Special Sermon October 30 2011

Guest speaker Rodney Hayes - "The Parable of the Sower"

Introduction and background information:



Scripture Reading Luke 8:1-15

After this, Jesus travelled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him, and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; Joanna the wife of Chuza, the manager of Herod's household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means. While a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town after town, he told this parable:

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 of the air ate it up. Some fell on rock, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. 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, He who has ears to hear, let him hear. His disciples asked him what this parable meant. He said, The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that, 'though seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand.'

This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. Those on the rock are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away. The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life's worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature. But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.

Sermon October 23 2011

David Alred - "Count your blessings"

Scripture Reading: 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

Sermon October 16 2011

Michael Palmer - "What belongs to God?"

Scripture Reading: Matthew 22:15-22

Then the Pharisees went and plotted to entrap him in what he said. So they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, "Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one; for you do no regard people with partiality. Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?" But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, "Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin used for the tax." And they brought him a denarius. Then he said to them, "Whose head is this, and whose title?" They answered, "The emperor's." Then he said to them, "Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperorr's, and to God the things that are God's." When they heard this, they were amazed; and they left him and went away.

Sermon from March 7, 2010 Revisited

Here is a revised version of the March 7, 2010 sermon that should let you play it directly from this page, adjust the volume and fast forward or rewind as needed. This tool provided by google



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Sermon March 7, 2010 (mp3 link)

Are We Useless Slaves?

The apostles said to ^(B)the Lord, "Increase our faith!"

⁶And ^(C)the Lord said, "If you had faith like ^(D)a mustard seed, you would say to this ^(E)mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and be planted in the sea'; and it would obey you.

⁷"Which of you, having a slave plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, 'Come immediately and sit down to eat'?

⁸"But will he not say to him, '^(F)Prepare something for me to eat, and properly clothe yourself and serve me while I eat and drink; and afterward you may eat and drink'?

⁹"He does not thank the slave because he did the things which were commanded, does he?

¹⁰"So you too, when you do all the things which are commanded you, say, 'We are unworthy slaves; we have done only that which we ought to have done.'"

The word “slave” occurs 30 times in Luke, 35 times in Matthew, 5 times in Mark, 12 times in John.

But the term “useless slave”—or here translated “unworthy slave” and “worthless slave” is only used twice:

In Matthew the term is used in the parable of the talents. There’s a slave who gets one talent, according to his ability, from his lord and master. The slave protects that talent—he was given the talent to watch while his master was gone.

This is important—Jesus does not have the master give any instruction other than that he “gives over to them his possessions. . . to each according to his own ability.” The slave who got one talent—one talent, by the way, is a lot of money. 14,400 Drachmae—the unit of a laborer’s or soldier’s day’s pay. Somewhere on the order, in purchasing power, of a million dollars.

So the slave got a million dollars to protect while his master was away. Now, I don’t know about you, but protecting a million dollars sounds like a pretty difficult job.

The slave does it. When the master comes back, the slave gives him his talent.

But the master’s not happy. He takes the talent from the useless slave and has him “cast out into outer darkness where there shall be lamentation and gnashing of teeth.”

So it’s of particular importance to us, when Jesus is talking to his disciples and says:

“When you do all the things which are commanded you, say, 'We are unworthy slaves; we have done only that which we ought to have done.”

That’s right. Jesus tells his disciples—and by extension us—that when we do “only that which we ought to have done” we are useless slaves. And as he tells us in Matthew, the fate of a useless slave is to be cast into the darkness.

So where does this leave us?

Perhaps I can take a bit of a diversion here.

Yesterday a friend of mine from high school and college, someone I lived and worked with at a church while in college, posted on his Facebook page a link to a preacher who spoke from the pulpit on tolerance.

Specifically, she was preaching tolerance of Islam.

Problematically, she said that Jesus also preached tolerance.

This is a problem because it’s simply incorrect. When I pointed this out to my friend, I was told (by his mother, as these things happen on Facebook) that the parable of the Good Samaritan was about tolerance.

I realized then, that there was a disconnect between my friend and I regarding the definition of tolerance.

As far as I can tell, there are two possible interpretations of tolerance here: either to respect the beliefs of others or to permit them to continue existing in their beliefs.

As Jesus came to change us, I don’t see tolerance fitting into either of those definitions.

Moreover, this elevation of “tolerance” to something holy misses out—dare I say purposefully ignores?—the purpose of Jesus’ message.

Let’s look at the parable of the Good Samaritan to find out what that purpose is.

We all know the story, I know I’ve spoken of it before—the injured Hebrew—the hated enemy of the Samaritans—is picked up and taken care of by just the filthy, unclean Samaritan that’s supposed to help him.

The point of the story is the answer to the question “who is my neighbor?”

The question itself is an attempt to squirrel out of the greatest commandment:

YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND; AND YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.

Now does Jesus say “you shall tolerate your neighbor as yourself?”

No—not only would that be nonsensical, it wouldn’t be anything radical or changing.

The Romans were champions of tolerance. All you had to do was tolerate their rule and they would tolerate your traditions. Easy, really. And tolerance is certainly an effective way to rule on earth.

But Jesus wasn’t interested in the tolerance of the Romans. Jesus wasn’t interested in rule on earth—but rule within ourselves that leads us to the Kingdom of Heaven. Towards this, the latter half of the great commandment is to LOVE your neighbor as yourself.

Tolerance isn’t love. Tolerance is the position a ruler takes. Jesus commands us to love, not tolerate. To serve, not to rule. To debase His message from a position of love and service into indifference and rule is inexcusable.

Unfortunately, all of the posters on my friend’s Facebook page sided with his mom. Sided, in effect with that preacher—that the key to salvation is tolerance, not love.

I wondered then, as I do now, how many Christians have been lead astray by this false doctrine—I’m not speaking Islam but of the enshrinement of tolerance.

This is not to say I’m perfect—I freely admit I’m a sinner—but I pray for and try to have my eyes as open and as plank-free as possible.

But when I see those who profess to be Christian, who obviously want to obey the will of God, acting and speaking so out-of-accord with the instructions and example of Jesus, well, I remember the useless slave.

That useless slave—the one who merely took care of the talent—was cast into the darkness.

Jesus tells us both through a parable and directly that if we merely do what we are expected to do, we are useless slaves.

What of those who aren’t even doing what they’re expected to do? Those who are teaching false doctrine? Those who are perverting a command to serve and love into a command to indifference and rule?

We are told it would be better if a millstone were to be thrown around the necks of those who snare little ones and they were cast into the sea. We are told it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah than for cities that reject Gods message. What of people who pervert God’s message?

And where does this leave us? Can I even say us?

Are we faithfully following the commands of Jesus? Are we tolerating or are we loving? If we are doing our best, if we are following Christ’s command to love—we are still useless slaves because we are only doing what is expected of us.

Of course our situation is not hopeless because we have Christ. We will not be thrown into the outer darkness. But what can we do in our lives that is more than is expected of us? How can we turn five talents into ten? What can we do beyond love?

We must act through our love, through the love we have because of our faith in Christ. We know, especially in the Church of the Brethren that faith without works is dead. So love without action is dead. We must love our brothers and sisters enough to, as is said by Jesus just before today’s passage:

If your brother should be sinning, rebuke him, and if he should ever indeed repent, forgive him.
And if he should ever be sinning against you seven times a day, and if he should ever be turning about seven times a day to you, saying 'I repent,' you shall forgive him.

We must be unafraid to engage our brothers and sisters who have strayed from the path. We must engage them faithfully and prayerfully and with love. We must also be accepting of criticism of our own flaws, faults, and blind spots—we must be able to recognize loving rebuke as well as give it.

Going off in a huff is not love.

Tolerating another’s opinions is not love.

Frank, open, and honest discussion is love.

Jesus did not turn away from the Pharisees—he engaged them directly.

Our commandment is to love one another.

We cannot merely love one another. We are clearly called to do more.

We cannot hold our love inside—we cannot hide it under a bushel.

We must act in love.

We must be bold and open in our actions.

And we must be humble and open in our receiving these actions.

Please, brothers and sisters, if I say anything or have said anything that you think is extra-biblical or non-biblical—I implore you to act in love, to rebuke me, to forgive me, and to accept my repentance.

And I implore you to take the same from me.

If we commit to this—If we can do this as a body, we will double what we have an more.

If we cannot

Or do not, we are just useless slaves.

Sermon From March 7th, 2010

The sermon for 3/7/2010 is available here.

Click to play / download.

Amen - and see you all this Sunday at 10:00.

--

Jeff

The Only Disaster

The Only Disaster

Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. Jesus answered, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish."

Then he told this parable: "A man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, 'For three years now I've been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven't found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?'

" 'Sir,' the man replied, 'leave it alone for one more year, and I'll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.' "

When disaster strikes the whole world perks up. Relief agencies go into action, the 24-hour news cycle starts its feeding frenzy and opportunistic preachers and atheists starting talking about blaming the victims and blaming God.

Our relief agencies go into action because we tend to forget the poor and downtrodden until they are shoved in our face. Unfortunately, the compassion we should show is often hidden until “everyone else is doing it” or until the plight of others is so severe our cold hearts are finally warmed.

Our 24-hour news cycle starts its feeding frenzy because its only job is to make money and it makes money by getting eyes on that TV screen. The more sensational enormity a disaster has, the better, as far as FOX, CNN, and their advertisers are concerned.

Our atheists want to blame God because they say “well, if God’s all-powerful and stuff then God shouldn’t have earthquakes or let terrorists blow up buildings, yeah.” My retort to that is that it’s our job to make sure terrorists don’t blow up buildings and if we’re going to live where earthquakes happen, we should build earthquake-proof homes. It’s the height of arrogant misunderstanding to expect God to change the nature he created—human nature included.

Our preachers who want to blame the victims do so because they think they need a “bad guy” to justify the message of salvation—to scare us into being saved. We don’t need “a bad guy”—we are the “bad guy” and it’s only by the grace of God that we’re still walking this Earth.

We talked in Bible study this week about the middle of the book of Acts, where Paul and Silas are thrown into prison. There are some pretty good disasters in Chapter 16. First, Paul silences a girl with a “python spirit.” There’s a lot to get into about exactly what a python spirit is and is not but it helps to know that Python was a Greek god of prophecy and the slave girl was known for making money for her captors by prophesying. Anyway, she follows Paul and Silas around calling out—“hey, these guys are preaching the word of Jesus and they’re telling you all how to be saved!” This gets really tiring to Paul after a few days (maybe he thought it was good advertising at first—Luke never tells us) and so he tells the spirit to leave the girl. This angers both the girl’s owners and the crowd and so Paul and Silas end up thrown in jail.

Now, we don’t have any record of the girl or her owners saying “woe is me for I have been punished unto the utmost by God!” though we probably wouldn’t expect that, either. We might, however, expect Paul and Silas to do a bit of complaining. After all, they were only doing the work of the Lord.

Instead, when thrown in jail and shackled to the wall they start singing songs of praise to God. Paul and Silas understand what the atheists and televangelists do not—that everything indeed comes from God—and everything serves God’s purpose. When you put yourself out of sorts with that purpose everything looks like disaster. When you give yourself up to the purpose of God, everything comes up in roses.

Back to Paul and Silas: they’re singing “Lord, I Lift Your Name On High” for the 17^th time that night when all of a sudden there’s a great earthquake! Now, Macedonia is a place where there are a fair amount of earthquakes. You think the Romans would have built a better prison. I guess they used contractors for that one. Anyway, the earthquake came and the jail was verily rent in twain and lo! Paul and Silas’s shackles were cast into the pit of Gehenna by God the Most High, blessed be his name.

What do Paul and Silas do? Well, I can tell you what I’d certainly be strongly inclined to do—unless I had read this story. Paul and Silas, they just go right on keeping on. They don’t run, they don’t try to escape, in fact, they probably even convinced the other convicts to stay a while too, because when the Warden runs in about to commit seppuku—that’s hara-kiri—which is ritual suicide cause you done did wrong: when the Warden is about to fall on his sword Paul says: “hold on there, man! We’re all still here!”

So what did these three disasters get us besides a slave girl out of work and some broken concrete? Easy, it led the Warden and his family to Jesus—he asks “what must I do to be saved?” after seeing not a miracle but simply correct behavior. So God has Paul and Silas beaten up and thrown in jail not because God is cruel or a jerk but because God wants to save the jailor. Cool stuff, right?

So let’s go back to today’s passage:

Jesus is hanging out with the crowds, doing the work of the Lord, and some people start agitating and spreading rumors about these Jews from Galilee who were killed by Pilate in the middle of making sacrifices to God. It seems the crowd was of the opinion that the group killed by Pilate had to have been evil and vile sinners because they died in such a terrible fashion.

Jesus, ever on point for a teaching moment, says look—these guys were no worse sinners than any of you—and you’re going to die forever unless you repent! Then Jesus picks a worse and just as famous-at-the-time disaster: look at those 18 people crushed by the collapse of the tower of Siloam! Do you think they died because they were horrible and terrible sinners! You’re no better than they are! You had better repent or you’re going to die the same! That is, die without the hope of life everlasting.

Jesus told the crowd these things because most folks at the time were believed the right thing for the wrong reason: they thought everything happened for a reason, which is correct—but that reason had to do with the some behaviors the people the things—bad or good—were happening to had done, which is incorrect.

Jesus knows—as the crowd should have—that everything, good and bad, comes from God. If they hadn’t read their Job, they certainly should have read their Deuteronomy (32:39):

There is no god besides me.
I put to death and I bring to life,
I have wounded and I will heal,
and no one can deliver out of my hand.

Jesus knows the nature of the Father and Jesus knows the nature of the behavior of the world—God neither wounds nor heals in response to the desires or behaviors of his creation, God wounds and heals in order to perfect his creation. The schedule is not set by us—the march of time is inexorable and we are all going to die.

So what do we do?

What we do is exercise our free will and repent. Note the word here: repent. The Greek is “metanoeo” which means not exactly repent. Repent is a word that comes to us through French from Latin and it means to feel sorry for something. Metanoeo—the word the Gospel writers use—means to change your mind and your purpose.

This is not mere belief—Jesus never calls us to merely believe. Jesus calls us to change our mind—to change our purpose—that is to change ourselves. Our turning, our repentance, our change should be as evident on our face, in our words, and in our actions as it is in our hearts. If you have faith but do not change—do you have anything?

Jesus clears this up for us with the parable that follows. He’s shocked the crowd a bit by reminding them that folks don’t die because they are somehow more terrible sinners. Now he instructs them in how they should behave.

The owner of a vineyard sees a fig tree that should have been bearing fruit for three years is barren. He tells the gardener to cut it down. The gardener says no—let me work on it some more, single it out, and see if it bears fruit then. After a year, if it’s still barren, you can cut it down.

Now cutting it down is a final judgment on that fig tree but the disaster will be that fig tree bearing no fruit. We are often viewed as the fig tree in this parable and I’d like to continue that interpretation with an understanding of what the gardener is about to do to us:

“I’ll dig around it and fertilize it” Now, what’s fertilizer made of? That’s right. In a more literal translation we have—“I’ll be digging and casting manure around it. Yes, brothers and sisters, we the fig trees have a decision if we don’t want to be cut down for firewood: we can either produce fruit ourselves or we can have the gardener dig all around us, violently disturbing our surroundings—maybe giving us new, unfamiliar, strange, uncomfortable dirt—and just when we’ve gotten used to that, the gardener will pile mountains of fresh, warm manure all over us. I believe that’s called some kind of storm that we’re in for.

It would be easier to produce that produce on our own: but sometimes we need help. Sometimes we need the disaster of disturbed earth and piled poop to allow us to change. We get caught up in our barren beliefs and behaviors and refuse to change until we are so piled with refuse that we have no other option.

Why wait until we’re piled high with dung? Why wait until the ultimate disaster of endless death and faithless life? Repent! Jesus says—change your mind and your purpose and bear fruit for the Lord—living any other way is just wasting space in the garden: you may as well already be dead.

So if you find your life disturbed, if you feel smothered by something unpleasant, take comfort—God is giving you one more chance to bear fruit. But take heed, your first pruning can be your last—but the reason is up to you: do you need to be cut down or will your fruit fulfill the harvest?

Let us pray:

Heavenly Father: let us bear your fruit.

Show us how to be fruitful for you

so that we may be useful

and if we must be disturbed in order to grow

help us remember the parable of the fig tree

and understand that every lesson comes from you

to help us turn to your ways.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.