Series: David: A Man After God’s Own Heart
When You Lose a Friend (David & Jonathan)
(Second in the Series)
2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27
June 28, 2009
After the death of Saul, when David had returned from defeating the Amalekites, David remained two days in Ziklag.
17David intoned this lamentation over Saul and his son Jonathan. 18(He ordered that The Song of the Bow be taught to the people of Judah; it is written in the Book of Jashar.) He said: 19Your glory, O Israel, lies slain upon your high places! How the mighty have fallen! 20Tell it not in Gath, proclaim it not in the streets of Ashkelon; or the daughters of the Philistines will rejoice, the daughters of the uncircumcised will exult. 21You mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew or rain upon you, nor bounteous fields! For there the shield of the mighty was defiled, the shield of Saul, anointed with oil no more. 22From the blood of the slain, from the fat of the mighty, the bow of Jonathan did not turn back, nor the sword of Saul return empty. 23Saul and Jonathan, beloved and lovely! In life and in death they were not divided; they were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than lions. 24O daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you with crimson, in luxury, who put ornaments of gold on your apparel.
25How the mighty have fallen in the midst of the battle! Jonathan lies slain upon your high places. 26I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan; greatly beloved were you to me; your love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women. 27How the mighty have fallen, and the weapons of war perished!
When I was grade school age our family lived in Spokane, Washington. That’s where my parents decided to settle after my Dad retired from the Air Force. We lived there for 5 years at W. 2518 Queen Street. My phone number was Fairfax 7-9309. It’s amazing what you can remember after so many years.
Throughout my Spokane years my best friend was Mark Scalise. Mark’s family lived one block over on Olympic Street. Mark had an older brother, Frank, who was a friend of my older brother, and he had a younger brother, Steve, who was my age. Mark was actually a year older than me, but we just hit it off. I think it had something to do with an incident shortly after I moved there. I was seven years old and the new kid in the neighborhood and didn’t know anybody. I didn’t have any friends yet. Some kind of mean kids from a few streets over started picking on me one day, and Mark and Steve and some other guys sort of came to my rescue. They told the mean kids to leave me alone and we were friends from that moment on.
There was a whole group of us that hung around together – Mark and Steve and Tracy Moore and Ronnie Clavell and I – but Mark was my best friend of all of them. Even after his family moved several miles away, I would still ride my bike to his house to see him.
We moved to Texas in 1966 and while I thought it was kind of an adventure to go somewhere I had never been before, what really made it hard was losing my best friend. We stayed in touch with letters and calls for a while, but with 2,000 miles between us, the friendship eventually just sort of faded away.
It’s hard to lose a friend, especially your best friend. Just because you’re kids doesn’t make the loss any less severe. But we lose friends all the time. Friends move or they graduate or they get transferred or they just sort of drift away. Or they die. That’s especially hard, to lose a friend to death.
My brother Earl, even though he was seven years older than me, wasn’t just my brother – he was my friend. He taught me how to iron clothes and shine my shoes. When I was a teenager, he taught me most of what I knew about cars and clothes. He even let me drive his pride and joy – his ’57 Chevy Belair.
When Earl died from cancer two years ago, I didn’t just lose a brother – I lost a friend.
Friendships are one of the true treasures of life, and it’s always hard to lose a friend. In today’s scripture reading, David has just learned about the death of his best friend, Jonathan, and Jonathan’s father, King Saul, in battle. Poet that he is, David intones a magnificent lament. “How the mighty have fallen,” he repeats three times.
“Saul and Jonathan, beloved and lovely!
In life and death they were not divided;
they were swifter than eagles,
they were stronger than lions.” (1:23)
Listen to David’s words mourning the passing of his best friend Jonathan:
“Jonathan lies slain upon your high places.
I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan;
greatly beloved were you to me;
your love to me was wonderful,
passing the love of women.” (1:25b-26)
This morning I would like us to reflect for a few moments on the nature of this legendary friendship between David and Jonathan. Then we’ll think about how our faith can help us cope with the loss of a friend. Finally, we’ll remember that we have a friend who, in the words of the RSV, “sticks closer than a brother” (Prov. 18:24).
The Friendship of Jonathan and David: “Soul Brothers”
The friendship of David and Jonathan has a kind of legendary character to it, but we have to remember that they were two real human beings and this was a real friendship. I like the way one author describes them as “soul brothers” (Gene Getz, David: Seeking God Faithfully, p. 74). 1 Sam. 18:1 says, “the soul of Jonathan was bound to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.” They were as close, probably closer, than any two blood brothers could be.
David and Jonathan were two very different individuals. Jonathan was raised in a palace, the son of King Saul. David was a poor shepherd. Jonathan was a prince. David was a servant in the king’s court. Yet, they had two important things in common that brought them together.
First, they were both military men. Even before David had defeated the Philistine giant Goliath, Jonathan himself had won an impressive victory over the Philistines at Michmash. He and his armor-bearer wiped out 20 armed soldiers by themselves.
Second, and more importantly, they both had a strong faith in God. Both men trusted God to give them the victory, and they both proved victorious. Jonathan was impressed that David gave credit for his stunning defeat of Goliath to God, and that no doubt led to their friendship. I have made many friends based on nothing more than our shared faith in God.
If we were to define the perfect friendship, we couldn’t find a better example than Jonathan and David. It had all the qualities we desire in a friendship: loyalty, sacrifice, encouragement, and unshakable devotion.
Loyalty: David and Saul were extremely loyal to each other. When Jonathan found out that his father, King Saul, was fiercely jealous of David and wanted him dead, Jonathan warned David more than once and saved his life. Jonathan chose loyalty to his friend David even over loyalty to his father and king.
David, in turn, was very loyal to Jonathan and his family. After Jonathan died, and David became king, he kept a promise he had made to Jonathan to care for any surviving members of Jonathan’s family. David discovered that there was a crippled son of Jonathan’s named Mephibosheth still living, so David had him brought to the palace and treated him like his own son for the rest of his life – a most unusual act in a day and time when kings regularly executed any possible rival claimants to the throne. But such was the loyalty of David and Jonathan’s friendship. Friends are loyal through thick and thin.
Sacrifice: Jonathan sacrificed a lot to be David’s friend. He gave David his own robe, armor, sword, and bow. Jonathan was next in line to rule after Saul. But Jonathan could see that David was God’s next chosen king, and Jonathan willingly sacrificed his own royal aspirations to be David’s friend.
Jonathan even sacrificed his relationship with his own father over his friendship with David. When Jonathan learned that Saul’s white-hot jealousy toward David could not be cooled, and that Saul would stop at nothing less than David’s demise, Jonathan defied his own father to protect David and get him to safety.
Jonathan even risked his own life for his friend – Saul once was so mad at Jonathan’s defense of David that Saul threw a spear at his son, narrowly missing (1 Sam. 20:33).
David probably sacrificed less than Jonathan, but then, David had a lot less to lose. Friends are willing sacrifice for friends.
Encouragement: Jonathan also encouraged his friend David. On one occasion, when David was on the run from Saul, being hotly pursued by the king’s army, and at a real low point in his life, Jonathan came and found him in his wilderness hideout. 1 Sam. 23:16 says, “Jonathan set out and came to David at Horesh; there he strengthened his hand through the Lord.” Jonathan drew on their shared faith in God to give David encouragement when he was really down. Friends encourage one another in the Lord.
Unshakable devotion: The unshakable love and devotion Jonathan and David shared for each other goes almost beyond words. Jonathan, it says, loved David as his own soul, bringing to mind Jesus’ words that we are to love our neighbors as ourselves.
David, in his lament for his fallen comrade, says of Jonathan, “greatly beloved were you to me; your love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women.” There was something pure and noble in the love between these two friends, these two “soul brothers,” that approached the kind of love Jesus talked about in John 15:13 – “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
When You Lose a Friend
When David got news of Jonathan’s death in battle, along with his father Saul, the grief was crushing. 2 Sam. 1:11, 12 says, “David took hold of his clothes and tore them … they mourned and wept, and fasted until evening for Saul and for his son Jonathan.”
When you lose a close friend it’s natural to feel that kind of crushing grief. Whether the loss happens through moving, divorce, estrangement, or especially death, you’re going to feel lost, alone, adrift. Those feelings are completely natural and understandable. Some of you have lost a husband or wife or brother or sister who was also your best friend. Your loss is doubly great and it will take time to heal.
David gives us some clues as to how to deal with our loss. First, David shared his grief with others. He didn’t go off by himself. It says he mourned and wept and fasted and everyone with him did the same. If you’ve lost a friend, find someone to talk to about your feelings.
We will be starting a new GriefShare grief recovery group in the fall. Those who've attended the previous ones say that it really helps to have others to talk to about their grief.
Second, David remembered the good and forgot about the bad. David mourned both Jonathan and Saul. Jonathan was his friend. Saul was his enemy who wanted nothing more than to have David killed. Saul had made his life miserable and even made it impossible to be with his friend Jonathan.
But note that David paid tribute to Saul as well as to Jonathan: “O daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothes you with crimson, in luxury, who put ornaments of gold on your apparel. How the mighty have fallen in the midst of battle!”
One of the ways that God heals our memories is by helping us forget about the bad times and holding on to the good. My brother and I had our share of disagreements. When I was a kid and he was a teenager he used to torment me and pick on me. But we always made up and stayed friends. Now, it’s not the fights I remember, but all the good times we shared.
Third, David honored the memory of his departed friend. He honored Jonathan’s memory by taking care of his crippled son Mephibosheth according to the promise he had made. Years later, he had Jonathan’s bones reburied in a place of honor in his family’s homeland.
If you’ve lost a friend to death, you might honor their memory by making a donation to the church or to a favorite charity in their name; by telling someone else, maybe a member of their family, about what that friend meant to you; by placing flowers on their grave; or by remembering them at special times of the year – Christmas, their birthday, an anniversary. These acts won’t stir up bad feelings. They will help heal you and help you treasure that friendship.
A Friend Who Sticks Closer Than a Brother
Prov. 18:24 says, “Some friends play at friendship but a true friend sticks closer than a brother.” While we treasure our human friendships, we know that they all do eventually come to an end. We move or they move. We change or they change. We die or they die. But this proverb reminds us that we have a friend who always sticks closer to us than our closest relative. We have a friend whose love never fails, whose feelings about us never change, and who will never leave us or desert us. We have a friend who loved us before we ever knew it, who loves us at our best and our worst, and whose love continues for all eternity. We have a friend who bears all our “sins and griefs,” who shares all our sorrows, who knows our every weakness, and loves us just the same. That friend, of course, is Jesus Christ.
When you lose a friend you need a friend. Jesus is that friend who can ease your burden. “Lean on me,” he says, “for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” David was sustained in his loss by his faith in God. We know that when we share a faith in God with our friends, that friendship is forever, and even though death or circumstances may separate us temporarily, we will see our friend again in heaven.
So the best gift you can give your friend right now is the gift of Jesus Christ so that you can be soul brothers and soul sisters not just now, but for all eternity. Amen.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Monday, June 22, 2009
Sermon: "A Long Fight with a Short Stick"
Series: David: A Man After God’s Own Heart
"A Long Fight with a Short Stick (David & Goliath)"
(First in the Series)
1 Samuel 17:32-49
June 21, 2009
(Father’s Day)
32 David said to Saul, “Let no one’s heart fail because of him; your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.” 33 Saul said to David, “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are just a boy, and he has been a warrior from his youth.” 34 But David said to Saul, “Your servant used to keep sheep for his father; and whenever a lion or a bear came, and took a lamb from the flock, 35 I went after it and struck it down, rescuing the lamb from its mouth; and if it turned against me, I would catch it by the jaw, strike it down, and kill it. 36 Your servant has killed both lions and bears; and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, since he has defied the armies of the living God.” 37 David said, “The Lord, who saved me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, will save me from the hand of this Philistine.” So Saul said to David, “Go, and may the Lord be with you!”
38 Saul clothed David with his armor; he put a bronze helmet on his head and clothed him with a coat of mail. 39 David strapped Saul’s sword over the armor, and he tried in vain to walk, for he was not used to them. Then David said to Saul, “I cannot walk with these; for I am not used to them.” So David removed them. 40 Then he took his staff in his hand, and chose five smooth stones from the wadi, and put them in his shepherd’s bag, in the pouch; his sling was in his hand, and he drew near to the Philistine.
41 The Philistine came on and drew near to David, with his shield-bearer in front of him. 42 When the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him, for he was only a youth, ruddy and handsome in appearance. 43 The Philistine said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. 44 The Philistine said to David, “Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the wild animals of the field.” 45 But David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with sword and spear and javelin; but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46 This very day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head; and I will give the dead bodies of the Philistine army this very day to the birds of the air and to the wild animals of the earth, so that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, 47 and that all this assembly may know that the Lord does not save by sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord’s and he will give you into our hand.”
48 When the Philistine drew nearer to meet David, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine. 49 David put his hand in his bag, took out a stone, slung it, and struck the Philistine on his forehead; the stone sank into his forehead, and he fell face down on the ground.
Francis Ouimet grew up in a working-class home across the street from The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts. He learned to play golf in his backyard with one club and sunken tomato cans as holes. He never finished high school and caddied at The Country Club to earn extra money to help support his family.
After winning the 1913 Massachusetts State Amateur tournament at the age of 20, Francis was inspired to enter the U.S. Open golf tournament that year, which was to be played at The Country Club. To show you how little the U.S.G.A. thought of his chances, they didn’t even have a caddy for him! He ended up with a 10-year-old kid named Eddie Lowery toting his bag.
That was all quite charming in the first couple rounds. But then Francis not only made the cut but played his way into contention.
While in contention before the final round, Francis was asked to withdraw from the tournament! Can you imagine? You’re in contention to win the U.S. Open Golf Tournament entering the final round, and somebody asks you to withdraw! Francis in his naiveté simply said, "Oh, no thank you. I’m really enjoying myself and would really like to finish the tournament."
Well, finish it he did. Shooting a stunning 72, Francis forced himself into a 3-way playoff with Harry Vardon and Ted Ray. Vardon and Ray were the number one and number two golfers in the world at the time! It would be like playing against Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson today.
The morning of the playoff, it was deemed that Francis should have a real caddy, now that all but three players from the field had been eliminated and several caddies were available, rather than this young and somewhat brazen boy. Francis Ouimet, forever the gentleman, simply replied, "No thank you. I’ll stick with Eddie."
Ouimet won the playoff in a stunning upset, becoming the first amateur to win the U.S. Open and he’s now called the “Father of American Golf.” Maybe an upset is in store in this year’s Open.
We call upsets like that “David and Goliath” stories. And in fact, today we’re beginning a summertime sermon series on King David with the real David and Goliath story.
I like the way the Bible describes David -- “a man after God’s own heart.” The people of Israel wanted a king so they could be like the nations around them. God gave them Saul. But Saul let God down. In 1 Sam. 13:14 Saul is told…
Your kingdom will not continue; the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart; and the Lord has appointed him to be ruler over his people… (1 Sam. 13:14)
That man was David.
I can think of nothing better for us to desire than it be said of us that we are “women/men after God’s own heart.” On this Father’s Day, our desire as fathers should be to be men after God’s own heart.
We can learn what that means from David. We begin today with Lesson #1 for being person after God’s own heart:
What to do when you find yourself in a long fight with a short stick.
I’ll explain what that means in few minutes.
We first meet David before he’s king, when he’s just a boy keeping his father’s sheep while his older brothers are off to war against the Philistines. We assume that one of David’s older brothers would be better qualified to be king, but God always has a surprise in store for us. As the Bible says ...
People look on outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. (1 Sam. 16:7)
God has chosen the youngest son, the shepherd boy, David, to be the next king.
Israel had been at war with the Philistines for many years. Their two armies were arrayed on opposite mountains with a valley in between.
The Philistines have a giant in their army – probably a mercenary. He was over nine feet tall and wore massive armor. He must have been a frightening sight!
Goliath challenges Israel to choose a champion for a 1-on-1 battle to the death to settle the war. He shouts his challenge across valley for 40 days and nights. But no one on the Israeli side steps forward to accept the challenge.
David’s father, Jesse, sends the boy to the battle lines with a “care package” for his brothers. When David arrives at the scene on the 41st day of Goliath’s challenge, little did anyone realize it would be a day that would change history.
David hears the giant’s challenge and can’t believe that no one’s done anything about it. He’s incensed – “Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?”
When David steps forward boldly to accept challenge, he gets not support but discouragement. Saul tells him – You can’t go. You’re just a boy. He’s a trained warrior.
But David is determined to defend God’s honor, so he takes as his only weapons not the ill-fitting armor and sword of King Saul, but just his shepherd’s staff, a sling, and five smooth stones.
The two square off for battle. First they engage in a little trash-talking. Goliath makes fun of David’s youth. “Do I look like a dog that you can beat with a stick? Come here and I’ll make you food for wild animals and birds.
David gives it right back. “God will give me the victory, and it’s you who will lose his head and your army will be food for animals and birds.
David realized that God would use his victory over this giant to bring glory to God – to let the people know there is a God and God doesn’t need swords & spears to win battles. The battle is the Lord’s!
This battle is over before it’s begun. David kills Goliath with the first stone out of his sling. The giant falls face first on the field of battle. The Philistine army panics and flees and the army of Israel chases them home. This is the bginning of David’s legend.
Let’s draw three faith lessons from this well-known story.
1) WE ALL GET INTO LONG FIGHTS.
This is an image I learned from a speaker a few years ago at Annual Conference – Bob Hayes, who is now a bishop in the United Methodist Church.
What I mean by a “long fight” is a battle/challenge/problem/issue we face that it looks like there’s no way we can win. The odds are against us. The foe we face is too big.
David was clearly in a long fight. No one dared face Goliath. He was too big, too strong.
If you live long enough, you’re going to find yourself in a long fight. What is the long fight you’re in right now? Debt? Illness? Grief? Losing a job? Divorce? Replacing the brick on the sanctuary? We all get into these long fights.
The second faith lesson is this:
2) GOD DOESN’T MAKE LONG STICKS.
David found himself in a long fight with a short stick. He was going to battle against a huge giant with what? A shepherd’s staff, a slingshot, and five stones. It was like going bear hunting with a BB gun. Goliath taunted David – “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?”
We often feel like we’re in a long fight with a short stick. We look at the size of the problem we’re facing, and we look at our own weapons, and we feel overwhelmed. We think: how can I possibly win this fight relying on my own strength?
But that’s exactly the point – you can’t win if it’s all up to you. There was a reason why God let David go into battle with just his staff and a slingshot.
God doesn’t make long sticks for a reason. David knew he couldn’t go into battle wearing Saul’s armor and carrying Saul’s sword. Saul tried to give David a longer stick, but it just wouldn’t work. David, so young, couldn’t even walk wearing that huge armor and carrying that big sword.
That’s like us if we try to go into life’s battles trusting in our own strength. We’re just not strong enough. That’s why the third lesson we learn from this story is so important.
3) GOD GIVES US SHORT STICKS SO WE RELY ON HIM
David went into battle with just a staff and a slingshot because that’s what he knew best – it was only the weapon he had. But God had a bigger plan. God wanted to make it clear to everyone that day that while David flung the stone that brought Goliath down, it was God who had won the victory.
David himself knew that God could make his short stick long enough to win the battle. David said to Goliath…
You come to do battle with me with swords and spears, but I come in the name of the Lord God himself. God’s going to give me this victory so that the whole world knows that the God of Israel is the one true God, and that God doesn’t need weapons of war to win battles. This battle belongs to God, and God’s going to win. (1 Sam. 45-47, paraphrased)
As long as we think that we have to trust only our own strength to fight the long battles we face, we’ll never win. But as soon as we recognize that God is on our side and trust his power, then the victory is ours, or rather, God’s.
That’s what Paul means in 2 Corinthians 12 when he talks about his “thorn in the flesh.” We don’t know what that thorn was – probably some kind of physical disability that kept him from operating at peak capacity. Paul says…
Therefore, to keep me from being too elated, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me, but he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Cor. 12:7-10)
God’s power is made perfect in our weakness. We will have all the power we need when we learn to stop trusting in our short sticks and instead to trust in the tremendous power of faith in God.
We must have faith that God can defeat every giant we face. We must believe that the odds are never against us when God is on our side. David never focused on how big Goliath was, but rather on how big God is. Our giants look huge compared to our power, but not compared to God’s. The Scripture consistently promises victory to people of faith.
There’s an old saying: It’s not the size of the dog in the fight that matters, but the size of the fight in the dog. The size of David and Goliath and their weapons in battle didn’t matter It was the size of the faith in David’s heart that made the difference. The size of David’s faith gave him victory. God can give us faith that will conquer all the giants we face in life. Remember: With God, all things are possible.
So, when you find yourself in a long fight with a short stick, just remember – God doesn’t make long sticks for a reason. God wants you to trust in his strength.
A little girl was in a store with her parents. She was so well-behaved while her parents shopped that the store owner told her to reach in a candy jar and pull out a handful. The girl politely refused. Again he offered; again she refused.
Finally, the store owner reached in and gave her a handful. Her father asked her, “Why didn’t you get the candy yourself?” The little girl answered: “His hand is bigger.”
God’s hands are bigger. There’s no giant he can’t defeat; no fight he can’t win, if we’ll just trust, like David did, that the battle is the Lord’s and trust it to him.
"A Long Fight with a Short Stick (David & Goliath)"
(First in the Series)
1 Samuel 17:32-49
June 21, 2009
(Father’s Day)
32 David said to Saul, “Let no one’s heart fail because of him; your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.” 33 Saul said to David, “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are just a boy, and he has been a warrior from his youth.” 34 But David said to Saul, “Your servant used to keep sheep for his father; and whenever a lion or a bear came, and took a lamb from the flock, 35 I went after it and struck it down, rescuing the lamb from its mouth; and if it turned against me, I would catch it by the jaw, strike it down, and kill it. 36 Your servant has killed both lions and bears; and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, since he has defied the armies of the living God.” 37 David said, “The Lord, who saved me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, will save me from the hand of this Philistine.” So Saul said to David, “Go, and may the Lord be with you!”
38 Saul clothed David with his armor; he put a bronze helmet on his head and clothed him with a coat of mail. 39 David strapped Saul’s sword over the armor, and he tried in vain to walk, for he was not used to them. Then David said to Saul, “I cannot walk with these; for I am not used to them.” So David removed them. 40 Then he took his staff in his hand, and chose five smooth stones from the wadi, and put them in his shepherd’s bag, in the pouch; his sling was in his hand, and he drew near to the Philistine.
41 The Philistine came on and drew near to David, with his shield-bearer in front of him. 42 When the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him, for he was only a youth, ruddy and handsome in appearance. 43 The Philistine said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. 44 The Philistine said to David, “Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the wild animals of the field.” 45 But David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with sword and spear and javelin; but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46 This very day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head; and I will give the dead bodies of the Philistine army this very day to the birds of the air and to the wild animals of the earth, so that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, 47 and that all this assembly may know that the Lord does not save by sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord’s and he will give you into our hand.”
48 When the Philistine drew nearer to meet David, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine. 49 David put his hand in his bag, took out a stone, slung it, and struck the Philistine on his forehead; the stone sank into his forehead, and he fell face down on the ground.
Francis Ouimet grew up in a working-class home across the street from The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts. He learned to play golf in his backyard with one club and sunken tomato cans as holes. He never finished high school and caddied at The Country Club to earn extra money to help support his family.
After winning the 1913 Massachusetts State Amateur tournament at the age of 20, Francis was inspired to enter the U.S. Open golf tournament that year, which was to be played at The Country Club. To show you how little the U.S.G.A. thought of his chances, they didn’t even have a caddy for him! He ended up with a 10-year-old kid named Eddie Lowery toting his bag.
That was all quite charming in the first couple rounds. But then Francis not only made the cut but played his way into contention.
While in contention before the final round, Francis was asked to withdraw from the tournament! Can you imagine? You’re in contention to win the U.S. Open Golf Tournament entering the final round, and somebody asks you to withdraw! Francis in his naiveté simply said, "Oh, no thank you. I’m really enjoying myself and would really like to finish the tournament."
Well, finish it he did. Shooting a stunning 72, Francis forced himself into a 3-way playoff with Harry Vardon and Ted Ray. Vardon and Ray were the number one and number two golfers in the world at the time! It would be like playing against Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson today.
The morning of the playoff, it was deemed that Francis should have a real caddy, now that all but three players from the field had been eliminated and several caddies were available, rather than this young and somewhat brazen boy. Francis Ouimet, forever the gentleman, simply replied, "No thank you. I’ll stick with Eddie."
Ouimet won the playoff in a stunning upset, becoming the first amateur to win the U.S. Open and he’s now called the “Father of American Golf.” Maybe an upset is in store in this year’s Open.
We call upsets like that “David and Goliath” stories. And in fact, today we’re beginning a summertime sermon series on King David with the real David and Goliath story.
I like the way the Bible describes David -- “a man after God’s own heart.” The people of Israel wanted a king so they could be like the nations around them. God gave them Saul. But Saul let God down. In 1 Sam. 13:14 Saul is told…
Your kingdom will not continue; the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart; and the Lord has appointed him to be ruler over his people… (1 Sam. 13:14)
That man was David.
I can think of nothing better for us to desire than it be said of us that we are “women/men after God’s own heart.” On this Father’s Day, our desire as fathers should be to be men after God’s own heart.
We can learn what that means from David. We begin today with Lesson #1 for being person after God’s own heart:
What to do when you find yourself in a long fight with a short stick.
I’ll explain what that means in few minutes.
We first meet David before he’s king, when he’s just a boy keeping his father’s sheep while his older brothers are off to war against the Philistines. We assume that one of David’s older brothers would be better qualified to be king, but God always has a surprise in store for us. As the Bible says ...
People look on outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. (1 Sam. 16:7)
God has chosen the youngest son, the shepherd boy, David, to be the next king.
Israel had been at war with the Philistines for many years. Their two armies were arrayed on opposite mountains with a valley in between.
The Philistines have a giant in their army – probably a mercenary. He was over nine feet tall and wore massive armor. He must have been a frightening sight!
Goliath challenges Israel to choose a champion for a 1-on-1 battle to the death to settle the war. He shouts his challenge across valley for 40 days and nights. But no one on the Israeli side steps forward to accept the challenge.
David’s father, Jesse, sends the boy to the battle lines with a “care package” for his brothers. When David arrives at the scene on the 41st day of Goliath’s challenge, little did anyone realize it would be a day that would change history.
David hears the giant’s challenge and can’t believe that no one’s done anything about it. He’s incensed – “Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?”
When David steps forward boldly to accept challenge, he gets not support but discouragement. Saul tells him – You can’t go. You’re just a boy. He’s a trained warrior.
But David is determined to defend God’s honor, so he takes as his only weapons not the ill-fitting armor and sword of King Saul, but just his shepherd’s staff, a sling, and five smooth stones.
The two square off for battle. First they engage in a little trash-talking. Goliath makes fun of David’s youth. “Do I look like a dog that you can beat with a stick? Come here and I’ll make you food for wild animals and birds.
David gives it right back. “God will give me the victory, and it’s you who will lose his head and your army will be food for animals and birds.
David realized that God would use his victory over this giant to bring glory to God – to let the people know there is a God and God doesn’t need swords & spears to win battles. The battle is the Lord’s!
This battle is over before it’s begun. David kills Goliath with the first stone out of his sling. The giant falls face first on the field of battle. The Philistine army panics and flees and the army of Israel chases them home. This is the bginning of David’s legend.
Let’s draw three faith lessons from this well-known story.
1) WE ALL GET INTO LONG FIGHTS.
This is an image I learned from a speaker a few years ago at Annual Conference – Bob Hayes, who is now a bishop in the United Methodist Church.
What I mean by a “long fight” is a battle/challenge/problem/issue we face that it looks like there’s no way we can win. The odds are against us. The foe we face is too big.
David was clearly in a long fight. No one dared face Goliath. He was too big, too strong.
If you live long enough, you’re going to find yourself in a long fight. What is the long fight you’re in right now? Debt? Illness? Grief? Losing a job? Divorce? Replacing the brick on the sanctuary? We all get into these long fights.
The second faith lesson is this:
2) GOD DOESN’T MAKE LONG STICKS.
David found himself in a long fight with a short stick. He was going to battle against a huge giant with what? A shepherd’s staff, a slingshot, and five stones. It was like going bear hunting with a BB gun. Goliath taunted David – “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?”
We often feel like we’re in a long fight with a short stick. We look at the size of the problem we’re facing, and we look at our own weapons, and we feel overwhelmed. We think: how can I possibly win this fight relying on my own strength?
But that’s exactly the point – you can’t win if it’s all up to you. There was a reason why God let David go into battle with just his staff and a slingshot.
God doesn’t make long sticks for a reason. David knew he couldn’t go into battle wearing Saul’s armor and carrying Saul’s sword. Saul tried to give David a longer stick, but it just wouldn’t work. David, so young, couldn’t even walk wearing that huge armor and carrying that big sword.
That’s like us if we try to go into life’s battles trusting in our own strength. We’re just not strong enough. That’s why the third lesson we learn from this story is so important.
3) GOD GIVES US SHORT STICKS SO WE RELY ON HIM
David went into battle with just a staff and a slingshot because that’s what he knew best – it was only the weapon he had. But God had a bigger plan. God wanted to make it clear to everyone that day that while David flung the stone that brought Goliath down, it was God who had won the victory.
David himself knew that God could make his short stick long enough to win the battle. David said to Goliath…
You come to do battle with me with swords and spears, but I come in the name of the Lord God himself. God’s going to give me this victory so that the whole world knows that the God of Israel is the one true God, and that God doesn’t need weapons of war to win battles. This battle belongs to God, and God’s going to win. (1 Sam. 45-47, paraphrased)
As long as we think that we have to trust only our own strength to fight the long battles we face, we’ll never win. But as soon as we recognize that God is on our side and trust his power, then the victory is ours, or rather, God’s.
That’s what Paul means in 2 Corinthians 12 when he talks about his “thorn in the flesh.” We don’t know what that thorn was – probably some kind of physical disability that kept him from operating at peak capacity. Paul says…
Therefore, to keep me from being too elated, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me, but he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Cor. 12:7-10)
God’s power is made perfect in our weakness. We will have all the power we need when we learn to stop trusting in our short sticks and instead to trust in the tremendous power of faith in God.
We must have faith that God can defeat every giant we face. We must believe that the odds are never against us when God is on our side. David never focused on how big Goliath was, but rather on how big God is. Our giants look huge compared to our power, but not compared to God’s. The Scripture consistently promises victory to people of faith.
There’s an old saying: It’s not the size of the dog in the fight that matters, but the size of the fight in the dog. The size of David and Goliath and their weapons in battle didn’t matter It was the size of the faith in David’s heart that made the difference. The size of David’s faith gave him victory. God can give us faith that will conquer all the giants we face in life. Remember: With God, all things are possible.
So, when you find yourself in a long fight with a short stick, just remember – God doesn’t make long sticks for a reason. God wants you to trust in his strength.
A little girl was in a store with her parents. She was so well-behaved while her parents shopped that the store owner told her to reach in a candy jar and pull out a handful. The girl politely refused. Again he offered; again she refused.
Finally, the store owner reached in and gave her a handful. Her father asked her, “Why didn’t you get the candy yourself?” The little girl answered: “His hand is bigger.”
God’s hands are bigger. There’s no giant he can’t defeat; no fight he can’t win, if we’ll just trust, like David did, that the battle is the Lord’s and trust it to him.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Sermon: "Born from Above"
John 3:1-17
June 7, 2009
(Trinity Sunday)
Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. 2He came to Jesus by night and said to him, ‘Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.’ 3Jesus answered him, ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.’ 4Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?’ 5Jesus answered, ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. 6What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7Do not be astonished that I said to you, “You must be born from above.” 8The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.’ 9Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can these things be?’ 10Jesus answered him, ‘Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? 11‘Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. 12If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? 13No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. 16‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. 17‘Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
Nicodemus is a fascinating character in the Bible, but sometimes his story gets overshadowed by the well-known Bible verse that comes at the end of his encounter with Jesus…
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. (John 3:16)
John mentions Nicodemus three times in his Gospel and he tells us just enough to leave us wanting to know more.
When we first meet Nicodemus, he is introduced by John as a Pharisee and a “leader of the Jews” (3:1) As a Pharisee, he would be known for his scrupulous following of the Law. “Leader of the Jews” means he was a member of the Sanhedrin, which functioned as sort of the Jewish “Supreme Court” in Jerusalem, a very powerful position.
Jesus himself calls Nicodemus a “teacher of Israel” (3:10), suggesting that Nicodemus enjoyed quite a reputation as an authority on the Jewish faith.
Nicodemus may also have been quite wealthy, because when we meet him again at the end of the story (19:38-42), he and Joseph of Arimathea are taking Jesus” body from the cross for burial, and he provides a huge amount of spices (about a hundred pounds) to place in the burial cloths. That much myrrh and aloe would have been very expensive.
So Nicodemus is a man who seems to have it all together: wealth, power, prestige, knowledge, respect. Why would a man like that seek out Jesus, a rabbi from Galilee, in the middle of the night? I believe it’s because Nicodemus felt there was something missing in his life. He was supposed to have all the answers, but he didn’t. His wealth and power should have made him satisfied, but they didn’t.
He looked at his life and felt that there just had to be something more.
He went to Jesus under cover of darkness to try to find it. After all, it wouldn’t do for a respected member of the Sanhedrin to be seen in broad daylight consulting the “wild man” who had just chased the animal sellers and moneychangers out of the Temple with a whip and who had claimed that if this temple (meaning his own body) were destroyed, it would be raised up in three days (2:13-22).
There was something about Jesus that interested Nicodemus – something about God he sensed in Jesus…
“Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.” (John 3:2)
Jesus began immediately to talk to Nicodemus about being born from above, or as we say nowadays, being “born again”…
“Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” (John 3:3)
Nicodemus gets completely confused. He thinks Jesus means physical birth, and he asks…
“How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” (John 3:4)
Of course, Jesus is talking about a different kind of birth – a spiritual re-birth, of the Spirit. We are born once, physically, from our mothers, but then we must be born again, from above, from the Spirit, if we want to be a part of God’s realm.
Scholars continue to debate what Jesus meant by being “born again,” and I think there will always be an element of mystery to it. As Jesus said…
“The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” (John 3:8)
But whatever it means, it must mean a change, a transformation, so radical and so complete that the best metaphor Jesus could think of was like the change that happens to us when we go from our mother’s womb out into the world. Somehow Jesus knew that this was what Nicodemus needed; this was the “something more” he was seeking, and all the wealth and power and prestige in Jerusalem would not satisfy him unless he was born from above.
Nicodemus wasn’t immediately baptized and he didn’t become a follower of Jesus right away, although that would have been a very dramatic way to end the story. But, as I alluded to before, this isn’t the last time we hear from Mr. Nicodemus. A little later in chapter 7, when some people in Jerusalem are beginning to whisper that Jesus just might be the Messiah, the chief priests and Pharisees send the temple police to arrest Jesus, but they come back without their man, so impressed are they with the way Jesus teaches (7:45-46). The Pharisees are ready to convict Jesus without even talking to him, but Nicodemus speaks up in favor of letting Jesus defend himself. He asks…
“Our law does not judge people without first giving them a hearing to find out what they are doing, does it?” (John 7:51)
And then there’s that scene at the end, in chapter 19, where Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus ask permission of Pilate to take Jesus’ body from the cross and give it a proper burial. They were both members of the Sanhedrin. John calls Joseph a “secret disciple” of Jesus and we might assume that by this time Nicodemus had become one too. They put Jesus’ body in a new tomb owned by Joseph, and Nicodemus provided those expensive spices for burial.
I have to conclude that Nicodemus had finally found that “something more” that was missing from his life. He allowed the Spirit to move within him and give him new birth and new life. And I’m sure his life was not the same from that moment on.
Are you trying to keep a secret like Nicodemus was when he first met Jesus? You try to look so confident, so together on the outside, but deep down inside you know something’s missing? Your possessions, your status, your job provide a certain amount of satisfaction, but somehow you know that there has to be something more to life. So you start seeking what’s missing. You look for it in a new toy, another degree, a different job. Or worse, you look for it in a bottle, a pill, or in a relationship. But none of those give you the answer you’re looking for.
Take a lesson from Nicodemus. There’s only one place you can find that “something more” that will give your life the meaning and purpose you desire – that’s from Jesus and the new life he promises through being born again from his Spirit. Everything else is just a temporary fix. But being born again – that lasts.
Today we’re commissioning our mission team that leaves next Saturday for Cortez, Colorado. I’m so glad that I get to be a part of the team again this year. Whenever I think about mission trips I think about Barry. Several years ago Barry was a member of our church and a very successful coach at a suburban high school. But Barry didn’t take his faith all that seriously. He’d just as soon play golf or tennis on Sunday as go to church.
But one year he signed up to go on the mission trip to Mexico, which was a combination of construction and a medical mission. Barry had no idea how that mission trip would change his life, but it did. When he came back, he was a different person. He decided to retire from coaching and he went to work for para-church ministry that works with men. This was at the height of the Promise Keepers movement.
Barry became a true man of God – in his marriage, with his kids, and in the church. Barry might not have used this language, but you could say he was born from above. He found new life.
You don’t have to have all the answers, have it all figured out, like Nicodemus was trying to do. Just trust Jesus. Put your faith in him. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life.” That was Jesus’ promise to Nicodemus. That’s his promise to you. Amen.
June 7, 2009
(Trinity Sunday)
Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. 2He came to Jesus by night and said to him, ‘Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.’ 3Jesus answered him, ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.’ 4Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?’ 5Jesus answered, ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. 6What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7Do not be astonished that I said to you, “You must be born from above.” 8The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.’ 9Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can these things be?’ 10Jesus answered him, ‘Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? 11‘Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. 12If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? 13No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. 16‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. 17‘Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
Nicodemus is a fascinating character in the Bible, but sometimes his story gets overshadowed by the well-known Bible verse that comes at the end of his encounter with Jesus…
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. (John 3:16)
John mentions Nicodemus three times in his Gospel and he tells us just enough to leave us wanting to know more.
When we first meet Nicodemus, he is introduced by John as a Pharisee and a “leader of the Jews” (3:1) As a Pharisee, he would be known for his scrupulous following of the Law. “Leader of the Jews” means he was a member of the Sanhedrin, which functioned as sort of the Jewish “Supreme Court” in Jerusalem, a very powerful position.
Jesus himself calls Nicodemus a “teacher of Israel” (3:10), suggesting that Nicodemus enjoyed quite a reputation as an authority on the Jewish faith.
Nicodemus may also have been quite wealthy, because when we meet him again at the end of the story (19:38-42), he and Joseph of Arimathea are taking Jesus” body from the cross for burial, and he provides a huge amount of spices (about a hundred pounds) to place in the burial cloths. That much myrrh and aloe would have been very expensive.
So Nicodemus is a man who seems to have it all together: wealth, power, prestige, knowledge, respect. Why would a man like that seek out Jesus, a rabbi from Galilee, in the middle of the night? I believe it’s because Nicodemus felt there was something missing in his life. He was supposed to have all the answers, but he didn’t. His wealth and power should have made him satisfied, but they didn’t.
He looked at his life and felt that there just had to be something more.
He went to Jesus under cover of darkness to try to find it. After all, it wouldn’t do for a respected member of the Sanhedrin to be seen in broad daylight consulting the “wild man” who had just chased the animal sellers and moneychangers out of the Temple with a whip and who had claimed that if this temple (meaning his own body) were destroyed, it would be raised up in three days (2:13-22).
There was something about Jesus that interested Nicodemus – something about God he sensed in Jesus…
“Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.” (John 3:2)
Jesus began immediately to talk to Nicodemus about being born from above, or as we say nowadays, being “born again”…
“Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” (John 3:3)
Nicodemus gets completely confused. He thinks Jesus means physical birth, and he asks…
“How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” (John 3:4)
Of course, Jesus is talking about a different kind of birth – a spiritual re-birth, of the Spirit. We are born once, physically, from our mothers, but then we must be born again, from above, from the Spirit, if we want to be a part of God’s realm.
Scholars continue to debate what Jesus meant by being “born again,” and I think there will always be an element of mystery to it. As Jesus said…
“The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” (John 3:8)
But whatever it means, it must mean a change, a transformation, so radical and so complete that the best metaphor Jesus could think of was like the change that happens to us when we go from our mother’s womb out into the world. Somehow Jesus knew that this was what Nicodemus needed; this was the “something more” he was seeking, and all the wealth and power and prestige in Jerusalem would not satisfy him unless he was born from above.
Nicodemus wasn’t immediately baptized and he didn’t become a follower of Jesus right away, although that would have been a very dramatic way to end the story. But, as I alluded to before, this isn’t the last time we hear from Mr. Nicodemus. A little later in chapter 7, when some people in Jerusalem are beginning to whisper that Jesus just might be the Messiah, the chief priests and Pharisees send the temple police to arrest Jesus, but they come back without their man, so impressed are they with the way Jesus teaches (7:45-46). The Pharisees are ready to convict Jesus without even talking to him, but Nicodemus speaks up in favor of letting Jesus defend himself. He asks…
“Our law does not judge people without first giving them a hearing to find out what they are doing, does it?” (John 7:51)
And then there’s that scene at the end, in chapter 19, where Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus ask permission of Pilate to take Jesus’ body from the cross and give it a proper burial. They were both members of the Sanhedrin. John calls Joseph a “secret disciple” of Jesus and we might assume that by this time Nicodemus had become one too. They put Jesus’ body in a new tomb owned by Joseph, and Nicodemus provided those expensive spices for burial.
I have to conclude that Nicodemus had finally found that “something more” that was missing from his life. He allowed the Spirit to move within him and give him new birth and new life. And I’m sure his life was not the same from that moment on.
Are you trying to keep a secret like Nicodemus was when he first met Jesus? You try to look so confident, so together on the outside, but deep down inside you know something’s missing? Your possessions, your status, your job provide a certain amount of satisfaction, but somehow you know that there has to be something more to life. So you start seeking what’s missing. You look for it in a new toy, another degree, a different job. Or worse, you look for it in a bottle, a pill, or in a relationship. But none of those give you the answer you’re looking for.
Take a lesson from Nicodemus. There’s only one place you can find that “something more” that will give your life the meaning and purpose you desire – that’s from Jesus and the new life he promises through being born again from his Spirit. Everything else is just a temporary fix. But being born again – that lasts.
Today we’re commissioning our mission team that leaves next Saturday for Cortez, Colorado. I’m so glad that I get to be a part of the team again this year. Whenever I think about mission trips I think about Barry. Several years ago Barry was a member of our church and a very successful coach at a suburban high school. But Barry didn’t take his faith all that seriously. He’d just as soon play golf or tennis on Sunday as go to church.
But one year he signed up to go on the mission trip to Mexico, which was a combination of construction and a medical mission. Barry had no idea how that mission trip would change his life, but it did. When he came back, he was a different person. He decided to retire from coaching and he went to work for para-church ministry that works with men. This was at the height of the Promise Keepers movement.
Barry became a true man of God – in his marriage, with his kids, and in the church. Barry might not have used this language, but you could say he was born from above. He found new life.
You don’t have to have all the answers, have it all figured out, like Nicodemus was trying to do. Just trust Jesus. Put your faith in him. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life.” That was Jesus’ promise to Nicodemus. That’s his promise to you. Amen.
Sermon: "Our Companion for the Journey"
John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15
May 31, 2009
(Day of Pentecost)
”When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf. 27You also are to testify because you have been with me from the beginning.
4“I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. 5But now I am going to him who sent me; yet none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ 6But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your hearts.
“7Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. 8And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: 9about sin, because they do not believe in me; 10about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will see me no longer; 11about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.
12“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.”
Forrest Gump said, “Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.” That saying has been repeated countless times.
The comic strip “Pickles,” by Brian Crane, features a senior couple, Opal and Earl. It’s one of the few I read regularly. A couple of weeks ago Earl was dispensing his own brand of wisdom to anyone who would listen, as he described life:
“Life is like a grapefruit,” he tells Opal at breakfast. “It’s yellow-orange, and squishy, and it has a few seeds in it, and if you’re not careful it will squirt you in the eye.” He tells her, “Hey, that’s pretty good. I should be sitting on a mountaintop dispensing wisdom.” Opal replies, “I second that motion.”
Lying on the couch, he tells Nelson, his young grandson, “Life is like a bicycle, Nelson. You’ve got to keep on pedaling or you’ll fall down.” Opal walks by and comments, “That’s not necessarily true. Your Grampa’s been coasting downhill for years.”
Do you have an image for your life? Is life a game, with its own set of rules, where we are players who will eventually win or lose? Yes, life can be like a game sometimes.
Or is it more like a play, with each person’s part carefully scripted ahead of time, simply to be played out on cue? There are people who see life that way.
Could it be that you see your life as a mystery, with no discernible meaning or purpose, with no way to make sense out of it? Life can be very mysterious at times.
As descriptive as these images are, and I’m sure you can think of others, they don’t really describe my life the way the image of the journey does. For me, life is like a journey. It is a journey.
As I go through life I experience detours, dead-ends, accidents, traffic jams; I get lost, take wrong turns, get sidetracked; I experience the occasional flat-tire and breakdown. Life is journey from birth to death and beyond.
Journey is a good image for life because it suggests movement, change, going forward. There’s always a new destination lying just over the horizon.
We’re engaged not just in a journey of life. We’re also on a journey of faith.
The journey begins even before we are born. Psalm 139 witnesses that God knows us and loves us while we’re still in the womb. God’s grace is with us from the very beginning.
Our journey is nurtured in a loving and caring family where we begin to learn who God is through the way our parents care for us. We come to know what it means to be loved absolutely and without condition, just as God loves us.
Our baptisms mark an important step in our faith journey. Baptism says that even before I know or can understand God’s love, that love is offered to me as a child of God, that I’m welcomed into the Christian fellowship, and that I have a family of Christian support that will be there to help me as I grow in my faith.
Even today’s recognition of our graduating high school seniors, while it’s not a faith moment as such, says that this is a very important moment in their (your) life’s journey and we want them (you) to know that we, the church, will be here for them (you) at every critical moment of life. They (You) may be graduating from high school, but they (you) are not graduating from church. They (You) always have a home and a family here.
There are many other significant moments along this journey of faith. There are teachers, friends, and family members who have guided us along the way. There are decisions about vocation, education, marriage and family.
There are times when we suddenly become aware of the world around us and realize that we are not solitary individuals on a journey, but we are part of a company of pilgrims that stretches back through time for hundreds and thousands of years.
There are moments when our eyes are opened to see the need around us. When I graduated from college at SMU in 1975 I decided to go somewhere other than Perkins School of Theology for seminary. So I went to Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California. For a variety of reasons I only stayed at PSR for a year and came back to Perkins to finish my degree, but the year in California, and especially in Berkeley, was quite eye-opening.
California, as you know, is a hotbed of social causes, and a classmate of mine, Paul Jeffrey, got several of us involved in the cause of the migrant farmworkers. My eyes were opened to the ways that the agricultural system at that time practically enslaved some people to put cheap, abundant food on our tables.
So we circulated petitions in front of grocery stores to put an initiative on the ballot to help farmworkers get better pay and working conditions. We also went to General Conference in Portland in 1976 to see if we could help change the stance of the United Methodist Church toward migrant farmworkers.
By the way, Paul went on to a distinguished career as a religious photojournalist and missionary with the UM Board of Global Ministries. He recently completed a book on the humanitarian crisis in Darfur.
Other people’s eyes have been opened to issues of peace and justice, the environment, hunger, rights of women and children, and many other issues, and their faith journeys have been forever changed.
The image of life as a journey is an exciting and challenging one for me. It helps me identify with great persons of faith like Abraham and Sarah in the Bible. Hebrews 11 describes their journey of faith:
By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to set out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; and he set out, not knowing where he was going.
Life’s journey is like that sometimes, setting out for a destination that is completely unknown, trusting only in the One who has called us to go on this journey. The one assurance we have, and this is really the only one we need, is that we have a companion for the journey. We are not alone.
This is the message for Pentecost Sunday that we read today in the passage from John 15 and 16. It’s Jesus’ last night on earth with the disciples before his death. He knows he’s about to be crucified. The disciples are worried and upset that Jesus is talking about leaving them.
But Jesus speaks words of reassurance and hope. He will not leave them all alone. After I go away, he tells them, I will send you a companion, a helper, an advocate. We know he was speaking of the promised Holy Spirit, the Spirit Luke describes in the second chapter of Acts as arriving in wind and tongues of flame.
Pentecost is about Christ keeping his promise to send us a companion for our journey of faith. Pentecost celebrates the gift of the Holy Spirit to the church as the church’s source of power and energy.
The disciples were probably thinking, “Big deal. A holy spirit. We’d rather have Jesus back in person.”
The Holy Spirit can be something of a mystery. But Jesus knew it was necessary that he leave so that his Spirit could come. Jesus knew that if he remained, we would use him. Jesus walked his road; we would bronze his steps.
Jesus preached the Gospel; we would engrave his words in stone.
Jesus carried his cross; we would adore it as a relic.
Jesus conquered the grave; we would kneel at the tomb.
Jesus knew that without the Holy Spirit we would focus on the past rather than the future. We would want to preserve rather than serve.
Jesus left so that we would dwell not in the past but in the Spirit: a Spirit of wisdom and understanding; a Spirit of counsel and might; a Spirit of knowledge and awe.
Jesus left so that the Holy Spirit could come as our companion for life’s journey of faith. The Holy Spirit gives us strength when our own resources begin to fade. The Holy Spirit gives us courage when we’re threatened by forces that want do us harm. The Holy Spirit shows us the truth when we’re surrounded by darkness.
Earl might be right. Life could be like a grapefruit, a bicycle, a blanket that’s too short, or like eating artichokes. Or Opal could be right – that Earl’s like a delicatessen. He’s full of baloney and smells like old cheese!
But it’s exciting when we begin to look at life in terms of a journey. For young people, like our graduates, there’s an exciting and unknown road full of possibilities ahead.
For those a little bit farther along in our journeys, there’s the anticipation of unexpected joys and pleasures and challenges just around the next bend.
The journey is exciting, and not terrifying, because we have a companion; one who’s walked the road before, who knows the right path, and he’s there not only to lead us but to walk with us each step of the way.
He’s our friend. Let’s reach out, take his hand, and follow where he leads.
May 31, 2009
(Day of Pentecost)
”When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf. 27You also are to testify because you have been with me from the beginning.
4“I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. 5But now I am going to him who sent me; yet none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ 6But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your hearts.
“7Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. 8And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: 9about sin, because they do not believe in me; 10about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will see me no longer; 11about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.
12“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.”
Forrest Gump said, “Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.” That saying has been repeated countless times.
The comic strip “Pickles,” by Brian Crane, features a senior couple, Opal and Earl. It’s one of the few I read regularly. A couple of weeks ago Earl was dispensing his own brand of wisdom to anyone who would listen, as he described life:
“Life is like a grapefruit,” he tells Opal at breakfast. “It’s yellow-orange, and squishy, and it has a few seeds in it, and if you’re not careful it will squirt you in the eye.” He tells her, “Hey, that’s pretty good. I should be sitting on a mountaintop dispensing wisdom.” Opal replies, “I second that motion.”
Lying on the couch, he tells Nelson, his young grandson, “Life is like a bicycle, Nelson. You’ve got to keep on pedaling or you’ll fall down.” Opal walks by and comments, “That’s not necessarily true. Your Grampa’s been coasting downhill for years.”
Do you have an image for your life? Is life a game, with its own set of rules, where we are players who will eventually win or lose? Yes, life can be like a game sometimes.
Or is it more like a play, with each person’s part carefully scripted ahead of time, simply to be played out on cue? There are people who see life that way.
Could it be that you see your life as a mystery, with no discernible meaning or purpose, with no way to make sense out of it? Life can be very mysterious at times.
As descriptive as these images are, and I’m sure you can think of others, they don’t really describe my life the way the image of the journey does. For me, life is like a journey. It is a journey.
As I go through life I experience detours, dead-ends, accidents, traffic jams; I get lost, take wrong turns, get sidetracked; I experience the occasional flat-tire and breakdown. Life is journey from birth to death and beyond.
Journey is a good image for life because it suggests movement, change, going forward. There’s always a new destination lying just over the horizon.
We’re engaged not just in a journey of life. We’re also on a journey of faith.
The journey begins even before we are born. Psalm 139 witnesses that God knows us and loves us while we’re still in the womb. God’s grace is with us from the very beginning.
Our journey is nurtured in a loving and caring family where we begin to learn who God is through the way our parents care for us. We come to know what it means to be loved absolutely and without condition, just as God loves us.
Our baptisms mark an important step in our faith journey. Baptism says that even before I know or can understand God’s love, that love is offered to me as a child of God, that I’m welcomed into the Christian fellowship, and that I have a family of Christian support that will be there to help me as I grow in my faith.
Even today’s recognition of our graduating high school seniors, while it’s not a faith moment as such, says that this is a very important moment in their (your) life’s journey and we want them (you) to know that we, the church, will be here for them (you) at every critical moment of life. They (You) may be graduating from high school, but they (you) are not graduating from church. They (You) always have a home and a family here.
There are many other significant moments along this journey of faith. There are teachers, friends, and family members who have guided us along the way. There are decisions about vocation, education, marriage and family.
There are times when we suddenly become aware of the world around us and realize that we are not solitary individuals on a journey, but we are part of a company of pilgrims that stretches back through time for hundreds and thousands of years.
There are moments when our eyes are opened to see the need around us. When I graduated from college at SMU in 1975 I decided to go somewhere other than Perkins School of Theology for seminary. So I went to Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California. For a variety of reasons I only stayed at PSR for a year and came back to Perkins to finish my degree, but the year in California, and especially in Berkeley, was quite eye-opening.
California, as you know, is a hotbed of social causes, and a classmate of mine, Paul Jeffrey, got several of us involved in the cause of the migrant farmworkers. My eyes were opened to the ways that the agricultural system at that time practically enslaved some people to put cheap, abundant food on our tables.
So we circulated petitions in front of grocery stores to put an initiative on the ballot to help farmworkers get better pay and working conditions. We also went to General Conference in Portland in 1976 to see if we could help change the stance of the United Methodist Church toward migrant farmworkers.
By the way, Paul went on to a distinguished career as a religious photojournalist and missionary with the UM Board of Global Ministries. He recently completed a book on the humanitarian crisis in Darfur.
Other people’s eyes have been opened to issues of peace and justice, the environment, hunger, rights of women and children, and many other issues, and their faith journeys have been forever changed.
The image of life as a journey is an exciting and challenging one for me. It helps me identify with great persons of faith like Abraham and Sarah in the Bible. Hebrews 11 describes their journey of faith:
By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to set out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; and he set out, not knowing where he was going.
Life’s journey is like that sometimes, setting out for a destination that is completely unknown, trusting only in the One who has called us to go on this journey. The one assurance we have, and this is really the only one we need, is that we have a companion for the journey. We are not alone.
This is the message for Pentecost Sunday that we read today in the passage from John 15 and 16. It’s Jesus’ last night on earth with the disciples before his death. He knows he’s about to be crucified. The disciples are worried and upset that Jesus is talking about leaving them.
But Jesus speaks words of reassurance and hope. He will not leave them all alone. After I go away, he tells them, I will send you a companion, a helper, an advocate. We know he was speaking of the promised Holy Spirit, the Spirit Luke describes in the second chapter of Acts as arriving in wind and tongues of flame.
Pentecost is about Christ keeping his promise to send us a companion for our journey of faith. Pentecost celebrates the gift of the Holy Spirit to the church as the church’s source of power and energy.
The disciples were probably thinking, “Big deal. A holy spirit. We’d rather have Jesus back in person.”
The Holy Spirit can be something of a mystery. But Jesus knew it was necessary that he leave so that his Spirit could come. Jesus knew that if he remained, we would use him. Jesus walked his road; we would bronze his steps.
Jesus preached the Gospel; we would engrave his words in stone.
Jesus carried his cross; we would adore it as a relic.
Jesus conquered the grave; we would kneel at the tomb.
Jesus knew that without the Holy Spirit we would focus on the past rather than the future. We would want to preserve rather than serve.
Jesus left so that we would dwell not in the past but in the Spirit: a Spirit of wisdom and understanding; a Spirit of counsel and might; a Spirit of knowledge and awe.
Jesus left so that the Holy Spirit could come as our companion for life’s journey of faith. The Holy Spirit gives us strength when our own resources begin to fade. The Holy Spirit gives us courage when we’re threatened by forces that want do us harm. The Holy Spirit shows us the truth when we’re surrounded by darkness.
Earl might be right. Life could be like a grapefruit, a bicycle, a blanket that’s too short, or like eating artichokes. Or Opal could be right – that Earl’s like a delicatessen. He’s full of baloney and smells like old cheese!
But it’s exciting when we begin to look at life in terms of a journey. For young people, like our graduates, there’s an exciting and unknown road full of possibilities ahead.
For those a little bit farther along in our journeys, there’s the anticipation of unexpected joys and pleasures and challenges just around the next bend.
The journey is exciting, and not terrifying, because we have a companion; one who’s walked the road before, who knows the right path, and he’s there not only to lead us but to walk with us each step of the way.
He’s our friend. Let’s reach out, take his hand, and follow where he leads.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Sermon: "What's In It for Me?"
Ephesians 1:15-23
May 24, 2009
(Seventh Sunday of Easter)
I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, and for this reason 16I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers.
17I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, 18so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, 19and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power.
20God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come. 22And he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, 23which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
The very first sentence in chapter one of Pastor Rick Warren’s wildly best-selling devotional book, The Purpose Driven Life, is this:
“It’s not about you.”
Max Lucado, pastor of Oak Hills Church in San Antonio and the author of over 75 books for children, youth, and adults, titled one of his books:
It’s Not About Me [2004: Integrity Publishers]
Well, if it’s not about you and it’s not about me, then who is it about? Both Warren and Lucado would say it’s about God.
That’s probably a needed correction to a lot of the pop culture and psychobabble out there today that urge us to make ourselves the center of the universe in order to be happy. We seem to be living in a culture of growing self-centeredness where people put themselves first, only care about their own needs and wants, are uncaring of others, and are unwilling or unable to look at life from another’s perspective.
Even some churches communicate the message that God exists to give us what we selfishly want, like a heavenly vending machine. If you just have enough faith, this so-called “Prosperity Gospel” teaches, God will make you “healthy, wealthy, and wise.”
You also hear this “It’s all about me” attitude from some people who go “church-shopping” to find a new congregational home. They say that their old church isn’t “meeting their needs” and they go in search of a new church with the right music, the right preacher, the right kids’ programs, the right location, the right kind of coffee (preferably Starbucks), and the right way to talk about money – which is not at all!
I’m kidding a little, of course. We all need to find a church home that’s a good “fit” for us. But the main purpose of the church is not to take care of me or my needs or make me feel good. Paul tells us why the church exists in the last verse of our reading: it exists to be the “body of Christ” in the world. The church exists to be a servant to God and to others, just like Jesus was a servant.
However, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t certain “benefits” to being a Christian. We don’t follow Jesus because of what we hope to get out of it. We follow him because that’s what we were created for – a relationship with God through God’s Son Jesus Christ. But in the amazing grace and generosity of God, that relationship brings with it all kinds of wonderful blessings.
In today’s passage we get to listen in on the Apostle Paul’s prayer for his beloved brothers and sisters in Ephesus. Paul had spent a long time in Ephesus – over two years – so he knew the people and the situation well.
As he wrote his letter to the Ephesians, he probably sat in a Roman prison, awaiting an uncertain fate. He referred to himself as a “prisoner for Jesus Christ” and “an ambassador in chains.” But he’s not thinking about himself or his own situation. He’s thinking about the people in Ephesus and how thankful he is for their faith and for their love.
I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, and for this reason 16I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers.
These were people who were firmly grounded in the two bedrock principles of life in Christ: faith and love. Christians can do without a lot of things we think we need. But these two are essential. They are two of the “big three” that Paul mentions in 1 Corinthians 13: “Faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”
The Ephesians had faith and they had love. They might have thought that was all they would ever need or want. But Paul knows that they are just beginning when it comes to experiencing all the blessings that God wants to open to them.
It’s like I shared with the children this morning – God has a “treasure chest” of blessings and gifts that God wants to give us, but sometimes we have to have our eyes opened up to see what valuable riches are there waiting for us.
So that’s what Paul prays for the Ephesians. He prays that God would give them wisdom and a spirit of revelation so that they would come to know Jesus more and more. They already knew Christ. They had to know him to have the faith and love that Paul is so thankful for. But Paul knows that they can come to know him more and more.
That’s a good reminder. It doesn’t matter where we are in our spiritual journey – there’s always room for growth. Do you know Jesus just a little bit right now? You can come to know him more. Is Jesus a long-time and trusted friend? You can still get to know him better.
And in one of the most beautiful and descriptive phrases not just in this passage but in all of Scripture, Paul prays that the eyes of their hearts would be enlightened.
Isn’t that a wonderful image – “with the eyes of your heart enlightened.” Did you know that your heart has eyes? There’s a very popular contemporary worship song by Paul Baloche that goes…
Open the eyes of my heart, Lord,
Open the eyes of my heart,
I want to see you,
I want to see you.
That’s not some kind of strange anatomy lesson. But the heart has long been seen as the seat of our intellect, our emotions, our will. The “heart” is where we experience spiritual things. God wants the eyes of our hearts to be open so we can know what’s really important.
Paul prays for the eyes of the hearts of the Ephesians to be opened and enlightened so they can know three gifts in particular that God wants to give them. I phrased the title of this sermon in sort of crass terms: “What’s In It for Me?” Of course, that’s not the way we approach God or faith – selfishly, for what we can get out of it.
But there is something in it for us the more we come to know Jesus Christ and our faith and love grow. And Paul names three special blessings from God that are in it for us:
The hope of his calling
The riches of his inheritance
The greatness of his power.
1) The hope of his calling
God has called us in Jesus Christ to be a people of hope. We are meant to have hope and to be a source of hope to a world that at times believes things to be hopeless.
The more the eyes of our hearts are opened and the more we come to know Christ, the stronger our hope grows, because we know that our hope doesn’t come from the world but from God.
As 1 Peter 1:3 says, “By [God’s] great mercy we have been born anew to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” When God raised Jesus from the dead, our hope was secured.
If we had to depend on the world for our hope, we’d be in trouble. But our hope is not in this world or from this world.
The director of a medical clinic told about a terminally ill young man who came in for his usual treatment. A new doctor who was on duty said to him casually and cruelly, “You know, don’t you, that you won’t live out the year.”
As the young man left, he stopped by the director’s desk and cried. “That doctor took away my hope,” he blurted out.
“I guess he did,” replied the director. “Maybe it’s time to find a new one.
Commenting on this incident, Lewis Smedes wrote, “Is there a hope when hope is taken away? Is there hope when the situation is hopeless? That question leads us to Christian hope, for in the Bible, hope is no longer a passion for the possible. It becomes a passion for the promise.” May we know that kind of hope to which Christ has called us.
2) The riches of his inheritance
William Randolph Hearst was one of the richest men of his time. He had a huge art collection. One day he read about another collection that he just had to have. He sent a representative all over the world to find it. After months of searching, the representative came back and reported that he’d found it – in one of Mr. Hearst’s own warehouses. He’s possessed it the whole time, but didn’t know it.
We have the greatest treasure on earth, but we may not know it. Paul wants to make sure that we know what is awaiting us – “the riches of his glorious inheritance.”
We are heirs to the most important inheritance in the universe – eternal life, heaven, fellowship with God and all the saints for all eternity. You don’t have to live in poverty. Claim your inheritance in Christ.
3) The greatness of his power
In a seminary missions class, Herbert Jackson told how, as a new missionary, he was assigned a car that wouldn’t start without a push.
After pondering his problem, he devised a plan. He went to the school near his home, got permission to take some children out of class, and had them push his car off. As he made his rounds, he would either park on a hill or leave the engine running. He used this ingenious procedure for two years.
Ill health forced the Jackson family to leave, and a new missionary came to that station. When Jackson proudly began to explain his arrangement for getting the car started, the new man began looking under the hood. Before the explanation was complete, the new missionary interrupted, “Why, Dr. Jackson, I believe the only trouble is this loose cable.” He gave the cable a twist, stepped into the car, pushed the switch, and to Jackson’s astonishment, the engine roared to life.
For two years needless trouble had become routine. The power was there all the time. Only a loose connection kept Jackson from putting that power to work.
J. B. Phillips paraphrases Ephesians l:19-20, “How tremendous is the power available to us who believe in God.” When we make firm our connection with God, his life and power flow through us.
These three gifts are waiting for those of us who have our eyes opened to see them and receive them:
The hope of his calling
The riches of his glorious inheritance, and
The immeasurable greatness of his power.
It’s not about you and it’s not about me. It’s about God. But that doesn’t mean that God doesn’t have wonderful blessings to give us. Let us open our hearts to receive them?
May 24, 2009
(Seventh Sunday of Easter)
I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, and for this reason 16I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers.
17I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, 18so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, 19and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power.
20God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come. 22And he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, 23which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
The very first sentence in chapter one of Pastor Rick Warren’s wildly best-selling devotional book, The Purpose Driven Life, is this:
“It’s not about you.”
Max Lucado, pastor of Oak Hills Church in San Antonio and the author of over 75 books for children, youth, and adults, titled one of his books:
It’s Not About Me [2004: Integrity Publishers]
Well, if it’s not about you and it’s not about me, then who is it about? Both Warren and Lucado would say it’s about God.
That’s probably a needed correction to a lot of the pop culture and psychobabble out there today that urge us to make ourselves the center of the universe in order to be happy. We seem to be living in a culture of growing self-centeredness where people put themselves first, only care about their own needs and wants, are uncaring of others, and are unwilling or unable to look at life from another’s perspective.
Even some churches communicate the message that God exists to give us what we selfishly want, like a heavenly vending machine. If you just have enough faith, this so-called “Prosperity Gospel” teaches, God will make you “healthy, wealthy, and wise.”
You also hear this “It’s all about me” attitude from some people who go “church-shopping” to find a new congregational home. They say that their old church isn’t “meeting their needs” and they go in search of a new church with the right music, the right preacher, the right kids’ programs, the right location, the right kind of coffee (preferably Starbucks), and the right way to talk about money – which is not at all!
I’m kidding a little, of course. We all need to find a church home that’s a good “fit” for us. But the main purpose of the church is not to take care of me or my needs or make me feel good. Paul tells us why the church exists in the last verse of our reading: it exists to be the “body of Christ” in the world. The church exists to be a servant to God and to others, just like Jesus was a servant.
However, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t certain “benefits” to being a Christian. We don’t follow Jesus because of what we hope to get out of it. We follow him because that’s what we were created for – a relationship with God through God’s Son Jesus Christ. But in the amazing grace and generosity of God, that relationship brings with it all kinds of wonderful blessings.
In today’s passage we get to listen in on the Apostle Paul’s prayer for his beloved brothers and sisters in Ephesus. Paul had spent a long time in Ephesus – over two years – so he knew the people and the situation well.
As he wrote his letter to the Ephesians, he probably sat in a Roman prison, awaiting an uncertain fate. He referred to himself as a “prisoner for Jesus Christ” and “an ambassador in chains.” But he’s not thinking about himself or his own situation. He’s thinking about the people in Ephesus and how thankful he is for their faith and for their love.
I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, and for this reason 16I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers.
These were people who were firmly grounded in the two bedrock principles of life in Christ: faith and love. Christians can do without a lot of things we think we need. But these two are essential. They are two of the “big three” that Paul mentions in 1 Corinthians 13: “Faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”
The Ephesians had faith and they had love. They might have thought that was all they would ever need or want. But Paul knows that they are just beginning when it comes to experiencing all the blessings that God wants to open to them.
It’s like I shared with the children this morning – God has a “treasure chest” of blessings and gifts that God wants to give us, but sometimes we have to have our eyes opened up to see what valuable riches are there waiting for us.
So that’s what Paul prays for the Ephesians. He prays that God would give them wisdom and a spirit of revelation so that they would come to know Jesus more and more. They already knew Christ. They had to know him to have the faith and love that Paul is so thankful for. But Paul knows that they can come to know him more and more.
That’s a good reminder. It doesn’t matter where we are in our spiritual journey – there’s always room for growth. Do you know Jesus just a little bit right now? You can come to know him more. Is Jesus a long-time and trusted friend? You can still get to know him better.
And in one of the most beautiful and descriptive phrases not just in this passage but in all of Scripture, Paul prays that the eyes of their hearts would be enlightened.
Isn’t that a wonderful image – “with the eyes of your heart enlightened.” Did you know that your heart has eyes? There’s a very popular contemporary worship song by Paul Baloche that goes…
Open the eyes of my heart, Lord,
Open the eyes of my heart,
I want to see you,
I want to see you.
That’s not some kind of strange anatomy lesson. But the heart has long been seen as the seat of our intellect, our emotions, our will. The “heart” is where we experience spiritual things. God wants the eyes of our hearts to be open so we can know what’s really important.
Paul prays for the eyes of the hearts of the Ephesians to be opened and enlightened so they can know three gifts in particular that God wants to give them. I phrased the title of this sermon in sort of crass terms: “What’s In It for Me?” Of course, that’s not the way we approach God or faith – selfishly, for what we can get out of it.
But there is something in it for us the more we come to know Jesus Christ and our faith and love grow. And Paul names three special blessings from God that are in it for us:
The hope of his calling
The riches of his inheritance
The greatness of his power.
1) The hope of his calling
God has called us in Jesus Christ to be a people of hope. We are meant to have hope and to be a source of hope to a world that at times believes things to be hopeless.
The more the eyes of our hearts are opened and the more we come to know Christ, the stronger our hope grows, because we know that our hope doesn’t come from the world but from God.
As 1 Peter 1:3 says, “By [God’s] great mercy we have been born anew to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” When God raised Jesus from the dead, our hope was secured.
If we had to depend on the world for our hope, we’d be in trouble. But our hope is not in this world or from this world.
The director of a medical clinic told about a terminally ill young man who came in for his usual treatment. A new doctor who was on duty said to him casually and cruelly, “You know, don’t you, that you won’t live out the year.”
As the young man left, he stopped by the director’s desk and cried. “That doctor took away my hope,” he blurted out.
“I guess he did,” replied the director. “Maybe it’s time to find a new one.
Commenting on this incident, Lewis Smedes wrote, “Is there a hope when hope is taken away? Is there hope when the situation is hopeless? That question leads us to Christian hope, for in the Bible, hope is no longer a passion for the possible. It becomes a passion for the promise.” May we know that kind of hope to which Christ has called us.
2) The riches of his inheritance
William Randolph Hearst was one of the richest men of his time. He had a huge art collection. One day he read about another collection that he just had to have. He sent a representative all over the world to find it. After months of searching, the representative came back and reported that he’d found it – in one of Mr. Hearst’s own warehouses. He’s possessed it the whole time, but didn’t know it.
We have the greatest treasure on earth, but we may not know it. Paul wants to make sure that we know what is awaiting us – “the riches of his glorious inheritance.”
We are heirs to the most important inheritance in the universe – eternal life, heaven, fellowship with God and all the saints for all eternity. You don’t have to live in poverty. Claim your inheritance in Christ.
3) The greatness of his power
In a seminary missions class, Herbert Jackson told how, as a new missionary, he was assigned a car that wouldn’t start without a push.
After pondering his problem, he devised a plan. He went to the school near his home, got permission to take some children out of class, and had them push his car off. As he made his rounds, he would either park on a hill or leave the engine running. He used this ingenious procedure for two years.
Ill health forced the Jackson family to leave, and a new missionary came to that station. When Jackson proudly began to explain his arrangement for getting the car started, the new man began looking under the hood. Before the explanation was complete, the new missionary interrupted, “Why, Dr. Jackson, I believe the only trouble is this loose cable.” He gave the cable a twist, stepped into the car, pushed the switch, and to Jackson’s astonishment, the engine roared to life.
For two years needless trouble had become routine. The power was there all the time. Only a loose connection kept Jackson from putting that power to work.
J. B. Phillips paraphrases Ephesians l:19-20, “How tremendous is the power available to us who believe in God.” When we make firm our connection with God, his life and power flow through us.
These three gifts are waiting for those of us who have our eyes opened to see them and receive them:
The hope of his calling
The riches of his glorious inheritance, and
The immeasurable greatness of his power.
It’s not about you and it’s not about me. It’s about God. But that doesn’t mean that God doesn’t have wonderful blessings to give us. Let us open our hearts to receive them?
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Sermon: "Faith That Overcomes"
1 John 5:1-6
May 17, 2009
(Sixth Sunday of Easter)
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the parent loves the child. 2By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. 3For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome, 4for whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith. 5Who is it that conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
6This is the one who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not with the water only but with the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one that testifies, for the Spirit is the truth.
Every once in a while an injured or aging athlete attempts a comeback. Brett Favre, the former quarterback of the Green Bay Packers, came out of retirement last year to play for the New York Jets, and there’s a lot of talk right now that he may un-retire himself again this year to play for another team, maybe the Minnesota Vikings. A lot has to do with his injured shoulder.
Lance Armstrong, maybe the greatest cyclist of all time and 7-time champion of the Tour de France, is attempting his own comeback right now. As we speak, he’s competing in the Tour of Italy and preparing for another crack at the Tour de France at the age of 37, after being out of cycling for three and a half years.
Dave Dravecky, a pitcher for the San Francisco Giants in Major League baseball, gave us one of the most inspirational comebacks back in the 1980s. After a successful season in 1987, he was diagnosed with a cancerous tumor in his pitching arm in 1988. The tumor was removed and less than a year later he was pitching in the major leagues again, winning his first game back. But in the middle of his second game, the humerus bone in his arm snapped and his career was over. Dravecky is a very strong Christian and he’s done a lot of inspirational speaking about that whole comeback in the years since.
Even if an athlete’s try at a comeback isn’t successful, you have to admire them for at least trying. The odds against them are usually overwhelming, competing against athletes that sometimes are half their age.
They exhibit a faith that’s not unrelated to the kind of faith that we’re talking about in our reading today from 1 John 5 – a faith that “conquers [or overcomes] the world.”
That’s a powerful promise, isn’t it? Through faith in God we have the power to overcome the world, to conquer the world.
In the book of Acts the early Christians are accused of “turning the world upside down” (17:6). Ellsworth Kalas, one of the scholars on the Disciple Bible study videos, suggests that instead, the church was really taking a world that was already upside-down and turning it right-side up.
What did the author of 1 John mean by conquering the world? Was he suggesting that Christianity would conquer the world the way the Roman Empire had?
It’s true that by the time that the Emperor Constantine came along in the 4th century, he converted to Christianity and ended up making Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. So, in a way, Christianity did conquer the world, or at least that part of the world.
But I don’t think that’s the kind of conquering or overcoming that John is talking about here. I think he’s talking about an inward strength to overcome.
The Bible has what we might call a “love-hate’ relationship with the world. The Bible doesn’t see the created world as evil in itself, the way some early religions and philosophies, like Gnosticism, did. Remember, the story of creation in the book of Genesis declares the world and all that’s in it to be “good” in the eyes of God – and God saw all that he had created and said, “It is good.”
The beginning of the Gospel of John states that Jesus is the Word of God, the Logos, and that the Word was with God when everything was made in the beginning. Jesus would not be a part of creating anything that was bad or evil.
So the world and creation itself is good. But it has fallen under the influence of evil. The Bible describes this evil influence as the devil or Satan. This puts the world and God in tension. Satan is trying to turn the world against God. God is in the process of restoring the world to its original state of goodness with him. For that relationship to be restored, the evil influence of Satan in the world must be overcome.
And in the biblical story, human beings are caught in the middle – between good and evil. We are capable of great good and of appalling evil.
Even as great a person as the Apostle Paul could feel this tension in his own life. In Romans 7:15 he confesses: “I don’t understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.”
It’s not in today’s reading, but earlier in his letter, the author of 1 John lets us know that he doesn’t see much in the world that’s good: “For everything in the world – the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does – comes not from the Father but from the world” (2:16).
I know it’s popular nowadays to talk about what a sorry state the world’s in today. Probably every generation that’s ever lived has lamented how bad things are compared to the generation before.
It’s hard to deny that in the competition between God and the world, in many ways the world seems to be winning, especially here in the United States. Our rates of divorce, abortion, sexually-transmitted disease, spousal abuse, and crime are the highest or among the highest compared to other developed nations.
According to a recent study of the American religious landscape by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, the fastest-growing segment of the population are those who say they are unaffiliated with any particular faith.
Voices critical of organized religion in general and of the Christian faith in particular are gaining more and more hearers. Religious fundamentalism and its sometimes violent extremes are appealing to greater numbers in the developing world.
We may not even be aware of some of the ways that the world continues to influence us away from God, but they’re there. They may have crept up on us so slowly and so subtly that we may not have even noticed them, but they’re causing their damage, sometimes like termites gnawing away at the inside of the wood so as not to be seen until the structure collapses.
Lots of folks bought into the world’s values of consumerism and competition, so that it became all about me and the things I could possess and it didn’t matter who I stepped on to get them.
Many of us have become so busy earning money to supply our seemingly endless list of material possessions we believe we need, that we’ve neglected our own emotional and spiritual needs and the needs of others.
The real tragedy of all of this is that the world has been winning so many of us people of faith to its way of thinking that non-believers can look at the church and see virtually no difference between those who say they follow Jesus and those who don’t.
As I said, it’s easy to point to all the ways that the world seems to be winning in this battle. But I am not completely pessimistic and I certainly haven’t lost hope, because the promise we read today is as true now as it was when it was written:
…for whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith.
The good news in the midst of all of this bad news is that God has given us the resources to overcome the negative influences of the world and be restored to our relationship with him, with each other, and with the world as God wants it to be. And that resource is very simple, really. It’s called faith: “This is the victory that overcomes the world, our faith.”
And what does faith consist of? Again, it’s very simple: “Who is it that conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”
Faith means we believe that Jesus is the Son of God – that is, we believe that Jesus shows us everything we need to know about God. And if we have that faith, then we’ll love God and we’ll love our neighbors, and we’ll obey God instead of obeying the world.
The love born of faith counters the false love of the world. The world tells us that we should love ourselves most of all; that we should always put ourselves first and foremost.
But faith teaches us that while there’s nothing wrong with loving ourselves, we are to love God first and most of all, and then love our neighbors as ourselves. John says it’s really very simple: if you love the parents you will love the children; if you love God the Father, you will love God’s children. That basic kind of love for God and for our neighbors can be world-changing.
And the obedience born of faith is different from what the world teaches. The world says, “Do whatever you want as long as it doesn’t hurt someone else.” When we obey God, we don’t worry so much about what we want to do and we start trying to find out what it is that God wants us to do.
If you ever find yourself in one of those moments when the world is getting you down; when try as you might there’s no way you think you can win; just remember that there is a power at work in the world that has already overcome the power of evil. We have Jesus’ word on it. He said, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (Jn. 16:33).
And we tap into that overcoming power of Jesus when we have faith, when we love one another, and when we obey. What is it that the old song says, “Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.” That sounds like pretty good advice.
May 17, 2009
(Sixth Sunday of Easter)
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the parent loves the child. 2By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. 3For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome, 4for whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith. 5Who is it that conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
6This is the one who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not with the water only but with the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one that testifies, for the Spirit is the truth.
Every once in a while an injured or aging athlete attempts a comeback. Brett Favre, the former quarterback of the Green Bay Packers, came out of retirement last year to play for the New York Jets, and there’s a lot of talk right now that he may un-retire himself again this year to play for another team, maybe the Minnesota Vikings. A lot has to do with his injured shoulder.
Lance Armstrong, maybe the greatest cyclist of all time and 7-time champion of the Tour de France, is attempting his own comeback right now. As we speak, he’s competing in the Tour of Italy and preparing for another crack at the Tour de France at the age of 37, after being out of cycling for three and a half years.
Dave Dravecky, a pitcher for the San Francisco Giants in Major League baseball, gave us one of the most inspirational comebacks back in the 1980s. After a successful season in 1987, he was diagnosed with a cancerous tumor in his pitching arm in 1988. The tumor was removed and less than a year later he was pitching in the major leagues again, winning his first game back. But in the middle of his second game, the humerus bone in his arm snapped and his career was over. Dravecky is a very strong Christian and he’s done a lot of inspirational speaking about that whole comeback in the years since.
Even if an athlete’s try at a comeback isn’t successful, you have to admire them for at least trying. The odds against them are usually overwhelming, competing against athletes that sometimes are half their age.
They exhibit a faith that’s not unrelated to the kind of faith that we’re talking about in our reading today from 1 John 5 – a faith that “conquers [or overcomes] the world.”
That’s a powerful promise, isn’t it? Through faith in God we have the power to overcome the world, to conquer the world.
In the book of Acts the early Christians are accused of “turning the world upside down” (17:6). Ellsworth Kalas, one of the scholars on the Disciple Bible study videos, suggests that instead, the church was really taking a world that was already upside-down and turning it right-side up.
What did the author of 1 John mean by conquering the world? Was he suggesting that Christianity would conquer the world the way the Roman Empire had?
It’s true that by the time that the Emperor Constantine came along in the 4th century, he converted to Christianity and ended up making Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. So, in a way, Christianity did conquer the world, or at least that part of the world.
But I don’t think that’s the kind of conquering or overcoming that John is talking about here. I think he’s talking about an inward strength to overcome.
The Bible has what we might call a “love-hate’ relationship with the world. The Bible doesn’t see the created world as evil in itself, the way some early religions and philosophies, like Gnosticism, did. Remember, the story of creation in the book of Genesis declares the world and all that’s in it to be “good” in the eyes of God – and God saw all that he had created and said, “It is good.”
The beginning of the Gospel of John states that Jesus is the Word of God, the Logos, and that the Word was with God when everything was made in the beginning. Jesus would not be a part of creating anything that was bad or evil.
So the world and creation itself is good. But it has fallen under the influence of evil. The Bible describes this evil influence as the devil or Satan. This puts the world and God in tension. Satan is trying to turn the world against God. God is in the process of restoring the world to its original state of goodness with him. For that relationship to be restored, the evil influence of Satan in the world must be overcome.
And in the biblical story, human beings are caught in the middle – between good and evil. We are capable of great good and of appalling evil.
Even as great a person as the Apostle Paul could feel this tension in his own life. In Romans 7:15 he confesses: “I don’t understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.”
It’s not in today’s reading, but earlier in his letter, the author of 1 John lets us know that he doesn’t see much in the world that’s good: “For everything in the world – the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does – comes not from the Father but from the world” (2:16).
I know it’s popular nowadays to talk about what a sorry state the world’s in today. Probably every generation that’s ever lived has lamented how bad things are compared to the generation before.
It’s hard to deny that in the competition between God and the world, in many ways the world seems to be winning, especially here in the United States. Our rates of divorce, abortion, sexually-transmitted disease, spousal abuse, and crime are the highest or among the highest compared to other developed nations.
According to a recent study of the American religious landscape by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, the fastest-growing segment of the population are those who say they are unaffiliated with any particular faith.
Voices critical of organized religion in general and of the Christian faith in particular are gaining more and more hearers. Religious fundamentalism and its sometimes violent extremes are appealing to greater numbers in the developing world.
We may not even be aware of some of the ways that the world continues to influence us away from God, but they’re there. They may have crept up on us so slowly and so subtly that we may not have even noticed them, but they’re causing their damage, sometimes like termites gnawing away at the inside of the wood so as not to be seen until the structure collapses.
Lots of folks bought into the world’s values of consumerism and competition, so that it became all about me and the things I could possess and it didn’t matter who I stepped on to get them.
Many of us have become so busy earning money to supply our seemingly endless list of material possessions we believe we need, that we’ve neglected our own emotional and spiritual needs and the needs of others.
The real tragedy of all of this is that the world has been winning so many of us people of faith to its way of thinking that non-believers can look at the church and see virtually no difference between those who say they follow Jesus and those who don’t.
As I said, it’s easy to point to all the ways that the world seems to be winning in this battle. But I am not completely pessimistic and I certainly haven’t lost hope, because the promise we read today is as true now as it was when it was written:
…for whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith.
The good news in the midst of all of this bad news is that God has given us the resources to overcome the negative influences of the world and be restored to our relationship with him, with each other, and with the world as God wants it to be. And that resource is very simple, really. It’s called faith: “This is the victory that overcomes the world, our faith.”
And what does faith consist of? Again, it’s very simple: “Who is it that conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”
Faith means we believe that Jesus is the Son of God – that is, we believe that Jesus shows us everything we need to know about God. And if we have that faith, then we’ll love God and we’ll love our neighbors, and we’ll obey God instead of obeying the world.
The love born of faith counters the false love of the world. The world tells us that we should love ourselves most of all; that we should always put ourselves first and foremost.
But faith teaches us that while there’s nothing wrong with loving ourselves, we are to love God first and most of all, and then love our neighbors as ourselves. John says it’s really very simple: if you love the parents you will love the children; if you love God the Father, you will love God’s children. That basic kind of love for God and for our neighbors can be world-changing.
And the obedience born of faith is different from what the world teaches. The world says, “Do whatever you want as long as it doesn’t hurt someone else.” When we obey God, we don’t worry so much about what we want to do and we start trying to find out what it is that God wants us to do.
If you ever find yourself in one of those moments when the world is getting you down; when try as you might there’s no way you think you can win; just remember that there is a power at work in the world that has already overcome the power of evil. We have Jesus’ word on it. He said, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (Jn. 16:33).
And we tap into that overcoming power of Jesus when we have faith, when we love one another, and when we obey. What is it that the old song says, “Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.” That sounds like pretty good advice.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Sermon: "Growing Love in the Family"
John 15:1-8
May 10, 2009
(Mother’s Day/Fifth Sunday of Easter)
I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. 2He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. 3You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. 4Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. 5I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. 6Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.
At Hampton Court Palace and Gardens near London, there is a grapevine, known simply as the “Great Vine,” which is almost 250 years old. It’s the oldest and largest known vine in the world, planted for King George III before the Revolutionary War. This grapevine has one root which is almost three feet thick, and some of the branches are over 120 feet long. Despite its age, the vine produces several hundred pounds of sweet black grapes each year. Although some of the smaller branches are hundreds of feet from the main stem, they still bear the sweet and delicious fruit because they are connected to the vine. Life flows from that single root and throughout the vine, bringing nourishment and strength to each of the branches.
Today is Mother’s Day and May is Christian Home Month. Although Jesus uses the image of the vine and the branches to talk about how individual Christians can live and grow by staying connected to him, the “true vine,” I believe it also gives us a way of thinking about how families can grow together and in the faith by staying connected to the true vine, just like those vines on the “Great Vine” in England.
Even if we know don’t know anything about growing grapes, we know from Horticulture 101 that a branch connected to the vine grows and flourishes; but if it is separated or cut off from its source of life, it soon withers and dies. So let’s explore this image of vine and branches as a picture of how families can grow in love and faith, and let’s do it in terms of three words that all start with the letter “A”: Abide, Abound, and Ask. The first word is “Abide” …
1) Abide in Me
“Abide in me,” Jesus says in verse 4, “as I abide in you.” He clearly puts a lot of importance on this idea of abiding, since he uses that word 11 times in the first 11 verses of John 15. To “abide” means to stay, to dwell – to have a vital and life-giving connection. By using the analogy of the branch abiding in the vine, Jesus is suggesting that members of a family can stay connected to one another by staying connected to Jesus, maintaining an intimate, personal relationship with him in unbroken fellowship.
Every family would like to have that kind of connection to Christ. But abiding in that kind of close relationship with Christ doesn’t just happen by accident. It takes careful attention and devotion, just like any worthwhile relationship. Let me suggest three ways families can abide in Jesus as the “True Vine.” First…
Abide in the Word.
In verse 7, Jesus says, “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you…” To stay close to Jesus we have to take time regularly to be in God’s Word.
Few things can help a family stay connected to each other and to God more than a time of family Bible study and devotions. Moms and dads, take time to read and study the Word together – at home, in a Bible study here at church, in Sunday School, or start a Bible study in your neighborhood.
And parents and grandparents, take time to read and talk about the Bible with your children -- maybe at dinnertime or bedtime or both. Make sure your kids are in Sunday School and VBS and the other times they learn about the Bible.
The next way we can abide in the True Vine is to…
Abide in Prayer.
Remember the old saying. “The family that prays together stays together.” It’s kind of trite, but having regular times when the family joins together in prayer – again, maybe at mealtimes and bedtime – can help you grow and become all that God wants you to be as a family.
Prayer is two-way communication with God. We talk and God listens; God talks and we listen. No relationship can survive if the parties never communicate. Our life in the Vine requires that we spend regular time in prayer. I will have a little more to say about the power of prayer in a few minutes, but again, let me speak frankly with you: if you are not spending time daily in prayer, you are in danger of becoming detached from the Vine. The third way to abide in the True Vine is to…
Abide in Love.
Listen again to Jesus in verse 9: “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love.” And then in verse 10, he tells us how to abide in his love: “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.” We abide in Christ’s love by keeping God’s commandments. Jesus always summarized God’s commands by boiling them down to love. Which were the greatest of the commandments? “Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.” What is Christ’s new command (13:34)? “Love one another as I have loved you.” When we follow Christ’s commands, we abide in his love.
The second “A” word is “Abound” …
2) Abound in Me
Jesus doesn’t use the word “abound” in this passage, but abundance is implied in the two verses (5 and 8) where Jesus tells his disciples that they will “bear much fruit.” Not just a little fruit, but much fruit. An abundance of fruit. Do you remember back in John 10 when we looked at Jesus’ saying, “I am the gate for the sheep,” Jesus said, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” Jesus doesn’t just promise us life; he promises life that abounds, that overflows, that’s way more than we could ever hope or dream for. When we abide in the True Vine, Jesus says we are going to abound in him. First, we will…
Abound in love.
In Christ we will have more love than we know what to do with, both flowing in, from God and from our brothers and sisters in Christ, but also flowing out, to God, to our spouses, to our children, to our neighbors, and to all those God gives us to love.
Second, we will…
Abound in joy.
In verse 11, Jesus says, “I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.” In Christ we will have more joy than we have ever experienced, because we will be living fully in God’s will and purpose for us, and that’s where real joy and peace come from. Third, as we stay connected to the True Vine we will…
Abound in fruit.
The ultimate reason we are connected to the Vine is not for our own benefit, but for God’s – to bring honor and glory to God’s name by bearing good fruit for God. Jesus says in verse 8, “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.” In Galatians 5, Paul calls it the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control. Apart from Christ we can do nothing. But abiding in Christ, we can bear more fruit than we would have ever thought possible. Those 500-pound pumpkins on the Miracle-Gro commercials are nothing compared to the fruit we’re going to bear!
The third and last “A” word is “Ask” …
3) Ask in My Name
“Ask for whatever you wish,” Jesus invites in verse 7, “and it will be done for you.” And in verse 16 he says, “The Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name.” That sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? We may be thinking of mansions, money, and Mercedes. But I don’t think that’s what Jesus means by, “Ask for whatever you wish.” But still, it’s a tremendous promise – the promise of the power of prayer. If you’re abiding in a life of prayer, then ask for strength to get through an impossible day … it’s yours! Ask for patience to meet a thousand unyielding demands … it’s yours! Ask for guidance as you face a real “turning point” decision .. it’s yours! Ask for forgiveness for the real pain you’ve caused someone you care about deeply … it’s yours! These are the kinds of things we will ask for in Jesus’ name when we are abiding in him and abounding in him. These are the gifts Jesus can give. These are the gifts that really count. Jesus can give us the gifts that the world can never touch and that we can’t live without and wouldn’t want to live without: things like love, joy, peace, hope, faith.
“I am the vine. You are the branches. Abide in me and bear much fruit.” It’s really quite simple, yet profound enough to keep us growing for a lifetime. Amen.
May 10, 2009
(Mother’s Day/Fifth Sunday of Easter)
I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. 2He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. 3You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. 4Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. 5I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. 6Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.
At Hampton Court Palace and Gardens near London, there is a grapevine, known simply as the “Great Vine,” which is almost 250 years old. It’s the oldest and largest known vine in the world, planted for King George III before the Revolutionary War. This grapevine has one root which is almost three feet thick, and some of the branches are over 120 feet long. Despite its age, the vine produces several hundred pounds of sweet black grapes each year. Although some of the smaller branches are hundreds of feet from the main stem, they still bear the sweet and delicious fruit because they are connected to the vine. Life flows from that single root and throughout the vine, bringing nourishment and strength to each of the branches.
Today is Mother’s Day and May is Christian Home Month. Although Jesus uses the image of the vine and the branches to talk about how individual Christians can live and grow by staying connected to him, the “true vine,” I believe it also gives us a way of thinking about how families can grow together and in the faith by staying connected to the true vine, just like those vines on the “Great Vine” in England.
Even if we know don’t know anything about growing grapes, we know from Horticulture 101 that a branch connected to the vine grows and flourishes; but if it is separated or cut off from its source of life, it soon withers and dies. So let’s explore this image of vine and branches as a picture of how families can grow in love and faith, and let’s do it in terms of three words that all start with the letter “A”: Abide, Abound, and Ask. The first word is “Abide” …
1) Abide in Me
“Abide in me,” Jesus says in verse 4, “as I abide in you.” He clearly puts a lot of importance on this idea of abiding, since he uses that word 11 times in the first 11 verses of John 15. To “abide” means to stay, to dwell – to have a vital and life-giving connection. By using the analogy of the branch abiding in the vine, Jesus is suggesting that members of a family can stay connected to one another by staying connected to Jesus, maintaining an intimate, personal relationship with him in unbroken fellowship.
Every family would like to have that kind of connection to Christ. But abiding in that kind of close relationship with Christ doesn’t just happen by accident. It takes careful attention and devotion, just like any worthwhile relationship. Let me suggest three ways families can abide in Jesus as the “True Vine.” First…
Abide in the Word.
In verse 7, Jesus says, “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you…” To stay close to Jesus we have to take time regularly to be in God’s Word.
Few things can help a family stay connected to each other and to God more than a time of family Bible study and devotions. Moms and dads, take time to read and study the Word together – at home, in a Bible study here at church, in Sunday School, or start a Bible study in your neighborhood.
And parents and grandparents, take time to read and talk about the Bible with your children -- maybe at dinnertime or bedtime or both. Make sure your kids are in Sunday School and VBS and the other times they learn about the Bible.
The next way we can abide in the True Vine is to…
Abide in Prayer.
Remember the old saying. “The family that prays together stays together.” It’s kind of trite, but having regular times when the family joins together in prayer – again, maybe at mealtimes and bedtime – can help you grow and become all that God wants you to be as a family.
Prayer is two-way communication with God. We talk and God listens; God talks and we listen. No relationship can survive if the parties never communicate. Our life in the Vine requires that we spend regular time in prayer. I will have a little more to say about the power of prayer in a few minutes, but again, let me speak frankly with you: if you are not spending time daily in prayer, you are in danger of becoming detached from the Vine. The third way to abide in the True Vine is to…
Abide in Love.
Listen again to Jesus in verse 9: “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love.” And then in verse 10, he tells us how to abide in his love: “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.” We abide in Christ’s love by keeping God’s commandments. Jesus always summarized God’s commands by boiling them down to love. Which were the greatest of the commandments? “Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.” What is Christ’s new command (13:34)? “Love one another as I have loved you.” When we follow Christ’s commands, we abide in his love.
The second “A” word is “Abound” …
2) Abound in Me
Jesus doesn’t use the word “abound” in this passage, but abundance is implied in the two verses (5 and 8) where Jesus tells his disciples that they will “bear much fruit.” Not just a little fruit, but much fruit. An abundance of fruit. Do you remember back in John 10 when we looked at Jesus’ saying, “I am the gate for the sheep,” Jesus said, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” Jesus doesn’t just promise us life; he promises life that abounds, that overflows, that’s way more than we could ever hope or dream for. When we abide in the True Vine, Jesus says we are going to abound in him. First, we will…
Abound in love.
In Christ we will have more love than we know what to do with, both flowing in, from God and from our brothers and sisters in Christ, but also flowing out, to God, to our spouses, to our children, to our neighbors, and to all those God gives us to love.
Second, we will…
Abound in joy.
In verse 11, Jesus says, “I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.” In Christ we will have more joy than we have ever experienced, because we will be living fully in God’s will and purpose for us, and that’s where real joy and peace come from. Third, as we stay connected to the True Vine we will…
Abound in fruit.
The ultimate reason we are connected to the Vine is not for our own benefit, but for God’s – to bring honor and glory to God’s name by bearing good fruit for God. Jesus says in verse 8, “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.” In Galatians 5, Paul calls it the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control. Apart from Christ we can do nothing. But abiding in Christ, we can bear more fruit than we would have ever thought possible. Those 500-pound pumpkins on the Miracle-Gro commercials are nothing compared to the fruit we’re going to bear!
The third and last “A” word is “Ask” …
3) Ask in My Name
“Ask for whatever you wish,” Jesus invites in verse 7, “and it will be done for you.” And in verse 16 he says, “The Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name.” That sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? We may be thinking of mansions, money, and Mercedes. But I don’t think that’s what Jesus means by, “Ask for whatever you wish.” But still, it’s a tremendous promise – the promise of the power of prayer. If you’re abiding in a life of prayer, then ask for strength to get through an impossible day … it’s yours! Ask for patience to meet a thousand unyielding demands … it’s yours! Ask for guidance as you face a real “turning point” decision .. it’s yours! Ask for forgiveness for the real pain you’ve caused someone you care about deeply … it’s yours! These are the kinds of things we will ask for in Jesus’ name when we are abiding in him and abounding in him. These are the gifts Jesus can give. These are the gifts that really count. Jesus can give us the gifts that the world can never touch and that we can’t live without and wouldn’t want to live without: things like love, joy, peace, hope, faith.
“I am the vine. You are the branches. Abide in me and bear much fruit.” It’s really quite simple, yet profound enough to keep us growing for a lifetime. Amen.
Monday, May 04, 2009
Sermon: "The Good Shepherd"
Psalm 23
May 3, 2009
(Fourth Sunday of Easter)
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
2He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters;
3he restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake.
4Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff— they comfort me.
5You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
6Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long.
Some people prefer new things. They want the latest in technology – computer, IPhone, flat-screen TV. They like to drive new cars and wear the latest fashions. If it’s more than 15 minutes old, it’s hopelessly out-of-date.
Other folks appreciate things that have aged a little: classic cars, historic homes, oldies on the radio, and clothes that are well-worn and comfortable.
It’s that way in church too. For some, church must be on the cutting edge – music, lighting, drama, video screens. The pastor preaches on a stage that looks like a Hollywood set.
For others, like us here at First Church, I guess, the time-tested and familiar are preferred – an historic sanctuary, stained glass, pipe organ, hymns.
There are certain old movies that when I’m channel-surfing and I come across them, I just have to stop and watch, no matter how many times I’ve seen them. Do you do that?
For example, the other night I came across “The Natural,” the baseball movie starring Robert Redford. Redford plays Roy Hobbs, a Nebraska farm kid with great natural talent, but who is taken out of baseball until he’s middle-aged. He has one season to prove that he could have been one of the greatest players who ever lived. I had to stop and watch it until that final scene when he hits the game-winning home run and the lights explode and he rounds the bases in a shower of sparks. I never get tired of that movie.
There are passages in the Bible that do that same thing for me. No matter how many times I’ve read them, they’re like an old friend that I always have time for. Stories like the Prodigal Son, the Beatitudes, the Samaritan woman at the well, the disciples on the road to Emmaus.
The 23rd Psalm is one of those passages for me. I don’t know how many funerals I’ve done over the years, but I’ve read this psalm at nearly every one of them, and I never get tired of it and the families who’ve lost a loved one never seem to tire of it either. Yet, I don’t preach on it very much. I can only think of one other time, maybe 20 years ago, when I preached a sermon on the 23rd Psalm.
Maybe this psalm is such a favorite because it creates such vivid images in our minds. “The Lord is my shepherd.” I don’t know about you, but when I hear those words, I picture the stained glass window that was behind the pulpit and above the choir in the church where I grew up. Every Sunday in church I spent an hour contemplating Jesus, the Good Shepherd, leading his little flock with his shepherd’s staff in his left hand and a little lamb cradled safely in his right arm.
Throughout the Bible the shepherd image is used to describe God. The shepherd is the one who feeds the flock, who defends it against enemies and predators, who seeks the lost, and who binds the wounds of those that are injured.
The shepherd image was a beautiful way of describing to the people of that time, who encountered sheep and shepherds every day, the care and love that God has for people.
And the 23rd Psalm makes it so personal. “The Lord is my shepherd.” The Good Shepherd is never so concerned about the whole flock that he loses sight of the one sheep.
It was the shepherd’s job to feed and water the flock. The psalm expresses it so beautifully. The shepherd provides everything we need. He makes us lie down in green pastures and leads us beside still waters. He restores our souls.
It sounds strange that the shepherd would have to make the sheep lie down in green pastures, but sheep are by nature skittish animals. They won’t lie down unless they feel absolutely safe.
There’s a message here for us modern people who sometimes find it hard to slow down, relax, and allow God to restore our souls. I remember visiting someone in the hospital and they told me that they had wanted to take some time off from work but they were just too busy, so they guessed that their being in the hospital was maybe a way of God making them take some time off.
Allow the Good Shepherd to lead you into green pastures and beside still waters – don’t make him force you!
“He leads me in paths of righteousness (or right paths) for his name’s sake.” I understand that to mean that God leads us on the way toward happiness and fulfillment – the right path – because that’s what God has promised.
The sheep trust the shepherd to lead them on the safe path to green pastures or to the safety of the fold. We can trust God to lead us on the path that returns us to a right relationship with him.
Life holds the possibility of following many paths. Some people believe that it doesn’t really matter which path you take or which shepherd you follow. Let me urge you to follow the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ.
Then there’s this striking image: “Even though I walk through the darkest valley (or the “valley of the shadow of death”), I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and staff – they comfort me.”
We’ve all been in that valley many times: the valley of deep darkness; times of utter hopelessness and despair. It doesn’t take you long to think of yours. There are challenges in life that sometimes seem worse than death itself. Those are the times we walk through the valley of the shadow of death. But God is with us. We’re not alone.
The rod and the staff were the two indispensable tools of the shepherd. The rod was a short, knobby stick that was used to throw at predators to protect the flock.
The staff is that long stick with the crook at the end that was used to guide the sheep or rescue them from dangerous situations. They are both symbols of the shepherd’s care – both the protection and the comfort and security we experience in God’s loving care.
In the last part of the psalm the imagery changes from a shepherd and sheep to a host and guest. God is a gracious host who prepares a sumptuous feast for her guests. Oil and wine flow freely with the host’s generosity.
This is all provided in the presence of those who would wish to do the guest harm. That’s important to notice. Nowhere in the 23rd Psalm does it say that our enemies disappear or are destroyed. The forces of death still cast their shadows. The evil powers continue to lurk in the darkness.
But the psalmist expresses extreme confidence in God’s presence. Faith is the power that sustains us, even in the face of danger and threat. God doesn’t always remove our enemies, but God teaches us to live unafraid and unthreatened.
It’s said this passage was a favorite of Christians in London during the bombings of World War II. As they gathered in shelters to celebrate the Lord’s Supper, they could proclaim with confidence: “Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies.”
The psalm concludes with an affirmation of the eternal nature of God’s care. God, our Good Shepherd, our gracious and merciful host, will be with us throughout our lifelong journey; and we will be welcome guests in God’s house for all eternity.
There’s a story about Charles Laughton, the great British actor, who was at a dinner party. After the dinner they gathered in the living room. The host called upon him to recite the 23rd Psalm. He said he would. The guests were enthralled by his dramatic rendering of the familiar words.
Then they went around the room and others were invited to offer something. They took turns reciting poetry or passages from literature. There was an old woman sitting in the corner. She happened to be the aunt of the host and was staying with him. She was asked if she would recite something. She was nearly deaf and had been dozing off, so she hadn't heard what had gone before.
She stood up and started to recite the 23rd Psalm. People at first were embarrassed. It was an awkward situation to have her recite the same psalm as the great actor Charles Laughton. Before she finished, though, people were caught up in her recitation. Some began to weep. It was a tour de force.
Later somebody asked Mr. Laughton why her reading was so moving when she didn't have any of the skills that he had as an actor. He said, "I know the psalm. She knows the shepherd."
May we all know the Good Shepherd. Amen.
May 3, 2009
(Fourth Sunday of Easter)
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
2He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters;
3he restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake.
4Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff— they comfort me.
5You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
6Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long.
Some people prefer new things. They want the latest in technology – computer, IPhone, flat-screen TV. They like to drive new cars and wear the latest fashions. If it’s more than 15 minutes old, it’s hopelessly out-of-date.
Other folks appreciate things that have aged a little: classic cars, historic homes, oldies on the radio, and clothes that are well-worn and comfortable.
It’s that way in church too. For some, church must be on the cutting edge – music, lighting, drama, video screens. The pastor preaches on a stage that looks like a Hollywood set.
For others, like us here at First Church, I guess, the time-tested and familiar are preferred – an historic sanctuary, stained glass, pipe organ, hymns.
There are certain old movies that when I’m channel-surfing and I come across them, I just have to stop and watch, no matter how many times I’ve seen them. Do you do that?
For example, the other night I came across “The Natural,” the baseball movie starring Robert Redford. Redford plays Roy Hobbs, a Nebraska farm kid with great natural talent, but who is taken out of baseball until he’s middle-aged. He has one season to prove that he could have been one of the greatest players who ever lived. I had to stop and watch it until that final scene when he hits the game-winning home run and the lights explode and he rounds the bases in a shower of sparks. I never get tired of that movie.
There are passages in the Bible that do that same thing for me. No matter how many times I’ve read them, they’re like an old friend that I always have time for. Stories like the Prodigal Son, the Beatitudes, the Samaritan woman at the well, the disciples on the road to Emmaus.
The 23rd Psalm is one of those passages for me. I don’t know how many funerals I’ve done over the years, but I’ve read this psalm at nearly every one of them, and I never get tired of it and the families who’ve lost a loved one never seem to tire of it either. Yet, I don’t preach on it very much. I can only think of one other time, maybe 20 years ago, when I preached a sermon on the 23rd Psalm.
Maybe this psalm is such a favorite because it creates such vivid images in our minds. “The Lord is my shepherd.” I don’t know about you, but when I hear those words, I picture the stained glass window that was behind the pulpit and above the choir in the church where I grew up. Every Sunday in church I spent an hour contemplating Jesus, the Good Shepherd, leading his little flock with his shepherd’s staff in his left hand and a little lamb cradled safely in his right arm.
Throughout the Bible the shepherd image is used to describe God. The shepherd is the one who feeds the flock, who defends it against enemies and predators, who seeks the lost, and who binds the wounds of those that are injured.
The shepherd image was a beautiful way of describing to the people of that time, who encountered sheep and shepherds every day, the care and love that God has for people.
And the 23rd Psalm makes it so personal. “The Lord is my shepherd.” The Good Shepherd is never so concerned about the whole flock that he loses sight of the one sheep.
It was the shepherd’s job to feed and water the flock. The psalm expresses it so beautifully. The shepherd provides everything we need. He makes us lie down in green pastures and leads us beside still waters. He restores our souls.
It sounds strange that the shepherd would have to make the sheep lie down in green pastures, but sheep are by nature skittish animals. They won’t lie down unless they feel absolutely safe.
There’s a message here for us modern people who sometimes find it hard to slow down, relax, and allow God to restore our souls. I remember visiting someone in the hospital and they told me that they had wanted to take some time off from work but they were just too busy, so they guessed that their being in the hospital was maybe a way of God making them take some time off.
Allow the Good Shepherd to lead you into green pastures and beside still waters – don’t make him force you!
“He leads me in paths of righteousness (or right paths) for his name’s sake.” I understand that to mean that God leads us on the way toward happiness and fulfillment – the right path – because that’s what God has promised.
The sheep trust the shepherd to lead them on the safe path to green pastures or to the safety of the fold. We can trust God to lead us on the path that returns us to a right relationship with him.
Life holds the possibility of following many paths. Some people believe that it doesn’t really matter which path you take or which shepherd you follow. Let me urge you to follow the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ.
Then there’s this striking image: “Even though I walk through the darkest valley (or the “valley of the shadow of death”), I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and staff – they comfort me.”
We’ve all been in that valley many times: the valley of deep darkness; times of utter hopelessness and despair. It doesn’t take you long to think of yours. There are challenges in life that sometimes seem worse than death itself. Those are the times we walk through the valley of the shadow of death. But God is with us. We’re not alone.
The rod and the staff were the two indispensable tools of the shepherd. The rod was a short, knobby stick that was used to throw at predators to protect the flock.
The staff is that long stick with the crook at the end that was used to guide the sheep or rescue them from dangerous situations. They are both symbols of the shepherd’s care – both the protection and the comfort and security we experience in God’s loving care.
In the last part of the psalm the imagery changes from a shepherd and sheep to a host and guest. God is a gracious host who prepares a sumptuous feast for her guests. Oil and wine flow freely with the host’s generosity.
This is all provided in the presence of those who would wish to do the guest harm. That’s important to notice. Nowhere in the 23rd Psalm does it say that our enemies disappear or are destroyed. The forces of death still cast their shadows. The evil powers continue to lurk in the darkness.
But the psalmist expresses extreme confidence in God’s presence. Faith is the power that sustains us, even in the face of danger and threat. God doesn’t always remove our enemies, but God teaches us to live unafraid and unthreatened.
It’s said this passage was a favorite of Christians in London during the bombings of World War II. As they gathered in shelters to celebrate the Lord’s Supper, they could proclaim with confidence: “Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies.”
The psalm concludes with an affirmation of the eternal nature of God’s care. God, our Good Shepherd, our gracious and merciful host, will be with us throughout our lifelong journey; and we will be welcome guests in God’s house for all eternity.
There’s a story about Charles Laughton, the great British actor, who was at a dinner party. After the dinner they gathered in the living room. The host called upon him to recite the 23rd Psalm. He said he would. The guests were enthralled by his dramatic rendering of the familiar words.
Then they went around the room and others were invited to offer something. They took turns reciting poetry or passages from literature. There was an old woman sitting in the corner. She happened to be the aunt of the host and was staying with him. She was asked if she would recite something. She was nearly deaf and had been dozing off, so she hadn't heard what had gone before.
She stood up and started to recite the 23rd Psalm. People at first were embarrassed. It was an awkward situation to have her recite the same psalm as the great actor Charles Laughton. Before she finished, though, people were caught up in her recitation. Some began to weep. It was a tour de force.
Later somebody asked Mr. Laughton why her reading was so moving when she didn't have any of the skills that he had as an actor. He said, "I know the psalm. She knows the shepherd."
May we all know the Good Shepherd. Amen.
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