Amazing Grace
I’ll never forget the time I got to see Mikhail Baryshnikov dance in person.
He was with the White Oak Dance Project, a modern dance company he founded. The year was about 1995 and they were doing a series of four dances, only one of which Baryshnikov himself was in. He was already 47 or 48 years old at the time, and I wondered what I would see. Most of the dancers on stage were much younger than him, about 20 to 25. Would he be able to keep up with the other dancers, or would he be a pale version of his former self? I guess I was about to find out. The first three acts were admittedly kind of dull. Maybe if you were a modern dance enthusiast you would have appreciated the performance, but it was pretty boring for me. Had it not been for the fact that I had a crush on the girl who I was with, I probably would have fallen asleep. But then I would have missed Baryshnikov. When he took the stage, he completely captured the attention of everyone in the room. He danced circles around the kids who were nearly half his age. It was as if they were props in a dance routine made just for him. I’d never seen anyone move like that before or since. If there was anyone who epitomized grace, it would have been him.
Funny thing about that word “grace.”
It’s used in so many ways. When I share with you the grace Baryshnikov showed that night, you all know exactly what I mean. But if we were talking about Mark McGwire’s fall from grace over his steroid use, you’d know what that meant too even though they are completely different definitions. When we say grace over a meal we mean something different from both of the other meanings. The credit card company offers us a “grace period” to pay our bills. A person shows grace by admitting to their faults. So what does this word really mean? And what does it mean to talk about the grace of God? If you have a Bible or a Bible app on your phone, please go to John 1:9-18. In church, we constantly talk about God’s grace, but this is another one of those words that gets thrown out there without any real explanation of what it means. We don’t do a good job of letting people know what grace IS. So, what do we mean by it? Our passage from John will help us shed a little light on the subject.
9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
15 (John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”) 16 Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known. – from John 1
The beginning of the passage helps us to understand the end.
John writes, “9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.”In a few words, John is describing Jesus as the bringer of hope and life – the “true light that gives light to everyone.” You’d think people would be thrilled about that, but John then writes, “the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own (the Jewish people), but his own did not receive him.” Despite the fact the Jewish people had been long hoping for a savior, few recognized him when he came among them. It’s hard to be tough on them because let’s face it. In our skeptical world, we would harbor doubts, too. And they didn’t have Instagram, Snapchat, or TikTok. Nobody did a choreographed dance to Jesus walking on water. If you weren’t there to witness it, you had every reason to doubt. Still, even though we failed to recognize Jesus for who he was, John tells us, “Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given.” We have all received grace in place of grace already given. God had given humanity the gift of life. God had given humanity relief in the desert when Moses led his people to freedom. God had blessed the people again and again, and then, to top it off, God gave us his son Jesus Christ. And that is what grace is. Grace is the unmerited favor of God for a group of people who didn’t deserve it. Even though we wander away constantly; that we turn to worshipping other idols like power, money, beauty, and fame; despite the fact we fail to give thanks to God for the life we have, God still sent Jesus to redeem us. God forgives us our sin. God still offers us salvation. That is the meaning of grace.
But grace and mercy, even though they are similar are two completely different things.
They often go hand-in-hand, but they as one writer put it, “Mercy withholds a punishment we deserve; grace gives a blessing we don’t deserve.”[1] Mercy withholds a punishment we deserve; grace gives a blessing we don’t deserve. That’s what makes the grace of God so amazing. It’s more than not being punished for what we’ve done, but then God elevates it to another level! God offers us salvation! He not only wipes our slate clean of sin but asks us to join him in Heaven when our time here ends. He asks us to reenter paradise even though we don’t deserve it. THAT is the God we follow. Everything else pales in comparison. I like what Andy Stanley, the lead pastor of North Point Community Church, said about grace, “To say that someone deserves grace is a contradiction in terms. You can no more deserve grace than you can plan you own surprise party…the minute you think you deserve it, the it you think you deserve is no longer grace. It is something you have earned. But grace can’t be earned.”[2] That’s the whole point. That grace can’t be earned.
The reason so many people are opposed to the church is not because of Jesus.
It’s not because of his message of peace and love. It’s because of us. We do a great job of receiving grace, but not a good job extending it. If you look at organized religion today, you’ll notice we tend toward becoming a “graceless religion.” Again to use Andy’s words, “Instead of defining itself in terms of what it stands for, the church often takes the less imaginative and easier path of defining itself in terms of what it is against.”[3] We like to tell people what we are against. Throughout the church’s history we have made bold statements about what we are against, only to later realize how wrong we were. We’ve stood against interracial marriage. For that matter we stood against racial equality. We’ve stood against women in leadership positions in the church. Again, we’ve stood against gender equality. But instead of focusing on the things we are against, why don’t we focus instead on the things we believe in. Instead of condemning people for being different than we are, why don’t we embrace them for the things we hold in common, like being human beings. Christianity didn’t become the world’s largest religion because of what we stood against, but because of what we stood for. We stood for caring for the sick, so we built hospitals. We stood for helping people get ahead in life, so we built schools and universities. We stood for people deserving affordable houses so we started Habitat for Humanity. We stood for helping the poor and the needy so we built shelters and food banks. We helped others, not because they paid us to. Not because they did something for us. But because there was a need and we filled it. THAT is what it means for us to extend the grace of God – helping others not because they deserve it, but because we want to show them the grace that God has given to us by offering grace ourselves. We can talk about grace in so many ways – in the arts like with Mikhail Baryshnikov, in finance where it’s really mercy more than grace – but this is the greatest grace there is.
One of my favorite stories of grace comes from Francis Chan.
He’s another pastor and writer and I was at a conference where he gave this tremendous story about grace. It was about his daughter. His daughter had done poorly on a test. She had gotten a “C” and I love the way he described it. He said, “It’s like getting an Asian ‘F.’ Asian kids aren’t supposed to get “C’s.” So his daughter’s friends were asking her, “So what’s he going to do to you?” “What’s he going to do to you?” as if he was going to take her out behind the woodshed or something. So when he picked her up from school that afternoon, she got in the car and told him about the grade. And instead of getting mad, or getting upset, or giving her a punishment, he said, “Okay. Let’s go get some ice cream.” Instead of punishing her or lecturing her as she felt she deserved, he not only forgave her, but then added on top of that the ice cream! The next day at school when she told her friends about what had happened, the other kids all said, “I wish I had your dad.” This week, I want to challenge you to show the grace of God to someone in your life. Someone who maybe deserves your wrath, your anger, or your justice, like the guy who cuts you off on the highway or the knucklehead who gets your coffee order wrong or maybe one of your kids or your spouse who makes a mistake that maybe they should have known better. Instead of giving them “justice,” not only show them mercy but extend to them God’s grace. Go above and beyond what’s needed or expected to do something out of kindness and love and thereby passing the grace of God forward. Sometimes we are like Francis Chan and we are put in situations where we can show justice, mercy, or grace, and it’s up to us to choose. Any of those things would be technically right, but only one is going to make people say, “I wish I had your dad.” Some times we need to share about the grace of God with others so that they CAN say that and realize that the Dad we have in Heaven is a pretty awesome dad indeed. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
[1] http://www.gotquestions.org/grace-of-God.html
[2] Andy Stanley, The Grace of God, p. xiii-xiv.
[3] Ibid, p.xiv.
A Single Word
“What’s in a name?”
“That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” I had to memorize that passage from Romeo and Juliet for Freshman English in high school. I’m guessing I’m not the only one. And I understand the sentiment the great playwright is trying to make; that labels don’t change who we are, but I’ve got to say Shakespeare kind of got it wrong. A label can stick to a person for their entire life whether it’s true or not! The words we use CAN make a difference. Sometimes a huge one. They can build us up and tear us down. They can create division between friends, between lovers, between entire segments of society. A speech can inspire people to march for civil rights or incite others to riot against their nation. Words can unite or turn people against one another. Listen to these quotes and guess who they might be referring to. “They’re stealing our jobs!” “They’re stealing our women!” “They’ll change our culture!” “Why don’t they just go home?” Today, you might think these quotes are about Mexican immigrants or Muslim or even Jewish people with antisemitism on the rise once again. But these are the words said about the Japanese when they first started to immigrate to America. Ironically, it’s also the same words used about the Chinese when THEY first came to America. And believe it or not, it’s the SAME WORDS used to talk about the Italians, the Irish, the Germans, the Russians, and the Polish when THEY first started coming to America. And in each of those instances the public was turned against those groups and some of the negative stereotypes about each one still sticks with us today. Here are some of the headlines used when Japanese immigration was at its peak in the early 20th century.
- Japanese a Menace to American Women
- Japanese Throttle Progress in the Rich Fruit Section – Actually they didn’t use the term “Japanese.” You can guess what word they used instead.
- Brown Asiatics Steal Brains of Whites – That’s one of my favorites.
It’s ridiculous, but people believed it! And it created negative images of these new immigrants to our shores. Again, images that haunt us even now.
Words can hurt.
And words have power. With a single word, you can alienate someone, make them feel as if they don’t belong, or even reinforce age-old ideas about racial superiority based on nothing more than skin color. Words like “Oriental” and “Negro” while at one time common ways to describe people have become outdated and in their outdated-ness sometimes have negative connotations. When I hear the word “Oriental,” I don’t think of myself. I think of some caricature of a dude with slanted eyes, a triangular hat, wearing some gold-laced print shirt that’s too big with matching pants. So admittedly I’m offended when other people refer to me as “Oriental” because it reinforces this old stereotype and belittles me and people like me. Is it really that hard to honor how other people feel? Is it that big of a deal to use a different word than the one you’re used to in describing someone? Words have power and our passage today reinforces that idea. James, the brother of Jesus, was trying to warn the church not to take what we say casually. That we can cause far more damage than we realize when we aren’t careful with our words. This is how he put it.
Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. 2 We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check.
3 When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. 4 Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. 5 Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. 6 The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.
7 All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, 8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.
9 With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. 10 Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. 11 Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? 12 My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water. – James 3:1-12
Our praise is meaningless if we can’t control our tongues.
We can’t lift up praise to God and with the same mouth belittle others. Not if we want our praise to mean something. A salt spring cannot produce fresh water. The tongue might seem to be a little thing, but by itself it can be devastating. And it doesn’t even have to be intentional. Sometimes people can say things that seem innocuous but actually perpetuate systems of racial inequality. Being born Asian, I’ve had more than one person come up to me and say, “You speak really good English.” To this day, I don’t know how to respond to that. First of all, they should have said I speak English well, let’s be grammatically correct. But more importantly, they weren’t complimenting my use of grammar or my sentence structure. They were implying, “You speak really good English…for an Oriental.” People don’t realize how insulting that is or how it points out that somehow you aren’t normal, that being Asian somehow means not being a “real American.”
It’s called racial microaggression.
And it’s defined as “the brief and everyday slights, insults, indignities and denigrating messages sent to people of color by well-intentioned…people who are unaware of the hidden messages being communicated.”[1] Phrases like “What are you?” or “Where do you come from?” imply that you don’t belong. What’s worse is when you answer honestly and the person persists, “No, where do you REALLY come from? Where were you born?” It’s just a constant reminder that you aren’t one of us. These microaggressions don’t even have to be verbal. They can be non-verbal like when someone looks at you cross ways or clutches their purse more tightly as they walk by. They can be environmental like the flying of a Confederate flag or doing the tomahawk chop at a baseball game. You might think, “well those things are trivial. Stop being so sensitive.” And I’ve actually heard those types of responses, but microaggression is anything but trivial and people who don’t pay attention to it are being insensitive. In his research on racial microaggression, Dr. Sue, a leading expert on the topic, found that these tiny insults affect our mental health, create a hostile climate, perpetuate stereotypes, devalue people of color, and create inequities in education, employment, and health care.[2] And that’s only partially how they affect us and the world around us. We need to be alert to our own microaggressions and our own unintended biases. We all have them. We need to be open to hearing about them and doing something to correct it when we find out. We have to stop assuming the world around us is just “too sensitive” or “too PC” and instead do something about it.
What are you willing to do?
Change is tough. There’s no doubt about that. And people are more resistant to change than you might imagine. We like to believe we’re capable of it, but many people struggle with it. The same reason we have problems changing church culture is the same reason we are having problems changing systems of racial injustice. We don’t like to change. If church, if society, if LIFE is working for YOU, why bother? It takes brave people who not only have the courage to face their own shortcomings, but to work to do something about it. Who have to be willing to overturn the apple cart and sacrifice some of the privilege they have to make the whole world better. Dr. Sue wrote that it’s really hard to get people to correct microaggressions (racial or otherwise) because they are often unconscious of it. They don’t even think about it because it’s not overtly racist (or sexist or gender-centric), and often they believe they are good, moral people – which in general they probably are. When people point out these microaggressions, most of us react defensively because it creates a tension between this image we have of ourselves as a “good” person and one where we, even unintentionally, are contributing to oppressive systems.
But God gave you two ears and one tongue for a reason.
As the philosopher Epictetus said, it’s so that we can listen twice as much as we speak. And I can’t think of a more important time to remember those words. Whether its race, gender, gender identity, or sexual identity, we need to remember words matter. Words can have great power and as Spider-Man taught us, with great power comes great responsibility. And a word’s meaning changes over time. What might not have been offensive ten, twenty, fifty years ago, might be especially offensive now. In our day and age, we need to be cognizant of how we use them. We need to do some mirror-gazing and be willing to accept we still have work to do on ourselves. We’re going to make mistakes. But there’s grace and forgiveness for all. I’m still getting used to how best to use pronouns and hope someone comes up with a better system and quick! No one expects us to be perfect, but we should always be working toward perfection. It doesn’t matter how old you are, we all have room to grow. But to me, that’s what makes life exciting! There’s always something new to learn, always more that we can do, and always a way to make the world a better place. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
[1] I did leave out the word “white” because I don’t think you have to be white to level a racial microaggression. But the article is very helpful and well-written. https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/microaggressions-in-everyday-life/201010/racial-microaggressions-in-everyday-life
[2] Ibid.
Good Things Come in Small Packages
Selections from Matthew 9 and 10
Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”
He called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness. These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon (who is called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him. These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. As you go, preach this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven is near.’ Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
“He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives the one who sent me. Anyone who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and anyone who receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man’s reward. And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward.” – Matthew 9:35-10:7, 10:39-42
Twelve people. That’s all it took to change the world.
Jesus picked twelve people to deliver his message of hope and love and today more than 2.5 billion people consider themselves Christians.[1] Just twelve. He sent them out to minister to those in need without money, a suitcase, a change of clothes, or reservations at a nearby hotel. They didn’t have a support staff to help make arrangements for their arrival. They didn’t have a marketing team or social media to promote who they were or what they planned on doing. Literally, all they had were the clothes on their backs. This morning, I have with me my Bible, my iPhone, my laptop, a watch, pen and paper. And I just live down the street. Can you imagine trusting God so much that you would carry nothing with you but your clothes? Christ told them to trust in the Lord to provide for their needs because “the worker is worth his keep.” And so they did. Just twelve people. And it’s not like there were tons of Christians around that they could go and stay with. These were the FIRST twelve so they were pretty much on their own. Now, we have churches with anywhere from a handful of members to literally tens of thousands. But these twelve people stepped out in faith and were willing to do God’s work and together they changed the course of history.
I wonder if those early disciples could see some of our churches today what they would think?
Could you imagine being Peter or John and walking into a mega-church or a giga-church like Andy Stanley’s North Point Community Church or Adam Hamilton’s Church of the Resurrection where literally thousands of people are all gathering together and worshipping God? I’ve been in places like that, and I have to tell you there is something incredibly powerful being in a room the size of a concert hall where everyone is singing, praying, and listening to the Word of God together. It makes you feel connected to a much bigger movement in the world and can make you feel Christianity is powerful and growing. But as many people in church circles are discovering, bigger isn’t always better. Bigger isn’t always better. Bigger doesn’t mean that you are more in touch with God. Bigger doesn’t mean Christ will come into your life in a deeper way. There is a reason why most of these mega-churches heavily rely on small group ministries. There’s a reason why they want you to get involved in Sunday School, in mission work, in local charities. It’s because God doesn’t appear to us in anonymity. God is reaching out all the time to you, to me, and to all of us, but if all you do every week is walk into a mega-church, pick up a hymnal, sing a song, and leave, do you know Christ any better than you know Paul McCartney or Beyonce? Christ walks with you every day and everywhere. He wants to have a deeper relationship with you beyond a once-a-week, 20-minute sermon. He wants you to know him and to experience His love for you firsthand. Big churches mean more people and more resources, but that doesn’t mean that small churches can’t do big things, too.
Size alone is not a measure of worth to God.
Size alone is not a measure of worth to God. If God only cared about size or wealth or prestige or any of the other things the world generally measures “success” by, he never would have chosen Israel to be his chosen people. Abraham and his children would have been just any family of Joe Schmoes wandering the desert. Moses himself told the assembled peoples of Israel in Deuteronomy,“The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.” (Deuteronomy 7:7-8). We see in the Bible, time and time again how true this statement is; God does not pick the mightiest or the smartest or the strongest of people to be his messengers. Often, they are normal, flawed people like you and me. Take for example the story of Samuel. If you remember, God rejects Saul as King of Israel and tells Samuel to go looking for a new one. During his search he goes to meet Jesse of Bethlehem and immediately, he thinks he’s found the new king in Eliab, Jesse’s oldest son, but the Lord hears Samuel’s thoughts and says to him in 1 Samuel 16:7, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at outward appearances, but the Lord looks at the heart.” So, in a scene reminiscent of Cinderella[2], Samuel asks to see each of Jesse’s other sons. But as each one walks by, God says “Nope, not the one.” And after all of Jesse’s oldest sons walk by and the Lord rejecting them all, Samuel asks “Are these all the sons you have?” and Jesse admits, “There is one more, but he’s out in the back tending the sheep.” Tending the sheep! Could there BE any clearer sign for Samuel? It was like the glass slipper fit right on this youngest son’s foot. And when the youngest son walks in, God tells Samuel, “That’s the one.” And so began the reign of King David, slayer of Goliath and long considered the greatest king of the Israeli people. David wasn’t the biggest or the oldest or the smartest nor was he free of sin, but God did say that David was a man after His own heart, and THAT’S what was important to God. His heart, not his size.
In our earlier reading, we heard about Gideon, one of God’s heroes.
In fact, I would say one of God’s first superheroes. If there were comic books back in those days, he certainly would have been up there with the Avengers and Batman. They would have called him The Amazing Gideon or The Incredible Gideon or something like that. Gideon is one of my favorite characters in the Bible because to me, Gideon is the everyman. He has doubts. His faith doesn’t come easy. He feels unworthy. And he’s afraid of failing. When the angel appeared, Gideon even said, “But Lord, how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.” But God tells Gideon, “I will be with you…” So God puts Gideon in charge of saving Israel from the Midianites, who are not a small clan and an incredibly violent one. By this time, the Israelites have had to hide out in caves in the mountains to try and avoid them. To make it worse, the Midianites teamed up with the Amalekites and a bunch of other people. The Bible says there were so many of them that they were “thick as locusts” and that “their camels could no more be counted than the sand on the seashore.”[3] So Gideon calls up an army of 32,000 men hoping that’s enough to defeat these overwhelming odds, and God tells him, “That’s too many.” Now if I were Gideon, I’d be thinking God was kidding. But instead, Gideon tells them if they have fear they may leave, and 22,000 go away. I wonder how many of us would have been in that 22,000. And then the Lord says, “Still too many.” And he tells Gideon to divide them up by how they drink at the river. In the end, Gideon is left with 300 men. That’s it. 300. To take on the grains of sand on the seashore. And you know what? He wins. Gideon, this guy who threshes wheat, who has doubts, and who is afraid of failing. This guy who is the least of his family in the weakest clan of Manasseh. Because it’s not size that matters to God, but your heart.
Inspiration doesn’t just come only from the Bible, though.
God gives us many real-life stories to learn from. too. When I was in seminary, there was a small-church of 86 members who started a program to feed every school-aged child during the summer for six-weeks. [4] St. Andrews UMC saw a need in the community and wanted to fill it. They petitioned for assistance from the county and were told that if they were willing to commit to the project, the county would, too. They did. And within a short time, St. Andrews was sponsoring 7 different food locations around one of the poorest counties in the state. Every child who needed a meal got one five days a week, for six weeks. Soon, other churches from all different denominations and even the local community center all pitched in to help out. And this little church of 86 people was able to pass out 6,000 meals to hungry children. They weren’t a huge mega-church or a giant corporation with millions of dollars, but a small family of God reaching out to the community. They didn’t have a lot of resources, but they had a heart for God and a desire to help their fellow human beings, and through their effort, they were able to bring the light of Christ to the lives of these children. Our God is a God of miracles and He lives in the world today. God can work wonders in you, too. If we keep God as the central focus of our lives and our church, He will help us grow and be effective stewards of His will in the world. You don’t have to BE big to do big things you just have to have a BIG heart. Just remember, every big thing started out small. Rick Warren’s church of 30,000 people started off with just him and his wife. Gideon had only 300 men and they took on an army! St. Andrews UMC had 86 members and passed out 6,000 meals in 6 weeks. And just remember, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, called to him only 12 people who forever changed the world.
[1] https://goodfaithmedia.org/global-christian-population-projected-to-reach-3-3-billion-by-2050/#:~:text=The%202%2C604%2C381%2C000%20estimate%20for%20mid,than%20the%202022%20report’s%20estimates.
[2] http://www.asails.freeserve.co.uk/King%20Eliab.htm. Rev. Andrew Sails used the Cinderella reference in a sermon on a completely different subject, but it was such a clever comparison, I wanted to use it.
[3] Judges 7:12
[4] Sybil Davidson, “Small-membership church leads effort to feed kids county-wide,” 8/18/2006.
Michael Jordan…A Failure?
How can failure make you great?
Michael Jordan is perhaps the greatest basketball player of all time. There are others you could argue might be better or at least on a level with him – Lebron, Magic, or Kobe come to mind, Steph is one who approaches that level – but Jordan is one of the best if not THE best of them all. He led his team to six world championships and a world record 72-game winning season at the time (now 73 thanks to Steph Curry’s Golden State Warriors). He has won the league MVP five times, been in 14 All-Star games, elected All-Star MVP three times, elected NBA Finals MVP all six times his team won, and led the league in scoring 10 times. Yet Michael Jordan has failed over and over again. The mistake that is easy to make is to think failing makes you a failure. Failing does not make you a failure. In fact, it can make you great. Jordan cites all those times he didn’t come through as the reason for his success. He once said, “I’ve missed more than nine thousand shots in my career. I’ve lost almost three hundred games. Twenty-six times, I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”[1]
Jordan is not alone in succeeding through failure.
Walt Disney was once fired from a newspaper job for “lacking imagination and having no good ideas.” Thomas Edison was told he was “too stupid to learn anything.” And a man named Akio Morita once made a rice cooker that couldn’t cook rice. He only sold 100 of them. But Akio didn’t give up. Instead he founded Sony, a company known for their high-quality work.[2] All of these men failed, yet all of them are considered unqualified successes because they didn’t let their failure impede their progress. To them failure wasn’t a limitation, it was an opportunity to find another way to succeed. We all have limitations.We don’t have enough money. We don’t have enough time. We don’t have enough resources. But the difference between success and failure is in how we perceive those limitations. Instead of looking at it as a barrier, those who are successful see it as a learning moment. They don’t see failure as a statement about their ability, but as a necessary step TOWARD success. Thomas Edison made the remark, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”[3] No matter what we do in life, whether it’s a new job, a new hobby, a new way of doing things, we are likely to bump into our fair share of failure. We only BECOME failures when we allow these bumps in the road to stop us from doing what we need to or should do.
The apostles didn’t allow anything to stop them in their mission.
They faced the same problems in THEIR ministry as we do in ours – a lack of money, a lack of resources, and a sense that time was running out. But instead of looking at these as limitations, they found a way to accomplish their goals despite them. This passage below takes place not long after Jesus has returned to Heaven. The Holy Spirit has descended upon the disciples and has empowered them. And with this newfound power, they go out into the world and begin to make new disciples for Christ. These new believers are so overwhelmed with the Holy Spirit that they form a fellowship that cares for one another and looks after one another in remarkable ways. So the passage we’re about to read is about the conversion of this beggar who sits at the gate.
One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer—at three in the afternoon. 2 Now a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts. 3 When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. 4 Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, “Look at us!” 5 So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them.
6 Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” 7 Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong. 8 He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God. 9 When all the people saw him walking and praising God, 10 they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called Beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. – Acts 3:1-9
The miracle is the first thing that stands out, but there is more to the story.
A lame beggar is sitting at the gate to the temple courts and as Peter and John are walking by he asks for some money. But instead of giving him money, Peter heals the man’s leg! This man who has never been able to walk before is able to get up and jump up and down. The man instantly praises God. His first act after receiving this gift is to praise God. Most of us would say THAT was remarkable. But consider this. In his book “It” Craig Groeschel asked this question: what if Peter and John DID have money? Peter says, “Silver or gold I do NOT have, but what I do have I give you.” If they had money, would they have given this man what he asked for instead of what was needed? Would they have been challenged to meet the man’s REAL needs? Perhaps THAT is the most remarkable thing, that it is sometimes in the limitations that we find the most blessing. Sometimes it is in the limitations that we find the most blessing. Peter and John didn’t give up trying to help the beggar. They didn’t ignore him or say “Sorry I don’t have any money to spare.” They gave him what they could and it turns out what he really needed – the healing power of Christ.
Do we challenge ourselves to overcome our limitations like Peter and John?
Or do we use them as an excuse for not doing what needs to be done? Limited resources, limited number of people, and limited in physical ability shouldn’t be impediments, but simply define for us our boundaries. It shouldn’t stop us from doing effective ministry, but instead give us a framework to do it in. The disciples certainly were poor and small in number. Maybe they had more physical ability than we do (definitely more than me), being mostly fisherman or people who did manual labor, but there are lots of things they didn’t have that we do today. A building for example. A piano or organ. Pews for sitting down. A stove for cooking food. Running water, air conditioning, a speaker system. There are lots of things they didn’t have and yet they changed the world. If our challenge is to fulfill the Great Commission then we have to challenge ourselves to ask what are WE doing to do our part? We cannot allow our limitations to prevent us from doing what needs to be done. We can’t allow our history, our personal preferences and our likes and dislikes hold us back from achieving for God what needs to be achieved, or we are guilty of being failures instead of people who fail. Because everybody fails. It’s what you do with your failure that determines your success.
It’s easy to make excuses. It’s better to find solutions.
We cannot afford to become complacent in our lives or in our ministry. We have to always do “the next thing.” Not the “popular thing” but the “next thing,” whatever that “next thing” is. For our church is the “next thing” that meets the needs of our community and allows us to show them the love of Christ. When Walt Disney created Disneyland, he wanted to create a place that families could take their kids that would be clean, fun, safe, and magical and where they could do things together. When Disneyland opened in 1955 it hosted 50,000 people on that first day. Certainly, most would have considered that a success. In fact, in it’s first operating year alone, Disneyland had over a million visitors. Walt could have stopped there. Certainly, people would have come for quite some time as people did. But Walt never stopped tinkering with the Park. He once said, “Disneyland will never be completed. It will continue to grow as long as there is imagination left in the world.” He constantly challenged himself to do the “next thing” what he called “plussing it.” Last year, Disney theme parks had more than 157 million visitors.[4] It is too easy for us to settle into old routines and habits and call them traditions. We have to not only be willing to change, but be the catalysts for change in our communities. Like Peter and John, we have to figure what it is that people need and give them that, and in the giving show the love and power of Christ.
Sometimes we are our own worst enemies. We find ways to defeat ourselves before we even begin.
We imagine we can’t do something so we don’t even try. We imagine we won’t like something, so we don’t even give it a chance. But there’s more than one way to fail. Wayne Gretsky, perhaps the greatest hockey player of all time, said, “You miss 100% of the shots you never take.” How can we learn and grow from our mistakes if we’re too timid to make any? The fear of failure in itself becomes an impediment to our success. It becomes a limitation we put on ourselves. I want to challenge you as we reflect upon what it is that holds you back, in your personal life, in your career, in your faith. What is it that prevents you from doing the “next thing” and can you overcome that limitation? Because I believe you can. I believe we all can. I don’t think it’s easy and I do think it will likely take us failing a number of times before we find what works, but it is within you. The goal is to keep trying and IF we fail to learn from the failure. Michael Jordan failed making more than 9,000 shots. Walt Disney got fired for lacking imagination. And Thomas Edison had to discover 10,000 ways to fail before inventing the light bulb. And a man who made a rice cooker that couldn’t cook rice founded a company that made nearly 80 BILLION dollars last year[5] and employed over 114,000 people.[6] Not a bad way to find success in failure. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
[1] Craig Groeschel, It, p. 112.
[2] http://www.creativitypost.com/psychology/famous_failures
[3] http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/failure
[4] https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/most-popular-theme-parks-world-2018/index.html
[5] https://www.statista.com/statistics/279269/total-revenue-of-sony-since-2008/
[6] https://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/csr_report/employees/info/
Equal In All Things
23 Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. 24 So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. 25 Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.
26 So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. – Galatians 3:22-29
I want to share a little bit with you about my mom.
My mom is great. She was the “cool mom.” All the neighborhood kids knew her. Whenever we had study groups, she would always offer our home as base camp. When we were studying for the SATs, we pulled a couple of all-nighters, and my mom let my friends crash at our house. She would always bring out the popcorn, chips, and soda for everyone, and there were times I wondered if my friends actually liked me or just my mom. She listened to top 40 music, watched the movies we liked to watch, and followed along with all of our TV shows. But it was my mom who got me into the Beatles. She had both the Red and Blue albums and I’d listen to them over and over. She also introduced me to Star Trek, Tommy’s Hamburgers, Tagliarini Casserole, and so much more. She was so influential to my life, that it’s hard for me to understand there are people out there who think less of my mom, simply because she’s a woman.
Sexism is alive and well in the 21st century.
Even in the church. There are still people today who believe women should not be church leaders. They think women should stay silent. They don’t belong as pastors and preachers. And worse they use the Bible to justify it. It’s not enough they quote Ephesians to tell women they should be subservient to their husbands or how they’ve used the Bible to justify the physical abuse many women have suffered over the years. But they also use the Bible to tell women how to behave inside the walls of the church. 1 Corinthians 11 – women should cover their heads. 1 Corinthians 14 – women should remain silent in church and bow to the wisdom of their husbands. 1 Timothy 2 – women do not have permission to teach a man or to have authority over him.
But the author of those passages is the same one who wrote the letter to the church in Galatia.
This is the same guy who said we are all equal before God. That there is no Jew nor Greek, no slave nor free, no man nor woman in Christ Jesus. The Apostle Paul says very clearly that in all things we are equal before God. So how do we square these two versions of Paul? By understanding first what Paul did and then understanding the context of what he wrote.
We know just from reading Scripture that women were essential to Israel.
Many had high leadership positions and held great influence among the Israeli people. Take for example, Deborah from the book of Judges in the Old Testament. Deborah was favored by God and even spoke to her. It was Deborah who led the Israelites to victory against Sisera, the commander of the Canaanite armies. It was Deborah who gave Israel their freedom. And Barak, the leader of Israel’s armies, even bowed down in submission to her. The Bible tells us, “Village life in Israel ceased, ceased until you, Deborah, arose, arose a mother in Israel.” (Judges 5:7) Even Paul himself relied on women in his own ministry and they were instrumental in launching the Christian movement. Scholars believe Phoebe was considered a deacon in this new faith community and was likely the person Paul entrusted to deliver the letter to the church in Rome.[1] Priscilla and her husband would teach others about the fullness of God, and Priscilla even taught Apollos, a man who was considered a great follower of Jesus. And then there was Junia who was called an apostle of Christ. A woman on equal footing with the other apostles. Her name in the letter to the Romans (16:7) had long been translated as “Junias,” a male name until the correct translation was found in recently discovered documents. Scholars believe it was mistranslated out of prejudice against women. Early translators could not believe Paul would consider a woman to be worthy of being an apostle so they changed the name, much like you might have Roberta changed to Robert or Gabriela into Gabriel. For a woman to be called an apostle, especially by Paul, would have upset the entire structure of the church which relied on the weaponization of Scripture to suppress those they didn’t want in power. But if Paul did value women as leaders in the church, why did he go and write those passages that made it seem like he didn’t? Scholars today believe those negative passages weren’t mean to be a blanket statement against all women or even most women, but instead were meant to apply to specific churches at specific times. But for too long, we have taken his writing out of context and used it to suppress women as teachers in the church even when they have proven to have been effective in the role.
Speaking of which, there is an amazing woman who exhibited a gift for teaching God’s word.
Susanna Wesley, mother of all 19 children in the Wesley clan, was a person God used in a strong way to share the good news of Christ – especially in the life of young John and his brother Charles. [2] While her husband, Samuel was away in London she had begun to read to her children and teach them about the Bible as a supplement to what they heard in church. Her servants told Samuel’s parents about this, and they came to hear. They were so impressed with her lessons that they told their friends as well, and soon the number of people who came regularly to Mrs. Wesley’s lessons numbered in the hundreds. Over 200 to be exact which upset the curate to no end who had fewer people attending worship than Mrs. Wesley, a WOMAN, was receiving in her own home. He wrote a complaint to her husband, Samuel who responded by telling Susanna that it was his desire for her to stop. She wrote back, telling him “what good the meetings had done, and that none were opposed to them but Mr. Inman (the curate) and one other. She then concluded (her letter) with these wonderful sentences: ‘If after all this you think fit to dissolve this assembly do not tell me you desire me to do it, for that will not satisfy my conscience; but send your positive command in such full and express terms as may absolve me from all guilt and punishment for neglecting this opportunity for doing good when you and I shall appear before the great and awful tribunal of our Lord Jesus Christ.’” Needless to say, Samuel didn’t send any such command. You could say Susanna was Methodism’s first female pastor.
Anyone who reads the Bible knows women play an important role in the shape of our faith today.
Mary, mother of Jesus; Mary Magdalene; Ruth; Esther; just to name a few. But it doesn’t take much to also know that women were often mistreated, even by people we read about in the Bible. There are many stories that tell of horrible things having been done to women and how little society thought of them. But in none of those stories does Jesus ever support that kind of thinking, nor did he ever treat women in that way. In fact, Jesus treated women with dignity and respect which was a revolutionary attitude in his time. He was always progressive in his thinking compared to the world around him. He was constantly challenging the way things were for the way they should be. We need to carry on his legacy to make this world a better place for all of God’s creation. When one of us is diminished, we all are. And we would be fooling ourselves if we thought women were truly equal to men, even in America let alone the world. Let’s just look at one measurement of equity – the pay gap. Equal Pay Day this year was March 14th. That means on average, it takes a woman two and a half extra months to make as much money as a man. That number hasn’t significantly changed in 20 years. Even when accounting for variables like child care, flexible hours, taking time off for childcare, etc. women still make 8% less than men in the same job. According to the World Economic Forum, it will take 135 years for women to reach global gender parity. 135 years.
This isn’t a simple task.
But then nothing worthwhile ever is. We have to do better as a society in how we treat each other. And believe it or not, that begins with you and me. You might not feel like you’re in a position to do much to solve the world’s problems; you can’t solve the pay gap by yourself or stop every instance of gender discrimination that happens around the globe; but it takes millions of tiny steps, one at a time to make the world a better place. And that is something anyone can do. You can start by making sure to treat people with dignity. To value them, not to degrade them. To treat them as persons of equal worth as Christ would. And to make conscious choices to support women and women’s rights whenever you have the chance. By ourselves we barely move the needle, but together we can shove it to where it needs to be. Today, start with simply honoring the women in your lives – the daughters and granddaughters you hope will have the chance to live up to their potential, the wives and partners who face discrimination and lost opportunity just for being women, and of course the moms in our lives who nurtured and raised us just out of the love in their heart. Whether they are your biological mother, your adoptive mother, your grandmother, your friend who was like a mother to you, make sure you let them know how important they are and how much you love them. We can make a difference, one small step at a time.
[1] Archaeological Study Bible, p. 1860.
Glass Houses
Lefties are people, too.
But you may not know it from how the world has treated us. Centuries of prejudice and discrimination have dogged those of us who use our left hand. Art, literature, cultural traditions – these have all been biased toward right-handed people. Try playing a guitar or almost any musical instrument and you’ll find that it’s always harder for us lefties. Scissors, desks, notebooks – almost all geared toward the right-handed people of the world. For most of history, being left-handed meant there was something wrong with you. It’s even reflected in our language and in our culture. Did you know the word for “right” in Latin is “dexter?” As in “dexterity” or “ambidextrous.” Usually, it means someone who is versatile, limber, or skilled. All good things. You know what the Latin word for “left” is? “Sinister.” I don’t think I even have to explain that one. Do you know why people wear wedding rings on their left hands? To fend off evil.[1] You know why we throw salt over our left shoulder? To fend off evil. It took until the 20th century in America let alone the rest of the world, to understand that being left-handed did not mean that you were wrong, evil, or sinister.
It was even common to try and “convert” left-handed people.
As if you could train the left-handedness out of them. Why you would want to is beyond my understanding, but it happened to me. When I was little, we’d go and visit my grandparents, and anytime I picked up a fork, a pencil, or a pen; anytime I picked up anything with my left hand, my grandmother would take it from my left and put it in to my right. She grew up believing being left-handed was a bad thing. Now, I don’t know if she thought it was bad simply because it made life harder and she was trying to save me from the suffering, or if she thought it was bad because evil spirits would inhabit my body and take control of me, but she would try to train the left-handedness out of me. My mom had to keep telling her that it was alright, that it was natural for me to be left-handed, but sometimes I wonder if I’m ambidextrous because my grandmother was always trying to get me to use my right hand. Now, of course, we know those of us who are left-handed are more creative and intelligent than you poor right-handed people. We are, after all, the only ones in our “right minds.” But seriously, centuries went by and most of society believed left-handed people were evil or under the influence of evil spirits just because we were different.
As a society, we are quick to pass judgment on those who are “different.”
Those who look different, think different, or act differently than we do often get treated as pariahs. And whether we realize it or not, we treat them much like we used to treat lefties – as if there was something wrong with them instead of simply people who were different. If you look at the long stretch of history, society has done this to pretty much every group of people on some level. We have a horrible track record with people of color, with women, with gender and sexual identity; we’ve been nasty to children, the elderly, and to those who don’t ascribe to “our” religion. If there’s a group of people out there that we can name as the “other,” you can bet history hasn’t been kind to them. And that’s what we are about to see in our reading today.
1But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 3The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 6They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.
But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
9At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
11“No one, sir,” she said.
“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.” – John 8:1-11
We have all been this woman.
Maybe we haven’t committed adultery, but we’ve all done something wrong and been called on the carpet for it, and we pray that someone will have mercy on us for our mistakes. And here, Jesus shows that mercy. He shows his love and compassion for her and forgives her. We are all in need of forgiveness. But here’s what’s really interesting. When you read the story, you’re tempted to think it’s the woman caught in adultery that is on trial, but actually it’s not. It’s Jesus. HE’S the one they are trying to condemn. If you read verse six it says, “They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.” They were hoping Jesus would say something so over the top that they could justify arresting him and accusing him of heresy, and if you notice, in the Bible, they do this over and over again. In fact, they were so overzealous, they didn’t even follow their own laws, the laws they were mad at Jesus for breaking. Deuteronomy 19:15 says you need at least two or three witnesses to convict a person, but they didn’t bring forth any witnesses against this woman. Deuteronomy 22:22 says that any man caught in adultery must die alongside the adulteress, but again, they never brought him forth either. They were so blinded by their own prejudices against Jesus they violated the very thing that made them mad at Jesus to begin with and they broke the law.
And that’s the danger.
You can become so blinded by your fear, by your anxiety, by your unwillingness to accept things that are different, that you miss out on opportunities in life. You miss out on the important things like love, forgiveness, and peace, and instead get wrapped up in the petty small things that in the scope of it all are really unimportant. The Pharisees and the church leaders missed out on the coming of the Messiah. They were so consumed by their fear of Jesus and their anxiety about what he did, they couldn’t see that the Christ they had been praying for was standing in their midst. The church of today still does this. And unfortunately, more often than not. One of my pastor friends told me about this woman who was coming to visit the church. She was dressed in clothes that were a bit ragged and worn but you could tell she was dressing in the best clothes she had, and her children were wearing regular kid clothes. Nothing fancy, just shirts and pants. As she walked up to the church doors, the usher turned to the woman and said, “At THIS church, we dress up for God.” Red-faced, she turned away and left and as far as I know, she never came back. That was a person looking for the love of God and realizing it wasn’t in THAT church. I hope she found it in another, but would you be surprised if she never came back? Sometimes we stand in judgment of others without recognizing the circumstances. If that usher had simply taken the time to notice that this woman might not have any other “nicer” clothes or had thought about the fact that God doesn’t care what you wear to church, maybe he wouldn’t have been so harsh. Because more than anything, God cares about our presence and not how we present. God wants us to be a part of a loving, worshiping community of people so we can grow in our faith together. We need to accept people as they are. Not how we want them to be.
There’s an old saying, “People who live in glass houses should not throw stones.”
That comes from this passage we read today. And it’s a reminder that we are just as vulnerable and just as flawed as the people we want to criticize. We need to keep that in mind before condemning others. It’s a reminder we need to be careful not to reject others based on our preconceptions. When we do that, it is easier to let go of the anger, the spite, the fear, and the anxiety that comes with labeling someone as the “other.” And we make the world a better, healthier place. Remember, God wants us to be inclusive, not exclusive. When we fail to do that, we miss out on opportunities – not only to show God’s love, but to embrace people who might enrich our lives. Think of all of the great left-handed people in the world – Paul McCartney, Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, Scarlett Johansson, Clayton Kershaw, and President Obama just to name a few. Think about a world without them if people still thought being left-handed meant you were evil or possessed. How many people in our own past did we miss out on because people couldn’t see past something arbitrary like that? How many people misjudged us for something inconsequential or even plain wrong? Give people a chance. Give them a chance to show you that God is working in them, too. And hug a lefty today. They are the only ones in their right minds.
What If God Were Black?
That’s a question posed by Robert F. Kennedy back in 1966.
What if God were black? We tend to see the world from our point of view and as you can imagine, there are as many points of view as there are people who have them. And since our point of view is formed and shaped by our lives, it’s hard for us to imagine how other people look at the world. But what if our assumptions of the world were turned upside down? What if the things we thought made us superior or better or right were…wrong? What if God were black?
Saddleback Church ordained its first three female pastors a couple of years ago.
This was an historic occasion. Not because they were female. The United Methodist Church has been ordaining women as pastors since 1956. But because Saddleback Church is part of the Southern Baptist Convention which expressly forbids women from preaching. By the way, in case you think this was an outdated policy that simply hadn’t been overturned, the SBC wrote this into their Baptist Faith and Message statement in the year 2000.[1] Prior to that there had been rare exceptions where a woman was ordained in the Baptist tradition. But that changed at the turn of the century. Owen Strachan, a faculty member at the Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, wrote this: “There is no exception to 1 Timothy 2:9-15. Not Mother’s Day, not when a woman has real gifting, not when the elders endorse women preaching. Based on his creation order, God only calls men to lead, preach, teach, & shepherd the flock…”[2] If you’re confused by this, Strachan is basically saying that because God created men first, they get all the prime jobs while women are left to pick up the scraps. They don’t make an argument based on talent or gifts or experience. It’s based on the “created order.” And that’s the official stance of the Southern Baptist Convention. So, what if God was a woman? If it’s all about the “created order” what if God were a woman? Would the men of the SBC willingly give up all their positions of power and take up housekeeping as a profession? Because God could be a woman. Or asexual. Or gender-fluid. While it’s true the Bible often refers to God using male pronouns, no one has ever seen God to know what God looks like. God could BE anything.
But the SBC isn’t the only group of people with a distorted view on reality.
Before we pile too deeply on them, and believe me there’s a lot we could say about their beliefs, we need to realize this inability to live in reality isn’t limited to far right evangelical groups. It’s something that is a danger to us all – left, right, and center. It doesn’t take much to find people with a distorted view of reality. Each of them believe whole-heartedly in their view, not because it’s the truth, but because of the lens through which they see the world. The question we need to ask ourselves is: How is our world view shaped by our beliefs and, more importantly, are we open to thoughts and ideas different from our own? The challenge for us constantly is to make sure we are not seeing life with blinders on, but are receptive to the movement of the Holy Spirit and consider the ways we are limiting our own worldview. Jesus challenges us to be receptive, to open our hearts to where God is leading in this passage we’re about to share.
4 While a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town after town, he told this parable: 5 “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds ate it up. 6 Some fell on rocky ground, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown.”
When he said this, he called out, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.” – Luke 8:4-8
What kind of soil are you?
Usually, we picture ourselves in this story as being the farmer. When read that way, this is a story to encourage us to keep sharing God’s love regardless of where our efforts land. Some will be receptive to it and some won’t but for us to be diligent in continuing forward. But I read a reflection by Rick Warren of all people who looked at this parable in a new light. What if WE are the SOIL? What if God is constantly trying to share his love for us and WE are the rocky ground or the thorny ground or the hard ground where the birds ate it all up? Perhaps this story is trying to share with us our need to be like the good soil, fertile and ripe for planting. We need to constantly keep the soil of our hearts tilled and rich and overturned so we are receptive to where God is leading us. We can’t afford to have our hearts become hardened or rocky or riddled with thorns. When that happens we become unyielding to the work of God.
Which takes us back to our question, “What if God were Black?”
Robert Kennedy wrote about his experience in South Africa when that country was still practicing apartheid – a system of racial segregation which classified white citizens higher than anyone else in society. In part, the white population justified their treatment of Coloured and Black people based on the Bible, saying this was part of God’s plan.[5] When Robert Kennedy went to visit, the government didn’t want to approve his visa, but most people thought he could be the next President of the United States and the South African government didn’t want to have bad relations with the next leader of America so they reluctantly let him in.[6] This is a part of what he wrote about his experience: “During five days this summer, my wife Ethel and I visited South Africa, talking to all kinds of people representing all viewpoints. Wherever we went-Pretoria, Cape Town, Durban, Stellenbosch, Johannesburg – apartheid was at the heart of the discussion and debate. Our aim was not simply to criticize but to engage in a dialogue to see if, together, we could elevate reason above prejudice and myth. At the University of Natal in Durban, I was told the church to which most of the white population belongs teaches apartheid as a moral necessity. A questioner declared that few churches allow black Africans to pray with the white because the Bible says that is the way it should be, because God created Negroes to serve. ‘But suppose God is black,’ I replied. ‘What if we go to Heaven and we, all our lives, have treated the Negro as an inferior, and God is there, and we look up and He is not white? What then is our response?’ There was no answer. Only silence.”[7]
What preconceptions and maybe misconceptions are you holding onto?
What are some ways you might be limiting the work of the Holy Spirit in your soul because you are not open to new or different ways of thinking? Our own denomination is struggling with this right now. We are not immune from this struggle to be the good soil. Right now, we are asking the question, “Do people who identify as LGBTQ+ qualify to serve in pastoral leadership?” It’s an argument that has been raging on for decades and one that will inevitably split us apart. But why? Why is our interpretation on who is fit to serve so narrowly defined? Why is it we predetermine if someone is qualified based on such shallow guidelines instead of by the fruit of their labor? The same argument used to hold women back from serving as pastors is the same argument used against people of color and is the same argument used against the LGBTQ+ community. When will we learn?
We are our own worst enemy.
We hold ourselves back from all God has to offer because we don’t spend enough time being open to the work of the Holy Spirit. I want to challenge you this week to test your soil, to be open to different perspectives. Many of us have a tendency to immediately push back on new ideas, to dismiss them out of hand before even considering it. Instead, be intentional. Hold back from your gut instinct. Promise yourself you’ll give every idea at least ten seconds of time to ponder the possibilities no matter how outlandish they appear to be on the surface. That doesn’t mean they AREN’T outlandish, but I think you’ll be surprised at how often you are resistant to new things and how just taking a deep breath can give you the chance to be inspired by something different. Just like a farmer working the land, we need to till the soil once in a while to keep it fertile and prosperous. So, too, do we need to till the soil of our minds and challenge our preconceptions of the world.
[1] https://scotmcknight.substack.com/p/the-heart-of-the-sbc-opposing-culture
[2] https://scotmcknight.substack.com/p/the-heart-of-the-sbc-opposing-culture
[3] https://www.bbc.com/news/52847648
[4] https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/13/politics/marjorie-taylor-greene-aoc/index.html
[5] http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2413-94672015000200011
[6] http://www.npr.org/2011/08/12/139449268/remembering-rfks-visit-to-the-land-of-apartheid
The Fierce Urgency of NOW
Pets are precious.
If you’ve got pets, you probably feel the same way. So when we go somewhere as a family, it is really important to us who watches our pets, because we want to know they are left in good hands. Most of the time we’ve been fortunate and had amazing pet sitters. But this one time, we had one that was… less than amazing. They weren’t abusive. They didn’t hurt the dogs in any way. But you could tell, almost from the get-go, their heart wasn’t in it. When they came over to meet the dogs, they just didn’t give off that dog-loving vibe. All the best ones would get down to the dogs’ level and really interact with them. This person kind of just patted them on the head and turned immediately to the business of dog sitting. The logistics. It didn’t feel great, but we needed someone and our usuals weren’t available. While we were gone, I received an email thanking me for my purchase on our PlayStation. Granted, it was a free purchase, but why were they using my account in the first place? And then when we got home, we found things out of place, not put away, not cleaned up, a few things that were broken, and even some missing Tupperware. None of it was a big deal, but it let us know what kind of person was in charge of our pets. And I did love that Tupperware.
A good pet sitter and a bad pet sitter comes down to perspective.
Not our perspective, but theirs. A good dog sitter looks at the job as a responsibility. They take seriously that the pets entrusted to their care are precious and treat them as if they were their own. Maybe even better. A bad dog sitter doesn’t have to be evil or have evil intent. But instead they look at the job more about what they get out of it rather than what they put into it. People look at it as a responsibility or they look at it as an opportunity. Which one do you want caring for your pets? And while it can be both of those things, most of us want the person looking after our pets to be the kind of person who looks at it as a responsibility first and an opportunity second instead of the other way around. When it comes to the planet Earth, which kind of person are you? Responsibility or opportunity?
At the end of the day, we’re all just planet sitters.
The earth doesn’t belong to us. God put it in our care. As David wrote in the Book of Psalms, “The earth is the LORD’S and everything in it, the world and all who live in it… (Psalm 24:1)” We’re here to look after it, but it belongs to God. How do you think we’re doing? If God were going to give the human race a Yelp review, how many stars do you think we would get? We tend to be pretty oblivious to the damage we’re doing to the earth, either consciously or unconsciously. The big disasters get all the headlines. The Exxon-Valdez oil spill. The disaster on Deepwater Horizon. Those are the ones that make us wake up to the harm human beings are causing the planet. But the real harm doesn’t come from these one-off disasters as awful as they are. The real harm comes in the little things we do constantly, every day. Sometimes, it’s things we do without even knowing it. Like CFC emissions.[1] Do you remember when CFCs were a big deal? Hairspray would get the bad rap, but that was nothing compared to the CFCs coming out of refrigerators and air conditioners all over the world. That’s what was causing the real damage. It took us a long time to figure out that CFCs were destroying the ozone layer, the tiny, thin sheet of protection the earth had against the sun’s killer radiation. Once we did figure it out, it still took us more than a decade to do something about it. Big manufacturing companies blocked our way, claiming the results were inconclusive or the study wasn’t done properly. Sounds familiar doesn’t it? It’s part of the Playbook of Greed. These big companies didn’t want to let go of their profit margins or put in the hard work of doing what’s right. And while it would be easy to blame it on nameless, faceless companies, we have to remember it was people like me and you behind those companies. It was people like me and you who chose to drag our feet instead of doing what was right. It was people like me and you making the decisions to put profits over people.
We’re supposed to be caretakers of the planet.
Our mindset should be one of responsibility, not opportunity. But too often we give in to our own weaknesses, own selfishness, our own greed instead of doing what’s right. If you have a Bible or Bible app on your phone and want to follow along, find the book of Leviticus in the Old Testament beginning with chapter 25, verse 1; Leviticus 25:1. Now I’m as guilty of this as any of you and we’re all guilty to some extent. Our crimes don’t have to be on a massive scale like DuPont dumping toxic sludge into the rivers of the Ohio[2] or Hyperion pushing out syringes and tampons onto California state beaches.[3] Again, it’s in the little things we do as much as the big ones that add up to the ongoing damage to our planet. We have to treat our planet with respect. And that’s the point of this passage from Leviticus. Hear now the Word of God.
The Lord said to Moses at Mount Sinai, 2 “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you enter the land I am going to give you, the land itself must observe a sabbath to the Lord. 3 For six years sow your fields, and for six years prune your vineyards and gather their crops. 4 But in the seventh year the land is to have a year of sabbath rest, a sabbath to the Lord. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards. 5 Do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the grapes of your untended vines. The land is to have a year of rest.
23 “‘The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine and you reside in my land as foreigners and strangers. 24 Throughout the land that you hold as a possession, you must provide for the redemption of the land.
The Word of God for the people of God and the people said, “Thanks be to God.”
Even the land was granted Sabbath rest.
You work the land for six years and on the seventh, you let it lay fallow. Again, God built this natural cycle of work and rest not just into our bodies but into the very planet itself. Farmers do this all the time. They rotate crops and allow fields to lay fallow for a season so it has time to replenish itself and doesn’t get overworked. But even in this passage, God reminds the people of Israel that the land belongs to God. And then that last line resonates with our call to care for the earth. God tells them, “Throughout the land that you hold as a possession, you must provide for the redemption of the land.” Even the earth itself is important to God, not just the people living on it. The very earth is deserving of redemption. And you can see how this plays out in this time of crisis that we are in with weird but wonderful ways. Over Beijing, there is this permanent cloud of haze caused by the poorly regulated pollution in China and the billions of people living there. It wavers and wanes, but pretty much there is a constant cloud of pollution just hovering over the land. Until the pandemic. After just one month of quarantine, after one month without factories churning out American cell phones and workers driving to and from work, the skies over most of China were clear and clean of nitrogen dioxide.[4] After just a month! The same is true for every major metropolitan area in the United States, from New York to the Bay. Even the notorious LA smog reduced dramatically since shelter-in-place orders were given.[5] It’s simply remarkable to watch the earth’s ability to heal itself if we simply give it the chance. With so much less human noise in the world, animals started to come out of hiding and roam into places once dominated by people. Bears came all the way into Yosemite Village, mountain goats walked down hills and strolled into towns, and coyotes were found wandering about San Francisco. This crisis opened up our eyes in many different ways, and this is one of them. God is showing us we need to do a better job of working in harmony with his creation instead of abusing it for our own purposes. We need to slow down once in a while and appreciate what God has created and give the earth time to breathe and to heal. And we need to take seriously the responsibility that God handed to us to care for this planet before it is too late.
A few years ago was the 50th anniversary of Earth Day.
And Creation Justice Ministries,[6] an interfaith group dedicated to preserving the environment with the belief that God is calling on us to be better stewards of the planet, adopted the theme of “The Fierce Urgency of Now” for this special occasion. Borrowing from the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., they challenged us not to wait, but to do something about the crisis of planetary abuse human beings are inflicting on the earth. In the words of the great Dr. King himself:
We are now faced with the fact, my friends, that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such a thing as being too late. Procrastination is still the thief of time. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked, and dejected with a lost opportunity. The tide in the affairs of men does not remain at flood—it ebbs. We may cry out desperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is adamant to every plea and rushes on. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residues of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words, “Too late.” There is an invisible book of life that faithfully records our vigilance or our neglect.[7]
Let God know you were vigilant for the earth. Let God know you took the path of responsibility over opportunity. For we are all planet sitters and it’s up to us to be worthy of the trust that God placed into our hands.
[1] https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/cfcs-ozone.html
[2] https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2018/02/08/ohio-files-lawsuit-against-dupont-allegedly-dumping-toxic-chemical-into-ohio-river/320113002/
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperion_sewage_treatment_plant
[4] https://www.forbes.com/sites/trevornace/2020/03/03/coronavirus-nasa-reveals-how-cinas-lockdown-drastically-reduced-pollution/#6f4c151b2a75
[5] https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/03/22/climate/coronavirus-usa-traffic.html
[6] http://www.creationjustice.org/mission.html
[7] https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/beyond-vietnam
Faith and Family Trip to Disneyland 2024 – Hospitality
What is hospitality?
9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. 10 Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor… 13 Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. – Romans 12:9-10, 13
Jesus modeled it. Paul wrote about it. But are we doing a good job of it in our churches and personal life? What lessons can we learn from the absolute master of hospitality – Disneyland! Join us as we find out what it means from Disney to offer hospitality and how we can apply those lessons into our own context. It’s going to be a lot of fun.
Next February, we are headed to Disneyland for our seventh Faith and Family Trip! I am excited to share this adventure with all of you and hope this is a great chance for us all to get to know each other better and inspire us to do more as people of faith. Here are the details:
- Date and Time: Sunday 2/18/24 (optional dinner on Saturday)
- Cost: $50 NOT including admission
- Will include lunch on Sunday, hefty snack, and souvenir!
- Everyone gets a t-shirt!
- What to Expect: Attractions in the morning, lunch and a tour in the afternoon, and a fun group activity for prizes! Everyone gets a little souvenir as well.
Our plans are to meet up early on Sunday to take advantage of being there at opening, have some devotional time together, and head into the park. We’ll go on some rides in the morning, have a mid-morning snack and lunch together, and take a tour emphasizing our theme of hospitality by a former cast member – me! And then we’ll have a cool scavenger hunt for prizes as well as other fun stuff! And more rides. After that it’s free time! We will have an optional dinner the night before for those arriving early and you can join me for dinner at the park if you’d like as well or just go off and have fun.
And it will be FUN! Hopefully you’ll also walk away with a different perspective on church. Our goal is to integrate best practices from the outside world and apply them to how we can be more effective for Christ. This trip will be focused on hospitality and how we can use our own radical hospitality to reshape how others see us and grow our church together. Can’t wait to see you !!!
Chocolate Chip Cookies… And God!
Chocolate chip cookies are my favorite!
For anyone that knows me, that’s probably not a big surprise. Homemade are the best! There’s something about the love and care that goes into a cookie from home that you just can’t get from a machine. Probably my favorite chocolate chip cookie is the Nestle Tollhouse Chocolate Chip Pan Cookie. It’s sort of like a blondie and a chocolate chip cookie combined into one. Yum. These were the chocolate chip cookies of my youth. My mom would make them on very rare occasions, and they tasted so good out of the oven, they would melt in your mouth! I love the taste of brown sugar and butter with the hot melting chocolate chips as it just oozes across your taste buds. The best. But have you ever thought about what goes INTO a chocolate chip cookie? I never really did. Sugar, brown sugar, flour, salt, baking powder, vanilla extract, eggs, and of course chocolate chips. Pretty much what you’d expect, right? A lot of the same basic ingredients you find in most baking recipes. But did you know crystallized sugar originally came from India? It was discovered about the 5th century. Today Brazil is the biggest exporter of sugar. The story is similar for the vanilla bean which is used for the vanilla extract. Originally found only in Mexico, the Totonac people of the Mazatlan valley were the first to cultivate it. But after a 12-year-old slave by the name of Edmond Albius discovered how to hand-pollinate the plant, the vanilla industry thrived and today most vanilla is produced in Madagascar. The chocolate chip cookie itself is a 20th century invention of Ruth Graves Wakefield of the Toll House Inn in Whitman, Massachusetts. She was the one who blended in chunks of chocolate into a cookie back in 1937 to make one of my (and the world’s) favorite desserts today. The chocolate chip itself wasn’t created until 1941 when chocolate companies decided to package chocolate into baking morsels. Before that people would have to break apart the chocolate into chunks on their own. And the famous Nestle Toll House Cookies were named after the place of their birth in Massachusetts. So each time I bite into one of my favorite homemade chocolate chip cookies, I have to thank the people of India, Brazil, Mexico, Madagascar, and Ruth Graves Wakefield of the Toll House Inn in Whitman, Massachusetts.[1]
All of that to say that life is far more complex than the narrow window we view it through.
To describe a chocolate chip cookie I only expanded upon three of the ingredients and already had to credit five completely different civilizations across history. Who knows who else we would include if we traced the history of flour or baking powder or brown sugar? I can generally give credit to God and the chicken for eggs, but who first thought to combine it with flour to make dough? In our attempt to simplify the world into manageable nuggets of information that we can remember, we often forget the complexity that makes up God’s brilliant design. We forget about the diverse nature of the world and how each part was created by God and contributes in its own way to a far more complex world than we can understand.
Our reading today comes from the Book of Genesis, Chapter 1.
As you probably know, this chapter is about the beginning of all creation and the writer gives us a glimpse into the work God has done. Prior to our reading, God has already been creating tons of different stuff. He’s created the heavens and the earth, light and darkness, and the water and the sky. The basics. Then God gets into even more complex stuff – land, vegetation, and time. Think about that. God CREATED time. Next, he created the stars and the sun and the moon, but so far, no other life on the Earth other than plants. And then this is where we come in.
20 And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.” 21 So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.” 23 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day.
24 And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. 25 God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. – Genesis 1:20-25
We sort of take creation for granted don’t we?
I mean we have birds and fish and whales and if you believe in evolution dinosaurs which are very cool and lions and cows and all of these other kinds of animals. Just tons of different animals populating the Earth, and this is BEFORE human beings even come into the picture. But have you ever asked yourself why? Not why did God create these things before humans although that’s a great question, but why did God create them at all? Why did God create waters teeming with living creatures? For me, I would have been happy with just the fish. And maybe whales. But why bother creating the rest? What purpose do they serve? But “God blessed them and said, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.’ …God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.” Just because the answer isn’t obvious to us doesn’t mean there isn’t a purpose there.
Take for example the jellyfish.[2]
You might wonder why God would create jellyfish? They seem more troublesome than they are worth. They have a sting that at its most severe can cause death. They can be problematic in other ways, too. Did you know back in 1999, they were responsible for a cascading blackout in the Philippines? And back in 2008 they caused the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant in San Luis Obispo to shut down for two days! But jellyfish have their upside as well. They are considered a culinary delicacy in many Asian countries. And they are also harvested for their collagen, which is used to help treat rheumatoid arthritis. On the surface, we might dismiss the jellyfish as pretty useless or even deadly, but they serve serve other purposes as well. Some of which we know and probably some of which we don’t. Which is to say God creates this huge diversity for a reason and just because we can’t always see it doesn’t mean it isn’t there.
But diversity is useful in many ways. Even in church.
A recent study on church congregations revealed how important diversity is to God’s purpose. Baylor University released its findings after doing research on churches over a twenty-year period and came to the conclusion that racially diverse churches had higher attendance on average than their largely all-white counterparts. These findings contradict some long-held beliefs in what has been referred to as “the homogenous unit principle” – “the idea that churches flourish if they stick to people of the same race and class.”[3] Believe it or not, this isn’t just a theory held onto by scholars and scientists but by many folks sitting in the pews. The number of times I’ve heard people saying the same exact thing – that our best outreach strategy is to reach out to “people like us” – would probably surprise you. Most of these people would never think of this as being racist, but being practical. But as this study showed, diversity leads to better results. Consider this: claiming to “hire the best person regardless of gender” was often an excuse for not including women in leadership, but as studies have shown, companies with more women on their board of directors tend to be more successful and profitable than their counterparts.[4] We have to overcome our fears and our prejudices to embrace the rich diversity of God’s creation. It’s not only the right thing to do (which should be enough) but is also the route that will lead us to helping others come to faith in Christ.
Diversity is something God is great at.
Look at our earlier reading today. I love the image Paul uses in this passage from 1 Corinthians that we are all parts of one body and no matter how we behave or what we think about one another, it doesn’t take away from the fact we really are connected in God’s great creation. He writes in verse 15, “Now if the foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,’ it would not for that reason stop being part of the body….But in fact (verse 18) God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.” We are all different. We all come from different backgrounds with different life experiences, and those allow us to bring our unique gifts to the table. It’s in diversity that we come up with new and different ideas, things any one of us may never have thought up on our own. And it’s those new ideas and new ways of doing things that continue to help us grow in our faith, in our soul, and in our understanding of one another. Let us learn from the chocolate chip cookie and embrace our differences so that together we might be greater than the sum of our parts.
[1] Research for this section was done by referencing Wikipedia for “sugar,” “vanilla,” and “chocolate chip.”
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jellyfish
[3] https://www.umnews.org/en/news/racial-diversity-linked-to-church-growth?mkt_tok=MDc4LUpYUS02NDMAAAF8V8jHdEHFMt6nzBMNx5VfAmLVmNqiPxhxTkkKUI9G8TpZvVNLaMqnlYen_2D1W2GbxxYd9wn5XD3Jr4dKNHzZ-UAtoSPeV5ktRBKmiUeprpz23g
[4] https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/ecpe/why-diversity-matters-women-on-boards-of-directors/#:~:text=The%20business%20benefits%20of%20having%20women%20on%20a,runs%2C%20makes%20decisions%2C%20and%20ultimately%2C%20on%20its%20success.
Craig's Corner 