Do You Really Want to Get What You Deserve?

Matthew 20:1-16

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            My father told me this story on more than one occasion, usually to instill in me an appreciation for the privilege of having a job.  On October 29, 1929 the Stock Market crashed and the Great Depression began.  His father, my grandfather, like so many of that generation found himself suddenly wrenched out of work at a time when no economic safety net existed.  There was no severance pay, no social welfare programs and no food stamps.  If you did not work, you did not eat.

            The only factory in town manufactured fine china, and in the 1930’s there were not a lot of people investing in gravy boats and tea sets.  There was some work though, and the way the factory parceled that out was to send the foreman out to the front gate every morning and pick out the dozen or so workers he would need for the day.  Usually there were hundreds huddled around that gate hoping against hope that this day they would be chosen.  My grandpa was one of those men.

            If he was chosen, Dad said Grandpa would come home at the end of the day proud to provide for his family’s dinner.  If he was not, his shoulders sagged and his head drooped as he plodded back up the hill with nothing to offer.  Dinner that night would have to come from the family garden and sometimes that was pretty meager.

My father has never forgotten the helplessness and hopelessness of those years.  It motivated him and his whole generation to work as hard as they possibly could in order to provide for their families.  Their children and grandchildren and great grandchildren have reaped the bounty of prosperity this country has enjoyed because of men and women like these.

            Jesus parable points to the experience of men like my grandfather. He honors their desire to find work and worth and dignity.  But, they are not the main point of the story.  This parable is often called “the workers of the vineyard”, but it is not about them.  It is about the master of the vineyard.  It is about God, and it has something very important to teach us about the nature of God.  It will tell us what God is like if we but listen.  Let us prepare ourselves to listen.  Let us pray:

            Lord, faith can be such a paradox.  The first shall be last and the last shall be first is difficult to understand.  Open to us your Word so that we might see that “with you all things are possible.”[1]  Amen.

            Jesus said, “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.”[2]  In this introduction something odd immediately jumped out to Jesus’ audience. Most likely they looked at each other startled, because that was not the way it worked in those days.  In fact, it still isn’t.  Did you catch the anomaly? 

            “In the early morning the landlord went out to hire workers.”  We learn later in this story that he has a steward, what we would today call a manager or foreman, and it would be his job to handle mundane matters like hiring day laborers.  Landowners issue orders to the foreman at the beginning of the day and receive the foreman’s report at the end of the day, but they do not interact with day laborers, the lowest people on the economic ladder of the day.  In Jesus’ story, this one does.

            What does that tell us?  It tells us that the master of this estate does not stand far off from those who work in his vineyard, but becomes involved in their lives.  He talks to them, and even appears to care about them.  If the master of the vineyard represents God, and everyone believes he does, then what does that say about God?

            It says that the God we worship, unlike the god described in a popular song, does not just stand off in the distance watching us.  He is not the lord of the manor who peers through binoculars from the veranda at the workers sweating in the field.  That is the god of theism, the god Thomas Jefferson believed in, but it is not God as Jesus taught.  God is not distant, but incarnate in the world in which we live.  This willingness to get involved will lead to some misunderstanding between God and his people.  This familiarity will lead some to contempt.

            Meanwhile, back at the vineyard, “After agreeing with the laborers for the usual daily wage, a denarius, he sent them into the field.”[3]  Now, Jesus’ audience nod in agreement.  This made sense.  It happened every day. A simple contract was drawn up:  a day’s pay for a day’s work.

            A couple of hours later the landowner, not the foreman, went back to the marketplace to hire some more workers.  He finds them standing there.  They are standing, not sitting or slouching.  They are not vagrants who only want a handout.  They want a job not only for the money, but also for meaning and dignity.  They want to be seen as having value, so they stand tall in order to present themselves well to the master of the vineyard.  Don’t miss that verb “standing” because it will be repeated again and again. 

            This time the terms of the simple contract are not so clearly spelled out.  Remember the day is already a couple of hours along now, so the master of the vineyard promised only to “pay whatever is right and fair and just.”  Remarkably, they take him at his word.   They don’t haggle.  They don’t negotiate.  They believe that whatever they receive from him at the end of the day will be just.  It will be fair.  In the church we call that faith.

            So, we learn that the very least we can expect to receive from God is justice. God will honor his promise. This was a big theological shift for those who came from other faith traditions.  For example the gods of Greece and Rome were always arbitrary.  They played with people’s lives like pieces on a chessboard and you never knew what to expect from them.  You could reap a rich harvest or a lightning bolt.  You just never knew.  The gods operated on whims and could only be placated by sacrifice. They were not known for justice.

            God described throughout scripture and in this story is first and foremost fair. You can rely on his word and on his promise.  Those workers who climbed in the back of the master’s pickup truck believed that.  That’s why they got in.

            Well, this scenario was repeated again and again throughout the day.  When we come to the last trip to town, something new enters the story, or rather is left out of the story. It’s five o’clock now and the workday ends at six.  Even now we still find people standing in the heat of the day, all day, waiting to be called to work.  How desperate is that?  Who is going to hire them at the end of the day, and what would they get for that anyway?  Still, they are there because their longing to be seen as people of worth is that strong.  This job means something.

            This time when the master of the vineyard pulls up, he doesn’t even promise to “pay them what is right or fair”.  He doesn’t promise them anything.  He just says, “Follow me”.  And they do!  This last group doesn’t even have a promise to hold onto. There is no contract at all.  They don’t ask, “what’s in it for me?”  They just trust the man himself.  They believe at the end of the day he will do right by them.

            Maybe that is why this group gets paid first.  They trusted the master for who he was and not for what he promised to give them.

Finally, the foreman has something to do.  He gets to hand out the paychecks.  The master tells the steward to hand out “the wage”.  In other words, everyone will receive the same amount regardless of how long they had labored in the vineyard. The steward, though, is the only one to hear this instruction.

            So, as each group comes forward from last to first, those who had been working all day saw that those who barely broke a sweat got a denarius.  Immediately, they conclude that the master of the vineyard is extremely generous to give those latecomers a whole day’s pay.  They figure if those guys get a denarius for working an hour, when it comes time for them they’ll make out like bandits. 

            Their great expectations are dashed though, when they rip open their envelopes and find only the denarius they had been promised.  Remember what I said in the beginning that the master took a big chance by coming directly to the would-be workers rather than sending an intermediary.  Familiarity can breed contempt, and that is exactly what was born that day.

            Those who had been working all day complained that those who worked less, in effect, got more.  At least that’s the way they saw it, and that’s the way you’d see it if your company operated that way.  Even in the Church it’s hard not to look at it like the older brother in the parable of the Prodigal Son.

            So, when someone comes back from what the Bible calls “the far country”; when they have been living a promiscuous lifestyle but now desire to return to the Father, to confess Christ and become an equal member of the church, the older brothers among us, look up in protest and complain, “Wait a minute Lord, these many years I have been serving you, and I never disobeyed your command.”  Why should they get what I deserve?[4]  That’s not fair.

I remember feeling that way some almost some thirty-five years ago.  I attended a prayer breakfast in Irwin, Pennsylvania.  This was a rather large event filled with important and influential people.  The speaker was Chuck Colson, convicted Watergate conspirator.  He had just been released from prison, but while he had been incarcerated he received and accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior.  Because of his infamous notoriety, this particular conversion made all the papers, and that’s why he received the invitation to speak before this august group.

            As he stood up, I remember feeling jealous and even a little angry.  I thought, “Why should he be up front instead of me?”  I’d graduated from seminary. I’d taken courses on preaching. I had been a Christian longer than he, and I, you will be happy to know, had never been convicted of a felony.  Why, I’ve never even been charged with one. Yet, people were making a fuss over him and not me.

            I made the mistake of confessing these feelings to a friend of mine, who promptly reminded me of today’s lesson.  He pointed out, “This is not about you.”  It is about the master of the vineyard calling people with different spiritual gifts and experiences to serve in different ways.[5]  The question is not “what’s in it for me?”  The question should be, “What’s in this for God? How may I best serve the Lord?”

           

            For the early workers in the vineyard “what’s in it for me” was first and foremost on their minds, and that’s why they believed they had been cheated by the Master.  Why, would they think that?  They had received the wage they themselves had agreed upon, so they really had no argument there. So, it wasn’t really the master’s justice they were questioning.  It was his grace.

            Grace just drives some people crazy because folks don’t seem to be getting what they deserve, and in a perfect world everyone should get what they deserve. Isn’t that right?  The problem with the assumption that “everyone should get what they deserve” is that we may not be wise enough to know exactly what other people deserve, or that we may not be objective enough to be able to correctly determine what we deserve.  Being an arbiter of justice is not an easy thing to do.  Ask any judge in a courthouse if that isn’t so? 

            Certainly those early workers had confidence in their ability to determine what was right and fair and that’s why the Bible says they were “envious because the Master was generous.”[6]  That’s what’s driving this whole exchange.  The early workers envied, coveted what the latter workers received, and this can be a dangerous thing.  That’s why God concluded his Ten Commandments with a prohibition against coveting.[7]

            Coveting always begins by comparing.  We compare what we have with what others have and it feels like we always come up short.  It’s a funny thing, but more often than not we choose to compare ourselves to those who seem to have more than we do than to those who seem to have less. We will never compare our homes to the shacks you’ll find clinging to a hillside in any third world country.  Even if you have traveled to one of these countries and seen the conditions in which the majority of this world live; and even if you have prayed a prayer of thanksgiving, “there but for the grace of God go I”; and even if you promise yourself you will never take the blessings you have for granted again – you will.  As long as you are in the business of comparing yourself with others, you will.

            That’s why gratitude has such a short shelf life. We are thankful for the blessing we receive until we see someone whose blessing seems better.  Then thanksgiving wanes and is replaced with envy.

            That’s the dilemma that prompted this parable in the first place.  The reason Jesus pulled this story from his pocket at this time was in response to the disciple’s question, “Who then can be saved?”[8]  And that question fell out of Jesus’ teaching; “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”[9]

            The disciples rightly recognized there will always be those who have more than you and there will be those who have less than you.  Whenever we measure ourselves with a yardstick created by someone else, we will always come up a day late and dollar short.  Whenever we measure our lives with the life of someone else we see as smarter, richer, or stronger, we will always have that feeling of being cheated.

            That’s why Jesus began and ended this parable with the paradox, “The first will be last and the last shall be first.”[10]  What did we learn about the first?  They were the ones who asked, “What’s in it for me.”  They were the ones who got the contract down in writing.  They were the ones who were comparing what they got to what everyone else was getting.  They thought they knew what others deserved.  They believed they knew what they deserved.  They saw themselves as the arbiters of justice, as the ones who have the right to determine what is right and wrong.

            What did we learn about those who came last?  When the master came to the marketplace and bid them, “come and follow and work” they did.  There was no contract.  There was no fine print. There was no negotiation.  No haggling. They didn’t even have his promise to pay them what was “right and fair”.  They just trusted the master.  They had faith in him.  No matter what happens, by the end of the day, they believe he will take care of them. They believe in him and that evidently is all God asks.

Let us pray:    

            Lord, you bid each one of us to come and follow and trust that at the end of the day you will be there to take care of us.  Grant, O Lord, the faith to follow and work in your vineyard until our day is finished and we receive from you not what we deserve but

what you graciously desire to give.  Amen.

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[1] Matthew 19:26

[2] Matthew 20:1

[3] Matthew 20:2

[4] Luke 15:11-32

[5] 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12

[6] Matthew 20:15

[7] Exodus 20:17

[8] Matthew 19:25

[9] Matthew 19:24

[10] Matthew 19:30, 20:16

A Different Bottom Line

Matthew 18:21-35

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          The following is a letter, written to, of all people, Miss Manners, the newspaper columnist.

                     

Dear Miss Manners:

          I am genuinely confused about what it means to forgive someone.  Does it ultimately mean that, no matter what another person does to me, I must pretend to the best of my ability that nothing ever happened?

          What is my responsibility when the offending party refuses to apologize and accept responsibility for actions? Are there degrees of forgiveness?  When an offense occurs must I abandon my sense of right and wrong just to keep peace?  Is this what “forgive and forget” is all about?[1]

          Miss Manners offered a weak response to some of these questions, so it was clear she was just as troubled by them as we are.  Fortunately, Jesus also offered his take on this question of forgiveness, and his answer carries a little more weight.  Before we look to him, let us pray:

Lord, many of us are genuinely confused about what it means to forgive someone. Do we just pretend that nothing ever happened?  Do we ignore their responsibility?  Do we abandon our sense of right and wrong?  What if we can’t forget, what do we do then?

          Speak to us this morning.  Open your word to the eyes of our hearts, we pray.  Amen.

          Then Peter came and said to Jesus, “Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often should I forgive?  As many as seven times?  Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, but seventy times seven.”[2]

          Jesus’ answer was short and to the point and not at all what Peter was looking for, because Peter well understood the cost of forgiveness.  That’s why forgiving someone seven times seemed like a lot to him.  It is not an easy thing.  To forgive even once is to sacrifice the desire for vengeance.  There’s no payback.  There’s no getting even.  Forgiveness bears that cost.

          Peter’s question did not just pop up out of the blue.  It falls out of Jesus’ words on conflict management.  Jesus had just provided a practical mechanism for resolving conflict created when someone perceives another as doing him or her wrong. The point of the process is reconciliation.  At the end of this procedure Jesus said, “ultimately, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”[3]   

          That means that forgiving, or refusing to forgive, will have consequences in this life and the next.  This is both temporal and eternal.  It affects us now, and God will remember it when we stand before him.  I know that’s true in this life because I’ve witnessed countless times the refreshing healing of forgiveness, and I’ve seen the consequences that follow if you don’t.

         

We had a neighbor when I was growing up, whose backyard joined ours.  In his yard he tended a garden.  He was very proud of that garden and worked long and hard to keep it free of weeds.  When it got hot he would take off his shirt, revealing a scar that ran the length of his right arm from shoulder to wrist.  It was an angry, ugly gash that must have caused great pain when it was cut. 

He had served as a marine in the South Pacific and was wounded on Okinawa.  His arm healed and was fairly functional, but he still held a bitter hatred for all things Japanese.  He could not let go of the pain he had suffered. Any time the subject came up he would resurrect the pain he endured, and re-live it as if it were yesterday.  He nurtured that anger the same way he tended his garden.  He meticulously pulled away anything that might overcome it.  Long after the wound healed the heart scar remained.  There would be no forgiveness there.  The deeper hurt never healed.  It was bound to him; he could not let it go.

I think that’s why Jesus stressed the importance of forgiveness, not only for what it offered to the offender but also for the healing it promised for the one that had been hurt.  There is no letting go of grudges when forgiveness is withheld.

So, when Peter asked, how many times must I forgive; Jesus answered in effect – every time.

Now, there are two ways to read this verse.  I’ve seen it translated both ways, and even checked the Greek to see which one was right, and concluded it can be read either way.

The Revised Standard Version translates Peter’s question, “How often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him?” The word “often” refers to the number of sins. Peter is really asking, “How many times do I have to take it before I can let him have it?  I got the part about turning the other cheek, but I only have two cheeks.” 

This reading is very difficult because it can be used to enable and excuse bad behavior.  Husbands who know their Bible and still batter their wives will pull out this text to tell her that she is required to forgive him after every assault. Alcoholics who know their Bible will pull it out to force forgiveness from a long-suffering spouse or child.  A simplistic reading of this text would seem to encourage an abusive and manipulative cycle where accountability is ignored, and change not required.   In the context of the whole gospel, this is surely not what Jesus means.  He cannot be saying to that Miss Manners correspondent, “Yes, you must pretend to the best of your ability that nothing wrong really happened.”

There is another way to read this verse. The New Revised Standard Version puts that word “often” in a different place, and in Greek syntax that is entirely legitimate.  This time the translators used it to describe not the number of sins, but rather the number of times we are to forgive.  It doesn’t refer to multiple sins; it refers to the frequency of forgiveness.  Here Peter’s question is translated, “Lord, if a brother sins against me, how often should I forgive?”

Now, why would you need to forgive someone more than one time for the same offense?  If someone says, “I’m sorry”, and you say, “That’s O.K., I forgive you”; doesn’t that end the matter?  Don’t you just “forgive and forget”?

Do you?  Do you forgive and forget?  Well, maybe sometimes you do, but if the offense was bad enough, if you have really been hurt, I don’t think you ever really forget.   Some people are up-front about that.  They’ll say, “I will forgive, but I’ll never forget.” Since we don’t ever really forget, sometimes the anger and resentment sneaks back in.  Sometimes in a new conflict, old grievances are resurrected. Arguments over today’s failing will reach deep into the past and pull out twenty-year-old transgressions. They are like weeds that you thought you pulled, but somehow when you weren’t looking, they grew back. 

That’s why we sometimes need to forgive the same sin a number of times.  It is rarely a once-and-for-all thing.  It is a garden that needs weeding again and again and again, if ever the flowers are to grow.  When we fail to weed that garden it will have consequences is this life; we will develop a bitter spirit.  Jesus also said an unwillingness to forgive will have consequences in the next life as well.  “What you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and what you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

So that we don’t miss this point Jesus shared the parable of the unforgiving servant.  The story is simple and to the point.  There are three characters, a pauper, a middle manager, and a king.  Now, the middle manager owed the king big time - ten thousand talents of silver.  No matter how you run the numbers, the sum was considerable.  To make matters worse, there were no bankruptcy laws to protect him.  He couldn’t shelter his debt with a million dollar mansion, or hide his money in the Cayman Islands.  There was no place to run and no place to hide, so he groveled and pleaded for grace.

Remarkably, the king granted his request and forgave the debt. He didn’t even foreclose on his house. 

The next day the pauper approached this forgiven middle manager with a story of woe.  He couldn’t repay his debt – a matter of only a hundred denarii – chicken feed, peanuts.  The middle manager became enraged, and had the pauper thrown in debtor’s prison.  He wanted what he thought should come to him. Let justice be done. 

He was like so many of us who look for grace for ourselves and demand restitution from others.  The reason we are able to do that with a straight face is because we are quick to offer reasons for our own shortcomings, but we are slow to excuse those of others.  Jesus put it this way; a lot of people are quick to see the speck in the eye of someone else but slow to see the log that is in their own.[4]

I used to see this a lot when I caddied at the York country club. I always carried two bags and those two golfers would sometimes team up against the other two.  If the bets were high, the pressure rose.  I’d hand a club to one of my guys and he’d swing away.  If his ball sliced right into the woods, he’d offer a myriad of excuses:  “The sun got in my eye”, “The wind kicked up”, “The caddy (that’s me) gave me the wrong club.”  When his partner hooked left into the pond leaving them out of contention, out of luck and money, he would mutter, “Wimp”, “He always chokes”, “He can’t handle the pressure.”

That’s the way that middle manager looked at those who owed him.  When he failed to meet his obligations, there was always a good excuse.  When others failed to meet their obligations to him, they were negligent and irresponsible.  They were deadbeats who always choked and couldn’t handle the pressure.  When you have this bifocal vision, “an eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth” makes a lot of sense.  It sounds right and fair up until that time when it is your eye and tooth that are on the line.  Then it is mercy and not justice you seek.

That’s why Jesus said, “You’ve heard it said, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth, but I say to you, “Turn the other cheek”.[5]  Only in that way can the cycle of vengeance be broken.  Only then can reconciliation follow.

This is not easy.  Anyone who has ever been hurt can tell you it is not easy, but for those who follow Jesus – it is required.

A pastor friend of mine told this story.  He said, a member of his church broke into the choir room one Sunday during worship and stole his wife’s purse.  He’s preaching and she’s singing in the choir, and this church member stole the purse, and then used her driver’s license to forge checks all over town.  She had stolen an identity pretending to be someone she was not.

One can only get away with that for so long; eventually she was caught, and the whole church discovered who and what she was.  She was exposed and ashamed.  She thought she was finished, but this pastor, his wife and their church went out of their way to offer, not judgment, but grace.  They didn’t feel like it.  Their feelings told them to do something quite different. But, their faith required their forgiveness of this thief.

My friend said, “The turning point in her life came during a communion service when she took her place in the line of people coming forward to the table.  Through the intervention of the Holy Spirit, when it came time for her to commune, the only station open was the one where my wife was serving.  As the thief sheepishly walked up to the woman she hurt, the only words my wife said, the only words that needed to be said were, “The body of Christ broken for you.”[6]

Every time any of us takes that bread and drinks of that cup we are reminded that God’s forgiveness is expressed to us in the only way we would believe, and that is through the cross.  We know forgiveness is not cheap or easy and mistrust grace that is easily given.  We know how hard it is to forgive someone who has hurt us, so we know how hard it must have been for God to forgive those who would hurt his children, curse his name and ignore his Word.

When Jesus, hanging, suspended between the earth and the sky, between heaven and hell, looked down on those who had pounded the nails into his palms and prayed, “Father, Forgive them”.  We know that was not easy.[7]  No prayer that ever comes from pain is easy; but those at the foot of the cross that day heard that powerful prayer born from love, and it changed their lives. Countless believers from that day to this have heard that prayer of forgiveness, and it has lifted their souls.

If you’ve ever loved someone who hurt you, and you’ve gone on loving; if you’ve ever welcomed home a prodigal; if you’ve ever taken the blame when you were not at fault, but someone you love was; if you’ve ever suffered because of what someone else you love has done…and if you have let mercy swell up enough to overcome the urge for revenge or anger or hate in your heart…then you have tasted a tiny morsel of how the love and forgiveness of God works and why it works.  You have received the bread of heaven and the cup of salvation.

Through our shame and sorrow and regret, we learn to give mercy because we need it ourselves so much.  The Good News of Jesus Christ is that God does forgive you.  The incredible blessing that comes from that is that we are given the freedom to forgive others, not just once, not even just seven times, but seventy times seven.

Let us pray:

Lord, we will never be able to forgive until we first believe we are forgiven.  Draw our eyes to your cross so that we might see hanging suspended between earth and sky, between heaven and hell, your love, your grace, and your forgiveness.  As we have received that blessing, give us the opportunity to share it with others.  Through Christ we pray.  Amen.

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[1] Washington Post, November 29, 2000. C-10.

[2] Matthew 18:21-22

[3] Matthew 18:18

[4] Luke 6:41-42

[5] Matthew 5:38

[6] Barnes, Craig: Called to Forgive.  Sermon preached at the National Presbyterian Church, May 20, 2001.

[7] Luke 23:34

Standing on the Promises

2 Timothy 3:10-17

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            Many of you may not be aware that Mark Twain was raised as the son of a Presbyterian preacher.  He grew up in a Presbyterian Church, but left the church for the rest of his adult life.  He said one of the reasons for this was, “It’s not the parts of the Bible I don’t understand which give me trouble, it’s the parts I do understand that cause me distress.”

            Maybe you know the feeling. You’ve read a passage, or heard me read a passage, that you flat-out didn’t understand, and it made no sense to you.  Maybe you’ve read a passage that seemed pretty clear, but you don’t like it, don’t believe it, and never intend on following it.  What do you do then?  Do you get to pick and choose the parts you like and ignore the rest?  Do you put your Bible on a shelf and look for guidance elsewhere, or do you continue to wrestle with and sometimes struggle with this revealed truth in the hopes that tomorrow you may better understand what is a mystery today?

            My hope is that you choose the latter, because how can we possibly discern God’s will if we do not know God’s Word?  My message today is intended to equip you to read the Bible for all its worth.  First, let us pray:

            Compassionate God, since faith comes by hearing your Word, help us to listen to the scriptures with all attention, that they may correct our faults, confirm our faith, and comfort our spirits, through Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh.  Amen.

            The Apostle Paul was languishing in a Roman prison and facing the end of his life.  He used this time to write letters to equip and encourage the next generation.  He had been a mentor to Timothy, but could no longer meet with him over a cup of tea to talk about matters of faith.  So, Paul encouraged him to remain in the Word.  He said, “Continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you have learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.” In other words, Paul is saying, “Remember what you learned in Sunday school class.”

            He then summarized one of the most important lessons he learned which is that God has revealed Himself and His will through his son Jesus Christ and what we need to know about him we learn through truth revealed in scripture.  That’s why he said:

           

“All scripture is inspired by God.”  The literal translation is “God breathed.”  In the same way God’s “ruach”, God’s breath, gave life to all living things.  So, God’s revealed Word is intended to give life to all of us.

Years ago, I was asked to teach a class in a High School comparative religions class.  I was to represent the Protestant Christian point of view.  Other clergy were also given equal time to represent the Roman Catholic tradition as well as Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism.  One of the students asked the inevitable question, “Why should I believe the Bible?”  There are many other sacred texts; the Koran, Hindu’s Bagvad Gita, Buddha’s eightfold path, and many others.  How is the Bible different from any of them?  Why should I believe one over the other?  In other words, “how do I know God breathed more into one than the others?”

There is no way to empirically prove one over the other.  So, the only way for you to make up your own mind is to take the time and read it for yourself.

When the Bible speaks of itself, it uses images of power.  Jeremiah speaks of God’s word as a “fire and a hammer”.  The writer to the Hebrews describes God’s Word as “living and active, sharper than a two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit.”  In the Psalms it is described as a “lamp for our feet and a light for our path.” 

All of these pictures are intended to demonstrate that God’s Word has power and authority and you know that is true because of what it accomplishes.

Deuteronomy 18:27 says you know a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord if the prophecy is fulfilled, if the prophecy is not fulfilled, the prophet does not speak in the name of the Lord.

In the fifty-fifth chapter of Isaiah, God, speaking through the prophet, says:

“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven…so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and prosper the thing for which I sent it.”

I believe the Bible speaks words from God not just because the church or someone else tells me so, but because I have seen the impact it has had in our world, in this church, and in my life.

            Years ago I read a story in Reader’s Digest about two men living on the island of Okinawa before the Second World War.  They came across a Bible which had been left in the community by a passing missionary.  They read it and believed it.  One of them eventually became the village chief and the other started a little school to study it.

            During the war, when the American marines were shooting their way across Okinawa, they came upon this town.  As they prepared to make their assault, these two men, the chief and the Bible teacher came out to meet them.  They bowed low, rose and said, “Welcome fellow Christians.”

            They then escorted the marines into the village and discovered the whole town had become disciples of Jesus Christ.  So, instead of a battle, these marines were met with bread. Instead of snipers, they were met by servants of the Lord.  The hard-boiled sergeant who told this story to the editor of Reader’s Digest said, “I can’t figure it out how all of this could happen just because two guys found a Bible and decided they wanted to live like Jesus.”

            I would have told him it happens like that more often than one might think.  Someone opens up this book and reads a verse and thinks, “That’s me, that’s my life right there in black and white.”   Maybe that’s happened to you. You were going through a dark time in life and then you opened this book and discovered you’re not alone. A man named David went through the valley of the shadow and came out on the other side and discovered God was there.  So, you thought, there is hope for me.  Maybe there was a time in your life when you were feeling confused and not sure which way to turn and then read Jesus’ words, “Follow me for I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.”  And then you knew he’d get you to where you need to be.

That’s why anyone who reads the Bible has a verse or two or three they underlined in red because they wanted to remember where that verse was and what they were feeling the moment that revelation hit home.

 I’ve seen the difference God’s Word can make in people’s lives, and I’ve also seen what happens when people try to live apart from the teaching and direction God gives.  I believe we get into trouble when we decide we are going to go it alone – all on our own. When we reject the standards God gives, how do we know where to stand?

How many of the problems we face today have been predicted in God’s word?  How many times have people gotten into trouble because they ignored God’s command against adultery or theft, lying or coveting?  Time and time again God has shown us the way, the truth that leads to life, but we have preferred to follow a truth of our own making.

Paul told Timothy what was likely to happen.  Listen to the way Eugene Peterson paraphrases this scripture:

You’re going to find that there will be times when people will have no stomach for solid teaching, but will fill up on spiritual junk food – catchy opinions that tickle their fancy.

One of the great temptations in American culture is to coble together our own spirituality.  We are like diners at a buffet picking and choosing what we like and passing on the rest.  We are the consummate consumers.  We shop around for cars and clothes, for churches and preachers.  If we like it we’ll buy it; if we don’t we’ll move on.

When we do that though, when we skip the parts of the Bible we don’t like or walk away when someone tells us something about ourselves we don’t want to hear, how will we ever grow, how will we ever know?

We would never tell our children, “It’s O.K. to skip the broccoli and eat only ice cream, but we do that ourselves when it comes to our own spiritual growth.  When we do, the Bible warns us about what will likely happen:

“As the end approaches, people are going to be self-absorbed, money-hungry, self-promoting, stuck-up, profane, contemptuous of parents, crude, coarse, dog-eat-dog, unbending, slanderers, impulsively wild, savage, cynical, ruthless, addicted to lust, and allergic to God.”

It seems to me that comes pretty close to describing the time in which we live.  That’s why we need to return to God’s word again and again because we need teaching and correction, and we need to learn what is right in the sight of God so that we can do what is right in the sight of God.

In the middle ages, the Bible was often chained to the pulpit, because the leaders of the church did not want ordinary people to read it.  They thought people would not be able to understand it.  They thought people should be protected from it.  The leaders read it and then tell the people what to believe and what to do.  That’s why they locked up God’s Word.

During the Reformation, which gave birth to the Presbyterian Church, people like Martin Luther and John Calvin protested and said “That’s not right. The Bible is for everyone.  Now is the time to break the chain.  Now is the time to unlock the Word of God so that everyone can read it for themselves and they can make up their own minds.

Maybe your Bible has been locked up, not by the church, but by your apathy, your resistance to wrestle with the parts you don’t understand and resistance to follow the parts you do.  Now is the time to read it for yourself and make up your own mind.

This is the Word of the Lord.  It is sharper than a two-edged sword, rightly discerning the soul and the Spirit.  This is the Word of the Lord, a lamp for your feet and a light for your path.  God has revealed himself in this way as a means of his grace.

It’s kind of like a Christmas present.  If you never open it up, have you really received the gift?  Open the gift and receive all God has placed in it for you.

Let us pray:

Grant, O Lord, the desire to remain faithfully in your word, the conviction to follow it and the courage to live it. Amen.

“CrossWords”

Matthew 16:21-27

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          If you were to visit Jerusalem, especially during the season of Lent chances are pretty good that you would probably see a spiritual pilgrim or two carrying a cross on the road they call the Via Dolorosa. This is route on which many think Jesus carried his cross, from Pilate’s Praetorium to Golgotha, the place of the skull.

          Believers from all over the world, for reasons known only to them will travel to this place and repeat that journey carrying their own wooden cross.  Most of this route cuts through the old market district, so people will be buying and selling all sorts of stuff from religious knick-knacks and doodads to fresh fruit and vegetables; and not one of the people who live there give a second glance to these cross toting pilgrims.  It is part of the routine of living in the “old city”.

          But, when I saw these people, I gawked a bit and wondered why? Why were they doing this?  Is it a form of penance?  Are they trying to make amends for sins past or present or future?  Are they doing this to create a good impression for God? Or, do they see this as an evangelistic witness? Is carrying a cross their public proclamation of their faith?  Do they hope that people will see them carrying a cross and so believe?  Or, do these pilgrims just hear Jesus’ words, “Take up your cross and follow me,” and figure this is what he meant?[1] 

          If that is the reason, if these cross carriers are just trying to fulfill the literal meaning of Jesus’ command, I think they’re mistaken.  I don’t think Jesus meant that we are to walk around lugging crossed beams of wood.  I think he meant something entirely different, and ultimately more profound.  That’s the direction we’re headed this morning, but first let us pray:

          Lord, we are each of us spiritual pilgrims on a journey toward greater understanding of who you are, of who we are.  We carry within us the means of our own destruction, fears and worry which consume the soul. Help us to bear our crosses with the same strength and courage with which Jesus bore his.  For on the other side of the cross is the abundant life you promised.[2]  Bring us there we pray.  Amen.

           Sooner or later everyone bumps into the question, “Who is Jesus of Nazareth?”   Was he just a nice guy or a good teacher?  Are we to look at him as an example or illustration of what a moral life looks like?  Or, was he a prophet or preacher whose mission was simply to point people toward God, to act as kind of a spiritual traffic cop?  Or, did he do more than simply point to God?  Was he in fact a flesh and blood incarnation of God?

          These are the choices we have.  They are the same choices Peter faced, when he and the rest of Jesus’ disciples gathered around a campfire and Jesus asked, “Who do you say that I am?” [3]  Only nobody really had the courage to answer this question before.  Everyone was holding their cards close to the chest, and squinting out of the corner of the eye to see who would be the first to put their chips on the table.  No one wanted to be the first to place their bet, because the stakes were incredibly high; they were in fact a matter of life and death.  For all the flowery words of faith, no one was yet sure that Jesus was the “real deal”.  No one was yet willing to put his life on the line, and say out loud what most were thinking.

          Then Peter pushed all his chips to the middle of the table.  He bet it all.  He put his reputation, his convictions, and his life on the line and answered Jesus’ question “Who do you say that I am?”  Peter dug down deep and lifted his eyes, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”[4] And everyone around the campfire took a deep breath.

          Jesus probably put his arm around Peter’s shoulder when said, “Blessings upon you Peter, for your faith has come from God.”  Then Jesus took that opportunity to lay out the rest of the plan, the future that lay before him and them.  He gave them the big picture.

          He spoke of redemption through suffering.  He described salvation through pain.  He prophesied death, his own death.   The suffering he will endure will span every level.  There will be the physical pain of the whip and wooden spikes driven through hands and feet.  There will be the emotional pain of seeing trusted friends betray and run.  There will be the spiritual pain of feeling totally abandoned by God.[5] All of this, Jesus said, is the fulfillment of God’s plan to restore a right relationship with humanity.

 But, it was not Peter’s plan!  He plainly he told Jesus he was mistaken.  He even invoked the name of the Lord, “God forbid it, that any of these things should happen to you.”  He was in effect telling Jesus that he, Peter, had a better grasp of the will of God than Jesus. God should forbid the future Jesus foretold, it would be wrong.

I think Peter recoiled from Jesus’ prophecy for two reasons.  First, he loved Jesus and did not want to see anything bad happen to him. He felt protective to the point that when Jesus was later arrested, many think it was Peter who took up a sword to defend him.[6]  Peter loved Jesus, but I think he also had a second reason for his revulsion toward Jesus’ words.  That is, Peter had an altogether different understanding of God’s plan and purpose.   Suffering should not be part of that plan. 

          I think in Peter’s fledgling theology, God’s purpose should be to reward the good and punish the evil.[7]  That seems fair, so that is the way it should work.  That is the way most children look at their world, and it is very upsetting for them to discover that the universe does not operate in that way.  They believe people should get what they deserve. Suffering, then will always be the result of sin or stupid mistakes, and blessing is the reward for righteousness.

If you are good, in Peter’s view, God will protect you.  And in Peter’s mind Jesus was as good as good gets.  So, if God will not protect and shield Jesus from harm, then what hope is there for him, or for any of us for that matter?  That’s where the passion of Peter’s protest came from.  He was as worried about himself as much as he was about Jesus. Where was his hope to be placed?

          Then Jesus, who had just showered “blessings” upon Peter’s head, had patted him on the back and given him a big smile, suddenly turned around and issued the harshest rebuke he ever gave to anyone.  “Get behind me Satan!” Back off you devil!  And Peter’s mouth dropped, and each one of the disciples found something else to look at, many of them now inordinately interested in the laces on their sandals.

I believe the level of Jesus warning, the devastating degree of his rhetoric underscored just how tempted he was to go along with Peter’s plan.  Today we see all of this as pre-ordained history, and so we forget the struggle that took place in Jesus between his flesh and blood and his soul that desired God’s Will above all things.  Jesus had no illusions about what the future held, and he understood clearly what it would mean for him.    We see his anxiety played out in the garden of Gethsemane when the conflict between the body’s natural instinct toward self-preservation and the spirit’s desire to follow God poured out of his pores with sweat and blood.[8]

Two thousand years later, we have sanitized the cross.  We plate them with gold and keep them shiny and polished, so we forget what a gruesome means of execution it was.  Death by crucifixion was never short.  It could last for days, and the victim’s anguish often became a public spectacle.  Viewing crucifixions was what some people did for fun before Jerry Springer came along.

The cross was designed by the Romans to put the “fear of God”, or rather I should say, the “fear of Rome” in the hearts and minds of any who would oppose Roman rule. (I’ve read that ISIS is doing the same thing in Iraq today.) One scholar described it this way; “There were days when the road to Jerusalem was lined with crosses, each of them bearing the dead or dying body of someone whose public execution was meant to scare everyone who saw it.  It reinforced the idea that death was the most awful thing in the world and that people with any sense should do every thing in their power to avoid it.”[9]

          When Jesus told his disciples to pick up their crosses, Jesus defied that idea.  He suggested that there can be things worse than death, and that living in fear is high on the list. In response to Peter and the rest, Jesus suggests that if they were going to let fear run their lives, then fear would become their god.   Behavior then, the manner in which they lived their lives would be measured and determined by how scary something seems.  Fear would rule their lives.

          Jesus knew that scary days awaited, when people in power would use their power to put those believers down and shut them off.  There will always be those who stand against God and seek to destroy those who follow the Lord.  The fears those disciples would face when their very existence served to offend those in power are the same fears we face.  For most of us have known what it is to offend someone who has some power to hurt.  Many choose to avoid the thing or person as a way of avoidance, to live life like a mouse peeping out of hole every once in a while and then scurrying back to safety.  But, that really is no way to live.  Shakespeare once wrote, “Cowards die many times before their deaths, the valiant never taste death but once.”[10]   Better to face our fears than flee from them.

          In January of 1982, Air Florida’s flight #90 crashed into the Potomac River. Many of you remember that event.  Initially six people survived the crash.  They were seen in the water clinging to the tail section of the airplane.  A helicopter was brought in and hovered over the survivors, lowering a lifeline and flotation ring.

          The craft could only handle one person at a time.  Each time the helicopter returned and lowered the line, one of those in the water, a man described as balding, probably in his fifties, and with an extravagant mustache, passed the line on to one of the others in the water with him.  We later learned his name was Arland Williams.

          When the other five had been rescued and the helicopter returned for him, the frigid temperatures of that winter water proved too much, and Arland slipped under the water.

          One of the rescuers in the helicopter later said, “In a devastating emergency like that, you’ll occasionally find someone like him, willing to put off his own salvation to help others.  But, I’d never seen one with such commitment.”

          Do you think Arland Williams really lost his life?  Listen again to Jesus’ words, “Whoever would save his life must lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”[11]  It is always a question of commitment.  That is always our question.  How far am I willing to go?  How much am I able to trust?  How deep does my faith go?

          Jesus offered a valiant life, an abundant life.  Instead of surrendering ourselves to our fear, better we surrender ourselves to God.  Now, God never promised freedom from suffering.  “It will always rain on the just and the just.”[12]   God never promised freedom from pain, but He has promised life able to overcome the fear.

What is this cross we must carry.  One preacher put it this way, “Whatever it is that scares you to death, so that you are willing to do anything, anything at all just so that it will go away – that is your cross, and if you leave it lying there it will kill you.  If you turn away from it with the excuse that this should never have happened to you, then you deny God the chance to show you the greatest mystery of them all: that there, right there in the dark fist of your worst fear, is the door to abundant life.”[13]

All you have to do is believe in God more than you believe in your fear.  How do we do that?  Well, we come back to Jesus’ question, “Who do you think that I am?”  Find your answer to that question, and I think you’ll find the answer to your fear.

How do you find that answer?  You listen to God’s Word, you hear the words of Jesus, you gather and worship with those who may know him in a way different then yourself, you spend time in prayer, prayer which listens more than it speaks, and finally, you explore your own heart, your own feelings, your own thoughts about God.  After you’ve done that, you come to the time when, like Peter, you push your chips to the middle of the table, and affirm, “Jesus, you are the Christ, the Son of the Living God”. And I will carry my cross, my fears, and follow you.  If you do, if you make that prayer, those fears won’t feel as heavy, for your faith will make them light.

Let us pray:

Lord of all mercy, we your faithful people have celebrated that one true sacrifice which takes away our sins and brings pardon and peace: by our communion keep us firm on the foundation of the gospel and preserve us from all sin; help us to carry our own cross whatever that may be through Jesus Christ our Lord.

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[1] Matthew 16:24

[2] John 10:10

[3] Matthew 16:15

[4] Matthew 16:16

[5] Matthew 27:46

[6] Matthew 26:51

[7] Psalm 1

[8] Luke 22:44

[9] Taylor, Barbara Brown:  God in Pain. Abingdom Press, Nashville. 1998.  Pg 59

[10] Julius Caesar  II, ii, 32.

[11] Matthew 16:25

[12] Matthew 5:45

[13] Taylor, Barbara Brown: God in Pain. Abingdon Press, 1998. pg 60.