Today's Sermon - By Faith #2 - 8/18/19

By Faith #2

(based on Hebrews 11:29-12:2)

As I mentioned last week, the 11^th Chapter of Hebrews is often referred as the Faith Chapter.  Last week we touched briefly on two of the characters listed in the long intro from verse 8-16.  But the full list in Chapter 11 includes the following people of faith.  Bear with me as we go through our old Sunday School list of the people we learned about long ago:

Abel – who had the faith to believe in the sacrifice he offered to God as worthy of God’s praise, and the dubious honor of being the first person killed by his own brother, Cain;

Enoch – the son of Cain, had the faith of righteousness and enjoyed such a close relationship with God that he did not have to experience death and was instead simply taken up to heaven;

Noah – another righteous man of intense faith.  His generation had sunk to such a moral depravity that God could no longer suffer humanity and sought to destroy them.  Noah obeyed God’s command to build an ark in the middle of a desert despite public ridicule and had faith that God’s promise of flooding the earth would happen;

Abraham and Sarah – who we spoke about last week, had faith enough to believe that God’s promise of future generations would come through them, even though they were very old and Sarah was barren;

Isaac – son of Abraham and Sarah, offered as a human sacrifice to God, but had faith to believe that he, too was a child of promise and that God’s covenant with his father would come to pass through him;

Jacob – son of Isaac, became the father and indeed, the fulfillment of the promise made to his grandfather, Abraham.  He continued great faith in God to fulfill that promise and became the father of the twelve tribes of Israel through his sons, Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Joseph, and Benjamin;

Joseph – one of the youngest sons of Jacob had faith to believe that he was part of the family’s great inheritance to be blessed by God in spite of circumstances that led him to be sold into slavery by his own brothers and then sent to prison by his employer.  But there in prison to be miraculously rescued by Pharaoh to lead the people of Egypt through a famine, to forgive his brothers their role in his earlier difficulties and to regather his family in Egypt;

Moses – a child of the Levite tribe after many generations passed between the death of Joseph and the enslavement of the Israelites to the Egyptians.  Moses had faith to believe that his upbringing in the court of the Pharaoh would one day lead to the freedom and rescue of his people.  He sought God’s wisdom, advice, and counsel.  By faith he confronted Pharaoh to let his people go and through faith led them out of the land of Egypt to wonder in the desert for 40 years to a Promised Land God would give them.   

The whole of the Israelite nation who fled Egypt and crossed the Red Sea – by faith they followed Moses and watched as God parted the sea to let them pass safely to the other side while the Egyptian army descended upon them to force their return;

Joshua – a young man under the tutelage of Moses became the commander of the army of Israel.  By faith he listened to the words of the Lord, led the Israelites to surround the city of Jericho in the land of Canaan, marched around its walls for seven days, blew the ram’s horns and gave a great shout from all the people of Israel and in this way, felled the walls of Jericho;

Rahab the prostitute – harbored the spies of Israel when they came to Jericho.  By faith she received them in peace and told them of the cities fear of the Lord and counseled them on how they might escape from sight of the king, for this she was spared in the invasion of Jericho;

Gideon – another commander of Israel’s army like Joshua.  He defeated the Midianites with just a handful of soldiers rather than with a huge army and by faith believed that God had delivered them from destruction.  Although Israel wanted to make him king at the time, by faith Gideon refused for he believed that only God was king;

Barak – Deborah commissioned him to lead the Israelites in a battle against the Canaanite forces to overthrow Sisera.  By faith he followed her counsel and overcame the great army of the Canaanites;

Samson – a thoroughly unlikely inclusion to this list of people of faith, Samson was not a good man.  He had many flaws including that of being a womanizer and a person who sought revenge at any proclivity.  Yet, by faith, he believed that God had called him to a particular task of destroying the Philistines and upon capture, lashed between the columns of the temple, prayed to God for deliverance and brought the temple down with his enormous strength, killing himself and the entire aristocracy of the Philistine society;

Jephthah – another greatly flawed character on this list of the faithful, but by faith Jephthah led the Israelites to a peaceful conquering of the land of Moab and Amon;

David – continues the long line of flawed characters used by God, by faith he continued to build up the nation of Israel and to lead the people to a time of prosperity and unity;

Samuel and all the prophets – by faith listened to the word of God and proclaimed and lamented over and over to the people of Israel about their belief in God and how they often turn away from those beliefs.  And as consequence would receive the penalty of those unfaithful acts.

A growing list of more of the faithful could be exhaustive, but concludes with verses 33 and 34 – and more who by “faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, and put foreign armies to flight.”

However, verses 35b-38 also records the trials of those who had faith: “Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection.  Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison.  They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword.  They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated for the world was not worthy of them.  They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.”

Well, that latter list really doesn’t sound like a list I’d like to be on.  Would you?  But these men and women, “others” as the passage simply names them, who endured such torment were living by faith just as much as Noah, Abraham, Moses or Joshua.  Their faith was not weaker.  If anything, their faith was probably stronger because it enabled them to endure incredible suffering.  They are not “lesser” saints because they found no miracle.  If anything, they are “greater” saints because they were faithful even when things didn’t work out right.

In fact, they are mentioned at the close of the list in summary; “These were all commended for their faith.”  At a crucial moment in time in history, they each acted in faith.  God saw their faith and rewarded it.

Living by faith often meant moving against the prevailing tide of public opinion.  Noah built an ark, Abraham left Ur, Moses rejected Egypt, and Joshua marched around Jericho.  The same principle holds true today.  If you decide to live by faith, you will definitely stand out from the crowd, and you may face opposition and ridicule.

Hebrews 11 demonstrates that the life of faith is not a rarity. It’s easy to look at Enoch or Noah or Joseph or Moses or David and say, “I could never do that.” Down deep in our hearts, we have believed a lie that the life of faith is restricted to a few “special” people.  We think we could never qualify to have our names added to the list of Hebrews 11.  But that’s the very reason this chapter is in the Bible, so that we would know that these are ordinary men and women who did extraordinary things simply because they had faith in God.  They are made of the same stuff as us.  The life of faith is within the reach of every believer.  They were flawed characters as well; both saints and sinners alike, used by God because of their faith and their faith alone.  Not because they were perfect, but instead because they were willing and open to God’s promises and God’s faith in them.

The great heroes of the faith seem far removed from us.  It’s hard to think about the Apostle John trying to sync up his iPod or Jeremiah ordering coffee at Starbucks. We tend to think of them as dim, misty characters whose faces peer out from the pages of Sunday School stories.    Time, culture, language, history.  There is vast gap between us and them.  And yet what won them approval wins us approval too, their faith in God.  That’s what God honors.

I wonder if other names could be added to that list.

It seems that we do add them.  I can’t recount the number of times that the cloud of witnesses are mentioned by all of you when you remember the past.  We are surrounded by that so great a cloud of witnesses who came before and by their faith continued to believe, worship and do wondrous things.

By faith, so do you.  So, add your own name to that very same list and may God give us steady courage to follow the Lord so that some day our names might be added and recounted by those who come after us.  Amen.

Today's Sermon - By Faith #1 - 8/11/19

By Faith #1

(based on Hebrews 1:1-3, 8-16)

Everyone has their favorite verses or stories from scripture.  Although it’s difficult for me to narrow it down to only one, this chapter from Hebrews – often referred to as the Faith Chapter - is definitely at the top of the list for me.

The opening verses in this chapter are not a formal definition of faith so much as a description of it.  While faith ultimately focuses on the future, it is firmly grounded in the past.  True faith stands on a solid foundation of objective fact.  It is not a vague trust in God or just a subjective response to personal experiences.  It’s a reliance on past actions for future blessings.

Today’s verses from Hebrews Chapter 11 are a continuation of the encouragement from the previous chapter to believe in the promises of God instead of giving up.  True faith is an inner conviction that results in continued belief even when life is difficult and you do not yet see what God is doing. 

On December 17, 1903, Orville and Wilbur Wright made history.  Their motorized vehicle deified the law of gravity and flew through the air.  The idea of a machine that could fly wasn't anything new.  Centuries before Orville and Wright took to the air, philosophers and inventors alike wondered if it was possible, coming up with all kinds of possible ideas.  And years before the Wright brothers got off the ground at Kitty Hawk, mathematicians and scientists had actually proven that motorized flight was possible.  But many people who read the ideas and studied the facts about it couldn't believe that flying would ever become a reality.  The Wright brothers believed in the ideas and believed in the facts, so they were the ones that built the first motorized flying machine that took to the air and flew.  When their vehicle got off the ground for 59 seconds, covering a distance of 852 feet, they demonstrated that you have to believe the facts and act on them to be successful.

Personally, I don’t care how much or how many times you try to explain it to me, but it makes absolutely no sense how a 175,000 lb aircraft gets off the ground and stays in the air.  That simply defies all logic to me.  And yet, I know that every time I get in one, it will lift-off and carry me to my destination.  I have faith in it doing so.  Why?  Because, even though the logistics and science behind it is invisible to me, I have witnessed the evidence in the past of every airplane doing exactly that – gaining flight, regardless of the improbability of it doing so.

In relation to God it is a conviction that God indeed exists, that God created the world and rules over it regardless of our ability to see and understand.  And our faith grasps and trusts in the unseen future because it relies on the certainty of God 's past actions and future promises.

The following passages after the opening in chapter 11 mention characters from the Old Testament who believed the promises which God made to them even though some did not see them come to pass.

Faith was the distinctive mark of these Bible story saints in the Old Testament.  They affirmed, by their lives, that the promises of God were true.  The rest of the chapter gives one example after another of individuals who believed in the promises of God.  They faithfully walked with God because of their conviction that God was at work for them on their behalf. Throughout the Old Testament people faithfully walked with God without knowing what the future held.  The point is not that they were exceptional or special in and of themselves, but rather they were commended by God simply for their faith.

We’ll get into more detail next week about the full list of the faithful given here in Hebrews, but in today’s main example of Abraham and Sarah, regardless of what they did not see, continued to trust in God.  And although they didn't receive all of God's promises while they were living, they still continued to trust in him.  And God’s promises to them came true.  Our scriptures bear witness to them.

I do find it interesting that the writer of Hebrews opens up this chapter, not by listing the saints who through faith believed in God, but rather begins the chapter with creation.

Why?  I think it is because you must first believe that God created the world if you are going to put your trust in God and have faith in what God will do.  Therefore, you need to believe and have faith in science, as well.  When doing some research and study for today’s passage, I did a search on what quotes there might be regarding this combination of faith and science.  Often these two fields of study are put at odds with one another.  For years it was believed that you could not be a person of science and still believe in religion.  That the more you studied the sciences, the more naïve were the beliefs of religion.  Or you could not be a faithful religious person and believe in the convictions and evidence of science.  Our past debates regarding evolution have not helped with the relationship and marriage of these two courses.  However, in my research I found quite the opposite to be true among scientists and theologians alike.

Carl Sagan wrote “Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality.  When we recognize our place in an immensity of light‐years and in the passage of ages, when we grasp the intricacy, beauty, and subtlety of life, then that soaring feeling, that sense of elation and humility combined, is surely spiritual.  So are our emotions in the presence of great art or music or literature, or acts of exemplary selfless courage such as those of Mohandas Gandhi or Martin Luther King, Jr.  The notion that science and spirituality are somehow mutually exclusive does a disservice to both.”

― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

And Albert Einstein said, “Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.”  He also said, “The more I study science, the more I believe in God.”

Joseph H. Taylor, Jr., received the 1993 Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of the first known binary pulsar, and for his work which supported the Big Bang theory of the creation of the universe said,  “A scientific discovery is also a religious discovery.  There is no conflict between science and religion.  Our knowledge of God is made larger with every discovery we make about the world.”

And my last quote is from writer, Sarah Maitland, “Natural history is not taught in seminary.  This is curious, as most people in pastoral ministry are about 567 times more likely to be asked about cosmology or sub-nuclear physics or human biology or evolution than they are to be asked about irregular Greek verbs or the danger of the patripassionist heresy.  If we monotheists are going to go around claiming that our “God made the heaven and the earth,” it is not unreasonable to expect us to know something about what that heaven and earth actually are.”

And to follow up on those words by Maitland, it has been my most profound religious and scientific experience to sit on the beach at sunset and watch as the sun disappears beneath the waves.  To witness the turning of a day, the cycle of a single moment that began with the Word of God at the beginning of creation.  To know that God, who spins the planets, orders the universe, spans the eons, the Holy One who knew Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Jacob and Joseph, Moses and Miriam, Deborah and David, Peter and Paul, also witnesses and knows me – who witnesses and knows you – is by far the most profound revelation and conviction of faith one can come to.

Just as God spoke the world into existence God also speaks to individuals asking that they trust in him and act on his word to them.  We act on God's word by faith because we trust in the God who created the world, which was created out of nothing.  God spoke and caused matter to come into existence which God then used to create the world and everything in it.  If God can do that, God can certainly handle any problem you face.  Trust in Him, believe and have faith.

Thanks be to God.  AMEN

Today's Sermon - The Rich Fool - 8/04/19

The Rich Fool

(based on Luke 12:13-21)

This morning’s passage from Luke is so easy to ruin in the explanation, kind of like a good joke; talking about it hurts its impact.  Nonetheless, let’s see what we can uncover from today’s passage.

In today’s parable, we have a son disputing over who gets what in the family’s inheritance.  Obviously, there is a fractured relationship between the brothers.  One of the brothers does not come to Jesus asking for his opinion on the matter, but rather wants to use Jesus’ authority to coerce his other brother to give him what he thinks he deserves.

At first glance, it might seem that this brother is crying out for justice; like he’s getting the short end of the stick.  “Make my brother do what is right and share the pie with me, too.”  But Jesus doesn’t give him what he wants, instead he cuts to what is important.  Instead of saying “be a good brother and share.”  He does what may be unfair and tells a story that humiliates the person asking the question.  Then he said to them, “Watch out!  Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a person’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”

Jesus takes this opportunity to turn to everyone and teach them a little lesson.  He says that a person’s life, does not consist on how much stuff you can get.  Luke goes through great pains to constantly remind us of this all through his gospel.  There is no happiness in possessions, there is no reward, it all fades away in comparison to what real life is about.  

There are two words in the NT used for the word life, one is bio, from which we get the word biology and it means our physical lives.  But this isn’t the word that Jesus uses, the word he uses is zōē, and this word means a life that satisfies, or a rich life.  Jesus is saying here to be careful because greed will screw things up.  How much stuff you have does not give you real zōē.

Greed is sneaky.  Having stuff is sneaky.  Everything we have we are convinced that we need, or that it will bring us some sort of happiness.  We justify nearly every single purchase we make.  We convince ourselves that it’s important that we buy or have whatever it is we want.  For this reason, Jesus offers us this warning.  Look out, be on your guard, REAL zōē, real life does not actually happen because of lots of cool stuff.  

And the story begins, “The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop.  He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do?  I have no place to store my crops.’

In the ancient near east, you lived your entire life in community.  You lived with your friends and family.  You all existed together in some type of village.  You lived under the same roof, you ate together and raised your kids together.  The idea that you would make a life decision all by yourself is a completely foreign concept.  It was always assumed that there was this group of people that you were journeying through life with.  So, if you produced a good crop one year, you would have been dialoguing with your friends about what to do with it.

Kenneth Baily, a famous missionary and pastor, studied the Middle East.  He talks about the city gate and how the men of the city would go there and discuss everything in life.  They would discuss politics, religion, farming, education and raising children.  There was a joy in this culture of being with friends, discussing with friends, challenged by friends and seeking advice from friends.  There was this overarching assumption that you lived in community and you would never ever make a significant decision without bringing it to the community.

Strangely, in Jesus’ story, this man was alone.  Jesus says that he “thought to himself.”  He did not bring the idea to his family; he didn’t discuss what he should do at the city gate with his friends.  No, this guy is all alone.  The word idiot comes from the idea of somebody who tried to live outside of the village.  This guy was an idiot.  He was alone.  He was completely secluded from his community and the needs of people outside of himself.

When hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and the surrounding area, thousands upon thousands of people were dislocated from their homes and sought refuge in nearby cities.  Churches and people opened up their homes for people to stay in them to help them get back on their feet.  Now, imagine you were living in one of the nearby cities and this disaster happened, and you were out sitting on your back porch, drinking your lemonade and you thought to yourself “I have two extra bedrooms, an extra car and a cupboard full of food, what should I do with all this extra stuff I have?”   Actually, you probably wouldn’t ask that would you?  You’d find a way of reaching out and helping, right?

Unless, somehow we’ve managed to isolate ourselves from the real problems in our city, town or village.  Unless we’ve organized our lives in such a way that we never actually rub shoulders with anyone who has unmet needs.   There is this underlying, biblical assumption that wealth is not for individuals.  It is not so we can get bigger homes, get more stuff, treat our kids even better and secure our futures.  Any wealth that we’ve acquired is for the community.  In the same way, when a community is in need, or when someone in our community is in need, and we have, we are obligated to give it to them.  The purpose of wealth is for the public.

Biblically speaking, we really aren’t supposed to think that if we give it all away then we won’t be wealthy anymore, because the money was never just for our own anyway.  The real issue here is about the focus of our life.  The fool’s or the idiot’s focus was on preparing things only for himself.

Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do.  I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.  And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years.  Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”

Evidently, this man has experienced a big harvest.  In fact, this harvest is so big that the guy needs new barns.  Any experienced farmer wouldn’t be left without room after his harvest, so that either leads us to believe that he isn’t an experienced farmer or this harvest was too good to be true.  If it’s too good to be true, then anyone listening to or living in this story would have instantly given God the credit for the miracle harvest.  

Giving God credit for such a wonderful harvest would make the farmer prudent and wise by preparing ahead of time for the lean years storing up the excess for his community, the same way it happened during Joseph’s time in Egypt.  But by the time we get to the end of this section, we get the idea that this farmer might not have such pure intentions.  He describes his goods as those which will keep him (and only him) for many seasons.  

In general, the wealth we experience every day in the US is pretty hard to ignore.  We are given what we need but also much, much more.  We thank God for all our great stuff.  Whether we get it as a spiritual blessing from God or because of a capitalist economy it still finds its way into our lives.  The scriptures are full of warnings to try to keep us safe from it; the commandments, the parables and proverbs.  Either way though, we like the wealth we have and it doesn’t take us very long until we are thinking about building ourselves a bigger barn.

Eugene Peterson, author of The Message, once wrote, “The parable of the barn builder is an expose of greed: using what we have to get more instead of giving away more; using our position or goods as a means for getting impersonal power rather than giving away love.”

Jesus goes through great pains here to give us two major characteristics of his life.  The barn builder is greedy and the barn builder is alone.  These typically aren’t two things that we put together.  We don’t really see consumerism, hoarding and having stuff as our biggest obstacle to relationships, but Jesus does.  The more this guy is focused on his bigger barn and taking care of himself, the more alone this guy became.  He ended up being so alone that by the end of the story he’s even enjoying a great big party – to celebrate his wealth – all by himself. 

This parable completely ignores the brother’s request to Jesus who felt that he had rights to an inheritance and instead, Jesus addressed his greed.  I wonder if he even identified with himself as the barn builder.  We can’t just look at a parable from the outside as a spectator and expect to understand what is going on.  Parables don’t make things easier but rather they make things harder by demanding participation, by entering the story.  And in this case, by taking on the role of the barn builder.

Jesus tells these parables out of the ordinary stuff of our common life-in this case building a bigger barn.  Building a barn is normal work for a farmer.  No one would ever think of it as a moral failure.  No farmer ever got in trouble by his pastor or put in jail because he builds a barn.  The story of the barn builder doesn’t condemn.  It just sits there, in our imaginations.  So, it makes us wonder.  Did the brother get it?  In the same way I think we could be at danger of not really seeing our role in the story, too.  The only position we can take is that of the barn builder.  We are the barn builders.  We are the ones that are securing our own future at the cost of everyone around us.  But there is a direct lesson at the end of this parable.

But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you.  Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’  “This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.”

So, this morning, I don’t want to leave you with a challenge.  This parable is challenge enough.  Instead, I want to leave you with a request for prayer.  I think we should ask for forgiveness for every time we choose to build bigger barns rather than be with people and give away our blessing.  I think we should ask for forgiveness for not caring and pray that God helps us care more.  And I think we should ask for forgiveness for choosing to look out for ourselves instead of others.  

Thanks be to God for stories that challenge us.  AMEN.