Papagayo Ponderings

Picking up those good vibrations!

2012-01-23T09:57:00.001-08:00

Little survey. How many here believe in a God, in some form, who is essentially the creator of all that is? How many of you believe that there is more to reality than what we experience and measure in height, width, and depth. The notion of spirit…something other than what we could have scientific knowledge. And since spirit is unseen, none of us has ever seen it. No one has seen God. And that my friends is a huge stumbling block to faith. And then assuming the Universe as Spirit, God, is out there and among us and actually loving and sustaining us… how would we go about communicating with such a benevolent force… and then if successful, how would we talk about that experience to a world in which seeing is believing, in which we look before we leap, in which we watch our backs, in which we read the signs...

It is interesting to note, that absolutely no one at all in the history of the biblical record, EVER, gets to SEE God. Like face to face… and like most of us probably, Moses really wanted to. But clearly THAT wasn't going to happen.

Exodus 33:20 I will not let you see my face, because no one can see me and stay alive...

but here is a place beside me where you can stand on a rock. When the dazzling light of my presence passes by, I will put you in an opening in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will take my hand away, and you will see my back but not my face.” You know, that would make a good name for something… a song… If you really must know, if you really must prod… You will find me chillin' on the "Backside of God"

So if we can conclude that God, according to our best theological witness, just doesn’t appear to people visually. So how does God get our attention. Back during the Reformation in the 1500's, Martin Luther insisted that God is a “deos loquens”, a speaking God.

Compare God’s words to Moses... no one can see me and stay alive...

to Isaiah 55:3... “Listen... so that you may live.” We are not allowed to see, but we are encouraged to listen.

You heard read a great story from the Bible in which God gets the attention of young Samuel... who goes on to become a great leader in ancient Israel. His mentor was the priest Eli, who was getting old now. And the scene has Eli asleep in his own room there at the church and Samuel asleep in the sanctuary. Which some of you are struggling with this morning.

It says the Lord called Samuel. We don’t know what it sounded like, how it happened but Samuel heard it, popped out of bed and immediately ran to Eli’s room. Here I am, you called. No I didn’t call you, go back to bed.

vs 6-7 The Lord called Samuel again. The boy did not know that it was the Lord, because the Lord had never spoken to him before. So he got up, went to Eli, and said, You called me, and here I am.”

How come he didn’t recognize God’s voice, why did he think it was somebody or something else. Simple... because the Lord had never spoken to him before. How was he to know.

Some of you here today, maybe most of you hear today, are saying the same thing. You know, I don’t think the Lord has spoken to me before either... and if he did I would probably wouldn’t have guessed it was God. I’d just figure it was bad pizza or something.

But the encouraging thing here, is that God doesn’t give up. He keeps calling him. A second time, a third time. At last, Eli, who did have a relationship with God... recognizes what’s going on... and is able to give him some direction. But it even took the experienced old veteran of spiritual matters three times to get it. If it happens again, here’s what you say. Speak Lord, your servant is listening.”

The Lord calls, Samuel is ready... and says, Speak Lord, your servant is listening... and God gives him a word for the whole people. The truth is God is regularly trying to get your attention too. Maybe right now this morning he is calling you by name... that’s why you’re here, God wants to say something. But notice in the story of Samuel that there is no Word from the Lord until what. Samuel had a better idea what he was listening for... and then he listened.

There is a story of an old indian chief who was in New York City for a conference. He was walking with some business men... when all of a sudden he stopped and said do you hear that.... you mean the traffic and horns and sirens and people... no, no, I hear a cricket. How is that possible? There is so much commotion, its so noisy out here. I’ll show you. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a handful of change. Held it out and dropped it on the sidewalk. Immediately every head in the vicinity whipped around and looked. You see, it all depends on what you’re listening for.

There are almost 800 references in the Bible about listening for a word from God. Clearly one of the great theological dimensions of who God is and what God does is sound.

I mean from the very beginning of Genesis, the creation of the world was a speech event. And God said, let there be... and there was.

According to Genesis God created the world from sound. And what is sound? Waves, Vibrations. Today, celluar biologists find themselves agreeing with this ancient metaphor that the world was created from sound. They say all living, biological beings are basically moving energy. Not only does the world around us hum with the sounds of life, but your genes, your liver, your brain waves, every one of your cells vibrates. We have huge satellite operations that do nothing but listen to the vibrations of outerspace. Vibrations are everywhere.

We had a little deaf foster daughter for a few years and one of the ways to get her attention if she is busy doing something is to stomp on the floor. She hears the call through the vibrations on the floor.

To hear God speak is in the same way to feel his vibrations internally, auditorially, emotionally, spiritually. You feel the vibes as they used to say in the 70's. You ever use that phrase? Could it be that God is the ultimate source of the vibes. I think so.

I also learned through the experience of our foster daughter, that the deaf community enjoys music and dancing... and that surprised me... but they listen to music which uses a heavy bass beat... the vibrations of the sounds are felt internally. That’s what music is at its base. A set of vibrations.

That’s what make those sub-woofers so popular in the cars of teen-agers... they crank em up and they can actually feel the music... the whole car vibrates... heck... my whole house vibrates as they drive by.

My favorite part of organ music in the church used to be those low tones that make your chest vibrate. It was like I could physically feel the music.

And think about it, we often use musical phrases to describe relationships... phrases like being “in tune” with somebody else who thinks like we do. Or we’re on the same wave length. We talk about harmonious relationships. Or if we are just not quite at the same place we say we march to the beat of different drummers. God is forever trying to get us on the same wave length that he is on. One which says the most important things in life are not things. They are those which you can’t see... which you can only experience, sense, feel the vibrations... 2 Cor. 4:18.. “For we fix our attention, not on things that are seen, but on things that are unseen. What can be seen lasts only for a time, but what cannot be seen lasts forever.” The Bible calls it spirit. The spiritual. John 3:5 Jesus said, I am telling you the truth, no one can enter the Kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. A person is born physically of human parents, but he is born spiritually of the Spirit.”

Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, says the LORD of hosts.

Zech. 4:6

“God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth."

John 4:24

“The wind blows wherever it wishes; you hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. It is like that with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” John 3:8

Jesus is reported to have said to Governor Pilate of Rome just before he was sentenced to die, “My kingdom does not belong to this world.” Our belief and conviction that that is indeed true... that there is more to reality than this often bitter and petty world around us is at the very heart and soul of what it means to be a Christian. To be Jewish, to be Muslim, to be Buddhist… or your own homemade flavor… the belief that there is more to reality than meets the eye. Paul was way blunt the way he put it to the Corinthians... “If our hope in Christ is good for this life only and no more, then we deserve more pity than anyone else in the world.” 15:17

In other words if this is all there is... if what you see is what you get, if there is no spiritual dimension to life... we are fools. Anybody here like playing the fool... I don’t. But if you live your life, like something is true, but in reality it is not true at all… you are a fool. So my whole life I am asking what is true… really true… about everything that is here and why it is here and what is my role in this huge amazing miracle of self conscious human life in a most spectacular three dimensional total experience. At sunset last night on the hill, we wanted to just applaud… God put on another show full of amazing beauty and creativity. How creative do you have to be to come up with the idea of planet earth? Don't get me started.

A number of years ago there were parts of the South that were wet and parts that were dry. Well there was this one county that had been dry but now was in the process of becoming wet. And there was this tavern owner who came to town and started building a tavern so that when it became legal to serve alcohol he would be set and already have a business going.

Well the Biblebelt Christians had their own ideas and didn’t want to see this tavern go up and so they got organized and held an all night prayer vigil asking for God’s help and that he would somehow intervene. A couple of weeks later there was a massive storm, as we regularly see on the news in that part of the country... thunder and lightening. Well a bolt of lightning hit that structure that was being built and it burned to the ground.

So what does the tavern owner do. He hires a lawyer and they sue the Christians. The Christians in turn hirer a lawyer and say... we weren’t responsible. When it came to trial the judge began the hearing with these words...

I don’t know how this trial is going to come out, but going in we certainly know one thing... the tavern owner believes in prayer... and the Christians do not.

It is now well documented by sociologists that our world can no longer be categorized as being in the "modern era" as it has been for the last 500 years. We are now in what era? Post- Modern. One of the heresy’s of the modern age we now know is the notion that the trees move the wind. That its the physical, rational, visible world which has all the power. Today, scientists, physicists, astronomists, physicians are all concluding that is not the case. There is more to life than meets the eye… like sound waves, vibrations calling in the night… the Spirit of God. That passage from Exodus Exodus 33:20 I will not let you see my face, because no one can see me and stay alive...

Why… maybe because it takes being dead to see God… but for now, alive in these present moments… we have glimpses, and breakthroughs, and foretastes of the feast to come… every day listening for the voice of God. Maybe the Beach Boys had it right… we can be picking up those good vibrations…

God vibrations a happenin' with us every day!

God is like a giant elephant in the sky?

2011-12-23T15:27:00.000-08:00

We continue our sermon series… Do you see what I see on the character of God. What are the metaphors and illustrations that best capture for you… what God is really like? Tradition has tended to give us this picture of God as a ruling monarch, king, judge, lawgiver, enforcer of the law, who requires confession, sacrifice, and/or penance in order to atone for our shortcomings. I’ve tried to show these last couple of weeks why that’s not what I see when I look at God. The model of God as Divine Lover is much more consistent with my own experience, my study of the scriptures, and I think the central message of Jesus.

But for most of my faith journey I have tried to have it both ways… a world view in which God has particular expectations and requirements, there will be a final judgment where I will be held accountable… and in that system God has a disposition of pretty regular displeasure because everyday I sin and fall short of the glory of God… but behind it all God is a God of love and in order to love me… he had to make up for my sinful nature and through that love then sacrificed his own son, because if he didn’t, the life and reality which God designed would require my death as a result of the choices I have and will continue to make in the future. I knew well the verse that reminded me, the wages of sin is death.

And I have come to a point in my faith life and my scholarly study of the Scriptures, and many new insights into the life and message of Jesus and through our increasing understanding of our universe in the 21^st century… I want to stop and ask as did our brother Martin Luther… what does that mean? Why is death the wages of sin… and what does that say about the character of our God? And what did the people who first wrote that think that it meant? What was their world view and what was the character of their God and experiences with the sacred?

And at this point I am persuaded to believe that you can’t have it both ways. God has to be leaning one way or the other. God requires sacrifice in order to be assuaged of his righteous indignation or God just loves, unconditionally, grace-filled, completely, no strings attached, just because that is who God is and that is who I am and that is who you are.

But then how do we build a systematic theology out of that? When most of the Christian tradition and hymns and ancient creeds, and church language revolves around a God who requires sacrifice. Who designed a life for us with such a stringent set of requirements that no person who has ever lived, short of God’s own son, has ever been able to measure up? That is why it has always been easier for people to describe what God isn’t than what God is. Its always been easier for people to agree on what God isn’t than what God is.

The problem is… living and operating as we do, in a physical, three dimensional reality, to describe and relate to a God, who is non-physical… and who operates in a spiritual reality. We don’t have the words…

I was provided with a wonderful illustration not long-ago from the renowned theologian Dr Seuss. His story, Horton hears a Who, was recently made into a full length motion picture and it’s a favorite with our girls… and dad too.

To give you a quick summary… while relaxing in the jungle, Horton the elephant hears a distinctive voice coming from what seems to be a tiny speck floating in the breeze on a small clover. Horton manages to rescue the speck, and discovers that an entire tiny world, populated by the Whos, lives on that speck. It is their whole world. Unfortunately, he is the only one who can hear them.

Horton the elephant is at least for Dr. Seuss, an illustration of the character of his God. In the story Horton comes to represents for Whoville, the more, the beyond, him who loves them and who remains faithful “one-hundred percent” no matter what.

Show clip #1…

It reminds me of what the apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the church in Rome. Romans 8:38-39 (TEV)

For I am certain that nothing can separate us from God’s love: neither death nor life, neither angels nor other heavenly rulers or powers, neither the present nor the future, neither the world above nor the world below—there is nothing in all creation that will ever be able to separate us from the love of God which is ours through Christ Jesus our Lord.

God as divine love is consistent and reliable and trustworthy and personal and faithful… 100% That’s what Dr Seuss sees. And so do I.

Through a series of events Horton is able to make contact with the mayor of Whoville, and explain to him more fully the nature of their reality. That they are a speck on a clover in a vast universe. And they are very very small.

Show clip #2

Now the challenge for the mayor of Whoville is trying to explain his experience of Horton to the other Whos and the new insights he has received about their world. How can he talk to them about a giant elephant in the sky who supports their whole universe in the grasp of his trunk. It doesn’t make any sense if you haven’t had the same experience the mayor had had. It’s the same challenge for us as well, trying to explain our experience of God to the folks at work or in our neighborhood, or through the media or writing a book or preaching a sermon… because people are just not going to necessarily be able to see what I see… to see what you see - but it shouldn’t stop us from sharing. Because its in the sharing that we all grow and garner new insights.

Clip #3

The mayor is talking in terms of a giant elephant out there loving them and keeping them safe and who believes that a person is a person no matter how small…

Jesus used the metaphor of a heavenly Father to describe the character of God’s divine love. In one of my favorite stories that Jesus told, we see God’s love played out in the relationship of a father and his two sons. And that a son is loved by a father no matter who they are or what they do.

There is a game called Hoopla some of us have been playing and in one of the components of the game all of your clues have to begin with the same letter… with a timer… and its hard. What if I told you I could tell the entire story of the prodigal son only using words that begin with the letter F. Now Dr. Seuss would be proud… just for fun

Feeling footloose and frisky, a featherbrained fellow forced his father to fork over his farthings. Fast he flew to foreign fields and frittered his family's fortune, feasting fabulously with floozies and faithless friends. Flooded with flattery he financed a full-fledged fling of "funny foam" and fast food.

Fleeced by his fellows in folly, facing famine, and feeling faintly fuzzy, he found himself a feed-flinger in a filthy foreign farmyard. Feeling frail and fairly famished, he fain would have filled his frame with foraged food from the fodder fragments.

"Fooey," he figured, "my father's flunkies fare far fancier," the frazzled
fugitive fumed feverishly, facing the facts. Finally, frustrated from
failure and filled with foreboding (but following his feelings) he fled from the filthy foreign farmyard.

Faraway, the father focused on the fretful familiar form in the field and
flew to him and fondly flung his forearms around the fatigued fugitive.
Falling at his father's feet, the fugitive floundered forlornly, "Father, I
have flunked and fruitlessly forfeited family favor."

Finally, the faithful Father, forbidding and forestalling further flinching,
frantically flagged the flunkies to fetch forth the finest fatling and fix a
feast.

Faithfully, the father's first-born was in a fertile field fixing fences
while father and fugitive were feeling festive. The foreman felt fantastic as he flashed the fortunate news of a familiar family face that had forsaken fatal foolishness. Forty-four feet from the farmhouse the first-born found a farmhand fixing a fatling.

Frowning and finding fault, he found father and fumed, "Floozies and foam from frittered family funds and you fix a feast following the fugitive's folderol?" The first-born's fury flashed, but fussing was futile. The frugal first-born felt it was fitting to feel "favored" for his faithfulness and fidelity to family, father, and farm. In foolhardy fashion, he faulted the father for failing to furnish a fatling and feast for his friends. His folly was not in feeling fit for feast and fatling for friends; rather his flaw was in his feeling about the fairness of the festival for the found fugitive.

His fundamental fallacy was a fixation on favoritism, not forgiveness. Any focus on feeling "favored" will fester and friction will force the faded facade to fall. Frankly, the father felt the frigid first-born's frugality of forgiveness was formidable and frightful. But the father's former faithful fortitude and fearless forbearance to forgive both fugitive and first-born flourishes.

The farsighted father figured, "Such fidelity is fine, but what forbids
fervent festivity for the fugitive that is found? Unfurl the flags and
finery, let fun and frolic freely flow. Former failure is forgotten, folly is
forsaken. Forgiveness forms the foundation for future fortune."

Last week we focused on the younger son who told his father to drop dead, put the will into effect, and give him his share of the inheritance. Which he promptly blows in a series of bad decisions in a land far far away. Hungry, homeless, and with his life all but over, the young man makes a plan to return home and fashion some sort of a relationship with his father as a hired hand with the possibility of working his way back into his good graces.

But upon his return, his father runs down the road, embraces his wayward child, kisses and hugs him, is completely uninterested in his confession or apologies or details of his transgressions… his son who was dead, is alive. His son who had squandered his very substance, is home. His son who already got his share of the estate, and wasted it, is again at the table, in his Father’s house, sharing in the blessings of an heir. The story is clear… For God the father, a child can never be anything but a beloved child. Get the robe, the ring, the roast veal… its party time. Its time to begin anew with the joy of living in relationship. Every story Jesus told has at its center one of his basic themes of death and resurrection. Exile and Return. Bondage and liberation. Old way, new way. Transformation. New birth. Salvation. The son was lost and now he is found. He was dead, and now he is alive, likely more alive than he ever was the first time around.

One of the observations I made last week at the point of the father’s embrace of his prodigal son… is that if God is like the father in the story, which Jesus suggests he is, then the Father doesn’t require us to make our confessions of sins in order to get forgiven… God does not require us to be contrite enough in order to love us. God does not require us to pay the morning sacrifice before his arms are already open and pursuing us for a good morning hug. God does not require us to know enough, or be good enough, or be old enough or think about it in the right way, or go to the right church to receive the blessings of his love and grace and abundance.

But, but… and as soon as you say but… enter the older brother, the dean of the department of ethics and moral theology, the trustee of the school of business and law, the chair of the family finance board, a representative of the special prosecutors office, and keeper of the archives with volumes and volumes of records he has kept on himself and everybody else. is one young man who knows the score.

Luke 15:25-28 (NIV)

"Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on.

Can’t you just hear his brain working overtime? What’s this? Music, dancing, laughter, on a Thursday afternoon, a working day… what’s that smell? Barbeque? Come on, come on, tell me, what’s going on?

'Your brother has come,' he replied, 'and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.'

Not the fatted calf… how could he… I was saving that for next weeks big sales promotion. How can I run a business with this kind of wreckless spending? And for what, that lousy no-good lazy brother of mine who has never worked an honest day in his life?

And he was so red-faced steaming angry he refused to go into the house and join the party. If his father wanted to have a relationship with that loser, fine, but now the dead-beat duke of disaster was encroaching on his turf, messing with his share of the inheritance. Infringing on his enjoyment of the good life, and carefully laid out plans for retirement. From the older brother’s perspective, there just wasn’t enough of the Father or his blessings to go around. So there is no way he can celebrate his brothers’ return because as it stood… the number one son was all about the number one son. He was about keeping score and following the rules and understanding the system and knowing where you stand and getting what you have coming.

Well, the story goes on… “so his father went out and pleaded with him.” (NIV) I checked a few translations… TEV, “begged him to come in”

NJB Urged him… MSG tried to talk with him… The father is clearly pursuing the older brother… just as he did on the road with the younger brother, its the loving father who is making the move… it is the father who initiates the reconciling encounter… even while the older brother is making an ass of himself.

Luke 15:29-30 (TEV)

But he spoke back to his father, 'Look, all these years I have worked for you like a slave, and I have never disobeyed your orders. What have you given me? Not even a goat for me to have a feast with my friends! But this son of yours wasted all your property on prostitutes, and when he comes back home, you kill the prize calf for him!'

Something I never noticed before. As Jesus is narrating the story, he tells us that the younger brother squandered his money in reckless or wild living.

Now you hear the older brother retell it and instead of referring to him as his brother, he says, “this son of yours” who was wasting your property on prostitutes… Just making sure it sounds as derogatory as possible hoping his Father will come to his senses, restore the familiar system of work and reward and set his little world back on its predictable patterns of expectation.

I wonder how the little brother felt looking out the window and seeing his older brother throwing a fit like that. I am sure guilt was one of the emotions, embarrassment, unworthiness, regret, comparison, all the places the father as a metaphor for divine love, wouldn’t go or couldn’t go.

And so we have to ask in this story of Divine Love, is God more pleased with his child that followed the rules than with his prodigal or is he equally in love with both of them and his disposition toward them has nothing to do with how righteous they are.

There is an older brother type in Horton hears a Who as well. Jungle busy-body Kangaroo. She tells Horton that he is delusional to believe that his tiny speck has any value whatsoever. She tells him that the only things that are real are the things you can see, hear, and touch. So she launches a campaign to have Horton caged and the speck destroyed. They were facing off in a battle of world views… a clash of realities. But whatever Kangaroo wanted to believe about the speck or about Horton, whatever the older son wanted to believe about his brother or his father… Horton remains faithful to his charge "one-hundred percent," and in the process helps the entire jungle to learn that "a person's a person, no matter how small."

Show clip #4

At the end of the story, Kangaroo finally gets it, that there are people on the speck who are valued no matter how small, and her life and attitude are transformed.

In the prodigal son story, the fate of the older brother is left for our imagination. Jesus is saying the end hasn’t been written yet. The older brother shows up in the story, I think, to represent the voice of the law, the sacrificial system, the hierarchy of achievement, the church of Jesus’ day, the model of God as king, a world view that Jesus was trying to transform, turn on its head. And unless there is a major change in the firstborn's basic understanding of the fathers household… the older son and the party going on inside… are incompatible. Unless he can see his father for who he really is… and his own relationship with dad for what it truly can be… and see his brother not as a competitor for meager resources but see him through his father’s eyes… as a fellow sojourner on this amazing adventure of life, unless the older brother can leave his ledgers behind… he will never step foot in the party… except maybe to throw a wet blanket on the festivities but never to enjoy being there. As I have been saying all along in this series, and a major new insight for me is that, I don’t think you can’t have it both ways.

After the Holidays we’re going to consider some of the implications of God as divine lover for our lives of faith here in the 21^st century.

What is God really like?

2011-12-16T13:45:00.000-08:00

What God is like… we are on this journey of knowing God… and growing. Jesus favorite way of talking about the kingdom of God is by the way that grow. Everything grows. This series is to encourage the reflection of what we know about God. What is God really like. What is the character of your God… talking to friends, your kids, people at the bar… what kind of words would you use. How would you describe God beyond what your parents teachers, favorite authors, influential relatives, pastors you have known, teachers, not what people want to hear… but what do you really think. What is God like? What do you believe, in all of your experiences, and reading, and talking with people, all those years of thinking and wondering and forming opinions and questioning… what now do you believe to be true about God… about Jesus… about the Bible… about Creation and why we are here, why you are here. Everything you feel inside and your own intuition… what do you wrestle with in terms of what tradition and family history has handed down. Because answering that question, as to the character of your God is going to influence your entire reality. Isn't it good you are here this morning. Think if you decided to go to the beach, you would be missing this stuff.

Your motivation, decisions, how you live your life. From the very beginnings of the human race people have connected with an experience of

the Spiritual, of God, and have communicated that experiences in pictures and images and stories and metaphors because words are just so inadequate in describing Spiritual things. Jesus in his divine wisdom would always describe the realm of God with the words, it is like… and then he would tell a parable or paint a picture, or use a close by example… see this child…

All to point to something that is obviously greater and more expansive than that particular symbol or example.

We know in the Bible that God is like a King, a Judge, a Rock, a Shepherd, Potter, Warrior, lover, father, and amazingly for those days, a number of descriptions of God as a mother… a storm, a lightning strike, like a still small voice, God is like the wind, like a fortress, like a wild animal in nature, you get the idea, it goes on and on, and then when it gets to Jesus, the early church came up with pictures and images… you think of what Jesus looked like… and its in our brain… Leonardo Da Vinci from Northern Europe in the Renaissance… and it stuck.

And the religion that many of us grew up with and which is still hanging on strong in North America and alive and well in Costa Rica is best summed up in this great historical sermon I first heard 30 years ago in preaching class… Baptist minister, SM Lockridge… I think he hits every title and image of Jesus ever used…

That's my king… I love words and the cadence of that old time southern preaching is amazing… the clip put a rhythm beat behind his preaching and it totally fit… imagine if they added drums to one of my sermons… hahaha, just wouldn't fit.

But with each beautifully crafted phrase, one after another, it points to the greater truth behind that word picture… if you grew up in the Church most of those are familiar terms for Jesus we have heard before… and if you didn't… they just sounded like church language that doesn’t make a lot of sense. But it is a language we share with Christ followers through history, it’s a language we were taught, it’s a language of faith… but I can't help myself… like one of my theological heroes, I have to ask, what does that mean?

What have we learned since the ancients first thought ? What new information does the human race have or do we pretty much know the same thing they knew when Jesus was here… prior to the Iron Age by the way. I mean the science and technology, and archeological and geological advances… we know so much more today than human beings have ever known. Did God simply reveal himself for a brief period of time to a primitive civilization in the desert and then well, that's it.. we're good to go? We know all we need to know? I am left wanting more, I don't know about

you, but I'm over the half way mark on my time here in consciousville, and I want to know more. Marcus Borg… two primary images of God that has dominated human history… all those pictures and images come from one of these major two pictures of God… totally different religions almost that share the same language.

One this week and the other next week. The first major way that people over history have pictured God, including many of Biblical times, is God as King. King of the Universe. It is image of Aslan watching over his kingdom, with awesome power and danger and goodness. It is the majestic Yahweh of the Old Testament… King, Lord, probably some of the most familiar religious expression in the world today.

Crown him with many crowns… the lamb upon the throne…

So you take the picture of God as King and expand it out to a full blown theology and here is how it goes… to the extreme…

God is described as a King who makes the laws and enforces the laws and judges the subjects as he rules over his Kingdom. The Bible describes God as a jealous king… doesn't want any competition for his adoration as Lord. A king who demands obedience, a king who has his way with us, a king who holds us accountable… and lets not forget… a king who loves us. A king

who intensely loves his subjects. A King who watches over and protects his people. It is a king who goes to battle with the enemy forces of evil…

The basic structure of this theological metaphor of a Kingly God goes like this. "As lawgiver and King God has certain principals and rules by which he governs the Universe. Its about how we should live our lives. God's word in the Bible gives us the law, the 10 commandments which has become the basis for Western judicial systems up to today. The teachings of Jesus brought us the Beatitudes, the parables, an expansion of the law to include thoughts and intentions and motivations for living life in relation to God and one another. Jesus made the rules harder to keep not easier… he would say things like… you have heard it said… but I say to you… turn the other cheek, love your enemies, sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor. All in all, the Bible gives us God's will for how we should live our lives in order for God, the Almighty King, to be pleased with us.

But as the story goes, the reality of the human condition is such that we have never been very good at being very good. Try as we might, people have just never ever, been able to follow these rules as laid out by Kingly decree. We can't keep the rules and no one has ever been able to keep the rules… we continually miss the mark… the word for that is sin… its an archery term which literally means missing the mark… not hitting the

bullseye. To sin, is to miss the mark in terms of God's perfect desire for our righteousness, perfection. But from the moment of our first breath, the historical traditional monarchial model of God tells us… we had original sin. We were doomed to miss the mark and be sinners from the moment of our birth. That why Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans… we all sin and fall short of the glory of God. We are all in the same boat here. The Bible also tells us that the "wages of sin" is what… DEATH! Ouch! The judgment and punishment the King intends to carry out against me for my crimes against humanity… and each of you too… is a death sentence. An eternal death sentence. Enter damnation and Hell and eternal torment into the picture. The King appears to be very strict… very legalistic… doesn't he understand we were born this way… nothing we could do… we do not have the capacity to hit the bullseye. We are all guilty.

So if everyday of my miserable existence I wake up and realize it will be yet another day of letting God down, and not measuring up, and missing the mark… I am going to feel bad about that. I am going to want to apologize and try to make up for it, and be extra thankful, and pay my homage to the King, do penance… and have regrets, and feel guilty… I mean, who does not feel bad about failing to meet the expectations of someone you love.

So behind the metaphor, behind this picture of a monarchial God who rules, we end up with a Christian experience that has a major piece… feeling bad about ourselves, feeling bad about our end of the contribution to our relationship with God… feeling bad for being unworthy, feeling bad for being the reason that Jesus had to suffer and die, feeling bad about not doing enough… feeling bad about doing things that somebody told us once that we should feel bad about doing… face it, there has been over the years… a lot of feeling bad… within the Christian experience… of God as King.

But as the metaphor plays out… God in his love provides a way to bridge the gap between where we are (which totally pisses off the King, remember the wages of sin) and where we need to be for God to like us, to be happy about us. Well, in primitive Hebrew society and many ancient religions around the world, there developed the practice of sacrifice, as an alternative way to fulfill God's requirement of obedience. The spilled blood of the sacrificial animal, goat, lamb, pigeon, dove… in all sorts of ritualistic practices… atoned for the sins of the people… and God could look with favor upon them again.

Scape goat... have you heard that term? The ancient Israelites would put the sins of the people on an innocent animal and then run than animal out of town to be killed and eaten by wild animals… or kill it themselves and burn

it on the altar… but the point was for the innocent goat to bear the consequences of the community's failing. Scape goat. We know how it is used today… same thing. Innocent person bears the consequences for others actions.

So following the sacrifice, God was happy, and it was again possible to be in a relationship with the King. Then in the New Testament, with Jesus, that temple sacrifice was done away with. The King came up with another way to bridge the gap… Jesus as the ultimate sacrifice, the perfect Lamb of God, who would take away the sins of the world, all at once, and once and for all. No more sacrifices required. This kingly understanding of God is played out with Jesus death on the cross, as the ultimate scape goat, taking the sins of the world upon himself, and then facing the King's penalty for those sins… death. Jesus' blood becomes the atonement for our unworthiness and through the cross the King's daring rescue mission is accomplished and his beloved people are restored to his good graces.

So you sum it all up in one sentence… "God being a loving Lord, provides the necessary sacrifice, so his only Son can pay the price, of my inability to live up to God's expectations as revealed in the law, which is actually just a condition of my birth as a mortal human being. When I first started studying theology… I had an uneasiness about that picture of God. It

didn't resonate with the God I believed in… or how I pictured God to be from everything I had read and seen and experienced and knew to be true in my own intuition. The truth be told, if I am going to be honest with myself and honest with you, I have intellectually and spiritually struggled with that monarchial metaphor of God as King and Lawgiver and Judge… my whole life.

Even though I grew up in the Lutheran church which emphasized Grace… I was still keenly aware of that rhythm of sin and repentance and confession and guilt and forgiveness in this constant cycle that had to be worked out within the framework of the church and the seasons of the year and every Sunday morning in worship. As a teen-ager I learned to blame Satan for every bad thing or thought that ever came my way. Remember comedian Flip Wilson back in the 70's… it was the devil that was making me do it. And let me tell you, as a young person, hearing that God could even read my mind… well, crap, that was just unfair and guaranteed that some of my day was going to be spent feeling bad about that. You feel guilty, you want to be a better person, you want to make God happy… but then a lot of time I was just pretending to feel really bad about my unworthiness because inside I never felt like a bad person at all… in fact on

a sliding scale of "goodness" among my friends… I was doing pretty well… but of course never too good… never good enough!

So every Sunday, you confess again, hear that you are forgiven again, and now you and God can hang out for another week or at least until you mess up the next time. And then it repeats over and over again until you die and go before the King for a final judgment. The Final Judgment. What a thing to have hanging over people's heads their entire life. One day, you will stand before the throne and give an account of your time here on earth. And according to the tradition, believing in Jesus and having faith, doesn't get you out of the final judgment. I know, I kept asking my theological professors, is there some way around that? So then you are left with the same question that plagued Dr. Martin Luther in the 16th century… how do you really know if you have done enough, were good enough, believed enough… how would you ever know for sure you had all of your basis covered. You read in the Old Testament about the things that God did to his enemies… Lot's wife was turned into a pillar of salt because she turned around and looked back when God said, don't look back. So geesh, you have to wonder how secure you could ever be going before the King. Can you imagine pulling out his notebook and looking you in the eyes and saying, now about that time… what were you thinking?

Martin Luther was searching for a God of love, but the Roman Catholic Church in the 1500's only offered a God of vengeance and judgment and retribution and score keeping.

I learned in seminary that everything comes down to the grace of God. Love, forgiveness, blessings, life… you've heard me say it many different ways. Everything we are, everything we have is a gift. God's grace. And how do you get that grace. Easy. All you have to do is believe in Jesus… and it is yours. I raised my hand… "Doesn't that make God's love conditional then?" God loves you and forgives you and saves you for eternal life on the condition that you think rightly about who Jesus was? You know how he answered my question? I don't know either… it must have not been entirely compelling at the time. And that little burr remained under my theological saddle. Either God's grace is true, or it is not true. Either God's love is unconditional or there are some conditions. God loves everybody the same, or God loves some people more. Either my salvation depends on me doing something, or it doesn't depend on me at all.

Just intellectually I am left with the reality that you can't, cannot, won't work, doesn't even make sense… to have it both ways. When it comes to our relationship with God, either there are conditions that come with that… or there are no conditions.

Luther and those reformers of the Enlightenment emphasized pure grace.

In fact, they said, even our ability to believe at all is grace. Faith itself is a gift. Back in seminary class, (hand up) So then how can God's grace come down to what I think or believe? If even that is by grace… how can you make receiving a gift (faith) a condition for getting saved. It is not logical. How can affirming certain religious doctrines or teachings have anything whatsoever to do with the Love and Grace of God? I didn't get it. But wasn't so sure it was me that wasn't getting it.

There is no getting around… at the heart of the Kingly metaphor for God there ARE conditions, there are requirements, and ultimate it requires the spilling of blood! And what the historical church has done is replaced the sacrificial requirement of the Old Testament with the requirement to believe the right things about Jesus. And they developed the creeds and the doctrines of the Christian faith and by adhering to those belief systems, you were good with God. Those became the bell weather test for whether you were in or out. It went from doing the right thing, to believing the right thing. It is through your faith that you get into the Kingdom of God. So faith has become today, for many churches, the ultimate requirement. That is why so much attention gets put on "what" people believe. And I have struggled with this for years. It doesn't seem right to me. It doesn't fit with

the nature of my God. It isn't logical. It doesn't seem to reflect the kind of relationship that Jesus had with God. So where does that leave me? Is there another way to imagine and think about God other than lawgiver and judge and King? Yes there is… there is a second primary Biblical way to picture God… one that I greatly prefer… and which we will get to next week, hahaha. I will show you how Jesus took that popular Kingly hierarchal metaphor of God and turned it over and shook it up. Jesus described God in ways that nobody had ever even imagined before. They didn't have the religious language to even go there… so Jesus told them stories and used illustrations and said, the kingdom of God is like this…

Now a sermon series on the "nature" of God seems like we would be talking about God… but really what we are talking about is you! Because how you picture God and relate to God and understand the complexities of the Universe… will totally come back in the ways that you see yourself. If you understand God as the Good Shepherd… you are???? A sheep. And what is expected of you by God are those things a shepherd would expect of the sheep… obedience, stupidity, propensity for getting lost. Heavenly father… a child. Potter/clay, Who are you if God is lawgiver and judge… you are the accused… you are a defendant. And when you are a defendant

life becomes about how well you are following the law… either through right behavior or right belief or some creative mixture of the two.

200 years ago America rejected the monarchial rule of England and fought for independence.

Costa Rica was granted independence from the monarchial rule of Spain. Those are days we celebrate in both countries. The end of monarchial rule has been seen as a good thing. The Arab Spring as the people have rejected monarchial rule in country after country. Yet… the metaphor of the monarchial rule of God is alive and well in most of the churches and mosques and synagogues in all of those countries. Strange.

And with that picture of God comes a set of requirements, conditions, things to believe, a Holy Book of divine rules and regulations… and a church institution to administer the rules on God's behalf and keep track of how everybody is doing. Who measures up… and who doesn't measure up. Who is saved and who is not saved. Who is going to heaven and who is going to hell, who is raptured and who is left behind or in certain traditions… how many virgins are waiting for you or which planet you will inhabit and fill with spiritual babies…

Another aspect of the Kingly metaphor for God that I struggle with is this whole idea of vengeance. Everybody seems to know the Bible verse:

"Vengeance is mine saith the Lord." Really? The Old Testament says that God's wrath can be carried out to the third and fourth generations of those who displease him. Really? I am not so sure! In fact, I flat out don't believe that. The nature of the God with whom I am in relationship would never in any way punish my grandchildren's children for my screw up's. Now clearly in the divine order of creation… our actions do have ripple effects on other people, and especially in our family systems, and destructive cycles have to be broken in our families or they do carry on… but that is far different than saying God is so pissed off he needs to take it out on somebody and it may be my descendants. Or if I am one of the majority of the people on the planet who does not think rightly about Jesus… God must punish me for that for all of eternity in the fires of Hell. You take the images of the book of Revelation, and all the Left Behind series stuff, and all that has been made of the rapture predictions and what it all boils down to… is Divine Ethnic Cleansing on a global basis. Jesus returns in vengeance with an army of heavenly hosts, to wipe out every person on the planet or who has ever lived, who doesn't measure up to the criteria established by whoever is claiming to know the secret. I don't know if it is just me… but there has got to be another way of talking about God that makes way more sense in the 21st century…

The kingly metaphor focuses on me and what I need to do… Jesus put the focus on God.

Pastor Allen, move it along, I don't think of God as King at all. I prefer to think of God as my heavenly Father. In fact, according to polls, that is the most popular way that Christians like to think of God. As heavenly Father. And as we will see next week, since he was 12 years old, that was Jesus' favorite way of picturing God. Abba, Father. I mean people didn't talk like that about God before Jesus. Radical. A whole new theological paradigm… but then what happened in the early church was that they took this Father image of God and stuck it into the Kingly model and made the metaphors interchangeable. God the judging King became God the disciplining Father who uses divine tough love. God the unpleasable Father. The father who enforces the family rules. The father who will always see us as rebellious screw-ups. God the Father who can never really be happy or proud of us because we are always falling short… disappointing. I know people who had parents like that… and they were never happy so why try. Now you may not think that way… but you know lots and lots of people who do. Right? That's why I think it is important to get behind these titles and metaphors and descriptions that we have heard people use or read in the

Bible and ask… what is it I really believe about the character and nature of God?

2,000 years of church history has contributed a picture of God as King or stern Father, who becomes that divine voice in our heads telling us that we are no good or simply just not good enough.

In fact, let's be honest, according to tradition, you are so repulsive and nasty, it is going to take the spilled blood of God's beloved Son, to make you tolerable to the Divine presence in the Universe. There will need to be innocent suffering before God can entertain the idea of a relationship with you. I am committed to finding another way to say that because if we don't… I don't really think the church has much of a future. People today just aren't beating down the doors to hear how bad they are and how unhappy God is with the human race. I am quite certain that that is NOT the case. Next week on a much happier note… I am going to talk about the nature of God in a way that Jesus liked to and one which turns the monarchial model on its head. It’s a picture of God that is as radical today as when Jesus first tried to get the idea across. I hope you can all be here. Bring your friends!

A Thanksgiving Message from Costa Rica

2011-11-25T06:44:00.001-08:00

I just love Thanksgiving time. Its like the holiday designed for optimists. Thanksgiving calls each of us, at least momentarily, to look on the bright side of life and give thanks to God. Certainly one the first Spanish words we learn is gracias. I probably use that word more than any other en Espanol. It’s a word the foreigners use the first day here. In fact when I am back in the States I find myself saying gracias to the waitresses there. The thing I like about the word gracias, is that I can’t say it without hearing the word grace. To be thankful is to recognize that everything in life is pure grace. Everything we are and everything we have is a gift. Grace and gratitude go hand in hand, two sides of the same coin.
And this Thanksgiving week we don’t have to search too far to find things to say gracias about. Family, friends, faith, food, freedom, football, forgiveness, fruits of the spirit, fantastic weather, forever. And those are just the f’s. We have so much, even in down economic times, when we might feel like we have lost a lot, we still have so much for which to give thanks this week.
Unfortunately, the way that human nature often works, is that the more people have, is not necessarily indicative as to how grateful they are. In fact statistics bear this out. The more people actually have, the less grateful they tend to be. The attitude of gratitude rarely keeps pace with the accumulation of blessings. Why aren’t people more grateful. Its like this switch goes off and we start to think that grace has nothing to do with it. I deserve all this stuff that I got. I earned it. And then we move from deserving our blessings, to depending on those things we have acquired. And then we not only start depending on those things but we demand them. You know how this cycle works.
I think I deserve it, I have rights. Well I want it, everybody else has it. Actually I need it, I can’t live without it. Until all of a sudden we turn into spoiled, selfish monsters, sitting around wondering when my ship is going to come in and I get mine. One of the things most of us have had to adjust to in our transition to Costa Rica is doing without certain things we used to think we needed.
Thanksgiving was invented and designed no matter which day you celebrate it… to give us a chance to pause and acknowledge our indebtedness to everyone around us. To the Ticos here in Costa Rica who have opened their home, indebtedness to our parents… our indebtedness to the people who raised us from a dependent child to an independent adult, our indebtedness to teachers and role models who prepared us for careers, our indebtedness to employers who hired us on, our indebtedness to our health professionals who keep us functioning, our indebtedness to God who thought up this idea that there should be life and consciousness and that each of us should get a shot at it.
In fact, one day a year is hardly adequate to get all those expressions of gracias out there. What if here in Costa Rica, the happiest place on earth, President Chinchilla enacted a law that declared every day a day of Thanksgiving… and then on one day, say the end of March when everybody is hot and crabby… there would be one day set aside, a national holiday for whining, and complaining, and griping, and arguing and being selfish. On that one day instead of a beautiful thanksgiving dinner, we could get together and eat left-over rice and beans and feel sorry for ourselves, and worry about the economy, and complain about the bureaucracy and tell each other off… and then with that day out of the way, we could spend the rest of the year in a state of gracias, giving thanks and praise to God for every blessing.
Wouldn’t that be a good idea? Especially if you got all those thanksgiving days off, right?
I don’t care who you are, what your story is, what you do for a living, how much stuff you got… you have a major character flaw if you don’t have as a personal starting point… an attitude of gratitude. And declaring a national holiday of Thanks isn’t going to make anybody grateful who doesn’t want to be. Your friends and family can’t make you grateful. I can’t guilt you into being grateful. Gracias doesn’t come from guilt, it comes from grace. Even Jesus couldn’t make people grateful.
The story we heard read from Luke, of the 10 lepers, teaches us that an attitude of gratitude is always a choice.
Leprosy is one of the worst disfiguring diseases anybody could imagine. A Roman Historian, Flavious Josephus who lived at the time of Jesus, referred to lepers as “walking dead people.” Their hands and feet were often rotted away, their faces marred by grey decay, bones often exposed. Lepers were the zombies of the day. They were required to call out unclean, unclean, so that normal healthy people, could stay clear and go on with their daily routines. Contracting leprosy was a real fear. To touch or even to speak to a leper was taboo… it was against both the Roman and the Jewish law.
Yet Jesus, as was always the case, followed the path of human need and not the path of legalism or protocol that said stay away. When he came across a motley band of ten lepers in various stages of certain death, he healed them all. The whole group was made well. They were completely cured. For the first time in who knows how long, they could hang around other people. They could go home. They could give and receive hugs. They could go to the market and shop. We can only imagine their excitement, their sense of relief, the new doors of possibility that were thrown wide open.
One of the things the story doesn’t leave to our imagination, is the lack of gratitude in 90% of those blessed with a complete healing. One guy, a Samaritan, who would have been an outcast even after his healing, returns with a homemade card or something, maybe a plate of cookies, and says thank-you to Jesus. What about the other nine? What was going on there?
The lesson is that gratitude is a choice… and if you haven’t consciously made that choice to live your life as a grateful person… even if I don’t know anything else about you… I know this… you are a miserable person. And people probably do not enjoy being around you. They could love you to death… but because you are miserable inside, chances are you make everybody who has to be around you for any length of time, miserable too. Because its true, misery enjoys company.
So how do you form an attitude of gratitude and choose a life of Thanksgiving. Three quick steps: Realize, Visualize and Verbalize
1. Realize your indebtedness to God, and to the miracle of life. You are here due to no effort on your part. There are far far greater odds that you wouldn’t have shown up at all, but here you are, you managed to get born. Pure grace. Everybody here that is thankful you got a shot at life as opposed to no shot at all… can I hear a gracias a Dios?
2. Visualize your life without the support of family and friends and employers and strangers who happen to have come along at just the right time. People who have been there for you… and are there for you at the drop of a hat. What would your life be like if you didn’t have anybody, no safety net, no support, no connections, no church, no love. How would you have turned out, if there was nobody who ever came through for you? I mean the instant you were born, you already owed somebody for nine months of room and board… when the doctor picked you up and slapped your bottom, you already owed a debt of gratitude and you are in debt the rest of your life.
3. Verbalize your appreciation on a daily basis. There really is no reason that everyday can’t be Thanksgiving. In your prayers, don’t start out with what you need God to do for you… start out with thanks, count your blessings. Tell people how thankful you are for them, tell the people at work, tell your kids what they mean to you, acknowledge what they do for you. Tell you spouse and show them how grateful you are that they are in your life every day.
An attitude of gratitude is a choice. And the choice is yours. I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration this week. Amen

2011-11-13T11:48:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends of Papagayo Ponderings around the world. Before I get into today's message on the will of God, I want to bring to your attention a marvelous opportunity to help keep these posts coming. Our little mission church is solely supported by the Sunday morning offerings of those who attend each week. We make special appeals for the many helping hand projects that are always before us. My own sustainability here in Costa Rica is supported by church donations and destination weddings. In an attempt to broaden our base of support for the great things happening in this community through Celebration Community Church, we now have a bank account in the United States and are recognized as a foreign non-profit by the IRS. Just like giving to any other church, your contributions are tax deductible. If you have enjoyed these blogs I would invite you to make a periodic donation to our church... or maybe even perhaps a regular contribution each month... Every size gift is a blessing and will be used to the greater glory of God here in our little corner of Central America. Our address in the States is:
Celebration Community Church Guanacaste
3948 E. Lidstrom Hill Rd, Port Orchard, WA 98366 USA
Thanks for your partnership and on with todays talk on the will of God.

I am often asked, like I am sure many of you have been, so what brought you to Costa Rica. Just happened a few days ago… and as I have often explained… there is no good reason for it… my friend had an idea… it all worked out… a million things had to come together… divine intervention. Yes, I tell people God had something major to do with my coming here. I believe that. The Universe conspired in my favor and here I am. So what exactly am I saying when I say that. That God has a plan for my life? That God intervenes in the physical world and makes things happen? That God wanted me here? Is that really true? Can I say with some authenticity that I believe that is the case? Perhaps. We are talking about the will of God this morning. Sometimes confusing, sometimes mysterious, sometimes controversial, always interesting to consider. Jeremiah 29:11 My favorite verse from the Hebrew Sciptures– “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” I mean just the possibility that the Creator of the Universe, the power behind all that is, the Creative Spirit behind our three d cosmos… has plans to give me a hope and a future. Wow. Wow.
And then from the Book of the Bible called Acts… chapter 2, vs. 17: I will pour out my Spirit on everyone. Your sons and daughters will proclaim my message, your young men will see visions and your old men will have dreams…"
I love that. Who can’t get pumped up by news like that? Even the possibility that it could be true. That the Supreme Force of the Universe is on your side… to prosper you and give you a hopeful future… to inspire you with visions and dreams.
But seriously… do you believe it? A plan? A divinely inscribed operation pamphlet for your life? And if there is one, why do you feel so clueless about what it is. As a pastor, the number one issue that people have come to me with… is this one… how do I figure out what God wants me to do. And they ask me like they really expect me to know.
Do you realize that you only have a grand total of 25,550 days to live here on this earth... assuming that you live to be 70. Some of you are already a ways past that. But given that number, if you are an average person, this is how you can expect to spend your life... among other things you will spend...
24 years sleeping
17 years working
11 years playing and watching TV
6 years traveling
6 years eating... some a little bit more
2 years dressing
And depending on where you live… 6 months sitting at stoplights
And one might have to ask in astonishment... is that what its all about? Eating, sleeping, watching TV and waiting a stop lights. Is that God’s grand plan for my life? Where’s the hope and the future in that? Where are the dreams? If you want to find where God is working and most active in the world… the first place to look is in peoples hopes and dreams… your hopes and dream… that is God stuff.
I’m sure the Apostle Paul had to have asked that question on more than one occasion. In fact we heard read part of his letter to the Philippians this morning. A letter that Paul wrote from jail, in which he was imprisoned for telling people about Jesus… and stirring up the status quo. Of course there were many who resonated with what he had to say, but there were many more who hated him. He must have wondered about God's plan for his life… sitting there in jail. What's with that? He was just trying to do what he thought God wanted him to do?
Well if you have ever wondered about God’s plan for you or how to discern the Word of God… it is good you are here this morning, because that is exactly what we are going to be talking about.
Let’s start with some common misconceptions about how God works... 1. God’s will is not a feeling. You can’t feel your way into divine guidance. I just know God wants me to move to Costa Rica. Really? How do you know... I feel it. Why don’t feelings work? Cause feelings are unreliable. Feelings come from too many sources. You feel like quitting your job and moving to Costa Rica, not because God wants you to... but maybe because you’re tired, maybe you’re grumpy, maybe you’re sick, maybe you saw a movie that set you off or read a book that got you going. You might not need a new location but a vacation. Some feelings can be based on what you had for lunch. It isn’t God speaking to you but the ceviche.
Of course God can inspire many feelings within us... inspiration we call it... feelings that come directly from God but at the same time he also gives us the ability to think, and to check em out. Most feelings are simply not the will of God but something else going on with us.
And secondly, the will of God is not
A Formula. You can’t just follow this recipe for divinely guided living. God’s plan is not a step by step process of adding ingredients. That’s why Jesus' apprentices had such a hard time figuring out what was going on. And what he was trying to tell them. We read in Mt. 16:21 “From that time on Jesus began to say plainly to his disciples, “I must go to Jerusalem and suffer much from the elders, the chief priest, and the teachers of the Law. I will be put to death… That wasn’t a formula for Kingdom building, It was a formula for disaster. And Peter told him so...
“God forbid it, Lord.” Peter said, “That must never happen to you!”
But Jesus knew that was exactly the direction his life was moving in… he knew that is what he had to do… Jerusalem was where he had to go… he had a message to deliver… and it wasn’t going to be easy, or simple, or clean... we know now it would involve betrayal, denial, an arrest, a trial, secular authorities, religious leaders.... criminals are involved and innocent bystanders, torture, Jesus himself questioning the plan, praying that this cup of suffering be taken away. Asking why God has forsaken him. There would be stories of angels and earthquakes and dead people coming out of their graves. There was no neat formula for God’s presence in Jesus life nor will there be any neat formula for God’s plan in my life or your life. Jesus says, you want to follow me... ok then, here’s how.... forget yourself, pick up your cross, and lets go. Well, that’s too vague, what’s the formula for cross carrying, right shoulder, left shoulder, how big does that cross have to be... we want dimensions, a blue print. What kind of wood should be used?
Living life in companion with God isn’t 4 easy steps… its not 4 spiritual laws, - I know the Bible pretty well and I have never found the spot where it tells me what I should do for a living, where I should live, which people I should help, how much time I should volunteer in helping others. Nowhere does is say Allen Cudahy, this is what you need to do and when your done, this is what you need to do... It doesn’t tell you where you should live, or who you should marry, where you should go to church, or when you should move or when you should retire? God’s design for you and for me is not a closed system. Its dynamic, its ever changing and adapting and taking into account your freedom and your decisions and your mistakes and your desires and your dreams and your passions. I mean look at where you are today in your life, sitting here this morning in Guanacaste... was it a straight line, simple, direct, boom your here, or a wild turning, roller coaster, a million circumstances kind of deal?
I believe that in 1982 God’s plan for me was that I would get married, create a family and live the rest of my life in that relationship. That was his plan and I could even go to the Bible and back it up. But it didn’t happen. We got married and had kids. But we got a divorce. We blew the plan. Messed it up completely. Now does that mean I spend the rest of my life outside of God’s will, cause he had the plan and now I’m over here off the map. No! Because God is able to forgive, heal, create a new start, and adapt a revised plan for the rest of my life that I am sure will involve new promises and commitment and shared life. That is certainly a part of my hopes and dreams. But as long as I have the ability to screw up, and get in trouble, and makes mistakes and act in ways that are against my own long term interests… God's plan for me has got to be flexible. Because if it were a formula and I missed an ingredient or a step along the way I would be way off in nowhere’s ville. And so would you. The plan, if it were a static thing, would always be getting messed up and nobody would be doing the will of God anymore. Its not a feeling, its not a formula, and number 3, its not just
Fatalism... But you know that is how a lot of people see God’s will in their lives. Que sera sera, whatever will be, will be... It’s all God’s will. Whatever happens... God planned it... cause God is in charge. So you better just grin and bear whatever your circumstances because there is nothing you can do... so you might as well not try. Predestination. The problem with that way of thinking is that God gets blamed for everything that happens. A kid gets leukemia... God’s will. A plane crashes... God’s will. Countries go to war. God’s will. The Cardinals win the World Series... God’s will.
Think about it... when I say the phrase... It must have been God’s will. Do you think about something good or bad? BAD. Read your insurance policy... there is a provision called ACTS OF GOD. Everything is covered except acts of God... what are those? The birth of a baby? Somebody gets healed? Somebody gets married and lives happily ever after? Somebody’s life is turned around? NO What are acts of God... catastrophies, floods, volcanoes, earthquakes, tidal waves, mudslides, lightning, tornadoes. All bad stuff.
If things go right in my life... ah I was lucky. If things go wrong... must of been the will of God. That’s where fatalistic thinking will lead you.
The truth is, the perfect will of God is not always done. That’s why Jesus came changing everything all the time... as people remembered and retold the life of Jesus the thing they remembered was that he was changing bad stuff into good stuff all the time. There is not one Jesus story into he says… sorry, must have been God’s will, no he healed him, fed them, raised the dead to new life.
We often feel like we live in Paradise here in Costa Rica, but if we really were in heaven, this place would be perfect. Its wonderful, but we know its not perfect… this is still earth, where God’s plan and purposes are not alays lived out. That’s why we pray in the Lord’s prayer... your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Because its done perfectly in heaven and imperfectly on earth.
God has given us the ability to choose.. one of the greatest gifts we have. We’re not like a bunch of Theodore’s, thank goodness, but that’s what a fatalistic attitude toward God’s will makes us... just playing out our puppet roles in a divine drama that has already been completely scripted. God designed our lives and our experience of life in way in which we are able to think and to grow and to choose well.
Its not a feeling, its not a formula, its not fatalism... and #4, the will of God is not something to be feared.
To be feared! Sometimes I think we are afraid that God has a plan for us that we will absolutely hate. Like if I give God an inch… I will be a missionary in Africa before I know it. I was seriously worried about that when I first went into the ministry. Some people fear that if they come to church and let God in at all… well that will be it… no more fun, church every Sunday, Bible study every Wednesday… meditating on Friday night. UMMMMM Life will get boring.... no.... God’s will is an expression of his love for you... Its like when I would kiss my kids good night and one of them says, daddy I love you... Oh yeah, I have been waiting for you to say that, your mine now dude... that’s it... your life is over. Its chores all day long, homework at night, brussel sprouts for every meal, nothing but CNN on t.v. You are going to hate it. I wouldn’t do that to my kids, and God wouldn’t do that to you. He says in our theme verse, I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and give you hope and a future. Jesus says virtually the same thing in John 10:10, I have come that you might have life and have it to its fullest.
We have to trust that God’s plan for us is for us to be ultimately happy, fulfilled, to have a great life full of meaning and significance. Everything God does for you, through you, and on your behalf is an expression of God’s love for you.
Its not a feeling, its not a formula, its not fatalism, its not to be feared, and #5, it shouldn’t be frustrating. Although this is probably where a lot of us are this morning. God’s plan for your life can be confusing, and hard to figure out, and we stumble along, not sure, and we wait for something dramatic to happen and when it does, its usually bad and we get frustrated. Mostly we get frustrated cause we’re looking for a feeling that says, yeah that’s it. Or a formula that says get up in the morning, put on your shoes go for breakfast.... God’s plan is that you would have wheaties and not cornflakes, 2% not whole. And of course we never get that word and we get frustrated.
In Romans 8:28 Paul says, that in all things God works together for good for them that love the Lord. In other words when you have a relationship with God, whatever comes along, your own mistakes, the cruel actions of others, unforeseen circumstances beyond your control, just bad luck, whatever... he says all things... God can weave all things into a new plan that gives you prosperity, hope and a future.
I am sure that sitting in prison didn't feel like it was part of some big ` cosmic plan… but look what Paul writes... Phil 1:12-14: “I want you to know that the things that have happened to me have really helped the progress of the gospel. As a result, the whole palace guard and all the others here know that I am in prison because I am a servant of Christ. And my being in prison has given most of the other prisoners more confidence in the Lord...”
The will of God in your life is not about a feeling, a formula or fatalism, its not to feared or to get frustrated over... So what is it... its all about friendship. Not rules, not regulations, not requirements, not rituals, not religion… God’s plan involves a relationship. In the Bible God calls us friends… God doesn’t want to be the force that is with you… he wants to be friends! If you make plans with your friend… how does it go? You talk about it. You discuss it. My friend David had the idea to come to Costa Rica and do this thing. He had been making some plans before he even mentioned it to me. And then together we made plans to invest his entire future in Papagayo Village, lol… and have me move down here… now would he have made plans to do that if he thought I would hate it. No. He’s my friend. Same with God. He knows you and what you enjoy, and what you like, and what you’re good at, and what would be fulfilling in your life. The plan comes out of the relationship. Its the difference between religion and a relationship.... feelings and formulas and fatalistic theologies, and fire and brimstones all smack of religion... but God’s plan for us is all about a relationship. Not rules and regulations but a relationship.
I mean think about your best friend... at school, at work, your spouse, a neighbor... the person sitting next to you... How many rules and regulations do you have governing that relationship? You can’t do this, have to be there, can’t talk about that, better do this...
Probably none, if its your best friend, you just know how to be together. You know how to act in the presence of the other person. You know the words to use… and if you mess up and say something wrong… they can tell you, and you can apologize, and the relationship is stronger for it… Same way with God. The deeper your relationship, the fewer the rules. You just know how to be. That’s why Jesus never worried about the rules. Just love God he said, everything else will fall out ok.
One day at a busy airport, the passengers on a commercial airliner are seated, waiting for the cockpit crew to show up so they can get under way. The pilot and co-pilot finally appear in the rear of the plane, and begin walking up to the cockpit through the center aisle. Both appear to be blind. The pilot is using a white cane, bumping into passengers right and left as he stumbles down the aisle, and the co-pilot is using a guide dog. Both have their eyes covered with huge sunglasses.
At first the passengers do not react; thinking that it must be some sort of practical joke. However, after a few minutes the engines start revving and the airplane starts moving down the runway. The passengers look at each other with some uneasiness. They start whispering among themselves and look desperately to the stewardesses for reassurance.
Then the airplane starts accelerating rapidly and people begin panicking. Some passengers are praying, and as the plane gets closer and closer to the end of the runway, the voices are becoming more and more hysterical. Finally, when the airplane has less than 20 feet of runway left, there is a sudden change in the pitch of the shouts as everyone screams at once, and at the very last moment the airplane lifts off and is airborne.
Up in the cockpit, the copilot breathes a sigh of relief and tells the pilot: "You know, one of these days the passengers aren't going to scream, and we're gonna get killed!" God’s plan for you is not that you will fly by sight but that you will fly by the character of the relationship... you will recognize God's presence and guidance in the stillness of your intuitive and wise self...
I will tell you now, if you pour through the Bible to find God’s will for your life... you won’t find it.
But what you will find are thousands of verses about how to have a relationship with God, written down and preserved for us by people who had just that kind of relationship with God. So to pray the Lord’s prayer... your kingdom come your will be done... is to pray for a relationship with God now, here in this life... like we will have with God when we enter eternity.
So don’t get all anxious and worry about working God’s plan.... instead grow the relationship and then watch with wonder as God’s plan works for you. Amen

Dealing with Rejection

2011-11-07T10:38:00.001-08:00

I have been talking the last couple of weeks about those universal human feelings of acceptance and rejection… of the freedom to be who we were made to be… that we are eagles created to soar and not chickens in the chicken coup. But we have doubts, and insecurities and we are susceptible to believing lies and myths that emanate from the chicken coup… you can't fly. And we fear that that is true. What if the real eagles reject us, what if I am just a chicken? And we watch that played out almost everyday on TV. Reality shows now dominate network TV. Why are they so popular. The producers of reality T.V. have sure figured it out. They play to our greatest hopes… that any schmo can become a star… any singer an American idol, any act a Vegas headliner, any bachelor can find a true love, any fat person can be svelt, any ugly person can have an extreme makeover… but those reality shows also play to our greatest fear… being rejected… its built into every show:
You take the walk of shame, or you don’t get a rose, or you’re fired, or your voted off the island, or you’re parents send you to brat camp: Dancing with the stars even has a whole separate show where you can tune in for an hour to watch which couple gets rejected… whooohooo we think, I am glad it wasn't me. I get to watch vicariously somebody else facing the most deep seated of human fears: Rejection. And then the show is over… we don't get to see how the person deals with the stunning blow that they are going home
This morning I want to get a little more specific about what you do when you are facing rejection in some way or another.
How to Survive Rejection: and this is going to be applicable to everybody here because we have all felt rejected before and we will feel it again, I’m sure… so in order to be in healthy relationships we need to know what to do when it happens. So what we basically got going here today is one reject talking to a bunch of rejects about rejection. Just so we’re straight.
And the bible is a good place to go for answers about this because its full of rejects. One after another through whom God did great things…. Jacob, the younger brother steals the birthright of the older, Esau and spends years in hiding. Joseph a favorite of his father’s is rejected by his brothers and thrown into a pit and sold into slavery. Moses, banished from the royal family in Egypt and exiled for most of his adult life. Rahab the prostitute knew something of rejection. King Saul wacked out when the people rejected him for the new national hero David. The list goes on and on. All the prophets, they lived in isolation for a reason. Their words went mostly unheeded. John the Baptist, the voice of one crying (where?) in the wilderness. And then perhaps the greatest example of all. Jesus the Christ.
"Isn't this the carpenter's son? Isn't his mother's name Mary, and aren't his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? Aren't all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?" And they took offense at him. Matthew 13:53-58 (NIV)
“…Even his own brothers did not believe in him.” John 7:5 (NIV)
“Some said, "Jesus is a good man." Others replied, "No, he deceives the people." John 7:12 (NIV)
“We are not stoning you for your miracles," replied the Jews, "but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God." John 10:31-33 (NIV)
“Even after Jesus had done all these miraculous signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him.” John 12:37 (NIV)
“Then the whole town went out to meet Jesus. And when they saw him, they pleaded with him to leave their region.” Matthew 8:34 (NIV)
“Jesus said to them, "Have you never read in the Scriptures: 'The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone…” Matthew 21:42 (NIV)
“Peter began to call down curses on himself and he swore to them, "I don't know the man!" Immediately a rooster crowed.” Matthew 26:73-74 (NIV)
All of which led him to say at one point: “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.” John 15:18 (NIV)
We’re in pretty good company there.
Rejection shows up in all sorts of subtle ways. If it was as simple as, “Hey, Pastor Allen. I reject you,” that would be nice and up front and you know what you’re dealing with. But we live in a world where the top, first place, number one, is celebrated and second forgotten. And since no one can be the best in everything most of us are going to know what it feels like to be ignored and overlooked and condescended upon and rejected by parents and teachers and employers and friends and those we look up to.
There are different areas in our lives where this can play out… in our jobs… Your job is important, it’s a part of you, its what you do with a lot of your time and your time is your life. you take pride in your work, its one of the major places you feel like you are contributing to something bigger than your self. And all of a sudden the company is downsizing and you’re no longer needed. You didn’t get the raise you were expecting, you were overlooked for a promotion. You retired and you weren’t missed. You moved to Costa Rica and nobody noticed. You gave years of your life to that environment and nobody is interested in your ideas anymore. Maybe your skills and expertise and knowledge and wisdom are being underutilized down here..
For me when people leave the church and go somewhere else. Or a visitor never comes back. Or attendance isn’t as high. Giving is down. I have the ability to take everything personally…
Then there is that feeling of just not measuring up physically. Like you’re not good looking enough. You look in the mirror and you have this vision of what the media tells you you should look like and you are not happy with your nose or you are too tall or too short or too skinny or you’re too heavy or you’ve got chicken legs or you don’t think your spouse finds you as attractive any more. You ever see the tv show, the biggest loser… Now if you want to see a bunch of people who have felt rejected their whole life, watch that show.
Another type of rejection is parental rejection. Some of you in here have felt rejected by one or both your parents. And you’re still trying to gain their approval, even at your age. But what makes it so sad is that if you haven’t got it yet, you’re not going to get it. And some of you maybe have felt rejected by your own kids, and you call your own parenting into question.
Then there’s rejections we can feel in our recreational life. I turned out for the school basketball team in 7th grade. I gave it my all. Had a sweet two handed shot. I had no doubt I was on that team. Hang the list… my name wasn’t there. Getting cut hurts, or being chosen last, I don’t care if its for badminton, not getting asked to dance, not even hearing about the party, or the gathering. That was the year my step dad put in a basketball court at our house… my uncle, who was the high school basketball coach, showed me how to shoot, one handed… and I worked at it and made the team the following year and have been playing ever since… but still when I’m playing pick up games and I’m on a team and nobody is passing me the ball, that little 7th grader in me starts to feel rejected, what you think I’m too old, and too short, and too slow… all of which is unfortunately true… but it still hurts when somebody doesn’t think you can do it.
Then there is relational rejection. And since relationships are the most important thing in our life this is often where most of the significant rejection we experience comes from… and the more significant the relationship and the more you have invested, the greater the pain.
So how do you survive it. And continue to thrive in healthy relationships when feelings of rejection are so prevalent. Well I got good news… There is something you can do. I am going to mention four things. Right from the pages of the Bible… They all require a leap of faith. Starting with the hardest first:
1. Embrace the reality of people pain.
The big idea here is that people will let you down. Humans cannot satisfy your need to be fully loved. We long to be fully loved and fully known and then we’re hurt when humans don’t fully love us. Which makes sense because God created a hole in our hearts which won’t be filled adequately by somebody else or something else other than God. That whole hole thing is of course a metaphor that’s been over used but there is something inside of people that’s been there throughout history and spans cultures and experiences that calls us to connect with the Lord of the Universe. And we just won’t be satisfied until that happens. So when we make people as the answer to that more ultimate questions of who we are and why we are here… we wind up getting hurt. We treat their opinion of us like it ultimately mattered. You know the only one who’s opinion of you really, ultimately, forever and ever matters. Gods.
Isaiah 51 God says, ”I am the one who comforts you. So why are you afraid of mere humans who whither like grass and disappear?” People are like grass… and as we begin to transition into the dry season… we all know what that nice green grass is going to look like in a few months.
So in a nutshell… Don’t be surprised. When it comes to people pain don’t be surprised. You are going to get rejected. You can’t be the best at everything, maybe at anything, but whose opinion matters.
So if after the service today… one of you comes up and says… man that worship service wasn’t good at all, and I really don’t like the way you preach, I couldn't relate to a thing you said… I saw your lips moving with the puppet, I don’t think we are ever coming back…
I would not be surprised by that. Happened last week actually. But somebody says that and it would not shake me to the core and cause me to question my calling as a pastor because one person doesn’t like me or more?. You know what I’d say to that person? Well if you’re not going to come back… here’s a card from Hope Fellowship– I keep a little stash of those cards just for special people who I think might like it better there. I know those folks would just love to have you in their church. People pain is a part of life.
The other thing is to develop a plan. Kind of a rejection plan.
Most places you go, there is an evacuation plan in case of fire or flooding or earthquake, or unfortunately in our world, terrorist attack. If you’ve been to the coast this summer you know there are evacuation signs in case of a tsunami. So if its important to have an evacuation plan… for a crises that may occur… Why not have a rejection plan for a crises that is going to occur? That way, when you’re rejected you are going to know ahead of time what you want to do with that.
This would be a rejection plan. First, if I value the relationship I will pursue the source of pain immediately. Talk it out, say that hurt, what did you mean by that. And we can move on because we cared enough to get it on the table. My fallback plan is usually to go, “They probably didn’t mean it. I wonder what that was about.” And I would become real passive and I would think about it all the time and then it would turn to bitterness and the mystery of it. I’ll tell you right now that plan is a total waste of emotional energy.
If I don’t value the relationship or it’s somebody I don’t know or a stranger or someone like that, I need to plan now to not take it personal. I’m working on this one. I’m not going to allow it to get into my guts and rip around. When you personalize it, that’s where the pain comes from. Just call some of your friends and go egg their house and be done with it.
Another part of a good rejection plan which again I’m not very good at, is to try and avoid going defensive. If you’re right, you don’t need a defense. If you’re wrong you don’t have a defense.
About five years into my church in Washington… things got a little dicey. I was making some radical changes, we had a new leadership team, we were transitioning from an old traditional congregation to one which was a little more cutting edge. We changed the music and added media stuff… and I got a lot of critical letters. On the little cards, notes in my mailbox, and full blown letters with a copy to the bishop. They criticized everything. What I said, who I was, what I wore… how I ran the church, my role, even away from the church. Everything was talked about. And it was all from the same person. Some guy named Anonymous. He never did join the church… but his letters would be read at council meetings and discussed and given weight to those opinions. And there was never any chance to respond to the person cause I didn't know where anonymous lived or what his phone number was. So I devised a plan, a rejection plan… any correspondence from my old buddy anonymous, in the garbage can. No time if its not signed.
What it really comes down to is… a much more foundational question. Who am I going to live my life for? Am I going to live my life to please other people or am I going to live my life to please God and my own inner intuition where God lives inside me? Am I going to live my life by who other people think I am or by who God thinks I am. I am going to worry about being somebody I am not or get in the flow and be who I was created to be. Plan ahead to go with the
Spirit… cause if you live your life to please people you will always be set up for hurt. Because you can’t please everybody.
3. Focus on what God thinks about you.
The big idea is God sees us different than people see us. When people look at us and we look at each other, we look at the externals. How do they dress? What do they look like? Where do they live? What do they drive? Where do they work? What’s their position in society? God doesn’t look at us that way at all.
God sees your heart... God sees the real you. 1 Samuel 16. “The Lord doesn’t make decisions the way that people do. People judge by an outward appearance but the Lord looks at a person’s thoughts and intentions
The essence of God's unconditional love is this. That He knows everything about us and He still loves us. I had a wedding renewal ceremony on Wed. They had been married 30 years… knew everything about each other… and still wanted to get married again. That is how it is with God. He knows all about us and wants to love us and be with us anyway. Now we have a choice. We can relax and rejoice in that unconditional love at the heart of the Universe or we can keep playing this game of looking around at what everybody else thinks of us and worry about how we measure up.
I don't know if you noticed but the new global census came out last week. Did you see this? Seven billion people on this little playground that we call earth. And you wonder, “Does God know me?” And then you read about Jesus. And you see that Jesus was surrounded by crowds. And there was a woman who wanted to be healed who fought her way through the crowd just to touch Jesus. And Jesus stopped, separated Himself from the crowd and focused on this woman. Because with God, there are individuals in every crowd. That’s a picture of God's love for us.
How do you survive rejection? Embrace the reality of people pain.
Decide ahead of time how you are going to handle it. Focus on how God views you. Then the biggest step is
4. You replace rejection by releasing compassion.
This says we have a choice. When we’re rejected we can turn inward and we can have our own little pity party. We can die in a pile of emotional trouble. Or we can do something. We can say instead of being defeated, I’m going to more compassionate… realizing that its always hurt people who hurt people.
As I always say around here… God doesn’t waste your hurts. Maybe you’ve been rejected by a parent. So you need to pray for parents and maybe help parents you know that are not letting their kids see how much they are loved. Maybe you’ve been rejected by an employer in the past. Now what you need to do is release compassion on the people that work for you. And treat them in incredible ways. Maybe you’ve been rejected by a stranger and it still wounds you about something that happened. You don’t even know who they are. Maybe what you need to do is begin praying and being compassionate to people you have just met. Maybe when you first moved down here you didn't feel particularly welcomed into the community in some way or another… you can take that hurt or experience and translate it into being more compassionate to other newcomers to Costa Rica. This isn't Pastor Allen telling you what to do… it is what Jesus said to do.
Jesus said, “How easy can it be to love people that love you? I’m telling you to love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you.” Maybe you’ve been rejected by a spouse. And you turn your hurt into healing by overwhelming them with love.
Some of you here this morning have done those things… you know what it’s like. Typically it’s about twenty percent of the people. The 80-20 rule is in church as well. About 20% of the people show compassion for the 80%. Twenty percent seems to be all that ever get it.
Colossians 1. Maybe this could describe Celebration Community Church. “We ask God to make you wise with spiritual wisdom. Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord and you will continually do good, kind things for others. All the while you will learn to know God better and better.” Shouldn't that be the goal of every church. That we would have spiritual wisdom to do good things. And learn how to know God better and better. Part of the reason we have this church here is to have a place for those of us who get knocked around by the world and come here and get emotionally restored and spiritually uplifted and challenged to go out and love other people. Not just to focus on our own pura vida but to go out and love other people and care for them.

Fly like an eagle

2011-11-03T10:54:00.000-07:00

Last week we talked about ducks and swans… this morning… chickens and eagles.
A naturalist was visiting a farmer one day and was surprised to see a beautiful eagle in the farmer’s chicken coop. "Why in the world, asked the naturalist, have you got this eagle living in with the chickens?"
"Well, answered the farmer, I found him when he was little and raised him in there with the chickens. He doesn’t know any better, he thinks he is a chicken." And sure enough the eagle was pecking the grain and drinking from the watering can and strutting around with his head down like a big over-sized chicken. "Doesn’t he ever try to spread his wings and fly out of there?" asked the naturalist. "No, said the farmer, and I doubt he ever will, he doesn’t know what it means to fly."
"Well, said the naturalist, "let me take him out and do a few experiments with him." The farmer agrees, but assured the naturalist that he was wasting his time. The naturalist lifted the bird to the top of the chicken coop fence and said "Fly!" He pushed the reluctant bird off the fence and it fell to the ground in a pile of dusty feathers. Next, the undaunted researcher took the ruffled chicken/eagle to the farmer’s hay loft and spread it’s wings before tossing it high in the air with the command "FLY!" The frightened bird shrieked and fell ungraciously to the barn-yard where it resumed pecking the ground in search of it’s dinner. The naturalist again picked up the eagle and decided to give it one more chance in a more appropriate environment, away from the bad examples of chicken lifestyle. He set the docile bird on the front seat of his pickup truck next to him and headed for the highest butte in the country. After a lengthy and sweaty climb to the crest of the butte with the bird tucked under his arm, he spoke gently to the eagle. "Friend, he said, you were born to soar. It is better that you die here today on the rocks below than live the rest of your life being a chicken in a pen, gawked at and out of your element." Having said these final words, he lifted the eagle up and once more commanded it to "FLY!" He tossed it out in space and this time, much to his relief, it opened it’s seven-foot wingspan and flew gracefully into the sky. It slowly climbed in ever higher spirals, riding unseen thermals of hot air until it disappeared into the glare of the morning sun.
One of my favorite concerts was a summer outdoor event at the Gorge in George, Washington. An amazing venue… and playing was the Steve Miller Band. And of course that was one of their signature songs...Fly like an Eagle. It was one of my favorites in High School... a reminder that life is short, but that each one of us can make a difference, We can fly, we can feed people, put shoes on the feet of children, we can fly like eagles. Of course it became one of the theme songs of my boys youth when it re-emerged as the Theme from Space Jam.
Jesus said, in one of the most hopeful and encouraging and uplifting and personally resonating things he ever said… You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.
I think that quest and desire to be free is one of the deep inherent yearnings of the human spirit. And Jesus went right at it… his whole public life… the truth that sets us free. Free from our past, free from the old myths about ourselves that we had bought into, free to dream and imagine and see in all things… possibilities… free to soar, free to be… we are not human doings, we are human beings… and Jesus is sharing with us the Truth that will set us free to be. The Bible says, we were created in the image of God… and when God was asked who he was… he said "I AM". He didn't say, I DO. He said I am. And each of us were created in that image TO BE. To live life extraordinarily, to fly like an eagle, to be free.
I have had over a hundred funerals over the years as a minister, and one of the things I am always thankful for, is when I can say with some honesty... so and so lived a good, full life. They followed their dreams, they laughed and they cried, they left their mark, long and wide, they certainly lived before they died. But the sad thing is I can’t always say that. There have been some funerals I have done where I had the strange sense that the person never really lived… and now they were dead. They never lived, they just died. What a terrible thing to have to say about anybody.
Because what Jesus had in mind is just the opposite... He said, in John 10:10, I have come that you might have LIFE, and have it abundantly. Or to use the metaphor of the day, I came so that you might fly like an eagle.
Here's how it happens… here's what Jesus said that can send you soaring home this morning… ready…
I. You have to realize who you are. You are a child of God. You are created in God’s image. You are designed according to plan. You are an eagle.
You can fly.
And for a second we almost believe it... but then over and over again our world convinces us... you’re a chicken. You can’t fly. Get your head out of the clouds. Your whole world is here in the chicken coup. Just lay your eggs, eat your fill of corn, and be thankful for another day you weren’t plucked.
And after awhile we actually start to believe what the farmer and the other chickens are saying about us. Its true I am a chicken... Maybe its just my lot in life. I might as well get used to it.
The result, low self esteem, is a global epidemic. causing all sorts of illness, depression, violence, and suicide. In fact during our worship service this morning, around the world, there will be 136 people who commit suicide. 24 seven. And for every 1 that is successful, there are 10 more that try.
People that feel they have no worth, no value, who get to the point that life in the chicken coup is no longer bearable.
And although we may not be that low, the truth is that all of us have those same feelings of inadequacy and self-doubt that have been building up since Jr Hi school when somebody first called to attention that we had chicken legs or that we were fat, or that we couldn’t fly or in some other way didn’t measure up.
The world just sets us up to think of ourselves more in chicken terms than in eagle terms. Cause we’ll never be thin enough or athletic enough, or good looking enough ... And unless we have this personal hygiene product, or the right brand name clothes. its the chicken coup for you
Any of you women have a Barbie doll growing up? I read that if Barbie were lifesize her measurements would be 39-23-33. A big deal was made of the new Barbie they came out with... more realistic with how women are really shaped... the new one measured 34 - 26 - 35...
The story of the eagle in the chicken coup was actually written by a convict on death row in a Southern California prison. there he was... locked up.. little future to speak of... a life of bad choices, yet he was finally able to see within himself a soaring spirit, a deeper meaning to life, a longing to be set free, to see himself as God sees him... as an eagle just learning to fly.
Well, I am here this morning to tell you, on behalf of God our Father, who created the heavens and the earth and all that exists, you can fly like an eagle. It doesn’t matter how many times you’ve been told you are a chicken, it doesn’t matter how often you feel like a chicken, it doesn’t matter how much of your life you have spent in the chicken coup - you are an eagle. You were created an eagle, you have the beauty, the heart and the soul of an eagle. Wherever you are in your life right now, whatever the circumstances... you have the unlimited potential to soar.
Deuteronomy 32:11 God is like an eagle teaching its young to fly, catching them safely on its spreading wings...
The first step is to realize that, hey, I am an eagle.
The second step is to recognize the big picture. For the eagle in our story to stop scratching like a chicken and start soaring like an eagle... it had to get away from the chicken coup and get some perspective... to see the big picture of who he was and what he was created to do.
One of my roommates in college used to spend a considerable amount of time putting together jig-saw puzzles. If he had 10 minutes here, 1/2 hour there, Phil would be over at the table sorting and fitting pieces together. Every once in awhile I would sift though the mound of unconnected picture parts looking for the rest of a tree or a barn... but not for very long... it used to drive me crazy. You see, Phil and the rest of his family had a little quirk about their puzzle playing. They always threw away the box the puzzle came in... you know with the picture of the thing on the top.. and then kept the pieces in a paper sack with a number. He came back with a new sack every time he went home. I guess they liked the challenge.. it drove me crazy. You never knew where it was going or whether it was even worth the trip. I mean would the final outcome be an excellent adventure shot of someone shooting the rapids in a kayak or would it be a couple of English women have tea under a parasol on a hazy afternoon. You just never knew.
I need to have the big picture in order to have the patience and persistence to fit all the other pieces together. The same is true when we want our life to soar like an eagle. We have to step back and see the big picture of our life... where we are going, how the world works, how we fit in with what God is doing and what makes us excited and thrilled in life and to be about those things…
Whenever I get particularly anxious or a little down, its usually because I am overly preoccupied on some individual little piece of the puzzle. Which isn’t to say it unimportant... but its just one piece... it isn’t the whole thing.
The book of the Bible called Exodus tells the story of God’s rescue of his people from slavery in Egypt. In the part read this morning, the people are camped at the foot of Mt Sinai, where God gives Moses the famous 10 commandments. But just before he does that, just before he gets real specific with them... God tells Moses to make sure the people remember the big picture. Tell them how much I love them, tell them how I treasure them above all the things I have created in the world. Remind them how I saved them from the brink of death by the Egyptians who chased them across the Red Sea and how I destroyed their enemies. And then God himself uses the illustration... “I carried you as an eagle carries her young on her wings, and brought you here to me.” Exodus 19:4
When the updraft of God Holy Spirit starts blowing, and everyone is spreading their wings and taking off, it is hard not to fly along. If you want to soar like an eagle it is important to hang around other eagles. What’s that old adage, if you want to soar with the eagles, you have to stop running with the turkeys, or we could add, scratching with the chickens.
We learn from each other, we follow one another’s example, we lift one another up... you find anybody with a life that is soaring and they will be able to give you a list of significant people they have modeled their life after. That’s what being a member of the body of Christ in a local congregation is all about... its interesting, what do they call a place set aside for eagles to congregate... a sanctuary. The same name where we get together every week for encouragement, inspiration, praise, and prayer.
There is one particular song that I think has been the number one request at funerals over the years… it talks about the incredible role that people play in our lives and how we help each other soar. As you listen think of the people in your life whom God has used as the wind beneath your wings... or maybe those who you had the opportunity to help lift up.
(You are the wind beneath my wings.)
There is truth in that song… truth that sets us free… and a truth we are to others that can set them free.
You don’t have to be plagued by the past, you don't have to be paralyzed in the present, you don't have to be fearful of the future... the truth that Jesus made his life mission to share is that you have everything you need to dream dreams, to live each day with confidence, to risk loving and laughing, and enjoying who you are... along with those you are with.
Even though we act like chickens a lot of the time... we get discouraged, we get tired, we lose our confidence, we get exhausted, we even get used to scratching and pecking... we can trust that God is there to help... Is. 40:29-31
God strengthens those who are weak and tired. Even those who are young grow weak; young men can fall exhausted. But those who trust in the Lord for help will find their strength renewed. The will rise on wings like eagles they will run and not get weary... they will walk and not grow faint.
God is constantly hauling us to the top of life’s mountains or volcanoes here in Costa Rica and throwing us into the air shouting, fly your an eagle... I made you.. I know... You can do it... You can soar... you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.

Feelings of acceptance and rejection run deep in the human psyche.

2011-10-26T16:39:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time there was a mother duck sitting on her nest in the middle of a barnyard. Few of the other ducks at the farm paid any attention to her; they were too interested in swimming. Finally, her eggs cracked open one after another and the ducklings appeared; that is except for one egg, the largest one, that that hadn’t hatched. The mother duck wondered, how much longer it could be. She couldn’t bother about it much more since she did have her other children to worry about. But she continued to sit on it.
An older duck came along, and looked curiously at the remaining, unbroken egg. Well, how's it going she asked.
Well, there’s just this one egg that's taking such a long time. It simply won’t break.
Let’s have a look at it the older duck said. I’ll bet it's a turkey egg. That’s how I was bamboozeled once. The little ones gave me no end of trouble, for they were afraid of the water, can you imagine that, I just couldn’t get them to go in. Let's have a look at the egg. Yes, that’s a turkey’s egg, depend on it. Let it be and go teach the others to swim.
I think I’ll sit just a little while yet, said the patient mother duck. I’ve been sitting so long that it won’t hurt to sit a little longer.
And so begins Hans Christian Anderson's tale of... the Ugly Duckling.
You know the rest of the story I’m sure. The last and largest egg finally hatched and out tumbled a large and ugly bird. But the mother soon found out that he was surely no turkey... he loved to swim. But the other ducklings wanted nothing to do with the peculiar, gawky, off-colored creature. They teased him, called him names, and treated him will all kinds of injustices. The ugly duckling had a hard time finding his place in the world. All he could do was swim... with grace and with ease he could swim like none other.
Until finally, as you recall the ugly duckling gets a glimpse of his reflection in the still waters and discovers that he is really a beautiful swan. And he lived happily ever after, not as a turkey, not as a duck, but as the swan God had created him to be.
This theme of rejection and acceptance runs deep within each of us... that need to belong, to be welcomed, to be included, to be valued is an essential human requirement, God created us to thrive in community... all for one and one for all…That’s just who we are... and so that theme of rejection and acceptance plays itself out in many different ways every day of our lives.
Looks we get, comments, actions, body language, glances, constantly says either you’re accepted, you’re rejected... your included, your excluded, your welcomed, your intruding, you’re valued, you’re in the way. Physical environments we set up say the same thing, hospitable, inhospitable, user friendly, exclusive. Accessible, inaccessible.
And I know without a doubt every person here knows what both of those feel like. We’ve all been there... the ugly duckling. The one rejected, chosen last, left out, not accepted... Even if only for a short time, a fleeting moment, a brief encounter, we all understand what it is to not be wanted. We know what it feels like.
Take a little trip up to the Four Seasons, just to look around, play golf, eat at the club… you will know what it feels like to not be welcomed. You got to know somebody… you got to get invited to play golf at the Four Seasons. Go by yourself and you won't get past the gate. Heck I was just trying to play tennis at the Club I belong to at Coco Bay, I am a member, I pay every month, but my name wasn't on the guard list when I got there and I couldn't get in to even see anybody about getting on the list. I had to turn around and come home, rejected.
The message of rejection and acceptance is a major theme in the Bible. It is played out in story after story. Example after example. Parable after parable. Why? Because it is such a hard message to grasp. It goes against our natural inclination to want to hang out with our own flock of ducks... ones who think like we think, look like we look, do what we do, and have similar experiences to our own.
Our Bible story today is an interesting one. This women comes to Jesus with a request that her daughter be healed. That wasn’t so unusual except for the fact that this women was a Caananite. She was from another culture, than that of Jesus and the disciples... who were Jewish. She had different set of beliefs, she looked different, she spoke with an accent, she didn’t know the rules, she didn't fit in with the other ducks, she hadn't been invited to play… and it was driving the disciples crazy.
Jesus’ disciples begged him, ‘Send her away! She is following us and making all this noise.” Mt. 15:23
Good Christian response don’t you think. She was irritating them. And they were probably a bit embarrassed to be seen with her, making all that noise.
Well Jesus steps forward and totally out of character says to the women...”I have been sent only to the lost sheep of the people of Israel... It isn’t right to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” Mt. 15:26
If what is happening here is the merciless teasing of the ugly duckling, Jesus seems to be taking the role of head teaser. He referred to her as a dog. Which is how the Jews often referred to Gentiles because they were seen as no more likely than dogs to receive God’s blessings.
In writing sometimes its hard to catch the tone or the conversation that preceded this. I think Jesus and his disciples had been talking about inclusion and their circle and who was in and who was out… and I would guess they had a hard time imagining a Canaanite being a part of their club. Jesus by calling the woman a dog Jesus was setting up a metaphorical wall that had existed between these two groups... for thousands of years they had awaited the Messiah to do what... deliver Israel. Not Canaan. Jesus is making very abundantly clear how the lines have been drawn up for this encounter. This woman according to present understanding is a dog… I, as the Messiah, would be clearly on the side of the Jews… everybody clear on that? And now that its set up… what happens next is significant.
The women does not take no for an answer. She acknowledges that she is not in the inner circle, she doesn’t deserve anything by her birthright. She has got one thing on her mind... I love my daughter, and I believe Jesus can help her.
If I have to be a dog so be it... vs 27 “That’s true sir, but even the dogs eat the leftovers from their master’s table.” You see they had drawn a circle which left her out... and then she redrew a circle in which she fit it... although just barely...which on behalf of her daughter was to be good enough.
And then right there in front of everybody... Jesus reflects for her who she really is. To this noisy, irritating, outsider, he says, vs 28 You are a woman of great faith! What you want will be done for you.” And at that very moment her daughter was healed.”
Jesus lifted her up from dog... to woman of great faith... and there were only a couple of people Jesus ever said that about. What did he say to Peter out on the Lake... how come you have such little faith. and to this women the disciples wanted to send away he said, you have great faith. And although we never hear anything more about her in the Bible, I am sure she went home rejoicing and lived happily ever after, not as an ugly duckling but as the beautiful swan Jesus showed her to be.
Circles are good. They are a natural way to include people. Friendship circles, card circles, family circles, prayer circles, study circles, discussion circles… where everyone is a part. Circles are good... as long as there is one criteria... they are constantly redrawn. A circle that is meant to include and build self-esteem and value, once it gets set, does what.... excludes.
A circle of friends become snobs, a group of co-workers become a clique,
a church gets set in its ways and becomes a family reunion every week, and the circle idea which started out so warm and inclusive, gets full and becomes a boundary that that keeps others out.
Inclusivity has never been a quality the church has had much of an opportunity to celebrate. In the church's first few centuries it was so concerned about establishing a creed of theological orthodoxy that it saw heresy and treachery everywhere. The bloody crusades were an unfortunate outcome of such fear. And then since the time of the Reformation, the church has become churches, defined by denominations more worried about establishing their differences than their similarities. I have been pursuing residency here in Costa Rica and they have a qualification category for ministers… Catholics… roll out the red carpet, protestants, however only if the minister is connected with a denomination that is recognized by the government. And if you want to just be a non-denominational church that welcomes everybody… there is no category for that. I am stuck. The government has drawn a circle, that as a Lutheran I was in, but as general Christian, I am out.
But the church I believe in is one that is much more dynamic and spirit led and moving through so many different people and expressions and talents and gifts and personalities… and all a part of the same spirit of love that guides the Universe.
Its sort of like an orchestra, there is a wholeness, a unity but yet each individual instrument contributes to the outcome in a unique way.
I heard a story about an unusual muscician by the name of J. Paul Barnett. He is a concussionist. Notice I did not say percussionist... he doesn’t play the drums. He is a concussionist. He plays the cannon.
Barnett grew up with a great appreciation for music. It was his life’s dream to play in the symphany. The only problem was that he was not musical. He just didn’t have the tools required to play an musical instrument skillfully.
Instead he developed the hobby of building anique firearms, in particular cannons.
I had a member of my old church who shares this interest. Fred Hahn built these cannons. They are exact replicas of civil war cannons right down to the concave wheels... and they really fire.
Well what Barnett discovered was that this skill of his could actually contribute to a symphony orchestra performance by providing the cannon sounds for works like Tchcolvski’s 1812 Overture.
Barnett says that many of his early attempts did not go well. Sometimes he had pops instead of booms, Sometimes his timing was off, and there was always the possibility of a misfire... But now he has an established niche with a number of respected orchestras. the circle that drew him out because he didn’t play an instrument, has now redrawn him in with his cannons.
I Cor. 12:6 There are different abilities to perform service, but the same God gives ability to everyone for their particular service. The Spirit’s presence is shown in some way in each person for the good of all.”
The Bible calls us to be inclusive, Jesus demonstrated what inclusive means, each human being has a deep need to be included, from our very first church service a year ago we have focused on being inclusive... so how are we doing?
Carl Sandburg wrote, in his prologue to The Family of Man, these words: "The first cry of a newborn baby in Chicago or Zamboanga, in Amsterdam or Rangoon, has the same pitch and key, each saying, 'I am! I have come through! I belong! I am a member of the Family.' "
Here is a quote from astronaut Sultan Bin Salman al-Saud from Saudi Arabia during a multi-national space mission: "The first day or so we all pointed to our countries. The third or fourth day we were pointing to our continents. By the fifth day we were aware of only one Earth."
-Quoted in The Home Planet, 1988
The majority of Christians in the world today are people of color.
In fact did you know that 95 percent of white Americans are 5 to 80 percent black? --
The language spoken by the largest number of Christians in the world today is Spanish.
“There is no difference between Jews and Gentiles, between slaves and free, between men and women; you are all one in union with Christ Jesus.” Eph. 3:28
I think we have a pretty diverse church here at Celebration Community Church. Diverse in regard to musical tastes, what we wear, shorts, suits, dresses, jeans, ages, various economic conditions, employment, education and as we get our summertime folks back we have even more of a mix. But it could still be better, more locals, more non-believers, more singers, more billionaires… But I think the word is seeping out… This is a place where all are welcome.
But at the same time I have to say, that is not enough to fulfill our mission... to throw open the doors and say, all are welcome. Have you ever had anyone say that to you before... you’re always welcome... come anytime, the doors always open, you know the way... Gee great, thanks, we’ll do that... but you know I never do.
Compare that with an invitation, you are invited to our house for dinner on Friday night… On this day, at this time. We want you to be a part of whats going on. There is a map at the bottom telling me how to get there. I am definitely going to go. You see before I ever get there I am already on the inside of the circle instead of on the outside because I have been invited.
The same thing happens when you invite somebody to church... you don’t say you’re always welcome. You say next week, why don’t you come, we’ll pick you up. And if they know you… before they ever show up they are on the inside of the circle because they were invited and they know you.
I want to close this morning with an illustration. On the count of three I want you to speak out all together your own ethnic heritage. (Eng-Frch-Ital-Ger-Afri-Mex-Dan-Span-) Now I want you to speak out loud and together the denomination your parents belonged to. (Presby-Meth-Luth-Congre-Epis-Zion-Bapt-and a lot more.) Now altogether say LOVE. That sounds so much sweeter!

Blessings in Disguise

2011-10-16T13:48:00.000-07:00

Its been another great week here in Costa Rica planning weddings on the beach, welcoming guests to Papagayo Village, and enjoying some awesome surf. And with all good things, there are also plenty of challenges along the way.
Over the past three weeks we have looked at the ways that God moves in and through our challenges to create amazing possibilities, when we least expect it, blessings in disguise… What we have been talking about is the Bible's call to just be real. Its not a super secret or anything but people who are authentic people, warts and all, strengths and weaknesses… are just happier people. People who screw up now and then are way less surprised and thrown for a loop when it happens. And you know what… when we aren't trying to be all perfect… people are going to like us better as a result. Its true.
The fastest way to endear yourself to other people is to quit trying to pretend like you’ve got it all together. There is an appeal to being real. Think right now about somebody you really like to be around. Are they cocky, arrogant, think they’re better than you… or are they pretty real. You don’t even have to answer. We love people who are honest, open, vulnerable, down to earth, real and admit it when they’ve blown it. We love those kinds of people. We love people who don't always know the answer. We are more comfortable around people who are not always right. We love being around them. We may even want to reach out and help them.
On the other hand we despise people who are deceitful, hyper-critical, bragging, always trying to get their own way and arrogant and pretend like they’re know it all. They are jerks and we don’t’ like that. How come?
Well whenever you go out and start sharing your strengths, and letting everybody know how great you are… that always creates competition. It’s bragging. Other people start to think, I know he’s not that hot, I am going to give him a dose of reality and knock him down a notch. And then the other has to try and live up to his self-proclaimed billing and the competition is on.
But whenever I share weakness that creates community. We are in it together. Vulnerability is the key to relationships. We love to root for the underdog? Its human nature. Would you like to be closer to your husband/wife? Would you like to have a more intimate relationship with your kids? Would like to have more solid friendships. The key is to be vulnerable.
So often you see with couples the competition thing going. Or the blame game. Or the aint it awful game. Or the I work harder than you. I am putting the most into the relationship.
And when you are in competition you can never let your guard down. You can never show your weaknesses… because those might be used against you in the competition. You can certainly see them in the other person, but you can’t be honest about them in yourself.
There is no intimacy without vulnerability. That’s why some people can never have a relationship. They’ll never let anybody get close to them.
And the last thought… Jesus called us to be salt for the earth. What he is talking about is having influence… rubbing off on people… in a good way. Each one of us have different areas where we are going to be influential. Salt. Sometimes you’re salt in the community, you rub off, your influential, all the time you are salt with your kids… not like salt in the wound… influencial… it might be with aged parents, or somebody you are helping out… but you have influence. You are taking the lead. It’s not position. It’s not a title. Its not a job. To be salt is to have influence. If I were to take you to the grade school and at recess on the playground, within five minutes you could pick out which kids were the leaders. Which kids were the influencers… who was the salt. It’s real simple.
Now what’s it take to be an influential leader in whatever thing is happening or needs to happen? Credibility. Credibility is the one essential requirement for leadership. Everyone of the presidential hopefuls in the United States, is trying to build their credibility. If you don’t have credibility, people won’t trust you. And if people don’t trust you, you certainly can’t influence them, let alone get them to vote for you for president.
How do you get credibility? And we come back full circle… by being honest and open about your weaknesses. If you were to go to Banco National and ask to borrow some money… how easy would that be to get. Well one thing they would do is order a credit check. They would look and see are you credit worthy? Are you credible? Do you pay off your debts on time, with interest, without any late payments or penalties? And if you are credit worthy, then they’ll loan you money.
Every moment of your life, people around you are doing credit checks on you. Your kids, before they do what you say they’re going to check you out, “Does their life back up what they say? Are they worthy of following?” Your friends, your neighbors, the people you work with, if you’re a salesman, your customers, “Are you credible?” A preacher, the folks listening are asking is he credible. Or just a little too Joel Osteen perfect, I got it all together.
The way you influence people, the way you be salt to the earth, is not by being perfect, but by being you. Just the way you came packaged. Cause if you aren't you… there is nobody else on the planet who can do it. You got the job. You got the resume'. You care an expert at being you.
We each have to decide in life whether we are going to impress people or influence people. You can’t do both. From a distance you can impress people… but up close, you can only influence them. From a distance, you look pretty classy. You could be a celebrity from a distance but when you get up close to people they see your warts and liver spots and cellulite and other failings, faults, failures in your life. You don’t have to be a great person to make friends and influence people… you do have to be real… and real people always have room to learn and grow and change and be better versions of ourselves and more in tuned with God and the ways of the world. That's the whole purpose of having a church… a community in which we can embrace our weaknesses, celebrate our strengths, help each other out, together make the world a better place and trust God that all things work together for good to them that love the Lord.

Finding the strength in our weaknesses... part 3

2011-10-03T15:30:00.000-07:00

This we continue our series of messages on finding the strength in our weaknesses. Its no big secret… everybody has weaknesses, And what we usually do with our weaknesses is spend a lifetime making up for them, hiding them, convincing ourselves they don't exist, running from them… And then God comes along and says, “I’ve got something totally different in mind. I want to use your weaknesses.” We say, “Oh great
Now remember what we defined weakness as. We’re talking about any limitation in your life that you either inherited or you cannot change. There’s some things in your life you didn’t choose…you are just stuck with… And its those things God says, “I have a plan for… I don’t just want to use your strengths, I want to use your weaknesses too.”
“God purposely chose what the world considers nonsense in order to shame the wise, and he chose what the world considers weak in order to shame the powerful.”
1 Corinthians 1:27-28 (TEV)
There are three steps God has to take us through in order to use our weaknesses. To recap where we’ve come.
1. First, I must admit my weakness. That’s pretty easy for most people. I don’t know anybody who is actually convinced they’re perfect. We all have shortcomings and faults and areas we’re weak in. Just last week I made the mistake of thinking I was wrong for a moment.
I should have known better. So the first thing, we just admit, I am a human being and by definition I don’t have it all together. I’d like to pretend that I do sometimes. But I don’t.” And if I don’t feel like admitting it, well God designed reality in way that helps me come to terms with that truth. Its called a crises… a crises is a weakness identifier. So either by choice or by coercion, our weaknesses are exposed. The second step, we talked about last week, is a little more difficult.
2. I must be grateful for my weaknesses. And as strange as that sounds I mentioned four reasons why the Bible says we should be grateful for them.
1) guarantees God’s help, because its in those areas that I’m depending on Him.
2) it prevents arrogance, because I know I can’t do it all on my own.
3) it helps me to value others. Because nobody gets all the pieces of the puzzle in their box. We need each other. God never met for us to be Lone Rangers in life. Even the Lone Ranger had Tonto. We’re supposed to have helpers and friends who make up for our weaknesses here and there.
4) It gives me a ministry. Your greatest ministry, the way you can make the biggest impact on earth is that God will take your greatest weakness and turn it into strength. And God will take your deepest hurt and transform it into your life message. And of course that requires us to take step three which is…
3. I MUST BE WILLING TO SHARE MY WEAKNESSES.
I let down my guard. I take off the mask. I put aside my defenses and just admit it. “What you see is what you get”. You're open and honest with people. This is called being vulnerable.
Now would you agree that if you’re open and honest about your weaknesses with everybody around you, then that is a risky thing to do? It is. Highly risky. “I’m afraid to let you know what I’m really like because if you don’t like it, I’m up a creek because I’m all I’ve got. So what I’ll do is wear a mask and pretend to be what I think you want me to be. Then I think you’ll like me. Because if I let you know what I’m really like, with all my faults and hurts and weaknesses and you reject that, I’m… to quote Steven at the river, dead in the water. Tough luck!” So we live with masks most of our lives. It’s scary, risky, to be honest.
James Cook had to learn this lesson the hard way. He was the captain who discovered Hawaii and the Fiji islands and a number of other South Pacific islands. And if you read the history, on one of the islands he discovered, the natives treated him like a god, put him on a pedestal because they’d never seen anybody like him before. He had all these new ideas and appeared to be in such command of the circumstances around him. When he left Hawaii on board the ship and pulled out to sea, they ran into a storm. Captain Cook was afraid the boat would capsize. Out of fear, they turned around and came back to shore. When they did, the natives murdered Captain Cook and his crew. He’d fallen off their pedestal and they couldn’t handle it. He wasn’t a god. No god would be afraid of a storm. They realized he was a mere mortal. He had disappointed them so they killed him.
A similar story played out centuries earlier. Jesus Christ comes along, riding on a donkey, preaching peace, and he just wasn’t the kind of Messiah the people had been waiting thousands of years for. It became clear he wasn’t going to throw the Romans out of the country. He wasn’t going to reestablish a theocracy. He wasn’t even going to defend himself or his small band of followers, when they were attacked. Turn the other cheek he told them. And as he was arrested, and put to death, Jesus appeared to be as weak and helpless as anybody else. Certainly this wasn’t the behavior of a god. In fact they ridiculed him on the cross, you were able to save others… so now how about saving yourself.
(In today’s Gospel reading) At one point Jesus calls Peter and rest of the disciples over and gives them a little preview of what is going to be coming up… and tells them about their own weaknesses…
Matthew 26:31-35 (TEV)
Then Jesus said to them, "This very night all of you will run away and leave me… [33] Peter spoke up and said to Jesus, "I will never leave you, even though all the rest do!" [34] Jesus said to Peter, "I tell you that before the rooster crows tonight, you will say three times that you do not know me." [35] Peter answered, "I will never say that, even if I have to die with you!" And all the other disciples said the same thing.

It’s clear… Peter wasn’t able to admit or talk about his real weaknesses going into that frightful night of Jesus' arrest. He couldn't admit it to himself or to Jesus that he wouldn’t be able to handle it. He would be afraid. He would even deny knowing Jesus in order to save himself from a similar fate. And we all certainly know it happened just as Jesus said.
So why take the risk and live that kind of open and honest lifestyle. The Bible says there are four reasons to do it. And we are going to talk about two of them today and two next week to wrap up the series.
1. IT IS EMOTIONALLY HEALTHY
Maintaining an image of perfection requires an enormous amount of energy. When you try to live a life that shows everybody “I’ve got it all together” when you know you don’t and everybody else knows you don’t too…. but you keep up the pretense, that’s stress. When you walk around with a mask on all the time, it creates enormous pressure in your life – tension, anxiety – What if I let the mask drop? What if the secret gets out? What if everybody figures out that I am not as great as I have led them to believe… That is a great recipe for stress and burn-out… trying to be something you’re not.
But on the other hand, if you drop the mask and let down your guard and be real and honest and authentic… there is nothing as liberating emotionally than just being real, and not trying to put on airs. In fact, that’s the only healthy way to live.
James 3:16 “Confess your faults to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.” Circle “each other”. You probably do a pretty good job of confessing your faults to God. But it says to confess them to each other….so you can be healed. Quote of the day: Revealing your feeling is the beginning of healing. That’s the starting point. Some of those things that still hurt in your life, they’re never going to be gotten rid of until you share them with another person. As a pastor, people tell me stuff all the time that they’d never tell any one else. When somebody comes in and starts out, “I’ve never shared this with anybody before …” Its so encouraging because I know they’re about to experience some sense of freedom, some sense of a burden being lifted. In the very act of confessing, being able to admit it to somebody else. A hurt, an act, an event, a fault, a weakness, something that has bothered them. The very fact of sharing it with somebody else means the door is opening. The boogieman is not the boogieman anymore. They’re on the road to feeling better. That’s the first step. It is emotionally healthy to talk about our problems.
2. IT’S SPIRITUALLY EMPOWERING.
The Bible says in the book of James, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Notice the words… “grace” and “humble” Those two words go together.
What is grace? Grace is the free, unconditional, no strings attached, love and care and help from God. We need grace every single day. We are going to need it this week. We are going to need God's grace to handle the problems we’re going to face in the next seven days. We’re going to need God's grace to handle conflicts with certain people this week. We are going to need God's grace to handle the pressures we’re going to face in the next seven days. And according to that passage the only way we’re going to get any grace is how?... by being humble.
A great story in the Old Testament; 2 Kings 5:1-15. 2 Kings 5:1 (TEV)
Naaman, the commander of the Syrian army, was highly respected and esteemed by the king of Syria… He was a great soldier, but he suffered from leprosy.”
He obviously had strengths and weaknesses.
2 Kings 5:2-3 (TEV)
In one of their raids against Israel, the Syrians had carried off a little Israelite girl, who became a servant of Naaman's wife. [3] One day she said to her mistress, "I wish that my master could go to the prophet who lives in Samaria! He would cure him of his disease."
Well you can imagine the high and mighty commander taking advice from a nameless slave girl about a very personal and embarrassing situation. But he was so desperate about his condition… he was willing to give a shot to the truthfulness of her words and decides to travel to Samaria and give this prophet of Yahweh a chance to heal him.
2 Kings 5:9-10 (TEV)
So Naaman went with his horses and chariot and stopped at the entrance to Elisha's house. [10] Elisha sent a servant out to tell him to go and wash himself seven times in the Jordan River, and he would be completely cured of his disease.
Again humiliated, Elisha didn't even come out to meet him in person. After traveling all that way, Elisha sends a servant out with instructions. Geesh, first his wife’s slave girl and now a prophet's servant… telling Naaman the magnificent what to do. Go to the Jordan and wash seven times. Is he going to do it? No way.
2 Kings 5:11-12 (TEV)
But Naaman left in a rage, saying, "I thought that he would at least come out to me, pray to the Lord his God, wave his hand over the diseased spot, and cure me! [12] Besides, aren't the rivers Abana and Pharpar, back in Damascus, better than any river in Israel? I could have washed in them and been cured!"
Again we see his pompousness, his arrogance. I deserve better than this, even, our rivers are better than Israel’s rivers. So a third time, he has to take the advice of servants, telling him what to do.
2 Kings 5:13 (TEV)
His servants went up to him and said, "Sir, if the prophet had told you to do something difficult, you would have done it. Now why can't you just wash yourself, as he said, and be cured?"
Come on, what’s the big deal, its easy, just do it. Humble yourself big guy and do what the prophet told you to do.
2 Kings 5:14 (TEV)
So Naaman went down to the Jordan, dipped himself in it seven times, as Elisha had instructed, and he was completely cured. His flesh became firm and healthy like that of a child.
God’s grace and the Syrian General's humility. They go together. And it turns out to be just what the doctor ordered. And Naaman was singing a different tune.
2 Kings 5:15 (TEV)
He returned to Elisha with all his men and said, "Now I know that there is no god but the God of Israel… "
And that’s what the doctor orders for each of us as well. As simple as washing in the river… just be honest about your weaknesses. That’s what humility is. Humility is not denying your strengths. Humility is being honest about your weaknesses. And each of us is a whole bundle of strengths and weaknesses.
I think those of us from North America have a more challenging task of grasping humility. We come from the land of the brave and the free. Nobody tells the United States what to do. We invoke the founding fathers for all that is good and right about our government and way of life. Our forefathers declared themselves to be self-made men. Rugged individualists. Our matriarchs’ prided themselves on being independent women.
But the truth is… our ancestors weren’t any better or any worse than any body else’s ancestors. And neither are our ancestor’s descendents. If we find ourselves in better situations than a lot of people we encounter in rural Costa Rica, it has way more to do with the fact that we were luckily born into educated, prosperous, middle-class homes in a country that was loaded with opportunities for those fortunate enough to have been born there… we get zero credit for where we happen to have grown up and how. But yet you hear things like I worked hard for what I have, I made sacrifices to become a famous rapper or moviestar, or business mogul. Therefore I have the right to enjoy the fruits of my own labors."
But, like the slave girl, there are many people here in Guanacaste and around the world who work much harder than you or I ever did and just never see the same financial rewards or social recognition worthy of their effort. Just like Israel tended to forget its previous slave status and nomadic wilderness life, we too, tend to forget that all we have comes from God -- life, health, opportunity, success, freedom. It is only through the grace of God we have what we have and like some of us have experienced… it can all disappear in a heartbeat despite all our efforts to hang on to it. Humility starts with recognition that we belong to God and that all we have comes from God and is meant to be used in the service of God.
So often we tend to think of humility as putting yourself down… somebody throws you a compliment, sings your praises… and you try and down play it. Naw, it was nothing… I am not that good. I'm a bum. Worthless. Nobody loves me, everybody hates me. I’m going to go eat maggots! I’m a piece of junk.” Well Jesus Christ did not die for junk. The cross shows your ultimate value. That the Lord and creator of all that is… says he values you so much… that you are worth dying for. Humility is not putting down your strengths, it is simply being honest about your weaknesses. And the more honest you are, the more grace you get. The more grace you get, the more empowered you are for life. Cause God’s power shows up best where… in weakness.
When we admit it, when we are grateful its there, and when we are willing to share them.
We are going to finish up this topic next week and I hope you can be here.

"Blessings in disguise" - Finding the strength in our weaknesses.

2011-09-26T07:11:00.000-07:00

Last week we began a new series, Finding the strength in our weaknesses. And we considered how for Jesus as well as for us… God’s power is most active and most incredible and most visible through weakness… things like crosses, and shortcomings, and human frailties. And throughout the Bible we find one example after another of God’s most extraordinary accomplishments coming through the most ordinary of people. People with weaknesses just like you and me. Instead of the phrase we are more familiar with… Use it or Lose it… God seems to prefer, we lose it… and then he uses it. Now the definition of weakness we are using is… a limitation that I inherited or cannot change. Limitations that are a matter of circumstances, you were born with them, or relational limitations, the people in your life you’re stuck with, financial limitations, emotional, physical, talent limitations… we talked a lot about those last week… Now the Bible suggests there are three steps for making use of a weakness. The first is obviously to admit my weakness. Acknowledge the fact its there and not bother to hide, deny, mask or blame it on somebody else. And the second step, which we are going to spend today on… learn to be grateful for my weaknesses.
Now that sounds at first, pretty ridiculous… Be grateful for a limitation in my life. We read it last week… 2 Cor. 12:9 Paul says, “I have cheerfully made up my mind to be proud of my weaknesses.” He “cheerfully made up his mind.” He is going to be happy about it… He is going to praise God for his limitations… why? He says, “… because they mean a deeper experience of the power of Christ.”
Have you heard the phrase a blessing in disguise. That’s what we are talking about. Those weaknesses that drive you crazy, the limitations that you inherited and can’t control, those circumstances that have seemed to conspire against you… can actually be blessings in disguise over which you can be grateful. I think of how I ended up in Costa Rica. It came through the most painful of circumstances… a divorce, losing my best friend of 20 years. Moving away from my little adoptive girls, leaving the Lutheran church and a career and reputation I had built, all my friends… I couldn't think of a worse thing to go through. Yet here on the other side I find myself in a garden paradise, thriving, a wonderful new church just getting started, many new friends, opportunities to make a difference and focus my life in a new way. And wouldn't you know, God decided to fund my life here through my greatest weakness. Your two time loser divorced pastor, now makes a living having couples repeat after me their promise to stay together for the rest of their lives. From my own experience as well as from the Scriptures, let me give you four ways your weaknesses can be transformed into a blessing in disguise.
1. It guarantees God’s help. When I have weaknesses in my life, that guarantees God’s help. We went to see the turtles in Ostional this week. Sometimes those poor old Olive Riddleys were injured, missing flippers, partially paralyzed… or just got stuck on their backs when the waves flipped them over on the beach… as long as they were making it… we didn't feel the need to help. In fact they are better off to do it all by their selves. It is part of the process. But when they just can't… when they are stuck or at risk… and you have the power to help… well, you do. And I think God is the same way. Sometimes we are better off to struggle through it… but sometimes we just can't… we are stuck. We don't have the power or resources to do it alone. And God has the power and will to help and is right there to make a way out. And bless us on the journey.
Another example from the turtle expedition… we got stuck in the river. As soon as Steve declared, we are dead in the water. The prayers started flying. At that point we were stuck with no way out, well through the sun roof of the car, but not out of the River. We needed some serious divine intervention and weren't too proud to ask for it, were we. There was a lot of gracias o dios upon our rescue. And we discovered how true it is... when God jumps in and things start happening… just like Paul says, you enjoy a deeper experience of God’s power… a power you would never have had on your own… or if you never got stuck in the first place. That comes, God says, if I’m grateful.
(GOD) “My grace is all you need, for my power is greatest when you are weak”
(PAUL) “For when I am weak, then I am strong.” 2 Corinthians 12:9-10
We could stop right here and go home because that’s all you really need to hear this week. God says, “No matter what you may have to go through in the days or months or years ahead… I’m going to be with you and I’m all you need.”
You don’t usually realize that God’s grace is all you need until God is all you’ve got. A crises comes, a weakness is exposed, a frailty is compounded and all of a sudden all those things that we thought were so important and gave us security and meaning… are out the window… and God is all you got. And then when God is all you have, you reach out and connect in a powerful way and gradually realize that He’s all you needed in the first place. One plus God equals a majority. As it says in Romans… If God’s on my side, who can be against me.
This is a lesson that I have to learn over and over and over. And so do you. We have short-term memory when it comes to this. We’re in a tight financial situation and God comes through with flying colors and bales us out and helps us through it and then the next day we’re acting like an atheist again. We forget how many times He’s worked in our lives. He’s been there. He’s helped us. He’s made it through the situation. We forget. We have to learn this lesson over and over. We naturally resent our limitations. For the last couple of years I have been living of off and paying my child support with the money I got when we sold our house. At the end of November all my money runs out… and I am totally trusting that God will provide. Its day to day. That's why Jesus taught his followers to pray, give us this day our daily bread… not our weekly bread, or our monthly bread, our annual bread allotment… no, the promise is that we will be provided for day to day.
God says “My power shows up best in weak people.” Paul says “So when I am weak, then I am strong. In fact, the less I have, the more I depend on Him.”
I mean think for a second what would happen if you didn't have any weaknesses in your life, if you could solve every problem and meet any need instantly, if you had a billion dollars, how much would you depend on God? Zip! Not at all. You’d think you were God. If you could meet every need and solve every problem, you’d think you were God. “I’m invincible! I’m the master of my destiny.” God says, “No, you’re not. You’re a human being. I made you and I love you and I created you and in your weakness, that’s where My power shows up strongest.”
2. It prevents arrogance. 2 Cor. 12 “To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassing great revelations, it was given to me a thorn in my flesh.” What is a thorn? It is a weakness… a pain… a limitation. He said, “I have a thorn in my flesh to keep me from getting arrogant.” God blessed his life so much. He’d learned so many things. He’d had so many great revelations from God. (He got to write most of the New Testament.) He saw his weakness, some scholars suggest Paul had something like epilepsy, as a thorn to keep him humble and dependent on God. It was a reminder. Of course, if Paul could have changed it, he would have. If he could have gotten rid of it, that's what he wanted. In fact, the Bible says he prayed three times, “God, take this away.” And God said, “I’m not going to do it because My grace is sufficient for you.” That thing you’ve been praying, “God take this away in my life,” and He hasn’t, it may be a thorn. It may be your thorn. A reminder against arrogance and a guarantee that God's grace and power is sufficient.
3. It causes me to value others. One of the dangers of strength is that it breeds an independent spirit. If I don’t have any weaknesses in my life, I tend to think, “I don’t need anybody!” I don’t need to go to church. I don’t need any close relationships. I don’t need you. I don't need the government. I’ve got it all together.” But God made us to value each other. He wants us to value each other. So nobody gets all the gifts. Nobody gets all the pieces of the puzzle. You need other people to complete the puzzle in your life.
One of the biggest lies in our society is that prominence is the same thing as significance… but it’s not. Prominence is not significance. In the world today, we tend to think if you’re well known then what you have to say is very important. That we should care what a celebrity believes is wrong with the country, or how to fix the economy, or how we should vote. But you can be a celebrity and be living a totally trivial life. Just because you’re well known or prominent does not mean you’re important in the whole scheme of life. Look at Charlie Sheen. Arnold Schwarzeneggar. Very prominent… not so significant.
On the body of Allen Cudahy, as with most Cudahy’s, my nose is a very prominent feature. But it’s not very significant. I could lose my nose and live the rest of my life It’s prominent; it’s not significant. On the other hand, there’s some things like a spleen, a liver, both kidneys. They’re not seen, not prominent at all, but they’re far more significant. I can’t live without those things.
The Bible says, “Some parts of the body that seem weakest and least important are really the most necessary.” That’s true in the body of Christ. God designed our lives together… so that all the parts will recognize their need for each other. “The hand can’t say to the foot, `I don’t need you.’ And the eye can’t say to the ear, `I don’t need you.’” We need each other. God allows us to have weaknesses so we see the value of other people.
Building the bridge over Niagra Falls. It started with one thin twine… and then a rope… and then a wire and then a cable. You make a strong rope, not by making one solid cord. That breaks pretty easy. You make a strong rope by putting a lot of strands together – a lot of strands of weak cords. When you take a lot of weak cords and put them all together, you’ve got a pretty strong rope. Three cords in Ecclesiates 4:12 “A rope made of three cords is hard to break.”
You’re pretty weak and I’m pretty weak, but together we can do stuff that nobody thinks is possible otherwise. That’s the value of unity. That’s the value of church family. That's the value of friends. All they have is their part of the puzzle. They don’t have all the other pieces.
4. It gives me a ministry. God puts you on earth, not just to live for yourself, but to help other people. Your greatest opportunities to help other people are going to come out of your areas of weakness. Believe it or not… the very thing that causes you the most grief and pain, God can use to encourage other people. The thing you’re most embarrassed about, the thing you’re most ashamed of, the thing you don’t want anybody else to know about, is just possibly your greatest strength because that's where God is… and God is going to use that thing, that area, that pain to encourage other people. I mean, after we have gone through something kind of painful… we are way more sensitive and compassionate to other people going through it… right? The word Christian means "little christs". If you and I are going to be little christs, that means that sometimes other people are going to be helped, encouraged and even healed by the wounds in our lives. Jesus Christ, received a bunch of wounds in His body and we all benefited from it. You will go through some pains in your life that, if you will admit them, and are grateful for them, learn from them and are willing to share and encourage others with what you have learned… others will be benefited by it. It becomes a ministry.
2 Corinthians 1 “God comforts us in our troubles so that we can comfort others in trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received.” People who have never struggled with a weakness or pain or shortcoming just aren't as compassionate… they don't know… they can't know. God comforts us in our problems. And we can then turn around and comfort others with the same comfort we’ve been given. I know when my mom went through breast cancer, she was greatly comforted by some women who had gone through it. That's the foundation of AA … alcoholics helping other alcoholics stay sober… NA, addicts helping other addicts stay clean. Who could better help somebody with a Down Syndrome child than somebody who had a Down Syndrome child? Who could better minister to a family who’s had a teenage son or daughter go off the deep end, get into drugs, have a teen pregnancy than somebody who went through that very experience themselves?
God never wastes a hurt. God will use the thing in your life that you are most heartbroken over to encourage other people if… we learn to admit it, see what God wants to do in it, be healed yourself through it and begin to share it with others.
Our theme verse: 2 Corinthians 4:7 “We have this treasure from God but we are like clay jars that hold the treasure. This shows the great power is from God not from us.”
God says, I put my treasure of wisdom and joy and love and grace in you, in your body, but your body is just a clay pot. Its weak, it has cracks and frailties. The truth is, as I said last week, we’re all a bunch of Cracked Pots. I want to conclude with a parable fittingly called the Cracked Pot.
A water bearer in India had two large pots, each hung on each end of a pole which he carried across his neck. One of the pots had a crack in it, and while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water at the end of the long walk from the stream to the master's house, the cracked pot arrived only half full.
For a full two years this went on daily, with the bearer delivering only one and a half pots full of water in his master's house. Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments, perfect to the end for which it was made. But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it was able to accomplish only half of what it had been
made to do. After two years of what it perceived to be a bitter failure, it spoke to the water bearer one day by the stream. "I am ashamed of myself, and I want to apologize to you." "Why?" asked the bearer. "What are you ashamed of?" "I have been able, for these past two years, to deliver only half my load because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your master's house. Because of my flaws, you have to do all of this work, and you don't get full value from your efforts," the pot said. The water bearer felt sorry for the old cracked pot, and in his compassion he said, "As we return to the master's house, I want you to notice the
beautiful flowers along the path."
Indeed, as they went up the hill, the old cracked pot took notice of the sun warming the beautiful wild flowers on the side of the path, and this cheered it some. But at the end of the trail, it still felt bad because it had leaked out half its load, and so again it apologized to the bearer for its failure.
But the bearer said to the pot, "Did you notice that there were flowers only on your side of your path, and not on the other pot's side? That's because I have always known about your flaw, and I took advantage of it. I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back from the stream, you've watered them. For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate my master's table. Without you being just the way you are, he would not have this beauty to grace his house."
Each of us has our own unique flaws. We're all cracked pots. But yet that’s exactly how God has chosen to grace his table… nothing goes to waste. So as we seek ways to minister together, and as God calls you to the tasks He has chosen you for, don't be afraid of your flaws. Admit them, Be grateful for them, and allow God to take advantage of them, and you, too, can be the cause of beauty along life’s pathway.
Let us pray… As you look down on this church, this family, this flock that you love so much, you know our weaknesses, you know where we struggle, and you bring people into our lives who can benefit from the lessons we've learned. We so often have no idea the impact you can have through little old us. That you continue to do extraordinary things through ordinary people. Help us to see that everything in our past has brought us to this point. That nothing you do is an accident… our whole life is one big picture of various colors and textures… and some of the things that happened to us were evil and some of them were bad. And some of the things we did were mean… and some things we just inherited, or just happened and are totally out of our control… But you are always ready to turn them around and use them for good in our lives in the lives of others… if we’ll admit them, be grateful that they can be used in your Kingdom. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.

Finding the strength in our weaknesses.

2011-09-23T17:40:00.001-07:00

I saw a great movie this week… Soul Surfer. She wondered how God could have let the shark attack happen. She wondered how it could possibly be used for good. The movie was about how her weakness was transformed into a major strength.
1 Corinthians 1:27 “God purposely chose what the world considers nonsense in order to put wise men to shame and what the world considers weak, in order to put powerful men to shame.” Notice the two phrases… “God purposely chose” and “weak”. It’s not by accident. God purposely chooses to use people's weaknesses to do amazing things. Why? It demonstrates His power. It highlights his love. It strengthens the relationship.
For many years I taught confirmation in the church… Christian education for teen-agers. And we would go through the bible and learn the stories of the Old Testament. We would learn who and what Jesus was all about. And the parts that always held the kids attention… was not the theology, or doctrine, or prayers… but the spectacular stuff. Jesus miraculous healings, casting out demons, walking on water, raising the dead to life, turning water to wine - a clear demonstration that Jesus of Nazareth had supernatural powers. He had power over the laws of nature, power over the forces of evil, power over even our greatest enemy death. Jesus in many ways is seen today as a super hero character from the days of old when God was more involved with his people than he appears to be today.
If I were to ask you to think of your favorite story from the Bible, or event, or character… what comes to mind? But of course if we go back to what we actually know about Jesus from his contemporaries who wrote it down… that was definitely not the image Jesus was trying to create. He was never a look at me kind of guy. He was always playing down the miracle thing. He didn't want people to focus on the showy stuff. After a spectacular healing he would always say, shhhh, now don't say anything. His emphasis was always on forgiveness, and love and humility and servanthood, never on his super human abilities.
Philip. 2:7-8 (TEV)
Instead of this, of his own free will he gave up all he had, and took the nature of a servant. He became as a human being and appeared in human likeness. He was humble and walked the path of obedience all the way to death— his death on the cross.
That's not nearly as an attractive picture for us. That's not as much fun. A humble, obedient, subservient, powerless servant. That's how Paul describes Jesus. Certainly not the American exceptionalism I grew up with in the home of the free and the brave. We don't like to talk about weakness. We don't like to think about weakness. My favorite Bible verse is Phil 4:13 – the same one as the soul surfer girl. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. That's what I want to hear about. Not so much a lesson in humility.

Now for the next couple of weeks I want to unpack this idea a little bit. What does it mean for me and you to embrace our weaknesses, to see God's presence and care and provision… in our weaknesses… even more so than in our blessings of strength and skill and smarts and good fortune.
When I talk about weakness I’m not talking about sins, character flaws you can change (like overeating, impatience, greed, laziness.) I’m not talking about things you can change.
Weakness is any limitation in my life that I inherited or I cannot change. There are all kinds of limitations like that.
There are circumstantial limitations that you were born with, that you don’t have any control over that you can’t change – disadvantages, problems, external pressures that you can’t control.
There are financial limitations when you don’t have enough money. Have you ever had unexpected expenses that weren’t your fault? Sure.
There are relational limitations. Some people want to do one thing but there spouse has a totally different idea. Or you have a difficult child or difficult children or a rebellious child. Or you have a handicapped parent. Something in your life that you either inherited or you cannot control that causes pain in your life.

There are emotional limitations. Some of us have a tendency, a predisposition, to get depressed. It’s in your nature. That’s no sin, just how you are. Some of us have a tendency, a predisposition, to worry about everything. Some of us have a tendency, or predisposition, to lose our temper and get angry. Or to be fearful. It is a natural inclination. When we make bad choices, we give in to that.
We have talent limitations. There are some things you just cannot do and you never will be able to do. Jesus said there are one talent people, and five talent people and ten talent people.
And of course, we have physical limitations. You have a certain amount of energy and no matter how much you work out you’re never going to have more energy than that, given your physique, your constitution. Maybe you deal with a handicap or bad back, or some other kind of physical limitation in your life.
All of these things, God says, He can use… He can work with. What?
2 Corinthian 4:7 “We have this treasure from God but we are like clay jars that hold the treasure. This shows the great power is from God not from us.” God says, “I put my treasure of wisdom and joy and salvation in you, in your body, but your body is just a clay pot,” a cracked pot. If somebody calls you a crack pot… you just have to smile and admit it is true. The thing about clay pots is they break easily. If you drop a clay pot, it breaks. It’s not indestructible. It is weak. It has inherited design flaws and cracks that come with it. Paul was saying, “Yes, I am a Christian and God is in my life but I am not indestructible. I am a human being. My body is a clay pot so I have weaknesses in it.” It reminds me that the great power in my life is not from me and what I can do, but it is from God. God puts His greatest gifts in ordinary containers – like you, like me
The Bible says there are two steps to begin to embrace our weaknesses and the inherent power of God within them.
1. ADMIT MY WEAKNESSES
That’s obviously the starting point. That means I stop pretending I’ve got it all together. Because I don’t. Nobody has it all together. It means that I stop hoping that my weaknesses will go away if I just ignore them. Out of sight, out of mind. If I pretend they’re not there, maybe they’ll go away. They won’t. It means I stop making excuses for my weaknesses. It means I stop blaming other people for my weaknesses. It means I stop denying that I’ve got them and stop defending them. I just admit I have weaknesses. Nobody has it all.
Warning: Because God wants you to admit your weaknesses, sometimes He has to bring something into our lives to help and encourage us to admit them. That is called a crisis. A crisis is a weakness identifier. When you go through a crisis it says, “Here’s the fault line in my life, the weakness, the weak spot.” My advice is: Don’t wait. It’s far less painful to identify your weaknesses in advance and admit them up front than having to go through crisis after crisis for God to get you to admit, “I’m not God. I don't have it all together.”
Once you have admitted your weakness you go to step two.
2, And that is to be grateful for my weaknesses
You say, “You’ve got to be kidding! I come to church to hear how I can get rid of my weaknesses… and your telling me to be grateful for them? Here is what Paul wrote in his second letter to the Corinthians… 2 Cor. 12 “I have cheerfully made up my mind to be proud of my weaknesses.” I love that phrase, “cheerfully made up my mind.” He says, “… because they mean a deeper experience of the power of God.”
Paul’s saying, instead of wasting your time posturing yourself constantly like you’ve got it all together, I am confident, I am composed, and most important I want everybody to think I am in control. He says, since everybody knows that’s not true anyway, instead of posturing yourself and wearing a mask, why don’t you just stop, admit your weaknesses and start focusing on God’s power and experience a deeper experience of the power of God's spirit in your life?
Who is the strongest man in the Bible? When I was a kid, I used to think that Samson was this giant, muscle bound hunk – kind of a Jewish Rambo. Bulging biceps. The truth is that Samson was a very ordinary looking guy. The Bible says that when the enemies looked at him they couldn’t figure out why the guy’s so strong. From all appearance, he just looked normal. He was not some beefcake. The Bible tells us that his strength laid not in his muscles but in the Spirit of the Lord. He probably looked more like Mr Rogers than he did Schwarzenegger. They couldn’t figure out his secret. It wasn’t muscles.
The world is impressed with strength and might. But the Bible says in Zachariah 4:6 “`It is not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord.” That’s good news, really good news, because most of us are not extraordinary people. We don’t have bodies like the models. We don’t have extraordinary intellect. We’re just normal, ordinary, average people. God says that’s ok, because I don’t choose to work through natural strength. I choose to work through natural weakness and then My power shines through.”
Just take some of the biggies of the Bible….
Moses – Moses had some serious anger management issues. Probably stemmed from the fact that he was raised in the Pharaoh's palace but nursed by his biological mom… and was clearly of the Hebrew race in a time where the Egyptian royalty were highly prejudiced… tough start. Well he got angry one day and killed an Egyptian so he got kicked out of Egypt. Then after the whole parting of the Red Sea event, he seemed to have redeemed himself… But remember what happened with the 10 commandments… yeah, he got mad and busted them. And had to go back and get them again. Geesh. Then another day he got super angry and struck a rock that God told him to speak to (getting water out of it) and that kept him out of the Promised Land. Anger was Moses’ greatest weakness. And yet, in the Bible, there are only two people ever described with the word meek – which is better defined as anger under control… the two are Jesus and Moses. God took his greatest weakness and turned it into his greatest strength. He is to this day the largest figure in Judaism.
King David is called in the Bible “a man after God’s own heart.” You’d think Dudley Dooright, right? Not even close. David stole a man’s wife, committed adultery with her and then had the man killed. He had some serious moral failure going down. Yet God was still able to go on and use David to accomplish great things. David is considered Israel's greatest King despite his great area of failure. A man after God's own heart. .
Abraham, in the Bible, is called the Father of faith. He’s a spiritual giant. He has enormous faith. Yet when you study Abraham’s life, his greatest weakness was his lack of faith. He was a doubter, always worrying. One time the enemy came and he said to his wife, “Tell them you’re my sister so they won’t kill me to take you.” I’m sure his wife was thinking, “There’s a man of faith!! He’d save his neck by giving his wife away.” God took the man’s greatest weakness and turned it into a strength.
Gideon was a young man when an enemy nation had taken over Israel. God said, “I want to get rid of the Midianite army, the enemy.” There was 135,000 of them occupying Israel. God went to the smallest tribe of the twelve tribes of Israel, found the poorest family and picked the youngest kid in the family – Gideon. And He said, “You’re going to be the deliverer. The mighty man of valor.” Gideon at that time was hiding in a cave.” Judges 6:14-16 (GW)
Gideon said to him, "Excuse me, sir! How can I rescue Israel? Look at my whole family. It's the weakest one in Manasseh. And me? I'm the least important member of my family." The Lord replied, "I will be with you. You will defeat Midian as if it were only one man."
Judges 7:2 (GW)
The Lord said to Gideon, "You have too many men with you for me to hand Midian over to you. Israel might brag and say, 'We saved ourselves.'
My favorite is Jacob. Jacob was a deceiver. Jacob was a manipulator. Jacob was a schemer. All his life, he spent scheming to get his way. He made one mess after another and then he’d run from it. He ran his entire life because of all the messes. He’d create a mess and run. Create a mess and run. Out of one relationship into another. One night he had a dream. He had a vision that he was wrestling with God. He said, "I’m not going to let go until you bless me, God.” And God said, “Ok, I’ll bless your life.” Then it says He grabs his thigh and pulls his hip out of socket. He touched him. Your thigh muscle is the strongest muscle in your body. God touched him at his greatest point of strength. The Bible says from that point on, Jacob’s life was blessed, but he walked with a limp the rest of his life. Touched at his greatest point of strength and turned into a weakness. Why? Two reasons:
1) God wanted him to have a constant reminder: You’ve got to depend on Me from now on.
2) Jacob could no longer run away from his problems. That old habit of creating a problem and running from it, he couldn’t do any more because he had a limp.
And then after this whole wrestling match with God , Jacob’s name was changed to Israel. And the entire nation was named after that guy. It was changed from “Jacob” which means “schemer, deceiver, manipulator” to Israel which means “Prince of God" That is where the name comes from.
And so too, God wants to take the greatest weakness in our lives and turn them ironically into a strength. But if He does, if God blesses your life in a great way, there just may be a limp you metaphorically walk with the rest of your life. A thorn, a pain, a memory, a reminder that God’s in charge.
And of course the greatest example of all, of God turning weakness into strength is what Jesus did on the cross and that’s what we remember at communion. “Although He died on the cross in weakness, Jesus now lives in the mighty power of God. We, too, are weak, but we live in Him and have God’s mighty power.”
2 Corinthians 13:4

God loves the World SO much!

2011-09-11T12:03:00.000-07:00

We are in a sermon series centered on the book of the Bible called I John. I personally have enjoyed it along with John’s emphasis on love as the central theme of the Biblical message. I don’t often base my messages on a whole book of the Bible… Sometimes around a story from the Bible. Sometimes around a particular passage or a Biblical character. Sometimes around a theological concept. Sometimes around a current event. Or a problem we all face in life. But this morning I am going to take yet another approach and base this message on one seemingly insignificant two letter word, from the pen of Grandpa John, out of the middle of his letter. It’s a word that you have already used today many times, I’m sure, you heard Theodore and I talking about it.
The word is SO. “S” “O”. and it can be used in a lot of ways. A conjunction - are you having a good morning? So am I.
It can be used as an exclamation. So what? So, what do you want to do.
I can be used as a pronoun… I read a chapter or so in my Bible. We had lunch with so and so from the office.
But today I am not going to use the word SO as a conjunction or as an exclamation, or as a pronoun. But rather as an adverb… as an intensifier… such as “The grapefruit off of this tree is SO good.” Or, “football season is SO much fun. " Or Costa Rica is SO beautiful." Or remembering 9-11 makes me so sad. ” And in that way the word SO is used to express intensity of feeling.”
The word SO is even stronger than the word, “very.” If I told you that Marianne's homemade mango ice cream is very good… that would be complimentary. But if I told you Marianne's homemade mango ice cream is SO good, SO delicious… you would know that I really liked it.
To give you another example… When I was a teenager, I was madly in love with the girl across the street. There was no one else in the world like her. Cute little blonde cheerleader. We rode the bus to school every morning. We talked on the telephone every night, even though she lived across the street. We went to the movies every weekend. We went to all the dances together. We went to the same church. I was so in love. She even wore my Jr Hi letterman jacket. She was so much fun. She was so cute. She would whisper to her girl friends in the privacy of their conversation that “Allen was so far out” (I think that is what she said.) Here again, the little word SO revealed an intensity of feeling, an ocean of emotion. I was so into the little girl across the street.
It is with this sense that we hear the Apostle John’s words I John 4:11, “God sent his son to die on the cross for us. My friends, if God loved us SO much, ought we not also love one another?”
So much -
The Greek word that we translate as SO is the word, houtos. Like in English, the word, houtos, can be used in many different ways. “Are you going to the movies today? Houtos am I.” SO am I. “I read a page or houtos in a book. I read a page or so in a book.” “Houtos what. So what.” In Greek, the word, houtos is used just like all the ways we use so in English.
BUT, only rarely in Greek, is the word, houtos, ever used to express deep feelings. Only rarely would a Greek person ever say, I am houtos in love with the girl across the street. Very unusual to say the ice cream was houtos good. I am houtos sad.” Only rarely in the Greek language would the word be used as that kind of intensifier.
In fact, out of all the greek words that make up the new testament, there are only three places where houtos is used to express that kind of deep and intense emotion. One is what we just saw I John 4:11, “if God loved us SO much, ought we not also love one another?”
Another place which expresses the same thoughtful intensity: “God's mercy is so abundant, and his love for us is so great” Ephes. 2:4 (TEV)
And again in what is perhaps the most important and beautiful verse in the Bible… John 3:16 which begins… “For God SO loved the world.” Many people say that John 3:16 is the gospel in a nutshell. John 3:16 is the one Bible verse that every Christian should know by heart. “For God SO loved the world, that he gave his only Son that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life.” God SO loved the world, and the word SO expresses the dramatic intensity of God’s feelings for the world.
Now, what if I were to say to you, “I love my children SO much. I love my parents SO much.” You probably wouldn’t be surprised… you likely feel the same way about your spouse and children and parents. That we would use the word SO much simply reveals the inner intensity of feeling that we have for them? We don’t say those words about just anybody.
If I were to say, as your pastor, I love this church. That is a good thing. I could even say, Steven I love you. But what if I got up close… and looked him in the eyes and said, Steven, I love you so much. Wouldn’t that make you just a bit uncomfortable? A little uneasy? A little squeamish? Why? Because we both know that we don’t love each other that much. I mean, we love each other, but not that much. The phrase, SO MUCH, is reserved for very special relationships. You don’t say, “I love you SO MUCH to just anyone.
Similarly, in the Bible, when God says “I love you SO much,” houtos much… those words are rare, reserved for very special and sacred relationships.
So let’s take a look at just who God is saying that about. Who is it that God loves SO much. John says For God so loved the world. He doesn’t say the church, he could have but he doesn’t. He doesn’t say just Christians. He doesn’t say just good people who stay out of trouble. He doesn’t say just you and me. But the World. Who does the world include… A few Buddhists and Muslims and Hindus. Some Americans and Russians and Syrians. And Catholics and Presbyterians and Baptists and Mormons and Jehovah Witnesses. And the deaf, and the blind and the lame. For God SO LOVE the WORLD, the whole cosmos. Good people and bad people. White people and red people and black people and brown people and yellow people. God SO LOVED THE WORLD.
It is not merely, God so loved me. It is not merely, for God so loved you. But God loved the whole world. That is what is SO amazing. That God loved people who don’t know him, who don’t like him, who don’t believe in him, who could care less about him. God loves the world, and the world does not love God. That is what is SO absolutely amazing.
Let me give you an every day example of this. In front of our farm house back in Washington there was a country road that took a pretty sharp curve. Its kind of a blind curve and sometimes cars get going much too fast along there weaving through the woods… And when we would take walks I would keep our little girls one step in front of me to the right so that just in case I heard a car coming out of control I would be ready to shove the kids into bushes so they wouldn't be hurt. Now in the process, I myself may be killed trying to save their lives but that is OK. I love my kids SO much that I would be willing to put it on the line for them.
But let’s imagine that the child in front of me is not my daughter but rather a kid from the neighborhood… a really rotten kid, with a foul mouth, who threw rocks at the windows in my barn, and shot our goats with his bb gun. To be honest, I don’t like this kid very much. In fact, I don’t like this kid at all. And obviously, this kid does not like me.
Well, now, this particular kid is right out in front of me, walking down the beach. This car comes whistling around the curve and is out of control. Would I jump forward and shove that kid into the safety of the bushes and risk my own life so that I might be injured or killed by the car leaving my children orphans. Would I love that mean neighbor kid SO much that I would be willing to die in his place?
The Bible says, “For God SO LOVED the world. The world. People who don’t love God. People who could care less about God. People who reject God. People who snub God. People who say, “I don’t need God.” The Bible teaches that God SO loved the world, and the world doesn’t love God in return. That is what is SO amazing, that the intensity of God’s emotion is not just directed towards Christians. That the intensity of God’s love is not just directed towards church people. That the intensity of God’s love is not just directed to your little life or my little life. The intensity of God’s emotion is for the world.
How do we know that God SO loved us that much… John tells us… “that God gave his only Son to die for the world that the world might be saved.”
Now, this is very hard for us to understand why God would give his only Son to die for us on the cross to atone for our sins. This is very hard for us modern educated 21 century people to understand. We don’t understand the Jewish sacrificial system. We don’t understand the Old Testament logic of sacrifices of animals in order to atone for our sins. We don’t understand it. We don’t understand about sacrificing animals to atone for our sins. It can be explained to us, but it still sounds barbaric and primitive.
Even so, I would like to tell you a story.
Imagine that you are on a train going to visit family. On that train you are traveling from country to country and going across mountains and over valleys and across bridges. All of a sudden the train is dropping down a steep grade and heading for a large body of water. You notice a long train bridge going across but as it so happens, as the tracks cross the water, there is a drawbridge that is part of those tracks and a small ship has just gone through the upraised bridge. The railroad bridge is raised up, small ship has just gone through the opening in that bridge, and the train is coming down the hill so that the train can get across the water. The operator of the drawbridge wants to drop that drawbridge as quickly as possible, or that train will crash into the drawbridge and the water.
OK… you have the setting in mind. Now let’s put people on that train. Let’s say that this train is filled with one hundred people. Representing all the people on the earth. There are good people and bad. Rich and poor. Cops and robbers. On this train of 100 people, sixty of them are Asian. Ten are from Africa. Nine are from North America. Five are from South America. Sixteen of them are from Europe. That makes a hundred people on board. Ninety-four of them are poor. Fifty of them are hungry. Twenty-five of them are starving. Six of them are eating sumptuously in the dining car, enjoying an exquisite meal. The doors on the dining car are locked so that the other hungry people cannot get in.
Now, here comes this train, this train, heading west towards the railroad drawbridge. The bridge man, the manager of the bridge, sees this train coming down and he has to lower the bridge very quickly so that the train can cross. But just as the manager of the bridge was going to lower the bridge, he looks out and sees his son out there in the middle of the bridge. His son is caught in the gears of the bridge. The pants and coat that his son is wearing are caught in the gears of the bridge and he cannot get them off. The manager has to make a choice. He can lower the bridge and crush his son or he can leave the bridge up and kill all the people on the train. The manager looks out at his son whom he deeply loves and he looks back at the train. Those hundred people on the train don’t know him at all. They don't love him. What should he do? He makes a decision to lower the bridge and his own son is crushed to death.
For God SO loved the world, that he gave his only Son to die on the cross that the world might be saved.
The little word, SO. It is SO small. It is SO short. SO seemingly insignificant. There is SO much locked up in that little word. It expresses such great intensity. In the Bible the word SO is used ever so rarely, and each time to express intensity of emotion. For God SO LOVED the world that he gave his only Son to die on the cross.
Amen.

Children's Day in Costa Rica

2011-09-07T08:14:00.001-07:00

Here in Costa Rica, kids have a big day coming Friday, and adults better be paying attention. The youngsters are expecting presents, focused on fun, and enthusiastically awaiting a National Holiday set aside especially for them. The day is called the Día del Niño y la Niña. This is the 74th anniversary of the celebration and it is only a notch down from Christmas in the eyes of children throughout the country. I am thinking… wow, I would have enjoyed a Dia del Nino when I was a kid. Of course childhood is one thing that everyone here has in common and no one is excluded. Along with our shared humanity, unlike Theodore, comes the experience of childhood. All of us have been children.
And so we all can answer the question, “What is it like to be a child?” Because we have all been there. It is to have fun isn’t it. To Play. Amuse yourself. Every child in the world knows what it means to play. Every child in the world has played with a stick, kicked a ball of some kind, or had a race. Every child in the world has known what it meant to “go and hide”. To go hide in the bushes, to hide in the trees, to hide in the dark, and then have the thrill of being found. Kids around Costa Rica on Friday are going to have experiences with wagons, bicycles, little trucks, some kind of toys with wheels. Little girls are going to delight with dolls or stuffed animals. We might remember what that was like for us, when we were children.
What is it to be a child? Ask the children of the world. It’s to have fun. It’s to play.
What is it to be a child? It’s to be creative, imaginative and explore the world around us. Every child has looked under a leaf. Every child has scoped a handful of dirt and wondered about it. Every child has followed a bug, thrilled over a butterfly… Every child has delighted to find a coin, a flower, a feather, a rock, a shell, something under the couch. Every child has been frightened by thunder and lightening. Every child has looked at the clouds and wondered what they are made of. Every child has been fascinated by birds that are flying above their heads, or a lizard scurrying by their feet. What is it to be a child? Every child wonders about and explores the world around us. Every child asks questions and wants to learn.
What is it to be a child? We all know. We’ve all been children. Every child is basically helpless. Human children need to be cared for longer than any other species on the planet. Somebody else has to meet their needs for food and water and warmth and clothing. Every child is vulnerable. Every child needs nurturing. Every child is dependent.
What is it to be a child? It’s to be loved. Even in the poorest parts of Costa Rica a child needs to be loved by a mother and/or a father. The same is true in the richest of nations. Children need to be loved by moms and/or dads as much as the child needs food, water and clothing.
When I was first introduced into the foster care program, I was a bit uncomfortable when the little kids in our care would start calling me dad, or even dada. I mean this isn’t going to be permanent. They will be confused. I am not their father. But I learned from others who know more than me, that that didn’t matter. It was less about me and more about the need the child has to have that dad place in their life filled by somebody. That somebody was there that they could say dada about and it would have meaning.
When I think of childhood, I think, of course, of my childhood in Parkland, WA. I think of the fort my dad made us in the backyard out of real logs… with a two story lookout. We could go in our fort and nobody could get in… not even John Mays, the big kid in neighborhood who was always hassling us, could get into that fort. We’d close the front gates, throw down the big wooden bar, go up to second floor stand and look out over the walls at our kingdom. Outside the fort I was afraid of the imaginary Indians and the imaginary bears and the shadows of dusk… but in the fort I was the king. I think of the great number of forts that we built as kids. We built forts in the woods, the living room, with chairs and blankets, the bedroom with sleeping bags, we made an underground fort in the vacant lot by digging a big whole and then covering it with plywood, and then dirt and grass… it was invisible. So found out the guy who came to grade for a house and fell in the hole with his tractor.
When I look at childhood, I often wonder where it goes and when. My little boys are now big boys studying medicine and finding summer jobs, paying for gas, taking MCATS, but still the future is an open door. All things are possible. The World is their oyster. Remember when there was a pearl of great value waiting out there to be discovered by you. But then we get older, a few set backs, a little reality check, life throws us a couple of curves, and somewhere in the middle there, we start to feel like: to quote the Lion King. we are more than what we have become. We wonder what has happened to “the little child” that we knew so well, the little child that lived inside. That part of me who believed anything was possible. What happens to little children? What happens to happy little children who grow up to become men and women, mothers and fathers, who often seem to have lost that childish enthusiasm, exuberance, and expectation? What happens to so many, many little children?
And it is with this image of little children that we once again turn to the book of the Bible called I John… written by the disciple John, who for three years, lived and worked and ministered side by side with Jesus. I had so much fun preaching on one word last week, the word so, I thought I would try it again. You know how many sermons I could get out of I John if I go one word at a time. The word is teknoi, in Greek, which means, little children, MY little children.
John writes, 1 John 3:1 (TEV)
“See how much the Father has loved us! His love is so great that we are called God's little children…”
Eight times in this letter, more than any other book of the Bible, John uses the phrase – “little children”. “teknoi” “Little children do not sin.” “Little children, your sins are forgiven.” “Little children, it is the last hour.” “Little children, let no one deceive you.” “Little children, love with deeds and truth.” “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.” Eight times the Apostle John addresses his reader with his pet phrase, “My little children.” Assuming that his readers were actually adults, the only way John could have gotten away with calling them my little children is if indeed he was an old man at the time and that’s why we often refer to the author of John 1 as Grandpa John.
Artists over the years have imagined that his hair was long and white and he had a thinning white beard. They pictured his eyes being old and wise. His skin old and wrinkled. And for those who have read his words we know that his heart was old and wise and was filled with great love. He had become the master, the beloved old teacher, the wisest of men. He was the last living disciple of Jesus and leader of the church in Ephesus. And people would sit around him, sit at his feet and listen to him teach. And the wise old man would say, “My little children, your sins are forgiven.” “My little children, do not love in words, but love in deeds and in truth.” “See the great love that God the Father has for you, my little children, that he has called you his children.”
Its also a favorite theme in the Gospels. Jesus referred to little children on a number of occasions.
Matthew 19:13-14 (TEV)
Jesus said, "Let the children come to me and do not stop them, because the Kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."
Mark 9:37 (TEV)
"Whoever welcomes in my name one of these children, welcomes me…"
John 13:33 (TEV)
My children, I shall not be with you very much longer.' Jesus calls his own followers his little children, Teknoi.
Do you realize that before Jesus… the term children of God did not exist. Nowhere in the Old Testament do you find the phrase, in any of my 8 translations, children of God. A nation, a people, a kingdom, a priesthood, yeah… but children of God? It wasn’t an image they understood. Not until Jesus revealed Yahweh as our Father, Abba, Daddy, did we discover our true worth and dignity as God’s little children.
How we Father’s love our little children. It’s the children who put the father in father’s day. Every father here, and mother, realizes what it means to love their little children, no matter how big they get. We have this deep abiding love for our children. Sometimes our love for them is just so overwhelming. We would do anything for them. There is no greater love than that of a parent for a child.
And that’s how much God loves us. The Bible teaches, Jesus teaches, old Grandpa John teaches that by calling us “little children” God is revealing the depth of his love for us. “My little children.” God loves us immeasurably and knows our vulnerability, our helplessness, our childishness, our impatience, our foolishness, and is patient with us because we are his little children. God knows that we are not all grown up, mature, wise, know it alls. God knows that we are little children. As it is written: See the great love that the Father has for us by calling us his children. A love that is for all the little children of the world… red and yellow black and white they are precious in his sight… every one of us.
The Bible says we are “his” children, and that personal pronoun “his” makes all the difference in the world.
When a child is your own, you love them so deeply. You seem to love them in spite of their faults, in spite of their irritations, in spite of their problems, and idiosyncrasies You just love them.
Like some of you, I also have nieces and nephews, godchildren, former foster children, tons of kids I have baptized, Theodore's former entourage… and you know, I love those kids… but it is not with the same intensity and commitment that their parents love them, in spite of all their little idiosyncrasies, all their little quirks, all their little issues. I don't know if it ever happens to you… but sometimes, other people's kids can drive me up the wall. But for their parents… their little quirks and weirdness's, don’t even register on the meter of how much they love them as human beings simply because they are THEIR children.
Grampa John is telling us that God's love for us is like that. A parental bond. The most powerful relationship known to our species. And God wants to fill our lives with good things just as any parent here would want to bring about the best for their kids.
Matthew 7:9-11 (TEV)
Would any of you who are fathers give your son a stone when he asks for bread? [10] Or would you give him a snake when he asks for a fish? [11] As bad as you are, you know how to give good things to your children. How much more, then, will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!
Let’s come at it another way. Imagine for a moment that you live in a large palace of a hundred rooms. In one room are all the beautiful crown jewels of Russia and England. In another room are all the diamonds of South Africa. And in another room are all the paintings from the Louvre. In still another room is all the gold from Fort Knox. And in still another room are all the video games of America. And in still another room is a heated, indoor swimming pool with a sauna and Jacuzzi, and in still another room a pool table and a ping pong table. In all these rooms are the most beautiful and expensive things in the world. But there is one room, the family room off the kitchen where all the family gathers together. Its comfortable, lived in. Your children, your grandchildren, your family all hang out there. Now, tell me, if you were a loving parent, what would be your favorite room in the house? The family room where your children are. Your children and the grandchildren. By far the most valuable possession that you will ever have because your children talk to you and love you and respond to you and you to them.
And likewise with God, who happens to own a palace called the universe. And in one room God has all the galaxies, in another room all the stars, and in another room all the moons, and still another room, a small room, is a little blue and white planet. In all the rooms of God’s house, this is the only one room has people, as far as we know. That room is the planet Earth. The Earth is God’s family room.
Now tell me, what room does the heavenly Father love more than any other room in the universe? Is it not the family room? Is it not his children? God loves his little children more than all the galaxies of the universe, more than all the stars of the universe, more than all the moons of the universe. And I don’t blame God for feeling that way because I feel that way myself about my kids. And the family room was always the most enjoyable part of my house as well.
See the great love the father has for us…..in that he calls us his little children. So John teaches. So Jesus teaches.
Being a child of God is enormously better than being a microdot in a speck of time within an ever-expanding universe. We would be so lost and insignificant being merely a speck of carbon within a sea of cosmic ooze, but being a child of our Heavenly Father is either wishful thinking, or a revelation from Jesus of Nazareth about the divine nature of the Spirit of the universe. And I gotta go with Jesus on that one!

Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue

2011-08-30T09:06:00.001-07:00

Up in Washington, in my mom's garage, I have one of my few remaining worldly possessions. A 1974 Honda CB 750 motorcycle. My friend David is going to rent a container and bring some stuff down and we are checking into bringing the bike too. You know how much duty they want for my almost 40 year old motorcycle? $1300. They say it is a collectors item. Things that are old are sometimes very valuable.
So I looked into just selling the motorcycle up there and buying a new one down here. Until I started looking at the prices. You know what a new motorcycle costs in Costa Rica. Clearly things that are new are also very valuable.
So what if you had something that was both old and new at the same time? How valuable would that be? So what could be old and new at the same time? Sounds like an old Kung Fu episode. Grasshopper, you may find secret to life in what is old and new at same time.
Take these grapefruit trees that shade our worship space. These are some old trees. Huge. But this time of year they are full of new fruit. We keep picking them… and many of you have enjoyed the grapefruit… and the tree keeps producing new fruit. The tree is old but its full of new growth. And that makes this tree very valuable on our property…the grapefruit is so good.
Another example, One of my favorite places in Guanacaste are the Cortez Falls. Spectacular. You go down this dirt road, and there are no hills or anything… it looks like farmland. And at the end is a gully… and you go down steep dirt trail… and then like a discovered buried treasure, there it is, a massive cascading wall of water… bouncing off the rock wall behind it and falling into a large pond, complete with sandy beach. It is fun to swim out to where the Falls hit the pond but it is just a might force of spray you can't actually get too close. I always imagine what it would have been like for the first person who discovered it… many centuries ago. Maybe it was Cortez? But although the Cortez Falls are very old. If you were to go there this afternoon, it would be all new. The plants and trees with new growth. The water crashing over, always new, always changing depending on the volume. And so it is everyday, twenty four seven… forever new… and yet so very ancient. Its that combination of being old and new that makes the Cortez so fun to visit.
A third example of something old but yet at the same time, very new. Weddings. Here at Papagayo Village we are focusing on weddings… planning, lodging, ceremonies… Steven and Denise are involved, Mark is welding us a wedding arch… it’s a family affair. And to think how many young couples will pledge their troth in the years to come under that very arch. With all their hopes and dreams and love, as fresh as the water pouring over Cortez, as new and juicy as the grapefruits overhead. A brand new human relationship – husband and wife. Two becoming one. But when we gather on the beach under our new arch for those weddings of tomorrow… what we will be doing is something very old. My ceremonies follow a ritual that dates back centuries… from the dawn of time, men and women have made covenants with each other and with God. For centuries and civilizations, men and women have joined together and made life long promises to one another. That’s why a bride will traditionally wear something old, and something new… for a wedding is very old and at the same time, an old institution but yet very new and original with each couple. Some things in life are infinitely valuable precisely because they are both very old and very new at the same time.
It is with these images that we continue our series on the book of the Bible called I John. We turn to chapter 2 7-8 (TEV)
My dear friends, this command I am writing you is not new; it is the old command, the one you have had from the very beginning. The old command is the message you have already heard. However, the command I now write you is new, because its truth is seen in Christ and also in you.
John is saying, listen up folks, what I am about to tell you is infinitely valuable. It is both old and new at the same time.
But first a word about the author of this epistle, this letter known as I John. If you remember when we started this series a couple of weeks ago – John is none other than the youngest of Jesus’ disciples at the time. He was the one called the Beloved Disciple. He was the only one mentioned being at the crucifixion. He was the one Jesus asked to take care of his mother Mary. Jesus knew he would love her as his own. He was trustworthy, more than any other of the disciples and more than Jesus’ own brothers and sisters. Of all 12 he seemed to know what Jesus was talking about when he said love each other. And that is why he was called the beloved disciple.
At the time of his writing the Apostle had grown very old… like 80 or 90 years old. Nearly sixty years had passed since Jesus lived, died and was raised from the dead by the power of God. For sixty years, John had been thinking deeply and profoundly about Jesus and the Jesus story, and he then started writing… the letter of I John and as tradition has given us… also the Gospel of John which is the basis for this series.
So how do we know he wrote them both? You put a computer analysis of both books, and its pretty easy to discover that the Gospel of John and I John have the same vocabulary, the same language, the same syntax, and the same grammar. If I were to deliver some sermon I found online, you’d hear my voice but you would know it wasn’t the way I talk. We know that John wrote both books or at least a close follower who knew the language.
Similarly, we know that the John did not write II and III John nor did he write the Book of Revelation. The same computer analysis of the vocabulary, the language, the grammar and the syntax show that II and III John were written by someone else, perhaps a student with similar ideas, and the Book of Revelation out of an entirely different school of thought. So both the Gospel of John and I John were written by the same person.
He is also the only eyewitness of our four gospels about Jesus’ life. Only John claims to have been there in person. Not Matthew, Mark or Luke. Only in John do we get all these juicy little historical details that you would expect from somebody who watched it happen.
And after sixty yeas of contemplation, he writes these profound words about love. And that is what we want to know. We want to know love. We want to know what love is because we sense that all meaning and happiness and goodness in life comes from knowing love. The primary meaning and happiness of our lives does not come from our jobs. The primary meaning and happiness of our lives does not from the stuff that we have accumulated. The primary meaning and happiness of our lives does not come from living in a beautiful place. The primary meaning and happiness of life comes from knowing true love. And then he lets us in on the secret he discovered from the 3 years of being with Jesus, from the 60 years of reflection on his teachings, and the life experiences that only come with age:
As Grandpa John declares: A new commandment I give to you which is very old. And then he goes on to say: 1 John 3:23 (TEV)
What God commands is that we believe in his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as Christ commanded us.
Two commandments which are basically one: a commandment to believe and a commandment to love. And these commandments are as old as the human race. These two commandments are as old as the heart of God in the Garden of Eden: God wants us to believe in him, the Author of life. To believe in his Son who is the personification of his love. And to love as he loved.
This is God’s commandment: to believe and to love. A new commandment that is very old.
But…what if you can’t do what Jesus is asking of you? What if you are unable to believe in God for whatever reason? What if you don’t love the way that Jesus is asking us to love? What if you have tried and failed? What if you just can’t do it? What if you are tired of feeling guilty and beating yourself up over not getting it right. What if you feel like a moral failure? What if the way you were raised left you somewhat spoiled and you find yourself enormously selfish and self-centered and narcissistic and you are stuck believing mostly in your self and loving primarily your self… Then what? Where is the good news for you?
Well, John has another thing to say before we leave today. This grandpa who had thought about Jesus for sixty years and lived at a time of great hatred and persecution and self indulgence. 1 John 3:19-20 (NIV)
This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts… and he knows everything.
What??? “When our hearts condemn us, God is stronger than our hearts.” When we feel we are insufficiently able to believe and love, we are to trust that God’s love is stronger than our condemning hearts, more powerful than any guilt ravaging our insides.
Some things in life are infinitely valuable because they are both old and new at the same time. The new grapefruit on an old tree. The fresh river water cascading over an ancient falls. The promises between a new husband and wife that spans civilizations. Jesus said, “A new commandment I give to you which is very old: Believe in me. And love one another as I have loved you. So old. So new. Found from the beginning of time. Rediscovered by every new generation, and applied again today. Amen.

Love, love, love... that's what its all about.

2011-08-22T05:42:00.001-07:00

We started a new sermon series last week based on the book of the Bible called I John. It's one of my favorites. Actually it is a letter. A short little letter, written by a guy in the early church who knew Jesus quite well. His name was John and thus the name of the book. He wrote this letter some 50 years after Jesus had died on the cross. He was an old man now, a grandpa, a patriarch, a church leader. According to tradition, when he was much younger, he was one of Jesus' twelve disciples… the youngest of the bunch. He was the one referred to as "the disciple that Jesus loved." Which suggests they indeed had a very close relationship. As I mentioned last week, he was the one that Jesus looked down upon from the cross and said, behold your mother… in reference to Mary, his own mother. He asked John from the cross to look after her when he was gone. And it says from that hour, John took Mary into his own home. Jesus must have known that John was the most loving of all his friends to entrust the care of his mother to him.
Theodore and I sang, love love love… that’s what its all about… Well, more than any other portion of Scripture, that’s what I John is all about - love. John got it. John understood what Jesus was preaching and teaching about day in and day out, for three years. Love. That all the commandments and all the teachings of the Scriptures could be boiled down to one theme: love – Love God and love each other.
If you want to be a Christ follower, you have to know something about love. John goes on to say in the next line, 1 John 3:17-18 (TEV)
If we are rich and see others in need, yet close our hearts against them, how can we claim that we love God? My children, our love should not be just words and talk; it must be true love, which shows itself in action.
He is only telling us something that we already know. Words of love are easy… acts of love are hard. Why is it harder to act loving? Because that requires us to give up something.
Its easy to memorize Bible verses about love: “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels but have not love, I am no more than a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.” And it feels good to recite them. “God is love and whoever lives in love lives in God.” "For God so loved the world…" People love to quote Bible verses about love, but words of love are easy, acts of love are hard. It requires we give up something.
Its easy to sing about love? Any dummy can do it. “Love love love, that’s what its all about. Cause God loves us we love each other, mother, father, sister, brother. Everyone sing and shout, cause that’s what its all about.”
Words of love are easy, acts of love are hard. It requires we give up something.
We love to write poetry about love. Shakespeare alone wrote 164 of them. Elizabeth Barrett Browning more. “How shall I love thee, let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach… Words of love are easy, acts of love are hard. It requires we give up something.
We all know John 3:16 to be one of the most powerful verses of the Bible… but I John 3:16 is right behind it. 1 John 3:16 (TEV)
This is how we know what love is: Christ gave his life for us. We too, then, ought to give our lives for others!
The foundation for all true love, John says, is that Jesus laid down his life for us. It’s a theme we find in the Gospel of John as well… chapter 10 about the Good Shepherd. Why is the shepherd good, he asks? Because the shepherd lays down his life for the sheep and is willing to die for them and sacrifice his life for their safety and well being. Five times in John 10 we hear that phrase: the shepherd was willing to lay down his life for the sheep. That is the essence of what Jesus did. That is the essence of what a good shepherd does. We’ve historically translated the Greek into Good Shepherd but I prefer the word noble. Jesus was the noble shepherd” more than Jesus was the good shepherd. Why was Jesus noble? Because he was willing to lay down his life for the sheep? That is always the source of nobility. Why was Mother Theresa noble? Because she was willing to lay down her life for others. She put the needs of others before herself. Why was St. Francis of Assisi noble? Because he was willing to lay down his life for others. He wrote: “It is in giving that we receive. It is in dying (to self) that we are born to a living hope.”
When we think of heroes, firefighters, police officers, soldiers that lay it on the line, bystanders that see someone in peril and risk it all to help them… they don't necessarily respond because they are good, they do so because they are noble. We throw around words like Freedom, Democracy, justice, self-determination… But rarely do people give their lives for an idea, or a concept or a cause… they do it for the people they love… for the people who are behind those ideas… for the people whose lives have been and will be greatly affected by their sacrifice, by the nobility of their actions.
I watch on the news as ordinary citizens in Libya and Syria, Egypt, and Jordan and all over the world are taking a life threatening stand against tyranny… not because it is a good idea… but because they have families, and friends and fellow citizens who's future depends on the sacrifices they are making. Noble sacrifices. Putting the needs of others ahead of their own.
And there are the everyday people I know living noble lives… putting the needs of their mother who has Alzheimer’s ahead of their own. The needs of a child who was left challenged by an accident of birth. The needs of an aged grandmother. The needs of the poor and marginalized in our communities. The needs of other people’s children who haven’t been loved the way they deserve. The needs of a fragile environment pushed to the limit by inattention. The needs of those who haven’t experienced the unconditional love of God. The needs of people around the world, whom they will never meet, but yet become a top priority. I see many noble lives seated before me today because you have discovered the secret of life and the heart of God: what is love? To lay down your life for another because that is precisely what Jesus did and what Jesus asks us to do . So then how do you do that? Are we talking about living our lives on the brink of a sacrificial death for the sake of somebody else. Usually not. I am not often in the situation where I have to risk life and limb to show my love for somebody. The point is in the sacrificial nature of what love does. We talked last week about what love is… the five different words for love in the Greek language of the New Testament… and about agape, the word John chooses to describe love… which is at the heart a giving, self-sacrificing, other directed, non-judgmental, unconditional love.
Now I John may be the love letter of the Bible… but I Corinthians 13 is definitely the love chapter. The most popular reading at weddings. 75% of the weddings I perform include 1 Corinthians 13… why… It is the definition of what love does. It tells us how love acts – love is patient and kind, it is not jealous or conceited or proud, it isn’t ill-mannered, or selfish, or irritable. Love doesn’t keep a record of wrongs… Paul gives us this list of how love acts.
5 things we can learn from the love chapter as to what love does.
1. We love when we share our time. And there is nothing more valuable we have to offer other people than our time… because our time is our life. We can get more money, more stuff, more work, more fun, but we can never get more time. When you spend your time, its gone forever. To give someone your time is a great act of love. That passage in Corinthians says, love is patient. And patience involves waiting, giving time.
"Be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other's fault's because of your love." Ephesians 4:2
Patience means you make allowances for the faults of another person. You take the time to wait for someone else to change. You take the time to wait for someone else to recover. Wait for someone else to get motivated. Wait for someone else to get their act together. That’s the tough part of love.
And where do you find the strength and motivation for that kind of patience? I’ll tell you where… in God’s patience with you. God is so patient with us… we can make the same mistake again and again and again… and he patiently forgives us again and again and again. The patience of the Father waiting for his Prodigal child to return so he can throw them a party.
If the God who made the universe can take time to wait for you and me, then we can learn from Him to take time to wait for one another. Love takes the time.
2. We love when we do the little things. The chapter starts out with all these heroic actions… angelic phrases, inspired verses, all knowledge, understanding all secrets, powerful faith, moving mountains, great sacrifices… BUT it says, if I have no love it all amounts to nothing. Love is patient, it is also kind. Love isn’t the big stuff, it’s the little stuff… the random acts of kindness. Monday was Mothers' Day here in Costa Rica and when you were thinking about how much you love and appreciate your mom… I’ll bet its not the enormous things she did for you over the years… but her kindness, and care, the fact you could always count on your mom, that she would drive your forgotten lunch box to school. My mom spent a lot of money to put me through college, and I appreciate that, but what reflects her sacrificial nature to me is in remembering how she would offer to type my term paper because she was a faster typer than me and made less mistakes in those days of white-out.
3. We love when we encourage others. When we lift them up. And you can’t do that if you are always trying to lift yourself up. That’s why Paul says, love is not jealous or conceited or proud – in an egocentric sort of way. Love by its very nature goes out… away from us. Somebody else is the object. Somebody else is the point. Not us. And you know what encourages others. Not hearing how great you are… and how easy everything comes… but hearing about your struggles, and weaknesses, and things you have had to overcome in your life. And how you have relied on your relationship with God to get through stuff.
4. And here too, like in Grandpa John's letter, we hear that we love most perfectly when we make sacrifices. When we put other people and their needs ahead of our own… and then don’t complain about it. Next verse says, “love is not ill-,mannered or selfish or irritable; love does not keep a record of wrongs.”
There are three kinds of relationships. Give and take relationships… where one person gives and the other takes. Those don’t last long… unless one of them happens to be a parent. Then there are fair exchange relationships, you do this for me, and I do that for you. You bring me flowers, I bring you candy. We exchange love. You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours… it works for business but it’s terrible for relationships.
But agape love, the word Paul uses here in Corinthians, is described as being at the core, unselfish. Both people in the relationship are giving because they’ve decided they want to give, not because they are forced to. It is their decision and their choice. Out of love we make sacrifices for the sake of the other person… and we’re happy to do it. Romantic love, eros, demands constant attention… agape gives constant attention.
5. We love when we practice persistence. Verse 7 “Love never gives up; and its faith, hope, and patience never fail. Love is eternal.”
So do you believe it. Love never gives up, Love is eternal. We certainly don’t have to look too far to find examples of love that has gone down the tubes. Of love that has given up. In my own life and lots of people who have come in to talk, the litany is a familiar one. I don’t love her anymore. I want him out of the house. I want a divorce. The relationship with my parents, or my kids is over. I’m running away. I can’t deal with her anymore.
Where’s the love? Where does it go? I would get individuals and couples and families all the time in my office looking for advice on a way out of their impasse. And you know what I would often say… Can you try to act like you love them? Act like I love them? Why would I do that when I don’t feel it? Isn’t that just being hypocritical?
Nowhere in the bible are we told to feel lovingly toward somebody. It is always to act lovingly. So many times we get the cart before the horse. One of the great truths of life is that the way that you act can change the way that you feel. If you start acting in kindness toward somebody, put a smile on your crabby old face, finally forgive somebody and let it go, treat them with patience treat them with patience… it will definitely change the way you feel about them. That’s why Jesus advised us to love our enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, because he knew the change would come in us. Our actions would change the way we feel.
John tells us that to love is to know God… to not love, is to not know God. If you and I are serious about our relationship with God – we need to make a commitment to treating people lovingly on a consistent basis, as our default setting.
But in order for that to happen, you first need to know that you are loved. Deeply loved. It all starts with God’s love for you. Grandpa John reminds us, we love because he first loved us. When we recognize that God loves us no matter what, for all time, sacrificially, patiently, powerfully with an everlasting kindness – that gives us the strength to treat other people the same way. And that my friends, is the good word for today.

Talking about love on Costarricense Dia de la Madre

2011-08-18T08:01:00.000-07:00

Three successful and highly competitive sons were discussing what they gave their mom for mother’s day.
The first said, "I built a big house for our mother." The second said, "I sent her a Mercedes with a driver." The third smiled and said, "I’ve got you both beat. You remember how mom enjoyed reading the Bible? And you know she can’t see very well. I sent her a remarkable parrot that recites the entire Bible. It took a group of leaders in the church 12 years to teach him. He’s one of a kind. Mama just has to name the chapter and verse, and parrot recites it."
Soon thereafter, mom sent out her letters of thanks: "Milton", she wrote, "The house you built is so huge. I live in only one room, but I have to clean the whole house." "Gerald", she wrote to another, "I am too old to travel. I stay most of the time at home, so I rarely use the Mercedes. And the driver is so rude!" "Dearest Donald", she wrote to her third son, "You have the good sense to know what your mother likes. The chicken was delicious!"
Feliz dia de la Madre… manana anyway but it’s a three day weekend and celebration is in the air. Although Mother's Day is big where I come from, here in Costa Rica it is huge. A national holiday. Nobody works. There are parades and events and specials, all in honor of madre.
The ancient Israelites certainly understood the importance of recognizing mothers… from the sacred text, Duet 5:16 if you want to live long in the land and prosper… honor the moms today! And really this day is so much more than honoring a role, or respecting a job well done, or the important role of women in society… the day is about love… the incredible unconditional, sacrificial love a mom has for her children… and in particular your mom, and the gratitude and love we have in return.
I want to spend the next couple of weeks highlighting one of my favorite books in the whole Bible. Actually it is a letter. A short little letter, written by a grandpa in the early church by the name of John… You might remember him, at one time when he was much younger, tradition has it he actually hung out with Jesus himself. In fact Grandpa John, used to be the youngest disciple in Jesus band of 12 merry men. He was referred to in the Gospels as the disciple whom Jesus loved. The one he looked down upon from the cross and said, behold your mother… in reference to Mary, his own mother. He asked John from the cross to look after her when he was gone. And it says from that hour, John took Mary into his own home. Jesus must have known that John was the most loving of all his friends to entrust the care of his mother to him.
So I thought Mother’s Day would be the perfect time to start this little look at I John. More than any other portion of Scripture, that’s what I John is all about - love. John got it. John understood what Jesus was preaching and teaching about day in and day out, for three years. Love. That all the commandments and all the teachings of the Scriptures could be boiled down to one theme: love – Love God and love your neighbor as yourself.
If you want to be a Christ follower, you have to know something about love. If you want to celebrate Mothers’ Day, you have to know something about love. If you want to get married you have to know something about love. If you want to stay married, you have to know something about love. If you want to be a functioning human being, you have to know something about love. And there are lots of places you can go to get started. For many of us, the source of our information about love came from the boys Locker Room at the Jr Hi School. Or teen magazine. Or the infamous father/son – mother/daughter talk. Now days, you can google it. I did this week… you know what I found when I typed in the word love?
Over two billion links… I didn’t have time check all two billion but I did surf the “love calculator” and learned how you can calculate if a certain person is right for you for romance and relationship. There are also thousands of love poems and love quotations, and love songs, and love potions, love letters, and love connections, two billion links… Our world is clearly fascinated with the word, “love.” You would almost think it made the world go around.
But what do we really mean by the word love? On this mother’s day… I say love my mom. It's also the beginning of the American Football season and I can say I love football. I also love Costa Rica. I love shrimp. I love all of you guys, I really do. I love my kids. I love the job the guys did on my pool this week. I say love each time but what I mean by that love varies greatly.
If we go back in human history where does this idea of love come from? In my philosophy classes in college we learned that the first major writings on the subject of love can be traced to a guy by the name of Aristophanes at the time of Socrates three hundred years before the time of Christ. Aristophanes and his colleagues were philosophizing about love. The Greeks had 5 different words for love… we just say love, which is part of the confusion. 1) Eros – passionate love toward an object of affection or desire… from which comes our word erotic. 2) Philia – friendship, a bond of solidarity, community – Philadelphia… the city of brotherly love. 3) Storge’, - compassion, sympathy, mercy… loving those less fortunate 4) Koinonia – community, the love we feel as a group, sharing a common life in a covenant of commitment. 5) Agape – This is the love the bible most often talks about. Unconditional, non-controlling, self-sacrificing, giving/receiving… When Jesus told us to love our neighbor – the Word he chose was agape.
When Grandpa John wrote his letter of love. He had all the concepts of Greek philosophy before him… he knew what had been written and said about it… but no one had ever philosophized or theologized about love like John. In the whole history of the human race, this piece of writing is the earliest to so totally focus on love.
I looked up the word love in the Bible. I discovered the word “love” fifteen times in the Gospel of Mathew; six times in the Gospel of Mark; fifteen times in the Gospel of Luke; twenty-seven times in the twenty-one chapters of the Gospel of John. But in the short little letter of I John… a whopping thirty-five times. Its only 5 chapters long… that means the word love shows up seven times in each chapter… Grandpa John is writing about love like no other contributor to the Bible.
“Dear friends, let us love one another, because love comes from God. Whoever loves is a child of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.” And God showed his love for us by sending his only Son into the world, so that we might have life through him. This is what love is: it is not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the means by which our sins are forgiven.” 1 John 4:7-10
Grandpa John says to love is to know God… to not love is to not know God… wow… that sounds to me like it might be something pretty important to know about… to love is to know God… to not love is to not know God. He is telling us that knowing about love and knowing about God are the same thing. But with 2 billion links on the web, how do we know what love is?
Well lets start with what we know it isn’t. There are two popular misconceptions that you hear all the time. Maybe you’ve even thought it yourself.
First is… that love is a feeling. You feel love deep within. Its an ocean of emotion. A quiver in my liver. It can’t be rationalized, intellectualized, or categorized – it can only be felt. Now granted… love affects our feelings in a powerful way… but it is a misconception to say that love is primarily a feeling. Its way more than that.
Second misconception is that love is uncontrollable. It just happens. You can’t help it. Love bowls you over. We say things like, I fell in love. You fell? You’re just walking down the street one day, trip, and fell in love. Couldn’t help it. It was an accident. Didn’t mean for it to happen. The danger of that misconception is that if people can just fall in love due to no fault of their own… can’t we also fall out of love due to no fault of our own. Sorry, just don’t feel that way any more… don’t love you, what are you going to do?
Contrast that with John’s letter of love in the Bible. He says two things:
Love is a matter of choice. He says in chapter 4… Dear friends, let us love one another… assuming that we have some control over it. Jesus commanded us to love one another… as if we could decide to love or not to love. Paul in the letter to the Colossians wrote: And over all virtues, put on love, which binds them all together. I choose to put on love, like I chose to put on this shirt this morning. Every time the Bible talks about love it is in terms of choice to do it or not to do it… none of this uncontrollable stuff.
2. Love is a matter of conduct. Love is not how you feel as much as what you do. John puts it this way. "Let us not love with words or tongue, but with actions and truth.” I John 3:18 Actions… thats what love really is all about. It’s not what I say, its not how I feel. Love is how I act toward another person. You can talk until you are blue in the face, but your heart will always be read in what you do. Always. A former friend of Jesus, the one who looked after his mother, the youngest disciple, one author says, the one whom he most loved, now an old man writes that love is a matter of choice, and love is a matter of conduct – but Grandpa John doesn't stop there… he says its not enough to just know what love is… you gotta know what love does. And that is what we are going to be talking about next week… I hope you can all be here. Happy Mother's Day tomorrow with you’re your own celebrations of love.

When it's time to get back to "reality"

2011-08-13T16:28:00.001-07:00

We adopted two beautiful little girls when they were 2 and 3 years old. And our first family trip was to DisneyWorld. All our daughter Rylie could talk about was seeing the castle… Cinderella’s Castle. She had seen pictures and commercials, and cartoons and story books… the castle filled every corner of her imagination and to think that she would be standing right there on the drawbridge… it was almost more than she could contain. Will I see Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Tinkerbell, Princess Jasmine, perhaps… Every morning she would wake up and ask, are we going to see the castle. And finally the day came, yes honey today you are going to see the castle. Whohooo.
Of course if you have been to DisneyWorld, you know you enter the park and immediately make your way down mainstreet toward Cinderella’s castle and it is a pretty impressive sight. We went across the bridge, beneath the spires, Rylie’s anticipation mounting, through the heavy wooden gates, and entered into Fantasyland. Where our daughter immediately burst into tears. Whats wrong, Honey? I want to go inside the castle. I mean there are a few gift shops but there is no going inside. I want to see the princesses who live there. How do you break it to a 4 year old that nobody really lives there? How do you explain that the precious castle of her dreams is a giant façade that is just meant to look cool from the outside. And what about her parents who just traveled a bazillion miles and spent a bazillion dollars on Disney tickets to get their 5 children into the happiest place on earth and you got a crying kid. There will be no tears in the Magic Kingdom thank you very much. At an early age Rylie came face to face with the truth that rarely can reality measure up to our imaginations.
A few weeks ago my friend Maureen was her with her friends from Spain. And we all had a great week-end but come Sunday afternoon, Maureen had to go back to San Jose, go back to work. Her friends stayed here and the next morning we all went to the beach, weather was gorgeous, we had a picnic lunch, down at Playa Penquita. Probably a bit of my ornery streak but I called Maureen to say hey. Every yelled hola, como estas, how are you. And you know what she yelled back, Volver a la realidad. Back to reality. In any language, in any expression, its never a good thing to be back to reality. When people who visit here and then go home, they often include in their first email that phrase… back to reality, back to school, back to work, back to the daytimer, back to the familiar routine – with the hint that that is not necessarily a good thing…
Another way we use the notion of reality is when we want to knock somebody off of there naïve interpretation life. If somebody’s dreams get too big, if their imaginations run too wild, if they describe things as being too good… what do we say…. Come on, get real. If your bubble gets too big, others will try and bust it by giving you a “reality check.” Reality has become synonymous in our thinking with drudgery, the destroyer of dreams, the impediment to our imagination, the failure of our fantasies – until eventually we find ourselves doing everything we can to avoid it… If you were to start collecting brochures from the resorts in the area I wonder how many times you could find the call to our Northern Brethren to come to Costa Rica and escape reality. If not in those exact words, we have gotten much more subtle, but the message is there. Reality is to be escaped, avoided. Sometimes those who have a particularly material view of the world will characterize those with a spiritual dimension to the world view as being unreal. So what is reality? I have been asking that question since my first philosophy class in college. I went on to get a degree in Philosophy and I am still asking about the nature of reality.
And so was Apostle Paul 195 decades ago. He was a Christian killer before he had this spiritual experience that changed his whole concept of reality. Here is what he wrote in a letter: In the Bible it’s the book of Colossians, to the people who lived in Colossae, Col. 2:17 (TEV)
All such things (human ideas, stuff we've made)are only a shadow of things in the future; the reality is Christ.
Imagine for a moment if he is right. The reality is Christ. Reality is love, reality is good, reality is hope, reality is peace, reality is abundant living, reality is forgiveness, reality is freedom, reality is joy. Reality is just another name for our life whatever it is we happen to be doing or experiencing and its all good. A lot of the time its great. Reality is actually this moment in time… right now… right here, our collective thoughts and knowledge of the events around us, the growing trees and falling fruit and squirrels scurrying, and birds chirping. This moment is real. And if our very life and existence is simply a string of right nows… if we are the time we spend in any given moment… think about it. Getting back to reality is always a good thing. It is an invitation to NOW. To join in life. To do what it is you do. To celebrate being here. We made it. We are alive. Against all odds. We are like a collection of lottery winners here. Cheer up.
I think people these days are actually starving for reality. What’s the most popular thing on T.V. these days… Reality T.V. Name some of them… America's got talent, American idol, bachelor, dancing with the stars, the great race, survivor, biggest loser, the give people a home one, "move that truck". Big brother, Actually it is most of tv. We’re tuning in trying to find people having real problems, real conflicts, real celebrations, real emotions… Its kind of strange when you think about it… We cocoon away in the isolation of our private domiciles, and watch vicariously on our voyeuristic screens other people supposedly doing reality. Even though reality T.V. is more of an illusion of reality than anything actually real…
My oldest son was actually on a reality tv show. Parental Advice. He said afterward, it was totally scripted dad. The whole date, what we would say on camera, how to add a little intrigue and keep them guessing. My other son was on tv too, he won the Price is Right and took his brother to the Amazon but that is another story… and part of their reality.
Rather than watching so called reality on T.V., wouldn’t it be better to just turn off the T.V., buy some plane tickets, come down to Costa Rica and have an adventure yourself. I think there are a whole lot of folks who need to get back to that kind of reality. Yes Philip, I am talking to you.
Getting back to the castle… Who here has ever made a sand castle. Sure most of us. I grew up making sand castles. I had a sandbox, a plastic bucket, shovel, some cookie cutters, and with a little water, I could make the sand castles of my childhood dreams. Making sand castles in my sand box was part of my early childhood, and may have been part of your early childhood as well.
As time went by, I out grew the sandbox, and we had a beach cabin on South Puget Sound… made sand castles against the incoming tide. There were always lots of rocks and barnacles and shells by which to adorn them. During the summer months we stayed with my Dad down at Huntington Beach, CA, and went to the beach everyday, lots of body surfing, laying in the sun and building elaborate sand castles. Dad had to be the judge as to whose was the coolest… and he always had categories, so all of us kids would always win. That carried on with my boys as they grew up. We of course made it into the art of sand castle construction, with a competitive twist as to who’s could stand the longest against the onslaught of the incoming tide and pounding waves. We had elaborate motes, and retaining walls, and you had a little shell that represented your guy who lived there… and your leaf flag, and when they went you were out of the running.
And I had to laugh when I saw my son who was here last month, now 24, helping some kids on the beach build sand castles.
And you too, in all probability, living on the shores of such pristine beaches around here, have designed a sand castle or two in your day.
Have you seen any of those professional sand castle competitions? Sometimes they have pictures that make the email rounds. Amazing works of art. But all that is ever left are the pictures.
That’s the thing about sand castles, they don’t last forever. In fact do they rarely even make tomorrow. The tide comes in and the tide goes out, comes in, goes, out until there is not a single trace of any activity going on at all. So why did I waste all those valuable moments of my life time in the futile work of sand castle construction? Why did you waste any of your precious time out of your life building a sand castle that would in reality be wiped away from any memory later that day.
Why? Why do we do it… because its fun. I can hardly even picture in my mind one single sand castle I ever built… but I can clearly remember building them. The joy is more in the building and less in the admiring of the finished product.
Now why have I been talking so long about sand castles… because I think therein lies the secret to reality. A metaphor for life. Its in the moment we build our lives, all we ever have is now, tomorrow will be a new day with a clean beach to build again. And those moments along the way that we get to admire our crowning achievements, savor those, for tomorrow there will be a clean beach.
I got to tell you I spent a lot more time getting my boys through high school than I did enjoying their graduation ceremony. I am glad I didn’t wait to enjoy them until they got the diplomas, because now they are in Los Angles and Chicago studying and I don’t get to see them as much.
Like sand castles, no matter what we build in life, its gonna fall down. Nothing lasts forever. Vacations don't last forever. Or they wouldn't be a vacation anymore. Coliseums don’t last forever. Cabins, castles,… any kind of creation by human hands… will eventually give way to the ravages of time. Like the tide on the beach, time never takes a break, it marches on. And so do the effects, earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Jesus said… 19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. Jesus is saying is that there is another reality, more real than what we see in the treasures of earth, a spiritual reality that is a part of us and a part of our world, and which is ultimately our destiny. Eternity. That means that joy and happiness and love and contentment and peace and fulfillment and all those things that every one of us are looking for… the reality which is Christ that Paul was writing about… can only be found in the moment and not in the storing up of stuff that is not going to add up to anything. All we ever have is now… that's where reality is to be found. Right now.
You probably already know all this stuff, but for me this has been a new discovery. I am such a dreamer and visionary and perfectionist that I often postpone really enjoying anything until its risen to the level of my expectation. A motto of us intuitives in the Myers Briggs Personality category is, whatever is can be better. And so I often miss the moment in my attempts to improve upon the moment. Yeah this is fun… but it would be really fun if only… and then I’d fill in the blank.
It is easy to fall into the trap of waiting to live. When this comes together or that happens, then life will be good. When the right person comes along and I get married... When my career gets on track… then. When we start a family. When we finally get that bigger house and have a little room. When the kids get in school, then things will be different. When the kids finally move out then we’ll have some free time. If I can just hang on to retirement, ah the Golden Years. Then we can downsize and move to Costa Rica, then… If… When… how much life do we miss waiting to live, how much joy do we miss waiting for the sand castle to be done, how much love do we miss getting because we are waiting to give it, how much fun do we miss out on waiting for a better offer.
As Rylie discovered at Cinderella’s Castle at DisneyWorld, rarely in this world can reality measure up to what you can imagine. But the Good News this day is that even what you can imagine can’t compare to what God wants to do in your life. Paul says it like this in another letter, Ephesians 3:20-21 GW
Glory belongs to God, whose power is at work in us. By this power he can do infinitely more than we can ask or even imagine.
It’s a call to open our eyes to the moment, to look around and enjoy the creation and life around us, and to realize that getting back to reality is always a good thing. Amen

Self-control. The last of the Fruits of the Spirit

2011-07-31T14:07:00.001-07:00

The last one… self-control. Could anybody here use a little more of that? When you raised your hand, pay attention to what area of your life flashed before the screen of your imagination.
exercise, your language, your sex life,
eating habits, managing anger, spending money,
managing your moods, being positive, smoking,
drinking, your thought life, spiritual disciplines.
I was working on this message yesterday and the sun came out and I just wanted to go to the beach… but I needed the self-control to stay home and just get it done because I knew that you guys were going to show up today expecting me to have something to say… about self control. And that's how we often think about self-control. Internal discipline, the ability to do the right thing regardless of how we may feel or other outside circumstances. I may want to go to the beach, but I'm not… self-control. I may want to eat that candy bar but I'm trying to lose weight so I won't, self-control. I may want to yell and scream and stomp my feet, but I am going to remain calm, self-control. I may want to take a drink, but it is negatively affecting my life, so I won't, self-control. I may want to go shopping, but my budget says no, so I don't, self-control. I would rather stay home and watch the golf match, but it's Sunday morning and I am going to go to Church, self-control. I could go on and on.
And in this light self-control is nothing more than super-sized will power, seemingly bent on choosing the least of the most desirable options set before me. I want to, but I won't. Self-control. That way of looking at it definitely gives this fruit of the Spirit a negative feel for me. Conservative, reserved, staid, controlled, non-emotional, conformist, inside the box, following the rules, expectations, self-controlled. All the things that aren't me in any way.
But then the lightbulb went off and I realized I was looking at it all wrong. What's the opposite of self-control? Other-controlled. This fruit of the Spirit is about being set free from other control. It is about having control of one's own life. This fruit of the Spirit is about making your own calls in what affects you… yourself. This fruit of the Spirit is about integrating your head and your heart and your hands as you take control of your own destiny. Self-control is about living a life FREE from the control of anybody or anything else. Self-control is about taking the reigns on who you are, what you think, how you feel, and what you are going to do. It's not outside control, it's self-control.
In Luke 4, the very first recorded words of Jesus in the Gospel -- it was His first public sermon, -- here is what he said. "The Spirit of the Lord has appointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted and to announce that captives shall be released and the blind shall see, that the downtrodden shall be freed from their oppressors and that God is ready to give blessings to all who come to Him." Jesus, in His very first sermon, said, “I came to bring good news”. He said, “I've come to set people free”. I have come to give people back control of their lives. Jesus was talking to a group of people who lived in a particularly controlled, rigid and oppressed society. It was a radical thing to say. Completely outside the box of local Jewish thinking in Palestine. But even under such oppression they couldn’t figure out what he was talking about. On one occasion the Pharisees, the religious police, fired back… ‘We are the descendants of Abraham,’ they answered, ‘and we have never been anybody's slaves. What do you mean, then, by saying, 'You will be free'?" John 8:33 (TEV)
This morning I want to answer that question… what does it mean to have the freedom of self control. Let me suggest a couple ideas.
1. Self-control is freedom from the control of OTHER PEOPLE.
Peer pressure, the need to conform, worrying about what everybody else thinks you should be doing.
1 Thessalonians 2:4 (Phillips translation) "We don't aim to please other people but to please God who knows us through and through."
Jesus says "I want you to be free to be yourself." We spend so much of our time trying to dress like other people, act like other people, talk like other people, trying to fit in and be liked.
Having self-control is being set free to be me. It makes life so much easier. I know God likes me, I like me, so if you don't like me… that's your issue.
Raising my boys through the teen-age years I saw a lot of the pressures young people go through today. The pressures to conform are incredible. I think much more so now than when I was a teen-ager in the seventies. There are so many more options and entities vying for control. There are pressures to act a certain way and to do things a certain way and to be a certain way. But dad, everybody is doing it. No, not everybody's doing it. You’re not.
But I got to tell you, its just as bad for adults. We are probably even worse at conforming. Keeping up with the Jones. We say, "Watch me!" by the way I dress, by the car I drive, by the kind of house I live in, the bumper sticker I put on my car, the kind of jewelry I wear. "Watch me!" I think for a lot of us moving down to Costa Rica is a conscious decision to get beyond that pressure to keep up with what everybody else has and what they are doing. Just being an ex-Pat is kind of non-conformist. Rather than so much focus on making a living, there seems to be more intention on making a life.
Galatians 6:4 "Each one should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself without comparing himself to somebody else." When you get to meet God in Paradise someday, God is not going to say to you "Why weren't you more like Mike?" He's not going to say, "Why weren't you more like Moses?" or "Why weren't you more like... your grandma" He's not going to say that. God's not going to say, "Allen, why weren't you more like Martin Luther?"
If anything, he is going to say, "Allen, why weren't you more like Allen Cudahy? That's who I made you to be." And God made you to be you. With a unique style and design and purpose. And if you are not going to be you… well who is? I got news for you, the world population is about to click over the 7 billion mark. That means that you are not one in a million; you're one in 7 billion. There's nobody on the planet like you. There is nobody else with your unique combination of genes, experiences and perspective… there is nobody else who looks like you. Never has been, and never will be. The problem is that when we spend so much of our time trying to be like other people or figuring out who other people want us to be… we lose some of our "self"-control. What other people think just doesn’t count. As Paul told the Galatians 5:6 - "The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love."
There is a second force that wants to take away our "self" control. This one comes from within. Good ol' guilt. Could a, would a, should a, if,only… truth is, you can't live indefinitely with a pile of guilt. You ever hear the phrase… "The guilt was killing me." Because it does. But since we all make mistakes in this world, and hurt each other, and make bad decisions, how do you live with it? The Bible says, God wants you to be free from it. Ephesians 1:7-8 "For by the death of Christ we are set free. That is, our sins are forgiven. How great is the grace of God which He gave to us in such large measure." Guilt robs you of happiness. Guilt makes you depressed. Guilt can make you sick. Doctors say that 80% of the people in hospitals today could go home if they could get rid of guilt and bitterness. The number one killer of college students now is suicide. The number two killer of high school students is suicide. Why? Depression and guilt. Yet God says, "I want to set you free."
There are a lot of people who have been in therapy for years and years. Some of them just need to be forgiven. They don't know how to get rid of the past. It haunts them. They’re afraid somebody's going to find out about it. We’ve all made mistakes. So how do you get on with your life?" Let it go. God says, "I want to set you free from the burden of guilt." That's the whole message of Jesus on behalf of God… forgiveness, let it go, move on, start over. No questions asked. Undeserved grace. No conditions.
The Bible says, “God has removed our sins as far away from us as the east is from the west.” Psalm 103:12 (LB)
Now in Costa Rica the East and the West don't seem all that far apart… but if we go to Limon… East is still East and West is still West… they don't ever meet each other. Same with our screwups. We don't ever meet them again.
Once again you will have compassion on us. You will tread our sins beneath your feet; you will throw them into the depths of the ocean! Micah 7:19 (Living)
It says God throws your sins, you faults, your screw ups into the deepest part of the ocean and then He puts up a ‘No Fishing’ sign. He doesn't want you pulling them back out. He doesn't want you fishing them back out.
To have guilt control replaced with self control is like starting over. It's like being born again. It's like dying and going to heaven and you say, "God, about that sin..." He'd say, "What sin?" "About that mistake I made in that relationship..." He'd say, "What mistake?" "God, about all that crap I went through and stuff I did…" He would say, what are you talking about…" Forget it.
You know, even if there were no such thing as heaven, it would be worth becoming a Christian just to have a clear conscience. To have the joy that comes from knowing the slate is clean. But that's not all.
In life there are always two certainties… it used to be death and taxes, but now as we are watching Washington debate the subject, can't say that is certain anymore, but two things that are always certain in life is that 1. we will end up hurting people and 2. other people will hurt us. When we hurt others, we feel guilty. When people hurt us, we feel resentful. Resentment is a poison that will eat you alive. It is worse than cancer. It will affect your entire system and ruin you.
It's not so important the fact that you're going to get hurt in life. But what is important is that you have the "self" – control to respond positively to it. Are you going to be bitter or are you going to be better?
Ephesians 4 says "Get rid of all bitterness and rage and anger. Be kind and compassionate to one another forgiving each other just as in Christ, God forgave you." If you forgive, you can move on, but if you harbor resentment, it will take you down.
What do we usually like to do when we get hurt… get even, that’s what. We want revenge. We want to retaliate. We get resentful, but resentment always hurts you more than the person you're resentful against. Always. It's like a boomerang. You throw it and it comes back and hits you.
Some of you are holding on to a hurt. Something happened years ago… You got hurt in a divorce, a family feud, maybe it was your parents, maybe somebody at school, somebody hurt you really bad. And you're still holding onto that hurt. How smart is that? Who is it still messing with? You. Who is that still controlling? You. No it's not. Is it still making you mad? Well… Yes it is.
But I just can’t let it go. I’m so mad. You don’t know what they did to me. I just can’t forgive that person, ever. That's where the gift of the Holy Spirit comes in. A free gift. Drop the baggage, take the gift, take your life, experience the self-control offered. When you're free from guilt and you're free from resentment, you can face anything in life, but when you hang on to either of those two your life is going to have an out of control element to it.
Well. After other people, guilt, and resentment, there certainly is an element to self control that involves will power. We talk about will power when it comes to the resolve we have when our desires and our wise self go to war.
Alexander the Great conquered the world as a young man, but he had a major problem with his temper. One day in a fit of rage he struck his best friend who was his right hand general. Ended up accidentally killing him. He would later write… "I've conquered the world but I can't conquer my own soul!" Have you ever felt like that? "How come I just can't get more self control.
Now a big part of self control is understanding what part of yourself is going to have the control. You have to decide ahead of time. It is your wise self that knows you have to lose weight… or will it be your love of chocolate, any time, any where that calls to you in the night… your wise self knows that this rhythm can't continue and still look good on the beach when the relatives arrive next month. But its there in the drawer and you want it. We all know the feeling, maybe not with chocolate but with other stuff. We all have had and probably do now some bad habits we just can't control. How many times have you said to yourself… "I can't help it" whether its eating, drinking, drugging, running around, smoking, shopping, buying stuff on credit, losing your temper, being lazy, lying, stealing… throw anything in there you want… "I need to get control". I am a slave to my own desires. Jesus knew that feeling. Here is what he says…
John 8:34 & 36 "Jesus said, `Everyone who sins is a slave of sin. But if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.'" He's talking about bad habits, wrong thoughts, strong desires. And not being a slave to those things. Not being controlled by those things. Being free is having self control.
Look at what the Scripture says. Galatians 5:16-17 "If you are guided by the Spirit, you will be in no danger of yielding to self-indulgence, since self-indulgence is the opposite of the Spirit." Self-control comes from Holy Spirit influence.
There's one other thing…
Which is a tricky point we conclude with…
And that is to give up self control for religious control. There is a big difference between a relationship and control. God calls us to a relationship… and one of the things we know about relationships is that they are never based on control. That is the opposite of a relationship.
If you are in a relationship with somebody and there are all these rules about who calls who when or what you can and cannot talk about, or how you have to behave in their presence… if there are all these rules… it just adds a lot of tension because you aren't free to just be yourself. The best relationships we have are those in which we are comfortable in being ourselves and allow the other person to be themselves. And if that is true in our relationships with each other, how much more so with God. Yet a lot of people think of God as this Judge sitting up in heaven with a great big scale. On one side He measures all your bad stuff and on the other side He measures all your good stuff. And if your good works outbalance your bad works, then you’re O.K., God likes you, you get into heaven. But if your bad works outweigh your good works, you're in trouble.
Relationships aren’t built on a list of do's and don'ts… and we all have them, things that we have decided are OK and not OK… but that's not what we are talking about… And a lot of people get scammed here… I am talking about people who give up their self control for religious control…to somebody else's idea or interpretation of how God works in the world and relates to life. And then they make their list everybody else's list. And hardly anybody has the same list. One group says, “We don't believe in wearing makeup”. Another group says, “It's ok to wear makeup but you can't dance”. Another group says, “It's ok to dance but you can't drink”. Another one says, “You can drink but you can't gamble.” There is no end to the potential lists of rules and regulations that we can come up with… and claim they are all divinely inspired. And then what happens? No more self control.
Paul warned the Galatians about that in the Bible. They had heard the message of Jesus and that they were set free and were given control of their own lives… but then they started going back to the old ways and expectations and rules. Here is what he wrote to them in a letter about Fifty AD. Galatians 4:8-10 "Now that you know God how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable principles? Do you wish to be enslaved all over again?"
Back in the first century they were a very rigid and controlled society. Imagine some of those scenes you see on CNN and imagine going back two thousand years… there were rules and regulations governing every aspect of people's lives… thousands of them. Both politically, socially, and religiously. What you eat, how you dress. Who you talk to do. Where you live. How you wash your hands. How you wear your hair. Marriage. Parenting. Finances. And the kicker… rules about how you were to relate to God. And in those days they had spiritual policemen called Pharisees. They went around with clipboards checking on everybody. Asking millions of questions. Keeping score. Making judgments. Handing out penalties. Being critical. Believing they were in control of everybody's lives… quite literally Jesus’ least favorite people.
Jesus would go up to those Pharisees and say things like, "You phonies! You make up so many rules that even you yourselves can't keep them all. That's not what God wants." God wants relationships not rules. God wants relationships not regulations. God wants relationships not rituals. That's what a spiritual life is all about.
Jesus demonstrated over and over again that people are more important than policies. Relationships are more important than rules. He came to set people free… to bring joy to the world. But when the focus turns to keeping rules… its inevitable… as Paul observed with the Galatians: "What has happened to all your joy?"
Jesus made it as simple as possible. Paul reminds the Galatians… "The entire law is summed up in a single command `Love your neighbor as yourself'" We try to make it so hard. So complicated. It is so simple. Love God. Love people. And that will eventually get you… to self control. Next week, on to something else… it’s a surprise.

Just in time for the NFL preseason - The fruit of the Spirit of "gentleness"

2011-07-25T13:27:00.003-07:00

We’ve been in a series using as our basis, Gal. 5.22, the fruits of the Spirit.
“The Spirit produces love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” Galatians 5:22
And of all of the fruits the one I was least looking forward to preaching on was today’s... GENTLENESS. I mean what's that all about. What guy with testosterone coursing through his veins aspires to be more gentle. My Seattle Seahawks are getting ready for pre season which starts in a couple of weeks in the NFL and Coach Erickson is definitely NOT telling his players to tackle a little bit more gently. Costa Rica's national sport, football, is not a gentle game. Even on the beach. My son Patrick is going into his senior year at college and will be playing his fourth year of rugby. That is not a gentle sport. Hockey, pro-wrestling, rodeo, I got to watch em ride the bulls last month in Coco. Those bulls were not at all gentle to their riders. And we the fans cheered. Unless your talking fabric softener or dishwashing detergent or a preschool teacher, gentle is not a good thing. Gentleness is Bambi meets thumper at the pond. Benji takes care of the lost kittlens. Nothing anybody wants to be.
In trying to figure out just what this gentleness of the Spirit means for me today… I sought like last week, to find a better translation of the word. Like faithfulness and integrity. So I looked in other translations of the Bible and found two words... humility, from which comes the words humbling and humiliation... arghhh… that can't be it. And the other word I found was meekness which rhymes with weakness.and goes with mild – Is that it? But yet here it is... as clear as clear can be, right here in the Bible. Philippians 4:5 - Let your gentleness be evident to all. Anybody here ever have horses. I did for awhile. The first horse we got about 10 years ago, was a huge 16 hands quarter horse paint. Beautiful but unpredictable. His name was Zedekiah... A sweet heart most of the time but climb on his back and he was anything but gentle. We wouldn’t let the kids ride him, I was thrown a couple of times. So when the opportunity came to trade him in... we took it and got the best trained horse in return... way more fun. So who would want Zedekiah. Well it was a horse trainer who saw in him great potential as a roping horse. At his size the steer couldn’t budge him. Well first time in the ring, the horse trainer is thrown and breaks his arm in two places – but still sees the potential. Now several years later, I guess he is awesome. We paid $3,000 for him, now he’s worth $17,000. What’s the difference, he calmed down, got focused, got under control. Still big, still fast, still strong, just knows what he is doing now and his gentleness without a rider has expanded to include while being ridden. Being gentle is not the same as being weak. Gentleness is getting things into perspective, figuring out how the universe flows and going with it, understanding people and things, being wise, in touch with the Spirit of God.
Alright I admit, that is a little vague. So what does a gentle person look like... Well the Bible suggests that there are five characteristic of gentle people… taking the first letter of each one it spells out the word power because contrarily to the way the world looks at it, people who have the quality of gentleness, this fruit of the spirit, have tremendous power.
P - PERSONALITY
Gentle people have gentle personalities. They aren't naturally fierce. Sometimes they can be… but its not their default personality. I mean how do you choose your friends. Mostly on what their personalities are like. And what kinds of personality traits do you like to see in other people... Honesty, Humility, they are not full of themselves, Sense of humor, Empathy, Integrity. People aren’t just born with those things, they learn them. And we also learn negative traits as well, such as rudeness, temper, vindictiveness, self-centeredness.
We are all in the process, our whole lives, of becoming the best version of us that we can be… accentuating our good points and rounding off our rough edges. Jesus' own three closest friends, Peter, James and John had a few rough edges as well and Jesus didn't give up on them.
Mark 10 kind of gives us a case in point. Jesus and the disciples were walking to Jerusalem and they had to stop off at the Samaritan Hilton for the evening. Jesus sent a couple of them ahead and once the Samaritans realized who was coming to town (Jesus and his entourage were kind of well known and quite controversial at this point) they didn't want to have anything to do with them. They said, You guys can't come. So they came back and James and John were the first two to receive the news. And they just get irrate... Jesus, "Should we call down fire from heaven?" Let’s just torch em. Serve em right. Who do they think they are?” These were not gentle guys. Then James and John's mom comes to Jesus one day and says, "Jesus, I want you to guarantee that my sons will sit at your right and left hand, the two places of honor when they get to heaven." These guys were arrogant; Mom was a little off too. They had major personality flaws.
And Peter, always talking out of turn, always rushing into things, impulsive, always sticking his foot in his mouth. It was Peter who cut of the slaves ear in the Garden of Gethsemane when they came to take Jesus away. It was Peter who denied Jesus three times.
It's no wonder in Luke 9:41, Jesus said "“How long do I have to stay with you? How long do I have to put up with you?”
It was a rhetorical question... cause he knew that given some time and work they had great potential. Like our roping horse, those fiery strong personalities, once they got connected with their gentle spirits and worked together, would go along way toward winning people to the Kingdom of God. He saw not the personality flaws as much as the power of their potential. And that's exactly what happened if you look at history. These three men became the three pillars of Christianity. Jesus didn't give up. They were a little raw at first, but He hung in there with them, and as they continued to grow in their relationship with God, they got in touch with their gentler more real core.
John 14:4"Live in me, and I will live in you. A branch cannot produce any fruit by itself. It has to stay attached to the vine. In the same way, you cannot produce fruit unless you live in me.” In other words, you can’t have the fruits without the roots. And the roots are a relationship with God in Jesus.
O - OUTLOOK
Your outlook is important. How you see things determines what kind of an attitude you are going to have and how you’re going to act.
Gentle people have a certain outlook on life. They know what is important and don’t sweat the small stuff. Their outlook is literally “out” looking. They are not self-centered. Not arrogant, or rude or selfish or mean. They are outlooking not in looking. Gentle people’s outlook is toward others.
Phil 2:4-5 "Don't just think about your own affairs, but be interested in other's too and what they are doing. Your attitude should be the same as Jesus Christ.” Jesus is the model. Jesus, while he walked the earth, had our best interest in mind. Jesus put it all on the line, he gave up everything, including his life, to get this message across. God loves you. There is more to life than meets the eye. Life is not about winning and losing. Its not about religion. Its not about the rules. Its not about the rituals. Its not about the regulations. Its about being caring and kind and gentle to each other. Where everybody wins.
The Bible says, that we should then love others the way that Christ loved us. We should have the same attitude, the same outlook that Jesus had. And as our outlook begins to develop the fruit of the spirit of gentleness, so does our attitude and our actions. We start thinking of ways we can help people. We develop compassion. And we come to learn that it’s actually a better way to live. Its more fun. The Bible is true... There is more happiness in giving than in receiving.
II Peter 1:7 "Learn to put aside your own desires so that you will become patient and godly. This will make possible the next step, which is for you to enjoy other people and to finally you will grow to love them deeply."
The power of gentleness takes fruit in your life through your personality, through your outlook… and the third one, through your words.
Truth is, you listen to a person talk for any length of time and you pretty much know what’s important to them. Jesus said, The mouth speaks what the heart is full of. And if you are filled with your self, that’s what’s going to come out... all the stuff about you, and what you are up to, and what you are thinking about, and what you are good at, and what you enjoy, and what you are irritated about, and how you are feeling, and when you are talking with someone else you are already thinking about what you are going to say while they are still talking… but if your filled with the love of God and the fruit of the spirit of gentleness... that’s what’s going to come out of your mouth.
“Do not use harmful words, but only helpful words the kind that build up and provide what is needed, so that what you say will do good to those who hear you.”
Not only do our words reflect what’s inside us, our words have great power to influence other people, for good and for bad. Our words can be destructive or they can build up. I talk a lot about that around here. How we talk.
James says it like this: "The tongue is a flame of fire. it is full of wickedness and poisons every part of the body. The tongue is set on fire by hell itself and can turn our whole lives into a blazing flame of destruction and disaster. But no human being can tame the tongue. It is always ready to pour out its deadly poison." We’ve all been there. Everybody has had the experience of the proverbial foot in the mouth. Saying exactly the wrong thing at the wrong time. And even when we try our hardest, we’re going to struggle with what comes out of our mouths. The bible says, No human being can tame the tongue. We are all going to mess up and say the wrong thing. But speaking from a spirit of gentleness is always going to be a move in the right direction. And maybe we will even find ourselves more and more saying the right thing and thinking… wow, where did that come from.
Proverbs 15:4 "Gentle words cause life and health."
E - Empathy
People who are gentle are not judgmental. They are understanding of others faults and weaknesses. They’re not hypercritical.
Ephesians 4:2, "Be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each others faults because of your love."
Empathy is listening to understand, to gain the knowledge of the situation, of where that other person is coming from before you start reading your own home movies into that situation. It's making a proper diagnosis before the prescription. Empathetic listening is powerful because it gives you accurate information from which to go from...recognizing that having a friend is more about being a friend.
Have you heard of Dr. Stephen Covey, best known for his 7 habits of Highly Effective People? His books on leadership have been hugely effective. He writes, "Next to physical survival, the greatest need of a human being is psychological survival -- to be understood, to be affirmed, to be validated, to be appreciated."
A kinder, gentler style of Christianity. If you are able to get this one element of gentleness, it will revolutionize every relationship you have. Cause when you listen, you learn. And the time you invest to deeply understand the people that you love and the people that you work with, reaps huge dividends in terms of your relationships.
R – RESPONSE
We are talking about what you actually do when things happen. Elijah was a great prophet of God. He had some great successes and some great failures. In I Kings 19 it tells us that Elijah had just had the most glorious day of his career. He had just defeated 450 prophets of Baal and things were looking good. Except for one thing. Queen Jezebel was out to get revenge against him and she was in hot pursuit. As he was running through the wilderness, one night God came to him and said, Elijah, what are you doing here? Elijah said, I've been very zealous for the Lord, I've been doing all this work and I just can't take it any more. God said, "I want you to go to a cave and wait for Me."
If you had just disappointed God and He asked you to go and wait in a cave for Him what are you going to be thinking along the way? Elijah was a little stressed. He was probably thinking God was going to come and say, "Elijah I'm really disappointed in you. You've had this great victory over all these prophets and then a woman, one person, starts chasing you and you run for cover. What's wrong with you? After all I've done for you, you still don't trust Me!" or maybe he expected, "Elijah, I've had it with you. You are so weak and so timid I'm not going to be able to use you any more." As Elijah was rehearsing these things in his head, the Bible says that the word of the Lord came to him. God said "Elijah, go out and stand before me on the mountain."
As Elijah stood there the Bible says in I Kings 19 that the Lord passed by, A mighty windstorm hit the mountain. it was such a terrible blast that the rocks were torn loose, but the Lord was not in the winds. After the wind was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. After the fire there was the sounds of a gentle whisper. That's where God was. In the whisper of the soul. Isn't that great? Elijah was expecting a flying fist from heaven and God comes gently, not with judgments, not with condemnation.
The same is true for us. When we blow it in our eyes, God is not waiting for you with clenched fists. He's waiting for you with open arms. Just like the prodigal son who came home after squandering half of his father's wealth, with his head hung in shame, fully expecting to get blasted by his dad. His dad didn't say, "See! I told you so! I knew you were going to blow it all!" No, he greeted him with open arms. He said, My boy's home. God wants us to run to Him not away from Him.
When someone doesn't meet your expectations, when someone disappoints you, are you a raving wind that comes in and starts blowing everyone around, an earthquake that starts shaking people up, a consuming fire that rages all over everybody, or do you respond in a gentle whisper, with healing? There's power in gentleness. It gets people's attention. I think Elijah was shocked at God's response.
Gentleness is the power of your potential under the Spirit's influence. Gentle people are far from wimps. They're tapped in to the source of the creator of the universe. They’ve got the roots to bear the fruits. It's true that gentleness probably won't win any football games. But it will score high points in each of your relationships. I am convinced if you will take these five things and honestly apply them to your lives, it will make a difference. Because if you want to change somebody else, it starts with you.

Faithfulness

2011-07-17T17:33:00.000-07:00

We’re in a sermon series based on the Fruits of the Spirit of Gal. 5:
“The Spirit produces love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility, and self-control.”
Today we are on faithfulness. The seventh fruit of the Spirit is faithfulness. Two to go. If you want to find the rest of the series it is on my blog, Papagayo Ponderings. What comes to mind when you think of the word faithfulness. Probably marital fidelity. That's often the context in which the word comes up. Who was faithful or unfaithful to whom. Sometimes we think of faithfulness in terms of adhering to one's personal set of beliefs… unwavering conviction. Or perhaps faithfulness to one's word. We talk about a faithful employee… one we can trust and who always comes through. And surely it is all those things and more. As used as one of the fruits of the spirit, and how it comes up in different places in the Bible… I think our English word honor and integrity might be a clearer translation. In the Roman Empire occupying Palestine at the time the New Testament was being written… one of the common expressions was honor and faithfulness. That was often inscribed on awards of heroism in the Empire. Used here it is more encompassing than just being chaste to one's spouse. It is about having integrity.
Of course we all have people we know in our lives who are just way up there in our estimation… great people, solid, consistent, strong values, practice what they preach, they do good - we say they have integrity. People who are faithful, the Mother Theresa’s of the world have integrity. People who have integrity, are faithful… to their character, their convictions, their words. They have honor.
Their life is consistent.
That's where the word integrity comes from… being consistent, integrating our heart and our mind and our faith and our emotions and our words and our values and our actions and the way we treat people. To have integrity is to be a good integrator… to be consistent. A couple of passages from the OT that speak to this.
I Chronicles 29:17 "I know, my God, that You test the heart and are pleased with integrity." In other words, God is happy when our life matches our heart.
"The integrity of the upright guides them." Proverbs 11:3 Its saying that integrity is almost an intuitive sense, understanding the right thing to do and then the confidence to be about doing it.
"A person of integrity walks securely." Proverbs 10:9
You have confidence, You are secure in who you are and what you are all about.
"May integrity and uprightness protect me, because my hope is in you." Psalm 25:21
When I have integrity, my trust and hope is in the right place, I don’t have to second guess myself, or just kind of go along with the ideas of everybody else. We have all had those experiences and we know that it can get to be a struggle when our hearts values don't match our daily lives and decisions but we have just been kind of going along. I think that struggle shows how important it is to have this fruit of the Spirit. We talked last week about this frustration gap… The gap between how I believe things should be, how I should act, how life should play out, how I should treat other people, the way I should spend my time and money… and then what I actually do. We all struggle with that. Gallup did a poll that said the number one problem middle and upper class people face is incongruent values… a non-integrated life. We say "I don't want to be materialistic" but then we spend a lot of money. We say "I want to spend a lot of quality time with my kids, that's important, it's a value in my life" but we just can't find the time. We say "important, intimate conversations with my husband/wife is of value" but we go weeks not having those kind of conversations. We want to have a closer relationship with God but when it comes to being intentional about it we are more marginal. We see the needs in the poor rural areas surrounding the North Beaches and we want to get involved and help out, but it just doesn't materialize. And we struggle with that. Its frustrating.
We read the Apostle Paul's description of the frustration gap lap last week. It bears repeating… one of the greatest Christians who ever lived Paul writes…,
Rom. 7:18-20
"No matter which way I turn I can't make myself do right. I want to but I can't. I want to do good, but I don't. And when I try not to do wrong, I do it anyway." Anybody here relate to any of that? A few verses later he says, "I don't understand myself at all."
Most often it seems that the word integrity comes up when we are talking about business or finances or somebody doing what they said they were going to do. But really, the clearest value of integrity is in relationships… the most important thing in our lives. Integrity builds trust. Our words and our actions and emotions and conversations are consistent… they are integrated. I try not to be a totally different person standing here in front of the church than if we were going to grab a beer at Coconutz. People who's lives are integrated you trust. I think of mi amigo David… a person in my estimation of total integrity… I have known him personally and in business for 20 years… and at the foundation of our friendship is total trust. Trust is what fuels every relationship. And trust comes from being honest to our word. Faithful to our relationships. And practicing an integrated life. So how faithful are you to your word?
Mark Twain touted the benefits of honesty… he said "If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything." And that can take a lot of the stress out of life. George Burns said one time, "The most important thing about acting is honesty. If you can fake that you've got it made." But the truth is, you can't fake honesty, especially with the people you're closest to. They always know if you are being honest or not… and we all know, that if you catch somebody in a lie in a relationship the trust level goes way down, at least for awhile. Being faithful to our word is a huge aspect of living in community with other people. Because words alone don't mean anything. It is the actions attached to those words which can change people's lives.
I Samuel 16:7 "Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." That's what those who are closest to us see too. Our heart, who we really are. That's what impacts them and influences them.
I got throwing up sick up in Arenal one day last week. Not fun. Little 9 yr old Alberto, Maureen's son, asked his mother if it was contagious. He asked it in Spanish, but the message was clear… if it was he wasn't going to be anywhere near me!
The truth is… we are all contagious. Our lifestyles are contagious. Our words aren't contagious but our lifestyles are. If you have a lifestyle that's filled with hypocrisy, inconsistency, wheeling and dealing and taking advantages and you've sort of gotten used to this over a long period of time, those who are closest to you see it and they're going to want to run like you are throwing up sick. We all hate hypocrisy. As you struggle to be consistent, and it is a struggle, you can develop in your relationships a depth of love and respect that is a beautiful thing. That's the power of consistency.
Now I can't imagine anybody disagreeing with a single word I have said so far… who would argue that truth is good, speaking with love is a great idea, that honesty is the best policy… so then why has that policy been cancelled in so many everyday lives? And why do we have this frustration gap. I want to know why? I had a wedding this week on the beach… a lovely couple in their mid 40's… second marriage each. They promised to be faithful to each other for the rest of their lives. 91% of people in the United States will make that pledge in their lifetime. Half of them will get divorced. And according to recent studies, 30-60% will be unfaithful to their spouse in the course of their marriage. In fact, 2-3 % of all children born are products of an extra-marital affair, many who will be raised by a father who incorrectly believes he is biologically paternal. Arnold is in good company. Everybody believes in marital fidelity. We certainly want our spouses to be faithful. We would advise our good friend not to enter into an affair. We would certainly counsel our children to remain faithful… yet conservatively 30-60% will cheat http://www.truthaboutdeception.com/cheating-and-infidelity/stats-about-infidelity.html We always chide the politicians for lying to us… but according to another survey I read: 91% of Americans lie. Now of course I read that and thought "How do you trust that kind of a survey? Where 91% admit to lying." But we do. There are times when we lie, times when we refuse to tell the truth. Why is that? I always want to know why?
Well, let's look at the three kinds of lies there are… cause each one has a different motive.
1) The cruel lie... This is the kind of lie that is intentionally destructive and malicious. You tell this kind of lie to get revenge. You’re hurt, you don’t like them, you’re in competition with them, whatever... but in order to get even, you make up something to discredit them, to misrepresent them. The bible refers to this kind of lie as slander. Its the 8th commandment. But yet on a popular scale we see it all the time in the politics. Find some dirt of a half truth and make it into a negative ad… everybody says they don't like them… but the reality is has become the most effective political strategy. Put out cruel lies about the opponent. And they don’t have to be true to be effective.
Its what the Pharisees did to Jesus all the time. They trumped up charges, they misrepresented what he said or did, they exaggerated his words to inflame people. Did it work... absolutely... they crucified him.
And on a smaller scale we see the same thing in our families, we say things like you always, you never, at work... as we slam the competition... at school... as we’re trying to get the girl... you know what he said about you...
What’s the motive behind a cruel lie... anger, resentment. You’re mad or jealous, or you don’t like them and you make up something or stretch the truth to get them.
2) The easy lie... this is the kind of lie you tell in order to escape consequences. You want to avoid punishment or ridicule. You’re just trying to protect yourself. Take the easy way out. In his own words, this is where Representative Weiner got into trouble with his online fantasy thing. For weeks he wasn’t honest about the situation… he lied… because he was embarrassed, he had done wrong, he betrayed his wife, and he was at that point trying to cover his tracks, avoid the consequences of his behavior.
Kids learn this one early. It wasn’t me, my brother (who by the way isn’t home right now to contradict my story) did it. The dog ate my homework. It’s not my fault.
Its the kind of lie Adam told in the Garden of Eden story. “The women you put here God, she gave it to me. Not my fault. He took it like a man, and blamed his wife. Excuse and Accuse. Try and get out of the consequences.
So what’s the motive behind the easy lie. Simple. Fear. That's what makes it easy… it comes naturally… self preservation. Trying to get out of being punished, yelled at, judged, ridiculed, called out, put down… boom without thinking we say something untrue to save ourselves.
Or anybody ever ask you to do something and you say, oh, I’d love to but I’ve got plans... when you really don’t but its just easier to say than I don’t want to... There’s a big difference between I don’t want to and I can’t. And we would want people to tell us the truth if we asked, so just practice being honest. It’s a fruit of the Spirit.
3). The conceited lie. This is where you want to impress other people. You are trying to create an image. Bragging and exaggerating about your accomplishments. I even told one of these conceited lies while I was working on this sermon. I had a friend email me a picture of women in a yoga class with white yoga balls… and they were all sitting in formation and it looked like they had blown a bubble with white chewing gum. The caption read: government warning… do not swallow chewing gum. So I photoshopped the picture, put it on face book and wrote that caption. Many of my friends are warped enough to enjoy that. But a couple of comments said, oh you are so creative, isn't it just like you to look at life that way. And I flat out took credit for something I just cut and pasted. Not telling the truth for personal gain is the same conceited lie. By not saying anything I was giving the impression of being more impressive.
Now why do we do that? I always want to know why? Why do we build ourselves up. Puff up our resume’s, pad the statistics... which by the way studies show 40% of the people do.
The motivation is insecurity. Low self-esteem. You find somebody who is always stretching the truth when it comes to how great they are and underneath you’ll find a very frightened insecure person, who doesn’t feel they are good enough just as they are.. they need to fabricate a little more. We want to be admired, looked up to, respected... and we make the fatal error that the conceited lie will get us there.
At the core of the fruit of the Spirit of faithfulness is an integration between our words and our actions. Faithfulness in its most broad sense is to have integrity. To integrate all those aspects of our lives and be true to our word. And integrity isn't something that just pops up unexpectedly in the corner of your garden's soul. Integrity is something that you must make up your mind to have in advance. There are times in life when you shouldn't wait to make up your mind. For instance: At the wedding I had Thursday… when I ask the groom, "Do you take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife, to love and cherish her, and forsaking all others be faithful to her for the rest of your life?" That is not the time to say, "Give me just a minute on that one, pastor." Hopefully he has made up his mind in advance.
That's how it is with the fruit of the Spirit, faithfulness… you have to make up your mind in advance that that is a fruit that you are growing…
Integrity begins with a commitment. "I will walk in my house in the integrity of my heart." Ps. 101:2

The fruit of the Spirit... GOODNESS

2011-07-11T09:03:00.001-07:00

Goodness
We’re in a sermon series based on the Fruits of the Spirit of Gal. 5:
“The Spirit produces love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility, and self-control.”
Today we are on goodness. The sixth fruit of the Spirit is goodness. Usually the list is being read through so fast it is easy to just gloss over goodness sitting there in between kindness and faithfulness. We may even wonder what it is doing there at all. Are we talking about good things a person does? Is that goodness? Sounds more like kindness and we covered that last week. If you want to find the rest of the series it is on my blog, Papagayo Ponderings. Is the goodness produced by the Spirit of God in a person… like a goody-two shoes kind of goodness, or is it becoming like Glenda, the good witch of the north… totally sweet and tranquillo… but if it is talking about being a good person does that mean that there are also bad people, some wicked witches of the East? Who are just rotten to the core. Nothing good about them. I don't think that is it what this goodness in the fruits of the Spirit is talking about. There is a latin phrase that came out of the reformation… simil eustis et peccatur… at the same time saint and sinner. In each one of us is an inherent goodness, a spark of that which brings life, a little good witch of the North… and in each one of us is a rebellious, self-centered wicked witch of the East that takes what we want. We got that going on at the same time. The Apostle Paul, a follower of Jesus living half way through the first century, was one of the most influential Christians whoever lived… he wrote a great description of this weird see saw between being good and being bad, right and wrong. Rom. 7:18-20
"No matter which way I turn I can't make myself do right. I want to but I can't. I want to do good, but I don't. And when I try not to do wrong, I do it anyway." Anybody here relate to any of that? A few verses later he says, "I don't understand myself at all."
One of the things that still catches me by surprise is that prostitution is so out in the open here. Just walking down the street a girl will ask, so do you want some company? Its just common in Coco… and legal. I am always so curious as to their stories and why they are there and what pressures they have and imagine some options. I can't imagine one of those poor girls out there is a "bad person".
Prostitution was of course legal in many parts of ancient Mesopotamia as well. And one of the great stories of faith in Bible involves a prostitute. Her name was Rahab. Maybe you aren’t too familiar with Rahab but she is listed in God’s Hall of Faith in Hebrews 11. Right there with Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob Esau, Joseph, Moses, Gideon, Samson, David, Samuel. And the prostitute Rahab. In fact she is only one of two women mentioned at all and the only one on the list who is a Gentile. A non-Jew. Do you know Rahab's story?
She lived in the city of Jericho. Her house was built right into the city wall and provided both lodging and favors to travelers. Jericho was a major fortified city that stood as the door way to the promised land God had given to the Israelite people. Joshua is their leader at the time and they have to somehow defeat Jericho in order to realize their dreams. While they are still camped some distance away, Joshua decides to send in a couple of spies to check out the situation in Jericho. Well where do they end up staying but at Rahab’s place. The spies must not have been very good at spying because almost immediately the King of Jericho gets word that there are spies in town and they were seen at Rahab’s. So he sends soldiers to get them. They pound on Rahabs door. Open up. She plays it off, what can I do for you boys. Bring out those men that came by earlier, they are spies that want to destroy our city. And then here is what she said, this is what got her in God’s hall of fame.
Rahab said, "Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they had come from. At dusk, when it was time to close the city gate, the men left. I don't know which way they went. Go after them quickly. You may catch up with them." (But she had taken them up to the roof and hidden them under the stalks of flax she had laid out on the roof.) Joshua 2:4-6
And all the kings men were off in hot pursuit, not knowing that Rahab, the crafty prostitute had risked life and limb to give aid to what she believed was God’s doing.
Later on when it was night, Rahab let them down the outside wall by a rope through the window, tying a scarlet thread there to identify her place as a safe haven when the Israelites invaded and the walls came tumbling down.
That’s basically the story of Rahab... a simple Holy Hoax from a Heroic Harlet and she is listed a thousand years later in the whose who of Biblical Biggies. Even Joshua, the military leader and strategist who led the attack on Jericho didn’t make the list. But there undeniably is Rahab, the prostitute. At the same time, in the same place, in the same person, a saint and sinner. Good and bad. Simil Eustis et Pecattur.
And that’s the story of all of us. No one here is perfect. Not even for one day. But in our relationship with God, as we are filled with his Spirit, the scale tips more and more toward good. The sea saw goes up and down but gradually there is more weight in our lives and characters on the side of good. But before beating ourselves up for not always being a good as we would like, we also have to remember these are the fruits of the Spirit… not the fruits of my labors, not the fruits of my keen intellect, not the fruits of my iron will or my sparkling personality. They are the fruits of the Spirit… goodness, the 6th listed, begins with God. The Bible says in John 15:16 - "You did not choose me: I chose you and appointed you to go and bear much fruit.”
The first thing to get about getting goodness… is to realize its not about you its about God. It is what God does with people rather than what people do for God. Its not performing all the tricks to make an angry less angry… its about a free gift offered… no strings attached.
When you think about the whole history of faith, in German, the heilsgeschicta, that it started off in this little tiny country in the middle east, the people of Israel, which translates "chosen"…. not because they were this great nation and he could really take advantage of their influence... they didn't even have a land or a leader. No it says they were the least of all the nations.
“It was not because you were greater than any other people that the Lord set his love upon you and chose you, for you were the ‘least’ of all peoples; but it is because the Lord loves you.” Deuteronomy 7:6-7

I remember learning the little phrase, How odd of God, to choose the Jews. But he did, he chose them to help him bless the rest of the world.
People are good, more good, because and when God has called them to be about something special… not just because they were so good already that God noticed them and offered them a job. I mean just look at some of the others on the list from Hebrews 12.
You have Noah, who God approaches when he is drunk and naked. Abraham the desert sheik with his squabbling family, who gives his wife to the pharaoh's harem in fear for his own life, old conniving, whining Sarah, hot headed Moses the murderer, lustful David the adulterer, cowardly Peter, chauvinistic Paul, the list goes on and on. This Hall of Fame from Hebrews 11 composes a rogues Gallery if there ever was one. But in each case God used them to accomplish amazing things in his name.
They were chosen not because they were good, but because God needed to tip the balance in that favor and make something out of them.
Think about it, could it be that right now, God has got something going and is calling you to be a part of it. Quite apart from who you are or what you’re like or what you’ve done, I mean like Rahab God already knows the worst about us and calls us anyway.
Listen to Rahab's motivation for helping, here is what she says to the spies after the soldier's left.
“I know that the Lord has given this land to you...We have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to...the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed. When we heard of it, our hearts melted and everyone's courage failed because of you, for the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.” Joshua 2:9-11

She did what she did because of God. The ultimate goodness which got this

prostitute into the Bible's hall of faith… began with God. And so it does

with us. Next week, faithfulness. Interesting.

The fruit of the Spirit: kindness

2011-07-03T14:50:00.001-07:00

We’re in a sermon series based on the Fruits of the Spirit of Gal. 5:
“The Spirit produces love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility, and self-control.”
Notice that when we get to the fourth of the fruits… the theme changes. Love, joy, peace, patience… those are all fruits that feed me… love, joy, peace, patience… has more to do about me and how I feel and perceive life. Now with kindness, the attention moves more toward the other person in the relationship. We talked week one about "love"… if you missed it, you can find it on my website, Papagayo Ponderings, well "kindness" is love in action. That's all it is. The first of the fruits love gets ripe and gives nourishment. Kindness is simply love in action. It's not a feeling. It is something you do. Its not an ocean of emotion, it's a small gesture that shows care. When you're kind you take action, you move, you're practical, you show love in a practical way. I believe Jesus is an example sent from God to show us what kindness is supposed to look like. .
Its interesting the Greek word for kindness is the word "crestos". It is one letter different from the Greek word "Cristos" which is the word for Christ. When the first church began 2000 years ago in the Roman Empire, they often confused crestos with Cristos and they thought Christians were simply people who believed in kindness. The kind religion. What a thing to be confused with! Kindness is the model of how we should be treating each other if we claim to be a follow of Jesus.
Titus 3:4 tells us that Jesus is "the Kindness of God". If you want to know what kindness is just look at Jesus. He's the kindness of God. Jesus said "Watch me. If you want to know what kindness is, watch me." John 13:15 says "I have set an example for you, so that you will do just what I have done for you."
So, what kind of examples did Jesus set for us to learn what kindness is all about. There are many but let me suggest four this morning.
1. JESUS was compassionate.
Every time somebody asked him for help, he helped. Everytime someone asked him for healing he healed them. Every time somebody asked him for forgiveness or mercy or comfort or food or answers or a new life… he delivered. He even brought people back from the dead when he was asked to that. He never once said, sorry its God's will, nothing I can do. They are in a much happier place. No he just raised them from the dead. When he showed up at his friend Lazarus' house after he died, the Bible tells us Jesus cried. And then raised him from the dead. It was the kind thing to do. Jesus understood people, he understood what they were going through and how they felt and he intuitively knew what they needed most. Its just a way of the Universe but the more understanding you are of a person, the kinder you're going to be to them. Its how it works. That is why it is easier for you to be unkind to strangers. You don't know anything about them. Big churches are sometimes deemed to be less friendly than small ones because you can come and go without really talking to anyone. Big cities are felt to be more unfriendly then small towns because your anonymous... you don't know everybody. Its easier to be unkind, when you don’t know the person. I guy comes by selling pots on the beach… there are lots of them, you say, no gracias. And don't give him too much thought. A quick dismissal. But now here comes Denise down the beach selling pots and you are going to give them a little closer look. Maybe buy one. Its harder to be dismissive of someone you know.
The same holds true for whole groups of people. Its easier to be judgmental or prejudiced against a group of people you don’t know personally. You kind of lump them all together and hold this opinion. But then when you really get to know somebody from that group, when you understand somebody you're kind to them. You know where they're coming from.
Heb. 4:15-16 "Jesus understands our weaknesses since He had the same temptations we do… "
Jesus is compassionate because he understands, he was here. He has been through it.
It helps to know that. When you are having a problem in life don’t you want to be with somebody who understands where you've been or what you're going through. That's the basis for AA, bereavement support groups, Alanon, divorce recovery groups, whatever people are going through it helps to be with those who understand. I think that is why the ex-pat community is so strong here… people who have made the move from North America to Costa Rica have a certain kindredship, we understand what it took to come here and what it involves living here.
So the first way to be kind is to really try and understand where the person is coming from, what they are struggling with, what they are celebrating, what they really need from you. That's what Jesus taught us. That is God's approach to each of us… gentle, and understanding, and kind. A second way Jesus shows us what it is to be kind is to tell the truth.
2. JESUS TELLS US THE TRUTH
John 8:32 "Jesus said you will know the truth and the truth will set you free." Jesus loves you just the way you are but He loves you too much to let you stay just the way you are. Life is a process of always becoming the best version of me that I can be. The best version of you. So Jesus was always about telling us the truth… with the goal of setting us free. But at first... the truth doesn't always feel so kind. When we first hear it, if it involves change, it just makes us miserable, but then it sets us free. We don't always like to hear the truth about ourselves. We just like to hear good stuff. But because Jesus is kind, He levels with you. He tells you the truth. He says, "You're blowing it" when you are. He tells you the truth about yourselves, your motives, your relationships, sin, what's right and what's wrong, whether it's politically correct or not.
One of the things I appreciate about the Bible is that it is so gut level honest about the heroes. Most biographies gloss over the weak points of the person. But in the Bible when it says things like, "David was a man after God's own heart" it also says he had a guy killed so he could get his wife. Blatantly honest.
Sometimes the kindest thing you can do for somebody is tell them the truth. Level with them. Progress comes as a result of feedback. Growth comes as the result of feedback. Since none of us is perfect we all need to be gently encouraged in those areas where we could do better. We all need somebody who'll level with us. I mean you get home, look in the mirror and there it is... you have been walking around all day with something caught between your teeth, the kind thing would have been for somebody to tell you. Jesus tells us the truth in kindness and He wants you to tell other people the truth. It's just the kind thing to do.
Ephesians 4;15 "Let our lives lovingly express the truth in all things." The key is to tell the truth in love.
I saw a survey recently which discovered that the number one thing people want in a friend is honesty. A real friend will tell you what you really need to hear.
The Bible says, "An honest answer is the sign of a true friendship." A real friend tells you when you're making a mistake. A real friend tells you when you're tag is hanging out. A real friend says, "I'm not going to stand by in silence and watch you make the stupidest decision of your life. Don't do it." A real friend walks in when other people walk out. It's kind to be honest with people.
If you're dying with cancer and go see the doctor, what do you want him to say, "You must have surgery right now or you'll die" or "Don't worry, be happy"? You want him to tell you the truth even if it's painful. That's the kind thing to do.
Psalm 141:5 "A good person will correct me in kindness." What does it mean to be corrected in kindness? The difference is motive. When you suggest to somebody that they are blowing it… when you make the decision to confront somebody… are you doing it to put them down or to build them up? Are you doing it for their benefit or your own, to feel better about yourself? As parents, we have to learn how to affirm our children while correcting the behavior. There's a balance there. That's kindness.
3. JESUS FORGIVES
That is probably the clearest example of how Jesus showed kindness. He forgave sins, he smoothed over faults, he didn't hold grudges, he corrected errors, he loved unconditionally.
A lot of people have the wrong concept of God. Like the man who was going up to Arenal to his cabin for week-end. As he was going he ran out of gas. He got out of his car to push it off the road and as he got out another car came behind him and hit his car and pushed it off the cliff. He decided he'd walk on up to his cabin and it started to rain. He got totally drenched, caught a cold, was sicker than a dog. Just as he rounded the bend to his cabin he noticed the lightning had struck it and it had burned down. He sat right down in the mud and put his head in his hands and cried out… "Why me God? Why me God?" And suddenly the heavens opened, the clouds parted, and a voice said, "Because some people just tick me off!"
Some people, that's really what they think God's like. They think that God's out to get them. Maybe some of you if the truth be known, when you have a problem you start thinking, "God's getting even with me." I don’t know for sure why, but "He's getting even with me. Maybe I didn't put enough in the offering basked, I don't know… but God is getting revenge. Now seriously, how much sense does that make? Do you think God really acts like that? Is He this grumpy grouch who carries grudges up in Heaven? A cosmic kill-joy, waiting for you to make one mistake and then its "I got you!" No!
Have your thought about the fact that maybe some of your ideas about God aren't true? Maybe some of the ides and images you grew up with about how God acts toward people aren't right? That's why we need to read the Bible and come to church to find out what God's really like. In fact, God so deeply wants you to know what He's really like. In fact that is why we have Jesus. To show us in terms we can understand, what God is really like. And one of the things that Jesus taught is that God doesn't carry a grudge. He is not the God of shame. He forgives. Because I deserve it? Not a chance. Because he is kind.
Romans 3:23-24 "All of us have sinned...yet now God declares us `not guilty' of offending Him because of Jesus Christ, who in His kindness freely takes away all our sins." "freely". God, because He's kind, wipes out your record. He wipes the slate clean. There is no condemnation. That's good news! Even if there were no such thing as heaven or life everlasting, it would be worth it just having a clear conscience to receive God's forgiveness, and to forgive ourselves, and to extend that forgiveness to other people.
Ephesians 1:4, "Through what Christ would do for us, God decided to make us holy in His eyes, without a single fault, we stand before Him covered with His love." That means that we stand before God without fault, covered with His love. Why? Because of His kindness. We have a kind God. The Bible teaches that before God even made you He knew every rotten thing you would do, less than wonderful thought you would have… and still, still, He made you just the way you are and He still loves you. That's the kindness of God.
What does that have to say about how I'm supposed to treat other people? Eph 4:32 "Be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another just as God has forgiven you because you belong to Christ."
If you have a tough time being forgiving it's because you don't feel forgiven. Graced people are gracious people. People who have received God's kindness are able to be kind to others. People who understand how much they've been forgiven find it easy to forgive others. Anytime I start having a difficult time forgiving somebody all I have to do is stop and remember I will never have to forgive another person more than what God has already forgiven me.
4. JESUS AFFIRMED PEOPLE'S WORTH
Deep inside all of us, we have a deep desire to feel worthwhile. We all want to feel significant. We all want to feel that we matter. We all want to feel that if we were to die, somebody would miss us, that we're not just taking up space and that our life has meaning and significance. We all want to feel worthwhile. In fact, you spend much of your life being motivated to do things that you hope will answer the question, "Do I matter?" So I go out for a sport, or try to get A's, or try to get the promotion, I volunteer to help those in need. I just want to know "Do I matter?"
In an article in a magazine there was an interview with Madonna. She said this: "I have an iron will and all of my will has always been devoted to conquering some horrible feeling of inadequacy. I'm always struggling with that fear. I push past one spell of it and discover myself as a special human being and then I get to another stage and I think I'm mediocre and uninteresting. I find a way to get myself out of that again and again. My drive in life is from this horrible fear of being inadequate and mediocre. It is always pushing me and pushing me. Because even though I've become somebody I still have to prove that I am SOMEBODY. My struggle has never ended and it probably never will."
If the truth were known a lot of us feel that way. Here is a formula for frustration: Try to please everybody. Madonna is setting herself up for more frustration because she's on a treadmill and she has to become more and more outrageous, and come up with new music, and keep touring, and turning out hits to keep the attention and admiration of her fans. What's going to happen when inevitably that runs out, or gets to be too much. What if her popularity fades? What's going to happen to her?
The truth is, no matter how much money you make in life and no matter how much success you achieve and no matter how much pleasure you experience and no matter how many relationships you have and no matter how popular or famous you become, how many magazines you get your picture on the cover of, none of it is going to matter until you've established a relationship with God and begin to discover how much you matter to Him and base your self worth on that. Nothing else is going to get it done. We were created that way.
You've got to know you matter to somebody more than just a crowd.
Psychologists tell us that your self worth is based on what you think the most important person in your life thinks about you. So whoever is the most important person in your life, what you think, they think about you is where you get your self esteem. So it stands to reason that if God is the most important person in your life. Nobody is ever going to love you more than He does. Nobody. If you base your self worth on what other people think of you, on their opinions, then you're going to collapse when you're criticized, rejected, or ignored, divorced, But if you build your self worth on the fact that God made you, loves you unconditionally, thinks about you constantly, forgives you, sent His own son to earth to establish a relationship with you, it doesn't matter what anybody else says about you because they can't take that away… your relationship to God through Jesus Christ. He affirms your worth.
When Jesus Christ becomes the most important person in your life, your self worth soars.
So what does that say about how we express the fruit of the Spirit that is kindness. It says, I am to affirm the worth of others whenever and wherever I can.
Romans 15:7 "Accept one another then just as Christ has accepted you." I Peter 2:17 "Show respect for everyone." I Thess 5: "Encourage one another and build each other up."
How well do you affirm those in your life. Are you stingy with praise or lavish? Do you give more strokes or more pokes? Do you give more cheers or more jeers? If you were given a dollar bill for every person you affirm and God took away a dollar bill for every person you criticized would you be rich or poor?
Ken Blanchard wrote The One Minute Manager and says, "Catch people doing something well and then affirm them." There is tremendous power in kindness. It is the most powerful force in the world, because it's love in action. Kindness can literally change people.
Hebrews 10:24 "In response to all God has done for us, let us outdo each other in being helpful and kind to one another..." I don't know a more counter culture statement than that right there. In a society that is absolutely self-centered; where the whole issue is "What's in it for me? I'm too busy to care about anybody else's problem or needs. I've got my agenda, my goals, my needs, my desires -- forget the rest of the world." God says in light of what He's done for us, let us outdo each other in showing kindness and love.
Right here in Costa Rica God has placed all kinds of opportunities for us to demonstrate this love in action. In our poorer communities, with people who have just moved down here, among friends, with so many service personnel around here, waiters and maids and gardeners and guards. I make it a point to honk and wave every time I drive by the little guard house at Cacique Beach… what a boring job. He always waves back enthusiastically. Just to be noticed feels good. There are all sorts of people around us everyday who's lives could be brightened by a small act of kindness… love in action. And you are just the person to bring it to them because of the kindness God has already shown to you! Amen

Patience, a fruit of the Spirit

2011-06-19T11:21:00.000-07:00

Don’t you wish the world was a perfect place?
Imagine if it was. There would be no mosquitoes. Money would never be an issue. Chocolate would have no calories. The whole world would run on Tico time. Politicians would pay us taxes. Double cheeseburgers would be considered a vegetable. Banco National would never have a line. Add a few more… If the world was a perfect place… what? Children on trips would say, “Isn’t riding in the car fun?” and then they’d go to sleep. Men would go through labor.
Of course the truth is we don’t live in a perfect world so we have to rely on the fourth of the fruits of the Spirit... Patience... We all need patience precisely because it is an imperfect world. We all need patience in our relationships with other people, especially the irritating ones.
"It is better to be patient than powerful. It is better to win control over yourself than over whole cities.” Proverbs 16:32

Better to be patient that powerful? Hows that? Wouldn’t it be better to be able to just put that irritating person in a head-lock and be done with it. But think about it... when someone irritates you, they have power over you, they can make you change directions, hide in your office with the lights off, they can push your buttons, they can ruin your day... patience is about control, its about power... that’s why the bible says it is better to be patient than powerful.
Any hockey fans here? Did you see the news following the Canucks loss up in Vancouver. The fans were raging. Burning cars. Looting stores. Creating havoc. There was no patience being shown there. Or the Charlie Sheen odyssey… with his side show the Violent Torpedo of Truth tour. You are certainly aware of the medias use of whole new terms with the word rage in them… like "road rage", "air rage", "rageaholics", and "rage disorder". So where does all this rage come from. Ultimately rage comes from being powerless. And even though we have new terminology this is not a new emotion. Although written thousands of years ago, the Bible is full of stories of people just like us… who experience emotions just like us… fears and doubts and joy and contentment and jealousy and anger. That means there must have been just as many irritating people around back in biblical times as there are today. There would have been just as many reasons to get stressed out and yell and scream and get mad. Problems and annoyances are not new to our time. You know how many times the word " anger" shows up in the Bible? 390 The term " wrath" which is kind of like turbo anger… 197 times, and the term "provoke" in which somebody is helping somebody else get to the stage of wrath… 52 times. These are not isolated sentiments. The bible is about real people… and real people that live around other real people in a world that is not perfect are going to get mad or irritated. Patience is perhaps one of the most personally useful of the fruits of the spirit. I think patience is one of the big parts of Costa Rica's pura vida.
I had to go to Banco National twice this week, ugh! And I was in the middle of the line that weaves along the arrows on the floor like you were at Disneyland waiting for the Jungle Cruise. And although it was a Thursday afternoon the line just got longer and longer, and of course the tellers are not in a hurry, and the people who are going up to the window are not totally organized about what they need to do… and it is just slow… so I started thinking about my sermon on patience. I watched the faces of other North Americans as they came in and saw this horrendous line… they looked shocked and disgusted, several turned around and walked out… but the faces of the Ticos… not the least bit put out. They would greet the guard, spot a friend, get in line… they just seemed more patient.
Its interesting that the Greek word for patience is “macro thumos”. “Macro” meaning “long, or slow”, “thumos” meaning “heat or anger ” -- slow to get angry. Macrothumos literally means you have a long fuse, you don’t boil over quickly. If you were reading the Bible in its original language… the fourth fruit of the Spirit in Galatians would be macrothumos.
In the Bible reading for today we heard about an incident in which the Disciple Peter mishandled his anger. The Roman soldiers came to arrest Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. Peter was so angry at the course of events that he grabbled his sword and started swinging. He didn’t get a soldier, he didn’t get one of the religious officials who were in charge. Who got hurt? One of the high priests slaves, Malchus, who probably didn’t even want to be there in the first place... and now an out-of-control Peter chopped his ear off.
A bizarre story? Perhaps... makes me think of the Mike Tyson Evander Hollyfield fight many years ago. Remember that. Tyson bit a chunk out of his ear. Not once but twice.
Now those are all extreme cases of out of control anger but we all are susceptible.
See if you recognize this scene. Randy comes home from a tough day at work. His wife is out somewhere but their dog, Big Boy is there to greet him and show off the great job he did while home alone. In in his zest to protect the house from the UPS man, Big Boy had torn down the new blinds over the front window and tore big holes in the sheetrock. When Randy went into the garage to get some tools to work on it, he found that his little son had scattered them all over the place.
Randy’s wife clicked up the garage door, and seeing her husband with tools in his hand chided him, "Oh Randy you’re not going to spend the whole evening working on your car again, are you?
Randy loses it. He blows his stack. He yells He curses. He throws tools. The kids are scared. Big Boy hides under the bed. His wife doesn’t want anything to do with him. Dinner is a disaster. The week-end is ruined. Needless to say, Randy lost his patience. He mishandled his anger.
What should Randy have done instead? I got seven ideas right out of the bible and they all begin with R.
1. He could have RESOLVED AHEAD OF TIME TO MANAGE HIS ANGER
Maybe Randy was one of those guys who just says, that's how I am and he doesn't try to soften the blows. Maybe he is one of those guys who thinks because he is the way he is… he can't control it. Lame excuse. We all have far more control over our anger than we think we do. The key is you have to decide ahead of time how you want to handle it… when your calm. Once your angry you get this adrenalin rush and it takes over. There is a chemical reaction that can feel overpowering. So you resolve in advance to manage it when it happens. That way you already know how you are going to handle it.
“If you stay calm, you are wise, but if you have a hot temper, you only show how stupid you are.” Proverbs 14:29
2. Randy could have stopped long enough to REALIZE THE COST OF MISMANAGING HIS ANGER.
He scared the kids, set a bad example, set a horrible tone for the week-end, and didn't see the grocery bags full of all the fixings for the special dinner his wife had been planning for their Friday night, which seeing him with tools, made her worried about. The truth is, you’re less likely to fly off the handle if you realize ahead of time it's going to cost you something. There is always a price tag when you lose your patience. Some more wisdom from proverbs.
“A hot tempered man starts fights and gets into all kinds of trouble.” (know anybody like that?)
“Hot tempers cause arguments.”
“Anger causes mistakes” (You do things without thinking)
“People with hot tempers do foolish things” (pick your celebrity)
“The fool who provokes his family to anger and resentment will finally have nothing worthwhile left.” And we all know somebody for whom that one was true.
As employers we see this with staff. As parents, we see this in our kids. When you motivate your kids with anger, you can get actually get short term results—you put the fear of God in them, you get angry and they do what you say, out of fear. But in the long term relationships always lose. You got to realize the cost... ahead of time. And then when a frustrating set of circumstances appears you already know that you want to #3…
3. REFLECT BEFORE REACTING
Avoiding impulsive actions and words is one of the keys to learning patience. Thomas Jefferson said “When you’re angry you count to 10 and when you’re very angry, count to 100.” Why? It gives you the chance to slow down. When you get angry this emotional energy goes into you, this adrenalin rush and your whole body goes on alert. But when you give it some time you’ll usually calm down. The longer you hold your temper, the more it improves. It gives you some time to think about what you’re angry about and reflect on it and how important it is in the scheme of things.
Proverbs 29:11 “A stupid man gives free reign to his anger; a wise man waits and lets it grow cool.” In other words, its wise to chill out.
And while you are chilling out, calming down… you can figure out why you are so mad. Its usually one of three things…
1. I’m hurt. If you’re hammering nails and hit your thumb, you get angry. In a relationship, when somebody’s feelings have been hurt, they get angry.
2. I’m frustrated. It could be anything from the Canucks loss in the Stanley Cup to a project around the house I wanted to get done, to problems at work, a headache, I’m just irritable, and I get angry.
3. I’m afraid. Every once in a while up in Washington State we would read in the papers about some wild animal the ventures into a neighborhood and has to put down for attacking somebody. Truth is they usually just get lost and out of their element they get afraid and eventually just fight back. Feeling cornered or threatened... they lash out. When people get pushed so far that they’re afraid, they feel threatened, they get angry.
And when you find yourself being lashed out at by somebody else… it also helps to stop and think about what is going on with them… which of these three is going on. Are they hurt? Are they frustrated? Are they afraid? Because its a whole lot easier to deal with. Hurt and frustration and fear is easier to resolve than somebody just blowing up.
The other thing I ask myself while counting to ten, is what do I want to happen here. I want an apology, or I want the pain to stop, I want a kiss, I want you to understand my position so I won’t be so embarrassed. Whatever. Then when I know, why I’m angry, what I want, I can think about how I can get it. What kind of behavior on my part will lead to the desired results. Which brings us to #4
4. which is to RELEASE MY ANGER APPROPRIATELY.
Ephesians 4:26, “If you become angry, do not let your anger lead you into sin.” The anger isn't the problem… that is just an emotional response to circumstances… its what we do with it that can mess things up. In other words, there are right ways to get angry and wrong ways to get angry. There are helpful ways to be angry and there are harmful ways to be angry
The fact is we are all irritated by different things and we all respond in different ways. When we’re irritated some of us blow up, and some of us clam up. Some of us are mountains of Vesuvius and some of us stuff it down. Some of us are skunks and some of us are turtles. You know what I mean? The skunk, when he gets angry, he lets everybody know it. The turtle just pulls back into his shell, keeps it to himself. Obviously the right response is somewhere in between those two. If you stuff it like the turtle… you get sick. You get ulcers.
You’ve heard people say, “Boy, that burns me up!” Its literally, what happens.... it burns em up on the inside. To pretend you are not angry when you really are… that's not patience, its called lying. In fact, suppressing one's anger for a long period of time can lead to depression. The number one cause of depression is stuffed anger, frozen anger. Over the years people would come to my office and talk about a problem, “I’m so depressed", they would say. But then after listening to them for a while I would say, “You’re not depressed, you’re angry.” You’re angry at your husband, you’re angry at your wife, you’re angry at your parents, you’re angry at your kids. Only you didn’t think you had a right to be angry so you have repressed it and now you’re depressed. A lot of people facing problems with depression need to reflect on what they are angry about because that’s often the cause.
But the skunk isn't an option either… just letting is all hang out for everybody in the neighborhood to hear. How often have we heard the advice… you just need to vent. And once you get it out of you, you’ll feel a whole lot better. I heard Dr. Phil once say, “You’ve got this bucket full of anger in your life and you just have to dump out the bucket it will be all empty and everything will be all right and fantastic and happy.” He had a therapist on who had her clients practice the primal scream. If I can just scream out all my anger then all the things that were done wrong to me growing up will be fine.
There’s only one problem with that. It doesn’t work. Why? Because you don’t have a bucket of anger in your life, you’ve got a factory. An unending supply. This factory has this incessant ability to produce more and more anger. Study after study and the Bible teaches very clearly that aggression causes more aggression. Anger causes more anger. Outbursts lead to other outbursts. As a parent, if I outburst against my kid, what am I modeling for them? Outbursts. A recent study asked what makes today's kids aggressive. Top 7
1. Violent parents
2. Parents with antisocial personality disorder
3.Physical abuse
4.Sexual abuse
5.Drug and alcohol abuse
6.Media violence
7.Availability of guns

Top of the list is how there parents act.
5.You repattern your mind.
Rom. 12.2 "Let God transform you inwardly by a complete change of your mind."
Romans 12:2
How you think about things is going to affect how you feel… your emotions. And the way you feel determines the way you act. So if I want to change my behavior or my feelings, I’ve got to change the way I think, reprogram the computer.
Think about it… how many T.V shows and movies teach us... get angry, use a gun. Get angry, blow them up. Get angry, ‘cuss them out. Get angry, yell back. Get angry, seek revenge. Get angry, go ahead, make my day. We’re programmed with that over and over so we start to act that way. We start to think, that is what you do. But its not… and we need to repattern our minds with the real truth, the truth sets you free, that’s what Jesus said.
Here’s the nutshell. The whole sermon. The secret to patience and lowering the anger level in my life is to start feeling better about myself. Angry people are insecure people. They are threatened by the world. When I feel threatened, I get angry and lose patience.
So the better I feel, the more patience I will have. The more control and power. So how do you feel better about yourself and your situation? I will tell you where to start. Realizing and believing what God thinks about you. That you matter to God. He knows everything about you and He still loves you. He made you for a purpose. You are on this planet for a reason. And you’re here this morning cause he wanted you to know its true. God wants you to feel as good about you as he does about you. And when you get that message and understand how God feels about you... your insecurity is lowered. You’re irritability goes down. Your patience goes up. Pick up a little baby that’s crying... Once they’re secure and warm, they stop crying. It’s the same principle.
6. RELATE TO PEOPLE WHO ARE PATIENT.
Proverbs 22:24-25 “Do not make friends with a hot tempered man. Do not associate with one easily angered or you may learn his ways and get yourself ensnared.” Is anger contagious? You better believe it! It’s infectious! Highly infectious!
If I started yelling at you, eventually you’d probably start yelling at me. Anger is contagious. The problem with the getting it out idea is that when we get it out, other people pick it up.
Jesus said to Peter and those who were ready to defend him, “ Put your sword back in its place. All who take the sword will die by the sword.” Mt. 26:52
If you want to be a more angry person just start hanging out with angry people… if you want to be a more patient person, hang around people who are like that. That is one of the reasons why we have church. This is not a perfect place, there are no perfect people here. This is a place for people who want to grow... who want to have more of the fruits of the spirit. So here and there, you see this in that person and this in that person and you start picking up some of their good qualities. You learn some different ways of responding to stuff. See it in action.
The way that you express your anger is not in your genes—you learned it. You learned it by growing up and watching other people. If anger is a learned response then it can be unlearned. That’s good news. I don’t have to go the rest of my life being manipulated by my moods. I don’t have to go the rest of my life being controlled by my feelings. I can learn to be patient when everything in me wants to be inpatient.
And finally the reaction to anger that pulls it all together…
7. I RELY ON GOD'S HELP
The Bible reminds us that patience is a gift and it’s a gift from God that you can receive. Rom. 5:15 “May God who gives patience, steadiness, and encouragement help you to live in complete harmony with each other, each with the attitude of Christ toward the other.”
Maybe the real reason I get angry is that I have been hurt. You may have been rejected as a kid. You may have been unloved. You may have felt ostracized by others. Your pain matters to God and he wants to replace your hurt with His love. Maybe your anger is the result of frustration. He can give you His peace. The peace of God allows me to be calm even in the middle of a storm. Maybe your anger is the result of insecurity and fear. He can replace your fears and insecurities with His power. The fact is you don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow, much less next year, ten years from now. We don’t know what the future holds; we do know who holds the future.

Peace, a fruit of the Spirit

2011-06-13T07:42:00.000-07:00

We are in a series on the fruits of the Spirit from Galatians 5:22
“The Spirit produces love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility, and self-control.”
So far we have looked at love and joy. This morning the subject is peace.
Now when you hear the word Peace... what comes to mind? Go ahead, give some words or phrases. A time and place of no wars. Peace on earth. No fighting among nations. No terrorism. No armies. No weapons of mass destruction.
Or maybe you think of peace and quiet. Relaxing on a deserted beach. No noise or fuss or street sounds. Nobody asking you to do anything. Tranquillo… peaceful.
Or maybe on a more personal note, the word peace makes you think of having peace of mind. Contentment with where your life is, no major problems going on, your relationships are all fine. No dramas. You are at peace.
Maybe those of you old enough to remember the sixties, the word peace makes you think of an era, peace, love and tye-dye.
Of course the Bible is full of references and illustrations and admonitions and promises about peace. Jesus was described as the Prince of Peace. On the sermon on the Mount he said, blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall inherit the earth. And going back even further to the foundation of Judaism, out of which Jesus arose, we have the prophet Isaiah… usually we read these passages at Christmas time… but words of peace are always timely… Isaiah says that our God is a “wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting father and ...prince of peace...and of his government and of his peace, there shall be no end!!! Peace will be established with justice and righteousness and the zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.” He goes on to talk about turning swords into plowshares.....spears into pruning hooks....nations not making war against nation anymore....a leopard shall lie down with a lamb....and a cow and a bear shall graze together in the same pasture....and a little child shall reach his hand into a swarm of hornets and not be stung. What a picture Isaiah paints of peace. Then we come to that absolutely gorgeous line: They shall not hurt and they shall not harm one another anyplace on my holy mountain for the whole earth shall know the Lord
Wouldn’t that be nice ... to live in that kind of world? ... where there was no hurting or no harming or no injuring of other people ... Wouldn’t it be nice to be that kind of person? Who did not hurt others? ... And wouldn’t it be nice to live in that kind of a house? Or apartment? Or live in that kind of family? Or live in that kind of neighborhood? Or in that kind of city?
But yet how realistic in our 21st century world is it to talk about that kind of peace. How many civilizations in the history of humankind have ever managed to live in real peace. It is like there is something wrong with us as human beings? There is some fundamental flaw to our human nature? What is wrong with us that we are the only creatures on earth that murder and torture and terrorize our own species? What is wrong with that picture? That we make weapons capable of destroying 500 million people within a span of hours? What is wrong with a man and a woman called a husband and wife who can hurt each other so deeply and shout at each other and are so deeply cruel to each other? The two closest people on earth? What is wrong with us? ... That a mother and a father can actually hurt their own child? Are you watching on CNN about the woman being prosecuted for the death of her own child. I googled it to check the details and when I put in parent prosecuted for death of child… there were many such stories. What is wrong with us. Yet it is precisely because we are so deeply flawed and because we are people who hurt and harm one another, that Jesus, the Prince of Peace, came saying "I have come to bring you peace, to teach you to walk in the paths of peace. I have come to teach you what you need to learn most...to be a person of peace." One of the fruits of the Holy Spirit is peace.
On several occasions, up at Hacienda Guachapalin, at Volcan Poas outside of San Jose, I have been in photo ops with two giant white Brahma bulls yoked together and pulling a cart. They let you get in the cart and snap some photos or as in the case of my son Patrick… he got on one of their back and road bareback. Now I have to tell you, in all the times that I have seen these Brahma bulls and their cart, out in the rural fields, the brahmas and the carts… up in Nicaragua, the bulls and their carts, never once have I seen the cart out in front. Have you? The bulls are never ever trying to push the cart along… That would be dumb, for two big brahmas to be pushing a painted wooden cart along. The cart is always pulled along behind. Well that’s how the bible talks about peace. Imagine that the cart is peace… and there are two big brahmas out in front… one Brahma bull is named justice and the other Brahma yoked together is named righteousness. And it is behind these two strong mammoth creatures, called justice and righteousness that follows the cart of peace. In the bible, peace always follows after justice and righteousness. And that is true in your family life, your personal life, among your friends, the life of our small town, Costa Rica, planet Earth. It’s the same everywhere. If you want to have the third fruit of the Spirit, peace, you find it following after the work of justice and righteousness.
So what is this great big powerful white Brahma called justice? Justice is the organization of community life so that the little people can be taken care of. It is the structuring of society, the structuring of our economy and government, so that the little people are taken care… the Bible describes the little people with the words… the widows, the orphans, the handicapped, the foreigner, the blind, the poor. The most important function of a government is not defense. Despite what the books say. It is not the economy despite what the American electorate would tell you. It is not infrastructure… the most important function of government is the pursuit of justice. It is the organization of law and society in such a way that widows and orphans and the maimed and blind are taken care of. Well, at least according to the bible for what that is worth… It says, you don’t need to worry about the rich; they will be able to use their resources to assure that their interests are taken care of… But not the poor. They can’t afford it. Justice asks is it really fair when a single mom with two children works forty hours a week or fifty, and does not have enough money for food, housing, clothing...while the boss makes hundreds of thousands of dollars or millions of dollars? Is it basically fair… not in terms of a supply side market economy… but fair in God’s eyes? Is it just?
I went to Nicaragua this week for the first time and it was something to see the stark contrast of the mansions on the hills and the poverty in the valleys… is that fair? We see those contrasts all over the world. The United States right now has never been so rich and so poor at the same time and it is causing quite an identity crises up there and within the political structure.
Justice is the big brahma doing the work… justice is the ordering of society and family so that the little people are taken care of, and if there is no justice and fairness, there will be no peace within that society or that family.
Of course there are usually two of those big white brahmas you see working the field… yoked together. The other one pulling the cart of peace is named righteousness. Righteousness is right relationships within our individual lives. A right relationship with God and right relationships with one another. If justice is concerned about the organization of society, righteousness is concerned about the organization of our primary life relationships...that I would have a goodness and a closeness and a kindness with my spouse, my children, my friends, my work associates, my neighbors, with everybody.
Righteousness is primarily about forgiveness. We talked a lot about this in the first of the series when we were looking at love. The only way that you can live with a flawed person like you and like me... is with massive doses of forgiveness. And that is hard work. Forgiveness is hard. Living in right relationships is like watching a big brahma work the field. Turning hard dirt.
Justice and Righteousness. Those two big Biblical words are like great gigantic Brahma bulls… and behind them comes the brightly painted cart of peace. It would be ridiculous to try and put the cart before the bull… to try and imagine peace coming before justice and righteousness. It never, NEVER works that way.
So when the Bible says that one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit is peace… when God's spirit fills your heart and soul, on a personal level, we take on the role of those big brahma bulls. God is working in us and through us for justice and righteousness so that peace may follow. Now most of us aren't going to be meeting with the heads of state or writing policy or making laws, but we can be peacemakers right where we are, right in the midst of doing life. Let me give you five practical suggestions, right out of the Bible, that uses the letters of the word Peace.
P - PLAN A PEACE CONFERENCE
If there is somebody in your life and you aren't on the best of terms right now… you take the initiative. Don’t wait for the other person to make the first move. Plan a personal peace conference.
Matthew 5:24 "If you enter your place of worship and, about to make an offering, you suddenly remember a grudge a friend has against you, abandon your offering, leave immediately, go to this friend and make things right. Then and only then, come back and work things out with God.”
Notice when it says to do it? Immediately. Don't delay. Don' wait. Don't postpone. You take the initiative.
If you're a follower of Christ you're to always take the initiative in seeking peace, whether you have been offended or you are the offender. The ball is always in your court. It just makes sense. The longer you wait to resolve a problem the bigger it gets. The relationship just gets worse. Peacemakers always take the initiative.
Back in 1979 Anwar Sadat was given the Nobel peace prize. You remember why? Because he took the initiative. He broke through a 2000 year barrier and he was the first Arab leader to fly to Israel and say "Let's sit down and talk about this." That part of the world is in desperate need for somebody to do that again. Oscar Arias here in Costa Rica, another Nobel peace prize recipient… because he took the initiative and wrote the Central American peace plan. If you can think of somebody that you could be on more peaceful terms with… the first step is to plan to sit down with them and talk about it. You take the initiative.
E - EMPATHIZE WITH THEIR FEELINGS
I Peter 3:8 "Be full of sympathy toward each other, loving one another with tender hearts and humble minds." Once you've engaged in a peace conference with a person you're having a problem with -- your husband, your wife, a parent, a teenager, a partner at work, a neighbor -- the first things you do is listen. Listen to them. You don't talk. You don't try to get your point across. You just listen to them.
Now why is that important? Listening shows you care. People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. The starting point is to listen and empathize with their feelings… there won't be peace until they have had a chance to say their piece. You can't be on speaking terms if you are not on listening terms.
Stephen Covey, Seven Habits of Highly Successful People, includes this one... seek first to understand, then to be understood.
Two more verses: "We must bear the burden of being considerate of the doubts and fears of others." Rom 15:2. Phil 2:4: "None of you should think only of his own affairs, but consider other peoples’ interests also." It mentions "doubts", "fears", "interests" -- three things you need to empathize with to make peace in a relationship.
If you are having a conflict with somebody perhaps you're not considering their doubts because you "have no doubts about it", or considering their fears because you're "not afraid of it", or considering their interests because you "couldn't care less about it".
It’s interesting that the word "consider" in Greek is the word "Scopos" -- where we get our word scope from, like the scope on a rifle, telescope, microscope, stethoscope. Scopos literally means "to focus on" to pay attention to. If you want to make peace with somebody, you've got to change the focus from just looking at what you need, your hurts, your fears, your doubts and begin to focus on theirs.
That's what it means to empathize. To focus on the other person.
Is that a natural thing to do... NO... you have to work on it. Cause when I am angry who am I thinking about? Me. When I'm ticked off I'm thinking about my own hurts, what happened to me. How I’m feeling.
So I have to make a conscious choice to shift the focus to, your doubts, your fears, your interests. And that takes effort. Like a big brahma bull.
A - ATTACK THE PROBLEM NOT THE PERSON
In the art of peacemaking this can be a tricky one. On the one hand you've got to attack the problem, the conflict, honestly whether it's a friendship, business partnership, marriage or whatever. You can’t beat around the bush, there is a pink elephant in the middle of the living room... and it has to be talked about… so you attack the problem.
But you got to do it without attacking the person. An elephant in the living room? What were you thinking? Only an idiot would bring an elephant into the house. And a pink one, what kind of a color is that for an elephant? How come you never, why don't you ever, surely you realize. The Bible talks about speaking the truth compassionately.
As it says in Eph. 4:15 "By speaking the truth in the spirit of love we grow up in every way in Christ."
You say it in a way that you value the relationship. You're never persuasive by being abrasive. You’ll never get your point across by being cross. You'll never get around to fixing the problem if you’re always worried about fixing the blame.
Sarcasm and labeling and nagging and judging never changes anybody. It just weakens the relationship.
"Do not use harmful words, but only helpful words, the kind that build up and provide what is needed." Eph. 4:29
In other words whatever you've got to say you say it in a positive way. Be realistic about the problem, but optimistic about the relationship. If you say something offensively it will be received defensively.
When I would do couple communication workshops or conflict resolution I liked to give the participants some ground rules to help keep from attacking the person. They all begin with C and there are seven of them. Don't worry about remembering them, just know that if you need them, they are there on my blog. Real quickly.
1. Never Compare -- Never say "Why can't you be like ... you’re brother" or "You're just like... my ex-wife..." It's unfair to compare.
2. Never Condemn -- Don't say "You should..." "You ought..." "You must...." "You should be ashamed of yourself." "It's all your fault!" Those are absolutes. Whenever you start a sentence with "You" it's often a condemnation. Use I statements, I feel... or we have a situation here.
3. Never Command – Like you are the queen or king with all the power. "I demand that you do what I say." That rarely works with kids let alone other adults.
4. Never Challenge -- Don't threaten people. "Go ahead, you just try that and see what happens!" You sort of throw down the gauntlet. Never a good idea in the art of peacemaking. Among couples, you know what the most commonly used items in threats are… money, sex, and divorce. If you don’t stop... I’m out of here. Every time those are uttered, you are deteriorating the relationship. Everytime.
5. Never Condescend -- Don’t belittle, ridicule, or play psychologist. Don’t you hate that... somebody says, "I know why you do that". I mean most of us can't figure out our own motives, much less somebody else's.
6. Never Contradict -- Try not to interrupt in the middle of the sentence. Wait to take your turn to talk. Listen to the feelings being expressed and try not to get bogged down in all the details of facts.
7. Never Confuse -- Never bring up unrelated issues where you sidetrack or create diversions. Stick to the main issue.
If you'll pay attention to these seven things, you'll learn to attack the problem rather than the person.
C- COMPROMISE AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE
Romans 12:8 "Do everything possible, on your part, to live at peace with everyone."
Look for areas where you can compromise. Try to find areas of common ground. Where can we be flexible? Where can we meet in the middle? Where can you give a little and I give a little? Compromise is essential in peacemaking. Another of Stephen Covey's Habits of Highly Successful people is to find solutions that are win/win.
It’s just wise to compromise. It's stupid to be inflexible. The Bible says that Peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of goodness."
You are going to reap what you sow… harvest what you planted. If you plant seeds of peace, you're going to reap a peaceful relationship. If you plant seeds of inflexibility, you're going to reap conflict.
Cooperating and compromising pay off.
E - EMPHASIZE RECONCILIATION NOT RESOLUTION
There's a big difference. "Reconciliation" means to reestablish the relationship. "Resolution" means to resolve every issue. You're just not going to resolve every issue.
Why not? We are all unique. As different as the shells on the beach. That means it is inevitable that there's going to be differences in a relationship. We have different backgrounds, different gifts, different personalities. All these things.
However, you can disagree without being disagreeable. You can have unity in a relationship without having uniformity. You can walk hand in hand in a relationship without seeing eye to eye. You can have reconciliation without having resolution of every difference. Because you are different. When two people agree on everything, one of them isn't necessary. God meant for those differences. In fact, opposites usually attract. Once they're married the opposites attack. So you have to get back on track by emphasizing reconciliation not resolution.
II Cor. 5:18 "God has reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation." Reconciliation is a synonym for being a peacemaker. It says God is a peacemaker. He has made peace with us through Jesus Christ. Now he has given to you and to me the ministry of being a peacemaker. When you attempt to be a peacemaker you're doing the work of God. When you're restoring relationships, righteousness, and working for fairness everywhere, justice, you're doing the work of God, just like a big strong mammoth Brahma bull
.
“The Peace that Christ gives is to guide you in the decisions you make; for it is to this peace that God has called you.” Colossians 3:15

Fruits of the Spirit - Joy

2011-06-05T12:26:00.001-07:00

Fruits of the spirit - Joy
We are in a series going through the fruits of the spirit from Gal 5:22...
“The Spirit produces love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility, and self-control.” Last week we talked about the power of love. If you missed it you can check it out on my blog, Papagayo Ponderings. Today we get to the second one... JOY. Joy is one of those words that we don't actually use a lot in our daily conversations. I took my son and our friends up to Guachipelin for the canopy tour and horseback riding and the river tubing… an amazing day… and when we were heading home by son did not say, wow, Dad, I am filled with such joy. Nobody says that. It was great. We had so much fun. What an adventure filled day. But joy was never mentioned. The happy planet index lists Costa Rica as one of the happiest places on Earth… not the one filled with the most joy… but the happiest. So when the Bible lists joy as one of the fruits of the Spirit, what is it really talking about? What is joy?
Is there a difference between happiness and joy. Of course. Who wants to be happy? We all do. Happiness is a good thing. It’s a great thing. To be happy is one of the driving forces of the human spirit. Its in our dna. But there is a big difference between being happy and being joy-filled. Happiness is NOT one of the fruits of the Spirit listed in Galatians, joy is. They seem similar but lets consider the difference.
Happiness comes from the word "hap" which means "luck, happenstance, happenings, you're just fortunate. Things are working out, life is moving in a good direction, you are feeling lucky. Circumstances are conspiring in your favor and you are feeling "happy". There is a smile on your face. But if you can only smile when you are feeling happy… you are not going to be smiling nearly enough in your life as you ought to be. Because, face it, we are not always going to be feeling happy. Sometimes we're sad and a lot of times we are sort of neutral. Three basic differences between joy and happiness.
1. Happiness is external; Happiness is out there waiting to happen. There are occasions and things that make you happy. Joy however is not like that. Joy is internal. It comes from within... who you are. What you are about. Like we sang with Theodore… I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy, down in my heart. Joy emerges from deep within us.
2. Happiness, because it comes from without, is based on chance; the luck of the draw, how things work out on any particular day. Some days are going to be happier than other days. Joy on the other hand is always based on your choice. You can choose to be joyful... as we’ll see in a minute.
3. Happiness is based on circumstances, things are going well, you’re happy, and when they change you're not happy anymore; the Vancouver Canucks win the hockey game, Gary is happy… they lose he is not happy... Roger Federrer wins the French open today I will be happy. Nadal wins, I won't. Joy on the other hand is not based on circumstances… it is based on Christ.
Three differences… external/internal. Chance/choice. Circumstances/Christ. Thee are also three things that will suck the joy right out of your life. Three joy busters… three kill-joys to watch out for.
1. SELFISHNESS
Think of one of the most selfish people you know… get a picture of their face in your mind… now think about how much joy seems to be in their life. Selfishness is saying, I want what I want and you want what you want and sometimes our wants don’t get along too well.
James 4:1-2 "Where do all the fights and quarrels among you come from? They come from your desires... which are constantly fighting with your bodies... you strongly desire things but you cannot get them, so you quarrel and fight."
James is saying that really the root problem of relational difficulties is a power struggle between two selfish, insecure people. As we will see with all nine of these fruits of the Spirit… we begin to exhibit them as we grow in maturity and wisdom and life experiences… sometimes its no more complicated than just growing up and being less self-centered. I enjoyed having Ryan here and seeing him all grown up and gaining in maturity. We talking about how few regrets we had in life… he said he had one though… He wishes he would have been nicer to his little brother when they were growing up. They are best friends now, but back then, he wasn't always so nice, when you are a teen-ager, sometimes life is really all about you. Funny thing is I have the same regret, I wish I would have been nicer to my little brother growing up too. Maturity brings with it a change in perspective.
Jesus gave us the Golden Rule that says… think of the other person rather than just yourself. Treat others like you would like to be treated. The golden rule shows up in most of the major religions of the world, but in the Bible it is the only place we find it stated in the positive… "do" to others…
True confessions… I'm naturally kind of a self-centered person. I was born that way. From the moment I took my first breath and wanted something to eat it was about me.
And just this week I saw another example of that… Having family and friends down here there were a lot of pictures being taken. And some of the pictures I posted on my facebook page. And you know how I selected which pictures to put on my page? I picked the ones I looked good in. If I’m blinking or have this strange expression or look fat… it didn't make facebook… I don't care how great the scenery was or how great my friends looked… if I wasn't looking good, I deleted it. Obviously if it’s a good picture of me, it’s a good picture. If it's bad of me, it's a bad picture. Now I know none of you do that… but I have to deal with it.
What a great metaphor for life. Cause if we really want to experience and radiate joy in our lives, we have to get the focus off ourselves and get it over on the person or the people we are with. Is it a good picture of them? How can I help somebody else look good. How can I make somebody else's day. Life is not a competition by the many for a few meager blessings. Blessings abound, there are more than enough to go around... and are meant to be shared. Our cup overflows.
Selfishness is a lethal kill-joy. Because you can't be jealous and joyful at the same time. Joy sprouts when you are not looking at yourself.
2. RESENTMENT
Resentment is a kill-joy. Resentment is holding a grudge. Its saying "I won't forgive you." But we hurt each other in relationships all the time… it is impossible not to. Sometimes it is intentional, sometimes it is unintentional. Because we are dealing with other imperfect people like ourselves we are going to misunderstand each other, we are going to have our needs overlapping… we are going to have conflict and drama. It’s a fact of life that you are going to be hurt by other people… other people close to you. And so it is what you do with that hurt that will make the difference whether you're joyful or you're miserable.
Nothing destroys a relationship faster than resentment. Hebrews 12:15 "Watch out that no bitterness takes root among you, for as it springs up it causes deep trouble, hurting many in their spiritual lives."
The truth is, resentment eats up emotional energy. What happens is you spend all your time resenting the fact that somebody hurt you someway and pretty soon you have no emotional energy left for anything positive… how can you have that joy, joy, joy, joy down in your heart… when resentment is eating you up inside. And what it is eating up is any trace of joy.
Proverbs 11:29 "The fool who provokes his family to anger and resentment will finally have nothing worthwhile left." It is saying that if you refuse to forgive, you're only hurting yourself. I talk a lot about this in counseling. Resentment always hurts you more than it does anybody else. Somebody does you wrong and you are huffing and puffing and thinking about what they did and rehearsing it over and over again in your mind… and they are down having a margarita watching the sunset and enjoying themselves. Are they thinking about you… probably not, they are sleeping like a baby while you are tossing and turning. Really, who is being hurt and miserable… the one harboring the resentment. Joy requires that you let it go… forgive them and move on with your life. For your own joys sake.
3. FEAR
Fear says "I don't trust you." I’ve been hurt way too many times to trust people. And when fear and paranoia builds up in a person's life, joy goes out the window. Fear causes us to build walls between us instead of bridges. Fear causes us to encase ourselves in an isolation booth that says, I'm not going to ever let another person know my real feelings, because the last person shoved them in the dirt. So we keep people at a distance and find ourselves miserable. When you're full of fear there is no emotional intimacy. And when there is no emotional intimacy there is no joy. It just doesn't happen. We wear masks and are alone behind them. I John 4:18 “...perfect love drives out all fear. So then, love has not been made perfect in anyone who is afraid.” Fearful people cannot give love and cannot receive love because they're saying I'm afraid I'll be hurt again.
So how do I over come these kill joys of selfishness, resentment and fear? How do I bring JOY to my life and my relationships? How do I get this second of the fruits of the Spirit?
Its all about perspective… The key to joy is the way you choose to look at a problem, the way you look at your marriage, the way you look at a friendship, the way you look at a partnership, the way you look at your life… how you look at a problem will determine whether you're miserable or whether you're joyful. And you always get to choose your perspective. That's why the Apostle Paul was able to write, rejoice in the Lord always… no matter what happens out there, you get to decide how it plays in here.
Here is a letter I saw reprinted from a college student to her parents: "Dear Mom and Dad, I'm sorry to be so long in writing. Unfortunately all my stationary was destroyed the night our dorm was set on fire by the demonstrators. I'm out of the hospital now and the doctors say my eyesight should return sooner or later. The wonderful boy, Bill, who rescued me from the fire kindly offered to share his little apartment with me until the dorm was rebuilt. He comes from a good family so you won't be surprised, Mom, when I tell you we're going to be married. In fact, since you've always wanted a grandchild, you'll be glad to know that next month you'll be grandparents." On the bottom of the letter it said, "Please disregard the above practice in English composition. There was no fire. I haven't been in the hospital. I'm not pregnant. I don't even have a steady boyfriend. But I did get a "D" in French and an "F" in Chemistry and I wanted to be sure that you received this news in the proper perspective."
Things could always be worse. Perspective makes all the difference whether you're going to be joyful or miserable; it's what you focus on.
So, what do you have to focus on to have joy in your life and your relationships?
1. FOCUS ON GIVING RATHER THAN RECEIVING.
Like I said last week, this is called love. That's what love is. Love is focusing on giving rather than receiving. The Bible says, that God is love, that God is a giver, that every good gift comes down from God. John 3:16: "God so loved the world that He gave." You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving. That's the whole essence of love. And when you focus on giving rather than receiving, that is when you're being most like God.
You know who said, “There is more happiness in giving than in receiving." Not Ben Franklin, not Martin Luther... not the pope… Jesus of Nazareth did. The first key to joy in a relationship is loving and focusing on your neighbor as much as yourself.
But yet society has trained us to do the exact opposite of that. Society says, Look out for Number One. Well that's a great way to be miserable. Society says, I've got to do what's best for me. Who said? That's a good way to be miserable, be self-centered. Society says, What's in it for me? And if all of a sudden in a relationship I decide that there's nothing left in it for me in the relationship, forget it, I'm out of here.
The reason why there are so many poor relationships today is that they are built on the wrong kind of love.
The kind that says...

I'll love you if. I love you if... you love me, if things work out and if I’m happy, if you'll be cool, if you got money, if you give me status, if you do things the way I want you to do them. The problem is, what happens if the "if" changes? A lot of people get married on "I love you if..." The if changes and relationship's over. Conditional love never lasts.
Another kind says I love you because. This is better, but not much. I love you because... you're good looking, you're talented, you're a great person, you do things for me that I need done right now. But again, what happens if somebody comes along that matches the qualifications better. What if you find somebody who's smarter, who's prettier, more handsome, wealthier, or pays more attention to you? You move on, the previous relationship is over.
Jesus on the other hand says love one another as I love you. That translates, I love you PERIOD. I love you unconditionally. That is the kind of love that focuses on giving rather than receiving. I love you in spite of ... the fact that you're not a perfect human being, the fact that you don't have it all together, the fact that there may be somebody better looking, or more talented or smarter out there. I love you PERIOD. That produces joy.
2 Peter 1:7 "Learn to put aside your own desires so that you will become patient and godly. This will make possible the next step, which is for you to enjoy other people and to like them, and finally you will grow to love them deeply."
Notice it says, you've got to learn, that is soooo key. That means that it does not come naturally to us... to put aside our own desires. We’ve got to learn to focus on giving.
Here’s the secret... real joy comes from making other people happy. Joy doesn't come from making me happy, happiness comes from making me happy... joy comes from making you happy. God designed it that way. You're wired that way.
2. FOCUS ON HEALING RATHER THAN HURTING.
If you are going to deal with people in this life, know now you are going to be hurt. There will be misunderstandings, there will be conflict, there will be apathy, there will be inconsiderate remarks, even with people you care about deeply. How you handle that hurt will make the difference as to whether you have joy or whether you have resentment in your life or marriage or relationship. The problem is that it is human nature to hold on to our hurt. Rather than just taking a hurt and immediately dropping it, we hold on to it, we revel in it, we rehearse it in our minds. If somebody says some put down remark to you, I mean they only said it one time but you rehearse it a hundred times in your mind. He called me a dumb ass. Can you believe that? And we say it over and over. What is dumb is not your ass but that you keep going over it and holding onto it and being hurt by it all over again everytime you think about the comment.
Col. 3:13 "Be gentle and ready to forgive; never hold grudges. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others." There's no value in rehearsing pain over and over. You can choose to let it go.
Romans 5:3-4 "We can be full of joy here and now, even in our trials and troubles. These very things will give us patient endurance; this in turn will develop a mature character..." One of the ways that makes it easier to handle a hurt in life, is to recognize that God can use it for good. That's what this verse is saying. Even problems we bring on ourselves, or problems where we are an innocent victim, God can use it for a positive purpose. How? By building our character if we choose to respond in the right way. And when my character grows, it makes it easier to handle the hurt and the next one.
3. FOCUS ON GOD'S POWER RATHER THAN MY PROBLEMS.
Psalms 62:8 "Trust in God at all times; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge." God is in control. He can repair the unrepairable. He can control the uncontrollable. He can help you where it doesn't look like there's any hope in the situation. If we just trust that that is true. If we just choose to focus on God's power rather than our problem. And all of a sudden without even trying or thinking about it… there it is… bubbling up… JOY. If you focus on your problem, you're going to be miserable. If you focus on God's power anything is possible at anytime. If God can raise Jesus Christ from the dead, He can give you the power to start over. God is the God of the second chance.
And we are not talking about "pie in the sky", joyful when you get to heaven stuff. The Bible says you can have joy here and now. There's another myth out there that goes like this: When I get all my problems solved, then I'll rejoice." Be serious, have you EVER had all your problems solved? No way. Life is simply a series of problem solving adventures. As soon as you get one solved you're going to have another and then another… sometimes a whole bunch at once. If the only time you get to experience joy is when you've got all your problems solved, guess what? You're never going to have it. You are never going to have a smile on your face. You have to learn to smile even in the middle of problems... while you're working on them. And it comes from the confidence of knowing and trusting God regardless of the circumstances. You don't focus on what you've lost, but on what you still have. And actually that is where joy is best learned... -- in tough times.
Did you know that the Apostle Paul wrote that verse he was in prison. He was about ready to be executed for treason to the Roman government. He was writing a letter to the Philippian church he started and nineteen times he used the word "joy" or "rejoice". Amazing. On death row he is going on and on about the joy in his life. So if you're depressed this morning, go home today and read through the book of Philippians. It's only four chapters. Underline whenever the word "joy" or "rejoice" is used. You will be uplifted as you see life from his perspective. But before we leave this topic let me leave you with three thoughts as to how is it possible to rejoice in the midst of difficult circumstances? You already know this but it is always a good reminder.
1. I can rejoice always because God is with me always.
Isaiah 43:2 says, "When you pass through deep waters I will be with you; your troubles will not overwhelm you. The fact is no matter what you're going through, you're not going through it alone. So it doesn't have to overwhelm you. What God wants to say to each of you today is I am with you right now... don’t be overwhelmed.
Anytime I don't have joy in my life, it's a warning light that I am not spending enough time with God. It means I've forgotten that He's with me.
2. I can be joyful because God has a plan for me.
“For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you a future with hope.” Jeremiah 29:11
God is not only with me, He has a plan for me. God isn't worried about the problem I’m going through. He knew it was coming, He saw it, He knows how all things can work together for good. They're not all good things but they can work together for good if you'll put them in his hands.
3. I can rejoice because God will help me.
God never puts more on me than He puts in me to bear it up. He will help me. Psalm 43 "Why be so gloomy and discouraged? Trust in God! I shall again praise Him for His wonderful help. He will make me smile again." Like the song we sang this morning… He has turned my mourning, into dancing again.
The Bible says "the fruit of the Spirit is joy". That means joy is not something you can manufacture on your own. You can't just work it up. But it is the natural by product when you let the Spirit of God flow in and through you.
It's interesting to me that when the angels came to announce the very first Christmas and Jesus' birth, they said, "I bring you good news of great joy." Of course the shepherds didn't understand it then, but we do now because we know what Christ can do in our lives… we have seen it, we have experienced it, and again this Sunday morning we celebrate it. Now we are going to close with a song that has joy in the title… probably the song you have sung most in your life… with joy in the title… and by the way, who made the rule that we can only sing it at Christmas? By now you have probably already figured out I am not so much into rules. "Joy to the World"

The Fruits of the Spirit - Love

2011-05-30T04:58:00.001-07:00

We have been in a sermon series on blessed to be a blessing and as I considered the topics I kept coming back to our Bible reading this morning from Galatians. Because that is what it means to be blessed to be a blessing. We call it the fruits of the Spirit. When God's Spirit fills your life and soul and mind and being you begin to naturally and intuitively display these certain characteristics that simply bless other people's lives. The fruits of the Spirit. Paul, the writer of Galatians, lists nine such characteristics that distinguish those who follow Jesus and are in tune with the Spirit of the Universe. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility and self-control. Perhaps you have heard of some of those. So what I plan to do is to morph the old sermon series with a new one in which we will take one of those fruits each week and explore what it means to live like that here in the 21st century. What does it look like to live a live filled with love, joy, peace patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility and self-control. I think it is especially fitting to talk about the fruits of the Spirit as we gather here in our new garden venue under the fruit trees. The first "fruit" of the Spirit that Paul mentions is love. Now what can I possibly add to the topic of love that hasn't been eloquently expressed in poems, love stories, novels, made into movies, philosophized about, romantically whispered into fawning ears, developed into screen plays, portrayed in Shakespeare festivals, illustrated by artists, and explained in Scripture. To tackle the topic of love in 20 minutes here in the Garden Chapel among a few friends is an ominous task. But I always love a good challenge. And in so doing I want to introduce you to a guy I learned about in my philosophy classes back at California Lutheran University… where we have a couple of alumni here this morning. His name is Tielhard de Chardin.
Spelled C H A R D I N. The Ch sounds like an Sh. Like the french wine chardonnay, Chardin is also French, born in 1881. Chardin came from a very devout Roman Catholic family as did some of you. He went to Catholic schools as a child: to a Jesuit Catholic high school, and a Jesuit College. His Catholic faith was very much imbedded in his person.
Jesuit schools were for the most part and are some of the finest schools available. They always emphasized both the intellect and the Spirit. Science and faith.
Chardin as a young man had a natural aptitude for the sciences. He graduated from his Jesuit college in France with a major in both physics and chemistry and went on to became a science teacher at a college in Cairo, Egypt.
After several years of teaching physics and chemistry, he then traveled to England to study theology for four years to become a Jesuit priest. You have to be smart to be a Jesuit priest and well educated…
Following his theological education, Chardin not only became a Jesuit priest, he also became a fine geologist and paleontologist. He received advanced degrees in both subjects. He studied and affirmed the theory of evolution as part of God’s complex processes of creating the Earth and the universe. Chardin saw no conflict between his deep Christian faith and his appreciation of science. Chardin in many ways became an early symbol of the synthesis between science and religion. In his scientific studies, and in his deep religious convictions, Chardin saw no contradictions. For him they were two distinct disciplines for getting at the truth, science describing the what, when, and how of nature and religion getting at the who and the why of it all - The interconnectedness and the relationships in the created order.
During World War I Chardin served in the military as a stretcher carrier. For his service in the Great war, he was awarded the famous French medal of honor.
Evolutionary studies were still rather controversial in the Roman Catholic Church and so because of Chardin’s beliefs he was assigned to a remote outpost in China where he was a paleontologist for twenty years. Ironically, it was there he helped to discover the remains of the 350,000 year old Peking Man, of the species homo erectus, thought to be the nearest ancestor to our species, homo sapien. Although he had a brain size only ¾ that of the later homo sapien, Chardin and his team uncovered evidence of tool making, fire building, and cooking.
He wrote a famous book entitled, THE PHENOMENON OF MAN in 1955. Although that was before I was born it was required reading when I was in college. It was some pretty complex writing and I have to admit, I wasn’t so captivated. I don’t think I really got what it was he was trying to say.
Some of you might be feeling that way right now about this sermon. Why in the world am I spending all this time talking about Chardin? Well , I am going to tell you. Chardin gave the world a really famous quotation which has been etched into human history. You look up any list of famous quotes and this one will be included. And it fits so well with this first fruit of the Spirit, love.
“Some day, after we have mastered the wind, the waves, the tides, and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of Love. Then, for the second time in the history of the world, we will have discovered fire.”
Of course the discovery and application of fire has been considered the most revolutionary, transformational, powerful development in human history. Chardin is saying that when we are able to harness the energies of Divine Love, it will be as revolutionary and transformational and powerful for human civilization as was the discovery of fire. And he gives us some word pictures…
More powerful than the winds, (think of the strong winds we have seen ripping through parts of the United States these past weeks.
More powerful than waves, (think of the pictures of the tsunami we have seen crashing into Japan)
More powerful than tides, (think in your mind some of the most extreme tides you have seen on some of your favorite beaches)
More powerful than gravity, (try to imagine the power of gravity)
We could add…
More powerful than earthquakes, (I still remember the big one in 1963 when I was walking to Kindergarten)
More powerful than an erupting volcano.
More powerful than the slippage of tectonic plates underneath the earth creating mountain ranges and volcanoes and tsunamis.
More powerful than a nuclear explosion… which we all dread…
Wind, waves, tides, gravity, nuclear… all symbols of tremendous power, but more powerful than all of these incredible forces of nature, Chardin is saying, is the power of love… and harnessing for God the energies of that love. And that when that vision is realized, for a second time in the history of the world, we will have discovered fire…. Translated, it will change everything.
Now when I think of energy… when I think of power… its most often in terms of POWER… force, control, moving things against their will, sometimes destroying things… I think of that thunderstorm last night… wow… the flashing light, the chest rattling booms and cracks. Whether its in my nature or I am just conditioned by my culture to think like that… I think of power as force.
Tradition has given us an imagine of God along these lines… omnipotent… all powerful. All controlling, all forceful, God can do whatever God wants to do and nobody can stop him. God is not bound by anything. God is King… God is the most powerful person in the kingdom… the ruler, the potentate, the omnipotent. Super God or spelled backwards, under dog
But if God is not so much like a super hero or a monarch and more like the Bible describes in I John… God is love… then what kind of power are we talking about. Back to that famous Chardin quote…
And when we harness for God the energies of love, for a second time in the history of the world, we will have discovered fire.
I believe that 2,000 years ago, Jesus of Nazareth harnessed the energies of love more than any other person on earth before or after him. And when Jesus harnessed the energy of love, he became the most powerful person who ever lived. Not by force, but by persuasion. Not by control, but by example. Not by conscription but by invitation. Not by blowing away, but by transformation. Not by being served, but by serving. Not by terminating his enemies but by turning the other cheek. If the nature of God is love, as it says in I John, than Jesus is a picture of what that as looks like in a person. And it is a powerful vision Jesus shares.
Acts 10:34ff His “message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.”
When Jesus began his ministry and was anointed by John in the waters of the Jordan River, the Gospel writers tells us that Jesus was filled with the power of the Holy Spirit to do what??? It doesn’t say power to walk on water, or power to turn water into wine, or power to multiply fish and bread, or power to calm the wind and waves, or power to curse unfruitful trees, or power to predict the future or the power to do dramatic miracles… those are not the things that Jesus’ power would be ultimately about… although for most of my life, those are the things that would come to mind when I would think of Jesus as having the power of God. Like a shy superhero that doesn’t really want to show off or blow his cover but can quietly do anything he wants at anytime. But I’ve come to understand the power of God in Jesus isn’t that at all… its bigger than that… way bigger than that… it is more along the lines of what Chardin is saying to us… that it’s the energies of love which Jesus harnessed and tapped into… a very different power than the world had come to know and expect. And that’s why it says in that passage that after he was baptized and was anointed with the Holy spirit and with power… he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed… (that’s what salvation means) healing the oppressed, setting them free, making people whole. It was by harnessing the energies of LOVE, and not the wind and the waves, that Jesus changed the world and continues to change the world through you and me today.
That’s my motivation for living the Christian life… not to get into heaven… God in his grace has worked that out completely apart from anything I need to do or worry about; my motivation for following Jesus is not to escape the flames of an eternal damnation as if that is in my power to control, my motivation is not to try and live up to a stringent set of divine rules and requirements and regulations that can only make me feel lousy because I can never possibly live up to them; my motivation is not to sail through the final judgment where God will hold me accountable for every mistake and bad decision I ever made throughout my entire life – I know that God has already forgiven me for the past and in advance so the need to constantly wonder if I am pleasing God is a mute point… God loves me and is happy with me, not because I am a pastor or because I am doing a good job being a follower, but because of the person I am – and because of who God is – the one who made me the person I am and the person you are.
My motivation for following Jesus is because I see in him the clearest picture of what it means to harness for God the energies of love. I see in Jesus of Nazareth, how to be most fully the person God created me to be. I see in Jesus what it looks like to live in relationship to God, to other people, and to all of creation. Jesus knew that God is love and to live in love is to live in relationship with God and with other people. It says pretty clearly in the Bible that those who live in love know God… and those who do not love do not know God. Why? Because GOD IS LOVE. Now seriously, do you need more motivation than that to live a loving life?
Can you even imagine what the world would look like if our human civilization began to harness the energies of love. You and I, this church, Costa Rica, the whole planet… can you even imagine what that would be like… if we all began to harness the energies of love…for God and each other. It would be an answer to the prayer Jesus taught us, thy kingdom come on earth, as it already is in heaven.
I think of some of the other people beyond Jesus himself, that history lifts up as examples of a human life well lived. The Buddha, the Dali lama, Gandhi, St Francis of Assisi, Mother Theresa, Dietrich Bonheoffer, Nelson Mandela, Oscar Romero, Martin Luther King Jr. The greatest people on the world stage all seem to have harnessed the energies and spirit of love.
And the greatest people I personally know… the people that I would like to be like… have harnessed the energies of love. For that is where the real power of God resides and moves and plays… not in a whistling wind or a flash of lightening or a voice of thunder, but in the fire power of love.
Because when we as individuals, churches, nations and world communities harness the energies of love as a reflection of the image of God in which we were created and as a follower of Jesus of Nazareth… for the second time in human history, we will discover fire…and a power like we have never witnessed before. And that is just flat out exciting!