salt of the earth.”
The Apostle Peter says:
You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
We’re baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
We’re fed at the LORD's Table.
We count among our ancestors the likes of Abraham and Sarah … Moses and Miriam, David and Solomon … Deborah and Lydia …
Their stories, our stories: from bondage to freedom … through the wilderness, across the River Jordan … we stand with Joshua by the walls of Jericho; we watch David pick up five smooth stones in the Valley of Elah and defeat Goliath; we buy the field in Anathoth with Jeremiah; we stand with Ezekiel by the valley of dry bones.
We walk with Jesus in Galilee and follow Him up to Jerusalem; we pray with Him in the Garden of Gethsemane; we watch Judas betray Him, and Peter deny Him.
We stand with the disciples at the foot of the cross; we flee in horror and can only doubt.
On the third day, we run with Peter to the tomb, to see if it’s really empty, as the women tell us.
We’re on the mountain with Jesus when He says, “Go … go into all the world … tell folks the truth, that life is good and God is real … tell folks about the water and the bread … help them find themselves by finding God – all of God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit … and I am with you always, to the end of the age, until the task is done.”
“Go” says Jesus …
The church of Jesus Christ is a missionary organization … the church of Jesus Christ exists for the sake of those who are not here … who can’t believe, who won’t believe … we believe for them.
That’s our Covenant purpose …
I love the name Covenant Presbyterian Church.
Basic agreements – essential tasks.
The promise of God: “You shall be my people, and I will be your God.”
We are people of the covenant, and its various permutations:
The creation covenant with Adam and Eve,
The rainbow covenant with Noah and His family.
The blessing covenant with Abraham and Sarah.
The salvation wrought by Christ on the cross, confirmed by God in the empty tomb, sealed in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.
We are people of the Covenant!
We are Covenant Presbyterian Church.
Our purpose is our neighbor; to bring light to the world … a light so good, so clean and so pure that folks like Jeremy Blake and Theresa Duncan are included in the circle of light.
2 Corinthians 5:
The love of Christ urges us on, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died. And he died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died and was raised for them.
We echo Paul’s confession:
I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. The life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God.
The Prayer of St. Francis:
Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life. Amen.
It is the glory of our life … less of ourselves and more of Christ … to live the prayer of John the Baptist: “He must become greater; I must become less.”
Christ in the morning, Christ at noon, Christ at night.
It can be done; it’s happening now … we grow into Christ, and Christ grows into us. Not that we’re already there, but we press on to the high calling of Christ.
Josh Waitzkin, the chess prodigy who inspired the film, Searching for Bobby Fisher, has written a book entitled, The Art of Learning.
Waitzkin notes that success is not driven by some mysterious process, but by mastery of basic skills …
Vince Lombardi, famed coach of the Green Bay Packers, the glory days of Bart Star and Jim Taylor, said of the Packers: “We don’t play fancy football; we play basic football and play it very well.”
I used to be drummer in another life … several hours a day, practice … a simple rule of thumb: if I missed one day of practice, I knew it; if I missed two days, the band knew it; if I missed three days, the audience knew it.
Every practice session began with the rudiments, the basics … single and double-stroke rolls … paradiddles … flams and ratamacues … basic skills … again and again and again …
Basic skills – Covenant:
Love one another as I have loved you.
Do not judge, and you will not be judged.
Love your enemies and do good to those who hate you.
Basic skills, Covenant skills: use your money well, says Jesus; make friends with it.
Jesus catches everyone’s attention with a story about a rich man and a dishonest manager …
The point is clear – if dishonest managers know how take advantage of the moment and make friends while they can, surely God’s people ought to know how to make friends, too.
Use money to make friends, says Jesus … be faithful with material things … practice the art of giving … give and it shall be given unto you … a good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over … for the measure you give will be the measure you get” – Luke 6:38.
Money is one of the most powerful commodities of life … I think about money a lot … will there be enough? Wish I had more … when’s the next paycheck … will Donna be able to support me in the life-style to which I’ve grown accustomed?
A woman told her friend, “I’m responsible for making my husband a millionaire.” “Goodness, what was he before you married him?” She replied, “A billionaire.”
A tour guide was showing someone around Washington, D. C. The guide pointed out the place where George Washington supposedly threw a dollar across the Potomac River. "That's impossible," said the tourist. "No one could throw a coin that far!" "You have to remember," said the guide, "a dollar went a lot farther in those days."
And for the latest in stocks …
Helium was up. Feathers were down. Paper was stationary. Knives were up sharply. Pencils lost a few points. Hiking equipment was trailing. Elevators rose, while escalators continued a slow decline. Light switches were off. Mining equipment hit rock bottom. Diapers remained unchanged. Shipping lines stayed at an even keel. Balloon prices were inflated. And batteries exploded in an attempt to recharge the market.
Bill Evans recalls a pastor saying, “Give until it feels good.”
That’s basic … that’s covenant.
The art of giving.
Doing it right.
Donna and I took dance lessons for years – we learned a basic rule: “When it’s done right, it feels right.”
If it’s not done right, it never feels right, no matter how hard we try, no matter how often we try it – if it’s not done right, it doesn’t feel right.
We’d go back to the dance studio, the instructor would show us the missing move, and there it was – we could do it, we could do it right, and it felt right.
Do it right. Give until it feels right!
Learn the basics. Look to Christ in all things.
George Burr said at Staff this week: “Look for God in the music.
Pray more often; open your Bibles and read a little bit every day. Read John Ortberg’s latest book … watch Joel Osteen now and then to get a boost … feed your soul, fill your life with positive energy and the grace of God.
“The one who sows bountifully will reap bountifully.”
As long as there are Jeremy Blakes and Theresa Duncans, we’ve got our work cut out for us … that’s why we‘re here!
I’m glad to know these things, and I know that you are, too. Use your money to make friends. We are … Covenant People! Amen!
Jeremy Blake, age 35 and Theresa Duncan, age 40, filmmakers, artists, writers and lovers, ended their lives this summer – Duncan with pills and bourbon, and one week latter, Blake walked into the Atlantic Ocean.
Why begin on such a disturbing note?
To remember why we’re here.
For all the folks who can’t believe,
who struggle with faith …
who take drugs and abuse themselves …
who are bright and creative, sad and lost, fearful and hopeless.
For their sake, we’re here today.
“You are the light of the world,” says Jesus. “You are the salt of the earth.”
The Apostle Peter says:
You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
We’re baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
We’re fed at the LORD's Table.
We count among our ancestors the likes of Abraham and Sarah … Moses and Miriam, David and Solomon … Deborah and Lydia …
Their stories, our stories: from bondage to freedom … through the wilderness, across the River Jordan … we stand with Joshua by the walls of Jericho; we watch David pick up five smooth stones in the Valley of Elah and defeat Goliath; we buy the field in Anathoth with Jeremiah; we stand with Ezekiel by the valley of dry bones.
We walk with Jesus in Galilee and follow Him up to Jerusalem; we pray with Him in the Garden of Gethsemane; we watch Judas betray Him, and Peter deny Him.
We stand with the disciples at the foot of the cross; we flee in horror and can only doubt.
On the third day, we run with Peter to the tomb, to see if it’s really empty, as the women tell us.
We’re on the mountain with Jesus when He says, “Go … go into all the world … tell folks the truth, that life is good and God is real … tell folks about the water and the bread … help them find themselves by finding God – all of God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit … and I am with you always, to the end of the age, until the task is done.”
“Go” says Jesus …
The church of Jesus Christ is a missionary organization … the church of Jesus Christ exists for the sake of those who are not here … who can’t believe, who won’t believe … we believe for them.
That’s our Covenant purpose …
I love the name Covenant Presbyterian Church.
Basic agreements – essential tasks.
The promise of God: “You shall be my people, and I will be your God.”
We are people of the covenant, and its various permutations:
The creation covenant with Adam and Eve,
The rainbow covenant with Noah and His family.
The blessing covenant with Abraham and Sarah.
The salvation wrought by Christ on the cross, confirmed by God in the empty tomb, sealed in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.
We are people of the Covenant!
We are Covenant Presbyterian Church.
Our purpose is our neighbor; to bring light to the world … a light so good, so clean and so pure that folks like Jeremy Blake and Theresa Duncan are included in the circle of light.
2 Corinthians 5:
The love of Christ urges us on, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died. And he died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died and was raised for them.
We echo Paul’s confession:
I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. The life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God.
The Prayer of St. Francis:
Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life. Amen.
It is the glory of our life … less of ourselves and more of Christ … to live the prayer of John the Baptist: “He must become greater; I must become less.”
Christ in the morning, Christ at noon, Christ at night.
It can be done; it’s happening now … we grow into Christ, and Christ grows into us. Not that we’re already there, but we press on to the high calling of Christ.
Josh Waitzkin, the chess prodigy who inspired the film, Searching for Bobby Fisher, has written a book entitled, The Art of Learning.
Waitzkin notes that success is not driven by some mysterious process, but by mastery of basic skills …
Vince Lombardi, famed coach of the Green Bay Packers, the glory days of Bart Star and Jim Taylor, said of the Packers: “We don’t play fancy football; we play basic football and play it very well.”
I used to be drummer in another life … several hours a day, practice … a simple rule of thumb: if I missed one day of practice, I knew it; if I missed two days, the band knew it; if I missed three days, the audience knew it.
Every practice session began with the rudiments, the basics … single and double-stroke rolls … paradiddles … flams and ratamacues … basic skills … again and again and again …
Basic skills – Covenant:
Love one another as I have loved you.
Do not judge, and you will not be judged.
Love your enemies and do good to those who hate you.
Basic skills, Covenant skills: use your money well, says Jesus; make friends with it.
Jesus catches everyone’s attention with a story about a rich man and a dishonest manager …
The point is clear – if dishonest managers know how take advantage of the moment and make friends while they can, surely God’s people ought to know how to make friends, too.
Use money to make friends, says Jesus … be faithful with material things … practice the art of giving … give and it shall be given unto you … a good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over … for the measure you give will be the measure you get” – Luke 6:38.
Money is one of the most powerful commodities of life … I think about money a lot … will there be enough? Wish I had more … when’s the next paycheck … will Donna be able to support me in the life-style to which I’ve grown accustomed?
A woman told her friend, “I’m responsible for making my husband a millionaire.” “Goodness, what was he before you married him?” She replied, “A billionaire.”
A tour guide was showing someone around Washington, D. C. The guide pointed out the place where George Washington supposedly threw a dollar across the Potomac River. "That's impossible," said the tourist. "No one could throw a coin that far!" "You have to remember," said the guide, "a dollar went a lot farther in those days."
And for the latest in stocks …
Helium was up. Feathers were down. Paper was stationary. Knives were up sharply. Pencils lost a few points. Hiking equipment was trailing. Elevators rose, while escalators continued a slow decline. Light switches were off. Mining equipment hit rock bottom. Diapers remained unchanged. Shipping lines stayed at an even keel. Balloon prices were inflated. And batteries exploded in an attempt to recharge the market.
Bill Evans recalls a pastor saying, “Give until it feels good.”
That’s basic … that’s covenant.
The art of giving.
Doing it right.
Donna and I took dance lessons for years – we learned a basic rule: “When it’s done right, it feels right.”
If it’s not done right, it never feels right, no matter how hard we try, no matter how often we try it – if it’s not done right, it doesn’t feel right.
We’d go back to the dance studio, the instructor would show us the missing move, and there it was – we could do it, we could do it right, and it felt right.
Do it right. Give until it feels right!
Learn the basics. Look to Christ in all things.
George Burr said at Staff this week: “Look for God in the music.
Pray more often; open your Bibles and read a little bit every day. Read John Ortberg’s latest book … watch Joel Osteen now and then to get a boost … feed your soul, fill your life with positive energy and the grace of God.
“The one who sows bountifully will reap bountifully.”
As long as there are Jeremy Blakes and Theresa Duncans, we’ve got our work cut out for us … that’s why we‘re here!
I’m glad to know these things, and I know that you are, too. Use your money to make friends. We are … Covenant People! Amen!
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
One - September 16, 2007
Luke 15:1-10
Crystal Lake, Wisconsin … I was eight-years old … my brother teaching me to swim.
From the dock out to a barrel-flotation raft, and back to the dock again.
Late morning; time for lunch. My brother, on the dock, waiting for me.
I jumped off the raft feet first, surfaced, put my head down, and began to swim to the dock.
I put my legs down by the dock …
Found only a steep slope and gravel at the tip of my toes.
I began to slip backward … arms flailing.
“Put your head down” my brother shouted.
But I was panic-stricken.
My brother jumped in, swam around behind me, with a shove of his hands in the hollow of my back, pushed me to shallow water.
We went in for lunch.
He doesn’t remember – I do!
I was saved that day!
Who hasn’t been saved a time or two?
A school teacher gives you a break on grades.
A loan saves your business.
Your big-time mess-up everyone lovingly forgets.
The promotion you didn’t deserve.
Your spouse forgives and forgets.
Friends & family put up with your idiosyncrasies.
Who knows how many other times the hand of God has stayed heartache and disaster … brought us through, and we didn’t even know it.
I was waiting at a busy rail crossing – forth car back. The train cleared and the cars moved. I was not but 20 feet on the other side of the crossing, when a freight train thundered through from the other direction.
Salvation IS our story.
A man had been in business for many years, doing well, and now the business is going down the drain.
He goes to his pastor to seek advice.
The pastor says "Take a beach chair and a Bible and put them in your car and drive down to the edge of the ocean.
Go to the water's edge. Take the beach chair out of the car, sit on it and take the Bible out and open it up.
The wind will riffle the pages for a while and eventually the Bible will stay open at a particular page. Read the first words your eyes fall upon, and you’ll know what to do.
The man does as he is told.
He settles into his chair on the beach, opens the Bible; the wind riffles the pages and then settles.
The man looks down at the Bible – his eyes fall upon the words – and he knows instantly what he needs to do.
Three months later the man comes back to see the pastor.
The man is wearing a fine suit, a broad smile on his face.
He hands the pastor a thick envelope full of cash for the church – just to say thanks.
The pastor is delighted. He asks, “What words in the Bible brought this good fortune to you?”
The man replies: "Chapter 11"
Who hasn’t been saved a time or two?
Jesus makes it clear – everyone is important, no one is left behind … the great God Almighty thinks small, one person at a time.
Our reading this morning covers two parables … there’s a third parable part of this sequence - the Prodigal Son.
Each parable ups the ante, driving home the point: everyone counts – no one is left behind … God thinks small, one person at a time.
One sheep out of a hundred … one coin out of ten … one son out of two …
The shepherd has plenty of sheep, but every sheep counts.
The shepherd sets out to search for the lost … “until he finds it” says the text.
I love the confidence of the text, not if, not maybe … the search continues until the lost is found.
God is successful …
“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be, that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”
The lost are found … the wayward rescued … the lonely comforted … in the end, God prevails, goodness overcomes … all is made new.
“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth … I saw the Holy City … death no more … grief, tears and pain, no more … all things made new.”
The second parable – one coin out of ten … the woman is likely a widow – her ten coins, ten days wages – even one coin lost is a serious matter … so she begins to search for it: she lights a lamp, sweeps the earthen floor, sifts the dirt and dust, “until she finds it.”
The prodigal son … one son out of two … there’s no searching here … a different strategy: waiting … does the Father trust the inherent character of the boy?
Does the Father know deep down that it’s going to be okay?
Was it hard to wait?
Did the Father know where the boy was? Was there any news from the far-away land that gave him hope?
What binds all three stories together – joy.
Joy in the finding, joy in the restoring, joy in heaven.
Party time – yippee and yahoo … set the table, bring out the wine, kill the fatted calf; we’re havin’ a barbeque.
Because everyone counts; no one is left behind. God’s purpose prevails … the lost are found!
It all comes down to one … one sheep, one coin, one boy!
Heaven thinks small!
Some might have said to the shepherd: “Why bother?” – one sheep out of a hundred is an acceptable loss …
Maybe the widow should have written it off, and spent her time more productively.
Maybe the Father should have disinherited the boy, quit wasting his time going on in the morning to scan the road.
But not God … no acceptable loss … no one written off … no one disinherited.
God’s passion, God’s delight, God’s purpose – to find the lost and restore them … bring them home where they belong.
God seeks the lost sheep.
God lights a lamp, sweeps the floor – goes through the dust and the dirt until the lost coin is found.
God waits, longer then the boy can wait – God outwaits all of us … until hunger overcomes pride, need overwhelms resistance … until we can’t stand it any longer, and we turn our way back home.
“I once was lost, but now am found, Was blind, but now I see.”
For me, one of the more powerful passages of the Bible – Philippians 2
You were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once lived, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air…. … following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath…. But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ - by grace you have been saved…. … and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God!.
God be praised … “the LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want … he maketh me to lie down in green pastures … he leadeth me beside still waters … he restoreth my soul.”
In these three parables, it all comes down to one … God thinks small … God seeks; God sweeps; God waits.
Comfort, consolation, encouragement …
“I am confident that the One who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.”
God never gives up … God never calls off the search … God seeks and finds … God sweeps and reclaims … God outwaits the boy … until the boy comes home.
Sooner or later, by hook or by crook, in this life or in the life to come … in ways known and ways beyond our grasp, the mighty grace of God prevails … we all come home where we belong … yippee and yahoo!
Throughout the years of ministry, my greatest joy: watching people enter into the love of God … lay their burdens down at the foot of the cross … peace at last … strangers no more to the gospel; no longer lost and alone … no longer aliens to the love of God … from wilderness to Promised Land … from bondage to freedom … from the darkened cave of self to the enlightened world of Christ.
No greater joy …
I think of two men …
One signed up for the Bethel Bible Series … a two-year commitment to study the Bible, Genesis to Revelation … he knew nothing about God’s Word.
One day, he stood in the doorway of my office, tears welling up in his eyes, his voice choked - “I never knew how much God loved me. How I have come to love God’s Word.”
The other man signed up for a mission trip to Haiti – just to do something, a good work, a good deed – he was a crude man … tough and not religious.
During the course of ten days in Haiti, he saw children with spinal tuberculosis, eye-tumors, infants dying of dehydration … he waded across filthy rivers to deliver medical supplies to remote villages … he watched people struggle to make a living in the toughest of places … he worked with doctors in the wards … he listened to impoverished Christians joyfully tell of God’s goodness and love … something happened deep inside that man.
He came to know Christ personally … church had only been a custom, a family tradition – a low-level Sunday morning option … but Christ took hold of him, changed his life, re-arranged his priorities.
What joy in heaven … it all comes down to one!
Don’t every stop praying for the lost … because God never gives up.
Don’t every think for a moment that you’re unimportant … that you can’t go back home again … you can; the Father waits … and will greet you with joy!
Amen!
Crystal Lake, Wisconsin … I was eight-years old … my brother teaching me to swim.
From the dock out to a barrel-flotation raft, and back to the dock again.
Late morning; time for lunch. My brother, on the dock, waiting for me.
I jumped off the raft feet first, surfaced, put my head down, and began to swim to the dock.
I put my legs down by the dock …
Found only a steep slope and gravel at the tip of my toes.
I began to slip backward … arms flailing.
“Put your head down” my brother shouted.
But I was panic-stricken.
My brother jumped in, swam around behind me, with a shove of his hands in the hollow of my back, pushed me to shallow water.
We went in for lunch.
He doesn’t remember – I do!
I was saved that day!
Who hasn’t been saved a time or two?
A school teacher gives you a break on grades.
A loan saves your business.
Your big-time mess-up everyone lovingly forgets.
The promotion you didn’t deserve.
Your spouse forgives and forgets.
Friends & family put up with your idiosyncrasies.
Who knows how many other times the hand of God has stayed heartache and disaster … brought us through, and we didn’t even know it.
I was waiting at a busy rail crossing – forth car back. The train cleared and the cars moved. I was not but 20 feet on the other side of the crossing, when a freight train thundered through from the other direction.
Salvation IS our story.
A man had been in business for many years, doing well, and now the business is going down the drain.
He goes to his pastor to seek advice.
The pastor says "Take a beach chair and a Bible and put them in your car and drive down to the edge of the ocean.
Go to the water's edge. Take the beach chair out of the car, sit on it and take the Bible out and open it up.
The wind will riffle the pages for a while and eventually the Bible will stay open at a particular page. Read the first words your eyes fall upon, and you’ll know what to do.
The man does as he is told.
He settles into his chair on the beach, opens the Bible; the wind riffles the pages and then settles.
The man looks down at the Bible – his eyes fall upon the words – and he knows instantly what he needs to do.
Three months later the man comes back to see the pastor.
The man is wearing a fine suit, a broad smile on his face.
He hands the pastor a thick envelope full of cash for the church – just to say thanks.
The pastor is delighted. He asks, “What words in the Bible brought this good fortune to you?”
The man replies: "Chapter 11"
Who hasn’t been saved a time or two?
Jesus makes it clear – everyone is important, no one is left behind … the great God Almighty thinks small, one person at a time.
Our reading this morning covers two parables … there’s a third parable part of this sequence - the Prodigal Son.
Each parable ups the ante, driving home the point: everyone counts – no one is left behind … God thinks small, one person at a time.
One sheep out of a hundred … one coin out of ten … one son out of two …
The shepherd has plenty of sheep, but every sheep counts.
The shepherd sets out to search for the lost … “until he finds it” says the text.
I love the confidence of the text, not if, not maybe … the search continues until the lost is found.
God is successful …
“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be, that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”
The lost are found … the wayward rescued … the lonely comforted … in the end, God prevails, goodness overcomes … all is made new.
“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth … I saw the Holy City … death no more … grief, tears and pain, no more … all things made new.”
The second parable – one coin out of ten … the woman is likely a widow – her ten coins, ten days wages – even one coin lost is a serious matter … so she begins to search for it: she lights a lamp, sweeps the earthen floor, sifts the dirt and dust, “until she finds it.”
The prodigal son … one son out of two … there’s no searching here … a different strategy: waiting … does the Father trust the inherent character of the boy?
Does the Father know deep down that it’s going to be okay?
Was it hard to wait?
Did the Father know where the boy was? Was there any news from the far-away land that gave him hope?
What binds all three stories together – joy.
Joy in the finding, joy in the restoring, joy in heaven.
Party time – yippee and yahoo … set the table, bring out the wine, kill the fatted calf; we’re havin’ a barbeque.
Because everyone counts; no one is left behind. God’s purpose prevails … the lost are found!
It all comes down to one … one sheep, one coin, one boy!
Heaven thinks small!
Some might have said to the shepherd: “Why bother?” – one sheep out of a hundred is an acceptable loss …
Maybe the widow should have written it off, and spent her time more productively.
Maybe the Father should have disinherited the boy, quit wasting his time going on in the morning to scan the road.
But not God … no acceptable loss … no one written off … no one disinherited.
God’s passion, God’s delight, God’s purpose – to find the lost and restore them … bring them home where they belong.
God seeks the lost sheep.
God lights a lamp, sweeps the floor – goes through the dust and the dirt until the lost coin is found.
God waits, longer then the boy can wait – God outwaits all of us … until hunger overcomes pride, need overwhelms resistance … until we can’t stand it any longer, and we turn our way back home.
“I once was lost, but now am found, Was blind, but now I see.”
For me, one of the more powerful passages of the Bible – Philippians 2
You were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once lived, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air…. … following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath…. But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ - by grace you have been saved…. … and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God!.
God be praised … “the LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want … he maketh me to lie down in green pastures … he leadeth me beside still waters … he restoreth my soul.”
In these three parables, it all comes down to one … God thinks small … God seeks; God sweeps; God waits.
Comfort, consolation, encouragement …
“I am confident that the One who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.”
God never gives up … God never calls off the search … God seeks and finds … God sweeps and reclaims … God outwaits the boy … until the boy comes home.
Sooner or later, by hook or by crook, in this life or in the life to come … in ways known and ways beyond our grasp, the mighty grace of God prevails … we all come home where we belong … yippee and yahoo!
Throughout the years of ministry, my greatest joy: watching people enter into the love of God … lay their burdens down at the foot of the cross … peace at last … strangers no more to the gospel; no longer lost and alone … no longer aliens to the love of God … from wilderness to Promised Land … from bondage to freedom … from the darkened cave of self to the enlightened world of Christ.
No greater joy …
I think of two men …
One signed up for the Bethel Bible Series … a two-year commitment to study the Bible, Genesis to Revelation … he knew nothing about God’s Word.
One day, he stood in the doorway of my office, tears welling up in his eyes, his voice choked - “I never knew how much God loved me. How I have come to love God’s Word.”
The other man signed up for a mission trip to Haiti – just to do something, a good work, a good deed – he was a crude man … tough and not religious.
During the course of ten days in Haiti, he saw children with spinal tuberculosis, eye-tumors, infants dying of dehydration … he waded across filthy rivers to deliver medical supplies to remote villages … he watched people struggle to make a living in the toughest of places … he worked with doctors in the wards … he listened to impoverished Christians joyfully tell of God’s goodness and love … something happened deep inside that man.
He came to know Christ personally … church had only been a custom, a family tradition – a low-level Sunday morning option … but Christ took hold of him, changed his life, re-arranged his priorities.
What joy in heaven … it all comes down to one!
Don’t every stop praying for the lost … because God never gives up.
Don’t every think for a moment that you’re unimportant … that you can’t go back home again … you can; the Father waits … and will greet you with joy!
Amen!
Sunday, September 9, 2007
The Price is Right - Sep 9 07
Luke 14:25-35
The comedian, Jack Benny, delighted audiences pretending to be a tight-wad … every penny spent was a penny lost … the bottom-line was the only line.
One episode, Benny is held up by a gunman who says, “Your money or your life.”
Benny pauses … the robber says “Look bud, I said ‘Your money or you life’“ and Benny snaps back, “I’m thinking it over.”
“Think it over” says Jesus …
Before you make your decision … before you sign on the dotted line … before you say “Yes!”
Large crowds traveled with Jesus … best show in town; folks are fed; the sick are cured … Jesus is a celebrity.
He turns to the crowd and says, “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.”
That certainly puts a screeching halt to things … what in the world is Jesus saying?
Well let’s put on our hiking boots, check the maps, get some extra water, and take a hike back to the first century.
Jesus is a rabbi … a teacher … an itinerant teacher; on the road constantly, town-to-town, teaching the Kingdom of God, healing and helping folks along the way.
His fame grows … He’s captivating, interesting, entertaining … He teaches with authority; stellar speaker; not afraid to tangle with the powers-that-be … folks want to hear what He has to say … they bring their needs and their wants; their ills and their sorrows … they bring their friends, their families.
With an arresting image, a catch-your-attention word, Jesus says: first things first!
Seek first the kingdom of God and all the other pieces fall into place … life is a cacophony of commitments, loyalties and relationships – family and friends; school and work – pulling and pushing in a thousand different directions.
The phone rings, we pick it up – it’s Fred, or Suzie, asking us if we would volunteer our time for a new project, if we could give a little more money to the school fund-raiser … and just that day, the boss asked for a little more work – we’re pulling our hair out, wondering how much more of this we can take.
First things first …
It’s all about priorities.
If I had it all figured out, I’d tell you right now … but I don’t have it all figured out … no one does – Paul the Apostle says of his life with Christ: “Not that I have already obtained all of this, or have already been made perfect, but I press to take of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.”
Let’s take a look at the word that seems so disagreeable here – “hate” … why such a stop-action, freeze-frame word?
What does Jesus mean?
Bear in mind one simple observation:
His audience understands what He means … it makes sense to them; they may not agree, but they know what He’s saying …
The Greek word is misew - it can mean how we often use it – a word of abhorrence, an emotive word, filled with disgust and loathing …
But it has a secondary meaning: “to love someone less in order to love someone more.”
When Jesus turned to the crowd, they knew what he was saying: every rabbi said it, one way or the other – there’s a decision to be made, a price to be paid.
How many golf fans here? … If Tiger Woods called you up and offered a week of golf lessons at Pebble Beach, without cost – staying in a five-star hotel, eating in the best restaurants, how long would it take for you to clear the deck and make the arrangements?
Last summer, in Michigan, a friend asked me on a Friday morning if Donna and I could spend a week on his boat cruising the North Channel along the Canadian coast of Lake Huron … he owned a marina and had a fine boat … so I said, “Yes!” – then he said, but we leave Sunday after noon … it was amazing how quickly I put things in order.
Jesus cuts right to the chase: if you want to be a part of God’s work, be prepared to change your priorities … it’s not easy, but it’s necessary.
Be prepared to love your family a little bit less in order to love God a little bit more!
Every missionary has grabbled with this … and pastors do, too … but it’s not just the religious who wrestle with these things.
Every soldier in Iraq or Afghanistan made a decision to love the family a little bit less in order to love the country a little bit more.
Teachers make the same commitment … folks in a high-powered careers …
A young man getting married: the Bible says, “a man will leave his father and mother, and be united to his wife; they will become one flesh.”
In order to go anywhere, we have to leave somewhere!
Remember the episode when Jesus is teaching in a crowded home – His family comes, but because of the crowd, they can only stand outside. Someone tells Jesus, “Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.”
Jesus replies: “Who are my mother and my brothers?”
Jesus then looks at the folks seated around Him and says: “Here are my mother and my brothers. Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”
When Jesus is 12 years old – His family and village went to Jerusalem for Passover – a huge celebration, tens of thousands of pilgrims – the whole village of Nazareth traveled together.
When the festival is over, Mary and Joseph join the crowd to return home – they assume Jesus is with someone else – and they don’t worry about it, but at the end of the day, Jesus is nowhere to be found.
Mary and Joseph rush back to Jerusalem … for three days they search for Him – can you imagine their panic? If you’ve ever “lost your child” even for a few moments in a shopping mall, it’s a terrible anguish.
They find Him on the third day, in the Temple, speaking with the scholars … and when Mom and Dad finally find Him, they scold Him – as we all do when we finally find the lost child: “Why did you wander off? Why did you do this to us?”
Jesus responds - “Why were you searching for me? Didn’t you know I had to be here, in my Father’s house?”
Hardly an apology … not very heartfelt, nothing cozy and sentimental here … no Hallmark card moment.
Our LORD's attitude toward family may seem rather surprising in view of conservative Christian commentators like James Dobson, Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson who have made family their top priority – they’ve even criticized other evangelicals who’ve taken up the environmental cause – because they see the family, and the related issues of abortion and homosexuality, as the only priority.
Family is everything for them, but it’s not everything for Jesus.
Let’s think about families in the Bible …
Family is important to God … “honor you father and your mothers” – the fifth commandment; the only commandment with a promise “that your days may be long in the land.
The family is God’s building block for a good world … the first family, Adam and Eve; the flood family, Noah and wife and their three sons; the covenant family, Abraham and Sarah … those long and boring “begats” are a celebration of family … family is vital.
But let’s look a little more closely …
Adam and Eve had two boys, and the one killed the other. After the flood, Noah plants a vineyard, makes wine, gets drunk, lays naked in his tent; Ham ridicules him; the other two boys cover him, and the family is split. Abraham and Sarah have Ishmael, and that proves no end of trouble; Isaac’s two sons, Jacob and Esau, fight like cats and dogs.
Sound familiar?
Family is important … Jesus loves His family - but first things first.
Love well-placed makes a better world.
What Jesus proposes sounds harsh, but it’s liberating …
Love prioritized is liberating.
Jesus wants to take what is precious – our family - and put it into proper perspective, so that our love of family remains safe and wholesome.
To love God first is to find the wherewithal to love our families wholesomely.
To love God more … so our family is free from the pressure to be more than a family can be … our children aren’t perfect; our parents aren’t perfect, our grandparents aren’t perfect – expect what’s appropriate, and no more.
The marketing pressure on families is incredible – on the secular side of things: turn your little ones into Harvard-quality geniuses – on the Christian side: turn them into little saints.
Baloney!
Marketing pressure has produced a lot of edgy parents who have forgotten how to enjoy their children, and a lot of edgy children who are angry, lonely and self-destructive.
Misplaced love, love that expects too much, loves that tries to live through another human being, dissipates itself and shrinks the spirit, leaving us dissatisfied and angry.
Thank God, love misplaced doesn’t work. Thank God, we have a way out through Christ.
Love prioritized grows as it goes … love given to God first is returned to us stronger and cleaner.
Think about it says Jesus.
There is a price to be paid …
But the price is right …
If I’m going to shell out good money a restaurant, I want good food and good service.
If I’m going to buy a car - that it be comfortable, reliable and retain its value.
I’m more than willing to pay the price, if the price is right.
There is a price when it comes to God … but it’s not the highest price … there are steeper prices out there … like going to crummy restaurant, or buying a car poorly designed.
The steepest price of all – trying to love others without first loving God! That’s the highest price of all, a terrible price, a price paid for which there is no return of value!
Trying to love without first loving God is a terrible investment!
There’s a price to be paid for loving God, but God is worth it … God is a bargain compared to any other investment! Because Christ has made the downpayment!
When we strive to put God first, everyone benefits … it’s not a perfect science; we work at it every day … every day, we pay the price – first things first.
That’s a price I want to pay, and I know that you do, too.
The price is right. Amen!
The comedian, Jack Benny, delighted audiences pretending to be a tight-wad … every penny spent was a penny lost … the bottom-line was the only line.
One episode, Benny is held up by a gunman who says, “Your money or your life.”
Benny pauses … the robber says “Look bud, I said ‘Your money or you life’“ and Benny snaps back, “I’m thinking it over.”
“Think it over” says Jesus …
Before you make your decision … before you sign on the dotted line … before you say “Yes!”
Large crowds traveled with Jesus … best show in town; folks are fed; the sick are cured … Jesus is a celebrity.
He turns to the crowd and says, “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.”
That certainly puts a screeching halt to things … what in the world is Jesus saying?
Well let’s put on our hiking boots, check the maps, get some extra water, and take a hike back to the first century.
Jesus is a rabbi … a teacher … an itinerant teacher; on the road constantly, town-to-town, teaching the Kingdom of God, healing and helping folks along the way.
His fame grows … He’s captivating, interesting, entertaining … He teaches with authority; stellar speaker; not afraid to tangle with the powers-that-be … folks want to hear what He has to say … they bring their needs and their wants; their ills and their sorrows … they bring their friends, their families.
With an arresting image, a catch-your-attention word, Jesus says: first things first!
Seek first the kingdom of God and all the other pieces fall into place … life is a cacophony of commitments, loyalties and relationships – family and friends; school and work – pulling and pushing in a thousand different directions.
The phone rings, we pick it up – it’s Fred, or Suzie, asking us if we would volunteer our time for a new project, if we could give a little more money to the school fund-raiser … and just that day, the boss asked for a little more work – we’re pulling our hair out, wondering how much more of this we can take.
First things first …
It’s all about priorities.
If I had it all figured out, I’d tell you right now … but I don’t have it all figured out … no one does – Paul the Apostle says of his life with Christ: “Not that I have already obtained all of this, or have already been made perfect, but I press to take of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.”
Let’s take a look at the word that seems so disagreeable here – “hate” … why such a stop-action, freeze-frame word?
What does Jesus mean?
Bear in mind one simple observation:
His audience understands what He means … it makes sense to them; they may not agree, but they know what He’s saying …
The Greek word is misew - it can mean how we often use it – a word of abhorrence, an emotive word, filled with disgust and loathing …
But it has a secondary meaning: “to love someone less in order to love someone more.”
When Jesus turned to the crowd, they knew what he was saying: every rabbi said it, one way or the other – there’s a decision to be made, a price to be paid.
How many golf fans here? … If Tiger Woods called you up and offered a week of golf lessons at Pebble Beach, without cost – staying in a five-star hotel, eating in the best restaurants, how long would it take for you to clear the deck and make the arrangements?
Last summer, in Michigan, a friend asked me on a Friday morning if Donna and I could spend a week on his boat cruising the North Channel along the Canadian coast of Lake Huron … he owned a marina and had a fine boat … so I said, “Yes!” – then he said, but we leave Sunday after noon … it was amazing how quickly I put things in order.
Jesus cuts right to the chase: if you want to be a part of God’s work, be prepared to change your priorities … it’s not easy, but it’s necessary.
Be prepared to love your family a little bit less in order to love God a little bit more!
Every missionary has grabbled with this … and pastors do, too … but it’s not just the religious who wrestle with these things.
Every soldier in Iraq or Afghanistan made a decision to love the family a little bit less in order to love the country a little bit more.
Teachers make the same commitment … folks in a high-powered careers …
A young man getting married: the Bible says, “a man will leave his father and mother, and be united to his wife; they will become one flesh.”
In order to go anywhere, we have to leave somewhere!
Remember the episode when Jesus is teaching in a crowded home – His family comes, but because of the crowd, they can only stand outside. Someone tells Jesus, “Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.”
Jesus replies: “Who are my mother and my brothers?”
Jesus then looks at the folks seated around Him and says: “Here are my mother and my brothers. Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”
When Jesus is 12 years old – His family and village went to Jerusalem for Passover – a huge celebration, tens of thousands of pilgrims – the whole village of Nazareth traveled together.
When the festival is over, Mary and Joseph join the crowd to return home – they assume Jesus is with someone else – and they don’t worry about it, but at the end of the day, Jesus is nowhere to be found.
Mary and Joseph rush back to Jerusalem … for three days they search for Him – can you imagine their panic? If you’ve ever “lost your child” even for a few moments in a shopping mall, it’s a terrible anguish.
They find Him on the third day, in the Temple, speaking with the scholars … and when Mom and Dad finally find Him, they scold Him – as we all do when we finally find the lost child: “Why did you wander off? Why did you do this to us?”
Jesus responds - “Why were you searching for me? Didn’t you know I had to be here, in my Father’s house?”
Hardly an apology … not very heartfelt, nothing cozy and sentimental here … no Hallmark card moment.
Our LORD's attitude toward family may seem rather surprising in view of conservative Christian commentators like James Dobson, Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson who have made family their top priority – they’ve even criticized other evangelicals who’ve taken up the environmental cause – because they see the family, and the related issues of abortion and homosexuality, as the only priority.
Family is everything for them, but it’s not everything for Jesus.
Let’s think about families in the Bible …
Family is important to God … “honor you father and your mothers” – the fifth commandment; the only commandment with a promise “that your days may be long in the land.
The family is God’s building block for a good world … the first family, Adam and Eve; the flood family, Noah and wife and their three sons; the covenant family, Abraham and Sarah … those long and boring “begats” are a celebration of family … family is vital.
But let’s look a little more closely …
Adam and Eve had two boys, and the one killed the other. After the flood, Noah plants a vineyard, makes wine, gets drunk, lays naked in his tent; Ham ridicules him; the other two boys cover him, and the family is split. Abraham and Sarah have Ishmael, and that proves no end of trouble; Isaac’s two sons, Jacob and Esau, fight like cats and dogs.
Sound familiar?
Family is important … Jesus loves His family - but first things first.
Love well-placed makes a better world.
What Jesus proposes sounds harsh, but it’s liberating …
Love prioritized is liberating.
Jesus wants to take what is precious – our family - and put it into proper perspective, so that our love of family remains safe and wholesome.
To love God first is to find the wherewithal to love our families wholesomely.
To love God more … so our family is free from the pressure to be more than a family can be … our children aren’t perfect; our parents aren’t perfect, our grandparents aren’t perfect – expect what’s appropriate, and no more.
The marketing pressure on families is incredible – on the secular side of things: turn your little ones into Harvard-quality geniuses – on the Christian side: turn them into little saints.
Baloney!
Marketing pressure has produced a lot of edgy parents who have forgotten how to enjoy their children, and a lot of edgy children who are angry, lonely and self-destructive.
Misplaced love, love that expects too much, loves that tries to live through another human being, dissipates itself and shrinks the spirit, leaving us dissatisfied and angry.
Thank God, love misplaced doesn’t work. Thank God, we have a way out through Christ.
Love prioritized grows as it goes … love given to God first is returned to us stronger and cleaner.
Think about it says Jesus.
There is a price to be paid …
But the price is right …
If I’m going to shell out good money a restaurant, I want good food and good service.
If I’m going to buy a car - that it be comfortable, reliable and retain its value.
I’m more than willing to pay the price, if the price is right.
There is a price when it comes to God … but it’s not the highest price … there are steeper prices out there … like going to crummy restaurant, or buying a car poorly designed.
The steepest price of all – trying to love others without first loving God! That’s the highest price of all, a terrible price, a price paid for which there is no return of value!
Trying to love without first loving God is a terrible investment!
There’s a price to be paid for loving God, but God is worth it … God is a bargain compared to any other investment! Because Christ has made the downpayment!
When we strive to put God first, everyone benefits … it’s not a perfect science; we work at it every day … every day, we pay the price – first things first.
That’s a price I want to pay, and I know that you do, too.
The price is right. Amen!
Sunday, September 2, 2007
Trust - Sep 2, 2007
LUKE 14:1, 7-14
What follows are notes I compiled and refined during the week. The message was delivered with these notes in mind but mostly extemporaneously. May these notes trigger reflection and resolve, drawing you closer to the enabling power of Jesus and His Holy Spirit.
Most important words in Christian vocabulary: I can … experiment, say, “I can’t!” … now say, “I can!” How did that feel?
I can be a disciple of Christ … I can turn my life over more fully to Christ … I can defeat the evil one, because the one who is within me is greater than he that is in the world – 1 John 4:4
I can change …
I can grow …
I can go where I didn’t want to go five years ago …
I can let go of my anger …
I can forgive the one who wounded me …
I can let go of my past …
I can live more constructively …
I can be more positive …
I can trust God …
I can!
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Phil 4:13 … say it.
A huband and wife are sound asleep – when there’s a knock on the door. He rolls over and looks at the clock -- it's half-past three in the morning.
"I'm not getting out of bed at this time", he thinks, and rolls over. Then, a louder knock. "Aren't you going to answer that?" asks his wife. So, he drags himself out of bed and goes downstairs.
He opens the door and there is man standing at the door. The man was clearly drunk. "Hey, mister, can you give me a push?"
"No. Get lost, it's half-past three. I was sound alseep," says the man and slams the door.
He goes back up to bed and tells his wife what happened and she says "Dave, that wasn't very nice of you.
Remember that night we broke down in the pouring rain on the way to pick the kids up from the baby-sitter and you had to knock on someone’s door to get us started again? What would have happened if he'd told us to get lost?"
"But the guy was drunk," says the husband.
"It doesn't matter," says the wife. "He needs our help and it would be the Christian thing to do."
So, the husband gets out of bed again, gets dressed and goes downstairs. He opens the door and, not being able to see the stranger anywhere he shouts: "Hey, do you still want a push?" and he hears a voice cry out "Yeah please."
Still being unable to see the stranger, he shouts: "Where are you?"
And the stranger replies: "I'm over here, on your swing set."
We all need a push now and then … trust is a dynamic process … spoke with Mary Ann Leatherman today – she’s in the hospital … she asked what I’m preaching today. I said, “Trust.” She replied. “I’ll work on that today.” I said, “I’ll work on it with you!”
What can we do to intensify our trust?
Rehearse the story of our faith …
Remember past events and how things worked out … e.g. our move to CA. How Eric helped with wireless.
Release our cares … “Cast all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.”
Christ is in front of me … Christ is behind me … Christ is below me … Christ is behind me … Christ is within me … all the time, everywhere, and forever!
We have a roll to play … For this I toil and struggle with all the energy that he powerfully inspires within me. Col 1:29
Do our best … even when it’s not our best – good things are worth doing poorly … and then trust God for the rest … for God to make up the difference … for all of us … even Mother Teresa … recently revelations – no one’s a saint in the silly sense of being perfected … no, we all struggle, we all walk
Little children, you are from God, and have conquered …; for the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 1 John 4:4
God asks of us only what God knows we can do … Josh on a bike … I knew he could ride it; he didn’t.
Primal story: the snake in the grass – something is missing, God did an okay job, but could have done better … and it’s up to you to go for it … they plucked the fruit and we’ve been on their journey ever since: lamenting what we don’t have … “if only we were doing thus-and-so. If only we had this-or-that.” To live in the spirit of scarcity is to live edgily, with a sense of impending doom and defeat, forever anxious and uneasy, spiritually, emotionally, off balance. There is but one antidote – to trust God. To surrender our lives to God, to believe that God is at work in ALL things for our wellbeing … that good comes out of and through evil, that crucifixions become the means for redemption, that our losses are more than compensated by the goodness and love of God. A God who knows what it is to lose His life, and by faith, hope and love, via the cross, find it. Jesus said it well: “The one who hangs on to life loses it; the one who loses it for my sake gains it.”
Primal story: David in the cave … worldly wisdom: “Now’s your chance David. Everyone would understand; no one would accuse you.” But David refused; he put his life into the hands of God.
What does Scripture say about David: A man after God’s own heart. 1 Sam 13:14; Acts 13:22
Prayer of Surrender: “LORD Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, I give myself to you, in faith and obedience.”
1 Corinthians 6 – a church where everything that could go wrong with a church went wrong – apparently they were quick-triggered folks taking one another to court … Paul puts a radical twist on it: “to have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded?”
Observations:
It may be distressing, but not dangerous.
A triviality compared to my mental health.
Proverbs 25:27 – “It is not good to eat too much honey, nor is it honorable to seek one’s own honor.” (NIV) … “or to seek honor on top of honor” (NRSV).
Majoring in the minors; minoring in the majors … what’s really important? One of Satan’s ploys: obsession with the trivial!
Manage your fears, manage your anger.
Insecurity triggers old behaviors.
Romans 12:14ff – leave vengeance to God … it’s something we can’t handle, but God can. “If your enemies are hungry, feed them. If they are thirsty, give them something to drink. …. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” In other words, love governs all … esp. love for “enemies,” both real and imagined.
Because love is the test of our commitment to Christ … love is the ultimate witness to the world that we’re followers of Christ … love is what the world seeks – not our beliefs, as valuable as they are, not our programs, as good as they may be, not our worship, as solemn or vigorous it may be … but to see something in those who name the name of Christ that cannot be found anywhere else – a great and generous love, a love that responds to hurt and pain with kindness and mercy, long-suffering … Paul’s list in Galatians: love, joy, peace, patience, etc.. This is what the world longs for, this what the world seeks, and this is what the Holy Spirit offers through the people of God when we’re fully devoted, fully obedient, fully humble and completely enthralled with Jesus Christ our LORD. Yes, it’s possible!
Calvin’s motto: To you, O LORD, promptly and sincerely, I give my heart.” Symbolized, a flaming heart held in the hands.
Surrender of the heart to Christ – the ultimate moment in our journey, the beginning and the end – the ever-constant challenge and the ever-constant delight of surrender.
To trust God, more and more, is the joy of our life …
To be a congregation of those who deeply trust God … so that God will trust us … and entrust to us those whom God is calling! (message for another day …)
What follows are notes I compiled and refined during the week. The message was delivered with these notes in mind but mostly extemporaneously. May these notes trigger reflection and resolve, drawing you closer to the enabling power of Jesus and His Holy Spirit.
Most important words in Christian vocabulary: I can … experiment, say, “I can’t!” … now say, “I can!” How did that feel?
I can be a disciple of Christ … I can turn my life over more fully to Christ … I can defeat the evil one, because the one who is within me is greater than he that is in the world – 1 John 4:4
I can change …
I can grow …
I can go where I didn’t want to go five years ago …
I can let go of my anger …
I can forgive the one who wounded me …
I can let go of my past …
I can live more constructively …
I can be more positive …
I can trust God …
I can!
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Phil 4:13 … say it.
A huband and wife are sound asleep – when there’s a knock on the door. He rolls over and looks at the clock -- it's half-past three in the morning.
"I'm not getting out of bed at this time", he thinks, and rolls over. Then, a louder knock. "Aren't you going to answer that?" asks his wife. So, he drags himself out of bed and goes downstairs.
He opens the door and there is man standing at the door. The man was clearly drunk. "Hey, mister, can you give me a push?"
"No. Get lost, it's half-past three. I was sound alseep," says the man and slams the door.
He goes back up to bed and tells his wife what happened and she says "Dave, that wasn't very nice of you.
Remember that night we broke down in the pouring rain on the way to pick the kids up from the baby-sitter and you had to knock on someone’s door to get us started again? What would have happened if he'd told us to get lost?"
"But the guy was drunk," says the husband.
"It doesn't matter," says the wife. "He needs our help and it would be the Christian thing to do."
So, the husband gets out of bed again, gets dressed and goes downstairs. He opens the door and, not being able to see the stranger anywhere he shouts: "Hey, do you still want a push?" and he hears a voice cry out "Yeah please."
Still being unable to see the stranger, he shouts: "Where are you?"
And the stranger replies: "I'm over here, on your swing set."
We all need a push now and then … trust is a dynamic process … spoke with Mary Ann Leatherman today – she’s in the hospital … she asked what I’m preaching today. I said, “Trust.” She replied. “I’ll work on that today.” I said, “I’ll work on it with you!”
What can we do to intensify our trust?
Rehearse the story of our faith …
Remember past events and how things worked out … e.g. our move to CA. How Eric helped with wireless.
Release our cares … “Cast all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.”
Christ is in front of me … Christ is behind me … Christ is below me … Christ is behind me … Christ is within me … all the time, everywhere, and forever!
We have a roll to play … For this I toil and struggle with all the energy that he powerfully inspires within me. Col 1:29
Do our best … even when it’s not our best – good things are worth doing poorly … and then trust God for the rest … for God to make up the difference … for all of us … even Mother Teresa … recently revelations – no one’s a saint in the silly sense of being perfected … no, we all struggle, we all walk
Little children, you are from God, and have conquered …; for the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 1 John 4:4
God asks of us only what God knows we can do … Josh on a bike … I knew he could ride it; he didn’t.
Primal story: the snake in the grass – something is missing, God did an okay job, but could have done better … and it’s up to you to go for it … they plucked the fruit and we’ve been on their journey ever since: lamenting what we don’t have … “if only we were doing thus-and-so. If only we had this-or-that.” To live in the spirit of scarcity is to live edgily, with a sense of impending doom and defeat, forever anxious and uneasy, spiritually, emotionally, off balance. There is but one antidote – to trust God. To surrender our lives to God, to believe that God is at work in ALL things for our wellbeing … that good comes out of and through evil, that crucifixions become the means for redemption, that our losses are more than compensated by the goodness and love of God. A God who knows what it is to lose His life, and by faith, hope and love, via the cross, find it. Jesus said it well: “The one who hangs on to life loses it; the one who loses it for my sake gains it.”
Primal story: David in the cave … worldly wisdom: “Now’s your chance David. Everyone would understand; no one would accuse you.” But David refused; he put his life into the hands of God.
What does Scripture say about David: A man after God’s own heart. 1 Sam 13:14; Acts 13:22
Prayer of Surrender: “LORD Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, I give myself to you, in faith and obedience.”
1 Corinthians 6 – a church where everything that could go wrong with a church went wrong – apparently they were quick-triggered folks taking one another to court … Paul puts a radical twist on it: “to have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded?”
Observations:
It may be distressing, but not dangerous.
A triviality compared to my mental health.
Proverbs 25:27 – “It is not good to eat too much honey, nor is it honorable to seek one’s own honor.” (NIV) … “or to seek honor on top of honor” (NRSV).
Majoring in the minors; minoring in the majors … what’s really important? One of Satan’s ploys: obsession with the trivial!
Manage your fears, manage your anger.
Insecurity triggers old behaviors.
Romans 12:14ff – leave vengeance to God … it’s something we can’t handle, but God can. “If your enemies are hungry, feed them. If they are thirsty, give them something to drink. …. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” In other words, love governs all … esp. love for “enemies,” both real and imagined.
Because love is the test of our commitment to Christ … love is the ultimate witness to the world that we’re followers of Christ … love is what the world seeks – not our beliefs, as valuable as they are, not our programs, as good as they may be, not our worship, as solemn or vigorous it may be … but to see something in those who name the name of Christ that cannot be found anywhere else – a great and generous love, a love that responds to hurt and pain with kindness and mercy, long-suffering … Paul’s list in Galatians: love, joy, peace, patience, etc.. This is what the world longs for, this what the world seeks, and this is what the Holy Spirit offers through the people of God when we’re fully devoted, fully obedient, fully humble and completely enthralled with Jesus Christ our LORD. Yes, it’s possible!
Calvin’s motto: To you, O LORD, promptly and sincerely, I give my heart.” Symbolized, a flaming heart held in the hands.
Surrender of the heart to Christ – the ultimate moment in our journey, the beginning and the end – the ever-constant challenge and the ever-constant delight of surrender.
To trust God, more and more, is the joy of our life …
To be a congregation of those who deeply trust God … so that God will trust us … and entrust to us those whom God is calling! (message for another day …)
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