Saturday, November 26, 2005

A Work in Progress(27 Nov. 2005)

Ruth M1 Naomi’s Tapestry: A Work in Progress November 27 2005

(The sermon can be heard on line at:
http://www.tenth.ca/audio.htm)

Mitch Albom, the author of Tuesdays with Morrie, has also written a novel called the Five People You Meet in Heaven. The novel describes the life of Eddie, a man who works most of his whole life as a maintenance man at a sea side amusement park... He wears a work shirt with an oval patch on the chest that reads "Eddie…"

He spends his days at the seaside amusement park greasing tracks and tightening bolts and listening for strange sounds (from the rides).

Eddie believed that he lived a "nothing" life, that "required no more brains than washing a dish."

Not has Eddie’s life been dull, but it also been filled the pain of loneliness and regret.

On his 83rd birthday Eddie dies as trying to save a little girl who’s standing under an amusement ride cart that’s about to come crashing down right where she’s standing because the cable which supports the cart is breaking…

The book of Ruth among other things is a book that speaks to people who wonder if God is present in an ordinary life. It also a book that speaks to people who wonder if God is present in their pain.

As we begin Advent, I want us to take a few Sundays looking that this book of Ruth.

If you have your Bibles please turn to Ruth 1:
Ruth 1
Naomi and Ruth
1 In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land, and a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab. 2 The man's name was Elimelech, his wife's name Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to Moab and lived there.
3 Now Elimelech, Naomi's husband, died, and she was left with her two sons. 4 They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth. After they had lived there about ten years, 5 both Mahlon and Kilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband.
6 When she heard in Moab that the LORD had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, Naomi and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there. 7 With her two daughters-in-law she left the place where she had been living and set out on the road that would take them back to the land of Judah.
8 Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, "Go back, each of you, to your mother's home. May the LORD show kindness to you, as you have shown to your dead and to me. 9 May the LORD grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband."
Then she kissed them and they wept aloud 10 and said to her, "We will go back with you to your people."
11 But Naomi said, "Return home, my daughters. Why would you come with me? Am I going to have any more sons, who could become your husbands? 12 Return home, my daughters; I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me—even if I had a husband tonight and then gave birth to sons- 13 would you wait until they grew up? Would you remain unmarried for them? No, my daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you, because the LORD's hand has gone out against me!"
14 At this they wept again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law good-by, but Ruth clung to her.
15 "Look," said Naomi, "your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her."
16 But Ruth replied, "Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. 17 Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me." 18 When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.
19 So the two women went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them, and the women exclaimed, "Can this be Naomi?"
20 "Don't call me Naomi, [b] " she told them. "Call me Mara, [c] because the Almighty [d] has made my life very bitter. 21 I went away full, but the LORD has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The LORD has afflicted [e] me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me."
22 So Naomi returned from Moab accompanied by Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning.
How does the book of Ruth begin? We’re told in vs. 1 that the story takes place in the time when the judges ruled and that there was a famine in the land.

The period of the judges was about a 400 year period (roughly between 1400 B. C. to 1020 B.C.), the time after Israel entered the promised land of Canaan under Joshua’s leadership and before there were any kings in Israel.

The period of the judges was time when God’s people, the Israelites, turned their backs on God, it was a time of social anarchy and violence when, as the last verse in the books Judges points out which in our Bibles comes just before the book of Ruth, each person did whatever seemed right in their eyes.

It was a time moral darkness for God’s people.

And Ruth 1 we read that there is a famine in the land.

Bethlehem, the town known as “The House of Bread” has no bread, so and a man named Elimelech and his wife Naomi along with their two sons do the “logical” thing. They go and live in Moab, where apparently there is no famine.

While in Moab Elimelech and Naomi’s sons Mahlon and Kilion marry Moabite women, one marries a woman named Orpah (not to be confused with Oprah) and the other marries Ruth. But, during their 10 year sojourn in Moab Naomi’s husband Elimelech dies, and during that same decade Naomi’s 2 sons die (we don’t know the causes of their death).

Naomi is left a widow without husband and without any sons or biological children.

We may look and so she should have her identity bound up in her husband and kids, but in her culture this would really have been a devastating loss for her.

In our culture, if you have an education or if you have marketable skills or if you have money or striking beauty particularly if you’re a woman, you have social capital.

In this ancient culture if you had family you had social capital.

She loses her husband and her only two sons in time when family is everything, she loses her husband and her only 2 sons when only males access to power. She’s old to have living parents, too old to marry again… as far as she has knows she has no close male family member to provide financially for her or to advocate for her. In an age where they have no nursing homes, she’ll now has no one to take care of her in her old age.

She enters in dark pit of despair.

In. vs. 13 says God has turned against her.

In vs. 21, she says has gone from fullness to emptiness…

When she returns to Bethlehem, looking destitute and disheveled, people whisper, “Can that be Naomi?” Naomi whose name in Hebrew means “pleasant” but don’t call me Naomi anymore, call me “Mara” which means bitterness--because her life has become full of bitterness.

Some commentators have pointed out that the reason Naomi is suffering is because, her family by moving out of Bethlehem, out of the land of promise into Moab her family was moving out of God’s will.

Some commentators have argued that her sons died prematurely deaths because they had married women who did not share part of the Hebrew culture and did share the same faith in God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

(And this was a time when the prosperity of God’s people was more directly connected to their honoring the terms of the covenant that God had made with his people, as described in the book of Deuteronomy.) And we do know that sin has consequences.

But even with the vantage point of over 3000 years of history, we don’t know, for certainty, that in this particular case that Naomi is suffering is directly related to her family moving out of Bethlehem, and her sons marrying people who did not share the same faith.

Last week we looked at how Joseph overcame sexual temptation in Egypt, when his boss’ wife tried repeatedly to seduce him. We do know from our vantage point that Joseph was out of his homeland, but was in the will of God. We also know that walked with integrity before God, but that he was sold into slavery by his brothers, was framed for rape by a married woman whose sexual advances he resisted and was thus thrown in prison.

We know Joseph, a man favored by God, faced circumstances that looked on the surface like it was God’s judgment against him, but they part of God’s hard, but ultimately good plan for him.

What does Psalm 34 tells us that many are the afflictions of the righteous…

What the story Joseph does tells and what the story of Naomi may be to telling us is that it may be the “will of God” for us to experience affliction and pain.

In these time of suffering, much like Naomi does in vs. 13, it’s easy to conclude “God’s hand is against me.”

It’s easy to exaggerate the hopeless of our condition…

Naomi doesn’t at this point in our story doesn’t seem to fully appreciate the amazing character of her daughter in law Ruth and she seems to forget she has a close male relative in Bethlehem who may able to advocate for her…

She doesn’t seem to grasp this. Because of her affliction, Naomi thinks everything in life is against her… and out a very noble concern for daughters in law she tries to push them away…

She tries to push them away by saying, look there’s no one in my family who can marry you (even if I was married tonight and conceived and gave birth to sons would you wait for them to grow up so they could marry one of you?)… Naomi says of course not… and besides you can see I’m husbandless—and too old to re-marry, childless, that God’s hand is against me… I have bad luck written all over me, for your sake, leave me and go to your homeland, back to your families, back to your gods, and find another husband in your country Moab…

At this point, Orpah does the sensible thing, she kisses her mother in law and leaves…

But Ruth holds her mother and law… and says "Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. 17 Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me."
What Ruth was saying, I’m willing to leave the comfort of my homeland, my language, my culture… never to return…. Where you die, I will die… What she was saying am I willing stay with you even if it means being a widow and childlessness for the rest of my days (as far she knows there no close relative for her to marry), she says I am willing to stay with you even though it means that I will a despised racial minority and looked down upon because of my ethnicity… (later Boaz tells his men not to harm her when she’s working in fields. Why? Because she a woman from a despised, marginalized minority group). Ruth says, I am willing to leave god of my people Moab, Chemosh, to embrace the God of your people, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob…
Naomi more reasons to hope than she dared imagine. She has Ruth. She doesn’t but she have a close male relative who may be able to help them Boaz, and at the end of chapter we read the famine in Bethlehem has ended and the barley harvest is beginning.
We might ask would she have still had reason to hope in God, if let’s didn’t have daughter in law who acted so loyally…or a relative like Boaz (more on him next week) or the barley harvest to glean from.
What if Naomi didn’t have Ruth, Boaz, or the barley harvest? Could we still say God was good to her? If we have no Ruth, Boaz, or a barley harvest could we still say God is good to us?
The only answer can I give is to say look at the one the great, great “offspring” of Naomi and Ruth, the greatest King Israel has known, not David, but one called the son of David, Jesus Christ… He, like Ruth, left his the comfort of his homeland, he left his Father’s throne above so infinite and free his grace, like Ruth he was willing to become a outsider, a suffering servant, a despised minority, like Ruth who was willing to lay down her life so her mother in law could have one, Jesus Christ was willing to give up his life on cross so we could have one with God…
Ruth extend her arms around Naomi, and Christ extended his arms on a Roman cross died in our places absorbed our sins, so we could reconciled to one who made us.
When look of into the face of Jesus, we cannot say God is against us.
When things are not going well, it’s so easy for us to exaggerate our hopelessness.
We can say, with Naomi, God has afflicted me. But we cannot say with her God is against me.
We have a person, even closer and more loyal than Ruth or Boaz, we have a friend that is closer than a brother or sister…
When we look into the face of Jesus Christ, we can know for certain that God is for us and if God us, we can say Paul than who can be against us?
The book Ruth that even in affliction God is working out his loving purposes for us, and even in the ordinary God is at work in countless ways.
In the book of Ruth there are no overt miracles, no prophetic words, visions… no supernatural healings… it’s about ordinary lives, rather mundane… but God is clearly at work.

And this story tells us is that our ordinary lives, that some times as ordinary in quality as the food in our fridge—not good enough to eat, but not quite bad enough to through out, God IS working our his purposes in ways that we are not aware…

Who would have thought that God would use these 2 outsiders, 2 destitute widows, one a member of despised minority group and weave into the family tree of Jesus Christ?

Who would have though that their great, great, great grandchild the King of universe would not be born in a palace or even a hospital, but into a stable, into a manger?

Ruth shows that God works his amazing in the most ordinary and mundane things.

In Mitch Albom’s novel the Five People you Meet in Heaven Eddie the main character as mentioned earlier is a man who works his whole life as maintenance man at a sea side amusement park. His life has been filled with the dull routine of a dead-end job, regret, and loneliness. Then at 83 is killed as he tries to save a girl from being crushed by an amusement-ride cart whose supporting wire breaks…

When he goes to the afterlife, he meets 5 people who explain to him, how his life has connected in powerful ways… to all these other lives in ways that he was unaware of, how he saved the life a little girl…

Our lives can seems series of ordinary, but like Ruth’s when they are in the hands of the master, he takes seem random events and weave into a tapestry that achieve his eternal purposes.

Barbara Februar is an artist who for a number of years was active in helping to lead our early morning liturgical service and was recently married to Al Schmaltz.

This week she painted a scene that represents Naomi, Ruth and many of our lives.

The series (will show by PowerPoint a stage by stage series of images which show how the art work progressed).

It starts with am ordinary landscape, somewhat dull, but it is ok.

Then it seems that things get worse for Naomi, Orpah, and Ruth… their loves ones die.

The face famine and poverty.

Life (and the painting) gets murky and foggy.

But as the story unfolds, more and more shape takes places.

We see more color and life….

In the corner the lace represents Christ. We see shape of his head and the halo…

We see the roots all interconnect…

In end we see a picture that’s not neat and pretty, but far richer, deeper and more textured…

So the book of Ruth tells us that our ordinary, seemingly random lives are working out his purposes…

In William Cowper’s hymn he says:
Judge not the Lord by feeble sense But trust him for his grace.

Behind a frowning providence, He hides a smiling face.
His purposes will ripen fast, Unfolding every hour;
The bud may have a bitter taste, But sweet will be the flower.

(27 Nov. 2005)

Saturday, November 19, 2005

Lust (20 Nov. 2005)

Lust (and the path to purity)… November 20, 2005

(The sermon can be heard on line at:
http://www.tenth.ca/audio.htm )

Sigmund Freud wrote about a Victorian woman who, on her wedding night, drugged herself into unconsciousness, leaving a note for her husband which read, “Do with me what you must.”
Some people think the Christian sexual ideal is close to some Victorian ideal.
Quite the contrary, the Bible is not at all squeamish about sex. In fact the Bible celebrates our sexuality in both Old and New Testaments and in the Song of Solomon is an entire book in the Bible that celebrates sexuality between a man and his wife!
We’re going through a series on the 7 Deadly Sins, this Sunday is the last Sunday and we are going to look at lust and sexuality (if kid’s are here are certainly welcome as always, but just to say parents there will be some “PG content.”)
If you have your Bible’s please turn to the first book in the Bible Genesis 39.
Joseph is the favorite son of his father Jacob’s 12… But he hadn’t handled his privileged status very sensitively and he was sold as slave to Egyptians. He ends up as slave in a fairly in home of one Pharaoh’s officials named, Potiphar, the captain of the guard
Joseph and Potiphar's Wife
1 Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. Potiphar, an Egyptian who was one of Pharaoh's officials, the captain of the guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there.
2 The LORD was with Joseph and he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master. 3 When his master saw that the LORD was with him and that the LORD gave him success in everything he did, 4 Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned. 5 From the time he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the LORD blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. The blessing of the LORD was on everything Potiphar had, both in the house and in the field. 6 So he left in Joseph's care everything he had; with Joseph in charge, he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate.
Now Joseph was well-built and handsome, 7 and after a while his master's wife took notice of Joseph and said, "Come to bed with me!"
8 But he refused. "With me in charge," he told her, "my master does not concern himself with anything in the house; everything he owns he has entrusted to my care. 9 No one is greater in this house than I am. My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?" 10 And though she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her or even be with her.
11 One day he went into the house to attend to his duties, and none of the household servants was inside. 12 She caught him by his cloak and said, "Come to bed with me!" But he left his cloak in her hand and ran out of the house.
13 When she saw that he had left his cloak in her hand and had run out of the house, 14 she called her household servants. "Look," she said to them, "this Hebrew has been brought to us to make sport of us! He came in here to sleep with me, but I screamed. 15 When he heard me scream for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house."
16 She kept his cloak beside her until his master came home. 17 Then she told him this story: "That Hebrew slave you brought us came to me to make sport of me. 18 But as soon as I screamed for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house."
19 When his master heard the story his wife told him, saying, "This is how your slave treated me," he burned with anger. 20 Joseph's master took him and put him in prison, the place where the king's prisoners were confined.
The text tells us he was handsome, well built (literally in the Hebrew “fair” or pleasing to look at), Joseph was also a diligent and able worker, a person of deep insight, and with a marked gift of leadership, favored by God and people…. He had charisma… Other than the fact he had the economic status of a slave, he was the “total package.”
Potiphar’s wife takes notice of him, in the Hebrew, literally she lifted up her eyes to him and in the culture this expression means she looked at him with desire and day after day she tries to seduce. And finally she can’t stand any longer, when alone in the house to fulfill his work duties, she grabs him and says come to bed with me…
Joseph responds in this remarkable way… he doesn’t say, ew, you’re not my type! This woman married to a prominent man and may well have been very attractively physically…
But Joseph, responds by saying your husband has entrusted everything he owns has to my care, except you because you are his wife. He responds by saying he will not wrong her husband and says, “How could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?”
If you’ve never the read the Bible if you just read about Joseph, this man who according to vs. 21 walks with God, you can deduce from his actions here that sleeping with a person who is married to someone else is wrong in God’s eyes. But if you read more widely the sacred text of Scripture, God reveals that to have sex with someone you are not in the permanent, exclusive covenant of marriage is wrong.
The Bible says in Genesis (and even if you’re new to the Bible, you’ve probably heard this text read at the wedding), “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife and the 2 will become one flesh… sex was designed by God as a profoundly unitive act, where two people, a man and a woman, would become “one flesh”, i.e., united in every way. Sex was designed by God such that when a person took off their clothes with another human being and united themselves physically, the heart was designed to take off it’s clothes and say I am want give myself to you, not just physically, but emotionally, socially, and economically in every way…
In our culture, sex isn’t presented this way, but when we abuse this teaching, we abuse God’s design for us. Williams College is one the best liberal arts colleges in the North America. At Williams College they had a women’s pride’s week. According the Wendy Shalit who had been a student during this particular, some the women wore stickers… with the words, “Shameless hussy”--which meant mean, I am available and eager for sexual contact. But so many of these engaging in so called casual sex, ended up hurt, angry, feeling so emotionally screwed up, and a few weeks later women started wearing T-shirts saying, “Why does always happen to me?” “Don’t touch me.” “I hate you.”
C.S. Lewis has that people, who want to engage in sex without becoming one in everyway with the other person (emotionally, spiritually, economically, legally) are like people who want to eat without becoming one with the food, i.e. it becoming part of them, i.e. without digesting it. Today we have a name for that we call it bulmia. You don’t need be a dietician to understand that eating and vomiting ravages our body, so having sex with someone that you are not able to become one with, ravages our soul.
I think we can understand the bonding power of sex from a different angle. People do talk about casual sex, young people talk about friends with benefits all that--sounds very causal. But when we find that a daughter, niece, or our sister is being sexually abused we don’t talk about it as causal, whether we believe in the Bible or not, we experience outrage.
I recently saw the powerful, compelling movie North Country. It’s based on the true story about a class action sexual harassment suit. It’s about the first females that were allowed to work in the mines of North America and about how they were sexually harassed. Not long after Josie (the lead character in the moview played Charlize Theron) complains to the president of the company about the sexual harassment, she’s lured in cave by another miner and he grabs thrust her by the front of the neck thrust her down to retaliate… but that’s not the most disturbing scene in the movie. The most disturbing scene in the movie flashes back to when Josie is a high school student… her male teacher asks stay and talk after class and he rapes her, that’s the most disturbing scence. Violence is bad, sexual violence is worse, it takes something from the person…
I grew up in North Surrey… As young person, I’ve experience my share of violence… got my nose broken in a football game—now it’s crooked. I had my share of school yard fights, a bump my the lip from a punch throw in school yard… as far I can tell, I don’t carry stuff with me as a kind of cloud… but in my observation, people who were objects of sexually violence, had something taken from them, there’s nothing casual about it…
Causal is an oxymoron, it’s a contradiction in terms…
Some people say, lust what’s wrong with that?
Isn’t it just a natural appetite like any other? Jesus in the sermon on the describes with the word epimuthia, which literally means an over-desire.
It doesn’t seem in to be normal appetite, in Potiphar’s wife case. The text tells us that she won’t take no from Joseph. Day after and after she keeps coming on to him. When he literally runs from her after she takes him by the cloaks, she wants to kill him. You say, I didn’t see that in the text. Rape is a capital offence in this culture, so falsely accusing slave whose word will not stand up in court of rape is to will to kill. Here’s woman who won’t take no for an answer and who willing to kill a man who won’t deliver what she wants: “that’s an appetite out of wack.”
John White a Canadian psychiatrist and pastor and author in his book Eros Redeemed, says that when love is divorced from sexual desire it can from become addictive. Sexual desire in itself is good, but when we seek to stimulate outside of a love relationship it can become addictive.
Eating is a natural appetite, we eat enough nutritious food, typically we’re satisfied… it’s not you want more and more food, once you’ve eaten… But, when we stimulate sexual desire outside of love, the craving intensifies and can become addictive…
C.S. Lewis points out that if a group of people came to earth and saw people paid to gather in dark rooms and see people, gradually lifting up a curtain… and slowly revealed a hamburger, and they paid to see this they would conclude a) people on earth where starving or b) there was something wrong with their appetites.
Dr. Margaret Cottle, who spoke here earlier this year at a seminar on choosing life said she said if one generation of young people chose to abstain, and practice sexually monogamy (mean sex only within marriage), we could eradicate every single sexual disease.
But a lot of young people would respond by saying, FU loser, you’ve had your fun, I’m having mine. If a doctor says to a diabetic, if you avoid sugar, you’ll live if you injest you may die and hurt a lot of people who are depending on you, Most patients, “Don’t say FU, you’ve had your sugar, I’m having mine!”
How do we overcome lust… that is an inordinate sexual desire that’s disconnected from love…
Live with consciousness of God…
Joseph had this powerful consciousness of God and was able to resist lust…
Joseph, when propositioned by Potiphar’s wife, says how can you do this and sin against God?
Foster a consciousness of God through the Word, the beauty of nature, by serving people who cannot repay you…
I have a close Christian friend who got engaged. I asked, this very close friend, are you having sex with your ___ (and I named his fiancé)? He said no. When I was in high school I was not a Christian and he was sexually active. My friend is really handsome, a star basketball player, class valedictorian in high school. When he was studying at Princeton he gave his life to Christ.
I want to honor God sexually and because of my past, we’ve agree that all we will do is hold hands and maybe a brief goodnight kiss.
He’s a friend who after he became a Christian, he lived out a kind of 2nd virginity because he was lived his life deeply conscious of God.
One of the ways we can stay conscious of God is through a friend that will keep us accountable.
A number of years ago, when I was single, I was on a trip and ended up meeting this actress. She had artistic and wild character… Did the black and white, Calvin Kleinesque, semi-nude modeling… We ended hitting it off. One night, she showed up at my hotel at 12:30 a.m. and 1:00 a.m. She called up to my room, I want to come to your room, but the people at the front desk won’t give me your room number, unless you give permission. I had a bad feeling about this. I should have hung up then, but we started talking and she began giving me all the reasons as to why I should not let her in the room… As we’re talking, I start to get confused as why I am supposed not her in the room, why are we not supposed to sleep together… After 45 minutes of talking, and about 5 or 6 pathetic, I’m about to hang out now, I hung up…
When I reconnected with an accountability friend (happened to be guy who was engaged that I just talked about) … I shared with him what, I’m was confused, so weak… He said, I wish you would have called… I said I though about, but I didn’t want to bother and I was embarrassed to… He said any time night or day you call when you’re potentially in compromising position call…
I was another situation not that unlike the above, different place, different time, different person… and I called a trusted friend… and it helped me escape…
When you’re in a time of sexual temptation, whether or a live person or internet or tv, it’s very easy to get confused… and start to wonder, “Why am I not supposed do this, why is this considered wrong?” And if we can talk to a trusted friend who shares our values in that in the moment of confusion it can make all the difference….
I need in people my life hold me accountable. I met with someone recently, who gave me permission to share his story… He said, I deal with sexual temptation to lust typically at night, so every night, I check and call my accountability friend.
He said, if at any time of the day, I think I need to call... It means I need to call. Even I think I don’t want to bother so and so or it’s embarrassing, If I might need to call, I need to call.
There’s something about being able to confess your temptation that bring clarity and breaks the power of temptation. I know someone (and he gave me permission to share his story). He was on a work related trip and one of his colleagues decided do him a “favor” by hiring two prostitutes to show him a good time. They came to his hotel room early one morning. He looked through peep hole and saw 2 scantily clad woman… talking loudly about how they we’re showing a very good (and they were not thinking about playing scrabble). He crawled back to be and pretended to be asleep.
Long after they were gone, the experience and the memory of was a source of temptation for him. Then he decided he confessed this temptation to his wife and the power was broken.
There’s something about having someone we are accountable and confess to that helps overcome temptation.
Then we see Joseph overcomes sexual temptation by staying way from Mrs. Potiphar. The text tells us that he refused to be with her. One time because of work he had to be in particular part of the home, she came up to him grab’s clock, apparently with quite a firm grip, he turned and ran and she was left holding the cloak.
Part of by keeping God in conscious, through word, beauty, or friends who will keep us accountable. The other is staying and sometime literally running from temptation.
When I travel, the first night I’m usually the most lonely. One trip, I was lonely, bored started channel surf in the hotel room. I came across a scene in a movie, where there was this vibe between two people who seemed like they were about to get physical, better channel surf off it… I’m curious, I wonder if they’ve progressed, I channel surf all the way around, ew definitely more than friends, channel surf back to it… I thinking I’m preach against stuff, I need to be channel back on it…
Now when I’m in a hotel room with a TV, I don’t turn it on.
I know of people who ask for the TV to be removed from their hotel rooms!
As single person living alone, I chose not have a TV.
I know someone at night at their home, who will not channel surf, but to only hit the know sports channels.
I know people of who have anti-porn filters on their computer and people who never use their computer if they are alone. They say, I don’t trust myself.
I know of a person who as a young minister said with his teammates, in his day he saw so many ruining their ministry through affairs, I will never eat alone with woman in a private (if I need to eat with a woman, I’ll do so only in public place), I will never travel alone in plane or even a car with a woman. I’m so glad he set those physical boundaries… he’s remained faithful until now and he’s 84. I’m so glad he stay faithful because he led my grandfather to Christ a few years before my grandfather died. He’s touched so many countless people his Christ. His name is Billy Graham.
(One of reasons to stay close to God and to set up sexual boundaries is to protect our spiritual legacy in the world. (In Arthur Miller’s famous play, Death of Salesman, one day son Biff shows at dad’s while he’s on a sale’s trips. He walks in on his dad in hotel room with the woman he’s sexually involved with. In that moment, Willy Loman loses his any further opportunity to influence his son, Biff. If you compromise, think of all the people, you might lose influence life of. Write their names out.)
How to overcome sexual temptation? Stay turned to God through the Word, beauty and accountability friends, remove yourself from the place of temptation, celebrate and channel your sexuality in positive way.
We see later in Joseph, in contrast to Samson who used his energy to chase women, Joseph channels his energy, in the service of Pharaoh, in the service of his new country, and to bless his family.
A single Canadian man (he’s actually a respected priest) named Ron Rohlheiser in his excellent book the Holy Longing says that males were made to enter into a life, deposit something and bring life… this is a metaphor for our lives… A lot guys think all sexuality is about coming, about having an orgasm.
Sexuality is much more than that, it’s about entering into life deposit something, in order to bring life…
Let’s say a man gets involved in say coaching a boy who’s perhaps been raised by a single parent. This kids trash talking, has an attitude, the coach helps him become a better basketball player and teaches about disciple and respect and how to live… and the kid starts to flourish not just as athlete as a human being…
That coach has expressed his sexual (NOT through any sexual contact, lest you mis-understand, that would be abuse), but he has expressed his sexuality in so far as the man has entered a kid’s life, deposit something, that brings new life…
Ron Rolheiser, points out a woman is built sexually to receive something, seed, nurture to bring life…
When a woman sees something beautiful, nurtures that in her soul, and then express in artistically on canvass she’s expressing he sexuality…
I have a younger sister who was really popular in high schools, by the girls and guys, pretty, in cool set, was voted best dressed student in her graduating class.
She ended up becoming high school, guidance counselor and teacher. She says, at lunch time, instead of eating with the her colleagues, she’ll invite who students don’t have any friends, who would otherwise end up eating along to come her office and sit with her and have lunch… she sits a circle in her office and by nurturing these kids through her welcome and birth life in them and giving she’s expressing her sexuality.
Our sexuality is great gift and can blessing to us if channeled correctly…
So how come by coming to God, fleeing temptation, expressing our sexuality in healthy ways…
John Donne…
Take me to you, imprison me, for I
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.

Saturday, November 12, 2005

Gluttony (13 Nov. 2005)

7 Deadly Sins M7 Gluttony: integrate scripture…

(The sermon can be heard on line at:
http://www.tenth.ca/audio.htm )

When we think of the word “gluttony” perhaps we picture Augustus Gloop, a character in Charlie and the Chocolate factory.

Augustus Gloop was the kid who was always stuffing his face with candy and who was the first kid to discover the golden ticket to Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. In the words of Ron Dahl’s book Augustus was so enormously fat that he looked like he had been “blown up with a powerful pump” and “his face was like a monstrous ball of dough.”

Or perhaps, we think of decadent ancient Rome, where beautiful houses were built vomitarias, so that people could eat and vomit, eat and vomit…

Or maybe we think of people who use drugs that control hunger (as was featured in a front page article in yesterday’s Vancouver Sun).

We tend to think of gluttony as overeating.

But in the view of medieval theologians gluttony could mean overeating, but also eating too expensively, or eating with too much fussily…

We live in a city with an international reputation for great restaurants. When we go to a small town in Alberta or Saskatchewan and go to what’s considered “the best Chinese restaurant” in town and we think this must be the only Chinese restaurant in town, because it is just “ok.” We can be too fussy.

We live in a time when people will carefully measure out how many calories, fat grams and, carbs they are eating…

Gluttony isn’t just about overeating, but it also about eating too expensively, and too fussily…

We’re doing a series on the 7 deadly Sins today we are addressing what may be considered the least serious of the deadly sins gluttony.

But, if we think about gluttony not only as over eating, but as eating too fussily
and if we think of gluttony as a kind of over-desire and over consumption in general and if we reflect on the fact that in North America, we have 5% of the world’s population, but consume over ¼ of the world’s resources, perhaps gluttony as deadly sin that is more relevant to us.

If you have your Bibles please turn to Isaiah 22.

In this passage, we read God condemning the attitude of his people…

13 But see, there is joy and revelry,
slaughtering of cattle and killing of sheep,
eating of meat and drinking of wine!
"Let us eat and drink," you say,
"for tomorrow we die!"
Isaiah 56:
Come, all you beasts of the field,
come and devour, all you beasts of the forest!
10 Israel's watchmen are blind,
they all lack knowledge;
they are all mute dogs,
they cannot bark;
they lie around and dream,
they love to sleep.
11 They are dogs with mighty appetites;
they never have enough.
They are shepherds who lack understanding;
they all turn to their own way,
each seeks his own gain.
12 "Come," each one cries, "let me get wine!
Let us drink our fill of beer!
And tomorrow will be like today,
or even far better."
In these passages, we see God judging his people for their “over-appetites” and for their attitudes of let’s eat and drink for tomorrow we die…
I’ve mentioned that Cornelius Plantinga Jr. describes sin as the vandalism of shalom (shalom meaning peace, wellness, and wholeness).

Gluttony vandalizes shalom in many ways:

Overeating hurts us physically…

We all know that if a person consistently overeats it takes a toll on a person’s digestive organs, negatively affects their health, and significantly shortens a person’s life span.

The gluttony of overeating can hurt us, but the “gluttony” of under-eating can hurt us too. Over desiring food can hurt us, but over desiring a certain kind of body can also hurt us.

Eating disorders like anorexia nervosa and bulimia: binge eating and purging are relatively recent disorders in Western countries (or countries that have been dominated by the Western standard of beauty). We don’t see any evidence eating these disorders… in the ancient world or in the developing cultures or cultures where it’s attractive to be plump…

These eating disorders seem to be result of an unrealistic standard of beauty put forward by magazines like Cosmo and Elle and gluttony for these kinds of bodies… in some cases these eating disorders are driven by a desire for people to gain attention: hopefully positive attention--based on how they appear and if not positive attention negative attention--as they elicit concern from the people in their lives… it’s negative attention, but still attention… Eating disorders can stem from trying to cope by numbing certain feelings… you can numb feelings by either overeating or under eating… But under eating can be deadly. I read this past week that the recovery time of anorexia is approximately 7 years and with a death rate of 20%--making it the most deadly of any many mental disorder.

Gluttony hurts us, gluttony hurts others…

We have significantly more food in the world than we need to feed the whole world--and yet half the children in the world go to bed hungry.

Complex, structural factors are involved in these inequities, but part of the problem is that the haves are consuming too much… North America contains 5% of the world’s population, but we consume over a ¼ of the world’s resources.

According the Worldwatch Institute the year 2000 marked the first time in the history of the world where more people were overweight than underweight. Canada is generally considered a land of moderation, but according to a CBC news story this past summer nearly 60 percent of Canadians are considered overweight.

When I was in graduate school, I was invited to a breakfast in Washington D.C. where then president Bill Clinton was a host and Mother Teresa was speaking (it was hotel room with a lot of people). I remember that we had sumptuous breakfast of eggs, bacon, hash browns, croissants, I remember mother Teresa declining to eat because it was too rich and too much food to eat, in light of world hunger (I ate breakfast).

Rev. R.W. John Stott is a deeply respected Anglican minister from England, and I understand from a mutual friend that if he’s in a restaurant, and they bring him a big plate of food… he spends half of it back to the kitchen--because he see that as a kind of waste in light of world hunger. I personally don’t do that, but I respect John Stott and his point.

(Now I know Thursday in coming up and Thursday is US Thanksgiving and a number of you will be celebrating--perhaps saying I wish I hadn’t come today… According to many Monks who live austerely, feast days ought to be exceptions, where we feast and eat richer foods with delight, celebration, and thanksgiving.)

Overeating hurts others, under eating can others too. In my own observation, a person who is not eating enough causes more stress for people around who love them those who over-eat.

One father whose daughter was only eating a carrot or diet coke for lunch and only a bit of salad for dinner with low calorie dressing said, said my love for my daughter was lost in the anxiety I had for my daughter.

Gluttony hurts our relationship with God.

Over-eating, over consuming in some area, makes us feeling sluggish… spiritually less alert… leaves ultimately spiritually empty…

Under-eating for the wrong reasons, i.e. for a certain kind of body, for attention, to soothe, will also hinder a person’s relationship with God. Under-eating for the right reasons to create space for God or to identify with the hungry will help our relationship with God, but under eating for the wrong reasons will hurt that relationship.

(BTW And over-desiring food or anything else other than God can hurt our relationship with God….

Is there something in our life if God didn’t provide for us would make us want to turn from him?

Is there is there a prayer that if unanswered would make us want turn from God?)

How do we overcome gluttony?

One way is by recognizing as Paul speaks of in 1 Corinthians that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit and that we were bought with a price and that we belong to God (1 Cor 3).

Our bodies are not are own, they belong to God… being conscious of this will influence the way we treat our bodies.

When you are taking of something that belongs to someone else isn’t true that you take better care of than if you owned it yourself?

We take care of a friend’s dog from time to time. When we have this golden retriever we’re careful to exercise it: we take it swimming to Jericho beach to play ball we run with through the endowment land trails. We’re careful to feed this dog, nutritionally and careful not to overfed or underfeed him. We don’t give the dog chocolate and because chocolate is harmful for dogs.

When we realize our bodies belong to God we will take better care of them: we’ll exercise them, rest them, we’ll tend not under or over eat.

(And by the way, when we recognize that our bodies our God’s we’ll be less behold to Hollywood’s ideals of the perfect body. We will begin as Jesus said that the things that God values and the world values are very different. That our external appearance is far less that what one the inside of us. If our equilibrium (i.e. balancing) weight tends to be more or less, we’ll be less likely to kills ourselves trying to achieve the perfect (and less likely to buy that spray on washboard abs kit before going to the beach).)

Another way to over come gluttony is by learning to fast:

Margaret Funk in her book Tools Matter for the Spiritual Life defines fasting as not overeating and not under eating…

Fasting typically mean to go free from food for period—which not everyone can or should do for physical reasons… E.g. you’re a diabetic or pregnant can’t and should not fast.

But fasting whether in Meg Funk of not overeating and not under eating or not eating for a period of time can bring great clarity make us more open to reality of God…

Fasting in the area of food can help gain avoid gluttony in other areas of our lives…

Dallas Willard, the USC professor and writer on spiritual life, was cited in an article carried in the Vancouver sun. He said the will is a like a muscle. If you for example, you can develop the capacity to say no to food (through fasting), you are more likely to be able to say to no in other areas in your life.

2nd. Eat nutritionally physically and spiritually

Tony Campolo tells about a very overweight recently seminary graduate who served a small rural church, where Tony Campolo had also served when he was a grad student. This overweight pastor was deeply warm and deeply loved by the congregation.

One Sunday morning in the middle of the sermon, to the shock of his audience he collapsed to the floor unconscious. He was hospitalized and listed in serious condition. After a battery of tests the doctors revealed his condition: malnourishment. Everyone was shocked. People said he never passes up a chance for seconds at a church supper. He’s always game for cookies or cake. What happened was that his diet was so imbalanced, so that even after he had eaten a lot… his body still craved more food because he wasn’t getting certain essential nutrients.

Ironically, a person can be both overfed but undernourished. You know how we can eat a lot of something and still be hungry? The reason maybe is that our body is still craving some kind of nourishment…

Eat nutritionally in terms of physical food, but also in terms of spiritual food.

Telihard de Chardin said, we are not physical beings having a spiritual experience, we are spiritual beings having a physical experience.

We are spiritual beings and have a hunger that can only be satisfied by a spiritual experience with the living God…

If turn we to other things whether it’s food, fitness, career, a human relationship, children… or spiritual junk food: whether health and wealth Gospel, drugs, or certain new-age spiritualities… for meaning we’ll be left empty.


C.S. Lewis say in the Weight of Glory says our problem is not that our desires are too strong it’s that they (i.e. some desires) are too weak.

He says, “We are half-hearted creatures, fooling around with drink and sex and ambition, when infinite joy is offered us.”

Like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot image what is meant by the offer of a holiday at sea.

We are far too easily pleased… we mistake the water hole for the sea.

Henry Fairlie says gluttony is a grievous sin, because it induces us to find all our contentment in gratifying our appetites.

Gluttony lies by saying we can find our satisfaction by satiating some physical urge…

but it is as we say no to certain urges, that we can find satisfaction for the deepest longings of our soul in coming to our maker…

We can respond to God invitation in the words of Isaiah:

Isaiah 58:
Invitation to the Thirsty
1 "Come, all you who are thirsty,
come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without cost.
2 Why spend money on what is not bread,
and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.

We can say with Jesus (in John 4) I have food to eat that world knows not…

Pray…