Reflection: Destroying the Weak (January 29, 2012)

Fourth Sunday After Epiphany
Deut. 18:15-20; 1 Cor. 8:1-13; Mark 1:21-28
 

It's been said that the Church is the only army that shoots its wounded. That statement is simply not true. The killing of wounded soldiers by their comrades is a common practice. Sometimes it's done out of mercy because a soldier has been mortally wounded and is in great pain. Other times it is done for the sake of the survivors who can't attend to the needs of the wounded and continue to fight off or flee from an attacking enemy. So, the Church isn't the only army that shoots its wounded, but we do shoot them.

Today's Epistle describes one way of "shooting the wounded." It's focus on the issue of eating meat that has been offered to idols may seem as though it has no relevance to Christians today — until we get to the issue behind the issue. This passage actually addresses how we deal with those who are weak in faith. In Corinth, those who were strong in faith and knew that idols were false could eat meat without any concern over if had been offered to idols or not. But those who were weak in faith and still struggling with the control of idol worship were stumbling and falling because they were following the stronger Christians without the maturity needed to guard them from any harmful effects. To this day, the self-centered exercise of Christian freedom continues to destroy weaker believers. The challenge to those who are mature in the Faith is to freely curb the use of their freedom for the sake of others so their actions don't inadvertently destroy the weak.

"So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge" (1 Cor. 8:11) is an appeal to us to use our Christian freedom wisely. It shows us the consequences of being unloving toward the weak in faith and also reminds us of how we are to value them. Christ died for the weak, not the strong. No matter how strong we've grown or how great our knowledge has become, we were once weak and ignorant, captive to the false gods of our world, and in bondage to sin and death. But Christ came to destroy everything that made us weak. He demonstrated His power by teaching with authority and by driving out demons. He engaged what was strong and had enslaved us. He displayed His strength when He made a public spectacle of them on the Cross. He has destroyed the power of sin, death, and Satan and made them weak — and made us strong in faith, knowledge, and love.

Audio file of the sermon based on this reflection

Devotion: Despicable Me

²⁴ From our youth shameful gods have consumed the fruits of our fathers' labor-- their flocks and herds, their sons and daughters.  ²⁵ Let us lie down in our shame, and let our disgrace cover us. We have sinned against the LORD our God, both we and our fathers; from our youth till this day we have not obeyed the LORD our God. (Jeremiah 3:24-25)

The animated movie Despicable Me features a super villain named Gru who is trying to establish himself as the greatest villain in the world.  As he contends with an arch rival, Vector, who manages to outdo him in every conceivable way, Gru ends up as the caretaker for three orphaned girls.  Over the course of the story, Gru's soft side is drawn out by the girls and he crosses over from being a terrible person bent on destruction to a good man who loves orphans.  While entertaining, the gist of this movie serves to perpetuate a lie that shapes the way that people think about themselves.  That lie is expressed in the attitude that there is good in everyone and in the belief that people will be good if we can find a way to get in touch with the good that is in them.   The extent of the influence of the world in our thinking is underscored by many Christians who embrace this view.  They object when this understanding of people is called a lie.  But a lie it is.

We should readily see the ideas that people are basically good or that there is good in everyone as lies from the clear teaching of God's Word.  Romans 3:12 sums it up very well, "All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one."  It's hard to maneuver around such strong language.  If we are honest about what God's Word is saying, we must admit that there is no good in us.  This is difficult, so we'd rather believe the lie.

It's strange, but not surprising, that we'd prefer the lie that we're basically good rather than the truth that we are "worthless."  After all, it was a lie that got us into this mess.  In the Garden, Satan enticed Eve with a lie.  It appealed to her, so she accepted it as truth.  When she did the good that was part of our human nature was completely destroyed — we lost it all.  No good remained.  This is the horrible condition that resulted from sin entering our world.  Along with what was good in us, sin destroyed the shalom of the

world — the peace, harmony, and balance that existed between God and man and the Creation.  With no good left — no good to be drawn out of us — we were in a hopeless situation and helpless to change it.  We were utterly despicable.  All we could do was "lie down in our shame" and "let our disgrace cover us."

But our disgrace and despair is not the end of the story.  Although we had lost all of the good — all of the shalom — it was God's purpose to restore us.  In His love He comes to those who understand that they have no good to offer Him and can do no good to appease Him.  It is for those who have lost it all that Christ comes into the world to do it all.  He leaves no room for any good in us, but makes room in us for His goodness.  He brings love and forgiveness to those who acknowledge their shame and recognize their disgrace.  He seeks out those who are helpless and hopeless to give them His power and a hope that will never disappoint.  He turns away the "good" people and showers His grace on the despicable me's.

Devotion: The Majesty of Man

³ When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have set in place,  ⁴ what is man that You are mindful of him, the son of man that You care for him?  ⁵ You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.  ⁶ You made him ruler over the works of Your hands; You put everything under his feet:  ⁷ all flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field,  ⁸ the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas.  ⁹ O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth!  (Psalm 8:3-9)

There are two competing views of man (i.e., human beings) in Western society.  The first view — which is the more recent and the more popular view — is that man is the product of millions of years of evolution.  The basic idea of evolution is that random and accidental mutations proved to be advantageous and resulted in a life form surviving and advancing.  In the case of man, these mutations elevated him above the other animals to the place he now holds.  At its core, this view tells us that we are essentially no different than the animals that populate the earth, that we exist as a result of chance, that we have no existence beyond this life, and that we have no special purpose beyond producing, consuming, and procreating.  How depressing!

In light of this view of man and how foundational it has become in our understanding of ourselves, it shouldn't surprise us that people in our culture are chronically depressed or that they live for selfish pleasures.  If we are here as a result of accidents and we have no purpose higher than the animals that we breed, kill, and eat, why not live for whatever pleasure we can squeeze out of our short and miserable existences?  And given that the pleasures we pursue come so infrequently and at such a great cost, who wouldn't be depressed?

But there is another view of man that stands in stark contrast to this disheartening understanding of ourselves.  This view has been around for a long time.  For thousands of years people have embraced this view of mankind and found purpose, meaning, and joy in life because of it.  By seeing themselves according to this view, people have overcome great obstacles, created beautiful works of art, advanced science, invented amazing creations, discovered cures for illnesses, established great civilizations, and much, much more.  What is this view?  It's the understanding that man was created by God in God's own image.

 

The psalmist asks a question that no evolutionist would even consider, "What is man that You are mindful of him?"  This question delights in the reality that there is a God who has fashioned all of creation according to His good pleasure and that man is the crowning work of His creation.  More than a mere animal that has happened by chance into its role at the top of the heap of life forms, man is a unique creation made in God's image to experience the joy of God's goodness.  Man has a purpose that goes beyond the moment and a life that transcends death.  Man is crowned with glory and honor by his Creator and shares in the majesty of God.

Having been given such a high and majestic view of man, we must wonder how we ever bought into the lies of men who would reduce us to mere animals, rob us of purpose, and strip us of our majesty.  Praise God that He is mindful of man and empowers us, by faith, to see beyond the destructive theories of men to the uplifting truth of His Word. 

Journal: Mortification - Living Without It

"If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.  And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell." - Jesus the Christ (Matthew 5:29-30)

Jesus' over-the-top teaching that if my eye causes me to sin that I should gouge it out or if my hand causes me to sin I should cut it off is meant to impress upon me a fundamental principle of putting sin to death.  He's telling me that there's something in my life that is leading me into sin and I think that I can't live without it.  He's also telling me that I must live without it. And He's assuring me that I can live without it.  Like  a person who has lost an eye or a limb discovers an increased capacity in what remains, Jesus promises a compensation for whatever it is that I must lose.  He's telling that when it is gone I will live on.  Actually, He is telling me that I will live a better and fuller life without it.

Journal: Avoiding Jesus

Some people seek to avoid Jesus by avoiding sin.  In other words, they work to keep from sinning so that they don't have a need for Jesus as their Savior.  How dare they!  I have no delusions about my sinfulness.  The last thing that I want  is to avoid Jesus as my Savior.  But what delusions do I have about myself?  In what ways am I trying to avoid Jesus and why?  Am I trying to avoid Him as my Creator so I can justifying treating the things He's entrusted to me as though they belong to me?  Am I avoiding Jesus as my King so I can retain control (or at least the illusion of control) over my life?  Do I shy away from Jesus as my Lord because I do not dare to think that He actually expects me to live a holy life to His glory?  Whether it is as Creator, King, Lord or some other way, how I'm currently avoiding Jesus is very likely to be the subject of the next chapter in my spiritual growth.

Reflection: It's About Time (January 22, 2012)

The Third Sunday after Epiphany
Jonah 3:1-5, 10; 1 Cor. 7:29-31; Mark 1:14-20

 When someone finally comes around to accepting something that they've been resisting, we're likely to say, "It's about time!" Jonah could be the poster child for this. Jonah 3:1 tells us that "the Word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time." We're familiar with the first time the Word came to Jonah and what happened when he ran away from it. After spending three days in the guts of a large fish, Jonah was ready to listen to God. It's not hard to imagine God looking down on Jonah after he was spit up on the shore and thinking, "It's about time!"

We face our own struggles with resisting God. Through our own experiences, we learn that God isn't going to let us run away. While we haven't been swallowed by and vomited out of a large fish, it's through our own dark and disgusting times away from God that He gets our attention. We may even have to do this as a community. Israel certainly did. Their dark time as a nation lasted centuries. They had turned away from God and, despite His Word coming to them many times, they would not turn back to Him. Their nation was destroyed. The people were taken into captivity. They lost their homes, property, and even their families. Even after they were allowed back to their homeland, they lived under the rule of one foreign power after another. They were primed and ready for the promised Messiah. When John proclaimed that the Messiah had came, they might have thought, "It's about time!"

Jesus had His own perspective on the timing of things in the life of Israel. He knew that their expectations of a Messiah were twisted around. Over the course of time they had shifted from desiring the Savior God had promised to a savior they had fashioned. In light of their skewed desires, Jesus came proclaiming that it was about time. He said the time had come for the kingdom of God to draw near to them. "It's about time," He said in so many words, "for you to repent and believe the good news." Isn't it about time for us to do the same? We've lived so long in the darkness of our misunderstandings of Jesus and His Word that we're looking for the wrong things. It's about time for God to deliver us from our own disgusting great fish — to have us vomited out of darkness and death onto the shore of a dying world to become "fishers of men." It's about time for us to repent, to take to heart His good news, and follow Jesus.

 

Audio file of the sermon based on this reflection

Reflection: The Answers Are in the Questions (January 15, 2012)

3rd Sunday After Epiphany
1 Samuel 3:1-10; 1 Cor. 6:12-20; John 1:43-51

One of the techniques for doing well on tests is to pay close attention to the questions. When we take the time to really think about what is being asked we can gain an insight into the question that helps lead us to the correct answer. In other words, it's not unusual for the answer to be in the question. In today's Epistle and Gospel lessons we encounter a number of questions. While these questions are not on a test, they do test our understanding of Jesus and His will for us. They are asked to get us to think about what it means to be His disciples and how we are to make use of His gifts of grace and faith.

The questions that God asked the Corinthian questions found in today's Epistle reading are good examples of questions that answer themselves. These questions begin alike with "Do you not know …" and then ask about things that these believers knew very well. As we read these questions we recognize that we know these things too. But it's the question that isn't asked here that causes us difficulty. We know these things, so why do we live our lives as though we don't? Does what we know really make a difference in our lives?

Most Christians really don't care to ask themselves these question for fear of realizing that the answer is far too clear. The sad reality for many of us is that knowing the good news of Jesus hasn't had much impact in how we live our lives. We can easily answer the question, "Should it make a difference?", but we struggle with answering, "How should it make a difference?". The answer to these questions are found in the answers to some other questions that we don't like to consider: Are we, like Samuel, listening to the Lord? Do we, like the Corinthians, use what God has given us in ways that glorify Him instead of indulge our desires? Do we, like Philip, respond to Jesus' call to follow Him without hesitation — and without question? Or are we more like Nathanael who questioned the Savior when He worked outside of his expectations? His first question shows his lack of understanding about Jesus. The second question He asked in today's Gospel shows his lack of understanding about himself. "How do you know me?" is a telling question — one we may not have asked because we think we know the answer. But the answer to this question is more than we would guess even though the answer is in the question.

 Audio of sermon based on this reflection