Balcony Friends (Samuel 18-20) Sep.30, 2007

“Balcony Friends” September 30, 2007

Text: 1 Samuel 18-20 (selected texts)

WORK ON CONCLUSION… DANIEL’s question how, I’ve been hurt…

Before coming here to Tenth Avenue Church, I was in a transition time settling back into the area after having lived in Southern California.

In the transition window, I was doing some training to run the Vancouver marathon. I was doing a little writing and some traveling and speaking--and not training as hard as I should have been. I wasn’t running anything close to 42 kilometers required in the race.

But, I figured I’d be ok because I knew there would be a lot of fellow runners and people on the sidelines cheering me and the other runners on. Sure enough I was energized by the cheering of people on the roadside and (though my time was nothing to brag about) I completed the race with more vigor than I had anticipated…

In real life we need people cheering us on…

Or to use an image from horse-racing… we need a “balcony friend.”

Gregory of Nyssa was one of the early church fathers in the 4th century, who spent a surprising amount of time at the horse track--for an early church father.

Gregory of Nyssa says:

At horse races, the spectators shout to their favorites in the contest. From the balcony, they incite the rider to keener effort, urging the horses on while leaning forward and flailing the air with their outstretched hand instead of a whip.

I seem to be doing the same thing myself, most valued friend and brother. While you are competing admirably divine race-- I exhort, urge and encourage you vigorously.

Apparently there’s been a phrase for a long time and is used to describe this sort of thing. It talks about someone being a “balcony person.” Gregory says, I’m up in the stands. I’m watching my friend run the race, and I’m cheering him on. This is your life--your one race in life. God is with you so don’t stop.

Some people are “balcony people.” When you’re with them, they fill you with energy, inspiration, and hope--they’re you’re balcony people.

Then you have some other people in your life. They are what Bay Area Pastor John Ortberg calls them basement people--because they bring you down: they drain you energy… they stick a hose in your gas tank and siphon energy from you.

Ortberg tells the story of man who has a man who has a barber who—who tells everything about his life…. he tells him about his life, his work, his family. The barber’s one of these guys who is never impressed, never excited about anything. The day comes when the man is getting ready to go to Italy, where he’s going to have an audience with the Pope. His barber is Catholic, so he’s sure that the barber will be excited about this. He tells him, but the barber says, “Big deal. You won’t be able to see him. He’ll be way far away.” The guy goes to Italy, and he comes back and goes to get his haircut. He says to the barber, You’ll never believe this, but I got to meet the Pope.
The barber says, You did not. Yes, I did. I was in a receiving line and got to come right past his chair. I got to shake his hand. I knelt down in front of him. I took his hand. I kissed his ring. I bowed my head before him. And the Pope spoke to me.
The barber is impressed in spite of himself. He asks, What did the Pope say?
He said, Where did you get that lousy haircut?

There are balcony people and there are basement people.

And each needs a balcony friend or two.

David as we see in the Scriptures had a balcony friend in Jonathan.

David’s had come under great attack from an unexpected source…
David with a sling and stone had killed the archenemy of his people: the giant Goliath…. And you would think that King Saul would be deeply grateful, but instead he is now insanely jealous, afraid the people would want David, instead of himself, to be their King.

Saul tries to kill David at least 8 times. Saul hurls spears at David, trying to pin him to a wall. He tries to get David to be killed in war. Saul with 3000 of his soldiers goes on a search on a search and destroy David mission.

While our experience may not be quite as dramatic, like David we too at some point in our journey will experience some kind of adversity… it may that like a David we are attacked by some person. Or we may feel threatened by some other kind of circumstance… we have difficulty in our work, or stress in a relationship, we receive a discouraging medical report…

When David was losing energy because he was being hunted down by Saul, God provided David with a wonderful gift—he provided David with a balcony friend, Jonathan. ..

Last Sunday, David Bentall spoke on covenant friendship. David talked about the various benefits of covenant friendship (get the cd or download the message from our website if you weren’t here). This morning, because this topic is so important and because we did not look at certain texts that relate to David’s friendship with Jonathan, we are going to go a little further on that theme today to look specifically at how a balcony friend can lift us when we are facing adversity (and looking from another angle we’re can look at how we can be a balcony friend to someone else)… how a balcony friend lets us in, and does not letting us down.

If you have your Bibles, please turn to 1 Samuel 18:1:

1 After David had finished talking with Saul, Jonathan became one in spirit with David, and he loved him as himself…

Robert Alter the Hebrew literary scholar, translates the phrase in Hebrew that Jonathan’s very self became bound up in David.

Jonathan and David became one in Spirit—their lives became bound up with each other. The gift of balcony friendship is that it enables us to receive the life energy of another person. When we are facing adversity, one of the things that can sustain us is receiving the spirit and the energy of another person.

We know that even something as simple as smile from someone we don’t even know can pick up our energy…

Even the wag of dog’s tail can pick us up…

A friend can have a profound impact on us. Neuro-scientists are finding that friends change the way we think on the deepest level. Kevin Pelphery, assistant professor of psychological and brain science at Duke, says there is a kind melding among individuals in a tight network and you become more …and more… and more alike. We know that close friends can anticipate what each other are going to say and can finish the other person’s sentences… close friends begin to imitate each other’s mannerisms on a subconscious level.

We are affected by the spirit and the actions of our friends.

Last week Brett Farve the quarterback of the Green Packers threw his 420th career touch down pass… Afterward, in an interview he said the personal record would have meant nothing to me if we lost the game… (which they won). When Brett Farve steps into the huddle with a 1 minute and the team is down by 6 points, players in huddle say when Brett steps in huddle, we know we can win, not just because his athlete ability, but because he plays with all his heart until the end of the game and he plays for the good of team team, not for himself.

Football is a just a game, but in REAL life we need people who’s spirit gives us energy, inspiration and hope.

Balcony friends lift you up.

And a balcony friend lets you in.

As we saw earlier, King Saul became insanely jealous of David’s success.

David is absolutely convinced that Saul, Jonathan’s father, is intent on killing David.

Jonathan, on the other hand does not believe his dad Saul now really wants to kill David…. David says (in 1 Sam 20) your father knows I’ve found favor in your eyes and your father has thought Jonathan must not know I want to kill him or he’ll be grieved.

It says in 1 Samuel 20: 4: 4 Jonathan said to David, "Whatever you want me to do, I'll do for you."

David in verse… 5 says "Look, tomorrow is the New Moon feast, and I am supposed to dine with the king; but let me go and hide in the field… 6 If your father misses me at all, tell him, 'David earnestly asked my permission to hurry to Bethlehem, his hometown, because an annual sacrifice is being made there for his whole clan.' 7 If he says, 'Very well,' then your servant is safe. But if he loses his temper, you can be sure that he is determined to harm me.

Jonathan tells David to hide in a certain place and tells him on the day after tomorrow, I will come to this place… I will shoot three arrows as though I were shooting at a target. 21 Then I will send a boy and say, 'Go, find the arrows.' If I say to him, 'Look, the arrows are on this side of you; bring them here,' then come, because, as surely as the LORD lives, you are safe; there is no danger. 22 But if I say to the boy, 'Look, the arrows are beyond you,' then you must go, because the LORD has sent you away.

When David does not show up for the festival meal, Saul asked, “Where’s David?” Jonathan explained that David had some family obligations to attend in Bethlehem. Saul flies off the handle and screams, “You son of a whore! Don’t you know that as long as David lives, you won’t be king? Bring him here so that I can kill him!” And Jonathan asks his father, “Why should he be put to death? What wrong has he done?” Saul grabbed a spear and hurled it at Jonathan, trying to kill him, and Jonathan ran out to the field to warn his friend David he really was in danger.
35 In the morning Jonathan went out to the field for his meeting with David. He had a small boy with him, 36 and he said to the boy, "Run and find the arrows I shoot." As the boy ran, he shot an arrow beyond him. 37 When the boy came to the place where Jonathan's arrow had fallen, Jonathan called out after him, "Isn't the arrow beyond you?" 38 Then he shouted, "Hurry! Go quickly! Don't stop!" The boy picked up the arrow and returned to his master. 39 (The boy knew nothing about all this; only Jonathan and David knew.) 40 Then Jonathan gave his weapons to the boy and said, "Go, carry them back to town."
41 After the boy had gone, David got up from the south side of the stone and bowed down before Jonathan three times, with his face to the ground… these warriors weep and embrace as friends.
In the story, we see that David shares freely with Jonathan’s his anxieties about Jonathan’s father’s intention to kill David… and we see Jonathan sharing very freely the sad news that his dad indeed does want to kill David…
Part of what a balcony friends does is that he/she let’s you into their heart.

According to Allan Deutschman, the author of Change or Die, the psychology profession has put an enormous amount of energy, money and time studying the effectiveness over 400 different schools of psychotherapy. The conclusion was that every kind of psychotherapy was helpful to patients, but no particular kind was significantly more helpful than the others. The key factor was the quality of the relationship formed by the patient and therapist… —not the specific theories or techniques that differentiated the particular school of therapy…

Do you remember when psychologist Dr. Larry Crabb spoke here last year?

I asked Larry, “I’ve heard different people cite studies that say if a person has a the same problem with one goes to a psychologist for a year and the other person instead connects regularly with a friend with whom they can share their heart, the person who regularly sees their friend is just as well off if not better off than the person who see the professional… Is that true?”

Dr. Larry Crabb said there are certain issues that a person is facing which is of such a nature they should see a professional, but 1000s of studies have been done on that question… and everyone says that if you can talk to friend with good character and wisdom, a friend is typically just as helpful long term as a “professional” if not more so… Larry leaned over and said… but the friend has to be trustworthy in character and wise…

Sharing transparently is typically more difficult for a man than a woman. I know for me it’s something I’ve had to work on. In some ways, it’s not that different from learning how to hit a tennis ball or golf ball, it’s takes practices and exercising neural networks.

When a man and wife divorce—typically a woman doesn’t fare as well as the man economically after the divorce, but does better emotionally because she typically has friends she can talk to, often the husband does not.

A balcony friend as we see David and Jonathan’s relationship gives us an opportunity to share our heart.

A balcony friend lifts us up by letting us in.

We see in David and Jonathan’s friendship that a balcony friend will not let you down. In 1 Samuel 18:3 we see them creating a covenant. In 1 Samuel 20: 16-17 and 1 Sam 23:18 wee see David and Jonathan reaffirming their covenant with each other.

As I alluded to last Sunday, the vast majority of relationships today are based on cost-benefit analysis. People enter into relationship with the assumption, “If I benefit from this relationship, I’m in… if I don’t out of here.

Sam Wells, dean of the Chapel at Duke, says, “If I were to coin a phrase that would sum up many students’ approach to friendship, it would be ‘might catch you later.’ Most cell phone conversations end with those words. That is, I am not committing my evening to you. I might get a better offer, but if I don’t get an offer, I may be in touch because you may be part of my evening’s entertainment.

A real friend is present for another person, even when it costs them something. Jonathan stayed true to David, even when staying true to David meant that Jonathan would forfeit his right to be king… as I said last week, when Jonathan gives David his robe and his sword, as a symbolic way of saying… you’ll be king, you’ll be my ruler… Jonathan was true to David, even when it meant that his father would try to kill him because of his friendship with David….

When David was out in the wilderness, running as a fugitive from Saul, Jonathan risked his life by searching David out (1 Samuel 23:16), and helped his friend find strength in God. A covenant friend present for you, even when it doesn’t benefit them.

Not that long ago, I was going through a discouraging circumstance, with no clear way out. My friend Chris, a politician and a poet, said… as he does from time to time, “I’m in our corner.” Later I told my wife and she wasn’t familiar with that expression, and I said when you’re a boxer… in the between rounds you sit on a bench in a corner and your team gives you water, and attend to your cuts, and they tell you can win the fight, not to drop you gloves so you don’t get hit unnecessarily. In the battle of life, we need someone in our corner. We need a balcony friend. So a balcony friend lifts us, lets us in, and doesn’t let us down.

The recently published Canadian census suggested that fewer and fewer relationships are based on any kind of promise….

I recently read that it’s not just young people, but senior citizens who are getting “friends with benefits”. Seniors are getting friends that they want to just have sex with and no other commitment. If the sex ceases to satisfy, the “friend” gets dropped.

In our culture to have a balcony friend or be a balcony friend seems rather counter-cultural, but so needed…

How do we receive this kind of friend…?

The irony is that if we try too hard, just to get a friend, you likely won’t have a balcony friend… It’s like that kid in junior high school--very desperate have friends (with the wide eyes of a puppy)--was the student who found it most difficult to actually make friends. But the best way to receive this kind of friends, of course, is to become a friend like this...

How do we become people who have the capacity to become a friend like Jonathan… who lifts people up, let’s them in and doesn’t let them down? It’s a very high standard he sets.

It is by embracing the friendship of the one who has offered this to us—the one to whom Jonathan ultimately points. Jonathan gave up his future Kingship in order to serve his friend David. And Jesus Christ gave up the throne in heaven to come to earth as human being to serve us.

When Jesus Christ was on the Cross, dying as a sacrifice for our sins, it wasn’t as though he were looking at us in his mind’s eye and wondering, “What am I going get out of this relationship?” Or, he wasn’t saying, “I’ll offer myself to you, because your personality clicks with mine or because you have a certain body type.” No, he was freely offering giving himself to us as a sacrifice for our sins—so our sins could be forgiven and so we could be united with God…

When we enter into a friendship with Jesus Christ, we have a friend with whom we can share our heart’s deepest desires and needs. And we have a friend who serves us, and out of that friendship, we can become a balcony friend to others.

When experience deeply the constancy, the courage and the care of Jesus Christ, we’ll be better able to offer that to others… we can become and receive balcony friends--who lift us up, let us in and don’t let us down.

Pray…

C.S. Lewis says

“For a Christian, there are no chances. A secret master of ceremonies has been at work. Christ, who said to the disciples, “You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you for one another.”

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

Imagination and Courage (Sep. 16, 2007)

Imagination and courage September 16, 2007

1 Sam 17
BI: When God dominates our imagination, we can take risks.


People who are over 90 years of age, according to a survey, tend to have 2 regrets as they look back over their life. They regret not taking more risks; they look back across the years and wistfully wish they had taken more risks…more chances… not played it so safe. They wished they had spent more time with people they loved.

Sydney Harris has said, "Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time;
regret for the things we did not do is inconsolable."

In the movie, Dead Poet’s Society the eccentric prep school teacher John Keating (played by Robin Williams) tells his students to listen to voice that whispers, Carpe, carpe diem, seize the day, make your lives extraordinary…

Later Keating will say, “Suck the marrow out of life—but don’t choke on the bone.”


The story of David and Goliath is a remarkable story that can show us how a person can seize their divine moment….

It’s a story that you will likely be at least somewhat familiar with. As adults we may be inclined to quickly dismiss the story because it takes place in the long ago and the far away—in a world that seems so different from our own. Or we may be tempted to dismiss this story as merely a children’s story. But as we look at this story, we are going to see how the story of David and Goliath enables us to really live our life in a way that will minimize our regrets and help us step into the adventure of life that God is calling us into.

If you have your Bibles, please turn to 1 Samuel 17 vs. 1

1 Now the Philistines gathered their forces for war and assembled at Sokoh in Judah. They pitched camp at Ephes Dammim, between Sokoh and Azekah. 2 Saul and the Israelites assembled and camped in the Valley of Elah and drew up their battle line to meet the Philistines. 3 The Philistines occupied one hill and the Israelites another, with the valley between them

The Valley of Elah where the Israelites were camping was like a canyon. It was probably about 1 ½ kilometers wide. At the bottom of the canyon between the slopes was a stream bed with some smooth stones. Each side of the canyon stretched about a kilometer up. On one side of the canyon camped the Israelites. And on the other side camped the enemy of the people of Israel, the Philistines. The leader of the Philistine was an impressive man named Goliath.

4 A champion named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out of the Philistine camp. His height was six cubits and a span.

That’s about 2.9 meters or 9 ½ feet tall. And to give you some perspective, the tall centers in the NBA (National Basketball Association) are a little over 7 feet tall (Yao Ming is listed at 7 foot 6). The hoop in basketball is set at 10 feet. If Goliath were alive today, he could stand under the hoop and dunk without jumping—that’s tall!

(vss. 5-7 describe Goliath’s armor).
5 He had a bronze helmet on his head and wore a coat of scale armor of bronze weighing five thousand shekels [b]; 6 on his legs he wore bronze greaves, and a bronze javelin was slung on his back. 7 His spear shaft was like a weaver's rod, and its iron point weighed six hundred shekels. [c] His shield bearer went ahead of him.

Not only is Goliath extremely tall and physically imposing, but he has this high-tech protective equipment (high-tech for his time, that is). Goliath is almost completely covered from his head to his feet. Goliath’s armor alone weighed 125 pounds. The head of his spear weighed 25 pounds. In addition to all this armor, he had a shield bearer in front of him, a man who would carry a man-sized shield for extra protection. According to verse 11, Goliath struck terror into the heart of Saul the king of Israel, who was himself a large man, and all the Israelites.

8 Goliath stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, "Why do you come out and line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not the servants of Saul? Choose a man and have him come down to me. 9 If he is able to fight and kill me, we will become your subjects; but if I overcome him and kill him, you will become our subjects and serve us."

It was very common in this time for armies to send a representative from the other army to do battle. The obvious advantage of this kind of representational fighting was that it saved lives and money.

Goliath didn’t just issue a challenge to the people of Israel once, but he issued it again and again over a 40-day period. As we see in verse 11, Saul and the people of Israel were quacking with fear. No one from the Israelite side had volunteered to fight Goliath. If the people had been living in our times, they would have figured that beating Goliath in a fight would be about as likely as beating Tiger Woods in golf or Roger Federer in tennis.

While this taunting was going on by Goliath, 20 kilometers away in the small town of Bethlehem a teen-age boy, too young to be serving the army, was dutifully watching over his father’s sheep. His 3 eldest brothers were part of Saul’s army and his father asked him to run a brown bag lunch—of bread and cheese to them.


So David goes to the canyon of Elah and, as he approaches, Goliath came out for the 41st day and issued the same challenge to the Israelites. And according to verse 24, all the Israelites fled in fear.

In verse. 26 David asks,
26….Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?"
And then, according to verse 28, when David’s oldest brother Eliab heard him speaking to the men, he burned with anger and asked David, “Why have you come here? With whom did you leave those few sheep in the desert? I know conceited you are and wicked your heart is; you came down here only to watch the battle.” David’s eldest brother is trying to humiliate his youngest brother in front of the other men. David simply responds by asking (vs. 29), “Now what have I done? Can’t I even speak?”

What David said was overheard and reported to Saul and Saul sent for him.
32 David said to Saul, "Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him."
33 Saul replied, "You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are little more than a boy, and he has been a warrior from his youth."
34 But David said to Saul, "Your servant has been keeping his father's sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, 35 I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. 36 Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. 37 The LORD who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine."
Saul said to David, "Go, and the LORD be with you."
What enabled David to face Goliath? It wasn’t David psyching himself up by saying the bigger they are the harder they fall? That may true, but this is certainly not what David was doing to ready himself psychologically for battle against Goliath. It was the reckless of youth or David was in some drug-induced state…

No, David’s recounts the times when he was keeping his dad’s sheep and a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock. And David recalls how God enabled him to go after it, to strike the lion or the bear and rescue the sheep from its mouth.

In verse 37, David credits the Lord for having rescued him from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear. David’s thinking, David’s imagination, was dominated by things that God had done for him.
Then we see in the text that Saul tries to fit David into his own armor, but it did not fit him. He wasn’t used to it, so he took off Saul’s armor and instead he went down to the stream, and he selected 5 smooth stones…

Eugene Peterson in his book on David, Leap Over a Wall, writes, “In my imagination I see David kneeling at the brook to select stones for his sling. The text doesn’t say that he knelt, just that he chose 5 smooth stones from the brook, but he must have knelt to select the stones. I see him kneeling, David kneeling at the brook.”

And Peterson asks, “Are we going to live our life from our knees, which is a symbol of our submission before God, a life conscious of God, a life where God dominates our imagination?”

David’s imagination was dominated not by Goliath, but by God. We see David kneeling, and then we see that David making his way to Goliath. Goliath looks him over and sees that he was little more than a boy. He says to David, “Am I a dog (not a term of endearment in the culture) that you come at me with sticks.” And Goliath is offended that the people of Israel have sent such a frail representative to fight him and he curses David “Come here,” he said. “I will give your flesh to the birds and the wild animals.”

45 David said to the Philistine, "You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46 This day the LORD will deliver you into my hands, and I'll strike you down and cut off your head.

And as the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him, he reaches into his bag, and takes out one his stones as the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him. 49 Reaching into his bag and taking out a stone, he slings it and struck the Philistine on the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell facedown on the ground. 50 So David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone…

What enabled David to charge against the giant Goliath? It wasn’t him psyching himself up with the words “the bigger they are, the harder they fall.” It wasn’t the recklessness of youth. No, it was that David had knelt before God, not just at the stream, but throughout his life. And his imagination was more dominated by God, than Goliath. He saw Goliath, to be sure, but he saw God even more clearly.

When our imaginations are dominated by God, a couple of things will happen. One is that we will be free to become our true self. We will not be forced to imitate some one else to live a “secondhand” kind of life. We read that (vss. 38-39) Saul had encouraged David to wear Saul’s armor and tunic into battle, but they did not fit David. And so instead, David said, “I cannot use these. I am not used to them.” So instead, he went down to the stream and chose 5 smooth stones. It took a certain inner security for David to not use Saul’s protective armor.
When you know that your imagination is dominated by God, you will be free to be the person that God created you to be. You will be secure enough to live out your unique calling.

I am a fan of the Seattle Mariners baseball player, Ichiro. Part of what has made Ichiro a great batter is that he has trained and he has learned to play baseball as a physically smaller player in a way that is suited to his particular design. I remember being on a plane from Osaka several years seated beside the person who recruited him to the Mariners. I asked the recruiter who himself had been a baseball player, “How was it that Ichiro is able to hit the ball so consistently?” This recruiter coach said, “Well, when a lot of players get up to bat, they try to hit the ball out of the park; whereas Ichiro isn’t trying to get a home run every time, he is just trying to make contact and get on base because he feels that is where his greatest contribution to the team will be.” He can hit home runs, but he knows if he tries out of the park at every at bat, his battling will go down. When he bats as the pitch is coming he’s already moving in the direction, because his eyes work better that… it looks a little that works better for the way his eyes work…

Ichiro has learned to play baseball in a way that is consistent with the way he’s made us, and to play like that, to live like that, takes courage… When our imaginations are dominated by God, like David’s was, we are free to not wear Saul’s armor, to not live by some one else’s script, but free to be our true selves….

And we see that David is living out his true self because his imagination is dominated by God, and not by Goliath, but we also David running toward Saul in battle armed with only a sling and five stones. And when our imaginations are dominated by God, one of the things that will be true of us is that we will be bold. We will take greater risks, knowing that God is with us.

In the movie, Almost Famous, the mother of the aspiring, teenager entertainment journalist says, (quoting Goethe) “Be bold and mighty forces will come to your aid.” And when our imaginations are dominated by God, we can be bold because we know that a mighty force will come to our aid.

In the book of Daniel, when the three young men who are followers of the living God, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, were commanded to bow down to the statue of gold or else face death in a fiery furnace, they responded with great courage and they said to the king, “We will not bow down to the idol of gold.” When the king responded in anger by saying, “Don’t you know that I could have thrown into a fiery furnace and who will save you then?” Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego responded by saying, “We will not bow down before the idol of gold. Our God is able to save us, but even if he does not, we want you to know that we will not serve your gods and worship the image of gold you set up. “Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were bold enough to defy the order to bow down to the idol of gold, even when they knew it might cost them their lives because they knew God was able to save them.” (They didn’t know whether God would choose to save them or not but they knew that God was able to)…

When our imaginations are dominated by God, we will have greater boldness; we will have greater capacity to take risks because we know that the living God is able to deliver us. If our imaginations are dominated by God, we will be able to do things that we would not otherwise be able to do because we know that a mighty force will come to our aid.

Like David, is there something that God is calling you to trust him for?
It may not be as dramatic as facing a 9 ½ foot giant, but in your mind and your heart it may feel like God is calling you to face a big giant…

Perhaps it is a giant inside of you, something inside you that you need to confront. The former secretary general of the United Nations, Dag Hammarskjold, has said that the journey within is the longest journey of all. Perhaps God is calling you to confront some fear, some issue inside you, perhaps with the help of a friend, a counselor.

Or perhaps the giant in your life is something to do with a relationship…maybe you need to confront some one … or ask forgiveness perhaps you need to declare your care for some one… or become more transparent in a relationship…

Or God is calling to honor and trust him in financial matter…

Or perhaps the giant that God is calling you to face involves sharing your faith if you believe. It can be easy for some of us who believe to talk about our faith in God with other people who believe. It can be harder to do that for some of us who don’t believe…

Or perhaps is calling you to trust him to live out a dream… something you though you ought to do for a long time….

Later this month we are going to be rolling out the opportunity to learn about, and get involved in, a mission to Cambodia... Perhaps the risk will be to spend some time in a culture that is totally different from here and serve at risk children or even people in prison…

Living life with an imagination dominated by God will enable you to live be your true self and live a life with far more risk, far more dangerous, far more fulfilling than you could ever live otherwise.

I want to live a life where some things in my life that can only be explained by God. John Ortberg, a pastor in the San Francisco Bay area, asks himself, “What am I doing that I could not do apart from the power of God?” It’s a great question, “What am I doing that I could not do apart from the power of God?”

And when Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were old men, they probably looked back occasionally and said wistfully, “Wasn’t that moment when God rescued us in the fiery furnace the greatest moment of our lives?” And I am sure that David, as an old man, looked back on his life with a sense of wondering attitude and how God delivered him and his people from the hand of Goliath.

When you get to the end of your life, don’t be like those people who are over 90 and who look back wistfully and regretfully because they wished they had taken more risks. Allow your imagination to be dominated by God and not by Goliath…

Be bold, as God leads you, knowing that a mighty force will come to you aid.

Prayer…

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

A Heart for God (Sep.9, 2007)

A Heart for God
September 9, 2007

New break between verse. 10-11

Big Idea: What matters is not your height or hair or what you have, but your heart.

1 Samuel 16:1-13

When I was living in the United States, in addition to being involved in planting a new church, I was doing some work as a feature writer for one of the newspapers. I ended up attending a conference for writers hosted by the Seattle Times. A journalist was leading a seminar on writing feature stories. He told us that if we were writing a character piece on someone, don’t write a series of adjectives about them but follow the person around and describe what he or she is doing. The journalist said, “For example, if you are doing a story on a Christian minister (my ears perked up), and the minister says, “We really have compassion for people,” don’t necessarily put that into your story, but if, as you are riding the bus, you see this minister push an old lady out of the bus as it opens, write that down. Because when it comes to revealing character, it is better to “show”, than to “tell.” When you want to reveal something about someone’s character, it is best to tell a story.

When God wants to reveal his character to us, he uses stories. As we look at scripture, we see that the primary way which God has chosen to reveal himself to us is through story.

When we read the gospels, we see that when Jesus wants to make a point, he tells a parable; he tells a story. Eugene Peterson a former professor at Regent College and also a respected translator of the Bible, says: “The biblical story comprises many literary forms: genealogies, sermons, prayers, letters, poems and proverbs, but story carries all of these forms as part of larger organic plot.”

This fall we are going to be looking at the longest, most fully detailed feature story in scripture. We are going to be looking at the life of David. We know more details more about David than any other single person in the Bible. David is mentioned 600 times in the Old Testament and over 60 times in the New. In fact, David’s story is the longest feature story about any particular person in ancient literature.

The story of David is a story in which we find ourselves. We see in David taking down the Giant Goliath with a sling and stone, but we also David running for his life from a King and his army, we David passionately seeking God and living with total integrity, we also see him commit murder and adultery… we see in David has this wide range of experiences and in David’s story we’ll find our story…

But most important of all, David’s story is a story in which we find God.

As we see God relate to David we discover things about God’s character, about the way he relates to people.

God has filled the pages of scripture with story so that we can better understand ourselves, but even more important, God has filled scripture with stories, so that we discover who God is and how he relates to us.

In the story of David, we come to know ourselves more fully and we come to know the God who made us more fully. And as John Calvin put it, “As we know God, we come to know ourselves, and as we come to know ourselves more fully, we come to know God.”

Let me take a moment to set up the context of David story.

In the 1100’s B.C., the people of Israel were clamoring for a king. Their king was God, Yahweh, but they wanted to be like the nations around them, so they cried out to the prophet Samuel, “Give us a king to lead us!” So the prophet Samuel ended up anointing Saul as king. Saul was tall—a head taller than anyone else; he was very impressive; looking. He was effective in war.

As an ancient near Eastern king, Saul was expected to embody his people (that is, to stand for them as their representative), but also to represent God for the people. But Saul proved to be unfaithful. Saul, as Israel’s king, was to represent the character of Israel’s God. But he proved to be no different from other ancient Near Eastern kings. His priorities were to accumulate power, property and possessions. Because of this, he had a habit of disobeying God… As a result of his lack obedience and trust in God, God rejects him as Israel’s king. So God calls the prophet Samuel to anoint another king.

If you have your Bibles, please turn to 1 Samuel, Chapter 16.
Samuel Anoints David
1 The LORD said to Samuel, "How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and be on your way; I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king."
2 But Samuel said, "How can I go? If Saul hears about it, he will kill me."
The LORD said, "Take a heifer with you and say, 'I have come to sacrifice to the LORD.' 3 Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what to do. You are to anoint for me the one I indicate."
4 Samuel did what the LORD said. When he arrived at Bethlehem, the elders of the town trembled when they met him. They asked, "Do you come in peace?"
5 Samuel replied, "Yes, in peace; I have come to sacrifice to the LORD. Consecrate yourselves and come to the sacrifice with me." Then he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.
6 When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought, "Surely the LORD's anointed stands here before the LORD."
7 But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things human beings look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."
8 Then Jesse called Abinadab and had him pass in front of Samuel. But Samuel said, "The LORD has not chosen this one either." 9 Jesse then had Shammah pass by, but Samuel said, "Nor has the LORD chosen this one." 10 Jesse had seven of his sons pass before Samuel, but Samuel said to him, "The LORD has not chosen these."
In verse 6, we read that when Jesses’ sons arrived , Samuel saw Eliab and thought, “Surely the Lord’s anointed stands here before the Lord.”
7 But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things human beings look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."
As soon as the prophet Samuel saw Jesse’s son Eliab, he thought, ‘Surely this is the one chosen by God to be the next king.” Samuel was impressed by Eliab’s appearance and height. Eliab was a warrior, part of Saul’s army. He was tall and impressive looking. In Samuel’s day it was essential for a king, a leader of the people, to have certain physical attributes.
This story, of course, takes place a long time before the “information” economy or the “experience economy”. It is a time when a nation’s power is largely defined the by the land you own, and you acquire land as a nation through war. And if you can physically dominate your opponents in war, you have great power. So, in a time before guns and computer guided missiles, the ability to subdue your opponent through the sword or spear was highly prized. Part of the reason of why William Wallace of Scotland upon whom the movie Brave heart is based because he apparently stood 6 ft. 6 in. or 6 ft. 7 in. tall and could wield a sword that was 5 and half feet tall in a time when people, in general, were not as big as they are now today. Wallace was basically able to subdue his enemies through his sheer physical strength. And so, when Samuel saw Eliab and his impressive appearance and height, he thought, “Surely, this is the Lord’s anointed.”
Like the prophet Samuel, we are very much swayed by how a person looks.
When people are interested in finding a significant other, a dating partner, when they are at a party checking out potential partners on the basis of appearance alone people will immediately eliminate maybe 80-90 % people in the room. They will focus on the one’s that they deem to be attractive and are saying to themselves, “H-m-m, he or she seems really cute. I wonder if they have a good personality, or not.” We end up eliminating people who may be great partners—just on the basis of their looks.
Did you see the article in the Vancouver Sun this past week with the photo of Donald Trump and his 3rd wife with the headline” Men want beauty, but women want riches? The article citing research done at places universities here in North America as well as universities in Great Britain, said that people may say they want like-minded soul mates, but in fact when it comes to our actual choices—men tend to choose women who are beautiful and women men who have money and can provide security.
Someone I know was working at a bank, and felt a call to go in the Christian ministry. His mother said, ok it’s your choice. But if you leave the bank and go into the ministry… you know you’ll only be able to marry a woman who actually loves you…
Our culture tends to value what a person looks like, their level of wealth, their level of achievement… in school in work…. in some field rather than their heart…
If you’re a Christian or part of some faith community the emphasis can shift to spiritual or ministry achievement… A person’s worth is determined by their level of “ministry achievement” and that’s what determines a person’s worth…
The apostle Paul in the famous 1 Corinthians 13 chapter of the Bible says,
1 If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. 2If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.
Our culture to really value what a person looks like and what a person possesses or what they achieve…
What we see in God’s rejection of Eliab as King is that what matters to God is not what’s on the outside, but what’s on the inside. What matters is not your height or hair or what you have, but your heart. As Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. it’s not about the color of your skin, but the content of your character.
Part of our vision here at Tenth Avenue Church is to create a community that focuses on developing people with great heart, hearts for God, hearts for people. That is not something that the world necessarily celebrates.
I don’t envision People magazine coming up with an edition that celebrate the fifty most beautiful hearts in the world. I don’t imagine Fortune magazine coming up with an edition that profiles corporations with the five hundred greatest hearts (the new Fortune 500), instead of top 500 companies in terms revenue.
But heart matters to God. Here at Tenth we want to foster the kind of community where people can develop great hearts for God and people can develop…
Jesse not only had Eliab pass in front of Samuel, but all of his sons. But the Lord had not chosen of them, so in verse 11 we read:
11 So he asked Jesse, "Are these all the sons you have?" "There is still the youngest," Jesse answered. "He is tending the sheep." Samuel said, "Send for him; we will not sit down until he arrives."
12 So he sent and had him brought in. He was glowing with health and had a fine appearance and handsome features. Then the LORD said, "Rise and anoint him; this is the one."
13 So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the LORD came on David in power.

The brothers passed in front of Samuel but none of them were chosen. When Jesse is asked, “Do you have any other sons?” Jesse says, “Well, there is the youngest.” He is not even in the room. Jesse does not even use his name. Jesse simply says, “Well, there is the baby.” The word he uses means “baby brother”, “Baby brother is out tending the sheep.” Eugene Peterson says that the word “haqqaton” carries the connotation of insignificance, “not counting for very much.” “The runt.” Certainly not a prime candidate for important work.

Robert Alter, the Hebrew scholar, points out that the fact that Jesse had shown Samuel seven sons, symbolizes the fact that that subset was considered a complete subset, that “7,” in Hebrew, is considered a perfect number, a complete number. And David is seen, not only as the run, but as the unnecessary outsider who not even considered part of the whole…

But David had what was most important in God’s eye’s… he had a heart for God… as we’ll in this series in the weeks to come we’ll see a heart that passionately sought God…

As we see in Scripture, what matters most to God is not your birth order (in the a time when that was very, very, important, not your gender, not your outer beauty, not your networth, not your achievement but your heart).

And if we had a heart for God like David’s (though his heart imperfect) if we had a heart for God, we would be happier, more whole, joyful people…

My wife and I have doing a form of Japanese exercise, somewhat yoga-like called Jiriki-setai. The master instructor, the founder of this Japanese form of exercise, who is not a Christian, says that the way to less stress and greater happiness is to become a person who does not chase after money or things or status—in many ways very anti-Japanese; in many ways anti-North American; in many ways an anti-human perspective (who thinks like this?). But if we became people who focused, not on money, not on achieving status, not on the accumulation of things, we know that we would have far less stress, be far more content. If we were less self-conscious about how we looked, or what people thought of us. If we are far less preoccupied with trying look like a success, far less vulnerable to criticism and what others think of us the happier we’d be.

But how can a person become like this? It is not as a person can simply “decide,” I’m going to become less materialistic from this day forward, less preoccupied with money…

How does a person change?

One of the most powerful ways to change is to be with people we want to be like.

And if we want to become people with a heart for God, the most powerful way we can do that is by entering into a relationship with the one whom David points to—his great, great offspring, the one who would the “The Son of David” Jesus Christ.

The text tells us that when Samuel anointed David with oil the Spirit of God came upon him… when come to Jesus Christ…. we are anointed by his Spirit and receive his DNA.

Jesus Christ was the one person in the universe who had the opportunity to choose exactly what he would look like, to determine exactly what his networth on earth would be. And Jesus Christ according to Isaiah 53 chose to have no earthly outward beauty, that we should be moved by that. He chose to be born into a poor family. And yet, we are told in scripture his joy was greater than that those of people around him.

People like St. Francis of Assisi and Mother Theresa and Thomas Merton who followed Jesus so closely, so had nothing in terms wealthy possessions, but were people of luminous joy.

If we embrace the one who was utterly pure in heart, the one whose purity can make our hearts pure, then we can become people whose hearts are directed toward God.”

As far God is concerned, it not about the outside, but what’s on the inside that counts…. What matters is not your height or hair or what you have, but your heart.
It is about heart. If we center our lives on Jesus Christ, we can become people whose hearts are after God’s, we can experience the heart that God longs for.

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

Job (Sep.2, 2007)

JOB M3 September 2, 2007

Text: Selected passages from Job 38, 39, 40 and 42

In the movie Forrest Gump, after Forrest Gump returns from serving in the Vietnam War, he and his commanding officer in the war Captain Dan (who lost his legs in the war) go into the shrimp fishing business… at first they can’t catch any shrimp… and captain Dan asks Forrest where is this God of yours? See what happens and how Captain Dan responds.

(Show clip of Captain Dan shouting at God from the shrimp ship in the storm—from movie Forrest Gump.)

Like Captain Dan and Forrest Gump, Job has been through a storm of suffering…

Like Captain Dan, Job in his own way will cry out to God…

In one singular, tragic day, Job lost his businesses, his investment portfolio has been wiped out, most painful of all he lost his 7 sons and 3 daughters as a wind storm blows in from the desert knocking down his oldest sons house where he and all his siblings are having a party…

At first he responds with remarkable poise: he falls on his face in worship and prays (Job 1:21),
21 and said: "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will depart. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised."
Then he ends up contracting a terribly disfiguring skin disease—open sores and boils have broken out all over his body, his skin begins to darken then fall out. He has a wife that tells him, “Curse God and die.” His “friends” as we saw last week, explain to Job that he’s suffering because he has sinned. Job finds that he is submerged by tidal waves of despair and begins to question whether God is good and just and powerful. In the midst of his suffering, Job begins to launch into a series of complaints against God. In Job 15:25, Job shakes his fist at God. And in Job 27:2, Job talks about the God who has denied him justice…. In Job 30, 31 Job demands God answer him!

The scriptures contain many stories of people who cry out to God in protest. God is assumed to be both good and all-powerful. So people featured in places such as Psalms 73 cry out, “Why do the evil prosper and the innocent suffer?” Abraham, Moses, David, many of the prophets question God’s justice. And throughout Scripture we see that God does not blast the questioner with lightning for these seemingly impertinent questions.

Job has no idea why he is suffering. He is unaware Satan has placed a wager on Job. He does not know that Satan has bet that Job will not continue to serve God if God allows Job to suffer. Satan assumes the only reason Job serves God is because God “pays well.” But Job has no idea, of this cosmic wager and Job demands that God answer him.

In Job Chapter 38, God does, in fact, answer Job…
The LORD Speaks
1 Then the LORD spoke to Job out of the storm. He said:
2 "Who is this that obscures my plans with words without knowledge?
3 Prepare to defend yourself; I will question you, and you shall answer me.
4 "Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation? Tell me, if you understand.
5 Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it?
6 On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone—
7 while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?
When God created the world, the angels spontaneously sang for joy.
8 "Who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb,

16 "Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep?

And God asked Job, “Have you ever asked the oceans to come this far, and no further? Have you ever made a sandcastle on the beach when the tide was out? As the tide was coming in, it turned to the proud waves and commanded them to come in no further? Job, have you ever walked on the bottom of the ocean?”

In verses 19 and 20, God points upward:

19 "What is the way to the abode of light? And where does darkness reside?
20 Can you take them to their places? Do you know the paths to their dwellings

And in verse 22, God asks, “Do you know where I make snow, or where I store hail? Do you know how I make frost on a windowpane, or cause dew to drip from a spider’s web?”

In Chapter 38: 31-33:

31 "Can you bind the chains [b] of the Pleiades? Can you loosen Orion's belt?
32 Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons [c] or lead out the Bear [d] with its cubs?
33 Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you set up [God's [e]] dominion over the earth?
God asked Job, “Who set the constellations of the stars in place? When you are out on a dark night in the interior somewhere, perhaps camping, and you look up at the star-spangled sky, do you understand how these were set into place?” And Job realizes that he is surrounded by a world that he does not understand…surrounded by a world of things over which he has no power…he is ignorant and impotent.
Even thousands of years later, there is so much of the universe that we don’t understand... Carl Sagan in one segment of his astronomy series, Cosmos, describes the Milky Way He shows a giant photograph of the Milky Way and says, “You probably imagine that we are right in the centre. No, we are way out here—in the corner. And what we call the sun is just one little sun among billions of suns in this one galaxy. And there are billions of galaxies. Sagan reminds us that we are just one little planet in one galaxy in the midst of billions of galaxies. And we dare to presume we understand what is going on!”
Einstein once remarked, “The more I study, the more I realize how much I do not know about the universe…”
And like Job, we are ignorant and impotent. We have no idea…
Chapter 39: 1-2: God continues to question Job about the animals.
1 "Do you know when the mountain goats give birth? Do you watch when the doe bears her fawn?
2 Do you count the months till they bear? Do you know the time they give birth?
“When the mountain goat trots across the Himalayas, I see it. Every time a wild deer gives birth, I stand it on its feet and help it out. I am present.”
Chapter 39: 26-27:
26 "Does the hawk take flight by your wisdom and spread its wings toward the south?
27 Does the eagle soar at your command and build its nest on high?
The hawk takes flight by God’s wisdom and the eagle soars at God’s command (Power point slides for the animals)
Chapter 40: 1-2
1 The LORD said to Job:
2 "Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him? Let him who accuses God answer him!"
Job having seen all that he has is in stunned silence:
Chapter 42: 1-6:
1 Then Job replied to the LORD:
2 "I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
3 You asked, 'Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?' Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know.
4 "You said, 'Listen now, and I will speak; I will question you, and you shall answer me.'
5 My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.
6 Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes
With a certain vengeance Job has questioned the universe--but now he has allowed the universe to question him!
And God is big enough for us to question God, the universe.
In the Peanuts cartoon strip where Charlie Brown is standing on the pitcher’s mount, he says, “Boy! It sure has been bad lately.”
Little Linus comes up to him and says, “Don’t criticize the world, Charlie Brown. Were you there when they laid the foundations of the earth? Who laid its corner stone when its morning star sang together? Who shut the sea with doors of the sea when it burst forth from the womb? Charlie Brown, have you entered the store house of the snow? Who can tilt the water skins of the universe? (As he holds up his pitcher’s mitt to the sky). Is the wild ox willing to serve you? Do you give the horse its might? Is it by your wisdom the hawk soars and spreads its wings to the south?”
And Charlie Brown just stands there on the pitcher’s mound wondering, “Do I deserve all this?”
“Don’t criticize the world, Charlie Brown,” Linus repeats, as he walks away.
Charlie Brown shouts after him, “How would it be if I just yelled at the umpire?”
What Job is telling us is that it is OK to question the umpire of the universe, but then let the umpire of the universe question us. And, as we allow the universe to question us, like Job, we will not receive any easy answers, but like Job we may come to a greater awareness the wisdom, power, and goodness of a God whose ways we do not fully comprehend…
Victor Frankl the Jewish psychotherapist who was in a German concentration camp during the World War II who wrote the classic book Man’s Search for Meaning.
Frankl said that in the death camps those who survived were the ones who stopped asking what is the meaning of life and instead allowed “life” to ask what is the meaning of you? Instead of asking life what is your purpose, those who survived instead allowed life to ask, what is the meaning of you?
It’s ok to question God, but as in Job a door to life opens when we allow God question us.
Recently, I was with a friend who has been on a very interesting spiritual journey. She went to a prestigious, elite school on the East Coast… she became a feminist, believed that perhaps there was some higher power, but didn’t believe in a personal God…
She was working as a journalist in New Hampshire and was looking for a place to live. An opportunity emerged for her to live in beautiful place situated at the convergence of two rivers, each covered bridges, by open fields and a beautiful view of mountains…
All this and at a really good price, the only negative in her mind was that she would have to live with a Christian roommate…
This roommate was very educated, intelligent… had black belt in Karate…
Barb was challenged because she normally didn’t put the words highly educated, intelligent and Christian together…
One day when Barb was riding in her car, she heard a voice (almost audible in side her head)… You believe in the supernatural, why don’t you believe in me? This so stunned her that she was pulled the car over to side of the road… she later drove a church and talked to the minister about this… This minister asked Barb if she could pray for her… Barb said yes… The minister simply prayed that God would give her a sign of his existence…
Barb had this Dog Cody a Golden Retriever who was 10 years old at time… Barb notice this massive swell developing in his chest, like a balloon being blown up doubling the size of his chest… she went to the vet and the vet said, through an ultrasound we’ve identified a massive cancerous tumor on Cody’s heart… because the tumor was so large Cody was actually going into cardiac arrest… The vet we’re going to have put him down…
Barb sat in her car with her dog… tears streaming…God are you there? If you are I need to know? In the midst of that—all of a sudden a tide of gratitude welled up inside… Jesus was there… she couldn’t see him, but she could almost physically sense his presence holding her… It was Jesus not the “impersonal force” she had believe in.
Barb decided she wanted pursue treatment for Cody’s cancer either--chemo therapy or surgery for Cody. The next week she was took Cody to the SPCA animal hospital… The swelling in Cody’s chest began to diminish, he was his normal self. When they opened him up they were not able to find the tumor… The doctor said, “the only thing we can find is his heart.”
Barb had lots of questions about God, but she allowed God to question her. By allowing God to question her Barb came to know God and through knowing God came to know more about the meaning of her life…
This experience of God working in Cody enabled Barb to believe…
and ever since this experience has been a cornerstone… it was sign of God’s love for her, enabling her to know that she can trust God even in suffering…
We may say, I could believe if God showed me an act of love like that…
He has….when we look at God in the face of Jesus Christ we see a God who has come close to us… who taken on flesh and blood to draw near to us and enter our suffering… God doesn’t come to us simply with an idea or with advice but actually comes to us…
On the cross—he gives us himself, he suffers for us… Like many us of who live here in the city of Vancouver, the garbage in our life was piling and the cross Jesus mysterious took the garbage of our life upon himself, the sin so we could be set free… God came for us on the cross…
God comes to us now, he comes to us in the car of life—he may or may not heal our Golden retriever or heal us in exactly the way we want here and now…
But God comes to us and with us and enters our suffering… He is beside us…

Tim Keller, one of my teachers who serves as minister in NYC, says the answer to the most important question of our lives is not a “answer” but it’s a question, it’s the question of Jesus Christ on the cross, when he asks, God his father, “My God, my God why have you forsaken me.”
The answer to our most important question, is not an answer, but the question of Christ on the cross… Why have you forsaken me…?”
When we see that Jesus Christ was willing to be separated from God in order to restores to God, when we see how deeply we are loved by God in Christ… we may not know why we are suffering, we can know that the loved by maker of all things….
On the night Jesus was betrayed he took bread…

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