tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-110173262024-03-23T10:51:55.485-07:00Ken's MessagePlease note that these writings by Ken Shigematsu are mere rough drafts, yet to be corrected and revised.
These talks were given at 10th Avenue Church in Vancouver, Canada.Shigematsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04506027536055632197noreply@blogger.comBlogger261125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11017326.post-34702589101333637692013-03-18T10:56:00.001-07:002013-03-18T10:56:47.567-07:00Find Your Life by Losing It <br />
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The Hard Sayings of Jesus M3<br />
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Date: February 17, 2013<br />
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Title: Find Your Life by Losing It<br />
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Text: Luke 14: 25-27; Luke 9: 23-25<br />
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Big Idea: When we take up our cross and lay down our life, we find our true life...<br />
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I remember, when it was time to bring Joey home from the hospital after he had been born, how we placed him in his car seat for the very first time, and the car seat looked way too big for his little body. We had towels that we placed under his bum, at his sides, and behind his neck to keep him from flopping around. I'm not usually a particularly careful driver (there's a reason, I don't have a “honk if you love Jesus” bumper sticker on our car – I don't want to deter people from the Christian faith), but that day I drove down Oak Street and turned onto King Edward with great caution - under the speed limit - to be sure that I was aware of what was happening on the road. If you are a parent, you know that driving your newborn baby from the hospital to your home - especially your first - is a scary experience.<br />
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I hear that another scary day for a parent is the day you turn over the keys of your vehicle to your child when they get their license at age 16. While our son Joey, since the time he has been able to crawl, has expressed an interest in being in the driver's seat and holding the steering wheel, he won't be driving - hopefully - for at least another 12 years. But the day will come when we place the keys of our car into his hands.<br />
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A lot of us enjoy the thought of Jesus being in their car as a passenger, as someone who can provide advice from time to time, as someone whose presence can make us feel less alone, and gives us peace of mind by just being with us. But a less pleasant thought for many people is to think of Jesus in the driver's seat of our life; where we let go of the control of our lives and Jesus determines where we go and the speed of our travel - where Jesus is in charge our habits, our money, our ambitions. That can be a scary thought.<br />
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We are in a series called The Hard Sayings of Jesus: sayings that are hard in some cases because they are hard to understand and, in other cases, hard because they are hard to swallow – and hard to live out - impossible to live out without God's help.<br />
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The text that we are going to be looking at today would not have been difficult for people in the first century to understand, but it would have been even more difficult to swallow and live out.<br />
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Last week we looked at Luke, Chapter 14, verses 25-26, where Jesus says: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even life itself—such a person cannot be my disciple. (And if you were away last weekend for the long weekend or Chinese New Year the sermon focused how hating our parents serves as a sword which divides our families, but in many cases can actually make our relationship with them more healthy. (It is available on our website). Then in the very next verse Jesus says, “Whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.”<br />
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In Luke 9: 23-25, Jesus echoes similar words and we’ll be looking at this text today:<br />
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23 Then he said to them all: "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. 25 What good is it for you to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit your very self?" (TNIV)<br />
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When Jesus says, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me,” he is saying “You’ve got to be ready for a violent death," if you’re my follower. When we first read this it sounds crazy.<br />
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Can you imagine a politician like Christy Cark or Adrian Dix saying to a group of people, "If you vote for me and our party, you will lose your families, your homes - all that you love. So, who wants to sign on to my campaign?" However, as one of the commentators points out, instead of being a politician, we should imagine Jesus as a leader of a great expedition, making his way through a high and dangerous mountain pass to bring urgent medical aid to villagers cut off from the rest of the world. We can imagine our leader Jesus saying, "If you want to come any further, you will have to leave your packs behind. From here on, the path is too steep to bring all that stuff." It is not an easy message, but it makes more sense. And it's one that brings life.<br />
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When Jesus calls us to follow Him, He calls us to surrender control of our life to Him, and to even be willing to lay down our life for Him.<br />
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In Jesus' first century world, when He called on those who were considering following Him to take up their cross, that would not have been interpreted as a simple figure of speech. People would have heard that as an invitation to be seen as a condemned criminal, then to die a disgraceful, violent death. If we heard the expression, “Take up your cross many times,” we can immune to it. Ann Voscamp, the Canadian author, describes how she struggled with depression and at times would say to herself, “I'd be better off dead.” But, when she actually contracted cancer and was facing the real possibility of death – she realized how hard it was and how much she wanted to live.<br />
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In Jesus calls us to face some kind of death and follow him. Death to an old way of life, death to our way of life.<br />
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But Jesus says: "Whoever wants to save their life will eventually lose it, but whoever loses their life for me, will find it." Jesus then says, “What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet lose or forfeit their very self.”<br />
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So here is the paradox: following Jesus will cost us our life. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer put it in his classic book The Cost of Discipleship: "When Christ calls a person, He bids them come and die." But it is in following Christ and offering our life to him, laying ourselves down for Him, that we find true life. As Bonhoeffer said "Following Christ is costly, because it will cost us our life, but it is grace, for it will give us our true life." The paradox is that it's only in losing our life for Christ that we truly find it.<br />
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In our culture--and I find myself talking like this as well--we often speak of two tiers of Christians: "Christians in general," and "committed Christians." But with Jesus, He makes no such distinction between "Christians," and "committed Christians." With Jesus, a follower of Christ must be willing to pick up their cross and lay down their life, and in so doing will find it in the end. As C.S. Lewis says, it's not so much that Christ wants some of our time, some of our talent, or some of our money--he wants all of us. And if he has all of us to have our time, our talent, our money. Christ doesn't want to cut off a branch here and there. He wants the whole tree.<br />
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Not long ago, I read a biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the pastor who was a key leader in the underground resistance movement which sought to resist Hitler. When it looked like his life was clearly in danger, Bonhoeffer—the pastor who was also a brilliant theologian--had the opportunity to take a distinguished teaching post at Union Seminary in New York City. Through his connections, he was able to leave Germany and find residence at Union Seminary. But he felt restless. In June of 1939, as he was reading the Scriptures he read in Isaiah 28:16, "The one who believes does not flee." Under Hitler things were becoming more scary in Germany. His friends told him, "Do not come back.” He was wanted by the Gestapo.But, he felt increasingly restless in NYC, and as he prayed about it, he felt God calling him back to Germany. So on July 7, 1939, just 26 days after arriving in New York, he boarded a ship and returned to Germany.<br />
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He was really living out his own paraphrase of Jesus' words in his book The Cost of Discipleship where he wrote: "When Jesus calls a man, He bids him come and die." Bonhoeffer would go on to lead the resistance movement against Hitler. He was discovered, arrested, imprisoned, and at age 39, engaged to be married. He was executed.<br />
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A couple of years ago, we featured the testimony of an 18 year old Korean girl on the screen named Kyung Ju (show the image).<br />
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Her dad had occupied a high-ranking position in the government of North Korea. Then, likely because of his commitment to Christ, he strangely went missing one day. He was likely martyred for his faith in Christ. Kyung Ju talked about how she was studying political science in South Korea. She talked about wanting to move to North Korea, to be engaged in the political sphere, as an ambassador for Jesus Christ -- fully aware that it may cost her life. As was true for Dietrich, and as may be true for Kyung Ju one day, there are times when taking up our cross, and laying down our life, will culminate in a one-time act. Someone said that you can only use the gift of martyrdom once.<br />
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But for most of us, taking up our cross will be an ongoing thing. Notice that Jesus says, in verse 23: "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily." In Romans, Chapter 12, Paul, likely alluding back to Jesus' words, says: "Therefore I urge you to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice."<br />
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Typically, in the ancient world, when an animal was sacrificed, it was first killed, and then the body would get placed on the altar, and then it would be consumed. If you were to put a live creature on the altar, and then light a fire on that altar, what is the creature going to do? It will get off the altar! But what Paul is saying is to get back on the altar, to surrender. There are times when it will feel that you are going to die, but it is the only way to life.<br />
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Sometimes, surrendering to Jesus, taking up our cross, means that we give up a way of life that is sinful, and dishonouring to God. In John 8, we see that Jesus approaches a woman caught in adultery. He doesn't condemn her like the other people around her who have brought her to him. He says: "I don't condemn you, now go and sin no more. Surrender your sexuality to me, your thoughts, your habits, your actions." Sometimes the sin, as in the case of this woman, is more dramatic and more scandalous, but at other times sin is small and seemingly innocuous -- but something that Jesus is calling us to surrender and crucify.<br />
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Not long ago, after waking up I went downstairs, let our puppy Sasha out of the kennel she sleeps in and fed her breakfast, and then went upstairs to do some home work. I ended up coming back downstairs about half an hour later, and noticed that she was chewing something. I opened up her mouth, and discovered that she was chewing one of the Lego figures that Joey had been given for Christmas. Before leaving Sasha on her own downstairs, where it was dark and I should have turned on the lights and checked to see if there were any chewable toys of Joey's left laying around on the floor. I pulled it out of her mouth, and then Sakiko and Joey came down for breakfast. I explained what had happened to Sakiko, and she said, "Ok well, this figure is a little damaged, but it still looks okay. Here are a couple more, but one is still missing." So, I went back into the living room while they were still in the kitchen, and discovered what looked like a chewed over blue stick figure. The once robust plastic lego man been now looked a shredded skeleton, I thought it looks like it has been through a bomb explosion! Sakiko asked if I had found the other figure, and I felt inner conflict as my first impulse was to say, “No... have you?” but then I felt convicted -- that it was a lie -- sounds like such a trivial incident, but in that moment I felt that it was a matter of surrendering to Christ and so I showed her. We were able to replace the figure.<br />
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God not only addresses sin as in the case of the woman who was caught in adultery.<br />
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We see in the gospels again and again, people like the tax collector named Zacchaeus, who calls people to surrender their money to him. Jesus spoke about money a great deal during His ministry because He knew it held so much sway over people.<br />
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I was recently going through some statements about spiritual practices—what we call a rule of life—from some people, who were in a small group of mine, each of whom had given me their Rule of Life. I was reading one by someone who was recently married, about to buy a home and start a family, and I knew that finances were tight. Yet, when I saw what they were committing to give as a percentage of their income, I thought, "Wow, this person has surrendered their financial life to God, and God will honour them."<br />
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Jesus can call us to surrender a habit, our money, and the direction of our whole lives. When Jesus called His first disciples, the fishermen who ended up dropping their nets, leaving everything to follow Jesus into what was, humanly speaking, an uncertain venture, all but one ended up dying a martyr's death. Jesus calls us to deny ourselves, pick up our cross—prepare to die—and follow Him, and part of what that means, is that we are willing to follow Jesus in a direction we would not normally take; to give up our ambitions, and follow him where He calls us.<br />
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This week, as I was thinking about this text, I asked Sakiko what it means for us to live out this text, to take up our cross. She paused for a moment and thought, and said, "In my own life, picking up the cross and following Jesus meant leaving my country, and coming to Vancouver." As someone who loved her family, her culture, her church, her job in Tokyo, she had never imagined living in a different country. And yet, God had clearly spoken to her about a major change in her life, thankfully for me before I proposed.<br />
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Ironically, the surrender of my life has been taken the opposite direction. The person who inspired me to go into the Christian ministry is someone who happened to be a speaker at Mission's Fest this year: an Argentinean evangelist named Luis Palau. Luis Palau has had a ministry where he has travelled to different parts of the world as a missionary evangelist preaching the gospel. And partly because he was the one who inspired me to enter into the vocational Christian ministry, I thought that one day, I might have a ministry of travelling in some preaching or missionary context. As a younger man I did some traveling and speaking and there is a kind a glamour in being the fresh voice, the star, and not having to deal with the problems on the ground as I jetted away.<br />
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I didn't envision that I would be pastoring in my own backyard -- this is not that far from where I grew up.<br />
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I have had to surrender that ambition, to be this travelling ministry figure, because I sensed that God has called me here, primarily as a local pastor.<br />
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In a way, God has fulfilled the desire for me because, as other people have pointed out to me, Vancouver is an international missionary context. An urban mission specialist named Ray Bakke came here to speak here at Tenth, and he told me in my office (partly tongue-in-cheek) that just when it was getting too expensive to send missionaries around the world, God has sent the world to Vancouver at their own expense.<br />
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And there have been great gifts in being rooted in a particular community.<br />
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Simone Weil, said “To be rooted [in community] is perhaps the most important and least recognized need of the human soul.” <br />
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I feel very fortunate to be in a place where I feel that I am living out my call, that I am where I feel God wants me to be.<br />
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Even though I feel I am where God wants me to be, I also don’t want to cling to a particular place or post, but release these to God.<br />
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I want to surrender my hope for the day, for next two weeks, or 6 months to him...<br />
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The more I walk with Jesus, watch Him interact with people in the gospels, the more I believe that He has our best interest at heart. We can’t even control our lives anyway, and we are best off ceding control to the one who is all powerful and loves us beyond our wildest hopes. Yes, Jesus does talk about us taking up our cross, but He says this so that in the end we may experience true life. Jesus said: "Whoever loses his life for me, my kingdom will find him."<br />
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Some of you are familiar with AA. One of the most important steps in AA is to surrender your will. The motive of the people who created AA, Bill Wilson and Sam Shoemaker, was not to shackle them in chains, but that people who struggle with drinking could truly experience freedom. Jesus' motive in calling us to give up the driver's wheel of our life is love ( Props: two chairs and a steering wheel—maybe borrow one from Carter Honda or Trembley Motors or Madjid) to give us freedom...<br />
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It says in John 10, "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." One of the very best examples I have for this is rappelling. (Show a PowerPoint image of someone rappelling).<br />
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When you are rappelling down the side of a cliff when you are a beginner -- and this is especially true if you are afraid of heights -- it is very scary, and your inclination, as you go over the cliff, is to hug the cliff—your "language of love" becomes touch. But if you hug the cliff as you are going down, you are going to start scraping your elbows and knees, and maybe your chin as well. You can’t move very smoothly. In order to find joy and freedom while rappelling, you need to lean back, and trust your equipment. It is very counter-intuitive because if you throw yourself back over a cliff, you feel as if you are going to die. But as you release and trust your gear, you find real freedom.<br />
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I have rappelled a number of times, enough times to know you're best off simply trusting your equipment. I have also stood at the bottom of a cliff and, seeing folks rappelling for the first time hugging the cliff, I’ve encouraged them by shouting, “Trust the equipment, lean back.” In other words surrender to it. There is a part of their brain that wants to believe me, but there is also a part of their brain that doesn't want to surrender, and wants to hug the cliff.<br />
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And not just as a pastor, but as a human being, I feel like I've walked with Christ long enough to know that the only way to follow Him is to surrender to Him. And surrender is the only path that leads to real wholeness and freedom, and the fullness of life that He offers us. And maybe you here, there is a part of you that believes in God, but there is some part of your life that you are clutching on to.<br />
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And perhaps today you, whether you are exploring or a long-time believer, say in your heart, "I want to surrender my life to You. My will, my money, the way I live, the whole direction, I surrender to You. I'm going to let go, lean back and trust you.<br />
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In fact, take over the driver's seat of my life.<br />
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Pray:<br />
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I don’t know the road ahead of me, I don’t even know where or how it will end—if I’ll make it through the journey alive, but I trust you and I will not be afraid because you are with me and my only hope in life and death is you, Jesus Christ.<br />
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Amen.<br />
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Shigematsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04506027536055632197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11017326.post-9131572280227509562013-03-18T10:43:00.001-07:002013-03-18T10:43:29.567-07:00Money and Eternal Life <br />
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The Hard Sayings of Jesus (M4)<br />
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Date: February 24, 2013<br />
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Speaker: Ken Shigematsu<br />
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Title: Money and Eternal Life<br />
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Text: Mark 10: 17-31<br />
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Big Idea: It takes a miracle for a wealthy person to inherit eternal life.<br />
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I recently saw the remarkable documentary on Ernest Shackleton’s attempted voyage in 1914 to reach the South Pole with his ship called The Endurance. Shackleton had failed twice to reach the South Pole and this time he was determined on making it. He placed an ad in the newspaper (I will read the ad):<br />
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"Men wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages. Bitter cold. Long months of complete darkness. Constant danger. Safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in case of success. —Ernest Shackleton." 5000 people applied and 27 sailors were selected.<br />
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They set sail for the South Pole, but a day before reaching their destination disaster struck. They found themselves trapped in thick ice.<br />
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They ended up leaving the ship and camping out on the ice for months. When it became clear the ship would sink, Shackleton had his men take the lifeboats off the ship and they made plans to walk to the sea. Shackleton commanded his men to leave behind all their personal belongings – except for 2 pounds worth of stuff each.<br />
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Just as Ernest Shackleton commanded the men on the voyage to Antarctica to shed their belongings in order to live, Jesus calls us to shed things in our lives, so that we will have less stuff that clutters our relationship with him so that we can experience eternal life.<br />
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And by "eternal life,” Jesus wasn't simply describing a life that we would experience after we die, but also a life with God now, on earth; a life accompanied by God's very presence, power, and blessing.<br />
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We are in a series called The Hard Sayings of Jesus, and by "hard sayings" we mean the sayings of Jesus that are hard because they are hard to understand (at least on first read), or are hard to swallow and to accept, and because they are hard to live out -- in fact, in many cases, impossible to live out without God's help.<br />
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Today we are going to be looking at a passage in Mark, Chapter 10, verses 25-27:<br />
25 "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for the rich to enter the kingdom of God." 26 The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, "Who then can be saved?" 27 Jesus looked at them and said, "With human beings this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God." <br />
This is definitely a "hard saying" of Jesus.<br />
He says: " It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for the rich to enter the kingdom of God." What did He mean by this?<br />
Some people have tried to minimize the harshness of these words by appealing to the fact that there was an arch-shaped opening in the wall of Jerusalem, call "the eye of a needle,” and if a camel took off its load, crouched down, and sucked in its breath, it could squeeze through that little arch-way opening. However, the gate called "the eye of the needle" was not built until medieval times, more than 500 years after Jesus' ministry. So this couldn’t have been what he was talking about.<br />
Others have said that there is an Aramaic, or Hebrew word, that sounds like "camel," but actually means "rope," and so some commentators have stated that Mark, the author of this gospel, must have misunderstood what Jesus was saying when He said "it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for the rich to enter the kingdom of God," that Jesus didn't mean camel - -He actually meant rope. But we know that He is actually referring to a literal camel going through the eye of a needle, because when he says this, we see in verse 26 that the disciples were amazed, and they said to each other, "Who then can be saved?" And Jesus states in verse 27 that "All things are possible with God."<br />
How does an actual camel get through the eye of a needle (keep the image on the screen while I speak of the need for a miracle of transformation)?<br />
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The only way this is possible is for the camel is to shrink way down, to become the size of a tiny insect, or for the eye of the needle to become very big in order for the camel to get through it. In other words, either the camel, or the eye of the needle would have to be miraculously transformed. No amount of dieting by the camel, no amount of oiling the inside of the needle is going to get that camel through. It is going to require a transformation of either the camel, or the needle. A miracle. Jesus is teaching that in order for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God, a miracle -- a transformation -- has to occur.<br />
Now we may not think of ourselves as being wealthy. And in fact, in the original Greek, it doesn't explicitly say that this young ruler was wealthy, but rather that he had "many things." But the fact is, almost all of us here are wealthy by the standards of the whole world. We live in a world where about 40% live on less than two dollars a day. The fact is, if you have a place to live, whether you own or rent and have a computer and in the internet, chances are that you are wealthier than 95 to 99% of the world. And even if you are a student, even homeless – if you calculate wealth in terms of access to food and shelter, the internet in a public library or medical care such as we have in Canada –you’re still in all likelihood still in the top of ten per cent of wealth.<br />
And so when Jesus says it is harder for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, He is talking about us. He is talking about you and me.<br />
The Scriptures teach that money can have a powerful, and at times even a demonic hold over our lives. Money can have a great grip on us. It can cause us to worry, envy, discriminate against those who have little of it, or too much of it. And one more thing: And this precisely is why Jesus spoke about money more than any other social issue. He knew that money was a rival god that could keep us from the Living God.<br />
There is an enormous discrepancy between what we are brought up to believe and what our society rewards as belief. Talk about the cussedness of the race! It's money that measures the success or failure of most of the games we play most of our lives. It's money that gives us our identity, compared to which our identity in God is but a footnote. We expect more from financial success than from our relationship with God. From Credo by William Sloane Coffin page 129<br />
We see this illustrated in the passage that immediately precedes Jesus saying: "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for the rich to enter the kingdom of God." He said this because He had an encounter with someone who is described as a "rich young ruler."<br />
In verses 17-22 of Mark 10, we read about this young man who came running up to Jesus, greeted Him with great respect, and asked Him: "Great Teacher, what must I do to get eternal life with God in this life, and in the life to come?" And Jesus said: "Why do you call me good? No one is good, only God. You know the commandments: don't murder, don't commit adultery, don't steal, don't lie, don't defraud others, honour your father and mother." And the young man said, "Teacher, I've kept them all from my youth." And the text tells us that Jesus looked at him intently, and He loved him. And then Jesus said: "There is one thing that you lack. Go sell everything that you own, and give it to the poor, and then all your wealth will become heavenly wealth. Then come follow me." The man's face clouded over; he was deeply grieved -- this was the last thing he wanted to hear -- and he walked away with a heavy heart. He was holding on tight to a lot of things and could not let them go.<br />
This young man's money, his possessions, have a powerful hold over him. It's noteworthy that this is the only time in the gospels that Jesus invites someone personally to come and follow Him, and the person says “no.” Now, when Jesus was preaching to the crowds, many people refused to follow Jesus, and walked away from Him, but this is the only time when Jesus personally approaches someone, and invites them to follow Him, and they decline.<br />
What does this story tell us about the relationship between having money and getting eternal life? In other words, what role does our money play in our becoming a true follower of Jesus?<br />
Let’s go back to the story of the rich young ruler.<br />
The young man runs up to Jesus, falls to his knees before Him, and asks: "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" And Jesus' answer is typical of a rabbi in His day. Jesus says: "Keep the commandments," and the young man says: "All these I have kept, since I was a boy." Jesus doesn't deny that at all. There’s no pushback from Jesus. No objection is raised by his disciples. In fact, if we were to read on, it's clear that they admire this guy. This young man is someone who is very virtuous. He is well-to-do. He is young, and probably quite attractive. As someone I know has pointed out, it is hard to be young, wealthy, and not attractive -- it is possible, but you've got to work at it! He says the path to eternal life is through the commandments.<br />
As we saw in the Deuteronomy series in the fall, Moses after preaching several sermons on God’s law said, if you walk in God’s command today, if you love the Lord, your God, and walk in obedience to Him... You will live. You’ll experience life--not death, blessings-- not curses (Deuteronomy 30).<br />
The path to eternal life is through the commandments. Both Moses and as Jesus said, if we listen to God's voice, hold fast to Him, we will receive life from God. The rich young ruler had kept all the commandments that Jesus had outlined (Jesus had outlined five of them), but the young ruler had failed to keep two other commandments. The First and greatest Commandment to have no other gods above God; to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Jesus knew this. And Jesus also knew that it was disguised money and possessions that was keeping him from loving God with all his heart. His heart was divided. His money and possessions were cluttering his relationship with God.<br />
We see in the text that Jesus looked at him. In the Greek, the word "looked at" is an intensified version of the word "looked." In other words, Jesus looked at him intently, examined his soul. It wasn't a look of judgement, or anger. We read in the text that Jesus looked at him and loved him. When we love someone -- really love them -- we tell the truth. And Jesus said, "You lack one thing. Go sell everything you have and give it to the poor, and you will have treasure with God. Then come with me."<br />
At this, the young man's face clouded over, and he went away sad. But in the Greek, it says that he "grieved.” It is the same word used to describe Jesus' grief back in the garden of Gethsemane, as He sweated drops of blood, and was about to face the horror of the cross.<br />
The young wealthy ruler was greatly grieved, and he walked away from Jesus. As I said, he was the only person who was ever personally approached by Jesus, invited to follow Him, and said “no.”<br />
Money and possessions continue to be the greatest hindrance for most people in actually giving their life wholeheartedly to God, and experiencing the eternal life of God. Now, I know from my years of pastoring and preaching that I can preach on "That shalt not murder," one of the commandments Jesus referred to in His conversation with the rich young ruler, and most people are on board with that. Or preach on "Thou shalt not commit adultery," another commandment that Jesus lists, and again, maybe a little lower percentage of people are on board with that, but still there is a general sense of agreement that it is a good and reasonable thing. Or if I preach on "Thou shalt not steal, do not lie, do not defraud," people tend on board with that. Even if people have a difficult relationship with their parent, or parents, "Honour thy father and mother" is agreed to be a good commandment in general.<br />
However, when I call people in response to God's word, to give a substantial amount of their money away, there can be push-back in people's hearts, and sometimes through emails. When you hear Jesus calling on the rich young ruler to sell all that he has, and to give it to the poor, in order to have eternal life, he squirmed. 2000 years later this story makes us squirm. And the only way that we can live this call out, is through a divine intervention, a miracle. It’s impossible to do this on our own. It’s not in our nature. We are rich and the only way that a camel can become small enough to fit through the eye of a needle is through a dramatic and miraculous transformation in the camel. <br />
One the clearest sign that God has done a miraculous work in us is that we have eternal life is that we are able to give away substantial sums of our money. It takes a miracle. According to the Google philanthropic foundation, it typically takes a person having 20 million dollars to be able to give away five percent of it. That is half of a tithe away from a feeling of financial security. One of the signs that God has done a transforming work in us, one of the signs that we really have entered into a relationship with God, that we really do have eternal life, is that our relationship with money has changed.<br />
I spoke about my colleague Aisyah a couple of weeks ago. Aisyah was born into a devout Muslim family, a family of real privilege. Her dad was a distinguished ambassador from Indonesia and they were well-to-do. Her parents had what they regarded as a wonderful plan for their daughter Aisyah to study in different parts of the world, including the United States and Switzerland, to marry someone who was a devout Muslim, but who was also successful in a worldly sense. Her future was all set; she was walking down a path of enviable financial security.<br />
But when she started considering the possibility of following Jesus Christ, she not only feared that she would be disowned by her family -- completely cut off -- but she was also keenly aware that following Christ would mean that she would be walking away from the wealth that she would have access to in her family coffers, if she did not commit her life to Christ. She counted the cost; she committed her life to Christ; and her willingness to walk away from that wealth is a sign that God had done a miracle in her.<br />
In my own parents, who I know are a little embarrassed when I talk about them, but I have their permission, are a living example to me of how God has transformed their lives in this area. They grew up with substantial wealth and privilege in the days when Japan was still poor after World War II. They were sent to private schools; my mom ended up studying at an Ivy League school at a time when it was very rare for people from Japan after they lost World War II to study in the US. At my parent’s wedding they chartered a private jet to personally pick up their guests and bring them to the wedding. After they were married, they enjoyed a 2-month honeymoon traveling all over Europe at time when it was very rare for people from Japan to travel in Europe. When my family decided to move to Canada, it was very disappointing to both sets of parents, and the financial support dried up. So the family I grew up in was by Canadian standards of modest means. But given what they had grown up with, it would have been easy for them to centre their life on money, and the perks that money can bring. But since giving their lives to Christ, they have committed to giving substantial amounts of their money away, with great generosity. To me, this is a sign that God has really been at work in their lives.<br />
So how do we respond to a text like this; the story of the rich young ruler, and the words of Jesus that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God?<br />
First of all, we can't be legalistic about this. We are looking at Mark 10, but there is a parallel story of the rich young ruler in Luke, Chapter 18. In the following chapter, Luke 19, there is the story of Zacchaeus, the tax collector who offers his life to Christ. Zacchaeus doesn't give 100% of his wealth away; he voluntarily gives 50% of his wealth away. And the biblical starting point of giving wealth away is not 100%, it is not even 50%, rather it is 10%.<br />
If you look at the story of the rich young ruler, the story of Zacchaeus, and the biblical call to tithe, there are different percentages that people give away, so we can't be legalistic about it. We can't be legalistic about giving away 100%, nor 50%, nor about 10%. So while the Scriptures do call us to give the first tenth of our income away as a starting point... we can’t be legalistic about it in the sense of saying if that doesn't represent a sacrifice for us that we can do whatever we want with the other 90%. You can't just check that box off and say we've tithed; I can now do as I please with my money. Giving shouldn’t be motivated by our desire check a box, but out of love for God and surrender to him. If 10% doesn't represent a sacrifice for us then we are called to give substantially more. What does this mean for us?<br />
I've thought about this, and prayed about this.<br />
If Jesus were to ask me to give away 100% of all that I own, I hope and pray that I would be able to do that, and trust Him; to trust that the wealth that I would receive, as Jesus says, would be greater -- spiritually speaking -- than what I actually gave away. I also believe that he would provide for me materially, or I die, and it was God's will that I enter the life to come more quickly than I anticipated. That I would be living this great adventure. But if God doesn't speak to me directly, in an oracle, then how am I to live?<br />
As we saw last week, he calls us to deny ourselves take up our cross and follow him. <br />
God has occasionally spoken to me very clearly, almost in an audible voice, but that has only been a handful of times. If God doesn't speak to me directly, then my model, as a follower of Christ, must be the way of Christ. And Christ was the one who gave it all for us, who sacrificed His life on the cross that we might become eternally wealthy, that our sins might be forgiven, that we might know the life of God now and forever.<br />
Paul in 1 Corinthians 8 says that Christ, though He was rich, for our sakes became poor so that we, through His poverty, might become rich. So Christ really is the model for us in giving. That is, we are called to give to the point of sacrifice, to the point where we are not living to the standard we could be living in if we were not giving so much away in terms of how we live, our lifestyle; where we live, what we eat. That kind of life may sound difficult, but there really is attractiveness, a beauty, to this other way of life.... to giving to the point of really trusting...<br />
One of the real gifts of the rebuilding project at Tenth (point to the UEH) was that we engaged in some years ago was it gave us many of us an opportunity to trust God in a significant way with our money. I realize some of you were here then, but a number of you weren’t so let me retrace a story I have shared from that time. When the earthquake hit in Washington state area a Wednesday morning, I was praying that the building would fall down – so that the insurance company could pay for it. But God gave us a great gift, by giving us the opportunity to give to the project so that as a community, so we could stay in the city.<br />
During the campaign, Sakiko and I committed to giving—IF God enabled us--the equivalent of 50% of one year’s income – over the three-year (this would be over and above our regular tithe). We had no idea where that money would come from – when the campaign was beginning, we were looking at our bills at the kitchen table – and Sakiko pulled up one bill and asked how will we pay for this? I said “by cheque.” She said, “We don’t have the money in our bank account.” The next day or the day after that someone broke into our garage and our car ended up being damaged. We had more unexpected expenses as a result. We got off to a discouraging start. But amazingly, with God's providing in ways we could not have anticipated, we were able to meet our goal and actually go beyond our goal. There was a real of surge of joy for us. At the end of that year we were able to meet our goal.<br />
As we were looking back at the high points of the year, God providing for us and enabling us to give more than we thought we could give was the first thing we mentioned. Priceless gifts came through that in a way we could not have anticipated.<br />
Now in a fresh way, I have been thinking about what this means for me, and what it means for us as a community here at Tenth. The thought of being able to give more, particularly to the impoverished people in the developing world is exciting, and fills me with a sense of joy.<br />
Some of you may know I'm in the process of finishing my first book, God and My Everything. I was having lunch with someone who is interested in the book project, and mentioned that the contract is set up. I'm not going to personally receive that advance money, and the future royalties bypass me and go into a fund. The net advance and royalty money will go to support impoverished children in the developing world and our missions partners.<br />
And the person said, "But what if the book does really well? You never know, you could really regret this decision." Maybe there will be some bitter-sweetness if that unlikely scenario unfolds, but I do believe that there will be more sweetness, as there is a joy in giving generously. And I want to think and pray about how we personally as a family, and how we as a church can live and give generously, and even sacrificially. And to know the life and the blessing of God that comes of that way of life, as we become that kind of person.<br />
Money can have such a powerful hold on us, and even a demonic hold. The paradox is that if we hoard it we think we may be more secure and happy, but we have more misery—there's a reason the word “miser” and “misery” have the same root.<br />
How can the power of money be broken in our lives?<br />
The way we can do that is by looking into the face of The rich young ruler. Not the young ruler that ran away from Jesus, but from Jesus, who was also a rich young ruler. And perhaps part of the reason that Jesus looked at this young ruler with such affection and connection was because He could identify with him, because Jesus was infinitely rich, in a spiritual sense. He was also a young ruler, who had done exactly what He was asking the rich young ruler to do.<br />
He had, after all the riches and the wealth and the splendour of heaven, become poor for our sake. He humbled himself, took on the form of a servant, and became obedient to death -- even death on a cross -- so that we could be forgiven, so that we could inherit eternal life, so that we could be infinitely wealthy.<br />
And when we look into the face of Jesus, the true young ruler, and we see how much He loves us, and how much He has given to us through His life, death, and rising again, then we can respond by giving all of us and all we have to Him.<br />
As I look back over my journal and think through the great gifts that God has given me in the last two or three years, I find that I have often been on my knees saying, "God, you have been so good to me. How can I say thanks? How can I give more of myself, and more of what I have back to you?" More of heart and more of my life, more of what I have.<br />
And if you are calculating in your mind the cost, in our text Peter says to Jesus: "We've left everything to follow you," and Jesus replied, "No one who has left home, brothers or sisters, mother, or father, or children, or fields, for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times in his present life, and in the age to come, eternal life."<br />
As we give our lives, and what we have to Jesus, we are led on this incredible rich adventure. What we give away, we will get back a hundredfold. It may not be financially, but it will be given back us in some way a hundredfold. In this life and eternal life in the world to come.<br />
And as one my teachers has said: "God's power and grace flow away from people who love money and power. But God's power and grace flow toward people who give it away."<br />
So give and become a person who is truly blessed, truly rich.<br />
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Shigematsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04506027536055632197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11017326.post-34320842398390856932013-03-05T10:37:00.001-08:002013-03-05T10:37:35.943-08:00Grace & Justice <br />
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City Series M-8<br />
November 25, 2012<br />
Speaker: Ken Shigematsu<br />
Title: Grace & Justice<br />
Texts: Deuteronomy 10:16-19, 15:1-11, 24:19-22; Matt 25:31-46<br />
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BIG IDEA: In response to God’s grace we are called to generously give and work for justice in the world.<br />
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When someone is introducing you what do you want said about you? Or, if you are introducing yourself say in 140 characters or less as in Twitter bio, what will you say about yourself? In my little intro I’m a pastor of Tenth Church in Vancouver and I am husband to Sakiko and father to Joey. <br />
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How we introduce ourselves tells others what we do, what we value, who we are in relationship with. When God introduces himself in the Scriptures, he calls himself a “The Father to the fatherless and the defender of widows” (Psalm 68:5).<br />
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One of the most important things God does in the world is to take up the cause of the poor and powerless. And, as we noted in one of the earlier messages in this series, this particular bio for God is remarkable. In the ancient world, as we’ve seen, the gods were capricious, cruel, self-serving, and favored the rights of the rich and powerful and gave virtually no rights to the poor. Whereas the living God regards all people, even slaves, as human and sacred. The bias that the Living God has, not in favor of the powerful, but the powerless, as historian Thomas Cahill points out, is unique not only in ancient law but in the whole history of law. God certainly loves both the rich and the poor, and in the Bible, while there are texts that call for justice for members of the well-to-do classes, his calls to extend justice to the poor outnumber those passages by about a hundred to one. And this emphasis has led some, like Latin American theologian Gustavo Gutierrez, to speak of God’s “preferential option for the poor.”<br />
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When a person reflects the compassion, generosity and justice of God they are called righteous.<br />
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Take Job for example:<br />
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The character Job in the Bible was described as righteous.<br />
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In Job 29:12-17, Job says:<br />
12 For I assisted the poor in their need<br />
and the orphans who required help.<br />
13 I helped those without hope, and they blessed me.<br />
And I caused the widows’ hearts to sing for joy.<br />
14 Everything I did was honest.<br />
Righteousness covered me like a robe,<br />
and I wore justice like a turban.<br />
15 I served as eyes for the blind<br />
and feet for the lame.<br />
16 I was a father to the poor<br />
and assisted strangers who needed help.<br />
17 I broke the jaws of godless oppressors<br />
and plucked their victims from their teeth.<br />
Old Testament scholar Bruce Waltke, who taught for many years at Regent College here in Vancouver, points out that the righteous persons like Job in Scripture are willing to disadvantage themselves for the sake of the community. The wicked, conversely, according to Waltke, are willing to disadvantage the community to advantage themselves.<br />
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In this final sermon in the Deuteronomy series we’re going to look at several texts in Deuteronomy that show us how we can become a person who is just and part of what it looks like to live this way (2x).<br />
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So first, how do we become a person of greater justice?<br />
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It's true that because of the sin virus that has affected us all so like the gods of the ancient world we can be selfish and self-serving.<br />
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But we are also made in the image of the Living God who is compassionate and just.<br />
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As human beings who are made in God's image each of us has at the very least a dormant seed of compassion and justice (use prop).<br />
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And as we are drawn into a relationship with the Living God, and experience his redeeming grace, the seed of compassion and justice within us is watered and the shoot of God’s love and mercy begins to grow out from us (use prop).<br />
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And Moses understands this is so as he preaches on the banks of the Jordan River and he calls his people – who are first made in God's image and then were redeemed by God's grace as they were delivered out of Egypt that land where they were slaves -- to become who compassionate and just.<br />
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In Deuteronomy 10:16-19:<br />
16 Therefore, change your hearts and stop being stubborn.<br />
17 “For the Lord your God is the God of gods and Lord of lords. He is the great God, the mighty and awesome God, who shows no partiality and cannot be bribed. 18 He ensures that orphans and widows receive justice. He shows love to the foreigners living among you and gives them food and clothing. 19 So you, too, must show love to foreigners, for you yourselves were once foreigners in the land of Egypt (Deut. 10:16-19).<br />
Pray<br />
Moses reminds the people of God that they had been slaves in Egypt, poor, and oppressed. And if they had been poor and oppressed people in Egypt, and then experienced God’s grace, God’s pure gift, as he sprung them free from their land of slavery, they in turn were to respond by showing God’s mercy and justice to the poor by loving the orphan, the widow, and the poor immigrant in your midst.<br />
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And all of us here are made in God’s image—so the seed of compassion and justice is at the very least dormant within us—and many of us have experienced the grace of God in a way that is even deeper than for the ancient children of Israel at the time of Moses. Many of us here have experienced God’s redemption, not physically but from a far more pervasive spiritual slavery to sin and a self-centered way of life, and we've been brought into a friendship with the Living God.<br />
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And if this has been our experience, we can express our gratitude to God by living lives of generosity, compassion, and justice.<br />
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But what specifically does it look like to live with generosity, compassion, and justice?<br />
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In Deuteronomy, Chapter 24:19-22:<br />
19 “When you are harvesting your crops and forget to bring in a bundle of grain from your field, don’t go back to get it. Leave it for the foreigners, orphans, and widows. Then the Lord your God will bless you in all you do. 20 When you beat the olives from your olive trees, don’t go over the boughs twice. Leave the remaining olives for the foreigners, orphans, and widows. 21 When you gather the grapes in your vineyard, don’t glean the vines after they are picked. Leave the remaining grapes for the foreigners, orphans, and widows. 22 Remember that you were slaves in the land of Egypt. That is why I am giving you this command.<br />
Doesn’t this passage reveal God’s heart of generosity? It’s clear in this passage that God doesn’t want the farmer to take the entire harvest for himself and his family, but to leave some of the harvest on the ground for the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow. In God’s view, the poor had a right to some of the farmer’s produce. Now most of us are not farmers, so what is the application here for us? It means that if we are God’s children and recognize how gracious God has been to us, and we want to walk in His ways as people who are righteous, then again to quote Bruce Waltke, as righteous people we will be willing to disadvantage ourselves for the sake of the community. The wicked, according to Waltke, are willing to disadvantage the community to advantage themselves. But the righteous, are willing to disadvantage themselves for the sake of the community.<br />
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So what does it look like to become like God and to be willing to disadvantage ourselves on behalf of someone else? What this means is that we take a more generous posture of life.<br />
A couple of examples from life, and then one from a business owner, and one from how it applies to life in the larger world:<br />
First, there is something I do a weekly basis that reminds me of the passage in Deuteronomy 24 that calls us to leave something for others when harvesting. It’s such a small thing, and I feel a little sheepish talking about it. Each week it’s my job to take out the garbage and recycling. It’s a very small thing I do, but it reminds me of this passage We always put bottles and cartons in the recycling blue box that we could cash in. But we always, actually it’s almost always my wife who rinses any of the bottles that we’ve used, because we know that they are going to be picked up by someone in the back alley. And if I bump into someone in the back alley as they are pushing their shopping cart and picking up bottles and cans that they can cash in for a small refund, I always thank them for helping us recycle.<br />
And here’s something else we do that’s more substantial for us, but again not all that heroic. It was just something that my wife and I are completely on the same page. We want to honor God’s call to tithe, to set aside, the first tenth of our income on a regular basis for God’s work to our local church, but we also want to offer substantially more to God’s work with poor, particularly God in the developing world. We’ve had the privilege of directing money to help support a school for orphan children in the Sudan or a center that helps children and women recover from the trauma of being trafficked into the sex trade.<br />
A couple of years ago our new accountant said, “You’ve given away money to charities to the point where it’s not a benefit to you financially. From a financial perspective, I would advise you defer some of charitable giving to future years.” We talked it over and said, “We appreciate your advice. We can’t foresee the future. We’re hoping, aiming to continue to give at that rate.”<br />
It’s not done out of a sense of guilt or obligation. We know that God loves us as we are, but out of gratitude as we are able we want to give and to live more generously.<br />
As I was discussing this sermon with my colleague Jade this week, he hesitated for a moment and said, “I have a personal story.” Jade said, “my dad is a frugal guy – is very careful with his money. My dad was a high school teacher—he earned a modest salary. When we were growing up, we would go out for dinner. I remember we always ordered the small portions of things. And his thriftiness at times bothered me. But as I grew older, I saw that he was very careful about spending money on himself. When we'd be in a store and we would say you should buy this shirt it would look good on you, he'd say maybe but I have a shirt. He was very careful about spending money on himself, so he could be generous toward others. He’d get a gleam in his eye because he had an opportunity to give to an impoverished single mother at church. He was quietly able help a number of refugees who used affectionately to refer to as his “boat boys” while getting established in Canada. And after they were able to establish themselves, every year at Christmas for about 12 years they would show up at the Holownia’s door with Christmas gifts as a way to say thank you.<br />
Mr. Holownia is person who is willing to disadvantage himself and, in a relative sense, his immediate family for the sake of other families. Biblically, he’s a righteous person.<br />
Second, if we are business owners, or in some kind of management position, the gleaning laws in Deuteronomy 24 show us that God doesn’t want us to squeeze every cent of profit we can out of people.<br />
While profit is obviously is a necessary part of business, we can also advocate for practices that don’t try to charge the highest possible price to customers and pay the lowest possible wages to people.<br />
Don, a friend and a follower of Christ, owns a series of car dealerships in North Carolina. He’s a friend of my mentor Leighton Ford who also lives in North Carolina. As I’ve shared before, through a self-study of his business, he discovered that men were getting better deals than women, and that Caucasian males were receiving the best buys on cars while black women were getting the worst deals. He realized that black women, many of whom were on lower incomes, were in effect subsidizing the car purchases of the relatively wealthy Caucasians males: by paying more than the market value for their cars, these minority women were enabling others to get away with paying less than the market value.<br />
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Don, a business leader who follows Jesus, knew his company was violating God’s call to act justly. Appealing to the consciences of his employees, he made the case for stopping discrimination against car customers and for fixing a fair market “price is price” sales policy on cars. Don said, “As a Christian, I believe we have to be willing to sacrifice some of our financial profits [for the sake of justice].” His employees, even those who were not religious, agreed.<br />
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He’s disadvantaging his business to advantage the community.<br />
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This week in response to last week’s message a person shared this story with me.<br />
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Bob Moore owned a thriving whole foods company. It was growing by 20 or 30% each year and company was generating millions of dollars in revenue.<br />
(show slide)<br />
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Bob Moore<br />
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When he reached his retirement years, he thought about the possibility of selling the company. He had many offers. He could've become instantly rich.<br />
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But then he thought about how his 200-300 employees have given so much of themselves to the company. He thought how generous Jesus Christ had been to him. He decided to split the company into shares and over a couple of years give the company a way to its employees.<br />
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The employees were just blown away.<br />
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One employee who doesn’t believe in God wrote this, “Now as an agnostic – I do not share the same religious viewpoints, but I find Mr. Moore’s example inspiring. Seeing a real life example of what I envision non-hypocritical Christianity to look like is quite humbling and Mr. Moore’s ability to lead by example is wonderful to watch.”<br />
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Bob Moore is disadvantaging himself for the sake of the community. He’s an example of right living.<br />
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In our personal life and in our work life, as we looked at during last Sunday’s sermon and, third, wherever we can on we call global scale; we work to forward God’s vision for a world of greater mercy and justice. We see God’s heart for the poor, not only in the gleaning passages but throughout the book of Deuteronomy and the Bible.<br />
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For example, in Deuteronomy 15:4-5 we read:<br />
4 “There should be no poor among you, for the Lord your God will greatly bless you in the land he is giving you as a special possession. 5 You will receive this blessing if you are careful to obey all the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today.<br />
And then in Deuteronomy 15:1-2 we read:<br />
“At the end of every seventh year you must cancel the debts of everyone who owes you money. 2 This is how it must be done. Everyone must cancel the loans they have made to their fellow Israelites. They must not demand payment from their neighbors or relatives, for the Lord’s time of release has arrived.<br />
Any Israelite who fell into debt had to be forgiven those debts every seventh year. Creditors could no longer demand payment and they even had to return the pledges of collateral taken for the debt itself. The whole purpose of this law Tim Keller, a pastor and former teacher who has taught me much about justice, observes, was to remove one of the key factors causing poverty—long-term, burdensome debt. Every seventh year was called a Sabbath year in which debts and slaves were freed (Deuteronomy 15:1-18). But every seventh Sabbath year, that is every forty-ninth year, was declared a year of jubilee. In this year not only were debts forgiven, but the land was to go back to the original families as it was distributed in the Promised Land after the Israelites entered.<br />
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Bible scholar Craig Blomberg says, “This is the ultimate realization of private property. On average, each person or family had at least a once in a lifetime chance to start afresh, no matter how irresponsibly they had handled their finances or how far into debt they had fallen.”<br />
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Global debt – it’s a massive problem in our own world. When Jimmy Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his accomplishments after his post Presidency years fighting poverty and disease, he spoke about what he regarded as the most pressing problem in the world:<br />
Interestingly he didn’t speak about terrorism, or religious extremism, or climate change—as significant as these are.<br />
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Here’s what Carter said:<br />
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At the beginning of this new millennium I was asked to discuss, here in Oslo, the greatest challenge that the world faces. Among all the possible choices, I decided that the most serious and universal problem is the growing chasm between the richest and poorest people on earth. Citizens of the ten wealthiest countries are now seventy-five times richer than those who live in the ten poorest ones, and the separation is increasing every year, not only between nations but also within them. The results of this disparity are root causes of most of the world’s unresolved problems, including starvation, illiteracy, environmental degradation, violent conflict, and unnecessary illnesses that range from Guinea worm to HIV/AIDS.<br />
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Of all the problems facing our planet, Carter chose to speak of “the growing chasm between the richest and the poorest people on earth” as the root cause of many of the other problems in our world including, starvation, illiteracy, environmental degradation.<br />
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N.T. Wright is one of the most respected theologians in our world today and he similarly says:<br />
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As far as I can see, the major task that faces us in our generation, corresponding to the issue of slavery two centuries ago, is that of the massive economic imbalance of the world, whose major symptom is the ridiculous and unpayable Third World debt. I have spoken about this many times over the last few years, and I have a sense that some of us, like old Wilberforce on the subject of slavery are actually called to bore the pants off people by going on and on about it until eventually the point is taken and the world is changed… I… want to record my conviction that this is the number one moral issue of our day. Sex matters enormously, but global justice matters far, far more. The present system of global debt is the real immoral scandal, the dirty little secret – or rather the dirty enormous secret – of glitzy, glossy Western capitalism. Whatever it takes, we must change this situation or stand condemned by subsequent history alongside those who supported slavery two centuries ago and those who supported the Nazis seventy years ago.<br />
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When people object to N.T. Wright by saying that while the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer, that wealth is not finite, and that canceling debt and giving “handouts” literally strip the poor of their human dignity and vocation to work, all this will encourage the poor toward a sinful envy of the rich, slothful escapism.<br />
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Wright says:<br />
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“I want to take such commentators to refugee camps, to villages where children die every day, to towns where most adults have already died of AIDS, and show them people who haven’t got the energy to be envious, who aren’t slothful because they are using all the energy they’ve got to wait in line for water and to care for each other, who know perfectly well that they don’t need handouts so much as justice” (p. 218).<br />
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When you look at Carter and Wright’s passion for decreasing the gap between the rich and the poor of the world, and as we contribute in some way to this cause, we are reflecting the heart of God as we see it in Deuteronomy -- to care for the foreigner, the poor, the widow, the alien, the orphan, a heart that loves to see spiritual debt (sin) and financial debts forgiven.<br />
<br />
When people, companies and nations disadvantage themselves in some way for the sake of the greater global community, it will be seen as a righteous act in God's sight.<br />
<br />
When you listen to a message like this, perhaps you feel overwhelmed by the magnitude of the need, even if we’re involved in some work of justice, particularly so, it can feel like a drop in the ocean.<br />
<br />
And so I want to close with this application and invitation in giving or leading businesses. Some time ago I had coffee with Mike Yankoski. He has spoken here a couple of times (as you may recall he voluntarily spent five months living as a homeless person to get a sense as to what that experience is like). “Do you have any advice for me as I speak on issues of social justice to young adults? Seems like your church has a lot of them.” And I can’t remember what I actually said—nothing note worthy, but then I asked Mike “Do you have any advice for me when I speak on these topics?”<br />
<br />
And he said “Yes. Because the needs are so vast in the world, I encourage people to focus on one issue. For Danae and me our passion is to help provide clean water.”<br />
<br />
As you may recall when Mike spoke here, Mike shared about how he and Danae had the opportunity to partner with several organizations drilling wells and providing clean water in Uganda. One afternoon as they walked past a family’s hut they noticed ten graves, one for an adult and nine for children. All of them had died because they didn’t have safe drinking water. A week later, they were walking toward a neighboring village and suddenly the hot afternoon silence was pierced by cries of joy, whooping, and singing. From a cluster of nearby huts several women came running at them later and they were singing and dancing, and they had no idea what the women were singing, but they were singing, “Praise God, for clean water has come.” Singing because they were so happy they are no longer sick, their children would no longer die from diarrhea. For Mike and Danae it is unclean water; for you it might be trafficking.<br />
<br />
A number of us here have been involved with the anti-sex trafficking movement, others with refugees, others with hunger, others with education, others with HIV/AIDS, others with racial, gender, or economic inequality, others care for the earth. Pray, expose yourself to some needs in the world, discern how God has gifted you and channel your response in expressing God’s compassionate, generous, and just heart for one cause in the world.<br />
<br />
And our ultimate motivation, as we have seen in Deuteronomy and in Jesus Christ, to disadvantage our self to serve the poor and those in need, isn’t guilt or obligation, but gratitude for all that Christ has done for us who, being in very nature God did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;<br />
rather, he made himself nothing<br />
by taking the very nature of a servant,<br />
by becoming obedient to death<br />
even death on a cross so we experience the joy of God’s life now and forever<br />
Philippians 2:7- 8<br />
<br />
In the early part of the 19th century, a young Scottish preacher named Robert Murray McChenyne preached a sermon on the text: “It is more blessed to give than receive” and he said, and I close with these words:<br />
<br />
Now, dear Christians, some of you pray night and day to be branches of the true Vine, you pray to be made all over in the image of Christ. If so, you must be like him in giving…”Though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor”…Objection 1. “My money is my own.” Answer: Christ might have said, “My blood is my own, my life is my own”…then where should we have been? Objection 2. “The poor are undeserving.” Answer: “Christ might have said, “They are wicked rebels…shall I lay down my life for these? I will give to the good angels.” But no, he left the ninety-nine, and came after the lost. He gave his blood for the undeserving. Objection 3. “The poor may abuse it.” Answer: Christ might have said the same; yea, with far greater truth. Christ knew that thousands would trample his blood under their feet; that most would despise it; that many would make it an excuse for sinning more; yet he gave his own blood. Oh, my dear Christians! If you would be like Christ, give much, give often, give freely, to the vile and poor, the thankless and the undeserving. Christ is glorious and happy and so will you be. It is not your money I want, but your happiness. Remember his own word, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”<br />
<br />
Invite Christ who gave it all for you to cleanse and make you new and make the world through you a more just place—and you’ll know from experience the words of Jesus:<br />
“It is more blessed to give than to receive.”<br />
<br />
<br />
10<br />
Shigematsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04506027536055632197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11017326.post-66524816948551334082013-03-05T10:32:00.001-08:002013-03-05T10:32:39.097-08:00Remade to Reconcile City Series M-2<br />
Speaker: Ken Shigematsu<br />
Title: Remade to Reconcile<br />
Text: 2 Corinthians 5:11-21<br />
August 26, 2012<br />
<br />
<br />
BIG IDEA: When we are reconciled to God, we become an instrument of God’s reconciliation in the world.<br />
<br />
INTRODUCTION:<br />
<br />
One of the great gifts of the Olympic Games is that it brings together people from so many cultures, social backgrounds, and countries.<br />
<br />
And it’s great to see athletes, who may not share a common language, congratulating each other after a victory or consoling someone else after a defeat.<br />
<br />
One of the reasons we are impressed with this kind of cross-cultural interaction is because we don’t see it very often.<br />
<br />
Sociologist tells us that for most of us our friends look like us, earn about the same amount of money, and have similar backgrounds to us. And while we may have a few acquaintances that are richer than we are or poorer than we are, most of our real friends are just like us.<br />
<br />
But this can change when enter into a friendship with Jesus Christ.<br />
<br />
At our newcomers’ dinner, Connections, I tell the story about how on one Sunday a group of people spontaneously decided to go out for lunch after the worship service.<br />
<br />
In the group was a man from India, who had been raised as in the Brahman priest sect. He was from a very traditional background. He had come to Vancouver and through the ministry of Tenth had given his life to Christ. There was someone gay in the group, who was more liberal in his sensibilities. There was an artist in the group, an engineer, I believe, and an accountant. (I wasn’t actually at the lunch). Apparently during the lunch someone looked around at the table and said, “Look at us, there’s no way we would be having lunch together if it wasn’t because of our common connection to Christ.”<br />
<br />
And when we meet Jesus Christ personally, we discover that God remakes us so that we experience not only a new relationship with God, but we find we are in closer relationships to people who are different from us – people who might otherwise be distant from or even enemies.<br />
<br />
In short, when we are in a relationship with Jesus Christ, we find ourselves reconciled to God and to people. But as we are reconciled to people – we find ourselves drawn closer to people different from ourselves – we will find that others in turn are drawn closer to God.<br />
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In 2 Corinthians, Chapter 5, verse 18, we read that God, who reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ, has also given us the ministry of reconciliation. Today, we're going to explore what this looks like.<br />
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Today, as we conclude this series from Corinthians on the Gospel in the City, or how we live out the way of Jesus in the city, we are going to look at what it means to serve to have a ministry of reconciliation in the world.<br />
<br />
If you have your Bibles you please turn to 2 Corinthians 5: 11-21:<br />
<br />
2 Corinthians 5:14-21 (TNIV)<br />
14 For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.<br />
16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin[a] for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.<br />
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PRAY<br />
<br />
As we will see in this text, our ministry of reconciliation, our work of building bridges to other people, and then helping others cross a bridge to God, begins with our first being reconciled to God.<br />
<br />
As we are reconciled to God, we find ourselves more likely to draw closer to people who are different from us in some way. As this happens, with the help of God, we’ll see people drawn closer to God.<br />
<br />
But, what’s the first step in our becoming an instrument of God’s reconciliation in the world? How do we become people who reach out to people who may be very different from ourselves--and in some cases even with those whom we would naturally be distant from and even our enemies? How do we become people who “share the presence” of God through our lives so that others are reconciled to God?<br />
<br />
The first step is our being reconciled to God--when we enter a relationship with God.<br />
<br />
Edwin Friedman, the author of the classic Generation to Generation, writes about each of us is involved in a series of emotional triangles.<br />
<br />
In relationships, there is often an unseen third person who affects that relationship.<br />
<br />
A young boy seems angry is bullying his classmates. It’s later revealed that his father become beats him when he's drunk.<br />
<br />
A woman appears to be increasingly distant from her husband. This emotional estrangement coincides with an affair that she has begun.<br />
<br />
More positively:<br />
<br />
A high school student is able to calmly resist peer pressure to use drugs at a party – even though it's costing him some popularity. It’s later shown that he has a great relationship with his father.<br />
<br />
A newly-married woman has a surprisingly good relationship with her mother-in-law. Later it comes out that the newlywed has a really healthy relationship with her own mother.<br />
<br />
None of our relationships exist in a vacuum. Each of them is affected by some unseen person in the relationship.<br />
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And, when God becomes a central part of our lives, all of our other relationships are shaped. When God is part of our life, all our other relationships are changed.<br />
<br />
One of the signs that we have really come to know God, according to Romans 5, is that we have this sense of God’s love streaming into our hearts. And as this love from this unseen “third person” streams into and wells up within us, we become more loving people.<br />
<br />
When we know how much we are loved by our Maker, we cannot help but overflow with love for others. In fact, the mark of a person who is in a genuine relationship with God is not a cross around their neck. It’s not a fish. It’s not even a set of doctrinal beliefs, as important as what we believe is. But THE mark of a person in a genuine relationship with God is love. Jesus said, “By this all people will know you are my disciples if you love one another.”<br />
<br />
And when we are reconciled with God, when God is the unseen person that affects every other relationship we have.<br />
<br />
(T)<br />
<br />
Of course, the reason God affects every other relationship is because when God is in our life we become new people.<br />
<br />
In 2 Corinthians 5:17 we read that if we are in a relationship with Christ, we are made new.<br />
<br />
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!<br />
<br />
And when God comes into our lives we become new, and one consequence of being made new is we see people differently.<br />
<br />
What we see is shaped by who we are.<br />
<br />
Two people on plane can react very differently to a crying toddler in the row in front of them. One can be annoyed by the child and its mother or father. The other can be moved to compassion for the child and want to help.<br />
<br />
What we see is shaped by who we are.<br />
<br />
In verse 16 Paul writes that, as a result of being reconciled to God, we become new. We regard no one from a worldly point of view. In the opening message of this series, Lee Kosa talked about how when we are brought into a relationship with God it changes the ways that we see people. If we are not in a relationship with the living God, we see Christ, this historic figure, hanging on a cross, and we feel sorry for him, for his suffering. Or we assume, like most of the people of his day assumed at the time he was being nailed to the cross, that he was being executed for some heinous crime he must have committed. In much the same way that we would assume if we saw someone sentenced to an electric chair. But when we are drawn into a relationship with God we see Christ differently. We no longer see his death as an ignominious defeat, or as retribution for a crime he committed. We understand that, in a mysterious way, the Christ on the cross was bearing in his body the punishment for our sins so that we could experience the forgiveness of our sins and be reconciled to God…<br />
<br />
And when we are in a love relationship with God, we are changed and become new people. We see Christ differently and we see people differently (vs. 16): “we no longer regard people from a worldly point of view,” because what we see is always the result of who we are.<br />
<br />
We human beings tend to judge people on their appearance, what they do, how much money they have.<br />
<br />
When we are drawn to God and made new, we see people differently because what we see is always the result of who we are.<br />
<br />
And this isn't merely a theoretical point.<br />
<br />
I know this to be true of my own experience.<br />
<br />
As I shared before, as a young teenager the most important goal in my life was to be part of the popular, cool, tough crowd at school.<br />
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I worked really hard to gain admission to this group and made it – though just barely.<br />
<br />
And I remember as a group we looked down on almost everyone else – including a group of soccer players who were also some of the more preppy students on campus. At the time, I was taking martial arts. I remember walking down the hallway and seeing one of the kids who was part of the soccer group sitting by his locker eating an apple. I wanted to impress my friends on the accuracy of my kicks, so as we were walking by I decided that I would kick the kid’s apple out of his hand. So I jog up and I am attempting to kick the apple out of his hand, but I missed the apple and instead catch his chin and drive his back into the locker.<br />
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It isn't so much hurt him physically, but it did humiliate him. I just walked on pretending that I was intending to kick him in the head.<br />
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About a year or two, later I committed my life to Christ.<br />
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Christ began to change in the way that I viewed people.<br />
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And I remember thinking that the kid Mark who I kicked in the head wasn't just some preppy loser, but someone who was made in the image of God.<br />
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So when I was in grade 11 and grade 12, I was attending a different school, but remember looking up his address, knocking on his door and he answered.<br />
<br />
I said,” You probably remember me. I kicked you in the head. I have come to your house to apologize.”<br />
<br />
He said, “Oh….Sure, but I'm curious why are you apologizing now?”<br />
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I said, “This may sound strange, but I have met Jesus Christ and this powerfully changed my life in the way I see people.”<br />
<br />
He said, “It's interesting. You probably don't know this but my dad is a pastor and I’m a believer too.”<br />
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Being in a relationship with Christ totally changed the way I saw Mark and helped me see him as being a person made in the image of God and as a fellow brother from a different mother.<br />
<br />
While I have been changed quite a lot by Christ – it's been ages since I've kicked anyone in the head.<br />
<br />
I find I can slip into old patterns of relating to people.<br />
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I can find that I have more energy to start to talk to someone, socially engage a stranger at a coffee shop or at the gym or at park, if they're attractive or seem interesting.<br />
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And I catch myself saying this: Christ has loved so freely without reference to what I could do for him. Everyone is being made in the image of God.<br />
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The other day in a public setting (and, no, it wasn’t Tenth). I'm deliberately making the setting vague... I recognized someone I have met only once or twice as they were serving me. And this person was amazed in the sense that because she is not classically attractive in a worldly kind of way a lot people probably don’t remember her.<br />
<br />
I thought I want to become the new kind of person—new because of Christ—that cares in small ways for people, people my old self would ignore or despise.<br />
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Being in a relationship with Christ, not only changes how we view a particular individual, but as many people in the community or nation really embrace Christ, it changes the way they see people from other nations, other races, other cultures.<br />
<br />
I am originally from Japan. Part of the reason why the Japanese up until World War II subjugated other Asians to cruelty, slavery—including sexual slavery, and murder--was because they saw themselves as descendants of the gods, and therefore superior to other peoples. They had a false sense of purity. <br />
<br />
In our own country, part of the reason that immigrants from Europe stole land, enslaved, raped and murdered many First Nations Peoples was because they saw the natives as savages.<br />
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Historically, south of border racism and slavery against blacks was “justified” because people thought that black people did not possess a soul.<br />
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How does Jesus impact this?<br />
<br />
Miroslav Volf explains… that when Jesus came he not only remade things, but he also renamed things. 2X. Jesus renamed things--that others had called unclean, out of a false sense of purity, and called them clean….2X When we are made new in Christ, we will lose our false sense of purity, our false sense of superiority. We will name things clean that once we once deemed unclean because of our false sense of purity.<br />
<br />
When we are remade, in Christ not only will we rename things, but like Jesus, we will also reach out to people who are different from us--different from us culturally, economically, religiously. <br />
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Our power for ministry, our motivation for reconciliation, flows from a love relationship with Jesus that transforms our vision… <br />
<br />
Paul said in his letter to the church in Philippi (Philippians 2); “If any of you have any<br />
encouragement from being united with Christ (any of you have any of this?), if any comfort from his love (any of you have any of this?), common sharing the Spirit (any of you have any of this?)… Our attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:<br />
6 Who, being in very nature God,<br />
did not consider equality with God something to used to his own selfish advantage, but became one who serves others…”<br />
<br />
<br />
We will be drawn to them and then they may be drawn closer to God.<br />
<br />
This summer I read the amazing story, the true story, of Louie Zamperini: the book by Laura Hillenbrand, Unbroken.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Keep the book jacket up through the highlighted section:<br />
<br />
Louie Zamperini as a boy was living in Southern California and somewhat like me had been a juvenile delinquent. He got into fights, broke into homes and stole things and once jumped a train to Mexico just for the fun of it.<br />
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His older brother Pete was concerned about Louie, so he got him involved in the track and field team to channel Louie’s defiance into something productive.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
(Keep the photo up over the yellow).<br />
<br />
Louie began running and discovered this was his gift.<br />
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He ending up breaking a bunch of high school track records and at only 19 ended up running in the Berlin Olympics.<br />
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Many people predicted he would become the first human being to break the four-minute mile.<br />
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With World War II breaking out, Louie enlisted in the United States Air Force and became a bombardier. While flying on out on the Pacific less than 1000 miles west of Hawaii, his defective plane crashed and he found himself on a small life raft with sharks swirling around him. After 47 days at sea, his rafted floated into the Marshall Islands and he was immediately captured by the Japanese Navy.<br />
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Zamperini became a prisoner of war and he experienced brutality at the hands of the Japanese guards that would make the hair on your neck stand on end, or move you to tears, or great anger.<br />
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They were starved and beaten mercilessly with fists, kicks, and baseball bats and in the case of one particularly brutal prison guard by a belt buckle on the head again and again, until they would fall unconscious.<br />
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Amazingly Louie survived the POW camp where many had died.<br />
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After the war he returned to North America where he met married a woman named Cynthia. But because Louie was experiencing severe post traumatic stress disorder, he started drinking and became an alcoholic, got into fights on the streets and in bars, and experienced nightmares where he was being beaten by particularly a brutal guard, fighting for his life.<br />
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Because of the injuries he sustained in the POW camp, he could no longer run.<br />
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His singular ambition was to make enough money to go back to Japan to find the prison guard that had tormented him most and kill him.<br />
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As you can imagine, it was very difficult for Cynthia to live with Louie and said she was making plans to divorce him. But she was invited by an acquaintance in their new apartment building to attend a Christian service being held in a circus tent in LA. The speaker was a young, relatively unknown preacher at the time, named Billy Graham. And as a result of that service Cynthia was awakened to a relationship with God.<br />
<br />
Louie was appalled.<br />
<br />
Cynthia and their apartment neighbors invited Louie to go, but he adamantly refused. They kept inviting him. One day Cynthia told the little lie that tipped the balance. She said the Billy Graham's sermons were filled with reflections on science. She knew that her husband was interested in science, so he reluctantly agreed to go.<br />
<br />
That night as Mr. Graham was making an invitation for people to meet Christ, Louie was spooked and ran out of the tent angry. But he returned with his wife on another night and felt as though God was speaking to him at the end of that meeting to offer his life to God.<br />
<br />
When they returned to their apartment, Louie went straight to his cache of liquor. It was the time of the night when the urge to drink usually took hold of him, but for the first time in years, he had no desire to drink. He carried the bottles to the kitchen sink, opened them and poured the contents into the drain. Then he hurried through the apartment, gathering packs of cigarettes, a secret stash of pornographic magazines. He heaved it all down the trash chute.<br />
<br />
In the morning he awoke feeling cleansed. For the first time in five years, the brutal prison guards had not come to him in his dreams and they would never return. Louie felt a profound peace.<br />
<br />
He was not the worthless, broken, forsaken man that the guard had driven him to become. In a single, silent moment, his rage, his fear, his humiliation and helplessness, had fallen away. That morning, he believed. He was a new creation. Softly he wept.<br />
<br />
(Paraphrased from Unbroken by Lauren Hillenbrand).<br />
<br />
He lost all desire to gain revenge against his Japanese captor and instead felt compassion for him.<br />
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Prior to the winter Olympic Games in Nagano in 1998 Zamperini was invited to carry the torch past Naoetsu, the notorious prisoner of war camp where he had been starving and unmercifully beaten to an inch from death.<br />
<br />
He said, “Yes.” And he wanted to offer forgiveness to the prison guard that had treated him with the most cruelty.<br />
<br />
He had met the other guards on a previous trip to a prison in Tokyo where they were being held that time. When he entered the prison, he threw his arms around each of them and offered forgiveness. They were stunned. Louie shared with them how Christ had changed his life.<br />
<br />
Several days before going to Nagano, he thought how he wanted to meet and offer forgiveness to the guard who treated him the worst and who had not been at the prison because he had been in hiding.<br />
<br />
Louie learned that the guard was alive and now living in Tokyo.<br />
<br />
He sat for several hours in silence and then clicked on his computer and wrote:<br />
<br />
To Matsuhiro [sic] Watanabe,<br />
<br />
As a result of my prisoner of war experience under your unwarranted and unreasonable punishment, my post-war life became a nightmare. It was not so much due to the pain and suffering as it was the tension of stress and humiliation that caused me to hate with a vengeance.<br />
<br />
Under your discipline, my rights, not only as a prisoner of war but also as a human being, were stripped from me. It was a struggle to maintain enough dignity and hope to live until the war’s end.<br />
<br />
The post-war nightmares caused my life to crumble, but thanks to a confrontation with God through the evangelist Billy Graham, I committed my life to Christ. Love replaced the hate I had for you. Christ said, “Forgive your enemies and pray for them.”<br />
<br />
As you probably know, I returned to Japan in 1952 [sic] and was graciously allowed to address all the Japanese war criminals at Sugamo Prison…I asked them about you, and was told that you probably had committed Hara Kiri, (suicide) which I was sad to hear. At that moment, like the others, I also forgave you and now would hope that you would also become a Christian.<br />
<br />
Louie Zamperini<br />
<br />
The former guard almost spat the invitation and refused to meet Louie, but someone offered to deliver the letter. Whether he read it or not, no one knows.<br />
<br />
Though our experience may not be as dramatic as Louie’s--when we are in Christ we are made new and we will see people and even our enemies differently, we will move toward them. As we do, in some cases they will be drawn to Christ.<br />
<br />
<br />
You may have never been beaten like Louie or have kicked in someone in the head, but are you being called to offer forgiveness, or being called close to some who you would naturally be distant from, or even an enemy?<br />
<br />
Take time to pray:<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
1<br />
Shigematsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04506027536055632197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11017326.post-65191559827469951682012-12-22T10:18:00.001-08:002012-12-22T10:18:26.091-08:00Jowin Lau's Funeral HomilyDecember 15, 2012 <br />
<br />
Jowin Lau's Funeral Homily<br />
Earlier this month I received an email from my friend Sarah Tsang, who has known Jowin and Joeis since they were young children. My friend Sarah has clear memories of Jowin, and his twin sister Joeis, as five year-olds attending Sunday school and the Awana clubs at their church, dressed by their mom in matching outfits. Sarah, like many of us here, was devastated by Jowin's tragic death on the Lion's Gate bridge. There is nothing quite as painful as losing a loved one, especially when they are so young - Jowin was just 21 years old.<br />
For a time, Jowin, like many of us in our teenage years - and I went down this path myself, in my adolescence – hung out with the wrong crowd, experimented with things he thought would lift him up, but ended up just bringing him down. But over the last year or two, he had begun to experience an amazing turn-around. Largely motivated by the turmoil, the struggles, the anger, and the depression that he had felt in some of his teenage years, Jowin wanted to study psychology, and become a counsellor who could help other teenagers through that often dark, difficult passage of their lives.<br />
Just at a time when Jowin had discovered his life purpose, and was starting to hit stride as a young man, his life seemed prematurely snuffed out. And we grieve the loss of this thoughtful, generous, sacrificial, smart son, brother, friend, and I know that for some of us - especially those of us of Asian ancestry - it is difficult to really grieve and mourn and wail. There is something in our cultural heritage that causes us to hold in our feelings, and to hold back our displays of emotion.<br />
But at times like this, we need to grieve, mourn, and wail. And some of us here carry a particularly heavy burden. We feel regret, at not having spent more time with Jowin, for not having done more for him. Some of us experience not only grief, but also regret, shame, and guilt. Those are the last things that Jowin would want you to experience. Jowin wants you to live without that burden - to become free. If he had lived to become a psychologist he would help you to acknowledge those feelings, but he would want to lead you to a place of freedom.<br />
Jowin and Joeis' parents, Raymond and Peo, asked me as their minister to bring a word from scripture - from God – for this time as this. And while the pages of scripture contain much wisdom, they don't tell us why someone like Jowin, who was poised to enter the prime of his life, had his life tragically taken at such a young age.<br />
But the scriptures do tell us that Jowin's death, on the Lion's Gate bridge, was not his end - that Jowin is alive, and in fact more alive than he has ever been before and in a better place.<br />
In the gospel of John, chapter 14, Jesus is with some of His closest students on the night that He is betrayed by Judas, and the night before He ends up being nailed to a Roman cross. They realize that there is an assassination plot on Jesus' life, and that as those closely associated with Him, that their lives are also in grave danger. And so as Jesus gathers in an upper room with His students, sharing a meal, He notices that there is fear in the eyes of His friends. And so He offers these words:<br />
"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. 2 My Father’s house has plenty of room; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going." 5 Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?" 6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:1-6)<br />
And the scriptures teach that the Father’s house or heaven is a real place, a better place, and that Heaven is precisely where Jowin is right now.<br />
And based on what people have experienced, who have been clinically dead, and have gone to Heaven, and then have been seemingly resuscitated, people prefer to be there than here. And so as much as we would do anything to bring Jowin back, as much as we grieve his loss, he would want us to know that he is in a better place.<br />
Earlier this year I read the experience of a man named Don Piper. Don was driving on his way home from a conference and was crossing a small two-way bridge and an oncoming semi-truck suddenly swerved into his lane and drove right over his Ford Escort, crushing him and his little car. The medical personnel arrived, ran a series tests on him and confirmed that he had died instantly. Because he was clearly already dead the emergency workers did not make any attempt to move his body out of his crushed car.<br />
90 minutes after the car accident a pastor named Richard who was driving along the road, stopped and asked the medical person personnel and police, “What had happened.” They explained how Don had his car run over by this semi truck and was instantly declared dead. Richard felt compelled by the Holy Spirit to pray for the man who had died. With the permission of the police and medical personnel, he walked over to the crushed car, lifted up the tarp, he began to pray for him. For some reason he felt led to sing the old hymn, “What a Friend We Have in Jesus.” As he began to sing, to his utter shock Don, the man in the car, began singing with him. His life, ninety minutes after being clinically declared dead, returned to life.<br />
In this book called 90 Minutes in Heaven, Don describes what it was like to actually go to heaven and to meet his friend Mike from high school who had led him to Jesus Christ…a popular athlete who had died at 19. He also describes movingly the beautiful music of heaven, the thousands of voices and countless different kinds of music, yet somehow all coalescing into a mesmerizingly beautiful, coherent, and sublime melody. He talked about the beautiful colours of heaven and how he felt more alive and more joy and happiness than he had never known on earth.<br />
If heaven is real and Jowin is there, while his death has hurt us, death hasn’t hurt him It’s simply become a passageway to greater place.<br />
There was a pastor named Don Barnhouse who served in Pennsylvania.<br />
He was married with young children. <br />
His wife died when they were young.<br />
One day not long after his wife when Don was driving down a freeway in Pennsylvania with his young son and daughter. The sun was descending.<br />
There was a huge semi-truck coming toward them in the oncoming lane. As the truck passed them the shadow of the truck swept over their little car.<br />
Donald turned to his kids and said, “What would you rather have hit you, the truck or the shadow of the truck?” His kids said, “Well, of course, the shadow, because the shadow can’t hurt us!”<br />
And Donald explained to them that 2000 years on the cross Jesus allowed the “truck of death” to run over him so that only its shadow would run over us. He explained how on the cross Jesus bore our sins on the cross so we could be forgiven and experience the life of God, but also in a life to come in heaven. He explained he bore the brunt of death on the cross so that only its shadow would run over us. <br />
This past week, someone in our community that I know well, shared with me that her 25 year-old niece was killed in a tragic car accident. She was driving her car on windy road on a rainy, foggy night at high speed and she swerved off the road. She wasn't wearing her seatbelt. She went right through her front windshield, and died. And my friend was telling me that, a few days after her tragic death, she was grieving, mourning the loss of her beloved niece, and out of the blue she had this clear vision of her niece flying through the windshield and landing right into the arms of Jesus.<br />
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And on the night of November 28, when Jowin's car was in a terrible accident, he flew right into the arms of Jesus. And if Jowin could speak to us today, I know that he would say: "I'm in a better place."<br />
His parents, Raymond and Peo, also told me that Jowin would not want his death to be in vain - that he would want something good to come out of it. I've been meditating on Psalm 90, where it says in verses 9-10 (and I'm just going to excerpt part of it): All our days pass quickly, then we fly away. We are like the new grass of the morning. In the morning it springs up new, but by evening it is dry and withered. And the Psalmist says, in verse 12: Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.<br />
Our endless days are numbered. And whether they pass away at 21, or 81, they are just a mist - it is here for a moment, and then gone. And in light of the brevity of our life, the Psalmist urges us to number our days, and to gain the wisdom that comes from the perspective that our lives on Earth will be over soon. And Jowin would challenge us to prayerfully reflect on the purpose, the meaning, and the potential legacy of our own lives. Why are we here? Who are we becoming? What difference are we making?<br />
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And the second thing that Jowin would want to say to us, if he were here, would be to prepare for our death. According to Jowin's psychologist, who was meeting with him one-on-one, the day before Jowin died, Jowin recommitted his life to God. As a young boy, Jowin believed. During his teenage years, he fell away from conscious relationship with God, but on the day before he died, in the presence of his counsellor - who happened to be a Christian - Jowin reoffered his life to God.<br />
And if you offer your life into God's hands, you'll find that He carries you throughout this lifetime, giving you a greater peace, joy, sense of meaning and purpose than you would otherwise have. And on the day that you die, you'll find yourself cast from this life to the next, with God's everlasting arms beneath you.<br />
Let's pray.<br />
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4<br />
Shigematsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04506027536055632197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11017326.post-58702883739621086602012-12-12T12:41:00.001-08:002012-12-12T12:41:13.898-08:00Grace and Justice <br />
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City Series M-8<br />
November 25, 2012<br />
Speaker: Ken Shigematsu<br />
Title: Grace & Justice<br />
Texts: Deuteronomy 10:16-19, 15:1-11, 24:19-22; Matt 25:31-46<br />
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BIG IDEA: In response to God’s grace we are called to generously give and work for justice in the world.<br />
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When someone is introducing you what do you want said about you? Or, if you are introducing yourself say in 140 characters or less as in Twitter bio, what will you say about yourself? In my little intro I’m a pastor of Tenth Church in Vancouver and I am husband to Sakiko and father to Joey. <br />
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How we introduce ourselves tells others what we do, what we value, who we are in relationship with. When God introduces himself in the Scriptures, he calls himself a “The Father to the fatherless and the defender of widows” (Psalm 68:5).<br />
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One of the most important things God does in the world is to take up the cause of the poor and powerless. And, as we noted in one of the earlier messages in this series, this particular bio for God is remarkable. In the ancient world, as we’ve seen, the gods were capricious, cruel, self-serving, and favored the rights of the rich and powerful and gave virtually no rights to the poor. Whereas the living God regards all people, even slaves, as human and sacred. The bias that the Living God has, not in favor of the powerful, but the powerless, as historian Thomas Cahill points out, is unique not only in ancient law but in the whole history of law. God certainly loves both the rich and the poor, and in the Bible, while there are texts that call for justice for members of the well-to-do classes, his calls to extend justice to the poor outnumber those passages by about a hundred to one. And this emphasis has led some, like Latin American theologian Gustavo Gutierrez, to speak of God’s “preferential option for the poor.”<br />
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When a person reflects the compassion, generosity and justice of God they are called righteous.<br />
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Take Job for example:<br />
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The character Job in the Bible was described as righteous.<br />
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In Job 29:12-17, Job says:<br />
12 For I assisted the poor in their need<br />
and the orphans who required help.<br />
13 I helped those without hope, and they blessed me.<br />
And I caused the widows’ hearts to sing for joy.<br />
14 Everything I did was honest.<br />
Righteousness covered me like a robe,<br />
and I wore justice like a turban.<br />
15 I served as eyes for the blind<br />
and feet for the lame.<br />
16 I was a father to the poor<br />
and assisted strangers who needed help.<br />
17 I broke the jaws of godless oppressors<br />
and plucked their victims from their teeth.<br />
Old Testament scholar Bruce Waltke, who taught for many years at Regent College here in Vancouver, points out that the righteous persons like Job in Scripture are willing to disadvantage themselves for the sake of the community. The wicked, conversely, according to Waltke, are willing to disadvantage the community to advantage themselves.<br />
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In this final sermon in the Deuteronomy series we’re going to look at several texts in Deuteronomy that show us how we can become a person who is just and part of what it looks like to live this way (2x).<br />
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So first, how do we become a person of greater justice?<br />
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It's true that because of the sin virus that has affected us all so like the gods of the ancient world we can be selfish and self-serving.<br />
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But we are also made in the image of the Living God who is compassionate and just.<br />
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As human beings who are made in God's image each of us has at the very least a dormant seed of compassion and justice (use prop).<br />
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And as we are drawn into a relationship with the Living God, and experience his redeeming grace, the seed of compassion and justice within us is watered and the shoot of God’s love and mercy begins to grow out from us (use prop).<br />
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And Moses understands this is so as he preaches on the banks of the Jordan River and he calls his people – who are first made in God's image and then were redeemed by God's grace as they were delivered out of Egypt that land where they were slaves -- to become who compassionate and just.<br />
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In Deuteronomy 10:16-19:<br />
16 Therefore, change your hearts and stop being stubborn.<br />
17 “For the Lord your God is the God of gods and Lord of lords. He is the great God, the mighty and awesome God, who shows no partiality and cannot be bribed. 18 He ensures that orphans and widows receive justice. He shows love to the foreigners living among you and gives them food and clothing. 19 So you, too, must show love to foreigners, for you yourselves were once foreigners in the land of Egypt (Deut. 10:16-19).<br />
Pray<br />
Moses reminds the people of God that they had been slaves in Egypt, poor, and oppressed. And if they had been poor and oppressed people in Egypt, and then experienced God’s grace, God’s pure gift, as he sprung them free from their land of slavery, they in turn were to respond by showing God’s mercy and justice to the poor by loving the orphan, the widow, and the poor immigrant in your midst.<br />
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And all of us here are made in God’s image—so the seed of compassion and justice is at the very least dormant within us—and many of us have experienced the grace of God in a way that is even deeper than for the ancient children of Israel at the time of Moses. Many of us here have experienced God’s redemption, not physically but from a far more pervasive spiritual slavery to sin and a self-centered way of life, and we've been brought into a friendship with the Living God.<br />
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And if this has been our experience, we can express our gratitude to God by living lives of generosity, compassion, and justice.<br />
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But what specifically does it look like to live with generosity, compassion, and justice?<br />
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In Deuteronomy, Chapter 24:19-22:<br />
19 “When you are harvesting your crops and forget to bring in a bundle of grain from your field, don’t go back to get it. Leave it for the foreigners, orphans, and widows. Then the Lord your God will bless you in all you do. 20 When you beat the olives from your olive trees, don’t go over the boughs twice. Leave the remaining olives for the foreigners, orphans, and widows. 21 When you gather the grapes in your vineyard, don’t glean the vines after they are picked. Leave the remaining grapes for the foreigners, orphans, and widows. 22 Remember that you were slaves in the land of Egypt. That is why I am giving you this command.<br />
Doesn’t this passage reveal God’s heart of generosity? It’s clear in this passage that God doesn’t want the farmer to take the entire harvest for himself and his family, but to leave some of the harvest on the ground for the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow. In God’s view, the poor had a right to some of the farmer’s produce. Now most of us are not farmers, so what is the application here for us? It means that if we are God’s children and recognize how gracious God has been to us, and we want to walk in His ways as people who are righteous, then again to quote Bruce Waltke, as righteous people we will be willing to disadvantage ourselves for the sake of the community. The wicked, according to Waltke, are willing to disadvantage the community to advantage themselves. But the righteous, are willing to disadvantage themselves for the sake of the community.<br />
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So what does it look like to become like God and to be willing to disadvantage ourselves on behalf of someone else? What this means is that we take a more generous posture of life.<br />
A couple of examples from life, and then one from a business owner, and one from how it applies to life in the larger world:<br />
First, there is something I do a weekly basis that reminds me of the passage in Deuteronomy 24 that calls us to leave something for others when harvesting. It’s such a small thing, and I feel a little sheepish talking about it. Each week it’s my job to take out the garbage and recycling. It’s a very small thing I do, but it reminds me of this passage We always put bottles and cartons in the recycling blue box that we could cash in. But we always, actually it’s almost always my wife who rinses any of the bottles that we’ve used, because we know that they are going to be picked up by someone in the back alley. And if I bump into someone in the back alley as they are pushing their shopping cart and picking up bottles and cans that they can cash in for a small refund, I always thank them for helping us recycle.<br />
And here’s something else we do that’s more substantial for us, but again not all that heroic. It was just something that my wife and I are completely on the same page. We want to honor God’s call to tithe, to set aside, the first tenth of our income on a regular basis for God’s work to our local church, but we also want to offer substantially more to God’s work with poor, particularly God in the developing world. We’ve had the privilege of directing money to help support a school for orphan children in the Sudan or a center that helps children and women recover from the trauma of being trafficked into the sex trade.<br />
A couple of years ago our new accountant said, “You’ve given away money to charities to the point where it’s not a benefit to you financially. From a financial perspective, I would advise you defer some of charitable giving to future years.” We talked it over and said, “We appreciate your advice. We can’t foresee the future. We’re hoping, aiming to continue to give at that rate.”<br />
It’s not done out of a sense of guilt or obligation. We know that God loves us as we are, but out of gratitude as we are able we want to give and to live more generously.<br />
As I was discussing this sermon with my colleague Jade this week, he hesitated for a moment and said, “I have a personal story.” Jade said, “my dad is a frugal guy – is very careful with his money. My dad was a high school teacher—he earned a modest salary. When we were growing up, we would go out for dinner. I remember we always ordered the small portions of things. And his thriftiness at times bothered me. But as I grew older, I saw that he was very careful about spending money on himself. When we'd be in a store and we would say you should buy this shirt it would look good on you, he'd say maybe but I have a shirt. He was very careful about spending money on himself, so he could be generous toward others. He’d get a gleam in his eye because he had an opportunity to give to an impoverished single mother at church. He was quietly able help a number of refugees who used affectionately to refer to as his “boat boys” while getting established in Canada. And after they were able to establish themselves, every year at Christmas for about 12 years they would show up at the Holownia’s door with Christmas gifts as a way to say thank you.<br />
Mr. Holownia is person who is willing to disadvantage himself and, in a relative sense, his immediate family for the sake of other families. Biblically, he’s a righteous person.<br />
Second, if we are business owners, or in some kind of management position, the gleaning laws in Deuteronomy 24 show us that God doesn’t want us to squeeze every cent of profit we can out of people.<br />
While profit is obviously is a necessary part of business, we can also advocate for practices that don’t try to charge the highest possible price to customers and pay the lowest possible wages to people.<br />
Don, a friend and a follower of Christ, owns a series of car dealerships in North Carolina. He’s a friend of my mentor Leighton Ford who also lives in North Carolina. As I’ve shared before, through a self-study of his business, he discovered that men were getting better deals than women, and that Caucasian males were receiving the best buys on cars while black women were getting the worst deals. He realized that black women, many of whom were on lower incomes, were in effect subsidizing the car purchases of the relatively wealthy Caucasians males: by paying more than the market value for their cars, these minority women were enabling others to get away with paying less than the market value.<br />
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Don, a business leader who follows Jesus, knew his company was violating God’s call to act justly. Appealing to the consciences of his employees, he made the case for stopping discrimination against car customers and for fixing a fair market “price is price” sales policy on cars. Don said, “As a Christian, I believe we have to be willing to sacrifice some of our financial profits [for the sake of justice].” His employees, even those who were not religious, agreed.<br />
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He’s disadvantaging his business to advantage the community.<br />
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This week in response to last week’s message a person shared this story with me.<br />
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Bob Moore owned a thriving whole foods company. It was growing by 20 or 30% each year and company was generating millions of dollars in revenue.<br />
(show slide)<br />
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Bob Moore<br />
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When he reached his retirement years, he thought about the possibility of selling the company. He had many offers. He could've become instantly rich.<br />
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But then he thought about how his 200-300 employees have given so much of themselves to the company. He thought how generous Jesus Christ had been to him. He decided to split the company into shares and over a couple of years give the company a way to its employees.<br />
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The employees were just blown away.<br />
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One employee who doesn’t believe in God wrote this, “Now as an agnostic – I do not share the same religious viewpoints, but I find Mr. Moore’s example inspiring. Seeing a real life example of what I envision non-hypocritical Christianity to look like is quite humbling and Mr. Moore’s ability to lead by example is wonderful to watch.”<br />
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Bob Moore is disadvantaging himself for the sake of the community. He’s an example of right living.<br />
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In our personal life and in our work life, as we looked at during last Sunday’s sermon and, third, wherever we can on we call global scale; we work to forward God’s vision for a world of greater mercy and justice. We see God’s heart for the poor, not only in the gleaning passages but throughout the book of Deuteronomy and the Bible.<br />
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For example, in Deuteronomy 15:4-5 we read:<br />
4 “There should be no poor among you, for the Lord your God will greatly bless you in the land he is giving you as a special possession. 5 You will receive this blessing if you are careful to obey all the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today.<br />
And then in Deuteronomy 15:1-2 we read:<br />
“At the end of every seventh year you must cancel the debts of everyone who owes you money. 2 This is how it must be done. Everyone must cancel the loans they have made to their fellow Israelites. They must not demand payment from their neighbors or relatives, for the Lord’s time of release has arrived.<br />
Any Israelite who fell into debt had to be forgiven those debts every seventh year. Creditors could no longer demand payment and they even had to return the pledges of collateral taken for the debt itself. The whole purpose of this law Tim Keller, a pastor and former teacher who has taught me much about justice, observes, was to remove one of the key factors causing poverty—long-term, burdensome debt. Every seventh year was called a Sabbath year in which debts and slaves were freed (Deuteronomy 15:1-18). But every seventh Sabbath year, that is every forty-ninth year, was declared a year of jubilee. In this year not only were debts forgiven, but the land was to go back to the original families as it was distributed in the Promised Land after the Israelites entered.<br />
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Bible scholar Craig Blomberg says, “This is the ultimate realization of private property. On average, each person or family had at least a once in a lifetime chance to start afresh, no matter how irresponsibly they had handled their finances or how far into debt they had fallen.”<br />
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Global debt – it’s a massive problem in our own world. When Jimmy Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his accomplishments after his post Presidency years fighting poverty and disease, he spoke about what he regarded as the most pressing problem in the world:<br />
Interestingly he didn’t speak about terrorism, or religious extremism, or climate change—as significant as these are.<br />
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Here’s what Carter said:<br />
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At the beginning of this new millennium I was asked to discuss, here in Oslo, the greatest challenge that the world faces. Among all the possible choices, I decided that the most serious and universal problem is the growing chasm between the richest and poorest people on earth. Citizens of the ten wealthiest countries are now seventy-five times richer than those who live in the ten poorest ones, and the separation is increasing every year, not only between nations but also within them. The results of this disparity are root causes of most of the world’s unresolved problems, including starvation, illiteracy, environmental degradation, violent conflict, and unnecessary illnesses that range from Guinea worm to HIV/AIDS.<br />
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Of all the problems facing our planet, Carter chose to speak of “the growing chasm between the richest and the poorest people on earth” as the root cause of many of the other problems in our world including, starvation, illiteracy, environmental degradation.<br />
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N.T. Wright is one of the most respected theologians in our world today and he similarly says:<br />
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As far as I can see, the major task that faces us in our generation, corresponding to the issue of slavery two centuries ago, is that of the massive economic imbalance of the world, whose major symptom is the ridiculous and unpayable Third World debt. I have spoken about this many times over the last few years, and I have a sense that some of us, like old Wilberforce on the subject of slavery are actually called to bore the pants off people by going on and on about it until eventually the point is taken and the world is changed… I… want to record my conviction that this is the number one moral issue of our day. Sex matters enormously, but global justice matters far, far more. The present system of global debt is the real immoral scandal, the dirty little secret – or rather the dirty enormous secret – of glitzy, glossy Western capitalism. Whatever it takes, we must change this situation or stand condemned by subsequent history alongside those who supported slavery two centuries ago and those who supported the Nazis seventy years ago.<br />
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When people object to N.T. Wright by saying that while the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer, that wealth is not finite, and that canceling debt and giving “handouts” literally strip the poor of their human dignity and vocation to work, all this will encourage the poor toward a sinful envy of the rich, slothful escapism.<br />
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Wright says:<br />
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“I want to take such commentators to refugee camps, to villages where children die every day, to towns where most adults have already died of AIDS, and show them people who haven’t got the energy to be envious, who aren’t slothful because they are using all the energy they’ve got to wait in line for water and to care for each other, who know perfectly well that they don’t need handouts so much as justice” (p. 218).<br />
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When you look at Carter and Wright’s passion for decreasing the gap between the rich and the poor of the world, and as we contribute in some way to this cause, we are reflecting the heart of God as we see it in Deuteronomy -- to care for the foreigner, the poor, the widow, the alien, the orphan, a heart that loves to see spiritual debt (sin) and financial debts forgiven.<br />
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When people, companies and nations disadvantage themselves in some way for the sake of the greater global community, it will be seen as a righteous act in God's sight.<br />
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When you listen to a message like this, perhaps you feel overwhelmed by the magnitude of the need, even if we’re involved in some work of justice, particularly so, it can feel like a drop in the ocean.<br />
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And so I want to close with this application and invitation in giving or leading businesses. Some time ago I had coffee with Mike Yankoski. He has spoken here a couple of times (as you may recall he voluntarily spent five months living as a homeless person to get a sense as to what that experience is like). “Do you have any advice for me as I speak on issues of social justice to young adults? Seems like your church has a lot of them.” And I can’t remember what I actually said—nothing note worthy, but then I asked Mike “Do you have any advice for me when I speak on these topics?”<br />
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And he said “Yes. Because the needs are so vast in the world, I encourage people to focus on one issue. For Danae and me our passion is to help provide clean water.”<br />
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As you may recall when Mike spoke here, Mike shared about how he and Danae had the opportunity to partner with several organizations drilling wells and providing clean water in Uganda. One afternoon as they walked past a family’s hut they noticed ten graves, one for an adult and nine for children. All of them had died because they didn’t have safe drinking water. A week later, they were walking toward a neighboring village and suddenly the hot afternoon silence was pierced by cries of joy, whooping, and singing. From a cluster of nearby huts several women came running at them later and they were singing and dancing, and they had no idea what the women were singing, but they were singing, “Praise God, for clean water has come.” Singing because they were so happy they are no longer sick, their children would no longer die from diarrhea. For Mike and Danae it is unclean water; for you it might be trafficking.<br />
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A number of us here have been involved with the anti-sex trafficking movement, others with refugees, others with hunger, others with education, others with HIV/AIDS, others with racial, gender, or economic inequality, others care for the earth. Pray, expose yourself to some needs in the world, discern how God has gifted you and channel your response in expressing God’s compassionate, generous, and just heart for one cause in the world.<br />
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And our ultimate motivation, as we have seen in Deuteronomy and in Jesus Christ, to disadvantage our self to serve the poor and those in need, isn’t guilt or obligation, but gratitude for all that Christ has done for us who, being in very nature God did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;<br />
rather, he made himself nothing<br />
by taking the very nature of a servant,<br />
by becoming obedient to death<br />
even death on a cross so we experience the joy of God’s life now and forever<br />
Philippians 2:7- 8<br />
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In the early part of the 19th century, a young Scottish preacher named Robert Murray McChenyne preached a sermon on the text: “It is more blessed to give than receive” and he said, and I close with these words:<br />
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Now, dear Christians, some of you pray night and day to be branches of the true Vine, you pray to be made all over in the image of Christ. If so, you must be like him in giving…”Though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor”…Objection 1. “My money is my own.” Answer: Christ might have said, “My blood is my own, my life is my own”…then where should we have been? Objection 2. “The poor are undeserving.” Answer: “Christ might have said, “They are wicked rebels…shall I lay down my life for these? I will give to the good angels.” But no, he left the ninety-nine, and came after the lost. He gave his blood for the undeserving. Objection 3. “The poor may abuse it.” Answer: Christ might have said the same; yea, with far greater truth. Christ knew that thousands would trample his blood under their feet; that most would despise it; that many would make it an excuse for sinning more; yet he gave his own blood. Oh, my dear Christians! If you would be like Christ, give much, give often, give freely, to the vile and poor, the thankless and the undeserving. Christ is glorious and happy and so will you be. It is not your money I want, but your happiness. Remember his own word, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”<br />
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Invite Christ who gave it all for you to cleanse and make you new and make the world through you a more just place—and you’ll know from experience the words of Jesus:<br />
“It is more blessed to give than to receive.”<br />
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Shigematsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04506027536055632197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11017326.post-9275554283905881482012-12-03T13:09:00.001-08:002012-12-03T13:09:14.776-08:00Remade to Reconcile City Series M-2
Speaker: Ken Shigematsu
Title: Remade to Reconcile
Text: 2 Corinthians 5:11-21
August 26, 2012
BIG IDEA: When we are reconciled to God, we become an instrument of God’s reconciliation in the world.
INTRODUCTION:
One of the great gifts of the Olympic Games is that it brings together people from so many cultures, social backgrounds, and countries.
And it’s great to see athletes, who may not share a common language, congratulating each other after a victory or consoling someone else after a defeat.
One of the reasons we are impressed with this kind of cross-cultural interaction is because we don’t see it very often.
Sociologist tells us that for most of us our friends look like us, earn about the same amount of money, and have similar backgrounds to us. And while we may have a few acquaintances that are richer than we are or poorer than we are, most of our real friends are just like us.
But this can change when enter into a friendship with Jesus Christ.
At our newcomers’ dinner, Connections, I tell the story about how on one Sunday a group of people spontaneously decided to go out for lunch after the worship service.
In the group was a man from India, who had been raised as in the Brahman priest sect. He was from a very traditional background. He had come to Vancouver and through the ministry of Tenth had given his life to Christ. There was someone gay in the group, who was more liberal in his sensibilities. There was an artist in the group, an engineer, I believe, and an accountant. (I wasn’t actually at the lunch). Apparently during the lunch someone looked around at the table and said, “Look at us, there’s no way we would be having lunch together if it wasn’t because of our common connection to Christ.”
And when we meet Jesus Christ personally, we discover that God remakes us so that we experience not only a new relationship with God, but we find we are in closer relationships to people who are different from us – people who might otherwise be distant from or even enemies.
In short, when we are in a relationship with Jesus Christ, we find ourselves reconciled to God and to people. But as we are reconciled to people – we find ourselves drawn closer to people different from ourselves – we will find that others in turn are drawn closer to God.
In 2 Corinthians, Chapter 5, verse 18, we read that God, who reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ, has also given us the ministry of reconciliation. Today, we're going to explore what this looks like.
Today, as we conclude this series from Corinthians on the Gospel in the City, or how we live out the way of Jesus in the city, we are going to look at what it means to serve to have a ministry of reconciliation in the world.
If you have your Bibles you please turn to 2 Corinthians 5: 11-21:
2 Corinthians 5:14-21 (TNIV)
14 For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin[a] for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
PRAY
As we will see in this text, our ministry of reconciliation, our work of building bridges to other people, and then helping others cross a bridge to God, begins with our first being reconciled to God.
As we are reconciled to God, we find ourselves more likely to draw closer to people who are different from us in some way. As this happens, with the help of God, we’ll see people drawn closer to God.
But, what’s the first step in our becoming an instrument of God’s reconciliation in the world? How do we become people who reach out to people who may be very different from ourselves--and in some cases even with those whom we would naturally be distant from and even our enemies? How do we become people who “share the presence” of God through our lives so that others are reconciled to God?
The first step is our being reconciled to God--when we enter a relationship with God.
Edwin Friedman, the author of the classic Generation to Generation, writes about each of us is involved in a series of emotional triangles.
In relationships, there is often an unseen third person who affects that relationship.
A young boy seems angry is bullying his classmates. It’s later revealed that his father become beats him when he's drunk.
A woman appears to be increasingly distant from her husband. This emotional estrangement coincides with an affair that she has begun.
More positively:
A high school student is able to calmly resist peer pressure to use drugs at a party – even though it's costing him some popularity. It’s later shown that he has a great relationship with his father.
A newly-married woman has a surprisingly good relationship with her mother-in-law. Later it comes out that the newlywed has a really healthy relationship with her own mother.
None of our relationships exist in a vacuum. Each of them is affected by some unseen person in the relationship.
And, when God becomes a central part of our lives, all of our other relationships are shaped. When God is part of our life, all our other relationships are changed.
One of the signs that we have really come to know God, according to Romans 5, is that we have this sense of God’s love streaming into our hearts. And as this love from this unseen “third person” streams into and wells up within us, we become more loving people.
When we know how much we are loved by our Maker, we cannot help but overflow with love for others. In fact, the mark of a person who is in a genuine relationship with God is not a cross around their neck. It’s not a fish. It’s not even a set of doctrinal beliefs, as important as what we believe is. But THE mark of a person in a genuine relationship with God is love. Jesus said, “By this all people will know you are my disciples if you love one another.”
And when we are reconciled with God, when God is the unseen person that affects every other relationship we have.
(T)
Of course, the reason God affects every other relationship is because when God is in our life we become new people.
In 2 Corinthians 5:17 we read that if we are in a relationship with Christ, we are made new.
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
And when God comes into our lives we become new, and one consequence of being made new is we see people differently.
What we see is shaped by who we are.
Two people on plane can react very differently to a crying toddler in the row in front of them. One can be annoyed by the child and its mother or father. The other can be moved to compassion for the child and want to help.
What we see is shaped by who we are.
In verse 16 Paul writes that, as a result of being reconciled to God, we become new. We regard no one from a worldly point of view. In the opening message of this series, Lee Kosa talked about how when we are brought into a relationship with God it changes the ways that we see people. If we are not in a relationship with the living God, we see Christ, this historic figure, hanging on a cross, and we feel sorry for him, for his suffering. Or we assume, like most of the people of his day assumed at the time he was being nailed to the cross, that he was being executed for some heinous crime he must have committed. In much the same way that we would assume if we saw someone sentenced to an electric chair. But when we are drawn into a relationship with God we see Christ differently. We no longer see his death as an ignominious defeat, or as retribution for a crime he committed. We understand that, in a mysterious way, the Christ on the cross was bearing in his body the punishment for our sins so that we could experience the forgiveness of our sins and be reconciled to God…
And when we are in a love relationship with God, we are changed and become new people. We see Christ differently and we see people differently (vs. 16): “we no longer regard people from a worldly point of view,” because what we see is always the result of who we are.
We human beings tend to judge people on their appearance, what they do, how much money they have.
When we are drawn to God and made new, we see people differently because what we see is always the result of who we are.
And this isn't merely a theoretical point.
I know this to be true of my own experience.
As I shared before, as a young teenager the most important goal in my life was to be part of the popular, cool, tough crowd at school.
I worked really hard to gain admission to this group and made it – though just barely.
And I remember as a group we looked down on almost everyone else – including a group of soccer players who were also some of the more preppy students on campus. At the time, I was taking martial arts. I remember walking down the hallway and seeing one of the kids who was part of the soccer group sitting by his locker eating an apple. I wanted to impress my friends on the accuracy of my kicks, so as we were walking by I decided that I would kick the kid’s apple out of his hand. So I jog up and I am attempting to kick the apple out of his hand, but I missed the apple and instead catch his chin and drive his back into the locker.
It isn't so much hurt him physically, but it did humiliate him. I just walked on pretending that I was intending to kick him in the head.
About a year or two, later I committed my life to Christ.
Christ began to change in the way that I viewed people.
And I remember thinking that the kid Mark who I kicked in the head wasn't just some preppy loser, but someone who was made in the image of God.
So when I was in grade 11 and grade 12, I was attending a different school, but remember looking up his address, knocking on his door and he answered.
I said,” You probably remember me. I kicked you in the head. I have come to your house to apologize.”
He said, “Oh….Sure, but I'm curious why are you apologizing now?”
I said, “This may sound strange, but I have met Jesus Christ and this powerfully changed my life in the way I see people.”
He said, “It's interesting. You probably don't know this but my dad is a pastor and I’m a believer too.”
Being in a relationship with Christ totally changed the way I saw Mark and helped me see him as being a person made in the image of God and as a fellow brother from a different mother.
While I have been changed quite a lot by Christ – it's been ages since I've kicked anyone in the head.
I find I can slip into old patterns of relating to people.
I can find that I have more energy to start to talk to someone, socially engage a stranger at a coffee shop or at the gym or at park, if they're attractive or seem interesting.
And I catch myself saying this: Christ has loved so freely without reference to what I could do for him. Everyone is being made in the image of God.
The other day in a public setting (and, no, it wasn’t Tenth). I'm deliberately making the setting vague... I recognized someone I have met only once or twice as they were serving me. And this person was amazed in the sense that because she is not classically attractive in a worldly kind of way a lot people probably don’t remember her.
I thought I want to become the new kind of person—new because of Christ—that cares in small ways for people, people my old self would ignore or despise.
Being in a relationship with Christ, not only changes how we view a particular individual, but as many people in the community or nation really embrace Christ, it changes the way they see people from other nations, other races, other cultures.
I am originally from Japan. Part of the reason why the Japanese up until World War II subjugated other Asians to cruelty, slavery—including sexual slavery, and murder--was because they saw themselves as descendants of the gods, and therefore superior to other peoples. They had a false sense of purity.
In our own country, part of the reason that immigrants from Europe stole land, enslaved, raped and murdered many First Nations Peoples was because they saw the natives as savages.
Historically, south of border racism and slavery against blacks was “justified” because people thought that black people did not possess a soul.
How does Jesus impact this?
Miroslav Volf explains… that when Jesus came he not only remade things, but he also renamed things. 2X. Jesus renamed things--that others had called unclean, out of a false sense of purity, and called them clean….2X When we are made new in Christ, we will lose our false sense of purity, our false sense of superiority. We will name things clean that once we once deemed unclean because of our false sense of purity.
When we are remade, in Christ not only will we rename things, but like Jesus, we will also reach out to people who are different from us--different from us culturally, economically, religiously.
Our power for ministry, our motivation for reconciliation, flows from a love relationship with Jesus that transforms our vision…
Paul said in his letter to the church in Philippi (Philippians 2); “If any of you have any
encouragement from being united with Christ (any of you have any of this?), if any comfort from his love (any of you have any of this?), common sharing the Spirit (any of you have any of this?)… Our attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to used to his own selfish advantage, but became one who serves others…”
We will be drawn to them and then they may be drawn closer to God.
This summer I read the amazing story, the true story, of Louie Zamperini: the book by Laura Hillenbrand, Unbroken.
Keep the book jacket up through the highlighted section:
Louie Zamperini as a boy was living in Southern California and somewhat like me had been a juvenile delinquent. He got into fights, broke into homes and stole things and once jumped a train to Mexico just for the fun of it.
His older brother Pete was concerned about Louie, so he got him involved in the track and field team to channel Louie’s defiance into something productive.
(Keep the photo up over the yellow).
Louie began running and discovered this was his gift.
He ending up breaking a bunch of high school track records and at only 19 ended up running in the Berlin Olympics.
Many people predicted he would become the first human being to break the four-minute mile.
With World War II breaking out, Louie enlisted in the United States Air Force and became a bombardier. While flying on out on the Pacific less than 1000 miles west of Hawaii, his defective plane crashed and he found himself on a small life raft with sharks swirling around him. After 47 days at sea, his rafted floated into the Marshall Islands and he was immediately captured by the Japanese Navy.
Zamperini became a prisoner of war and he experienced brutality at the hands of the Japanese guards that would make the hair on your neck stand on end, or move you to tears, or great anger.
They were starved and beaten mercilessly with fists, kicks, and baseball bats and in the case of one particularly brutal prison guard by a belt buckle on the head again and again, until they would fall unconscious.
Amazingly Louie survived the POW camp where many had died.
After the war he returned to North America where he met married a woman named Cynthia. But because Louie was experiencing severe post traumatic stress disorder, he started drinking and became an alcoholic, got into fights on the streets and in bars, and experienced nightmares where he was being beaten by particularly a brutal guard, fighting for his life.
Because of the injuries he sustained in the POW camp, he could no longer run.
His singular ambition was to make enough money to go back to Japan to find the prison guard that had tormented him most and kill him.
As you can imagine, it was very difficult for Cynthia to live with Louie and said she was making plans to divorce him. But she was invited by an acquaintance in their new apartment building to attend a Christian service being held in a circus tent in LA. The speaker was a young, relatively unknown preacher at the time, named Billy Graham. And as a result of that service Cynthia was awakened to a relationship with God.
Louie was appalled.
Cynthia and their apartment neighbors invited Louie to go, but he adamantly refused. They kept inviting him. One day Cynthia told the little lie that tipped the balance. She said the Billy Graham's sermons were filled with reflections on science. She knew that her husband was interested in science, so he reluctantly agreed to go.
That night as Mr. Graham was making an invitation for people to meet Christ, Louie was spooked and ran out of the tent angry. But he returned with his wife on another night and felt as though God was speaking to him at the end of that meeting to offer his life to God.
When they returned to their apartment, Louie went straight to his cache of liquor. It was the time of the night when the urge to drink usually took hold of him, but for the first time in years, he had no desire to drink. He carried the bottles to the kitchen sink, opened them and poured the contents into the drain. Then he hurried through the apartment, gathering packs of cigarettes, a secret stash of pornographic magazines. He heaved it all down the trash chute.
In the morning he awoke feeling cleansed. For the first time in five years, the brutal prison guards had not come to him in his dreams and they would never return. Louie felt a profound peace.
He was not the worthless, broken, forsaken man that the guard had driven him to become. In a single, silent moment, his rage, his fear, his humiliation and helplessness, had fallen away. That morning, he believed. He was a new creation. Softly he wept.
(Paraphrased from Unbroken by Lauren Hillenbrand).
He lost all desire to gain revenge against his Japanese captor and instead felt compassion for him.
Prior to the winter Olympic Games in Nagano in 1998 Zamperini was invited to carry the torch past Naoetsu, the notorious prisoner of war camp where he had been starving and unmercifully beaten to an inch from death.
He said, “Yes.” And he wanted to offer forgiveness to the prison guard that had treated him with the most cruelty.
He had met the other guards on a previous trip to a prison in Tokyo where they were being held that time. When he entered the prison, he threw his arms around each of them and offered forgiveness. They were stunned. Louie shared with them how Christ had changed his life.
Several days before going to Nagano, he thought how he wanted to meet and offer forgiveness to the guard who treated him the worst and who had not been at the prison because he had been in hiding.
Louie learned that the guard was alive and now living in Tokyo.
He sat for several hours in silence and then clicked on his computer and wrote:
To Matsuhiro [sic] Watanabe,
As a result of my prisoner of war experience under your unwarranted and unreasonable punishment, my post-war life became a nightmare. It was not so much due to the pain and suffering as it was the tension of stress and humiliation that caused me to hate with a vengeance.
Under your discipline, my rights, not only as a prisoner of war but also as a human being, were stripped from me. It was a struggle to maintain enough dignity and hope to live until the war’s end.
The post-war nightmares caused my life to crumble, but thanks to a confrontation with God through the evangelist Billy Graham, I committed my life to Christ. Love replaced the hate I had for you. Christ said, “Forgive your enemies and pray for them.”
As you probably know, I returned to Japan in 1952 [sic] and was graciously allowed to address all the Japanese war criminals at Sugamo Prison…I asked them about you, and was told that you probably had committed Hara Kiri, (suicide) which I was sad to hear. At that moment, like the others, I also forgave you and now would hope that you would also become a Christian.
Louie Zamperini
The former guard almost spat the invitation and refused to meet Louie, but someone offered to deliver the letter. Whether he read it or not, no one knows.
Though our experience may not be as dramatic as Louie’s--when we are in Christ we are made new and we will see people and even our enemies differently, we will move toward them. As we do, in some cases they will be drawn to Christ.
You may have never been beaten like Louie or have kicked in someone in the head, but are you being called to offer forgiveness, or being called close to some who you would naturally be distant from, or even an enemy?
Take time to pray:
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Shigematsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04506027536055632197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11017326.post-62708596960748819972012-12-03T13:03:00.000-08:002012-12-03T13:03:00.321-08:00Choose BlessingDeuteronomy Series M-4
Deuteronomy Series M-5, October 21, 2012
Speaker: Ken Shigematsu
Title: Choose Blessing
Text: Deuteronomy 11; 13:1-18; 28: 1-68, 30:15-20
BIG IDEA: Not following God’s way leads to death; following God leads to life.
INTRODUCTION:
Each morning I feed our 6 month old golden retriever puppy Sasha and then I grab the leash from the garage and we head out the door of our backyard to the boulevard beside our house. She's very excited because she knows we’re going to go to the park and sometimes she’ll want to bolt out across the street on her own. I’ll say, “Stop.” And she’ll look back at me and at the street wondering whether to run out onto the street or obey me.
There's a similar dynamic with our four-year-old son Joey (he’s not a dog, he’s a human being). Sometimes we’ll open the front door, he'll want to run onto the street and I'll say stop and he’ll look back wondering whether to obey me or us to keep running.
In both cases, there’s a part of Sasha and Joey that feels like if they obey me and they don't run out onto the street, there are going to miss out in some way.
And so it can in our relationship with God. Many of us feel that if we obey God in certain areas, we’re going to miss out on life in some way.
I care for Sasha and Joey, I don't want them to miss out on anything good in their lives.
But God cares infinitely more for you and me, than I care for our puppy and our son.
God doesn't want us to miss out on anything good in life. And all that he calls us to – whether it feels like it or not at the time – is an expression of his love for us.
Moses understands this well. So as he preaches to children of Israel on the banks of the Jordan River as they prepare to enter the Promised Land, he calls them to trust and obey God – so that they will experience fullness of God's blessing and life.
In Deuteronomy 11: 26-28 Moses preaches:
Deuteronomy 11:26-28 (TNIV):
26 See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse— 27 the blessing if you obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today; 28 the curse if you disobey the commands of the Lord your God and turn from the way that I command you today by following other gods, which you have not known.
Then similarly in Deuteronomy 30 Moses says:
19 This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live 20 and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life…
PRAY:
In these passages Moses is exhorting his people to trust and obey God so that they would experience the fullness of God’s blessing and life rather than experience a life that is cursed.
In Deuteronomy 27 and 28, Moses specifically names the blessings that would flow if people chose to obey God and curses that would follow if people chose to disobey God.
As you read through Deuteronomy, if the pattern where lists of the blessings are given for obedience and lists of curses for disobedience seems strange to you, this pattern would not have seemed strange at all to the ancient children of Israel.
Whenever a king in the Ancient Near East would establish a covenant with his people, the king would list a series of blessings and curses, and by the way in the ancient world the list of curses was always considerably longer than the list of blessings – and this is also true in the book of Deuteronomy.
Now if you were simply skimming the book of Deuteronomy and you saw the headlines “Blessings for Obedience” and “Curses for Disobedience” you might falsely assume that a person before God is on a kind of neutral plot of land before God; that is, if they obey God they will be blessed – if they disobey God they will be cursed. But it’s not quite that simple.
First of all, the headlines in the TNIV (Today’s New International Version) were not in the original Hebrew text. They have been added by a recent editor to help outline the book. While these added headlines are often helpful, these particular headlines blessings and curses can be a little misleading because they can cause a person to believe that experiencing God’s blessings or curses is matter of simple arithmetic – either you do good and you’re blessed or you do evil and you’re cursed. That’s not the case.
In Deuteronomy, we have the pattern of grace
1) First, God delivers his people out of slavery in Egypt where they been slaves for 400 years—that’s obviously grace.
2) And second, we see the grace of God in action as he gives his people the law.
Yes, God’s law is itself an expression of God’s grace.
How so?
The law of God—and particularly the Ten Commandments—is an expression of God’s character. And since we were made in the image of God, when we honor God’s law, we honour the way God designed us. In Romans 1 we read that the law of God is written across our heart. It's imprinted on our very nature, and when we honor that law we honor the way we were designed and we flourish. We flourish in our relationship with God and each other.
This is why Jesus said to the rich young ruler when he asked ‘What should I do to gain eternal life?’ Jesus said keep the commandments – it wasn’t that the rich young ruler could earn his way to eternal life, but in keeping the commandments he would find a pathway that would enable him to live in synch from the source of life – God.
God didn’t give us his law so that he could punish us if we didn’t keep it. He didn’t give us his law so we could somehow earn our way into his favor. No, God gave us his law as an expression of his love for us so that we flourish in our relationship with God and each other.
The order is important. God didn’t give his people the Ten Commandments in Egypt where they were slaves and say, “If you keep these laws, or if you keep them ninety percent of the time, then I will be indebted to you – I’ll owe you a favor and I’ll set you free from your slavery in Egypt.”
No, God first set his people free from Egypt where they had been slaves – that’s grace.
And then on Mount Sinai he gives them the Ten Commandments so they might experience a richer relationship with him and more harmonious relationships with each other.
That also is grace.
3) And third, we see the grace of God as he leads his people into the Promised Land, a rich, fertile and abundant land-- a land flowing with "milk and honey.”
So God had blessed his people by delivering them from Egypt, giving them the law which reflected their nature, and leading them into the Promised Land.
Moses says to them (in Deuteronomy 11, 27, 28 and 30), “Now God already brought you into a place of blessing, and now in trust obey God so you experience the fullness of God’s blessing—on the path to life, joy, and wellness.
And so it is with us, when God draws us into a relationship with himself, we are not on a neutral plot of land—where if obey we’re blessed and if we disobey we’re cursed—he’s already blessed us by delivering us from a spiritual place where we had been slaves to sin; he’s given us his law which if honored will enable us to flourish in our relationships with God and each other, and spiritually he's brought us into a promised land where we can thrive.
He calls us to trust and obey him not because so that we to earn his blessings, no, he’s already longs to bless us. Rather God calls us to obey so that we can more fully enjoy God’s gifts to us as we live in ways that are consistent with the way He designed us.
Some time ago we had some friends over for dinner and one of them brought our son Joe a remote control truck, a gift (bring it as a prop). But there were instructions that went with the gift that said things like “put the battery in the truck,” and other instructions like “don’t submerge the truck or the remote control in water.” The instructions were not included so that Joe could somehow “earn” the truck if he obeyed all the instructions. No, the truck was a gift, and the instructions were there to show him how to most fully enjoy the gift.
And so it is with God and his law – God’s grace comes first. We saw that when he delivered his people out of Egypt, as he led people into the Promised Land, but then God gives his people the law so that they can most fully enjoy the gift of relationship with him and with one another most fully.
This isn’t merely true in theory; it’s true in our life experience.
Some time ago I was the Boston area having lunch with Dr.Joe Viola who teaches at Harvard Medical School. He said, “When you live in a way that is consistent with the Christian faith, (and he is a committed Christian), you don’t abuse your body through drugs or abusing alcohol, you’ll be happier and you’ll have healthier relationships, and you’ll tend to be healthier, and even if you get sick (as people do) you’ll tend to have more support and a sense of meaning even in your suffering.”
Now obviously there are exceptions—life is not a simple mathematical equation--we know that people who do seem to abuse their bodies and seem to do okay, and others who have lead a life of real integrity who suffer from illnesses-- but generally speaking, what Dr. Viola was saying was that if you live in a way that is consistent with the Christian faith that is with your design, you are going to be happier and tend to flourish.
Some of have heard me talk about the village of Roseto, Pennsylvania, a close-knit community of Italian immigrants who stop to chat in Italian on the street, take time to visit one another, and even cook for one another in their backyards. Research on this community demonstrates that people have a greater sense of happiness and overall well- being, as in Roseto, because of the strong sense of community here.
Similarly, when we trust and obey, we tend to experience more of the fullness of life.
It’s out of his love for us God says, “Trust and obey me and choose life.”
And the opposite is also true when God through Moses us warns “disobey me; turn away from me – and your life will be cursed.” In Moses’ time, God’s people were sorely tempted to chase the idols of their day—and their idols were not that different from ours—material wealth, money, and sex and pleasure.
Chasing agricultural wealth and the silver and gold that would come from that was certainly a temptation for people in Moses’ day. And in their day the “god” of fertility and agricultural prosperity was Baal.
Baal was considered lord of the rain, lord of fertility, and lord of the crops.
In Deuteronomy 11:16, God’s people are warned that if they succumb to the temptation to pay homage to Baal and the other gods, who seemed to control agricultural success, their prayers would have no affect – that they would find themselves coming up empty.
And as we see in verses 16, 17, and 18 and although the gods of Baal had the reputation of being able to send rain and cause the crops to grow – those gods were nonetheless powerless to deliver.
And so it is when we chase down the idol of money. When we serve it, when we put too we become selfishly ambitious in our careers will find ourselves empty.
I was talking to another medical doctor who practices here in Vancouver. He’s very respected in his field, not a Christian, but a spiritual person, and he was telling me that there are so many people here in the city he sees who are financially very well off, corporative executives and the like, who are struggling with depression and struggling with the sense of meaningless in life. They have all the money they could ever need, and all the toys that money can buy, and yet there is emptiness there.
Robert Bellah, the highly esteemed sociologist at UC Berkeley, has said – what many of us have observed – our material possession has not brought us happiness and meaning.
Another idol then and now, of course, was sex and pursuit of pleasure as an end in itself; and in Deuteronomy 27 and 28 Moses lists the curses for people who are engaged in sexual promiscuity. And the symptoms he describes in Chapter 28: 28, as some commentators note, very closely describes syphilis. We know that when people in our time turn to sex outside of God’s will or pleasure as a means to fill the void in their own heart, they ultimately come up empty.
A popular belief among doctors and social scientists and others has been that many teens begin drug use and sexual activity to deal with depression. However, a study published in the Journal of Preventive Medicine reverses those beliefs.
Health policy researcher Denise Dion-Hallfors comments: "Findings from the study show depression came after substance use and sexual activity, not the other way around."
The data was gathered from a survey of 13,491 adolescents. A large group of these teens, about 25 percent, were called "abstainers." They had never had sex, smoked, drank alcohol, or taken drugs. Only 4 percent of these teens experienced depression.
The study also reported that girls among the 75 percent who had taken drugs and experimented with sex were 2–3 times more likely to experience depression than abstaining girls. Boys who engaged in binge drinking were 4.5 times more likely to experience depression than boys in the abstaining group. Boys smoking marijuana were more than 3 times more likely to be depressed than those who abstained.
God doesn't say don't chase idols or god-substitutes because he wants to wreck our life, he tells us not to chase the idols because he knows that they'll never deliver, he says serve me because he knows that he's the only one that can satisfy the deepest longings of our heart. He says trust and obey me, not because he's a tyrant, but because he knows that only we experience true blessing and find out the path to life.
One of the wisest Christ followers of his generation, E. Stanley Jones in his book The Unshakable Kingdom and the Unchanging Person , says, and I paraphrasing:
“The law of God is written within the structure of our being. We are built to obey the laws of the Kingdom. If we obey those laws written within us we are fulfilled; if we go against those laws we are frustrated and, if we persist we are broken… God doesn’t have to punish you if you break his laws written in you. …You don’t have to punish the eye for having sand in it, nor the hand for putting it fire, nor the soul for having sin in it. Sin and its punishment are one and the same thing.”
A modern woman wrote to a newspaper: “They say to have an affair with another woman’s husband is heaven. I can tell you it is 10% heaven and 90% hell.”
In the movie Moonstruck when Lonnie (Nicholas Cage) says to Loretta (Cher) before they consummate their affair: We are here to ruin ourselves, and to break our hearts.
Dorothy Sayers says, “We never really break the law of God, we just break our self over it.”
A boy was seen crying disconsolately. Someone asked, “What’s the matter.” He replied: “I’ve been playing hooky all day, and I just found out this is Saturday.” When we go against the way of God, we play hooky against our own best interests. We play hooky against ourselves.
E. Stanley Jones says, “The kingdom of God is our homeland. If our body could express, it would say: ‘Please, oh please be Christian. I work well that way. If you try to work me some other way I work my own ruin.’ Every cell of your body dances with glee when you enter the Kingdom. You don’t have to manufacture ways to be happy; you just are happy when you obey the Kingdom. You don’t try to have a good time - you just have it.”
This week while I was out Keats Island, I heard the story of a teenager who attended a Christian camp as someone who was not a believer. He was reading the Bible and the words just jumped out at him and he sensed God came into him. He couldn't stop smiling all week. He tried to stop smiling because it wasn’t cool to smile so much as teenager, but he couldn't help but smile.
He didn't know anything about the Bible, but something deep inside him knew… and his soul was dancing with glee.
Robert Murray Mccheyne said God doesn’t so much want your holiness so much as he wants your happiness, but the only way you will be happy is by being holy, through obedience, by honoring the way God made you…
When we choose the narrow path of which Jesus spoke, it may be hard in some ways—there may be time of suffering—but, as was true of Jesus, there is resurrection, joy, and eternal life now and forever on this path.
CS Lewis said, Every time we make a choice we are slowly turning either into a heavenly creature or into a hellish creature: either into a creature that is in harmony with God, and with other creatures, and with itself, or else into one that is in a state of war and hatred with God, and with its fellow-creatures, and with itself. To choose to trust and obey God is to become the one kind of creature is heaven: that is, it is joy and peace and knowledge and power.
So God says to through Moses in Deuteronomy 30:
19 This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you: life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live 20 and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life…
Prayer:
All of us here in some way have wandered from the path of God…we’ve all been comprised. And as a result we are all under, to one degree or another, the curse. But here is some great news:
13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.”[a] 14 He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit” (Galatians 3:13-14).
In this passage we read that Christ became the curse for us in order to fulfill the blessings promised to Abraham. He took on the curse for our disobeying God’s law, so that we could experience spiritual blessings—a life with God that fills us full, and relationships with others that flourish. Forgiveness.
Choose life.
1
Shigematsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04506027536055632197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11017326.post-2337823773522571562012-12-03T12:55:00.003-08:002012-12-03T12:55:27.247-08:00Sexual IntegrityDeuteronomy Series M-6
Oct 28, 2012
Speaker: Ken Shigematsu
Title: Sexual Integrity
Text: Deuteronomy 5:18; 22:22 & Matthew 5:27-32
BIG IDEA: When we are sexual faithful we reflect the image of a God who is faithful.
INTRODUCTION:
Chris Yuan:
We live in a time when it’s easier than ever before to have an affair. Unlike ancient times, in the modern workplace, men and women have the opportunity to work side-by-side on projects that are stressful and exhilarating and that can bond people in powerful ways. Working relationships and friendships can slowly turn into affairs and it’s is myth that only bad people and bad marriages have affairs. People in good marriages, are also having affairs. Sometimes things can start very innocently but then move into a place of dangerous emotional or physical intimacy that can threaten your or someone else’s marriage.
Of course, the Internet has made it easier for online “friendships” to turn into affairs and there are even websites designed to facilitate extramarital affairs.
Have you heard about the personals websites designed to facilitate extramarital affairs? They give you immediate access to thousands of men and women willing to kick their vows to the curb for a no-strings-attached sexual encounter.
Some of these sites have had astounding success. One began a few years ago—and in just one month—about 700,000 men and women used the site to have an affair, and since then, site membership grew to millions of people. It sees its largest traffic just after Father's Day (when men feel most unappreciated) and Valentine's Day (when women feel most unappreciated).
The CEO of one these sites, Noel Biderman, shrugs off any criticism, saying, "We're just a platform. No website or 30-second ad is going to convince anyone to cheat. He went on to insist "humans aren't meant to be monogamous." But when asked, “How would you feel if your wife used the site?” He said, "I would be devastated."
It’s easier than ever before to have an affair, but the results are as devastating as they have always been.
God in his love for us wants us to avoid experiencing the devastation that comes from adultery. And as we see in Deuteronomy, God over and over says that he calls us to trust and obey his commandments, as we saw last week, not so that we miss out or so that our life will be wrecked in some way but so that we might experience life to the full.
In his sermon on the banks of the Jordan River to the people of God who are preparing to the enter the Promised Land, Moses in Deuteronomy, Chapter 5, verse 18 says “And you shall not commit adultery.”
PRAY.
In this message, we explore how when we are sexually faithfulness we mirror the image of God and then we will look at how we can become people who are sexually faithful.
First, let’s look how when we are sexual faithful we mirrors God.
As we saw last Sunday, the laws of God and in particular the Ten Commandments which includes the commandment “you shall not commit adultery” are not merely some abstract set of moral imperatives. The Ten Commandments reflect the very nature of God and because we were made in God’s image, when we live in ways that are consistent with the Ten Commandments – we honor our design and we flourish.
So in what way do we reflect the image of God when we are sexually faithful, that is when we are true to God’s call to be sexually pure—chaste as a single person or loyal as married person?
When we are sexually faithful we reflect God's faithfulness.
In Genesis 15 we see how God made his covenant with Abraham, the forefather of the children of Israel. God asked Abraham to bring three animals and two birds, and, according to the rituals of that time, Abraham slaughters them. He cuts each of them in half and lays out the pieces in two rows. According to ancient tradition, after the carcasses were laid out the two covenant partners were to walk through the bloody passageway as a sign of their commitment. As they walked through between the carcasses they was saying, ‘Let me be like these slaughtered animals if I ever break the terms of this covenant.’ But in Genesis 15 as God is making his covenant with Abraham, Abraham falls into a deep sleep and only God symbolized by the torch of blazing fire passed between the pieces, and God is saying unilaterally to Abraham, ‘If I break the terms of my covenant with you, may I be like these dead animals.’
And this is amazing because the gods of the ancient world were self-serving, capricious, and arbitrary. And when a god or a king was creating a covenant with an ordinary person, only the ordinary person, the person of lower status, would be required to walk between the dead carcasses and subject themselves to being cursed if they broke the covenant. But here in this story, it’s the higher ranking party, i.e., God himself, who walks between the dead pieces of the animals. And God, in walking through the two rows of the cut up animals (use props), is saying “I will be faithful to my end of the covenant, even if my people are disobedient, commit adultery, are greedy, cruel, vain, proud, selfish – I am going to make an unconditional covenant with Abraham and his offspring.”
In this picture, we see God’s breathtaking faithfulness, something that is radically in contrast with the gods of the Ancient Near East. And even though God’s people flagrantly disregarded their part of the covenant, 2000 years later God would keep his word and take the bloody curse—his people deserved—upon himself on a cross just outside Jerusalem as He allowed himself to be cut, and his blood spilled for us so that we might be forgiven and reconciled to God. God has been faithful to us, and when we are faithful to God sexually and in other ways we reflect the image of God who is faithful.
So when we are faithful sexually, we are mirroring a God who is faithful. When we are sexually faithful, we are also mirroring a God who loves the well-being of families and communities.
Now if you read ahead to Deuteronomy 22:22 you will see that if a person committed adultery, they were liable to the death penalty. In ancient Mesopotamia, according to the Code of Hammurabi, an adulterous couple was to face the death penalty. And so while this penalty for adultery sounds extremely harsh to our ears, this was the way adultery was punished in the ancient world.
But we may ask, ‘Why such a harsh penalty for what many consider to be a private sin?’ Remember that Israel at this time is a theocracy ruled by God. It’s not a pluralist democracy like Canada today. And adultery, as Old Testament scholar Chris Wright points out, was an attack on the stability of the household, and, therefore, a threat to the nation’s relationship with God. People knew that adultery would have disastrous social effects on a person’s family.
And as the family was undermined by sexual unfaithfulness, that in turn would destabilize people’s relationship with God. And when you are living in a theocracy where the highest goods are to love God, and to love your neighbor as yourself, anything that undermines one’s relationship with God or unravels the fabric of family life was considered a national threat and would require a severe penalty.
If you are an ambassador for your country and you commit treason, or if you make an attempt on the life of a police officer, or say our Prime Minister – there are severe penalties for these kinds of crimes because they are seen as acts that will destabilize our society. And in a theocracy like ancient Israel, adultery, which would undermine a family and their relationship with God, was considered a national threat.
Now let me be clear, we live in a pluralist democracy, not a theocracy like ancient Israel, and I’m not advocating that we should institute the death penalty for adultery. But one thing hasn’t changed across the last 4,000 years, and that is how adultery really does undermine our marriages, family, and the fabric of our society.
John Edwards south of the border ran for his party's presidential nomination 4 years ago. Sn the book Resilience, his wife, Elizabeth, wrote about how her husband's adultery affected her.
When she and John were first married, she had directly asked him to be faithful. Her fear of having an unfaithful husband was formed by seeing what her mother had experienced. Her mother suspected that her husband had been unfaithful, and though she never confronted him about it, she lived with a nagging, painful uncertainty for many years. Elizabeth learned about this as a teenager when reading her mother's journal, which she found one day in their home. Seeing how even the suspicion of unfaithfulness had tormented her mother's heart stamped Elizabeth's own heart.
Even so, she had great confidence in John's love for her. She had not been suspicious of him. When she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005, John stood by her during her treatment. In 2006, Elizabeth encouraged him to travel without her when necessary to pursue his political dreams. At this time Elizabeth did not know that soon after beginning the campaign her husband had begun an ongoing adulterous relationship with another woman. Then, on December 30, 2006, almost a year after beginning the ongoing affair, John admitted to his wife of 28 years that he had been unfaithful on one occasion.
Elizabeth wrote:
After I cried and screamed, I went to the bathroom and threw up. And the next day John and I spoke. He wasn't coy, but it turned out he wasn't forthright either… So much has happened that it is sometimes hard for me to gather my feelings from that moment. I felt that the ground underneath me had been pulled away. I wanted him to drop out of the race, protect our family…
I spent months learning to live with [what I assumed was] a single incidence of infidelity. And I would like to say that a single incidence is easy to overcome, but it is not. I am who I am. I am imperfect in a million ways, but I always thought I was the kind of woman, the kind of wife to whom a husband would be faithful. I had asked for fidelity, begged for it, really, when we married. I never need flowers or jewelry; I don't care about vacations or a nice car. But I need you to be faithful. Leave me, if you must, but be faithful to me if you are with me.
Elizabeth Edwards was devastated by her husband’s unfaithfulness. And affairs end up being terribly destructive.
God loves faithfulness because he is faithful and when we are faithful we reflect God’s image. And God loves sexual faithfulness it protects people and families he loves.
So when are we are sexually faithful, we honor God.
A great example of this comes from the life of Joseph. Joseph was the great-grandson of Abraham and Sarah who was betrayed by his brothers, and sold as a slave to the Egyptians. Joseph was a diligent and able slave of a high ranking government official named Potiphar. Joseph was a person of deep insight, and had a gift for leadership. He was also very handsome. His master’s wife took notice of him and she tried to seduce him. One day she grabbed him and said come to bed with me. Joseph responded in a remarkable way. He said, ‘Your husband has entrusted everything he owns to my care except you, because you are his wife.’ He doesn’t just say sleeping with her would wrong her husband, but rather says, ‘How could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God.’ So Joseph’s faithfulness sexually sprung from of his desire to be faithful to God.
When we are sexually faithful—true to what he has called us to—we honor God, ourselves, and other families.
Let me make several observations which I hope will be helpful to apply this in our modern context.
(This point comes before #1 in the sermon outline).
Practice faithfulness in small things (keep each title for several seconds)
Faithfulness is a spiritual muscle that can be developed with use.
Jesus in Luke 16:10, said “If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones.”
While in the context he wasn't specifically talking about sexual faithfulness, the principle still applies. If we are faithful and relatively small things: if when we agree to do something – we follow through, if we are part of a small group we attend –even when it's inconvenient – we attend. If agreed to serve—we show up. Obviously there are situations where we need to adjust for the sake of others, but part of the way become faithful is by exercising faithfulness. We can be faithful in small things sexually by not flirting or fantasizing or risky situations.
Take radical action
Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, commenting on this passage says,
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5: 27-28).
In the Greek Jesus is saying anyone who looks at a woman or a man in order to lust – the Greek word is epethumeo which means to over desire someone sexually, has already committed adultery with that person in their heart. Attraction in itself is a good thing. When Adam first saw Eve in the garden he sings ‘Bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh.’ In the Hebrew he is reciting poetry, he is astonished at her beauty, revels in her splendor. To be sexually alive and attracted is natural and good. But when we begin to look at someone in order to desire them sexually, we begin to over desire them – meaning that if we could we would take them sexually then we have crossed a line. And Jesus says to deal radically with it. That is gouge out your eye, cut your hand off. He is using hyperbole here, but he is saying is if you’re struggling with lust, which is the first step to actual physical adultery or to sex outside of God’s will, deal radically with it. This for all of us may mean that we are judicious about the kind of movies we see, about the images on the internet or magazines that we expose ourselves to and for some it mean getting rid of your TV or a home computer as friends of mine have done.
Practice Transparency with Your Spouse (or if you are single with a trusted, appropriate friend)
Research by Dr. Shirley Glass in her book Not “Just Friends”
shows that part of the reason why an actual affair can hold such power over a person, whether it’s an emotional affair or a physical affair, is because of its secrecy that typically surrounds such relationships (It’s a book that more 400 pages—I will be tweeting from the book this week: @KenShigematsu
(Edlyn, can you get logo and my name to line up so they are parallel of roughly equal size?—please also make available for the end of my announcement re: Lee).
She and others point out that when you are able to confess the emotional or physical affair with your partner, much of the mystique evaporates from the relationship and you are freer to disentangle yourself from it.
And the same dynamic holds true in other related areas – part of the reason why people who are struggling with lust through pornography is because there is often secrecy that shrouds these activities. But if we are able to trust our partner if we have one, or a trusted friend, and ask them to hold us accountable, then we can experience real freedom.
In James 5:16 we read, Therefore confess your sins [and temptations] to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.
As a guy, as is probably true of some of you, it doesn’t require that much courage for me to jump out of an airplane with a parachute on my back, or to rappel down a 100 foot cliff or to engage in contact sports as I did when I was younger. But it can be terrifying for me to open up my heart and be completely transparent, but it’s something across the years that I have sought to cultivate with my wife and some trusted friends. And sometimes it’s easier to be transparent with a complete stranger on an airplane or a relative stranger like the person who cuts our hair, but if we want to protect our marriages, o we will to cultivate transparency with our marriage partner or future partner, or with a close friend who is not a potential alternate to our spouse….
Cultivate Friendships with people who will Encourage Sexual Faithfulness
Third, we need to have good social support systems to encourage us to be sexually faithful. That’s why small groups, mentoring relationships with people who know Christ, peer friendships with those who know Christ, where you can talk frankly about the temptations you are facing is so important.
In Hebrews 10:24-25 we read:
And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
Al Peterson tells a story of a woman who was at lunch with eleven other people – this mom’s group had been studying French together while their kids were in pre-school. One woman asked the group, “How many of you have been faithful to your husband’s throughout your marriage?” Only one woman at the table raised her hand. That evening the woman told her husband the story and she added that she herself was not the one who raised her hand. “But I’ve been faithful” she assured him. “Then why didn’t you raise your hand?” She replied. “I was ashamed.”
If we want to protect our marriages, we don’t want the people in our life encouraging us to be unfaithful. When I’ve had opportunities to cross the line sexually that I know would dishonor God – both that person and myself. And there have been times that I have confided those temptations with people that am close to, but who don’t share the values of God on this matter – and they’ve said, “You idiot – you should have gone for it!” Facing temptation, if we want to protect our marriages and honor God, we should confide in people who share God’s values and who are friends of our marriage and someone with enough backbone and to speak the hard truth to us.
Talk About Sexual Integrity with Your Children (and members of your faith family).
And if you have children one day, teach your children about godly sexuality. Deuteronomy 6:6-7 was given to members of all the families and households in ancient Israel:
‘These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.’
The commandment here refers primarily to the Ten Commandments, which includes one about sexuality which we have spoken about today, as well as coveting somebody else’s spouse. God wants us to talk about sexuality in the context of our family (and close friends). It’s more than just having one talk about the “facts of life” and getting it over with. God wants us to have an ongoing conversation with our kids about their bodies, the physical and hormonal changes they will face, dating, and marriage. You can go through a good book from a Christian perspective that is targeted at kids at appropriate age levels to talk with them about matters of sexuality.
(On matters as powerful as sexuality it is not enough to hear one sermon on sex like this, we must talk about this stuff and how we apply with our kids and close, trusted friends).
And perhaps most powerfully—regardless of our past—from here forward to model what healthy faithful sexuality looks like through our own lives. One of my grandfathers was a very powerful CEO who hobnobbed with the rich and famous, had multiple mistresses, and there are a lot of people who would look at his sexual conquests and would think “He’s a stud” “He’s a cool guy” “He has an enviable lifestyle.”
And then by contrast I look at my own parents who have been married for more than 50 years. They have remained true to one another and their love is deeper and stronger now than it was 50 years ago. Although there is certain attractiveness to both kinds of lifestyles, there is a far greater beauty in the latter--in the example of a faithful love because that reflects the God in whose image we were made. My parents us given us five children so many gifts, but one the important priceless gifts they’ve given us is the gift of their growing faithful love toward.
If you are married or get married one day, regardless of your past, you give that gift to people around from here forward.
Finally, I want to say something about grace. In an audience this size there is no doubt that many people here have experienced some kind of sexual compromised in some way.
At the end of John 8, Jesus a woman caught in the act of adultery is dragged to Jesus by the Pharisees and teachers the law says “The law of Moses tells us to stone such a person.” Jesus bends down and begins to write something on the ground – we don't know what he writes – but he may well be writing down the Ten Commandments… He looks up and says, “He who is without sin let him cast the first stone.” One by one the people drop their stones and walk away.”
The woman is trembling and Jesus, says no one has condemned you and neither do I. Go and leave your life of sin.
He forgives her and the reasons he can say to us “I forgive you” – the reason he can say don't stone her and don’t stone us–is because he would soon allow himself to be stoned, to be cut on cross so that she and we would never have to be stoned, cut, cursed and condemned.
And when we realize how deeply were loved by Jesus and receive the forgiveness and new beginning he offers and invite him as the ultimate faithful one to live his life to us, we can like him—like God – faithful and true.
Pray:
Ezekiel 36
4 “‘For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land.(AS) 25 I will sprinkle(AT) clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse(AU) you from all your impurities(AV)and from all your idols.(AW) 26 I will give you a new heart(AX) and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone(AY) and give you a heart of flesh.(AZ) 27 And I will put my Spirit(BA) in you and move you to follow my decrees(BB) and be careful to keep my laws.(BC) Shigematsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04506027536055632197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11017326.post-22415187766897724302012-12-03T12:48:00.003-08:002012-12-03T12:48:42.962-08:00Just WorkCity Series M-7
November 18, 2012
Speaker: Ken Shigematsu
Title: Just Work
Text: Deuteronomy Deut. 26:8-16, 24:14, 25:13-16; Matthew 20-1:16
BIG IDEA: God’s people are called to work with integrity.
INTRODUCTION:
Last weekend I was flying to Boston and I was seated beside a couple of older women who are sisters – and because I was sniffling the older woman seated beside me reached into her purse and grabbed a Kleenex and said, “Blow your nose.” We got talking and when she discovered that I was a Christian minister, she looked in shock at her sister and said, “Oh, my God, I just told the minister to blow his nose.”
There are some people who think that a Christian minister is in some special, rarefied vocation. But the word minister simply refers to someone who serves God in whatever vocation they find themselves in. Historically, people who serve in government here in Canada as Minister of Finance or Minister of Minister of International Trade have been called ministers because they are seen as serving in the church or government or some other sphere.
Several months ago, I asked someone in our community who works in the corporate world if you ever thought about becoming a pastor. He said, “I feel like I’m called to be pastor in my company.” Last week, I met with him and he shared that at his company (a famous one which you have all heard of) they brought in a professional public speaking coach to train the managers on how to speak more effectively in public. As part of the exercise, they were all asked to speak about something they were passionate about for 2 minutes. Everyone talked about how passionate they were about the company. But when this person’s turn came around, he spoke about how passionate he was about Jesus Christ and this church.
In a conversation that I was having with him this last week, he shared how he wanted to help change the culture in his company so that it was less cutthroat and more humane.
Each of us who belongs to Jesus Christ or is being drawn into a relationship God is called to serve as a minister in our workplace.
And Moses living about 3500 years ago understood this. So Moses, who is now an old man and is standing on the banks of the Jordan River, preaches a series of sermons to prepare the Children of Israel, his people, the people of God, for their life in the promised land of Canaan. He has told them that they have been blessed with the wisdom of God’s word and a sense that God is close to them, particularly when they pray—blessed not just for their self-flourishing or their personal fulfillment, but endowed with God’s wisdom and presence so that they would be a blessing to the nations, a light to the world.
And one of the ways that they would become a light to the world is by reflecting God's character in their work.
In Deuteronomy 26:16-17
16 The Lord your God commands you this day to follow these decrees and laws; carefully observe them with all your heart and with all your soul 17 You have declared this day that the Lord is your God and that you will walk in obedience to him…
In this sermon we are going to be looking at a few texts from Deuteronomy—one on giving, one on compassion management, and a 3rd one using honest scales---that show us how we reflect the character of God through our work.
This is a relevant question for us if we are like most people who spend most of the waking hours of our life engaged in some kind of work, either school, home, or the company.
In Deuteronomy 26:6-17 we read when the children of Israel, the people of God, were suffering as slaves in Egypt they cried out to God.
Then in verse 8 we read
8 So the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great terror and with signs and wonders. 9 He brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey; 10 and now I bring the firstfruits of the soil that you, Lord, have given me.” Place the basket before the Lord your God and bow down before him. 11 Then you and the Levites and the foreigners residing among you shall rejoice in all the good things the Lord your God has given to you and your household.
12 When you have finished setting aside a tenth of all your produce in the third year, the year of the tithe, you shall give it to the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, so that they may eat in your towns and be satisfied.
Moses is saying to his people, “God has been incredibly generous to us – he has led us out of Egypt that land where we were slaves He brought us into this promised land flowing with milk and honey.” Earlier in Deuteronomy 8 he says that God has given them the very capacity to produce wealth, so “now (vs. 10) bring the firstfruits of your harvest to him,” and (vs. 12) “set aside a 10th of all of your produce and give it to the Levite i.e. to those who oversee God’s work and the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow – that is to the poor.”
One of the most tangible ways we reflect God's generous character to us is by offering the firstfruits of our income to God and the poor.
One of the people who has inspired me most in my Christian faith through his example is the nineteenth century missionary from England to China--Hudson Taylor.
When he was a young person, poor, barely making ends meet as a medical student, he learned to trust God enough to tithe, but he was so poor he found it difficult to actually give the first tenth of his income to God as a low paid medical assistant. He was sharing how he had worked this out with a friend of his. Hudson said, “When I calculated the cost of my apartment rent, and food, and other fixed necessary expenses, I didn’t have ten percent leftover to give to God.” And his friend said, “So what did you do?” Hudson said, “Well I just found cheaper accommodations, lived more simply and was able to give.” Hudson learned to give the first tenth of his income and then more, and learned to live on the rest, even when he was very poor.
Honoring God with the firstfruits of our income not only enables to reflect God's generosity back to him and the poor, but it also helps us trust God.
As we'll see, we are called to reflect God in our work and the way we do that is by trusting him.
One of the ways that we honor our Lord in our work is by reflecting his generosity and trusting him enough to give generously to him and the poor. Another way we honor God through our work, according to Deuteronomy, is by reflecting God’s integrity and compassion.
Moses anticipated the day in which his people would no longer be a tribe of wandering nomads, but prosperous people in the Promised Land. They would be sufficiently wealthy to hire people who were poorer and in need. And this is what he says in Deut 24:14-15:
14 Do not take advantage of a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether that worker is an Israelite or is a foreigner residing in one of your towns. 15 Pay them their wages each day before sunset, because they are poor and are counting on it. Otherwise they may cry to the Lord against you, and you will be guilty of sin.
It’s really clear in this and in other texts in Deuteronomy that God is especially concerned about the poor and needy and that the conditions they work in should be fair and never exploitative. Our translation says, “Do not take advantage of the poor and needy who work for you.”
But this translation is too weak. In the Hebrew asaq means to oppress by robbery or fraud. And Moses is very practical here when he calls his people to pay their workers promptly. This law is for the benefit of people who were hired as day laborers. People who were hired for short-term jobs were often paid a daily wage. And in their world, daily pay was essential for daily food. And so any delay in payment meant that a worker and his family would go hungry. Moses says if an employer fails to pay his workers, it’s a sin against God.
As theologian Christopher Wright points out, unjust pay and inhumane working conditions are not just social problems, they are sins against God. And this is why the prophets in the Old Testament like Isaiah and Jeremiah invoked the judgment of God against those who fail to pay their workers properly. Conversely, we see here in the later part of Deuteronomy 24:13 that when a creditor deals humanely with a debtor—when he gives his cloak back which served as collateral for the debt at the end of the day—because it’s his only cloak and only blanket—it will be regarded as a righteous act in the eyes of God. Jesus, in Matthew 20, told a story about a vineyard owner who generously paid a day’s wage for an hour’s work presumably because he recognized the need a man had to feed his family no matter how long a man had worked. When we are in a position to do so, we honor God in our work as we offer or advocate for fair pay.
I happen to be reading the book Onward by Howard Schultz, which is a book about how Starbucks struggled to survive during the economic crash during 2008. How it sought to move onward without losing its soul (I will be tweeting inspiring quotes from the book this coming Edlyn please use twitter image you created @KenShigematsu). As I happen to be reading from this book now I’m going to draw some illustrations from it. I don’t want it to sound like a commercial for a company – I don’t even drink coffee myself – but I found this story to be informative and inspiring.
When I was 7 years old, I came home from school one winter day and saw my father sprawled on a couch with a cast from his hip to his ankle. My dad was an uneducated war veteran, and while he was very proud, he never really found his spot in the world. He held a series of really rough blue-collar jobs to support our family, never making more than $20, 000 a year. He’d been a truck driver, a factory worker, and even a cab driver for a while, but his current job was the worst. He drove a truck picking up and delivering cloth diapers. That week Dad had fallen on a sheet of ice and broken his hip and his ankle, and for a blue-collar worker in 1960 there was no worker’s compensation. No health-care coverage. No severance. My dad was simply sent home after his accident and dismissed by the company. I never imagined I would one day be in a position to run a company a different way. But I did believe, even then, that everyone deserved more respect than my parents had received. By the time my father passed away in 1988 from lung cancer, he had no savings or pension. Just as tragic, in my mind, was that he never found fulfillment or meaning in his work. As a business leader, I wanted to build the kind of company that my dad never got a chance to work for (Schultz, 2011, p. 15).
Howard would go on to create the company Starbucks. And largely out of a desire to build the kind of company his father never had a chance to work for, he was also no doubt partly inspired by the values of his heritage as a Jewish person, which of course has been shaped by the book of Deuteronomy. Howard Schultz, in the early years of the business when they were losing money, established two partner benefits which at the time were unique: full health care benefits and equity in the form of stock options for every employee. This was an anomaly. No company had ever extended these two benefits to part-time workers who worked at least 20 hours a week. To the best of Schultz’s knowledge they were the only private company, and later the only public company, to do so. And that is very significant as the company began in Seattle, in a country that doesn’t have our generous Medicare system. And whether we are in management or lower on the totem pole in a company, one of the ways that we are to reflect the character of God and shine his light in our company is to create better working conditions for poor people, and in particular those who are poor and vulnerable. Again and again God says in Deuteronomy and throughout the Scriptures to the people of Israel, “Show compassion for the poor and the vulnerable, the widow and the alien, because I showed you compassion when you were aliens and slaves in Egypt.” And by the way, you don’t have to be a CEO to bring about change in your workplace. Like my friend I spoke about, he’s not a CEO-- he’s a manager who’s trying to make his work less cutthroat and more humane. You don’t even have to be a manager; you can be a front line worker to foster change.
The Discovery Channel aired "Selling Murder: The Killing Films of the Third Reich," a documentary on films found in archives after German’s reunification. The Nazis had a public relations problem: they wanted to exterminate weaker members of society, but Lutheran Germany had a history of compassion toward the old, infirm, and the mentally ill. In order to change public perception, the Nazis hired some of Germany's best filmmakers.
The film showed patients at Hadamar, a facility for the mentally disturbed. Lights aimed at unnatural angles made the patients look ominous, their faces angular and deeply shadowed, their eyes wild.
The film shifts to a bureaucrat displaying budget graphs. “It takes 100,000 Deutschmarks to keep one of these defectives alive,” he explains—“money badly needed by the Fatherland. We should follow the example of nature and allow the weak to die….”
"Selling Murder" ended with a surprising twist. Despite their slick films and other attempts to sway public opinion, the Nazis failed to exterminate the physically and mentally disabled. However, Jews, Gypsies, and homosexuals they murdered virtually without protest; the disabled, they had to let live.
Why? The change in Nazi policy traces back to one brave woman, a Christian nurse who worked at Hadamar. When the facility was converted into a gas chamber, she could not keep silent. She documented the facts and reported them to her bishop, who released them to the public. The resulting outcry from the church forced the Nazis to back down. Her courage can serve as a prophetic model for Christians today.
That one nurse changed Nazi policy. She was living under a totalitarian dictatorship, not in a liberal democracy like Canada. In a day before Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, it was far more difficult to build a platform – and yet she did. And her courage and advocacy as a follower of Jesus honored God. We may not be called upon to act in a setting as dramatically evil as Nazi Germany, but we are called to reflect God and make our workplaces more just and compassionate places.
Whether it’s about paying fair wages, making the workplace less cut throat, or speaking out against it, as is true of tithing, it’s a matter of trusting God.
As may be true of tithing, we may seem like we can't afford to pay fair wages, to make the workplace less cutthroat, to risk the pushback that comes from being a whistleblower, but the invitation is to say I’m putting my trust in God in my work, more than in my work itself.
Finally in Deuteronomy 25:13 we hear Moses speak of business with justice and financial integrity.
13 Do not have two differing weights in your bag—one heavy, one light. 14 Do not have two differing measures in your house—one large, one small. 15 You must have accurate and honest weights and measures, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.
The two different sets of weights, one heavy, one light, were of course used for the self-serving purpose of obtaining more than the standard measure when purchasing, but giving less when selling-- so you can manipulate a transaction so you would always buy low and sell high.
God says in verse 15 that a commitment to honesty in business will bring a blessing in the land we are living in. On the other hand, if we are dishonest in our business dealings we are doing something that, according to verse 16, God detests. In fact, we can translate the word “an abomination.” To be engaged in dishonest business practices is an abomination to God. We think of idolatry as some aberrant sexual perversions or child sacrifice being an abomination to God. But when we engage in dishonest business, particularly in ways that oppress the poor and the vulnerable, it is an abomination to God. The Prophet Amos recognized this and so he says in Amos, Chapter 8:4-8:
4 Hear this, you who trample the needy
and do away with the poor(H) of the land,(I)
5 saying,
“When will the New Moon(J) be over
that we may sell grain,
and the Sabbath be ended
that we may market(K) wheat?”(L)—
skimping on the measure,
boosting the price
and cheating(M) with dishonest scales,(N)
6 buying the poor(O) with silver
and the needy for a pair of sandals,
selling even the sweepings with the wheat.(P)
7 The Lord has sworn by himself, the Pride of Jacob:(Q) “I will never forget(R) anything they have done.(S)
8 “Will not the land tremble(T) for this,
and all who live in it mourn?
God calls us as his people—and the wider world—to engage in fair trade. Let me cite again from the book Onward as I happen to be reading from it.
In 2008 Starbucks as a company was struggling to survive, at a time when their stock price had fallen so low that they feared that they might experience a hostile takeover from another company. Howard Schultz, the CEO, organized a leadership convention for nearly 10,000 Starbucks partners (that’s kind of inside jargon of theirs for those who work for them). Near the end of the convention Schultz introduced a surprise guest – Bono – the lead singer for U2, a committed Christian, and a global activist. So up came Bono in a black t-shirt and his signature red-tinted sunglasses. I’m paraphrasing here.
“These are interesting times,” Bono began. Howard has brought me to talk to you in interesting, strange, unsettling times. For Starbucks. For North America. Times of crisis. Times of chaos. Times of opportunity….The sight of your stores closing – well, a sign of the time. Historically, though, it is times like these, times of disruption, where we seem to discover our greatness.
Bono spoke not just about Starbucks and the economy in North America but also, more importantly, about his travels to Africa, a continent where 4,000 lives were being lost every day to preventable, treatable diseases, and where 12 million children had been orphaned because of HIV. It had sparked in Bono a rage that ultimately drove him to create [PRODUCT] RED. Then he spoke about the absolute necessity of companies to do well by doing good.
Some people say,“Come on, markets are not about morals, they are about profits.” I say that is old thinking. That’s a false choice. The great companies will be the ones that find a way to have and hold on to their values while chasing their profits, and brand value will converge to create a new business model that unites commerce and compassion. The heart and the wallet….The great companies of this century will be sharp to success and at the same time sensitive to the idea that you can’t measure the true success of a company on a spreadsheet.
And then Schultz, before his partners, during a time of great economic uncertainty, affirmed that the company’s commitment to doing business in a manner that was good for people as well as the earth. And he publically committed to these goals:
• By vowing to ethically source 100% of their coffee by the year 2015, which at the time was nearly 50% more than what they were currently procuring.
• They also committed to doubling their annual purchase of Fair Trade Certified coffee to 40 million pounds.
There is sometimes a price to pay for doing good – but it is possible to do good and to do well at the same time. Bono rightly says it’s possible to combine commerce and compassion, the heart and the wallet. And again, if we are not a CEO or in Management, if we are a rank and file worker or a consumer, we can still push companies toward social change.
Walmart has been regarded by many as the poster child of corporate ruthlessness, a retailer whose business model is undercutting all of its competitors. Partly because of pressure from consumers, Walmart has resolved to change its way of doing business for the sake of the future of the planet. The company has required its suppliers to reduce packaging to protect the environment and is trying to boost sales of energy-efficient light bulbs by giving them more shelf space and better placement in stores. At time of the article I read, the company was experiencing pressure from consumers to ensure fair treatment for the people in developing countries who work for its vendors.
As is true of tithing, paying fair wages, some people will say [to themselves] I can’t afford to do business in a way that is green and that’s ecology sensitive. Again, it’s a matter of trusting God.
As a people of God we are called to reflect the generosity, integrity, and justice of God in our work. We are called to put our trust in God in our work life. We’re to make the Living God and his Son Jesus the center of our lives. When that happens we will become a light in our workplace.
As Parker Palmer says, “Every leader,” and I might add every person, “casts a mixture of light and darkness.” Again, whether we are an executive, part of the management, front line worker, a student – we cast a mixture of light and shadow. And the hope is to cast more light than shadow. And the way we can do that in our workplaces is by inviting Christ, the light of the world, to indwell us, to cleanse us and draw us and shine through us. And that’s what my friend has done—he’s trying to make his workplace less cutthroat and more humane.
Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. She or he who follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of light itself.” And as Tony Campolo reminded us a few Sundays ago, Jesus is always with us, but is he in us? If he is in us, then the light of the world illuminates our life, and that is why Jesus said to those who followed him, “You are the light of the world.”
Do you want to become a person who reflects more of God’s generosity, integrity, and justice? No matter where you are – at business, school, or home – create a place that is more whole and compassionate—a place that is filled with light and honors God. Then invite the light of the world to enter your life and shine through you as you work.
And as John says, “The Light will shine in the darkness, and the darkness will not overcome it.”
PRAY
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Shigematsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04506027536055632197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11017326.post-66931521403817765862012-11-24T10:50:00.002-08:002012-11-24T10:50:49.366-08:00The Path to PeaceColossians 3 M3 (Col. 3:1-3, 15) 06 10 12
Speaker: Ken Shigematsu with Vanessa Roth
Title: The Path to Peace
Text: Colossians 3:1-3, 15
BIG IDEA: If we have been raised to new life with Christ, we will begin to experience the reality of heaven on earth.
When someone dies, particularly if they have led a long and hard life, sometimes people will say, “She’s finally at peace,” or he’s “now at rest.”
When people who believe in God say this they often do so with the conviction that their loved one really is in a place of literally greater peace and inward rest – in the presence of God, in heaven.
And I have observed that as people draw close to death there are times when they have a literal realization that heaven is breaking into their world.
There is a man named Willard who worked an administrator at the school in Portland, Oregon that I have a connection with. Willard had an aging, physically failing mother and, so every day when he could, Willard during his lunch break went over to his mother’s house with some soup or sandwiches, spent a little time with her, then after lunch went for a swim and then headed back to his office to work.
One day when Willard went to his mother’s house she was all dressed up as if she was going to some place very important. Willard asked, “Mother, why are you so dressed up?” She said, “I am about to go on a very important trip today.” Willard quietly thought to himself, “Now my mother has finally lost it. She has really gone crazy.” So Willard decided to test her a little bit. “Mother, exactly where are you planning to go?” His mother said, “I am going to heaven today.” Inside, Willard just shook his head and said, “Yeah, she has completely lost all rationality.” Willard said, “Why don’t you have some soup and sandwiches?” The mother insisted, “I don’t need any soup and sandwiches today, Willard. I told you I am going to go to heaven.” Willard said, “Well, why don’t you have some soup and sandwiches for the road.” His mother said, “No, I think I’ll have some when I get there.” So, Willard left for a swim and later that afternoon he received news that his mother had died. She seemed to have an intuition that she was going to heaven and would be meeting Jesus face to face that day.
Let me share another, brief similar story.
Billy Graham is one of his generation's best-known preachers.
When Billy’s mother died a number of family members gathered around her bed. She had been failing for some time, but Mrs. Graham and sat up in a moment of rare clarity and said, “I see Jesus,” and then she died.
But the Apostle Paul is saying here in Colossians 3, the text that we have been focusing on in this series that we don’t have to wait until death to experience the realities of heaven.
Paul says, “Since you have been already raised with Christ, you have been joined to him. Set your hearts on the realities of heaven now.”
The Apostle Paul says that if our lives have been joined to Jesus Christ then as is best pictured in our baptism as we go under the water signifying our death to an old way of life, and we come out of the water symbolizing we are raised to a new way of life. Then as people who have been raised to a new way of life we are to set our sights on the realities of heaven.
We have seen in this series how heaven isn’t just a place over the rainbow, out there, but it is a place that we can begin to experience here. It's not just the place we experience in the future, but right now.
Heaven isn't just a there and then, it can be a here and now.
But, one of the best ways that we can envision what heaven here and now can look like is by getting a vision of heaven in the there and then.
We know that in the world to come one of the things that we will experience is this remarkable peace that transcends all understanding. The sermon will focus on how we can experience the peace of heaven now through purity, praying with thanksgiving, and surrendering to the providence of God,
Part of the reason that we will experience this peace in the world to cmoe is because we are no longer experiencing temptation to sin. The great African bishop, St. Augustine, in the 4th century concludes his great work, The City of God, by imagining what our lives will be like in the new age to come. Augustine anticipates that we will experience the grace of God as the removal of our sin. We will no longer be tossed to and fro by every wave of impulse and as a result we will be in a state of perfect peace. We will have a perfect peace which is in part the result of no longer having any temptation to sin.
But the Apostle Paul exhorts us to begin to experience the peace of the world to come, he peace of heaven now.
He says in verse 1, “Since you have been raised with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven,” and in verse 15, “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.”
How do we become people who experience the peace of God now, not just in the there and then of heaven, but in the here and now of heaven?
Today were going to look at how we experience the peace of Christ as we pursue purity, and pray with thanksgiving, surrender ourselves to the providence of God.2X
Purity
(please leave purity up over the blue section).
One of the ways that we do this, according to the Apostle Paul in Colossians 3, to borrow another one of Augustine’s phrase, is to choose to live with purity in the “city of God” now.
Last Sunday I talked about how the Apostle Paul here in Colossians 3 is basically saying we have the choice to live in one of two cities.
We can live in City 1 which is marked, according to verses 5-9, by sexual immorality, evil desires, greed, idolatry, anger, rage, slander and lying.
Or, we can live in City 2, a place where people live with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forgiveness, and love as we saw last week.
Many people of course want people to live in City 1. If we were to call City 1 to borrow the nickname of Las Vegas “sin city,” even the term has a certain allure to it.
This may be why Las Vegas which the reality is, as I understand from a friend who lives there, in some ways it is quite a family friendly place, but it has been branded “sin city,” because it makes it sound enticing and exciting.
But we know that when people really live in an actual experience of sin city (by this I don't mean Las Vegas per se, but choosing to live the lifestyle of sin) while it may be enticing and exciting for a little while, it ultimately leads to brokenness and bitterness.
Dorothy Sayers once said we never really break the law of God, we just break our self over it.
We never really break the law fire. If we put our hand in fire trying to break the law fire, find that we don't break the law fire, we just break ourselves.
We never really break the law of God, we just break our self over it.
Living in the actual experience of sin city ultimately leads to brokenness and bitterness,
Whereas living in the “city of God,” that is the path of God leads not only to peace in the world to come, but to the peace of heaven in this life.
Robert Murray McCheyne once said that God isn’t so much interested in your holiness as he is interested in your happiness, but he knows that you will only be happy long term if you pursue holiness. Holiness in a contemporary context might be simply translated “wholeness”—to be
Holiness means Wholeness
(leave up for through the blue)
whole and set apart for God’s purposes.
The way we begin to experience the city of peace in heaven now is by choosing the city of God or the way of God now.
Choosing to live with compassion, kindness, forgiveness, and love now. Choosing to live a life of holiness and wholenesss now. As we live this way, the peace of God, the peace of heaven will fill our hearts.
One of the ways that we experience the peace of heaven on earth is by never consciously choosing to sin, never knowingly transgressing the boundary that has been established by God, with God's help pursuing the path of inner purity.
There are times of course when we have two choices before us, but they're not necessarily choices is between sinning AND not sinning, doing evil vs. doing good. When we are not certain exactly what the will of God is, we can prayerfully discern what God's will might be for us in a particular circumstance and surrender ourselves to the providence (or the plan) of God.
One of my favorite examples of this comes from the life of Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits.
Loyola, himself, prior to committing his life to God had been a Spanish soldier – dreaming of becoming a hero on the battlefield. During a battle against the French in Pamplona, Spain, Loyola and the Spaniards though vastly outnumbered by the French charged toward the French line and as Loyola was running leading the charge, he was shot in the knee by a cannon ball (BTW, the great Saints always seem to have leg injuries – mine from a game of quasi-basketball on the grass :-).
Loyola was convalescing from a cannon ball wound to his leg in the early part of the sixteenth century. While lying in bed bored, he wanted to read romance novels and fantasized about a life of gallantly pursuing courtly women. He also read biographies of Jesus and the saints and envisioned walking in the footsteps of Christ. In both scenarios he experienced an immediate sense of excitement, but as he envisioned chasing a noble woman of the court, though he had an initial sense of pleasure, he was left feeling restless and unsatisfied. But as he pondered pursuing a pilgrimage with Christ, he felt a sense of enduring joy and peace.
Part of the way that we can choose the path of God when it doesn't involve an obvious moral choice between evil and good, is to prayerfully ask which path is accompanied by a greater sense of the peace of God? And not just a momentary peace, but which path seems to offer the enduring peace of God?
When we are in the will of God we will feel this sense of peace and energy, joy and aliveness…being drawn closer to God. It is not say, however, in the short term we may experience a sense of loss.
Perhaps you've had an opportunity to pursue a relationship with someone who on one level was extremely attractive to you, but the person didn't share your values and you didn't feel peace about moving forward.
Or perhaps you had an opportunity to pursue work that would bring you great pay or prestige, but would mean that you would forfeit the opportunity to spend conscious time with God and should be so busy that you could not be with your loved ones.
When we follow a less glamorous path in our love life or work life because we feel that God has something that is truly better for us, our false self may rebel against this, our opportunistic self will mourn. But when we walk in God’s way, even if it requires sacrifice, we will feel a more enduring peace rise up over time and live with a deeper sense of alignment with God and our true selves.
One of the ways we experience the peace of Christ and life of heaven on earth here and now, not just there and then, is to always follow what we understand to be the will of God, either as we choose to not consciously sin and to live with God's help in the city of God – with compassion, forgiveness, love and in holiness and wholeness, and as we prayerfully discern the will of God as we pay attention to the movements of the Holy Spirit inside us and to what over time will offer us the most enduring sense of peace.
Prayer
A second way we can experience the peace of God is by surrendering something to God in prayer.
The fact is that even when we are doing all we can with God’s help to do the will of God, to live within the city of God and to be pursuing a path of purity, there are times when we will become anxious over some matter. Maybe we are going through a stressful experience in a relationship, or experiencing tension with a family member, or difficulty in school, conflict at work, or illness of a loved one, financial downturn. There are all kinds of things that can make us feel anxious.
The Apostle Paul says, “When you experience anxiety, cry out to God in prayer, express everything that is on your heart to him, and remember to also give thanks.” As you do you that, spend time in prayer, and as the Apostle Paul talks about in Colossians 3:16, worship in song as you sing songs of the Spirit. As Lee will address more fully next week, the peace of God which transcends all understanding will begin to guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. What a great promise that is!
This past weekend our staff retreat, I was sharing with some of my colleagues how I've recently been meditating on Psalm 37 where David says, “Trust in the Lord and wait patiently for him. Do not fret – it leads only to evil.”
And I shared with them how there have been some things that I've been anxious about from time to time this past year.
I re-shared with them how anxious Sakiko and I were during Joey's first few days at preschool. Every other child was sitting quietly at his or her table working on their crafts while Joey was running around the tables (or at least our imagination at least) and on the third day he pulled the fire alarm. We thought he would certainly be expelled. And I thought it's really too bad because the uniform was fairly expensive and we've only used for a week. Our son is going be a preschool drop-out.
I also shared about my more recent anxiety as we have been in the process of making a decision around the puppy. A small thing I know in the whole scheme of things. But if you are a dog lover as we are, it feels fairly big. When I misunderstood how the puppy draft choice procedure work and that we might be out of a draft pick because I hadn't sent the deposit cheque and assumed that my phone call expressing interest would secure a draft for us, it was very anxiety provoking for me.
I realize this is a “first world” problem. It is not something that we would be anxious about if we were living in a war zone or famine ravage place.
As some of you know, I've been doing some graduate work on the spiritual rhythms of the monastics and I've been in conversations with a couple of publishers about publishing the book for a popular audience on the theme. Because of the fact in this day when bookstores are closing, and the profit margins for book publishers are smaller with Amazon and and Coscto selling books, publishers are much more careful these days these days to take on a book project particularly from a new author.
Even more recently, I’ve sprained my ankle and praying whether I’ll participate in an Olympic distance triathlon this summer or not.
So I've been pondering and praying more often Paul’s words: 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
As I have come into the presence of God in prayer and call to mind the many things I have for which to be truly thankful and express my concerns to God, God has come to me and our family in some special ways. He has given us peace and we have a clear sense of God’s providential path unfolding for us in each of these areas and more.
Providence
(keep word up over the blue section)
As I pray for the things that when my heart, while I do have preferences, I express them, or more than anything else in the deepest part of me, I want to be in the will of God, and as I am in the will of God I feel greater peace.
So I pray the Covenant prayer of John Wesley:
I am no longer my own but yours.
Put me to what you will; rank me with whom you will.
Put me to doing; put me to suffering.
Let me be employed for you, or laid aside for you;
exalted for you, or brought low for you.
Let me be full; let me be empty.
Let me have all things; let me have nothing.
I freely and wholeheartedly yield all things to your pleasure and disposal.
I pray Mary the mother of Jesus’ prayer:
Let it be to me, according to your will.
This past week at our staff retreat, Vanessa Roth was in the small group where I was sharing what was going on in my life and she shared a story from her own life which illustrates what it means to offer things in our life to God in prayer.
Vanessa’s story:
As we see in Vanessa story, as we pray not only do we experience God's peace, we experience the presence and friendship of the one who says
27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. (John 14:27 TNIV)
So we experience the life of heaven and the life of God, not just there and then, but here and now as we pursue a path of purity and prayer and surrender to God’s providence. And as we live before the face of Christ, the Christ will make us pure and he will give us peace.
Let’s pray.
(Two prayers: One would be the prayer of Augustine for purity; the second prayer of concern, a possible third would be John Wesley’s prayer).
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Shigematsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04506027536055632197noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11017326.post-16180053667530310842012-05-04T14:00:00.001-07:002012-05-04T14:00:42.421-07:00A God-Bathed World(2012May03)Colossians M1 (Col. 3:1-11) 05 06 12
Speaker: Ken Shigematsu
Title: A God-Bathed World
Text: Colossians 2:13-15; 3:1-11
BIG IDEA: Since we have been raised with Christ, we can experience a life of heaven now.
If you were here on Easter Sunday, you would have heard me talk about the famous children’s story by C. S. Lewis, The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. This story is about how four children, Lucy, Susan, Peter and Edmund, are sent off during their summer vacation to live with an old professor in his large home in the countryside (SHOW PICTURE through blue section).
While the four children are playing in the professor’s old mansion, they discover a wardrobe which leads them into the magical world of Narnia. But when they enter the world of Narnia, they see that there is snow and ice everywhere. It’s terribly cold. You see the people of Narnia live under the rule of the wicked white witch who causes it to always be winter in Narnia, but never Christmas.
Let me give you one example of how the people of Narnia were afraid under her reign:
Lucy ends up meeting a faun in Narnia called Mr. Tumnus. He invites her to have tea in his home. (SHOW A PICTURE and keep up over the blue text)
Now the faun has been ordered by the white witch to report to her if he ever sees a girl from earth so that she can imprison the girl and eventually kill her and has agreed to do so. But after actually meeting Lucy, this faun changes his mind and confesses all to Lucy. He begins to cry and says, “The witch is sure to find out and she will have my tail cut off and my horns sawn off and my beard plucked out. And she’ll turn me into a stone and I shall only be a statue of a faun.”
It’s icy cold in Narnia more ways than one.
But as we saw at Easter, Aslan, the Great Lion and the true King of Narnia, the Christ figure who has been absent for many years is back and on the move again (SHOW PICTURE through the blue).
Wherever he roams the snow begins to melt, the frozen rivers turn into waterfalls, and the flowers begin to bloom, winter turns to spring.
This morning we begin a new series from Colossians 3 on what it means to live a new life under the reign of a new King, the one the great Aslan symbolizes, the Christ.
This message is simply setting the stage for what is to come in the series.
So how do we live if the frozen winter of our spiritual lives melts away and becomes spring?
Before we turn to Colossians 3, our main text, let’s set up the context by looking at a passage in Colossians 2.
If you have your Bibles, please turn to Colossians 2:13-15.
13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
(briefly explain words above as I read it)
Paul says, to borrow again from the images of Narnia, that there was a time when we were spiritually frozen in our sins, but Christ through his death on the cross for our sins and rising again has opened the way for us to experience a spiritual sunlight that enables us to not experience a spiritual thawing out, but a new life.
As we noted at Easter, in the climax of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, the wicked white witch confronts Aslan, the Great Lion and Christ figure, points to one of the children Edmund (SHOW PHOTO) and says (and show through blue text).
“You have a traitor here and you know that deep magic says that every traitor belongs to me. His life is mine. I have the right to kill him.”
Aslan says, “Take my life in his stead. Kill me and let the boy go free.”
The wicked witch using a large knife kills Aslan.
The following morning Lucy and her sister Susan go to the stone table where Aslan was killed.
That morning they see Aslan alive with the rising sun streaming down on him.
They cry out, “Aslan!” And they embrace him. “What does this all mean?” asks Susan.
It means that though the wicked witch knew the deep magic, there is a deeper magic still which she did not know. If she could have looked a little further back, she would have known that when a victim who had committed no treachery was killed, in a traitor’s stead the table would crack and death would start working backwards.
Through Christ’s death and rising again death starts works backwards for us…
and when we embrace Christ, we die with Christ, symbolized best in our baptism, a death to an old way of life, we are given a new, risen life with him…
This is the Easter message.
So if we have a risen with Christ, how do we then live?
Paul, in a very important passage, in Colossians 3:1-5 calls us to live in this new reality.
I’m using the New Living Translation, which is a very fine translation:
3 Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand.2 Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. 3 For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 And when Christ, who is your[a] life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory.
5 So put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you. Have nothing to do with sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and evil desires. Don’t be greedy, for a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world.
The apostle Paul here in Colossians points out that when we join our life to Christ, not only are we set free from the forces of darkness in our world symbolized in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by the wicked white witch, but we are also free to live for the one Alsan symbolizes, our true King, Jesus Christ.
The apostle Paul in another important book, the Book of Romans in chapter 6, emphasizes how through the death and rising again of Christ we have been set free from sin, the reign of sinful nature, our shadow side, the part of us symbolized in the children's story as the place where wicked white witch reigns.
We no longer need to be a slave to the power of sin and darkness.
But, here in Colossians 3 Paul emphasizes the other side of that.
That is, we now no longer live under the horrible evil master, but under the reign of Christ who has raised us to new life. As a result, Paul says:
3 Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand.2 Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. 3 For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 And when Christ, who is your[a] life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory.
Heaven as Here
Paul says since you been raised to new life with Christ, set your mind on the reality of heaven.
When we think of setting our mind on heaven, to use the language of Dorothy in the story The Wizard of Oz, we may think of a place somewhere over the rainbow, beyond the sky… beyond the universe. As place out there that we will inhabit in the future.
But, the term “heaven” in the Bible isn’t usually used that way.
Heaven can be used to describe a place that's over there that we will one day inhabit in the future, but in the Scriptures more commonly heaven simply refers to God or the realm where God reigns.
(“heaven” can refer to God or the realm where God reigns).
As a pastor named Rob I went to school with says, “Heaven, can refer to there, but it can also refer to here.”
Bible scholar Dallas Willard in his book, The Divine Conspiracy, says heaven in many places in the Bible that can be translated “a space right around us that is inhabited by God.”
Or simply “atmosphere.”
Heaven as Now
When we think of heaven we also think of it as an experience of the future.
There is a sense in which our experience of heaven is in the future.
In verse 4 Paul says,
4 And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory.
he is referring to something that will happen after we die, at the end of time, or after Christ returns if we are alive at that time.
So there is a sense in which our being raised with Christ is something that will be complete in the future after we die.
There is a sense in which our being raised with Christ as a new creation is “not yet.”
But as the apostle Paul points out in verse 1, there is also a sense in which we have already been raised with Christ.
He says:
“Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven.”
Theologians describe this tension of being raised with Christ now and our being more fully raised with Christ in the future day as the tension of the “already, not yet.”
But here in Colossians 3 Paul emphasizes the “already” side of this tension.
We can taste and enjoy the gifts of being raised to new life with Christ right now according to the apostle Paul because in this current life--in this world--we have already been raised with Christ.
Jesus also spoke about heaven as place of there, but also a place here.
When Jesus talked about heaven, sometimes he spoke of it as an experience of the future,
Jesus also talked about heaven as something in future and something that is now.
In the Book of Revelation we read that in the future the "new Jerusalem" descends from heaven to earth, joining the two realms forever.
This may be precisely why Jesus taught us to pray “God, thy will be done on earth as in heaven.”
And if heaven primarily means God and the place where God reigns, then as Paul taught we can begin to experience the life of heaven not just there and then, but here and now.
Eternal life, does not just start when we die. It can start now.
The life of heaven isn’t just about experiencing something there, it is also about experiencing the kind of life here that can endure and survive death.
Now speaking of heaven may seem really abstract and ethereal to many of you.
The Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 4 wrote:
3 And I know that this man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows— 4 was caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible things, things that no one is permitted to tell.
Bible scholars agree that the person that Paul is speaking about here in this text is himself.
So Paul has this experience while being alive of going literally going to heaven in a sense of heaven as another realm—over there.
On rare occasions it seems as though people have had a chance to glimpse this other realm where God's will is perfectly done, the kind of place where we traditionally think of as heaven – either while alive as was the case with Paul or through a so-called, "near-death experience."
And I want to share just a few experiences of people who have experienced heaven in this way so that it becomes a little more tangible for those of us who have a hard time imagining it.
Many of us have read descriptions of heaven in the Bible, but it may be helpful for some of us to hear some actual testimony of people who experienced heaven, to make it more real to our imagination.
Someone in our community recently gave me an extraordinary book about a 3-year-old boy which caught my attention because Sakiko and I have a 3-year-old son. When Colton Burpo (PP image) was three years old his appendix burst. Although he looked deathly ill for several days, his parents were not aware of what was causing his life to drain away this little boy right before their eyes—at first they thought it might be stomach flu. When his condition was finally correctly diagnosed by a doctor, Colton went through emergency surgery. In the months that followed it became clear to Colton’s dad who is a pastor and his mom that Colton had what they call a near death experience or an experience of another realm while alive as he was being operated on.
Colton actually left his body during the surgery which he, as a 3-year-old authenticated by describing exactly what his parents were doing—precise details he couldn’t have known otherwise—in another part of the hospital while he was being operated on.
In the months that followed Colton would go on to describe meeting his great grandfather who had died decades before Colton was born. He had never seen a photograph of his great grandfather and he had obviously never met him in his life. He had never heard about him, nor had never seen a picture, yet later as his father dug through the attic he found some photos of his great grandfather as a younger man, Colton was able to identify the picture of him.
Colton, as a 3-year-old who had not learned to read was able to describe obscure details about heaven as stated in the Bible—stuff he would not have learned about in Sunday school.
I realize that some people might be skeptical of Colton’s story, but my world and world of the author have some overlap – in that we have both been pastors with three-year-old sons.
And I can just imagine how difficult it would be to concoct a story that my son died, went to heaven and then described heaven accurately to third parties. If he was being interviewed by someone about heaven and he was just making it up because I encouraged him to make it up to sell about a book, he would say that heaven was filled with school buses, garbage trucks, and the Buzz Light Year was there. This would be the artist rendition of heaven.
Show this image Brian created.
And the headline in the paper would read: "Heaven Is a Place on Earth."
At the same time I have been reading the book of Colton’s experience, I've also been reading a similar book by a man named Don Piper. Don was driving on his way home from a conference and was crossing a small two-way bridge and an oncoming semi-truck suddenly swerved into his lane and drove right over his Ford Escort, crushing him and his little car. The medical personnel arrived, ran tests on him and confirmed that he had died instantly. Because he was clearly already dead the emergency workers did not make any attempt to move his body out of his crushed car.
An hour and a half after the car accident a pastor named Richard who was driving on that same road and came to the scene of the accident, stopped and asked, “What happened?” The police said, “A man died in a car accident.” The pastor felt compelled by the Holy Spirit to go and pray for the man who had died. The state police and the medical people said, “If you want to pray for him, that is fine, but he is dead.” Richard felt really foolish, but he walked over to the crushed car, lifted up the tarp, saw this body with blood having oozed out of the man’s eyes, nose and mouth. He reached for his hand and felt it was cold and that there was no pulse. He began to pray for him. For some reason he felt led to sing the old hymn, “What a Friend We Have in Jesus.” As he began to sing, to his utter shock Don, the man in the car, began singing with him. His life, ninety minutes after being clinically declared dead, returned to life
In this book called 90 Minutes in Heaven, Don describes what it was like to actually go to heaven and to meet his friend Mike from high school who had led him to Jesus Christ…a popular athlete who had died at 19. He also describes movingly the beautiful music of heaven, the thousands of voices and countless different kinds of music, yet somehow all coalescing into a mesmerizingly beautiful, coherent, and sublime melody. He talked about the beautiful colours of heaven and how he felt more alive and more joy and happiness than he had never known on earth.
Again, if you are skeptical these may sound strange, but someone in our community here recently had an experience a little bit like these ones.
Sandy, the brother of one of our respected members Betty, was a man who had for some was years had been distant from God.
But over the last two months Sandy had been attending Tenth with his partner Pat. At some point in the last couple of months he had drawn close God
Just a couple weeks ago he suddenly died.
When Betty heard the news that he had died, she imagined how a certain member of her extended family had died a few years ago and how she might be there to greet Sandy in eternity.
She then called her mother to share the sad news that Betty’s brother and her mom’s son Sandy had died. And just before Betty called, her mother had closed her eyes and had a clear vision of this person.
I share the stories and I could share many more like these people that I have a connection with, and none of these stories, of course, in and of themselves prove anything, but there are so many of them and taken together they simply corroborate what the Bible and what Jesus and the Apostle Paul taught that there an actual place—it’s not simply a metaphor—but an actual place, this God-bathed reality called heaven, on the one hand, something that we will experience fully when we are joined to Christ after death, but also something that we can also begin to experience here and now this side of death.
In a sense eternal life with God, full of life, joy, and peace, starts when we die, but in a sense it can start now.
It is not just a life that begins at death.
The Apostle Paul here in Colossians 3 points out that it is the kind of life that can we can begin to experience now and continue to experience after we die.
We can live under the reign of the great, true King Jesus, symbolized in the C.S. Lewis children’s story by the great lion Aslan.
It’s impossible to imagine what our heavenly life will look like, but that has never stopped many Christians from trying… like Augustine, the 4th century African bishop.
He concludes his great work The City of God by imagining the state of our resurrected lives in the world to come.
Augustine foresees how we will experience grace as the removal of sin in us.
We will no longer be tossed to and fro by every wave of impulse. The absence of temptation will result in state of perfect peace. Augustine describes the quality of such peace saying,
God will hold sway over us, and the soul will hold sway over the body. And the pure happiness that is found in God will make our obedience sweet and easy.
As my friend and spiritual director Rob Des Cotes says,
Peace and the absence of turmoil will be the fruit of our disinclination to anything other than the will of God.
And this life of living free or freer from the sin, with greater joy and peace can start to begin now.
Why?
Because the Easter message tells us that we have been raised with Christ and therefore we are to set our sights on the realities of heaven.
Paul says in light of the kind of people we will become, in light of the kind of people we are becoming— set our sights on the realities of heaven.
In light of the day when heaven and earth are one— set our sights on the realities of heaven.
And in the coming weeks, we’re going to see what that looks like, what it means to live the life of heaven on earth—in the future heaven there won’t be violence, bullying, rape, greed, exploitation, or abuse—as this pastor Rob that I went to school with says there will be redemptive art, honest business, honorable practice of law, sustainable living, tending a garden, sharing food for all…
Paul urges us to live as though heaven and earth are now one because that is our future:
Two points in closing application:
So, how do we experience heaven?
We experience heaven as the there and then by literally dying.
We experience heaven as the here and now by turning to God and dying to an old way of life.
If you die once, you’ll die forever.
If you die twice you will live forever.
And if you’ve never really fully turned to God and died to an old way of life, you can commit your life to God right now and then plan on being baptized. That is, in baptism as you go under the water you're buried with Christ and experience a kind of death and in baptism as your life is joined to Christ you rise to a new life with him.
In your baptism you can experience heaven as here and now and in the life to come heaven as a there and then.
A second point of application.
If you’ve been already been raised with Christ to new life, because you’ve joined your life to Christ and died to old way of life, if you died with Christ and have been raised to new life through your baptism, then set your sights on the realities of heaven through worship and singing.
Worship and singing can be a portal to heaven.
As Paul says later in Colossians 3, “In light of the fact that you've been raised with Christ set your heart on things above”(vs. 16).
Let the message of Christ dwell… through psalms, hymns and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.
One of the ways we set our hearts on things above is through worship…
I recently got together with a man who was a professional athlete and now works as a coach in professional sports.
Not long after that, I got together with a woman who is a film actress who just returned from the premiere of her movie in the states.
Both the man who works in the world of professional sports and the woman who works in the film industry are followers of Christ.
They both told me independently that one of the ways that they stay focused on Christ throughout their days was by engaging in worship.
I was meeting the man in a quiet coffee shop not far from here. He said, “Before you got here,” and he motioned as if he were putting on headsets, “I was listening to worship music. Each morning I spend time worshiping Christ through Scripture and music in a way that helps me stay focused on Christ instead of the statistics of the athletes I am working with.”
And the actress in a separate conversation with me said that every day she takes time to worship Christ to be reminded of how much she is loved by God, and then to express her love back to God.
In an email, sent me as a follow up to our in-person conversation, she writes (get permission here to share):
One of the ways I worship God is through singing. And since I spend a lot of my time driving from one place to another, I found the most unconventional place to worship God is in my car.
For the last year, I've just been listening to this one worship CD my friend made me. Generally, I listen to one song over and over again for days or weeks - the song could be on prayer or praise.
One of the reasons I love worshipping is because it's ALL about God - His character and His love for me. It realigns my mind/heart/Spirit to the Father - who He is and what He loves. When I’m singing, I’m not worried or thinking about what I have to do or thinking about anyone else. It’s all about how much He loves me, receiving His love and responding to Him.
The ironic thing is, is that when I’m pouring out my heart on how much I love Him, He’s filling my heart right back up with how much He loves me. It’s a beautiful tapestry of love, a song and dance between us, and an intimate conversation that needs no words. Worship is an outpouring of my heart, soul and spirit to the One who loves me and knows me. It goes beyond the physical realm into the spiritual realm. It’s one of the most intimate ways I connect with Him as He penetrates deep down to my soul.
Someone who works in pro sports or the film industry can get so caught up in their work that they may lose God. And this may surprise you but a pastor can also get so caught up in his or her work that they lose sight of Christ.
And so this is also something I seek to do each day--to worship Christ, like the man I met for coffee I use my phone and I typically listen to a worship song that was sung during Sunday service and enter into worship. As we do that we can set our hearts on things above, we can experience a God-bathed world as God in a special way inhabits the praises of people. As we worship the living God and his Son Jesus Christ we can know heaven is not just as a place out there, but a place right here.
As we continue to worship now, and experience heaven, let's experience God and honor because God isn't just out there.
God is here.Shigematsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04506027536055632197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11017326.post-85004610586327398022012-04-28T18:01:00.001-07:002012-04-28T18:01:08.470-07:00When in Athens--When in Vancouver(2012April29)Sharing the Presence M6 (Acts 17:16-34) 04 29 2012
Speaker: Ken Shigematsu
Title: When in Athens—When in Vancouver
Text: Acts 17:16-34
BIG IDEA: When we share the presence with skeptics, we can point to the resurrection and to the evidence of God’s presence in the lives of our hearers.
When I was an undergraduate student, someone who lived on the same dorm floor as I would ask me from time to time if I would have lunch with him. I did not know him well. He was just an acquaintance, but he would say every once in a while, “I have something important that I would like to discuss with you.” Finally, after some months we got together for lunch in the school cafeteria and I asked him, “So, what’s on your mind?”
He said, “I know that you are a Christian and you really seem to believe. My sister is a Christian, but I don’t have faith. I don't believe. I wish I did, but I don’t. I have all kinds of doubt. I’d like to ask you why it is you believe.”
When I was a student, when I was working in the corporate world and now as a pastor, once in a while someone who doesn't believe in God approaches me and asks me why is it that I believe. If you are a person who believes in God, really believes, once in a while this may happen to you. If you really believe in God and are not covert about your faith, chances are someone at school, or at work, a family member or friend will occasionally ask you in so many words why you believe.
And even if we are not directly asked, if we are open about her faith, will share why it is that we believe.
As we conclude our sermon series, Sharing the Presence, we are going to look at how the Apostle Paul engaged philosophers and skeptics with the gospel in Mars’ Hill in Athens who wanted to know why he believed. The Apostle Paul was one person who was very open about his faith in Christ. As a result, he was asked to give a reason for his belief.
Today, we read a story about Paul engaging with philosophers and skeptics who wanted to know why he believed.
If you have your Bibles, please turn to Acts 17: 16.
In Athens
16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. 17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. 18 A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. 19 Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20 You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we would like to know what they mean.” 21 (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.)
22 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.
24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’
29 “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill. 30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”
32 When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.” 33 At that, Paul left the Council. 34 Some of the people became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.
This is a rather dense passage.
So let me begin by offering a roadmap us to forward and I go with it. First of all, we're going to look at how Athens is like Vancouver.
Then were going to look at the two ways that Paul presents his faith in Athens.
First, he talks about the resurrection of Christ.
He offers what we might call historic, objective reason for his faith.
Then he talks about how many of us have an intuitive sense of God or some greater power guiding our lives.
He offers a more subjective reason for his faith.
So to begin by talking about how Athens in Vancouver are alike.
One early church fathers named Tertullian asked, “What hath Jerusalem to do with Athens?”
I want to ask the question what has Vancouver to do with Athens?
Show photographs of historic Athens (and keep up over the highlighted piece).
Athens had been, of course, the city of the great philosophers, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Epicureas, and Zeno.
And in some ways in Paul's day the glories of Athens was behind her, people still came from all over the world to visit Athens, to teach, to learn – and so like Vancouver it was an international city.
We read in verse 16 that while Paul was in Athens, he was distressed to see that the city was full of idols. That was no overstatement. There were about 10,000 people who lived in Athens in Paul’s day, but there were about 30,000 statues of gods that lined the streets.
Vancouver like Athens is a city of many idols – not idols in the way that we traditionally think about idols (statues made of gold, silver or bronze), but we have many idols.
Kierkegaard defines idolatry as having something other than God at the centre of our existence.
What do you think the idols of Vancouver are?
For some it's recreation.
People talk about living for the weekend. I have a friend who owned a condo at Whistler. A lot of weekends were spent skiing and snowboarding. There is nothing wrong with skiing or snowboarding, but this friend of mine sensed that recreation might be becoming a more important priority in the lives of some of his family members than worshiping God in community. So he sold his condo.
For others it can be a relationship.
Last Sunday at one of our services, Sara said
“I wanted to get baptized [while ago], but I didn’t feel I was at peace with God. At that time, I hadn’t fully surrendered to God. I was in a relationship with someone who wasn’t following Christ. “
And what she was in effect saying was, a relationship at the time was more important in my life than God. God was important but this relationship was even more important. She broke up with her friend.
An idol in Vancouver might be recreation, a relationship or something else.
An idol is something we have at the centre of our existence, other than God.
So like Athens, here in Vancouver we have idols.
And as was true in Athens, in Vancouver we have people with a variety of different points of view.
In Athens Paul engaged in conversations in the marketplace with the Epicureans. Epicureans believe that things happen by chance, that death is the end of our existence, that we should live for pleasure in the moment.
There are those like the Stoics who believe that everything is God, that nature is God.
The Epicureans were secular people who lived for pleasure.
They believed that after you died and were buried in the ground like a carrot you became nothing. They did not believe in an afterlife.
(Ken please bring 2 carrots as props)
And in Vancouver though people do not call themselves Epicureans, there are many people who live for pleasure. There are many people who do not believe in life after death. They believe that when we die like a carrot we just rot in the ground.
In Athens Paul also debated in the marketplace with the Stoics.
The Stoics were pantheists, believed that basically everything was God – the dirt, the rock, the tree.
I have a friend here in Vancouver who loves to mountain bike ride and says, “For me God is nature –God is the mountain, the woods, the ocean.”
There are people in Vancouver who might not refer to themselves as pantheists, but the kind of technical philosophical term that most people don't use in everyday conversation, but believe, like my friend, that the world is God.
Stoics also believed that whatever happened to them was predetermined. It was their destiny. As a result, they detach themselves from everything. If everything was predetermined by some impersonal force, why get attached to anything?
And there are people in Vancouver who wouldn't describe themselves as Stoics, but believe in Karma and believe that things that happen to them in this life was determined by something that they did in a previous life.
And so there are many similarities between Athens and Vancouver.
And finally as was true for Paul in Athens, so in Vancouver there are those who oppose the message of the Christian faith.
In vs. 18 we see people in Athens saying of Paul, “What is this babbler trying to say?” The word translated “babbler” originally meant a bird which picks up seeds, and it was used to describe birds picking up seeds. Over the time it came to mean “a person who peddled other people’s ideas without really understanding them, a chirping bird, who went around dropping the seeds of other people’s ideas.”
And as in Athens so in Vancouver there will be some who oppose the message of Christian faith.
But, even they resisted Paul’s message because it was something new to them, the philosophers of Athens wanted to hear more.
So they took him to a meeting of scholars, which in Greek was known as the Areopagus and in Latin known as Mars’ Hill.
The scholars asked, “What is this new, strange teaching that you are presenting? We would like to know what it means.”
Paul begins in verse 22 as he stands up at Mars’ Hill and says, “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.”
We know from verse 16 there was a part of Paul that experienced great distress over the fact that Athens was full of idols. I am sure there was a part of Paul that wanted to denounce their idolatry and point them to the truth, but he restrained himself and affirmed their common ground.
As we engage in people who are skeptical about Christian faith and have some other kind of worldview, like Paul we do well to affirm our common ground wherever we can.
When I was working for the Sony Corporation in Tokyo conversations, at work sometimes my Christian faith would come up and it wasn't at all uncommon for a Japanese businessman say, "I'm not religious.” And I would say ah, but you are. I see how hard you're working for the company, how devoted you are to you work, and that are you hoping to find some meaning in your work. And whatever you work really hard at, devote yourself to, hope to find meaning through that is your religion, that is your spirituality.
Aristotle was right. Everyone seeks happiness. There are no exceptions. We’re all looking for happiness, some kind of meaning to our life, we’re all on spiritual search whether we use that language or not.
And when we are engaging with people about our faith, we do well wherever possible to affirm our common ground.
Whether people know it or not, they are searching for something spiritual, whether they believe in God or not, at some level everyone is searching for God.
GK Chesterton once said, “Every man who knocks on the door of a brothel is really looking for God.”
Paul does not just stop by speaking of common ground.
He also challenges their points of view as he listens.
How did he do this?
Well, the people he is speaking to, the Epicureans and Stoics, do not believe in the resurrection. The Epicureans believe that once you're dead, your life is over, like a carrot that rots in the ground.
And in vs. 18 and vs. 31 we see Paul speaking without shame about the resurrection.
He's offering what we might call historic, objective evidence for his Christian faith.
One of the ways that we can commend our faith in Vancouver is humbly point to historic evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Now, of course, many people in Vancouver think that the idea of someone rrising from the dead is ridiculous.
But people in the world of the Apostle Paul were even more skeptical about the idea of the bodily resurrection.
Today in Vancouver even if people don't believe in the resurrection of Christ, they've probably at least heard Easter and the belief that Christ rose from the dead.
This idea of the resurrection at this point in history, likely less than 20 years after Jesus actually rose from the dead, was not nearly as widespread.
And here in Athens, the Greeks would not have wanted to believe in a resurrection of the body.
The Greeks though that the spirit was good, but our bodies were evil.
To many Greeks “salvation” was seen as being liberated from the prison of our bodies.
The Greeks didn't want to experience a resurrected body. They wanted to one day get rid of their bodies.
There were, of course, also Jews in Athens.
And the idea of Jesus resurrecting was unthinkable to Jews.
As one of the most respected biblical scholars alive today, Tom Wright, points out in Jesus’ day while many Jews had come to hope that at the end of time there would be a bodily resurrection of the righteous when God renewed the entire world, they were certainly not anticipating a person rising from the dead in the middle of the history.
For the Jewish person the idea of an individual being resurrected in the middle of history while the rest of the world continued on was simply inconceivable…crazy.
Given that reality, it is not plausible to say that the first followers of Jesus would have invented this story that Jesus rose from the dead.
In the first century there were many other messianic movements whose would-be messiahs were executed; however, as Tom Wright points out in not a single case do we ever hear the mention of disappointed followers claiming that their hero had been raised from the dead. It just wasn’t a category that they were thinking about. But after the death of Jesus his followers embraced the conviction which up to that point had been unthinkable, that Jesus Christ had actually risen from the dead.
If the early Christians did invent the story of the empty tomb with the sightings of the risen Jesus, if it had just been a hoax, a kind of April Fool’s joke, would they have died for that known lie?
Almost all of the original disciples of Jesus, with the exception of John, and almost all the early Christian leaders died for their belief that Jesus had risen from the dead. It is hard to believe that people would make this kind of self-sacrifice, support something that they knew was a hoax, a lie.
Here’s something whether a person is believer or skeptic can’t deny:
Something really powerful really happened in the world just outside of Jerusalem around the year 33 AD that changed the course of history.
Author Andy Crouch has described the resurrection of Jesus like a cultural earthquake, its epicenter located in Jerusalem in the early 30s. He points out:
One of the most dramatic cultural effects of the resurrection is the transformation of the heinous cultural artifact known as a cross, an instrument of domination and condemnation that comes as a symbol of the kingdom that Christ proclaimed: an alternate culture where grace and forgiveness are the last word.
We don’t know the name of any person in the ancient world who was crucified. Many people were crucified in the first century, but we don’t know the names of any of them.
But the most famous name in the world, the one that commands most loyalty and devotion, whom some one-third of the human race claims to follow, is the name of a person crucified in the first century. The most plausible explanation for that is the fact that he did rise from the dead at a time when no one was anticipating that. The evidence was so powerful that almost everyone at the time who knew him and believed in him died for that belief.
If there is a God who created all the universe, who is the author and sustainer of life, then taking a dead body and bringing it back to life is not really that difficult!
And Paul on Mars’ Hill is challenging the philosophers who do not believe that life is possible beyond the grave with the historical, more objective proof that God has given us by raising Christ from the dead.
So Paul begins his presentation of the Christian faith with a proclamation of the resurrection. Then second, Paul turns to a more subjective, intuitive evidence for faith.
In verse 23 he says, “For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. So you are ignorant of this very thing you worship and this is what I am going to proclaim to you. . 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’
Paul points out that in the famous city of Athens he found an altar to an unknown god. Apparently some people in Athens believed in what we might call “a higher power.”
But these highly educated Athenians did not know who that god was.
He points out in verses 24 and 25 that that God is the Creator who made the world and everything in it. Then in verses 26-27 he says: 26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us.
He points out to the people that they are not living in Athens as a result of some kind of cosmic accident, but God in his providence had arranged their lives so that they might seek him.
So one of the evidences that Paul presents to the Athenians is the resurrection of Christ which is more historic, more what we might call objective evidence, based both on Scripture and historic sources outside of Scripture in the first century.
The second argument that Paul puts forth is more subjective, more intuitive. He does not rely on Scripture but on people’s personal experiences and in their own sources and stories.
In verse 28 we see that the Apostle Paul cites from their own philosophers, first in the phrase: “For in him we move and have our being,” he cites the Cretan poet Epimenides.
In verse 28, when he says, “we are his offspring,” he is citing from the philosopher Aratus.
And this might be another sermon altogether, but the message of the Gospel as was true in Athens, is embedded in messages of poet's, novelists, filmmakers of our day.
As Robert McKee, the one who is considered the consummate screenwriting teacher, in his book Story points out in that in films there is almost always a crisis usually about twenty minutes in the movie--in Star Wars it's Wenlok when he comes home to find his aunt and uncle had been murdered by a imperial storm troopers; in Kramer versus Kramer it's when Dustin Hoffman is asked for a divorce.
The climax of the film [ and of course I’m oversimplifying in the interest of time] is when there is a resolution to the crisis; for example,when the death Star is destroyed and new world of meaning is created in Star Wars, or when Dustin Hoffman is given back custody voluntarily by Meryl Streep's character.
In these movies the storyline sounds familiar: things are normal, there is some catastrophe, there's a resolution of the catastrophe, and as a result and a new meaning in life.
The gospel is not only embedded in the stories of our culture, but in the stories of our lives as well.
One of the ways that we can point people to the reality of the Creator is by appealing to their favorite stories, and by appealing to their own story.
I think of my friend Nathan.
Over time and several conversations, he told me his story:
Nathan shared that he had been a successful stock broker but found that the business world left his soul empty. As a teenager Nathan had been recognized as a gifted artist. He was admitted to one of Canada’s finest art schools but because of financial difficulties that his family faced, he pursued a business career.
However, after he became successfully established in business, he decided to leave the business world and, quoting Joseph Campbell, to “follow my bliss.”
He turned to Buddhist writings but sensed a yearning for something more, and then through a friend he was introduced to our church.
I and a few of his Christian friends were able to show Nathan how his experience of business leaving him feeling empty, his pursuit of beauty through art, and his dabbling in Buddhism helped prepare him to open up to Jesus.
I met with a friend a few months ago whose faith in God really began with a sense as he looked back over his life there was some kind of force, some kind of power that at certain points had guided him.
It seemed less plausible that his life was a cosmic accident than to believe there was some mysterious being that was directing his life.
Some of us, as we look back over our life, are living in a kind of movie where there is some unseen, a movie director, orchestrating the events and we intuit that there is some higher being guiding us.
Steve Jobs, not a believer in God, during a commencement speech at Stanford said as he reflected back over his life after having been diagnosed with cancer said, “You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something.”
Part of the way we can engage people is by listening to their favorite stories and their personal stories and seeking to point out places where they can connect the dots and show them how their unknown God has been guiding them to himself.
“We are not congealed stardust, an accidental byproduct of cosmic chemistry. We are not just something. We are someone.”
George Weigel
Our great privilege and call as people who know the unknown God is to formally and gently tell people that we know the God they have been knowingly or unknowingly looking for their whole lives.
There's nothing arrogant about that.
Last year around this time, while running down some uneven stone stairs at False Creek, I rolled my ankle and torn my ligaments. I had to switch from running to biking. I didn't know much about bikes. I was searching for a bike. A friend of mine, an avid biker, said I'd been researching bikes for a long time. I know the bike for you. There's nothing arrogant about that.
So Paul, in his address to the Athenians on Mars’ Hill, speaks of both the resurrection and also the intuitive experiences of the Athenians themselves. He uses both what we might call more historical objective proof, and what we might call more subjective, intuitive proof too.
And when people around us are searching, everyone is searching knowingly or unknowingly, and we who know God, say to them at the right time and through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, “I know that God you're looking for,” gently pointing them to the God they're looking for. There's nothing arrogant about that, or offering them a great gift.
As someone has put it was simply one beggar, telling another beggar where we found bread.
As we see in verses 30-31, Paul called them to repent, which means “turn to God.”
Paul is calling them to make the Living God, and nothing else, the centre of their lives.
What happened?
According to verses 32-34, when they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered. Others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.” And a few of them believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, and a woman named Damaris.
So, as a result of Paul sharing the presence, some people mocked him, others wanted to think about it further, and a few believed.
As we share the presence, sometimes people will mock our ideas, probably not in an overt way in Canada. We are too polite for that, but they may raise an eyebrow. Others may want to think about it. And some may believe.
Back to the scene from my lunch appointment with a fellow student in the dorm.
At lunch he said, “You really seem to believe in God. Why is it that you believe?” I wasn’t conscious of Acts 17 in that moment, but here is a brief summary of what I said over that lunch that lasted probably an hour: “I believe for two reasons. I believe because of the historic evidence that Jesus Christ actually rose from the dead. (I outlined some of it.) Then there is a second reason and it is more subjective. It is that Jesus Christ has changed my life from the inside out. As I look back over my life, I believe the hand of a personal God has been guiding it. Here are some stories that persuade me.”
At the end of our lunch he responded. Unlike the first category, the people at Athens, he did not mock me. He said, “That is interesting. I will have to think about that more.” In that moment he did not repent and commit his life to Christ.
Probably in most cases as we share the presence, people are not going to fall on their knees and immediately receive Christ. Sure, there are exceptions but it usually takes months, if not years, or maybe a life time for a person to make a commitment. As I listen to the stories of people’s spiritual journey, it is usually the case that through a variety of different experiences and relationships, and hearing the message about Jesus many times, that their hearts are finally opened. It takes time. Our calling is to sow the seed, water it, and trust God will reap harvest in due course.
Like Paul, when we are open about our faith, we will find that others will ask us questions – that we’ll have opportunities to give reasons for our belief in Christ. In Paul’s case, though some sneered, others believed. As we share our faith and give others reasons for our own belief in Christ, we can trust that some will believe…that God will use our efforts to bring others to him.
There is no greater privilege than to be involved in the work of proclaiming the message of Jesus Christ. Like Paul, whether it is in the church, as a few of us are called to do, or in our families, relationships, schools and in the marketplace as all of us are called, it is the one work that enables us to receive the gift of eternal in this life and in the age to come. It’s one gift that will help make sense of their story of the Story.
Pray.
Receive this Christ?
If you know, share this with. Pray for that person.Shigematsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04506027536055632197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11017326.post-78097255206000898792012-04-24T13:54:00.000-07:002012-04-24T14:12:46.639-07:00An Artist of the Soul and a Friend on the JourneySharing the Presence M5 (Acts 8:26-40) 04 22 2012
Speaker: Ken Shigematsu
Title: An Artist of the Soul and a Friend on the Journey
Text: Acts 8:26-40
BIG IDEA: With the help of the Spirit, we are called to be artists of the soul and friends on the journey.
The first time I spent significant time with Leighton Ford, the person who has been my mentor and friend on the journey for two decades, was when I was a seminary student in Boston. He asked me if I would drive him west across Massachusetts to the home of a friend and board member of his ministry. I picked up Leighton at about 10:00 p.m. from Logan Airport. As I merged onto interstate highway, I turned to him and said, “You can recline your chair and sleep if you want.” Leighton crossed his long legs, reclined the chair part way and said, “I don’t think I’ll sleep… tell me your life story…”
And this is exactly the kind of thing that Leighton does.
Leighton describes his own mission to be “an artist of the soul and a friend on the journey.”
As an artist of the soul sees what’s going on inside us, sees the beauty and what we can become with God’s help.
For years Leighton Ford was an associate evangelist of Billy Graham. Leighton was preaching the gospel to full football stadiums on every continent of the world. But when Leighton was about 50, through the unexpected death of his own 21-year-old son Sandy, who was also hoping to be a minister of the gospel, Leighton felt called by God to shift his emphasis from preaching to the masses and instead pursued a ministry of one-on-one mentoring with young, emerging Christian leaders.
In the book of Acts we see a person named Philip, whose ministry trajectory was similar to Leighton’s.
Philip was in Samaria proclaiming the message of Jesus Christ to great crowds where people were experiencing physically healing and in some cases were being delivered from evil spirits.
There was great joy in the city. But then the Holy Spirit led Philip away from the great crowd to an individual. The Spirit called him to be an artist of the soul and a friend on the journey to an Ethiopian eunuch.
If you have your Bibles, please turn to Acts 8:26.
Philip and the Ethiopian
26 Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” 27 So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandake (which means “queen of the Ethiopians”). This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, 28 and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the Book of Isaiah the prophet. 29 The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.”
30 Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked.
31 “How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.
32 This is the passage of Scripture the eunuch was reading:
“He was led like a sheep to the slaughter,
and as a lamb before its shearer is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
33 In his humiliation he was deprived of justice.
Who can speak of his descendants?
For his life was taken from the earth.”
34 The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” 35 Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.
As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?” 38 And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him. 39 When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing. 40 Philip, however, appeared at Azotus and traveled about, preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea.
Pray
In verse 26 we read that an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the desert road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.”
As he does, he sees a chariot with a man reading in it.
The man in the chariot, as we read, is an important official in charge of the treasury of Kandake, the queen of the Ethiopians, so he is what we would call the minister of finance for the nation of Ethiopia. He owns a chariot (the equivalent of a black limousine). He is part of the caravan. He is the VIP of an entourage. He owns a copy of the book of Isaiah which would have been very rare. In his day it would have suggested that he was a person of great means. He is obviously someone who is very wealthy and powerful.
Then in verse 29 we read the Holy Spirit tells Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.” Philip runs up to the chariot and hears the man reading Isaiah, the prophet.
We can read this quickly without being particularly impressed. But it is remarkable that Philip is so attentive to the voice of the Spirit and so willing to do something that would likely make him feel uncomfortable. How so?
Philip is walking south on the road which leads from Jerusalem to Gaza. He has been asked by the Holy Spirit to approach this powerful VIP in a moving chariot. It would be like one of us walking on the sidewalk with a friend, and then seeing someone driving slowly down Tenth Avenue listening to something on the radio and your friend saying go, run alongside the car and ask “Do you understand what you are listening to?”
To make matters even more challenging for Philip, he is a conservative, middle-aged Jewish man who is being asked by the Holy Spirit to make contact not only with someone who is clearly above him in terms of the social strata, but is also a black, sexually-altered African. And in his day, a Jewish middle-aged man would not be fraternizing with someone of a different race, ethnicity and social class.
Yet, in spite of all of this Philip responds to the Spirit, runs up beside the chariot and begins to engage the man who is reading the book of Isaiah out loud. (It was the custom of the day for to people read out loud, as a way to more deeply internalize what they were reading.)
We become artists of the soul and friends on the journey as we allow the Spirit to fill us and to guide us in all that we learn and do.
This is certainly a prayer of my own heart for my own life—to be guided by the Holy Spirit in the big things of my life and the small things of my life.
At a recent board meeting the members of our board asked how they could pray for me. One of the first things I said didn’t sound particularly spiritual, but “can you pray that God would guide us in the selection of a dog?” Even in the small so-called “secular” details of my life, I want to be guided by God, even the choice of a dog…down the road a choice of a school for our 3-year-old son Joe…guided in my ministry here at Tenth…guided in my relationships…guided in sharing the presence of God.
As I look at someone like Philip, someone like Leighton, and as I hear some of your stories, I realize that sometimes the Holy Spirit guides us in a way that is counter-intuitive.
God led Philip away from the masses to an individual, a black African.
I want to be a person who resists the more human tendency to always move toward what is bigger, better in a worldly sense, more prestigious, and to be truly surrendered to the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
So Philip becomes an artist of the soul, a friend on the journey to the Ethiopian by listening to and obeying the Spirit.
Philip responds to the Spirit, runs up beside the chariot to this Ethiopian finance minister who is reading the book of Isaiah out loud. As an artist of the soul, Philip sees how God has already beautifully at work in this man’s life. In fact, we read in verse 27 that the African minister of finance had gone all the way to Jerusalem from Ethiopia to worship the living God.
The doctrine of prevenient grace shows us that God has been at work in a person’s life long before we got there.
Prevenient literally means “come before.”
prae—before + venire, vent—come.
And God’s grace has “come before” a person before she or he ever made a conscious decision to seek God (John 6:44). God has been at work in a person’s life long before we got there.
So part of what an artist of the soul and a friend on the journey does, as is true of Philip, is to respond to the Holy Spirit, see the beautiful work that God has already been at work in a person's life, and then to walk along side them.
Leighton Ford has said that sharing the presence, sharing Jesus with others, is about engaging in conversations and listening for the voice of the Holy Spirit in those conversations.
(take time).
Part of what the Holy Spirit leads us to do is to feel the edges of a person’s life, like the edge of a glass (HOLD UP GLASS or use PP).
Feel what the crack is and then show how Christ helps to fill that crack.
(take time).
We have a clue that there is a crack in the Ethiopian’s life.
In verse 27 we are told that the man has gone all the way from Ethiopia to Jerusalem to worship. As we’ve observed, he is a Minister of Finance. He is extremely successful.
He is also a eunuch, which means that he was castrated. As one of my teachers has pointed out, the word in the Greek for eunuch, a person castrated, could also be used to mean prime minister. So why would either eunuch or “castrated” also mean in certain contexts “prime minister”?
There are a couple of ways in the ancient world that you could become prime minister or a high-ranking government official. One way, of course, was to be born into a royal family and ascend to your position by virtue of your birthright. Another way was to be born as a commoner and to climb your way up the ranks of the royal court and become a high-ranking member of government. Because some members of the royal family in some ancient societies didn’t feel that they could trust a commoner to work with their females, they would force them to be castrated as a prerequisite for being able to work with members of the female royal family. In other words, they would force ambitious men who wanted to work in the royal court to be castrated as a prerequisite to be able to move up the ladder of government power and into the ranks of royalty.
So, the only way to make it to the top of the royal court, unless you were born into a royal family, was to become a eunuch, to be castrated. So if a man was a Minister of Finance, a Minister of Trade, or the Prime Minister, he might also be eunuch.
This minister of finance has made it to the top, but he seems nonetheless to be missing something in his life—something literal and something figuratively missing.
How do we know this?
He lives, from the perspective of the Jews, in Ethiopia at the end of the world. He leaves his job for several months and takes the very long trek from Ethiopia to Jerusalem to worship the one he believes is the living God in the temple. His friends would have said, “Are you kidding! We have all these temples, all these gods in Ethiopia. Why are you going all the way to Jerusalem?”
Apparently, the gods of Ethiopia do not satisfy the deepest longings of his heart so he goes all the way to Israel to worship the God of Israel. So he is in a very serious spiritual search mode.
He had made it top but he is still spiritually empty. But when he got to the temple he would have been told, “Eunuchs can’t come in here.” Some people were not able to enter the temple, including lepers and sexually-mutilated people. He must have been so disappointed, so dejected to travel all the way from Ethiopia to Jerusalem searching for an answer, finally gets to Jerusalem, only to be turned away and rejected.
As he is making his way home, he is scouring the Isaiah scroll. As he reads a part of Isaiah, he would have read these words in Isaiah 53:3 about a man has also been cut and who is and rejected by the people. Then he would have read
Isaiah 53: 4-8:
Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away.
Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
for the transgression of my people he was punished.
He would have likely thought here was a man like me who was rejected by people, a person who took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows. He is probably wondering, “Who is Isaiah talking about? Is he talking about himself? Or is he talking about someone else?”
It is right then that Philip approaches him and asks him the question; “Do you understand what you are reading?” The Ethiopian minister of finance says, “How can I understand unless someone explains this to me?” Philip, as an artist of the soul, and a friend on the journey, sees how God is at work in his life and then walks beside him to help understand what God is saying to him.
As artists of the soul and friends on the journey, we will see how God is at work in the lives of people around us and describe how God is at work in their lives.
Some time ago, I was traveling from Vancouver to LA. I was coming back after a long meeting, and I was tired. But as I got on the plane, I prayed, “God, if you want me to talk to someone, I’m available, but if you don’t want me I’m very OK with that too.”
I had the aisle seat and no one beside me (the plane was far from full) and I was about to sleep when at the last minute someone walked onto the plane. He was the last person on board--a tall, young man… Though the plane is relatively empty, he ends up sitting beside me on the window side of the plane (I am on the aisle side and there is one empty seat in between us) He pulls out a book, “Man’s Search for Meaning,” by Victor Frankl. We got into a conversation.
I found out he was an actor. He said, “What do you do?” “I work for a non-profit.” (As I said, I was tired and not in the mood to talk and this was before we began sharing the presence.) “What kind of non-profit?” “I’m a minister of a church in Vancouver.” He said, “I’m really glad I sat beside you.” He started telling me his life story. He told me he grew up on East Coast of the U.S. and ending up studying business in the Boston area. He had pursued a business career for a few years after university, but found that unfulfilling and meaningless. He said he decided to go to Hollywood and pursue acting. He said, “When I told my uncle at a party that I was leaving the marketplace to pursue an acting career in Hollywood, he laughed in my face.” He said, “Now I am getting a fair of number of acting roles, and I’ve met a number of the top twenty “A-level” actors. I’m still empty and I know if I ever get there, I’ll be empty too.”
I listened, then I simply pointed the ways I sensed God work in his life, awakening desire… ending up taking a book on spiritual search with him to the Pan Pacific Hotel.
As a friend on the journey, we will become people like Philip who respond to the leading of the Holy Spirit, recognize that the ways God is beautifully at work in a person's life, and begin where they are. Finally, the Holy Spirit opens the door and presents the truth of God in Scripture.
Philip, by the way, was a lay person. He was not an ordained minister. He was a lay person and understood Scripture well enough to be able to communicate it to this man and lead him to a point where he commits his life to Christ through baptism.
Here’s an email I received from a lay person (paraphrase):
I feel like in my faith day-by-day I am trying to share my faith, talk about my faith, live out my faith, and I discuss it with people a lot, I look for opportunities to do so. In my line of work, it is often a gentle transition. I feel like I need to deepen my biblical knowledge more to be able to share more accurately. This is why I am craving more teaching.
Philip would likely have taken him through all 12 verses of Isaiah 53, describing Jesus’ royal lineage, and his death in our stead as a punishment for our sins.
In Isaiah 53:6 we read:
We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
He would have also spoken of the resurrection of Jesus Christ as God’s way of saying that our sins have been paid for by Christ, and then as a result, Israel and we could have a new beginning….people of Israel and people like this African Ethiopian could have a new beginning with God.
Then Philip guides the Ethiopian minister of finance into an understanding of this passage in Isaiah 53. He helps him understand the heart of the biblical message that Christ died for his sins so that he could be welcomed into God’s family and know and love and serve the living God—the only one who could satisfy the deepest longings of his heart.
Perhaps, Philip also pointed him to passage just a little further in the scroll:
Isaiah 56:3-5:
3 Let no foreigners who have bound themselves to the LORD say,
“The LORD will surely exclude me from his people.”
And let no eunuch complain,
“I am only a dry tree.”
4 For this is what the LORD says:
“To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths,
who choose what pleases me
and hold fast to my covenant
to them I will give within my temple and its walls
a memorial and a name
better than sons and daughters;
I will give them an everlasting name
that will endure forever.
Philip may well have told the eunuch, “Even though you are a foreigner and a eunuch, God will come to you and give you a name better than sons or daughters in a name that will endure forever.”
Unlike our own world, in the ancient world one of the most important ways to gain a sense of meaning was to have your own sons and daughters. Another way of course to find meaning was to make it the top. The finance minister made it to the top, sacrificing the possibility of having sons and daughters in order to become a eunuch. Perhaps there were times when he regretted his choice, wondering if instead of being so ambitious had he chosen instead to have a family, he might've been more fulfilled. He might have been. But, he might not have been more fulfilled had he chosen that more traditional path. Philip using Isaiah 56 assured him that through a friendship with the living God, he would have something better than sons and daughters, far better than success in the Ethiopian Royal court.
An artist of the soul and friend on the journey responds to the leading of the Holy Spirit, sees how God is at work in their lives, and shows how the beautiful, joyful, content people God created them to become.
The story of Jesus is the greatest story ever told. Part of our call to be an artist of the soul and a friend on the journey is to respond to the leading of the Holy Spirit and see how God's been at work in a person's life, and how he uses Scripture to help point them to the ultimate artist who can help them become the beautiful person God intended them to be.
And the Scripture obviously isn't just a gift for others through us. It's also a gift to us to help us become a friend on the journey.
The novel by Charles Dickens, The Tale of Two Cities, is about two men named Sydney Carton and Charles Darnay who know each other
Sydney is in love with Lucy, but Lucy marries Charles.
Charles ends up being arrested during the French Revolution and is condemned to die. He's in a cell with the other prisoners who are were going to be executed the next day by guillotine.
That night Sydney sneaks into the prison cell. He says, “Charles, look we resemble each other, let me take your place. You are going to live with Lucy, you will raise a family with her.” Charles won't do it. So Sydney knocks him out with a drug and pushes him out of prison. He bribes someone to take out his body, and takes his place. There's a young girl who was also in the prison and will be executed the next day. She walks up to Sydney and she thinks it's Charles Darnay and begins to talk to him. Sydney tries to keep up the appearance that he's Charles. He says, “It's nice to see you.” Suddenly the girl realizes that it's not Charles and it is someone else who has taken his place. Her eyes get wide as it dawns on her, and she says, “You're dying for him aren't you?” “Yes, and for his wife,” he concedes. She says, “I'm having a lot of trouble facing my own death, but if you, a brave stranger, will hold my hand I think I can do it.”
Carton takes her by the hand and comforts her, telling her that their ends will be quick but that they will be going to a place where they will be mercifully sheltered… it is a far, far better rest that we go to than we have ever known.
She is able to meet her death in peace.
The wonder of his sacrificial love changed her even though it wasn't for her.
When we realize that Christ's died in our stead, and he says “Yes, I will hold your hand the rest of your life,” then we can face anything. It is then we can become people like Philip who are friends on the journey to others.
When we are an artist of the soul and a friend on the journey we do not know exactly how the Spirit will lead us, but we will always be led in an adventure that will last forever.
Let’s pray.
· Like Philip…like Leighton…will you become an artist of the soul and a friend on the journey?
· Will you be led by the Spirit of God?
· Allow the Spirit to enable you to see how God has worked in the lives of others, beginning with where they are as the Holy Spirit opens up opportunities.
· Use Scripture and encourage baptism.Shigematsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04506027536055632197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11017326.post-54110752842758480392012-04-18T14:21:00.000-07:002012-04-18T14:22:07.854-07:00The Power of a Name(2012April15)Sharing the Presence M4 (Acts) 04 15 2012<br />Speaker: Ken Shigematsu<br />Title: The Power of a Name<br />Text: Acts 3:1-10<br />BIG IDEA: We can become an instrument of healing when we hold people in a place of belovedness, when we recognize the power of Jesus’ name, and when we realize that the church is bigger than the building.<br /><br />The movie Simon Birch is a story of a 12-year-old boy named Simon, who despite his miniature size and abnormally small heart, senses that God has a plan for him.<br />Show clip or how powerpoint image (if clip not available):<br /><br /> <br />The small-town’s tired minister doubts that God could have a plan for small Simon Birch. In a conversation between Simon, the 12-year-old boy, and his minister, Simon asks, “Does God have a plan for us?” The minister hesitantly replies, “I like to think he does.” Simon Birch says enthusiastically, “Me, too! I think I am made the way I am for a reason.” The minister coolly states, “I am glad that your faith helps you deal with your, you know, your condition.” “That’s not what I mean,” Simon states. “I think I am God’s instrument. He is going to use me to carry out his plan.” The minister says, “It is wonderful to have faith, son, but let’s not overdo it.”<br />Could God have a plan for someone who was born in a miniature body like Simon Birch to serve as one of his instruments? <br />Could God have a plan and a call to use us as one of his instruments?<br />Today as we resume the series sharing the presence we are going to be looking at the passage in the book of Acts where Peter and John, two of Jesus’ original students, meet someone on the street as they were making their way to the temple for a time of prayer at 3:00 in the afternoon. Peter and John become instruments for this person to experience Jesus’ power to physically and spiritually heal him.<br />As we look at this passage, we will discover how we too can become instruments of Jesus’ healing. <br />Text: Acts 3:1-10:<br /> 1 One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer—at three in the afternoon. 2 Now a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts. 3 When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. 4 Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, “Look at us!” 5 So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them. <br /> 6 Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” 7 Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong. 8 He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God. 9 When all the people saw him walking and praising God, 10 they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called Beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. <br />Pray.<br />Devout Jews at the time of this scene would go to the temple at 9:00 am, 3:00 pm and in the evening to pray. Peter and John are walking in the midst of the crowd making their way in the crowd to the temple for their 3 o’clock prayers. As we see in verse 2, as they were walking, a man who had been lame or paralyzed from birth was being carried to the temple gate called “Beautiful” so he could beg from those going to the temple courts. This particular person who was being placed at the gate called “Beautiful” (verse 2) had picked a great place from which to beg for money. The Jewish historian Josephus’s account tells us that the gate was 75 feet high, had double doors, and was covered in bronze. It was a spot which was en route to the temple where, of course, religious people passed by, for whom giving to people in need was considered a good deed. <br />The paralyzed beggar sees Peter and John about to enter. He asks them for money. As we see in verse 4, Peter looked straight at him as did John. Most people who beg feel invisible. My colleague Jade Holownia a few years ago was involved in a poverty simulation exercise. He dressed up as a homeless person and Jade sat out in front of London Drugs here on Broadway, put a hat out in front of him, with a cardboard sign that said, “Could you spare some change?” Virtually no one even looked at him and what Jade began longing for more than money was a simple look of acknowledgment.<br />And Peter and John look at this man who is begging and Peter says, “Look at us.” So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them. But then Peter said to him, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth—walk.” We read that Peter takes him by his right hand, helps him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong. He jumps to his feet and begins walking and leaping praising God (verse 8).<br />Luke, the author of this book, is a medical doctor and he is using very specific language in the Greek to describe what happens to this man. He writes that as soon as Peter uttered the phrase “in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth walk,” the man’s ankle-bones were immediately made strong and instantly he was able to walk, and he begins running and leaping and praising God.<br />WOW! What an incredible moment for him--and for everyone walking to the temple who witnessed what had happened. We read in verse 10 that the people who saw this were filled with wonder and amazement.<br />As we reflect on what it means to become instruments of Jesus’ healing, I want us to look first at verse 4. Peter in this verse we read “looked straight at him. As did John.” Peter and John are looking at him. Luke takes the time to point out that Peter and John looked right at this person who had been paralyzed from birth. <br />One of the first steps in becoming an instrument of Jesus’ healing as we seek to share God’s presence with others is to look at people--to really see them, to look them in the eye, or if you are Asian or from a traditional culture maybe just below the eye (in Asian cultures looking someone who is older and of higher status that you directly in the eye can be taken as impertinent—the way to avoid this is just to keep bowing all the time J ).<br />When I was an undergraduate student I remember hearing about how some resident assistants (RAs) were being trained in how to be more sensitive in a multicultural context. What the instructors did prior to one of the sessions with the new RAs was to agree together for the next session that,when teaching, not to look in the eye of any of the people in the group who had blue eyes. And the new RAs being trained were not told about this decision.<br />At the end of the session one of the instructors was debriefing with the group of new RAs, and she asked, “How did you feel in the session?” The people with blue eyes said, “Oh, I don’t know why, but I just felt very marginalized. I am not exactly sure why, but I felt devalued, invisible.” After several people had mentioned that, the instructor said, “We intentionally did that today with people who had blue eyes that so you would get an experience of what subtle racism is like.” (She could have done that with people with green eyes or hazel eyes or brown eyes.)<br />York Moore who was here a few weeks ago was telling me over lunch that “When people look at me sometimes they don’t know what race I am (show photo and keep showing photo over high lighted area):<br /> <br /><br /> Sometimes people assume that I am African American ancestry, of which I am, in part. Sometimes Latino. One time I was mistaken for being Japanese.” Which made me say, “Really?” He said, “When I am mistaken for being Latino in our area (Detroit), it is like I am invisible. People don’t pay any attention to me. When I was buying my house in Detroit, people who were selling me the house assumed that I was Latino, I was the gardener, and given my race they assumed I was I would not be able to buy a house.”<br />When we do not look at someone, or when we see past them, or look over their shoulder, it can be a dehumanizing experience. <br />Conversely, when we look someone in the eye, and as we see them, we can help them to see themselves. As we see them, we can help them to see how much they are beloved by God as we in some way become an embodied sign of God’s love for them. <br />About a year after I made the transition from working in the corporate world to training for some kind of vocational Christian ministry, I enrolled in something called the Arrow Leadership Program. Of the group of 25 younger Christian leaders, I was the least experienced in ministry and the youngest (or one of the youngest). And the people in the group in some cases already had international ministries or were pastoring large churches or speaking in stadiums, and I felt very out of place and inadequate in this group of already accomplished leaders.<br />I remember standing in line for lunch during one of my first days at Arrow and the founder and senior mentor of the Arrow Leadership Program, an older Presbyterian minister name Leighton Ford approached me and asked me if I wanted to have lunch with him.<br />(show photo through highlighted section).<br /><br /> <br /><br />At a time when I was feeling that I didn't belong in this group, feeling that they had made a mistake admitting me, Leighton looked at me and without sizing up my potential or judging me, through his eyes, but through his body language, said, “Welcome! I am happy to know you!” <br />Just a look and just the spirit of welcome brought a measure of life and healing to my own heart.<br />Have you ever had someone look at you and make you feel love just by the look – it may have been the look of a mother, a family member, a friend, a mentor, a lover, or even a relative stranger.<br />(Pause).<br />For those of you who feel like you know God in a personal way have you ever experienced a sense of being looked at with love by Christ? Have you ever had a sense that you're being looked at by him without condemnation, grace, with tenderness, with love…<br />And one of the lowest times in my life after a very painful breakup, I really sensed God, and it was for brief time, but in a way I still remember, God looking at me with a deep sense of love which strangely surpassed the sense of wonder of the romance itself.<br />Take a moment to recall a look from someone or a look from God that made you feel loved…<br />And if you can recall that sense of being loved in a look, pray that God would help you then reflect that look of love to others.<br />Saint Teresa of Avila said, Yours are the eyes through which Christ’s compassion for the world is to look out.<br />In the name of Jesus, pray that you would be able to see how deeply you are loved by God and then to be able to reflect through your eyes and body language the love which you yourself have first received to others.<br />Pray through your eyes Christ would hold a person in a place of belovedness and become an instrument of healing for others.<br />(And remembering that we are seeing by Christ with eyes of love is a gift. Reflecting in our look to others the look with which Christ sees us is also a priceless gift. But remembering how we are seen by Christ is also something that we can consciously recall. Something that we can practice recalling. We can also practice the art of looking at someone else in a way that reflects a sense of God's love to them.)<br />Now I'm going to use an example of someone who has practiced this art of looking at others which may surprise you. This person by his own admission has many faults and failings and certainly not an example in many areas of life as he himself would freely concede. But I really believe that we can learn from people who are not perfect.<br />Leighton Ford who I mentioned earlier in the sermon and who is now my mentor had the opportunity to have dinner with Bill Clinton when Clinton was president. <br />There were about eight people seated around a table at a hotel. Leighton said there was a boy who came by the table. He was eight or nine years old. He came over to President Clinton and he said to this boy, “When you meet someone you shake your hand like this with a firm shake and make sure you look them straight in the eye like this.” (The President was giving away some of his important trade secrets.)<br />I later learned that Clinton has a kind of condition which makes it unnatural for him to actually look people in the eye, a condition that makes eye contact more difficult for him than most. He trained himself to see people. I have heard from others who have met him like our pastor KP, he looks you in the eye and whether you are black or while, rich or poor, powerful or not, he has a way makes you make feel that at that moment you are the only person in the world. <br />Bill Clinton, by his own admission, would say that he has many faults. What a gift to be able to make someone feel like they are the only person in the world. <br />We can become instruments of Jesus’ healing by sharing the presence of God this week like Peter and John who looked people in the same way with which we have been looked at by Jesus.<br />We pray that our eyes would be the ones through which Christ looks at people.<br /> As we read on, we see that when Peter and John look straight at him (verse 4), the paralyzed man who had been begging became excited, expecting to get money from them, and gave Peter and John his attention. <br />Then Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth--walk” (verse 6). Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up and instantly the man who had never walked experienced his ankle-bones becoming instantly strong. He jumped to his feet and began to walk.<br />So we see that Peter and John first give the man the gift of their attention. Then Peter and John gave the man something even more precious. They gave him the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. We see in this passage, there is power in the name of Jesus, to paraphrase the old hymn, “there is power, power, wonder-working power in the precious name (in the hymn it’s blood) of Jesus.” <br />The idea of a name having power is a bit strange to those of us who live in the modern western world, though at times we can catch the glimpse of the power of a name even in our society. Many young people get their first job because they use the name of an aunt or a friend of their dad’s. They discover that the name of that person can open a door. I am not a young person anymore, but I still appreciate it when someone says to me, “If it is ever helpful in this context, feel free to use my name.”<br />While in our culture we only recognize a dim echo of the power of a name, most of the people in Peter and John’s first century world and many people in non-western countries today know exactly what is going on here. They know that names can carry power, a magical kind of power, an invocation of hidden forces summoning up new possibilities.<br />And in this story we see how Peter and John who knew Jesus personally through the invocation of the name of Jesus were able to mediate the power and authority of Jesus to bring healing to this man (and this is why in verses 15 and 16 of the text Peter and John make clear that it was not by their power that this paralyzed man was able to walk, but that it was the power of Jesus Christ that made it possible for this man to walk). For us in the modern world, if we know someone we can in a sense invoke their presence through a phone call (use prop). If we know Jesus personally, we can invoke his presence through prayer in his name.<br />And like Peter and John when we know Jesus Christ personally through the use of his name in prayer we are able to mysteriously mediate the actual authority of the living, risen Christ.<br />A number of years ago when I was still a fairly new pastor here at Tenth, I was invited by one of the Christian leaders of the region to offer a prayer on behalf of Vancouver and the metro area of Vancouver at a big outdoor rally in a park in Surrey which featured some Christian rock bands. I remember the night before I was supposed to pray for the region, I woke up in the middle of the night feeling like this one thousand-pound foot was stepping on my chest. I don’t have asthma. I don’t have any condition which would make it difficult for me to breathe. I just couldn’t breathe. The pressure was immense. It felt like something was clearly trying to harm me and if possible kill me. I remember invoking the name of Jesus and how the pressure lifted. Next day I was able to go to this park out in Surrey where hundreds of people had gathered and to pray for the region. <br />As a pastor I know that my experience is not unique. There are times when people during the night or during the day can experience a very real sense of spiritual oppression and have found that the name of Jesus can help.<br />Let me share the story of Pastor Lee, not our Pastor Lee, but a fellow pastor who serves in a different church.<br />He says: <br />I had an experience that opened my eyes to the reality of spiritual warfare. While I was sound asleep, I heard the phone ringing (or so I thought). In the darkness, I grabbed blindly for the phone, but I was so groggy that I couldn't really wake up. When I put the phone to my ear, I heard a voice, flat and menacing. He just said, "You thought we'd forgotten you."<br />On the phone there was just silence, but I was sure he was still there. My mind was racing to think, Who wanted to hurt me? Who wanted me to cower in fear? The man who got angry a few weeks ago when we wouldn't give him money? I was getting very scared. I sensed this was something dark and diabolical.<br />I couldn't even speak, but somehow I simply blurted out, "Jesus!" And suddenly the fear left my heart and my bedroom. I came wide awake and realized I did not have the phone in my hand; that it was still across the room. Yet I knew that what had happened was more than just a dream. I had felt the presence of real evil—the presence of the Evil One. But now, after calling on Jesus' name, I wasn't frightened. As a matter of fact, I was exhilarated at the power of Jesus' name. I got up, turned on the bathroom light, washed my face, and cleared my head. Then I went back to bed. Surrounded by the presence of Christ, I felt a great peace.<br />As I was falling back asleep, I heard a melody in my mind. It was beautiful, like a lullaby. I recognized it but couldn't place it. The next morning it came to me: It was a tune from Les Miserables, and the words, which I didn't even fully know then, are "You will keep me safe, and you will keep me close; I'll sleep in your embrace at last." I've always felt that my heavenly Father hummed me to sleep that night—that night when the power of Jesus' name conquered the Evil One.”<br />Sometimes the name of Jesus helps us invoke the authority of Jesus to overcome a spiritual attack. At other times, as we see here in Acts 3 the name of Jesus enables us to invoke the authority of Jesus in a way that helps someone experience physical healing.<br />And at other times mediating the presence of Jesus through his name helps us experience spiritual growth. <br />Sometimes a physical healing leads to spiritual growth as was true of the man here in Acts. <br />This man who was paralyzed from birth experiences a physical healing and then he experiences a spiritual healing as we see in vs. 8 as he walks, jumps, and praises God.<br />There is power in the name of Jesus to bring healing – sometimes that healing is physical and sometimes that healing is spiritual and sometimes the physical healing will open the door to a spiritual (or vice versa) healing.<br />I was recently talking with a young woman here in our community who some of you would know who has given me permission (thank you!) to share part of her story. <br />She was telling me that when she was in junior high school she was diagnosed with chronic pain, an illness which made it very painful for her to use the joints in her limbs. Up until this time she had swum competitively, and had had hopes of soon achieving provincial times. However, because of her illness she was forced to quit swimming. In addition, because she had to wear bandages, it was externally evident that she was in pain, and people were aware that she was sick.<br />Before this time she had offered her life to Christ, and upon graduating from high school ended up going to UBC. While she was there she had a number of people faithfully lifting her up in prayer for healing in Jesus’ name. And she was fully healed. Now she enjoys being physically active and swims regularly for fun and exercise at UBC.<br />I asked her, “What was the impact of this healing for you?” She said, “Well, when I was healed physically, it became a tangible sign that God could actually work in my life, and so I began to trust him to do a spiritual work in me. I began to read the Scriptures more. I began to share my faith more. As I look back, the physical healing was something that helped me trust God to do a spiritual work in me.”<br />Through the name of Jesus, the person of Jesus, he can bring spiritual healing, as he did for the paralyzed person at the temple gate. He can bring physical healing, and then spiritual healing as he did for this young woman. Sometimes God can bring physical healing into someone else’s life as a sign that Jesus can do something spiritual in our lives as well.<br />(As I have said before, sometimes the healing isn’t always physical. For some people like Nick Vujicic (pronounced Vooy Cheech) was born with neither arms nor legs, or Joni Erickson a woman who through an accident became a quadriplegic” God seems to be using them in a more powerful way because they have NOT experienced physical healing.)<br />We become instruments of God’s healing, people who share the presence as Peter and John did, to look at people in the eye and really see them as we recognize the power of Jesus’ name that brings physical and spiritual healing.<br />Notice where the miracle takes place for Peter and John and for the person begging for money. It takes place outside the temple, outside the church. Yes, they are on their way to the temple, but the miracle takes place outside of the temple.<br />We know that our ministry here at Tenth takes place in part in the church, but it takes place primarily outside the walls of this church. I love the expression of John Wesley, the great 18th century preacher in England who became the founder of the Methodist Church. He used to say “the world is my parish.” <br />That phrase is sometimes misunderstood. When he said “the world is my parish,” he was not saying “here I am, some international great guy who is going to go all over the world to proclaim the gospel.” Though, he was an international great person, he was also a modest British person. That was not what he was saying. When he said “the world is my parish,” he meant the world, meaning “the world outside the walls of the church… the community itself is my parish, the place where I will do ministry.” Because he was such a controversial figure in his day as an Anglican, he was barred from of a lot of churches and did much of his ministry speaking in the open air outside of any physical church building.<br />So it can be for us. Our ministry can take place primarily outside of the walls of this church or any other church for that matter, as was true for Peter and John here in Acts 3.<br />We can extend God’s care to others beyond the walls of the church. Several years ago my wife Sakiko asked me if I could dig out a certain bush in our backyard. I was digging and digging, finding it very difficult to get the bush out of the earth. The roots went all the way to Japan. This is a tough one. <br />As I was digging, a neighbour happened to be walking by. He’s very handy…very physically strong..very thick neck. He said, “Hey, Ken, how are you doing? Need some help?” I said, “Fuuny you should ask! Yeah! I could use some help” He grabs the shovel and the pick and starts working real hard…sweating…and he is able to get the bush out.<br />Afterward, Sakiko said, “What did you do?” “I was praying for him. I also got him some lemonade. I am a delegational leader.”<br />Sometime thereafter, this person in our neighbourhood confided in me, expressing a lot of stress because he was about to get a biopsy for cancer. He is not a church-going person. I said, “Wow, this must be really hard. Do you mind if I pray for you?” Right in the street I offered a brief prayer for him. He ended up getting treatments, but he is alive and seems to be doing really well.<br />Let me close with this thought which seems to encapsulate in a modern way right here in Vancouver.<br />Kathleen Morrissey, who shared earlier in our service this past week, described a time when she embodied what the spirit of Peter and John(have her share):<br />One day I was walking down Main St and a homeless man<br />asked me for some money. I’ve been unemployed for months now<br />so I truly don’t have any spare change. Instead of walking past him<br />I felt God prompting me to pray for him.<br />I stepped out of my comfort zone and said “I don’t have any<br />money but can I pray for you” He said yes so I looked him in the<br />eyes and I spoke the Fathers blessing over him. I said that I thought<br />there were times in his life that other people had given up on him<br />and also times that he had given up on himself but God had not<br />given up on him and God loved him beyond what he could ever<br />imagine and his heavenly Father would never give up on him.<br />When I was done the man’s eyes were as wide as a saucer and his<br />mouth was open in amazement. His countenance had changed, His<br />grey, heavy demeanor seemed to have lifted and he seemed<br />transformed. Almost in a whisper he said ‘thank you’. He gathered<br />up his shopping cat and I haven’t seen him since.<br /><br /><br />And the greatest gift we can give someone is not money – giving money can sometimes be a practical and helpful gift – the greatest gift we can give someone like Peter and John, like Kathleen, is Jesus. And we become instruments of Jesus, we share his presence with others as we see them as Jesus would have seen them, as we invoke his presence using the name of Jesus, as we do this not just in the church but in the city of Vancouver in the world.<br /><br />Prayer: Saint Teresa of Avila said, “Christ has no body on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes through which Christ’s compassion for the world is to look out; yours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good; and yours are the hands with which He is to bless us now.”Shigematsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04506027536055632197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11017326.post-44107955920758793982012-04-18T14:14:00.000-07:002012-04-18T14:15:52.706-07:00Life from the Lion(2012April08)Easter Message (Luke 24:13-35) 08 04 12<br />Speaker: Ken Shigematsu<br />Title: Life from the Lion<br />Text: Luke 24:13-35; Isaiah 53:5-6, 9, 11.<br />BIG IDEA: We come to life when we live for The Lion.<br />The transition from song Alive to Wayne (Wayne should mention during verse 13 "now that same day” that this day was the day Christ rose from the dead.)<br />Luke 24:13-27<br /> 13 Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. 14 They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. 15 As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; 16 but they were kept from recognizing him. <br /> 17 He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?” <br /> They stood still, their faces downcast. 18 One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, “Are you only a visitor to Jerusalem and do not know the things that have happened there in these days?” <br /> 19 “What things?” he asked. <br /> “About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. 20 The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; 21 but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. 22 In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning 23 but didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. 24 Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see.” <br /> 25 He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.<br /><br />Let me take you back in time for a moment, not 2000 years and not back to a scene from my childhood, but let me take you back to June 16th of last year. That may sound like a random date to you, but it was the day after our Canucks lost the Stanley Cup.<br />I was on the phone with someone that morning from Washington, DC, who said, “I have been reading about your city in the news.” I asked, “Were you reading about the hockey game last night? Or about the riots after the game?” Brian said, “The riots.” <br />Later in the day I was in touch with some family members in Japan who definitely are not hockey fans, but who saw the news footage of the rioting in our city. We are a city that is quite laid back and rarely in the international news. What happened on June 15th was big news nearly everywhere. <br />Imagine you are walking north on the Lions Gate Bridge the morning after the riots with a friend, and you are discussing the Canucks playoff run and the riots, and then a stranger who is also walking north on the bridge catches up with you overhears you and asks, “What are you guys talking about? Was there some kind of trouble in the city last night?” <br />You’d probably be thinking, “Where have you been living—under a rock? You are probably the only one in Vancouver who doesn’t know what happened last night!”<br />Well, in a way the mood was similar in Jerusalem three days after Jesus had been crucified. <br />In a way that far surpassed the hopes of the most ardent hockey fans here in Vancouver who were yearning for a Stanley Cup (and I want to acknowledge that for some of you here hockey is not the most important thing in the world. In fact in a crowd the size there are likely two or three Boston Bruin fans. Don’t raise your hand. It's a safe place, but I wouldn’t encourage you to raise your hand. If someone sitting beside you is smiling smugly, they may be smiling for any number of reasons.) But, back to the point, in a way that far surpassed the hopes of the most ardent hockey fans here in Vancouver who were yearning for a Stanley Cup, the people of Israel for centuries had been longing for a leader, a great king like David, a Saviour, a Messiah, who would free them from the shackles of Rome and bless the world. <br />And much like the most passionate hockey fans had hoped that last year would be our year with our Canucks having advanced all the way to the finals, and having won the first two games in the finals against the Bruins, and then having the opportunity to close out the deciding game 7 for the Stanley Cup final on our home ice, we Canuck fans thought this was the year.<br />But as our home team was shut out by the Bruins in the final game and our hopes crumbled we experienced such a letdown as a city—I remember how it June the 16 was a such clear, warm beautiful day—yet I felt a kind of chill in the our city… despite the great weather, our city was in a funk for several days…<br />In a somewhat similar way, but in a way, of course, that was obviously far more consequential, many of the people of Israel had been putting their hope in Jesus Christ as someone who would become like their great king of history, David, a Saviour, a Messiah who would free them from the iron-fisted rule of Rome and bless the world. They thought he was the one. So when Jesus Christ was arrested and beaten, and then crucified, all the hopes of everyone who believed that Jesus would be the next King David, the Saviour, the Messiah, experienced their hopes going up in smoke, they were devastated.<br />And so on Easter morning as we saw in the text Wayne recited from the Gospel of Luke, two people who had put their hope in Jesus are now devasted are walking northwest to the village called Emmaus. And as they were walking and talking Jesus himself comes up and began to walk and talk to them—he was and is ALIVE as the choir sang… but these two people did not recognize him.<br />What are you talking about? Jesus asked. <br />They stood still, their faces downcast. Cleopas, asked him, “Are you from out of town. Are you the only one who does not know the things that have happened here?” <br /> “What things?” he asked. <br />These two people, Cleopas and his friend describe how they and many of their people had put their hope in Jesus Christ because he had taught with such power and performed great miracles. Cleopas explains how they and others believed he might be the Messiah who would free Israel from Rome and bless the people of the world. <br />They then spoke of how their own priests and leaders had betrayed Jesus, got him sentenced to death, and had him crucified. And then they said, “To make matters worse, some of our women have completely confused us. Earlier this morning they were at the tomb and they could not find his body. They came back and told us they had seen angels who said he was alive. <br />Then Jesus turned to Cleopas and his companion and said, “Why are you so thick-headed? <br />Why can’t you simply believe all that the prophets have said? <br />Then we are told Jesus pointed them to the first part of the Bible (which are known as the books of Moses)and then went through all of the prophets pointing out everything in the Scriptures that referred to him.<br />We don’t know exactly where in the Bible Jesus pointed to, but we are told that he took them to the first part of the Bible. And it could well be that he took them all the way back the very beginning of the Bible, Genesis, which describes how Adam and Eve were living in paradise with God in the Garden of Eden…how God had called them to govern the world on God’s behalf, but how they turned away from God, seeking to replace God in the Garden of Eden by becoming the god of their lives.<br />Contrary to popular myth, Adam and Eve’s sin was not eating a particular fruit, but it was their turning away from God and becoming god of their lives, replacing the role that the living God was meant to play in their lives.<br />They thought by becoming their own god they be freer, more powerful, more truly themselves. <br />But instead, as they separated themselves from the one true God, and like separating one’s self from the sun, they turned away from the source of all warmth and light and they felt this spiritual chill blow onto their bare back and so they felt compelled to clothe themselves with fig leaves.<br />Paradise Lost.<br />And whether or not we are familiar with this story, we've all felt that spiritual chill flow down our spine.<br />Let me take us back to June 16. The morning after the Vancouver riots, I was walking to work. It was a beautiful sunny day. I could see the mountains. I thought all is not perfect in one of the most beautiful, livable cities in the world. All is not perfect in paradise.<br />And in my own life, as much I like to think well of myself, there are moments when I can catch a glimpse of how self-centered, envious, or vindictive my heart can be and I can feel that spiritual chill on my spine. <br />I see how I need God to breath warmth into my soul.<br />God in his love for the world wanted to restore his paradise in my life, your life, and the earth.<br />When you think of paradise as a location on Earth where do you think of?<br />I think of Vancouver when the sun is out.<br />Or Hawaii where my favorite aunt and uncle live. <br />If you had an aunt and uncle who lived in Hawaii, they would be your favorite too.<br />(When we think of paradise we don’t think of place a you have to plug in your car at night so you can start it in the morning because it's a -20°).<br />When type in paradise in Google and hit images.<br />This is one of picture shows up.<br /><br /> <br />(keep this photo of the kids up during the text highlighted in green). <br />Paradise is a place we associate with warmth, beauty, and happiness.<br />God wants to restore paradise-lost on earth.<br />How does God go about doing this?<br />I realize some of you are here once a year because it's Easter. Glad you’re here! Ho let me offer “Sparks Notes” summary of the Bible in a few minutes.<br />How does God go about restoring paradise-lost on earth?<br />About four thousand of years ago God approached man named Abraham.<br />He’s become an important figure.<br />If you went to Sunday School or church camp as a kid you may remember the song, “Father Abraham had many sons…and many son had father Abraham… right arm… left arm.”<br />So why do kids still sing about this Middle Eastern nomad who lived thousands of years ago?<br />It’s because God approached him and his wife Sarah and promised them that through their offspring, through their family, he one day send a leader, a prophet, King, a Messiah who would restore paradise lost to the world. <br />Someone who help us no longer feel the spiritual chill on our spine, some who helps experience the warmth of God’s breath on our neck.<br />Some who help turn winter to spring.<br />At times it looked like paradise lost might be restored under one of Abraham's great, great grandchildren like King David.<br />David was a person of great courage and charisma. He was the one who killed the giant Goliath with a singular stone hurled from his sling. When an underdog is up against a giant enemy, we still talk about David and Goliath.<br />But David despite all of his great qualities also experienced that cool spiritual chill on his spine from time to time. And like all of us wanted at times wanted to replace the living God by playing the role of god in his life and so like everyone else failed to be the instrument to restore paradise lost to the world.<br />So God decided that he would take the initiative in this paradise restoration project and send them a a unique king, a Messiah. <br />At a time when no one could anticipate, just when it seemed God’s promise to restore paradise to the world through the family of Abraham was going to fail, at a time when the children of Abraham felt like slaves because they were living the under foreign occupation, an imperial power of Rome, God decided that he would personally fulfill the promise that he had made to Abraham 2000 years before to restore paradise lost.<br />How does God do this? <br />So he approaches a teenager Mary, who thought a peasant could trace her family line back more 40 generations to Abraham, and God miraculously enabled her to conceive and was born as a baby, as a human being (this is the Christmas story). He gave himself the name Jesus. <br />When Jesus as a young man taught with God-like wisdom, opened the eyes of the blind and even raised the dead. Many people like Cleopas and his companion had put their hope in Jesus as the promised one who would be the Saviour, as the Messiah who would free their people and restore paradise lost to the world. <br />But then Jesus was betrayed, betrayed by their own leaders, sentenced to death and crucified. <br />All their hopes went up in smoke.<br />They were devastated as walking to Emmaus.<br />But Jesus, who they did not recognize, then shows them from the Scriptures that the Messiah had to suffer and die and then rise from the dead. <br />We don't know for certain, but it's a very good possibility that Jesus turned Cleopas and his companion’s attention to Isaiah 53. <br />In Isaiah 53 written about 700 years before Jesus was born, we read about the Messiah who comes from the family of Abraham. <br />Isaiah 53: 5-6, 9, 11:<br /><br />5 He was pierced for our transgressions, <br /> he was crushed for our iniquities; <br />the punishment that brought us peace was on him, <br /> and by his wounds we are healed. <br />6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, <br /> each of us has turned to our own way; <br />and the LORD has laid on him <br /> the iniquity of us all. <br /> . <br />9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked, <br /> and with the rich in his death, <br />though he had done no violence<br />(he had not sinned).<br /> <br />11 After he has suffered, <br /> he will see the light of life<br />Jesus pointed out from the Scriptures how the Messiah, in order to restore paradise lost, actually needed to die and rise again. <br />Everyone at the time would think he was dying on a cross for his own sins, but according to Isaiah 53, he was in fact dying for our sins – for our tendency to turn away from the living God and replace God’s role in our lives by become god of our lives.<br />Jesus died on the cross bearing the penalty for our turning way from God, so that God, the cold wind on our back could stop blowing and we could experience the warmth of God’s breath on the back of our neck, God’s beauty and happiness.<br />Paradise-restored.<br />I realize that this is somewhat abstract. <br />C. S. Lewis illustrates paradise lost-paradise restored in his famous children’s story, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.<br /> <br /><br />(keep this photo of the kids up during the text highlighted in yellow). <br />As some of you know, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is a story about how four children Lucy, Susan, Peter and Edmund are sent for the summer to live with an old professor in the country-side. <br />While the four children are playing in the professor’s house, they discover a wardrobe which leads then to a magical world of Narnia.<br />The people of Narnia live under the influence of the wicked white witch who causes it always to be winter in Narnia, but never Christmas. <br />The witch lures one of the four children, Edmund, with some magical Turkish delight (which is Edmund’s favourite candy).<br /><br /><br /> <br /><br />(keep this photo up during the text highlighted in green.)<br />Edmund comes under the power of the wicked witch and ends up betraying his 3 siblings. <br />And since Edmund has proved to be a traitor which means the witch has the right to kill him and plans to. The wicked witch is also making plans to capture his siblings. <br /><br />But then the true King of Narnia, the Great Lion named Aslan, the Christ figure, who’s been absent for many years is back and is “on the move again.” <br /> <br />(keep the photo up during blue text).<br />The snow begins to melt, frozen rivers flow again, flowers bloom.<br />But the white witch confronts Aslan, the Great Lion, the Christ-figure and says, “You have a traitor here. You know the deep magic says that every traitor belongs to me. His life is mine. I have the right to kill him.”<br />Aslan says, “I will offer my life in his stead. Kill me and let the boy go free. The wicked witch agrees.”<br />(SHOW 2 scenes SCENE FROM THE MOVIE)<br />Though the witch knew the deep magic, there is a deeper magic still which she did not know… If she could have looked a little further back… she would have known that when a victim who had committed no treachery was killed, though in a traitor’s stead, the table would crack and death would start working backwards.”<br />Through Aslan’s death--death works backwards. <br />This is why we celebrate Easter…because Easter is the great news that King, the Messiah each us has knowingly or unknowingly long for has come.<br />Through his death--the stone table cracks and death works backwards. <br />Through his death – cold wind on our back to stop blowing and we can feel the warm breath of God on the back of our neck.<br />Winter to spring.<br />Paradise-restored.<br />Will we turn and live under the reign of our true King?<br />Some people fear they will lose themselves, their real self, if they come under the reign of anyone else. <br />But when you come under the reign of the true King, you become your real self, the self that you were always meant to be.<br />A pastor that I went to school with says, “Right now, we are trying to embrace our lover, but we are wearing a hazmat (show powerpoint image) suit. <br /> <br />We are trying to have a deep conversation about complex emotions, but we are under water. <br />We are trying to taste the 32 different spices of curry, but our mouth is filled with gravel.”<br />As we come under the reign of our true King, cold wind on our back to stop blowing and we can feel the warm breath of God on the back of our neck and become the people we blossom into the people we were meant to be.<br />To close, let me head back one last time to the story that we began with.<br />As Cleopas and his friend approach Emmaus, the village they were traveling to, Jesus continued on as if he were going farther, but they urged him, “Stay here and have dinner with us.” So he went in with them. He sat down at the table with them. He took bread and he blessed it and he broke it and he gave it to them.<br />At that moment their eyes were opened and they recognize him as Jesus and then he disappears. <br />They said to each other, “Didn’t we feel like our hearts were on fire as he conversed with us on the road and as he opened up the Scriptures to us?”<br />Each of our experiences are unique, but as we bring ourselves under the reign of the true King, <br />as get on the back the Great Lion, the Christ.<br />as we trust live for the Lion and draw life from the Lion, the Christ <br />the cold wind on our hearts stops blowing we will feel the warmth of God’s breath and heart and we will become the people we created to be.<br /><br />LET’S PRAY. <br />If you would like the cold wind to stop blowing on your back and would like to experience the warm breath of God on your heart…<br />Express that to God now.<br />As a symbol of your desire to for God touch you, I invite you now to simply place your hand touch your heart… as way of God breath on me.<br />And if you feel unworthy, as I certainly do, you can ask God to forgive your sins, which was mysteriously made possible through his death on the cross for you. <br />And now you’re forgiven, get the back of the Lion, the Christ and go an adventure of your life.Shigematsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04506027536055632197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11017326.post-61949612753812067472012-03-16T16:58:00.001-07:002012-03-16T17:01:19.174-07:00The Power of Story(12March2012)Sharing the Presence M3 (John 9) 12 03 18<br />Speaker: Ken Shigematsu with Gil Yeung giving testimony<br />Title: The Power of Story<br />Text: John 9<br />BIG IDEA: When we are touched by Jesus, we tell others about his grace.<br />Our three-year-old son Joey loves spare ribs. On Monday, my day off, when I pick up Joe from his pre-school for some reason he knows it’s Monday (maybe because I am picking him up) and he says, “Ribs! Ribs! I want Ribs.” So, for the last few months we’ve been in the habit of going to Earls, and getting take-out ribs. <br />The other Monday I walked into Earls with Joey to pick up our order and the hostess says, “The manager wants to meet you.” She comes into the open bar area where we are waiting and says, “I notice that you have been coming in every Monday with your son to pick up ribs. As a way to say thank you, today dinner is on us.” She gives me the ribs and on the box she’s written, “Thank you for your business on Monday nights.” And then a big heart, “Rachel and the Earls team.” <br />I am blown away. First of all, I’m surprised she remembers us because we are just in and out and Earls is primarily a sit-down restaurant. I am touched by her act of kindness. So driving home, I call my wife (hands-free of course) and I tell her the story. When I get home, I call my sister in Montreal who, when she was in high school, worked as a waitress…and let her know…and later some other people, as well. When something good happens to us, even if in the grand scheme of things it is relatively small, like being given a free meal at restaurant, or something bigger in our lives, like getting accepted into university, receiving a promotion, getting engaged, or our sister has a baby girl, or retiring, we want to share that good news with other people. <br />As we draw closer to Christ and realize how good he has been to us, one of the natural overflows of this will be a desire to share him with others.<br /><br />We are in a year where we are emphasizing the theme of sharing the presence of God. And when we are touched in some way by the living God, we will want to bear witness to that reality.<br />Pray.<br />If you have your Bibles, please turn to John: 9.<br />In this passage we see how a blind man encounters Jesus and experiences grace, even in the face of significant opposition.<br /> 1 As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”<br />The blind man is standing on the side of the road. Jesus is passing by and his students ask him, “Rabbi (or teacher), who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” And Jesus, the most brilliant person ever, could have jumped into a great theological debate about suffering, but he does not. He simply says that neither this man nor his parents sinned. This happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. Jesus rejects the idea that the human experience is like using a vending machine where we put the coins of our deeds and then get exactly what we paid for. Jesus rejects the idea our suffering is directly tied to our own sins, or the sins of our parents, or our sins in some former life.<br />I don’t know if you heard the story of the coach of the English national soccer (football) team who said that people who suffered from birth defects and disabilities were being punished for sins that they had committed in a former life. This belief is held by some within certain Hindu traditions, although many Hindus would reject that idea. If you believe in Karma, an unstoppable chain of cause and effect running from the present life into the future one and on into another, and so on, like Jesus’ disciples you might ask if a person has been born with some kind of disability: Did they sin in a previous life? But Jesus in the passage rejects that idea outright. He says this person isn’t blind because he sinned, or the parents sinned, but so that the glory of God might be displayed in him (verse 3).<br />Notice, as I mentioned earlier, that Jesus does not enter into a prolonged theological or philosophical debate on the problem of evil in the world and suffering. Or why do a lot of people who are relatively good suffer at all. <br />He simply says in verses 5-7:<br />5 “While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” <br /> 6 Having said this, he spat on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. 7 “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing. <br />Jesus says “I am the light of the world,” and then he spits on the ground, makes some mud with saliva, put it on the man’s eyes, tells him to go wash in the pool of Siloam. The man goes and washes and he comes home seeing. Amazing! Here is a person who has never known the light of day. <br />Darkness was all the blind man had ever known, never seen a blade of grass, never witnessed the blue of the ocean, never seen his mother’s face, but now he can see for the very first time! And now having followed the words of Jesus, and having washed his face in the Pool of Siloam… And when something that great happens to you – we can't help but talk about it. So this guy starts saying, “I can see…I can see… I can see!”<br />(transition)<br />When we suffer in some way, Jesus does not usually give us an abstract theological explanation of about why we are going what we are going through. <br />Instead, Jesus offers us his presence and brings some kind of healing to us (and that healing is not always physical). <br />Whenever Jesus comes into our life and brings some kind of healing, it is for us. It is gift, but it is not just for us. <br />As we see in verse 3 we are touched by God so that the works of God might be displayed in us, so that we and others might know that Jesus’ special identity as a special prophet, as the unique son of God, as the Messiah. <br />A similar kind of healing occurred in about the year 900 BC through the prophet Elisha. <br />In 2 Kings 5, the prophet Elisha, heals Naaman of leprosy. <br />Elisha promises to heal him so that people would know that there was still a prophet for God in Israel. <br />2 Kings 5:8 we read:<br />Have the man [Naaman] come to me and he will know that there is a prophet in Israel.<br />Elisha sent Naaman to wash himself in the Jordan River and Naaman miraculously emerged clean and free from leprosy. <br />The miracle itself is a priceless gift to Naaman, but it is not just for him, but the miracle is a sign that Elisha is a prophet.<br />When Jesus heals a blind man it's obviously an extraordinary gift for the blind man , but it's also a sign to him and us that Jesus is a prophet, the unique son of God, the Messiah—the Saviour.<br />So, Jesus in opening the eyes of this person who was born blind was not merely gifting him, he was also gifting the people around him...us, with a sign of Jesus’ special identity as a prophet, as the light of the world, as the Messiah. <br />Up until this point in Israel’s history no person, not even a prophet, had ever opened the eyes of a blind person. Not even Moses or Elisha had done that. Some of the Jewish people believed that when the Messiah came he would open the eyes of the blind. <br />So when Jesus heals us, touches us, transforms us in some way, and that healing may not always be physical, it is intended to not just be a gift for us, but a gift through us to the world as we through our witness affirm Jesus’ identity as the prophet, the light of the world, the Messiah—Saviour of the world. <br />(Transition)<br />When the blind man said Jesus had healed him, the Pharisees questioned that and contended that since Jesus was a sinner it would have been impossible for him to really heal him (vs. 16).<br /> (As I said a few weeks ago, the Pharisees had a way of adding regulation upon regulation on top of what the Bible said. There is basically one commandment to not work on the Sabbath, but the Pharisees tried to make about 40 commandments. Jesus was not in fact breaking the Sabbath command, just the man-made regulations of the Pharisees that went well beyond what the Bible actually said.)<br />The man courageously answers (30-34): <br />“Now that is remarkable… We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does his will. 32 Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” <br />Then the Pharisees replied:<br /> 34 To this they replied, “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!” And they threw him out. <br />Sometimes when we bear witness to the reality of what Jesus has done in us, there is pushback. People like the Pharisees, try to dismiss our experience by explaining it away. When my wife Sakiko in her 20s first came into a personal relationship with Jesus, her family who were nominal Buddhists said, “It’s just a phase for you. It is going to be passing away.” (the phase has lasted about 2 decades). And in fact her grandmother, her mother and her sister came into a relationship with Jesus. Pray for her dad.<br />Sometimes when we bear witness to Jesus, we risk getting kicked out of some kind of official or unofficial social “club.” This man who had been blind was thrown out of the synagogue for bearing witness to Jesus. His parents were afraid that anyone who acknowledged the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue, so they did not want to directly testify that their son had been blind and had been healed by Jesus.<br />Sometimes we can hesitate to share what Jesus has done in us because we are afraid that someone will explain it away, or that we may get kicked out of some kind of social club. <br />We can fear the awkward moments that can come when sharing our faith. <br />Some time ago I was at dinner with about 12 people honoring a prominent political leader in our city. He was celebrating his receiving The Order of Canada award, the highest government bestowed civilian award in our country. Part way through the dinner the host asked each one of the people seated around the table to share for a few minutes something we were passionate about. There was a part of me that wanted to talk about a safer topic like my love of sailing or running through wooded endowment lands with our Golden Retriever, but I felt the Holy Spirit prompting me to share part of my spiritual journey. <br /><br />I said, “I’m pastor of Tenth Church here in the city. People sometimes ask why I choose to enter the somewhat unusual vocation of a Christian minister. As a teenager, I went through troubled years. I was involved in taking and dealing drugs, shoplifting, and joyriding. My dad as a convservative Asian was concerned about me. So, he took me on a “field trip” to a local prison, and later he said, “I just wanted you to see your future home…” When he saw that I wasn't “scared straight” he figured he’d try a very different strategy. He took me to a Christian youth conference. At that Christian conference I discovered I could have a new beginning with Jesus Christ and my life was radically changed for the better. So one of the passionate things for me is seeing lives changed by the power of God.”<br /><br />Someone else at the table, a guest at that dinner, talked about how she too had recently started attending Tenth and had just been baptized there and spoke about her new faith. It felt like a really holy moment. <br /><br />But if Jesus has done something in us, we don’t need to force the issue, but with help of the Spirit we may have to exercise some courage. And as the Holy Spirit gives us opportunities, we are called to bear witness to things that Jesus has done in us, bear witness to the healing and the transformation that Jesus has brought about in us. And as we do that, as was true of the blind man, the special identity of Jesus as a prophet, as the Son of God, the Messiah, is made known.<br />Sakiko and I had dinner with a committed follower of Jesus named Joe and his wife.<br />Joe shares the following story:<br />“It was six o'clock in the morning, and I had just finished my early run. As I passed Starbucks, I decided to stop in and get a coffee. Since the café had just opened, there was only one other person in line in front of me. But it wasn't your ordinary wait-in-line-for-coffee drill. The guy in front of me was in a tense argument with the clerk. The customer was loudly complaining that all he wanted was the copy of the Newspaper that he was holding in one hand while he was waving a fifty-dollar bill in the other. The fight was over the fact that the clerk did not have enough change yet to break the fifty-dollar bill, which made it impossible for him to sell the paper.<br />It dawned on me that this was an early morning opportunity to commit an act of [kindness] by demonstrating the generous spirit of Jesus. So I said to the clerk, "Hey, put the paper on my bill; I'll buy it for him." This immediately defused the tension, and the grateful Newspaper guy walked away saying, "Thanks a lot.”<br />To my surprise, when the barista handed me my coffee, he said, "Mister, that was a really nice thing for you to do. This world would be a lot better place to live if more people were like you." <br />His comments caught me totally off guard, and I knew that I could say something at that point that would point the glory upward…but nothing came. So I made some self-deprecating remark and walked out, haunted that I had missed a great opportunity to glorify God and share the presence. As I was walking down the sidewalk, it came to me. I should have said, "Well, this world would not be a better place if more people were like me. But it would be a better place if more people were like Jesus, because he taught me how to do that."<br />(I know I've had many experiences where a better answer has come to me after that conversation.)<br />I turned around to go back and tell him that, only to remember that by the time I left there was a line waiting for coffee. It didn't seem to me that it would be a great idea to break into the line and make a religious speech. So I prayed that for him.<br />There are times when we will miss opportunities to share our faith, and ideally, we will not beat ourselves up ourselves up and instead receive the grace of God and trust that although we may play a role, ultimately a person's coming to know God is going to be accomplished more by God than by us.<br />As we share our faith and bear witness to Jesus, it doesn’t necessarily have to be about our initial conversion experience per se. Both in my public witness as I preach and in my personal witness as I testify about Christ in the context of my personal relationships with people who are on the borderlands of faith, I don’t always tell my conversion story, but I may tell stories of how Jesus has transformed me in some area of my life, or is still transforming me in some areas of my life.<br />Many of you have heard me talk in the past about how, when I was younger, I was tempted to put my identity in sports and my success on the court or in the field. Then as a younger adult I put my identity in being in a relationship, being with a particular kind of woman. And for a good part of my adult life, and I am still struggling with this, the tendency to put my identity in my work and my productivity. Now as a relatively new father, I put it in family.<br />We can testify to the ways that Jesus in each stage of our life has brought grace and transformation.<br />Sometimes when we share our struggle with someone and how Christ has met us in this struggle, it can bear witness to the special identity of Jesus.<br />At this time I am going to invite my friend Gil Yeung to come forward. Gil has been part of the people in a rule of life small group that I was leading in the fall. He is going to come and share part of his story with us.<br />GIL’S TESTIMONY<br />When Ken first asked me to share a few months ago, my reaction was interesting. The sales manager in me starting calculating how much time I had to prepare. Targets and priorities began forming in a virtual spreadsheet in my head. In fact, Ken gave me a choice of 2 dates, one in February and one in march. I even selected the later date because I thought I would be able to share more presence by that time. I wanted some good data to present today. Or perhaps the first 2 rows of the sanctuary would be full of people that I had shared my faith with. I don’t know anyone in the first 2 rows. Then a few weeks later Ken mentioned it on a video- seriously, Ken, just a little bit of pressure. I thought about it, Ken, if you really want us to share the presence, you should just mass email the entire congregation, blind cc and ask them to come up and share on a Sunday with your sermon. That will get us going real quick.<br />When I was young, and a new Christian, I would often share my faith in ways that would be quite over the top. Guilt trips, often thinking that I could bring someone to Christ., major philosophical or religious arguments, or even childish arguments like “oh yah, well my God thinks your God is fat and lazy, Gramma!” - As I grew older, I began to go the other way- I became lazy and lethargic in sharing my faith. I had this attitude that , Well, people know I am a Christian, if they have any questions, they can just ask. It’s not up to me, its up to God.<br /><br />Last year, when I got cancer and was in chemotherapy, I began to feel an urge to share my faith with fellow patients, nurses and even complete strangers. After my treatment, I wondered if that would change. Near the end of my last cycle, a sister of one of my friends transferred into the cancer ward as a nurse. So even after I was done the treatment, every time I had a bloodtest or xray or scan, I would go up to the chemo ward and visit her. Now this would freak some of the nurses out. You see, on your last day of treatment, they all say the same thing, “nice to meet you, hope to never see you again”. They tell me most former patients do not come back to visit. Not exactly a place of great memories. So the nurses always panic when they see me. it could also mean that I am back for treatment I guess. I just go- “Just visiting” and you can see the immediate relief in their eyes. So one day, talking to my friend the nurse, my blog that I kept during my cancer treatments came up. June had my blog made into a book for my birthday last year. I just wanted to read an entry from it- this was my first day after I had finished my treatment<br />Blog excerpt:<br /><br />Sunday May 15th- POST CHEMO: Day 1<br /><br />I am sure I will see you all very soon. I know there will be a time to celebrate. Right now, I am just slowly taking it all in. Just trying to figure out my recovery time. There are some lifestyle changes that need to be made. When I got a call from my cousin Ken in England yesterday, it made me realize something very important. Although I am the one who had the cancer, everyone that I knew and cared about went through it with me. You guys were all there with me. It wasn't just about me fighting. So many people worried and waited for updates and stressed over my condition. So many people were relieved when I gave good news. With social media, there is no hiding anymore. Good news or bad, it gets out quick(thank you facebook). I hope that my faith in God that kept me sane through all this isn't something we glance over. I hope that we can speak openly and that I can share what it means to have a relationship with God and to live a life that has Him in control. Could be easy to say now because the cancer is gone. But I would like to think that this blog wouldn't be much different even if I had gotten a negative prognosis.<br /><br />She read some of it and the next time I visited, she asked if she could share it with patients that are going through the same thing I did. I said absolutely. So a few months went by and I got a text from her and she said there was a guy who had just started the protocol that I had already gone through- she asked if she could share my blog with him. I went straight down there that day. He was gone already, but I said to her, here, give him my blog, my cel phone, my home phone, email, you name it. The doctors and nurses are phenomenal but having someone who has gone through it before, that would have been great when I was going through it. So then I waited, and a few weeks later, he emailed me and we started a conversation over email and text, and I asked if it would be ok if I came down to see him. So I did. We talked and he had read some of my blog. We talked about side effects, drugs, and I even met his girlfriend. Right before I was going to leave, I felt God tugging at my heart. So there was a nurse in the room and 1 or 2 other patients and I asked him if it would be ok if I prayed for him, and his girlfriend. I prayed for healing and for peace in his recovery. Maybe it was awkward but I felt moved to do something. I continue to keep in touch with him,email on text. Just a few words of encouragement. Here is an excerpt.<br />… Hope you came out of the last round ok, at least feeling normal from monday onwards. Its only gonna get better from now on. Praying for you and your girlfriend. Talk to you soon<br /><br />We continued to keep in touch after his treatment. My daughter Rhys and I would pray for healing for daddy’s new friend at bedtime. He has also been declared cancer free just recently. I realize that God opens doors for me all the time to share my faith. And how that faith help me weather the biggest storms of my life. I just need to recognize those opportunities and do something. I feel blessed to be able to share what I went through with others. On that note, I want to share another fairly big event that happened recently in my life.<br />I just bought a new car. My first new car in over 10 years. I did my research- a lot of research and finally decided on a brand new Kia sportage. And I love it, and I can’t stop talking about it. I keep offering people rides just so I can talk about the car. In fact, I will be around later in the upper east hall if you want to discuss it. This car has everything I ever thought I needed in a car, and a few things I never thought I would need until now. Built in Bluetooth, backup sensors and even heated seats. Now I am always asking people if their bum is cold. Kinda weird. I am always looking at ways to let everyone know what a great car I got. People hear me talk about it and go, do you work for kia? I don’t but I should, just talking about it seems to come naturally now. <br /><br />IF its something I believe in and love, why wouldn’t I share it with friends , family and even complete strangers. I wonder sometimes, if sharing the presence is like buying a kia. Shouldn’t telling people about Jesus be just that simple?<br /><br /><br />Gil has a story… I have story do you have a story of how God has touched you? <br />Do you know Jesus personally? I don’t necessarily mean just your initial coming into a friendship with Jesus, but somewhere along the line, at some stage in your life, you experienced the grace and transformation of God.<br />I am going to give you a couple of moment to briefly write out a story of what Jesus has done for you.<br />If you never had this experience, I invite you to write out a prayer asking Jesus to open your eyes spiritually so you might see what he’s doing in your life. As was true in the Scripture passage, it possible for Jesus to do something but like the Pharisees we don't see it, we don't recognize it.<br /><br />PAUSE for a few minutes.I encourage you to share that story with someone as the Holy Spirit gives opportunity.<br /><br />If you feel comfortable doing so, I would love to hear it myself. If you could e-mail me at ken@tenth.ca and share your story in 200 words or less (we have about 2000 people who attend our services or listen on line), I would be grateful to hear them and pray over them.<br />You can write it down now on the sermon notes page and email it to me or write an email or text to me write now on your phone.<br />Your sharing will be held in confidence.<br />As you do that others other may come to recognize the special identity of Jesus as a unique prophet and as the Messiah. And as was true of the blind man as your share your vision of Christ you will be able to “see” more of who Jesus really is. At the beginning of the story the man who had been born blind was only able to point to Jesus and say that man healed me, but as he shared what Jesus had done for him with others he went on to believe and worship him. As the blind man shared with others with Jesus did for him, his vision of Christ grew and so will ours.<br /><br />PRAYShigematsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04506027536055632197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11017326.post-90358169680597012522012-02-17T14:08:00.000-08:002012-02-17T14:09:52.489-08:00What Matters Most?(19Feb2012)Sharing the Presence M2 (Luke 15) 12 02 19<br />Speaker: Ken Shigematsu (with Sabine Lague giving testimony before the offering)<br />Title: What Matters Most?<br />Text: Luke 15<br />BIG IDEA: People who are lost to God’s love matter deeply to him and will matter to those of us who follow him. <br /><br />Recently our three-year-old son Joey was invited to a couple of birthday parties of friends who are at his pre-school. We don’t know either of these families well, but I am acquainted with one of the moms of one of the birthday boys. Sakiko wanted me to find out what the son might want as a gift. I e-mailed her directly and asked, “What should we get your son for his birthday?” She e-mailed back and said, “I am sure he would enjoy anything that you would get him.” Sakiko said, “You shouldn’t have asked so directly.”<br />When I approached the second mother at a group dinner, I made the same mistake and asked, “What do you think we should get your son for his birthday?” I could see that she was demurring and Iremembered Sakiko's advice, so I said, “Oh, I should not have asked so directly. Tell me, what is your son interested in doing?” The mother said, “Well, he really likes Lego these days, so if you got him a small box of Lego he would be really happy.”<br />Sometimes when we are buying a gift for someone that we do not know well, it can be hard to know what they are really interested in and therefore what would be a good gift for them. Sometimes, even for people that we know quite well it can be hard to get that person a gift because they don’t have a clear passion for something, a real hobby, or something that they are really interested in.<br />Isn’t it great when someone tells you directly and honestly what they are passionate about?<br />In the pages of Scripture it is very clear what God is interested in. In the parables of Jesus that we are about to look at we are going to see what matters most to the living God.<br />Pray:<br />If you have your Bibles please turn to Luke 15: <br />So, here’s the context in vss. 1-2:<br />The Parable of the Lost Sheep<br />1 Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. 2 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” <br /><br />The Pharisees and the teachers of the law, who were these highly devout people who strictly observed the Scriptures, were muttering about Jesus because he welcomes tax collectors and sinners and eats with them. The tax collectors were seen by the Hebrew people as being traitors in bed with Rome because they would overcharge their fellow Hebrews—they could tax them at 70 or 80 percent in some cases, give Rome what was required, and pocket the rest.<br /> In the Middle Eastern Hebrew culture of Jesus’ day for a person to eat with another was no casual thing. It signified friendship. It was a sign of acceptance.<br />Now, we tend to think of Pharisees today as people who are self-righteous hypocrites. <br />In Jesus’ day, however, the Pharisees were people who sincerely wanted to live a life that was pleasing to God. They were very bright. For the most part they were highly educated lay people. They were the respected, devout lawyers of their time. They were aware that the reason they and their people, the Hebrews, were living in a kind of exile in their own land, that is they were living in exile in the sense that they were under the foreign domination of Rome in their homeland, because, according to Deuteronomy, their people had disobeyed God and therefore they were being judged by God.<br />So the Pharisees were passionate about keeping the law of God as they understood it. In fact, they had atomized God’s law into 613 rules, 248 commandments, 365 prohibitions, and bolstered these rules by 1,521 emendations. For example, to avoid defiling the Sabbath, the day of rest, they outlawed 39 activities that might be considered work. The Pharisees and the teachers of the law were very concerned about keeping every part of God’s Word. <br />The Pharisees had a practice of lowering their heads and not even looking at a woman to avoid any kind of sexual temptation. Some of the Pharisees were known as "bleeding Pharisees" because they bumped into walls and pillars while looking down.<br />Jesus was also passionate about keeping God’s Word, but his focus was different from the Pharisees. The Pharisees believed that keeping God’s Word meant that they would be completely separate from the sinful sinners of their world, so as not to be defiled by them. Their holiness led them to exclude the people of this world. Whereas, for Jesus, holiness, being truly set apart for God, meant he would offer God’s welcome, love, and presence to people.<br />He goes on to tell three stories which show us what God is most interested in—what matters most to the heart of the living God.<br />In each of three stories something valuable is lost.<br />In verse 4 Jesus says:<br />4 “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? 5 And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders 6 and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ 7 I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent. <br />The Parable of the Lost Coin<br /> 8 “Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Doesn’t she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? 9 And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’ 10 In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”<br />So, in the first parable, the shepherd loses something of real value to him—sheep--and searches for the sheep.<br />The second parable a woman loses a coin – something that's worth a day's wages and searches out the coin.<br />Have you ever lost something of value to you and so went on search for that thing?<br />The other day, I accidentally dropped $60 on the floor of IGA. After I got home I realized I had dropped it and could guess where I dropped it. I went back to the place where I dropped it and it was not there. I was feeling anxious, self-loathing – how could I be so careless? I’ve heard that if Bill Gates drops $100 bill it's not financially in his advantage to waste the energy to stoop down and pick it up. I thought I'm not Bill Gates. I was doubtful that I would find it, but still hopeful. I went to the place in the store where I thought I had dropped it. No sign of it. I went to the lost and found counter. I said I dropped three $20 bills – they were green with a picture of the Queen on any chance anyone turned it in? No sorry. I didn’t find it. (BTW, were any of you in IGA on Tuesday by chance? No—I’m done.) But the point is that for me the lost $60 was something worth searching for. <br />So the first two parables are about a lost sheep, and a lost coin—things that are worth searching for.<br />The third parable is about something that is much more valuable and therefore much more worthy of a search—Jesus tells a parable about a son who becomes lost to his father and family.<br />In this story, the father has two sons and the younger son approaches his father and asks if he would give him his share of the inheritance now. In the culture the younger son by asking for an inheritance was saying in effect, “I would be better off, Dad, if you were dead so I could get your money now.” The father, instead, out of love for his son sells off much of land holdings. He gives the money to his son and the younger son goes to the equivalent of Vegas and spends his money on partying, drugs, and prostitutes<br /><br />As was true of the shepherd who had lost his sheep, and the woman who had lost her coin, the father who had lost his son desperately longs to find him.<br />Jesus’ was directing the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son at the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who are criticizing Jesus for his being friends with tax collectors and sinners.<br />In each of the parables, something is lost—a sheep, a coin, a son, something of great value to someone – something that is worth searching for.<br />A former teacher of mine, Tim Keller, in his book, The Prodigal God, points out: “There is a striking difference between the third parable and the first two. In the first two, someone goes and searches diligently for what is lost. The searchers let nothing distract them or get in their way, but in the third story, the story of the lost son, we are expecting someone to go out and search for him.” In a sense, the father looks for him, because the parable tells us that while he was still a long way off, he spots him and then sprints toward him to embrace him. It’s likely that he walks to the edge of his property each day and scans the horizon in search of his son. But beyond that, there is no active search for the lost son.<br />The listeners in Jesus’ day may have asked the question: “Who should have gone out and searched for the lost son?” Jesus and the Pharisees and the teachers of the law should have known the Scriptures well. They should have known that in the first book of the Bible, in Genesis, there is a story of an elder brother and a younger brother, Cain and Abel, and in that story God tells the older brother, “You are your brother’s keeper.” The older brother should have been searching for his lost brother. <br />Edmund Clowney tells the true story of a young person who was a North American soldier, missing in action during the Vietnam War. When the family could not get any word from the soldier through any official channel, the older son flew to Vietnam, and risking his life searched the jungles and the battlefields for his lost brother. In spite of the danger, he was never hurt because those on both sides heard of his dedication and respected his request. Some of them simply called him “the brother.”<br />This is what a true elder brother in the parable would have done. He would have said, “My younger brother has been a fool. Now his life is in ruins. I will go and look for him and bring him home.”<br />And Jesus by telling the Pharisees and the teachers of the law through these stories, and more through his own example, the Pharisees, calls those of us who claim to know the Father that we are to seek out women and men, boys and girls, who are lost to the Father’s love in some way and help them find their way home…help them find their way to the Father’s house. Lost, not in the sense that the Father does not love them, as the parable clearly shows, but lost in the sense of being disconnected from the direct experience of God's love.<br />As was true for Jesus, sometimes there is a cost, if we associate with people who are considered on the spiritual or moral margins of life, by other “older” brother or sister types (as in Luke 15) who are more traditional. As was true for Jesus, people who are more traditionally moral may look down on us.<br />Some time ago in a sermon I made a passing reference to attending a party where there was a lot of drinking for the purpose of an illustration on some something that was happening in our culture. Monday morning I received a scathing e-mail from someone that I do not know, asking how I, not just as a Christian, but as a pastor, could go to a party and enjoy spending time with such obviously disgusting depraved people. I am sure this person was very sincere to believe that true holiness means that we separate ourselves from people who are obviously sinners. But, according to Jesus, true holiness, which means being set apart for God’s purpose means that we love and embrace people that some of our brothers and sister types consider sinners. True holiness is about showing God’s mercy, love and passion to those who are lost in his love, for Jesus, as true of Sabine, it was about sharing the presence.<br />The names Jerry Falwell the fundamentalist Baptist pastor and Larry Flynt the publisher of the pornographic magazine, Hustler, provoke strong reactions from some people in our culture for different reasons. Both for different reasons are likely regarded as “lost.”<br />They were adversarial and often debated each other on shows like Larry King.<br /> <br /><br />In the 1980s, Larry Flynt's pornographic magazine Hustler carried a parody advertisement of for the alcoholic beverage, featuring a fake interview with Falwell in which he admits that his "first time" was incest with his mother in an outhouse while drunk. Falwell sued for $45 million in compensation alleging invasion of privacy, libel, and intentional infliction of emotional distress <br />But the following story, shared by Falwell's son Jonathan, describes a moving conversation between them years ago. Jonathan traveled with his dad to Florida where the senior Falwell was debating Larry Flynt, Jonathan recalls:<br />Mr. Flynt asked my dad if we could give him a ride back to Lynchburg in my dad's private jet. Dad said yes so we traveled to the airport and boarded a beautiful black and gold Gulfstream III. As we flew to Virginia, I sat across from dad and Mr. Flynt as they had a long conversation about sports, food, politics and other ordinary topics. I was amazed and bewildered because they kept talking like old friends. After we dropped off Mr. Flynt in Lynchburg, I asked dad, "How come you could sit on that airplane and carry on a conversation with Larry Flynt as if you guys were lifelong buddies? Dad, he's the exact opposite of everything you believe in; he does all of the things you preach against; and yet you were treating him like a member of your own church. Why?"<br />Falwell turned to his son, “Jonathan,” he said, “there may be a day when Larry is hurting and I want to keep the door open on our relationship and be available to serve him if I can.”<br />(Perhaps Larry Flynt wanted to keep the door of friendship open to Jerry Falwells with hopes that Jerry might chill out a bit). <br />After the death of Falwell in 2007, Larry Flynt released a comment regarding his friendship over the years with Falwell.<br />"I hated everything he [Jerry Falwell] stood for, but after meeting him in person, years after the trial, Jerry Falwell and I became good friends. He would visit me in California and we would debate together on college campuses. I always appreciated his sincerity.”<br />I know parents whose children are making lifestyle choices in relationships, drug use, or walking way from God in ways that break their heart… but, if possible, they want to maintain a relationship keep the door open.<br />There are important people in my own life whose views or life lifestyles are very different from my own, but I want to maintain the relationship and the connection to share God’s love, share the presence (and I find that I receive God’s blessings through people who don’t believe in God’s existence—another sermon).<br />One of my favourite stories at Tenth that I tell at our newcomers diner is about a woman who was walking through Stanley Park on a rainy day. She ended up running into a pimp that she knew. She began to pour out the woes of her heart to this pimp, all of her personal problems. When she took a breath about 15 minutes later, the pimp said, “I don’t think I can help you, but why don’t you try going to Tenth Church?” <br />God has called us to be a place of welcome for all. I love it when I hear someone from a particular lifestyle background, such as a sex trade worker, someone of a particular sexual orientation, or an atheist, feels that they wouldn't be welcome here, but the friend who brought them says, “You need to meet Ken personally, or get to know some people in our community.”<br /> I would love this to be a community of welcome for all, including people who are lost in a scandalous way, and those who were lost in a self-righteousness way like the Pharisees.<br />As was true of Sabine, Jerry, many parents, and I pray me and community like Jesus we are called to love and maintain a connection with people so we can share the presence, share God’s love with them. <br />As we love and maintain our connections to people who are lost to the Father’s love, they make their way a little closer to God, like the shepherd in the parable, like the woman who lost the coin, like the father. We can experience joy as a person makes their way toward home.<br />When I was working in Japan for Sony in Tokyo, I began to preach from time to time at my small church. The pastor was eighty years old and was looking for someone to pinch-hit for him from time to time. As I anticipated one day going to seminary and entering vocational ministry, I eagerly volunteered for this opportunity. My grandmother in Tokyo heard a rumor that I was preaching. She was both intrigued and amused. She remembered me as a little brat whose favorite book was the Sears Christmas catalog and she recalled I used to always ask her, “Grandma, how can I be rich when I grow up?” More out of curiosity than anything else she decided she would come and hear me preach…. She had not been to church in over two decades. On a cold, wet February morning she rode the Tokyo subway and buses for over an hour to come to our church.<br /><br />She sat in the second to the back row on the right hand side of our small chapel… I got up and I gave a short message on the work of the cross from Galatians, Chapter 2, and sat down. The 80- year-old pastor came up to the podium and said, “Brother Shigematsu… after that kind of message, you should have given an invitation.” He continued, “Come up here and give an invitation…”<br /><br />I was unprepared… embarrassed… The mood in the little chapel grew tense… and awkward… but I had recently watched Billy Graham… on video… so I just plagiarized him… I said, “If you are here and don’t know Christ, if you need to make your commitment or re-commitment to Christ, I want you to stand up and come… by coming you’re saying in your heart, ‘I commit myself to Jesus’.”<br /><br />As we sang the closing hymn I looked up after the first stanza, no one was coming… my heart was sinking. We sang the second stanza… no one moving. After the third stanza, one woman began to move her way to the aisle and came… We sang the final stanza, I closed the hymnal. I looked up and there were 17-18… people. My grandmother was among them….<br /><br />With tears streaming down her face, she said, “This is the happiest day of my life.<br />I thought I was a Christian, but today for the first time, I understood why Jesus Christ died on the cross for me.”<br /><br />I often think of that day—one of the great days of my life, because it was the day my grandmother experienced peace with God.<br /><br />Even one of my sisters who is an agnostic, said “This alone made your two years in Japan worth it.”<br /><br />When we welcome someone in our lives, love them, share the presence, and point them to Christ, it may be not our grandmother, but it may be somebody’s grandmother, somebody’s son, somebody’s daughter, somebody’s sister, somebody’s dad…somebody’s “person.” <br /><br />When we see a son or a daughter who is lost to the living God experience home-coming, not only is it a gift to them, but it is a gift to God. Because what matters most to God are his sons and daughters, and when they come home, like a shepherd who finds his lost sheep, like a woman who finds a lost coin, like a mom who finds a lost daughter, he throws a party in heaven.<br />Prayer…<br />If you are here and are lost to the Father’s love, please know that he and Jesus, your true elder brother, welcome you home. <br />Receive his love and a new beginning.<br />And if you know the Father’s Love, is there someone with whom you can share this love…someone you can pray for?Shigematsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04506027536055632197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11017326.post-57626436963032967502012-02-04T18:12:00.000-08:002012-02-04T18:14:06.885-08:00Chosen(2012Feb 05)Series: Sharing the Presence M1 02 05 12<br />Speaker: Ken Shigematsu<br />Title: Chosen<br />Text: Genesis 12:1-3; Isaiah 49:6<br />BIG IDEA: You are chosen to serve as an instrument of restoration in the world.<br />Some years ago my wife and I were in Rome. <br />As we walked through the cathedrals of Rome, we noticed that some art, like the portrait of the Christ, had been compromised in its detail over time.<br /> <br />(keep this image of Christ until I speak about walking through Rome at night)<br />One evening we were out walking and we saw the old Roman coliseum in the distance.<br /> <br /><br /> The Forum:<br /> <br />(Note: Keep this image of the forum up over the highlighted section)<br />As a thought about the damaged frescoes, the old Roman Coliseum, the old forum a number of the arches, I thought, “What magnificent ruins!” <br />Like the old remains of ancient Rome, something can be both magnificent and a ruin at the same time.<br />In a way, our world is a kind of magnificent ruin. <br />We human beings have been made in the image of God. Our bodies and souls have been magnificently made by a master artist. We have the capacity for creativity, compassion, courage.<br /> We are magnificent! But we are also marred. We can be self-absorbed, self-serving, spiteful. <br />We human beings and our world--like ancient Rome--are a magnificent ruin. When our forebears, Adam and Eve, in the Garden of Eden turned away from God, the source of all that is good, true, and beautiful, a crack was opened for the sin virus to enter the world, a virus which causes us to experience alienation from our Maker, ourselves and each other.<br />From the beginning of time the living God has had a vision to restore the magnificent ruin of our world. One of the clearest ways that God began to restore the magnificent ruin of our world was by calling the Middle Eastern nomad named Abram (his name changed later to Abraham) and his wife Sarah 4000 years ago. He called them to leave their country, their household and people and go into an unknown land. As they followed God’s path, he would make them into a family that would bring blessing for the whole world.<br />And as we will see, whether we are of French or Japanese, Chinese, African or First Nations ancestry, God invites us to become part of Abraham’s family so that we will be a blessing to the world. <br />So please listen to this text because it is as much about you as it is about Abraham and Sarah.<br />If you have your Bibles, please turn to Genesis, Chapter 12:1-3:<br /> 1 The LORD had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. <br /> 2 “I will make you into a great nation, <br /> and I will bless you; <br />I will make your name great, <br /> and you will be a blessing. <br />3 I will bless those who bless you, <br /> and whoever curses you I will curse; <br />and all peoples on earth <br /> will be blessed through you.” <br />So, God says to Abraham, “I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and I will make your name great. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” Then, after he promises to make him a great nation, God says to Abraham, “Look up into the sky and count the stars you if you can. That is how many descendants you will have” (Genesis. 15:5).<br />God makes a staggering promise to Abraham and Sarah, telling them that through them and their offspring all the nations of the earth would be blessed. But they wondered, “How could that be?” Abraham and Sarah were well into their senior years. They had struggled with infertility for decades. But miraculously they were able to conceive, and gave birth to a son when Abraham was 100 and Sarah was likely about 90. When God told Abraham and Sarah that they would eventually have a son, they both laughed because they were so old. It seemed ridiculous. So when their son was born, they named him Isaac, which means “laughter.”<br />Isaac married a woman named Rebekah. God repeats the promise to the son Isaac that he made to his father Abraham and says that he will make his descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and that through their offspring all the nations of the world would be blessed. Isaac and Rebekah had a son named Jacob, whose name was later changed to Israel. And God said, “Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”<br />Sometimes the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob…sometimes the people of Israel are called the “chosen people.” But we could also say, in light of God’s purpose to restore the world through Israel, that God so loved the world he chose Israel as his instrument of restoration for the world.<br />We see, not just in Genesis, but throughout the Hebrew Scriptures how God calls his people to be a restoring presence in the world. I have been reading the book of Deuteronomy. In Deuteronomy, Chapter 4, we read how God calls the people of Israel to receive his love and wisdom, not just for their personal advancement, but so that they would point people to the living God, the God who restores all things, the God who makes all things new. <br />In Psalm 96, verse 3, we read:<br />Declare his glory among the nations, <br /> his marvelous deeds among all peoples.<br />The people of Israel are to declare before the nations God’s marvelous deeds and God’s greatness.<br />In Isaiah 42 we read of God’s call on Israel to bring justice to all the earth. <br />Then in Isaiah 49:6:<br />6 he says: <br />“It is too small a thing for you to be my servant <br /> to restore the tribes of Jacob <br /> and bring back those of Israel I have kept. <br />I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, <br /> that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.”<br />We read God’s plan for Israel was not just to restore themselves as a people and as a nation, but to be a light for us who are Gentiles, that God’s salvation would be brought to the ends of the earth. <br /><br />How did Israel fare in its call to serve as an instrument of God to bring restoration to the whole world?<br />While there were moments when Israel shone as a magnificent light, for the most their light was dim… for the most part they failed. And when it seemed to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that their descendants, the people of Israel, who were called serve as the instrument to restore the ruins of our world, would fail, in fact at a time when the Israelites would have felt like they had failed because they were in effect living in exile, that is under foreign domination, a sign according to Deuteronomy that they were being judged by God, God does something, which at the time no one could have anticipated. He decides he will, in a very personal way, become the fulfillment of the promise that he had made years ago to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He decides to become one of the children of Abraham. He approaches one of Abraham and Sarah’s great, great, great… grand-daughters named Mary and miraculously enables her to conceive. And the living God becomes a great grandson of Abraham. He becomes a human being. He becomes an Israelite. He takes the name Jesus—which means saviour. As a person who represents Israel, the people who are called to restore the world, at 33 years of age he voluntarily dies on a Roman cross and absorbs the judgment for the ways that Israel has failed to be a light to the world. And, before we become too smug and look down on the ancient Israelites, on the cross he also mysteriously absorbs the judgment that you and I deserve for all the ways that we have failed God. <br />God in Jesus Christ died on the cross. On the third day he arose from the dead. His rising from the dead was a sign that Jesus’ work of voluntarily absorbing in himself the judgment for sin that Israel and the people of the world deserved had been completed. This means that we can experience restoration with God and with each other and with our world. <br />As our lives are joined to Jesus’ we can become an instrument of God's restoration and healing in the world. <br />We become the hands and feet of Jesus in the world. When we look at that ruins around us and we wonder God won’t you do something? Shane Claiborne said last Sunday, “We hear God whispering I have. I made you.” <br />As Saint Teresa of Avila said, “Christ has no body on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes through which Christ’s compassion for the world is to look out; yours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good; and yours are the hands with which He is to bless us now.”<br />When our lives are joined to Jesus Christ we become his presence in the world, and according to the Scriptures we who are Gentiles, as was true of Jesus we become grafted in to the family tree of Abraham. In Romans 9 Paul says that we who are not biologically Jewish, we who are Gentiles, are like wild olive shoots that have been grafted into the original plant.<br />(SHOW POWERPOINT IMAGE). <br /> <br /><br />In Romans 9:8, we read that it is not necessarily the natural children of Abraham who are Gods’ children. But it is the children of promise, those who have come to Jesus Christ who are regarded as Abraham’s true offspring.<br />We have, in fact, become sons and daughters of Abraham. We are, in fact, part of Israel.<br />In Galatians 4:28, Paul says that those of us who have come to know Christ are like Isaac—we are children of promise. We are the children of Abraham.<br />Do you know much about your family tree? Do you know the names of your great grandparents? <br />I did not know much about my family tree. <br />Several years ago as part of a team building exercise we were doing as a staff, I did some research into our family tree. On my father’s side, I saw that as I traced a line backwards, they were all Samurai. Samurai, of course, are typically known for their dexterity with the sword, but my ancestors were teachers of Confucius ethics for the whole clan. And in more recent times, there are professors, teachers, and artists on my dad’s side, and as you look at my mom's side, business people, like my great-grandfather who bought and sold mountains.<br />As a pastor I feel like some of my ancient grandparents who taught Confucius ethics for the Samurai community live in me. I feel like some of our ancestors who were professors and teachers, live in my younger sister who is a professor at the University of California and my youngest sister who was a high school teacher in Montréal, and that some of our ancestors who were businesspeople live in my older sister who is a business leader in the Silicon Valley, and our ancestors on my mom’s side who were artists live in my brother who is an artist.<br />I came across the story of the man who was adopted, and always felt a little out of place in his adoptive family because, while they were very loving, they were all interested in white-collar vocations; whereas he was more inclined toward cars and working with his hands. As an adult he discovered that his biological father had been a car mechanic.<br />While we may think that we have pulled ourselves up by our bootstraps, there is a sense in which our ancestors do live in us, and in some sense they are us and we are them.<br />If we belong to Christ, our great, great ancestor is Abraham, and he is in us and we are in him.<br />If you belong to Christ, you are a great, great, great granddaughter or grandson of Abraham, as well. You may be Italian, but you are also a Hebrew. You may be Kenyan, but you are also Jewish. You may be Columbian, but you are also an Israelite. (In fact, if you belong to Christ this tie to our spiritual forbears is actually stronger than your tie to your flesh and blood ancestors—that’s true for those of us who are Asian too!)<br /> As a daughter or son of Abraham… … you are chosen to serve as an instrument of God to restore our world. <br />Through who you are, through what you do, through what you say, you are an instrument of God’s restoration in the world. <br />In fact, if you belong to Christ, you are in Christ and Christ is in you (John 14:20) and he will live his mission through you.<br />Earlier this year our family was in Osaka, Japan, spending time with Sakiko’s family. One morning I pulled the family photo album off the shelf, was flipping through it and saw a photograph of Sakiko’s dad with Pope John Paul II. Sakiko’s dad is not a Catholic. He is not Christian. <br />Here is how he had the opportunity to see the Pope.<br /> Michelangelo’s great frescoes in the Sistine Chapel in Rome had become mired in grime, soot, pollution across the centuries and 500 years of candle wax so that the colours of the paintings had faded. Some of the details were blurred. The company that Sakiko’s father works for, along with a number of other companies from Japan, sponsored a team of art conservators to work together to clean, restore, and preserve these priceless frescoes during the 1980s and 1990s.<br /><br />Here’s an image of Daniel before the restoration and after.<br /> <br />Here’s a close up for Daniels knee:<br /> <br />(NOTE: Keep this image up over the highlighted section)<br />And God is calling us, as the sons and daughters of Abraham, to serve as an instrument in restoring his masterpiece, the magnificent ruin of this world through what we are, what we do, and what we say.<br />I had breakfast recently with a friend here in Vancouver. As we hike, bike together from time to he will sometimes preface a comment by saying, “I am not a Christian” and then give his view on something. But at this breakfast he mused and said, “As I look back on my life, it seems that there is some way there has been some kind of force, some kind of presence that has guided me. So if I believe that, I wonder if that makes me a Christian. I wonder if I could consider myself a Christian.” I said, “What brings you to even considering the possibility of you are now perhaps self-describing as a Christian?” He said, “The committed Christians I know live better.” <br />The sons and daughters of Abraham around him consciously or unconsciously through their integrity, generosity, care for people are helping my friend experience restoration through leading him to a path where he is experiencing something of the restoration of God in his life, and he recognizes that.<br />It is not so much a scientific or philosophical or theological argument that is tipping my friend toward belief in God, but it is in the lives of people he knows that our committed to God.<br /><br />In the words of Dorothy Day: “Live a life that is so mysteriously beautiful that the only explanation for it can be a living and loving God.”<br /><br />I have been thinking quite a bit about Steve Jobs since his death this past fall. Steve Jobs had met the masterful cellist, Yo-Yo Ma, when he was at a design conference in Aspen, Colorado and Yo-Yo Ma was at a music festival. That is where they met. Jobs really loved Yo-Yo Ma’s music, as many of us do, but also admired his character. Yo-Yo Ma in person apparently is as sweet and as profound as tones he creates on his cello. Steve Jobs had invited Yo-Yo Ma to play the cello at his wedding.<br />A few years later he came by the Jobs’ home south of San Francisco. He sat in the living room and pulled out his 1733 Stradivarius cello and played Bach. “This is what I would have played for your wedding,” he told them. Tears came to Jobs’ eyes. Although Jobs did not believe in a personal God, he said, “Your playing is the best argument I have known for the existence of God because I don’t really believe a human alone can do this.”<br />I'm not suggesting that we make it our aim to become world-class cellists, but rather to say God is calling us as the sons and daughters of Abraham together, to live lives of such beauty, such mystery, that people are pointed to a living and loving God who restores all things… to a God who makes all things new.<br />And God is calling us as the sons and daughters of Abraham to live lives of such beauty, light, and mystery, and live such light that the only explanation for our lives is a living and loving God.<br /><br />For those of us here who are pilgrims of Christ, some of us came into a friendship Christ because he foresaw Christ's beauty and the life. When I was a teengager, I went to the Firs this lakeside Christian summer in Bellingham. I don’t remember all that our counsellor Bam Bam, aka Ken Hamilton as he said, but I still recall seeing the joy and peace that shone from his face. More through his life as much as through his words, he invited me into a life with Christ.<br />Maybe that was true of you.<br />And if you know Jesus perhaps you want to do that for someone else.<br />Kim lived near our home. She preferred a New Age style of spirituality. She wrote me a birthday card some time ago and wrote something I’ll always remember. I didn’t know when or how she actually made a spiritual commitment, but she wrote these words. “I thank God that he brought someone in my life that I could trust enough to lead me to Christ.” I am a person with many flaws, but I want do want to become the kind of person… who someone can trust enough to point them in some way to Jesus.<br />Perhaps if you know Jesus, you have the same desire. Like the friend of my friend, I had breakfast with recently, like someone who plays beautiful music; perhaps you want your life to draw others to Christ and to become an instrument of reconciliation in our world.<br />Today building on the missions series and practicing the presence, we begin a new series called Sharing the Presence. <br />A couple of years ago we had an emphasis called Practicing the Presence, where we encouraged people in our community to commit to regularly prayerfully reading the Scriptures. Nearly 1200 people signed on to that movement and many have reported how as a result they feel closer to God and, in some way, have become a little more like Jesus. One of the natural overflows of practicing the presence and becoming more like God is to then share the presence of God in as we play basketball with people, or canoe, or hike with them, as we hang out over coffee….<br />Today we’ve looked at the big picture, and in the weeks to follow we’ll look at what it might look like for us to live lives of such beauty and love that the only explanation for it can be a living and loving God.<br />Here’s a little video that introduces Sharing the Presence:<br />Show video<br />Last Sunday Shane Claiborne said, the best thing to do with the best things in life is to give them away. When we really believe that best thing we’ve been given is the love of Jesus, we will want to share that love with others. <br />So, will you become part of this movement of sharing the presence—sharing the restorative presence of God in our world?<br />Pray:<br />Dear Lord, <br />Help us to turn over and over again to your son Jesus who is the beauty maker, and as we do may make us instruments of restoration in your world.<br />In the words of St. Francis:<br />Lord, make us instruments of your peace.<br />Where there is hatred, let me sow love.<br />Where there is injury, pardon.<br />Where there is doubt, faith.<br />Where there is despair, hope.<br />Where there is darkness, light.<br />Where there is sadness, joy.<br /><br />Amen.<br /><br />Now Jade, Dan, and Lee… will lead us to Jesus through the table, the Jesus who is the beauty maker.Shigematsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04506027536055632197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11017326.post-6778664689024112592011-12-10T14:28:00.000-08:002011-12-10T14:29:25.917-08:00Christmas Concert Meditation(11Dec2011)Christmas Concert Meditation December 10-11, 2011<br />Thank you for joining us.<br />My name is Ken Shigematsu. I'm one of the pastors here.<br />The theme of our concert is journeys. We have been singing about the wise men following the star. <br />Have you ever wondered why the wise men set out to bring their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to this new born baby in the first place?<br />Sure, they saw the star and Ancient Near East court astronomers believe that stars announce the births of great kings.<br />But why did they set out such a long journey from modern-day Iran to Bethlehem, a distance about the same as Vancouver to Winnipeg – but without the benefit of the TransCanada Highway, a journey which on foot and camel may have take between 6 months and a year?<br />These were educated, successful, wealthy men—they had it all—probably not kings, but senior advisors to the kings. <br />Why did they set out on such a long trek?<br />Longing…<br />They had all that they could have possibly wanted and still there was an inexpressible, inconsolable longing deep within them. As deep as the stars in the sky… a longing for meaning…a longing for fulfillment…a longing for a blessed life and so they follow the star.<br />The Wise men, the wise men, as we read in Scripture bring the baby Jesus: gold, frankincense and myrrh, but the truth is they were looking for a treasure in him. They were looking for the one in the words of the famous Christmas carol in whom: “The hopes and fears of all the years are met.”<br />We all have longing for a treasure and we seek to follow some kind of star.<br />When I was a young boy living in London, England, I remember standing in the backyard of our home. I was standing on the patio beside a rusting red wagon fantasizing about finding an old treasure map left by pirates with a big X in the middle (Use prop.) that would lead me to a treasure chest filled with diamonds, rubies, pearls, and lots of gold coins—or maybe I just wanted to live in a world where adventure on the high seas was possible. <br />We go through life looking for some kind of treasure, seeking some “star to follow.”<br />For me as a young boy it was a Pirate’s treasure.<br />For our three-year-old son Joey – he recently unwrapped a Toys "R" Us flyer and began to flip through it in search of some treasure – a fire engine and an adventure of his own.<br /> We may call it by a different name. We may call it happiness, meaning, or significance. Aristotle said, “All people seek happiness. There are no exceptions.” (The word that he used in the Greek was which is often translated “happiness,” but can also be rendered “human flourishing” or translated literally “to be cared for by a benevolent deity.”) So, in Aristotle’s view we all seek happiness; we all seek to live a life of good fortune or blessedness.<br />Whether we believe in God or not, we seek happiness or significance--perhaps in sport, a special relationship,<br />As a young boy for me it the hope of finding a treasure left by pirates. As a somewhat older boy in high school treasure was accomplishing something in sport. As a teenager I was a big football fan and my hero was the quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers, Joe Montana. When our son was born, we named him Joe mostly after Joseph in the Bible, but also partly after Joe Montana.<br />When I had the unexpected opportunity to become starting quarterback on our high school football team – though it was just high school, at the time it was significant.<br />When I was in my twenties, I wanted to meet someone special and fall in love.<br />I felt really hard for someone. And here's a follow-up, I couldn't stop thinking about her. So you can iwise menne my happiness when we reconnected 10 years later. She asked, “Oh, Jeffrey right? From Berkeley.” “No, I’m Ken. From Canada.”<br />We didn't get off on the right foot, but ended up getting married.<br />We seek happiness or significance perhaps in sport or art, or in a special relationship, success at school and work, maybe a trip to an exotic, tropical place in the middle of the winter, maybe your dream car or even dream house. Perhaps that something brought you happiness initially, but then you got used to it, and you started looking for something else on the horizon to bring you happiness, or meaning, or real fulfillment.<br />The truth is that there is a part of the human soul that is so deep, so very deep, that nothing on this earth can fully satisfy us. We find ourselves searching.<br />Research conducted by Harvard psychologist professor Daniel Gilbert demonstrates time and time again we overestimate the amount of happiness we expect to receive from any given situation. We quickly get used to the new thing we thought would bring us happiness and it no longer gives us the same satisfaction.<br /><br />But, the Christmas story is not a story primarily about the Wise men’s journey for meaning, or even about our search for happiness. The Christmas story is about God’s journey for what he considers to be a treasure of priceless worth.<br />Jesus of Nazareth told a parable about a person who discovered a priceless pearl and then sold everything that he had to buy the pearl. The living God considers us a priceless pearl. On that very first Christmas he, in effect, sold everything that he had…<br />The Scriptures tells us that God left the glorious splendor of heaven—shrank himself down, way down to the size of a single fertilized egg, an ovum, entered into the womb of a peasant teenager. God was born into poverty—under the gaze and the steamy breath of the sheep and cattle in that stable and was placed in a pile of hay that had been placed in the cattle feeding trough. When God, who had become a human being, was 33 years old, he voluntarily died on a Roman cross for our sins so that we could be forgiven…so that we could have a new beginning…so that we could enjoy a life with God and become an instrument of God’s peace and justice in the world.<br />We are on a journey in search of happiness, significance, meaning, treasure, but God’s story—the Christmas story—is a story about his journey to find a treasure…and that treasure is us.<br />If we find in our heart a restless yearning for something more, we can find rest in the Christmas story because the Christmas story tells us that the only one who can satisfy the deepest part of our soul, the God who became a human being to know us, has come for us in Bethlehem, and he comes to us tonight and if we would like, we can receive this gift.<br />You are searching for the treasure, but the treasure has come to you.<br />If would like, you can pray these lines from one of our famous Christmas carols:<br /> O Holy Child of Bethlehem descend on us we pray, <br /> Cast out our sin and enter in, <br /> Be born in us today.Shigematsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04506027536055632197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11017326.post-80354497473697630182011-12-05T15:56:00.000-08:002011-12-05T15:57:52.270-08:00Simply Christmas(2011Dec04)Series: Advent M2 11 12 04<br />Title: Simply Christmas<br />Speaker: Ken Shigematsu with Randy Hamm<br />Text: Luke 2:1-16, 24<br />BIG IDEA: In contrast to our consumer culture, the Christmas story leads us to a simple life.<br />When I was a boy, one of my favourite TV programs was The Six Million Dollar Man. (Show image.) Steve Austin was an astronaut who experienced a malfunction in his rocket as it was launching…. He says “I've got a blowout, paper three, I can’t hold it, she's breaking up, she's breaking up…” He nearly died as a result of this accident. <br />In the opening narration we hear:<br />“Steve Austin, astronaut. A man barely alive. Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology. We have the capability to build the world's first bionic man. Steve Austin will be that man. Better than he was before. Better, stronger, faster.” <br /><br /> <br /><br />And back in that day they spent $6 million dollars rebuilding Steve’s legs, his right arm and one of his eyes so that he functioned in part like a robot. He could run up to 60 miles an hour. He could throw a football 150 yards with the flick of a wrist. His right eye was like a telescope.<br />As a boy, not only did I love that show, but from time to time I fantasized about having a bionic arm so that I could throw the football further and with more accuracy, or bionic legs so that as a receiver I could outrun the coverage. If I had the opportunity to design my own arm strength and speed, I would choose to be The Six Million Dollar Man, the bionic man.<br />If you had the opportunity to design your life, your strength, your appearance, your socio-economic status before you were born, how would you use that power? If you chose to come to earth as a guy, would you want to look like Brad Pitt (Show photo.) <br /> <br />Or as woman perhaps like Halle Berry (Show photo.)<br /><br /> <br />Would you want to have the net worth of someone like Bill Gates or Oprah Winfrey? <br />The one person in history who had the opportunity to design exactly what he would look like before he was born, and exactly what his net worth would be before he came into the world, was God, when he decided to become a human being in Jesus Christ.<br />The Scripture tells us in Isaiah 53 that Jesus Christ would have no beauty and nothing in his outward appearance that would make us want to be with him. We are also told that he had no majesty, no trappings of royalty…. no procession or carriage, like Prince William and Kate:<br /><br /> <br /><br />… that we would be drawn to him. In fact, quite the contrary. When God becomes a human being in Jesus Christ and decides to enter the world, he leaves behind the unimaginable splendor of heaven, shrinks himself down to the size of a singular fertilized egg, an ovum, and lodges himself in the womb of a peasant teenage girl named Mary. <br />We know from this story when God becomes a human being in Jesus Christ, he voluntarily chooses to be born into poverty. He chooses not to be born in a clean, private hospital room at BC Children's in 2011, nor even into a proper home, but according to Luke 2 he is born into a kind of stable under the steamy breath of the cattle and sheep. After he was delivered and his umbilical cord was cut, he doesn't have a proper crib so he's placed on a pile of straw, in a cattle feeding trough. <br />We know from the sacrifice that Mary and Joseph made at the temple after Jesus was born, when they offered “the pair of doves,” that they were offering something that was permissible only for the poorest of families. <br />So when the King of kings, the president of presidents, the prime minister of prime ministers, the God of the universe decides to become a human being, he moves from unimaginable splendor and wealth to poverty. He becomes human in the most dramatic of ways, like no-one else ever before or after him--he voluntarily plunges downward.<br />This why the Apostle Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 8:9<br />9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.<br />First Christmas is about God voluntarily becoming poor.<br />In sharp contrast to that, ironically so much of today’s Christmas is about consuming, about buying… accumulating. Not all of that is wrong. There can be a beauty in giving a thoughtful gift or expressing our gratitude to someone. <br />But the trajectory of the Christmas story, and the arc of the way of Christ, however, is one where we are called to move toward simplicity—toward a simple life: though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.<br />I know that the most famous and successful churches in North America like Lakewood Church in Houston pastored by Joel Osteen does many great things, but if you listen to him and some other mega church preachers who promote what is billed as “the health and wealth gospel,” you will hear that if you follow the way of Jesus, you are going to become more successful, more healthy, more wealthy. The health and wealth gospel is a very popular message if you are in North America, in Africa, and certain parts of the developing world, but it is not a biblical message. The Bible clearly shows us that God in becoming a human being chose the way of simplicity.<br />I have been powerfully impacted by the teaching of St. Ignatius of Loyola, a Spanish follower of Christ who lived in the 16th century and founded the Jesuits. St. Ignatius talked about the three degrees of humility. <br /><br />The first degree of humility: always obey the Word of God by living a life of integrity. As we saw last week when the angel Gabriel announced to Mary that she would become the mother of Jesus Christ, the mother of God, even though she knew that that decision as an unwed teenager would cause her to become mired in great scandal, as it would appear that she had been unfaithful to her fiancé Joseph, she simply replied, “Yes, may it be to me as you have said.”<br />In the first degree of humility we are called to say “yes” to God whenever he asks us of something, or asks us to do something, or to not do something.The first degree of humility means we would never do something that would cut us off from God.<br />The second degree of humility: be completely open to will of God. According to Ignatius, it is that when you are presented an option in life, you strive to be free in our spirit, completely open, in a sense indifferent or detached. We don’t want to lean heavily toward a particular option, but rather open to whatever life presents. So, we have a choice that would bring wealth or riches, honor or dishonor, long life or short life; we are just open to the will of God.<br />In the third degree of humility: choose the path of Christ, the most perfect way, according to Ignatius, where you consciously seek to follow in the footsteps of Christ. This is going to sound crazy and I certainly have not been able to embrace this in any significant kind of way, but Ignatius would say, “If you have the option between riches and poverty, between honor and dishonor, between a long life and a short life, lean toward the latter. Lean toward poverty; lean toward dishonor; lead toward a short life—because that was the way of Jesus.<br />Now, I know that sounds absolutely crazy and perhaps even sick to some, but for those who have chosen and have been open to this path, they have found a surprising freedom and joy. Even for me, and this may surprise you because I am a pastor, but as my wife and people who know me well are aware, I have always been an extremely competitive person in sport and in other areas of life. Ignatius’ three degrees of humility have freed me from my need to climb some kind of ladder of worldly success. I feel greater peace. I feel a real gift in that.<br />When we talk about moving toward a simple life in a way that is consistent with the true Christmas story--who though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich, and not the commercialized Christmas story, and the true trajectory of Jesus Christ, not the arc that is articulated by “health and wealth” preachers, it may sound crazy, but I believe that Jesus wants to show us a different way of life that is ultimately richer, more fulfilling, and deeply more satisfying.<br />When a monk enters a monastery, they take a vow of poverty and give away their worldly possessions to the order, to their family and friends outside the monastery. Some people think they have gone crazy. Others feel sorry for them. The monks themselves don’t see it that way at all. <br />James Martin, now a Jesuit priest, graduated from the prestigious Wharton School of Business and then worked in finance for General Electric. He describes his experience of entering into the Jesuit community as a novice and giving away his possessions:<br />My money and car went to my parents. My suits would sit in my parents’ house in case the novitiate didn’t work out. (I wasn’t taking any chances.) The rest of my clothes went to Goodwill Industries, which would distribute them to the poor. My books went to friends who dropped by one sultry afternoon to scour my bookshelves. "I wish more of my friends joined religious orders," said one friend….<br />[Writing more than 20 years later] I can still remember the initial burst of happiness I felt. How liberating it was! No more worrying about whether my suits were the proper shade of gray, my shoes the right brand, my ties the appropriate hue, no more worrying about whether I should rent an apartment or buy one. No more worrying about whether I needed a new this or a new that.<br />While most of us will not take formal vows of poverty like James Martin, we can also feel the joy that comes from simplifying our lives: by giving away what we don’t need (if I haven’t worn something in a year—as long as it’s still in good shape, I give it away to the Salvation Army. I love it.)<br />My older sister lives in the Silicon Valley near Stanford University. She and her husband are executives in a high tech firm. Since my sister was diagnosed with cancer a couple of years ago, she took chemo and radiation, and as far as we know she is in the clear, she has wanted to de-clutter her life. She recently sent me an e-mail and said that she had just got rid of bunch of stuff including a pile of CDs—and felt so good.<br />Part of the reason it can feel so right to de-clutter and simply our lives is because we will find that some of our material possessions not only do not bring us true lasting fulfillment, but in some cases can actually come between us and God. We may find ourselves joy uncluttering our lives so that we are spending less time and energy cleaning, maintaining, protecting, and worrying about our stuff so that more of us is available to God and others.<br />Randy Hamm, who for several years served as our pastor of small groups and for the last year or so has served as our pastor of family ministries, is a wonderful brother in Christ. We have so appreciated his loving spirit. His official pastoral ministry will come to an end at the end of this year. On December 18 we will take more time to honor him at all the public services.<br />Today I am going to invite him to come and talk a little bit about how he and his family have simplified their lives for Christmas. <br /><br />RANDY:<br />When I think of Christmas one image that comes to mind is the Bright Lights at Stanley Park – great event to raise money for the Firefighters Burn Fund – go support them. One year in the midst of bright lights, hot chocolate and crowds of people, we found a nativity. Most of the characters were there, but in random order – but there was no Jesus – not even a manger.<br />Perhaps you’ve felt like that – I know I have – when you get to the end of Christmas – lots happened but we’ve missed what is most important. As a family we make some intentional choices to focus in the gift of Christ with us at Christmas.<br />We are intentional about where and how we shop. Instead of going to the mall, with its relentless consumerist message and usually very cheesy Christmas music, we opt for the all homemade craft fair with a social justice bent to it. Or we go to fundraisers like the Living Waters auction where we get great gifts and the money goes to a cause we believe in. We’ll shop on Main Street, places we can walk or bike to. We challenge ourselves to get creative and make something – a painting, craft or woodwork. And sometimes we give the gift of time, with a coupon book of experiences or tickets for an event we can share with the person.<br />We love to consider who we are shopping for and give them something that to is meaningful to them. One year I had my dad and instead of just getting him another tie, or sweater or dvd to sit on the shelf, I found something in the world vision catalogue that caught my attention. A gift to someone who really needs it on behalf of your gift recipient. Have you seen these? Used them? My dad was a teacher – so I gave kids in Africa school books and all he got was a certificate thanking him. At first he was confused, then his eyes lit up. He loved it. (and probably loved not getting another sweater). You can even create your own wishlist online – go on and buy me goat! When I talked to my parents this week they mentioned how they donated a bamboo house for someone in Thailand as their gift to each other!<br />We also teach our kids about Christmas – including St. Nick – the real one and how he gave gifts to the poor – those who really needed it. That’s the spirit behind Santa. BTW Dec 6th is the day the church traditionally celebrates St Nick– so this is a great time to consider who you could give to so that you love all.<br />Easing up on the craziness of the Christmas schedule is another way we simplify. We do it so we can focus on relationships. Its not about how good the party is or how well we’ve decorated, its about the depth of relationship that happens.<br />A couple years ago I found out about Advent Conspiracy – a group of people that are fighting for the real message of Christmas. They teach us to spend less, give more and love all – as I’ve talked about, but they also encourage us to Worship Fully at Christmas. In Matther 6 Jesus said For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.<br />Yes – we love the parties, the gift giving, the music – we’ll watch the Grinch and Charlie Brown, we’ll go shopping. But that’s not where we want our hearts. That’s why we simplify – to keep our focus. Last week we pulled out our advent tree and began reading through the story of Scripture to remind us of why Jesus came. Daily we turn our thoughts to the gift of Christ and how we can help others. As a friend, husband and father – that’s what I want to remember this Christmas. When we come to Boxing Day – I want know that Jesus was front and center. That we’ve grown in relationship with Him and others.<br />So this Christmas – may you Spend Less, Give More, Love all and above all – Worship Fully.<br /><br />Show Advent Conspiracy video<br /><br />Simplifying our lives isn’t just something that makes our lives lighter and more joyful, but it really gives us an opportunity to bless others.<br />As Randy and the Advent Conspiracy put it, we can spend less, we can give more and worship fully.<br />Sarah, as some of you might remember, and her husband Ziggy were actively involved in Tenth while Ziggy was pursuing a master’s degree at Regent College. During that time, Sarah served on our office staff here at Tenth. One day we got talking and Sarah told me part of her life story.<br />She said that when she was 20 years old and a university student, she loved drinking wine at parties and boldly extolling the virtues of Nietzsche’s philosophy. And how secretly on the inside she was afraid of leading a meaningless, mediocre existence. So when she was invited to go on a mission trip to a very poor part of Nepal with a Christian mission called Operation Mobilization, she went. <br />Sarah said, “I was absolutely blown away by the generosity of the Nepalese people. They were destitute. They had no money, and yet they gave sacrificially to each other. But, when they had me over for dinner, they would always give their very best.”<br />At the end of the summer, Sarah met with the leaders of the mission. She had been so deeply moved and so profoundly touched by “the unbridled kindness and hospitality of the poor” in Nepal, she asked her leaders, “How can I express my gratitude for all that I have experienced this summer? I want this summer to be more than a fleeting experience, more than just another page in the photo album of a tourist.” One of the mission leaders said, “Why don’t you make a commitment to living simply, and to giving generously? Why don’t you assess what you will need to live on and then plan to give the rest away?” (This is a practice sometimes described as proportionate giving.)<br />Up to that point in her life, Sarah had been a student and had been giving 10% of her income away, but no more—a tithe—which for the Christian is the biblical starting point. ‘That felt painful,” Sarah said. Ziggy, who at the time had been a friend at university and is now her husband, said, “If our financial giving ever stops being painful, then we are not giving enough.” Though Sarah was just an undergraduate student at the time, she made a commitment to giving generously. She said, “Some years are more financially uncomfortable than others, but we find that we can always afford what we truly require. Every year regardless of our combined income, we’ve made an effort to increase our giving. To be sure that is always a little painful. Our goal is to give 80% of our income away. We’re not there yet, but last year we upped our giving by 5%.”<br />Knowing that Ziggy was a student and Sarah was working as receptionist at our church, and I knew how little she made, I asked, “How is that possible?” She said, “We dipped into our savings to give more to missions.”<br />Ziggy and Sarah would say, “Our commitment to simple living and to giving as generously as we can, sometimes in the moment feels a bit painful, but don’t feel sorry for us. We love this way of life.”<br />There is a purposefulness and a sense of joy in their lives that is apparent to all who know them. Again and again, Ziggy and Sarah have stepped out in faith. And they have testified how God has miraculously provided for them.<br />That, of course, is not just true for Ziggy and Sarah, and when people make a commitment to follow in the way of Jesus, to simplify their lives, to de-clutter, to give as generously as they can, there is a sense of adventure, a sense of gratitude and joy, and a sense that their life has is being used for a higher purpose. <br />For so many human beings we have a tendency to grasp and to hold on to what we have. But there is a beauty and a joy and an attractiveness in living simply and to giving generously.<br />Do you remember June 15 of last year? That morning I went bike riding with a friend here in Vancouver. His family has season’s tickets for our hockey team. We were riding on the morning when our Canucks would be playing in a historic game seven of the Stanley Cup Final. I asked him, “Are you going to the game tonight?” “No – I decided to give my tickets away [which people would have paid thousands of dollars for].” <br />Knowing he’s a hockey fan, I asked him, “Are you okay with that?” I thought he must have experienced a tinge of wistfulness, but he simply said, “I wanted to show kindness to this person… (The person isn’t a Christian. I want in some small way to demonstrate the way of the Gospel.) And so I was glad to get away the tickets…” and he beamed with joy.<br />There is joy in the way of Jesus: though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.<br />There is joy in simplifying our lives so that we can make others rich.<br />When we live this way, we will not experience a nativity scene without the Christ as Randy did at Stanley Park. <br />As simply Christmas, spend less, give more, and worship fully, and we will experience Christ at Christmas.<br /><br />Prayer:<br />9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.<br /><br /><br />SShigematsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04506027536055632197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11017326.post-51117826256140355492011-11-28T18:47:00.000-08:002011-11-28T18:49:11.236-08:00Connecting the Dots at Christmas(2011Nov27)Series: Advent M1 11 11 27<br />Title: Connecting the Dots at Christmas<br />Speaker: Ken Shigematsu<br />Text: Galatians 4:4; Luke 1:26-38<br />BIG IDEA: We are called to entrust ourselves to the sovereign story of God.<br />Haddon Robinson, a professor of mine at Gordon-Conwell Seminary, who spoke here several years ago, tells the story about a married woman from the mid-west who decided to take a trip on her own around the world. She was planning to fly from North America east to London, then to Paris, on to Rome, Vienna, and so on. When she got to London, she phoned home to ask how their dog Lucky was doing. Her husband said, “Lucky died.” The man’s wife started weeping, then got angry. “You thoughtless, insensitive brute! Why did you have to tell me Lucky is dead!” <br />Her husband said, “What was I supposed to tell you?” She said, “Well, you could have told me that Lucky was walking around on the roof. When I got to Paris, you could have told me that Lucky fell down from the roof. When I got to Rome, you could have said that Lucky is not feeling very well. And when I got to Vienna, you could have said, ‘Lucky died’.” Then his wife asked, “How is mother doing?” “She is on the roof.” The woman thought that her husband’s timing in telling her the news about her dog being dead was bad.<br />Have you ever felt that something in your life had bad timing? Or some person or circumstance entered your life at the wrong time?<br />Today marks the first Sunday of Advent. And I wonder if Mary, who would go on to become the mother of Jesus, ever thought that the timing of her pregnancy was bad. Some of our best biblical scholars say that Mary was probably only 14-15 years old when the angel Gabriel approached her to tell her that the Most High would come upon her and that she would become pregnant with the Christ, the Saviour of the world.<br />Malcolm Muggeridge has pointed out that if Mary had become pregnant today the baby inside her womb would likely not have been allowed to live and experience birth. Mary was a teenager when she got pregnant. She was poor. The father was unknown. All of these factors would have made Mary an obvious candidate for an abortion today. People now would say, “Mary, you cannot raise a child. You are a teenager. You have no money. You have no education. Stop talking about being impregnated by the Holy Spirit or you are going to get a one-way trip to the psychiatric ward.”<br />As Kristen Rumary pointed out in her wonderful sharing a couple of a weeks ago, when we together addressed the theme of being single and spiritual, because Mary lived in a much more traditional time, and for her to become pregnant during her betrothal period when it would have been considered scandalous for her to be perceived to having had sex during that period would have mired her in an avalanche of shame, and if the letter of the law was followed exactly, even the death penalty. To make matters worse, Mary’s pregnancy occurred during a massive Roman census which required the Jewish people to travel to their places of birth to register. Even a pregnant woman would be required to travel. So Mary, who was expecting a child, and Joseph were forced to travel to Bethlehem to register as part of the census.<br />That trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem would have been over 100 kilometers. It would have been a trip further than Vancouver to Whistler. Remember that is on foot, perhaps with the aid of a donkey.<br />You know the story in Bethlehem. Because there so many people crowded in the small town for the census, there was no room for them in any hotel or motel. They didn’t even have any friends or family with available floor space, and they were forced to find shelter in a cold cave, with the stench of the cattle and the sheep in their nostrils.<br />If we focus the lens of our camera on Mary alone, we can easily conclude that given her age, the fact that the census would force her as a pregnant woman to travel, the fact that she would find no suitable place to give birth once she got to Bethlehem, we can easily conclude that Mary’s pregnancy was ill-timed. Maybe at times Mary whispered, “God, are you sure about the timing of all this?”<br />Have you ever had an experience where you felt like saying, “God this is bad timing!”? When my friend Sam Rima who was staying with us last weekend sensed God calling him to attend seminary, he was in his early 20s, fairly recently married, without much money and no medical insurance and then three weeks before he was going to enroll seminary in Southern California where he and his wife new no one--his wife Sue announced, “I'm pregnant.” About three weeks before we were to leave for seminary, Sue found out she was pregnant! San cried, "How could you do this to me!!" Sue’s dad said to Sam, "Surely you won't be going down there now – you could probably get your old jobs back." Have you ever experienced something felt like bad timing?<br />As we focus the camera lens on Mary’s life, we could conclude from our human perspective that the timing was off. But when we read Galatians 4:4 and with the benefit of hindsight, we can understand: 4But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law (Galatians 4:4 KJV).<br />In the fullness of time, God sent forth his Son. What does the expression “fullness of time” mean? It means that there was a perfect time for Christ, the Saviour of the world, to be born. Learning from the beginning of time, if you scroll way back to the first book of the Bible, the Book of Genesis, God says to Adam and Eve, after they sinned in the Garden of Eden, “I am going to send you a Saviour.” Later in Genesis, Chapter 12, God approaches a Middle Eastern nomad named Abraham and tells him to leave his country, his relatives, everything that was familiar to him, and to go to a land that God would show him. God promised that through Abraham’s seed all the nations of the world would be blessed. The seed that God was referring to would be Jesus. God promised to one of Abraham’s great-great-great-great grandsons David that he would send a Saviour trhough his family line, and through the prophet Isaiah God promised that a Saviour would be born miraculously of a virgin. The prophet Micah foretold that the Messiah would be in Bethlehem.<br />From the very beginning of human history God had whispered that he would send someone who would fulfill “the hopes and dreams of all the years.” And God always knew when the fullness of time would be to send his Son, Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world.<br />As we look back from the perspective of history, we know that the timing of Jesus’ birth was perfect. It was the right time politically for Christ to be born. The Roman Empire in many ways was at its Zenith. The empire, of course, had many flaws. But it had some virtues too. One of its virtues was that it was fairly tolerant of other religions. The Roman Empire had conquered many different nations with people of different races and religions, and the Roman Empire for the most part was fairly tolerant of different religions as long as they would proclaim that Caesar was God. This worked for most of the ethnic groups, but there was one exception--the Jews. The Jews said, “We worship only Yahweh.” The Jews were so adamant about this that they would not change, even after decades of being intimidated and, in some cases, martyred. So the Roman Empire finally said, “We will grant an exemption for the Jewish people.” The Romans did not require the Jews to declare Caesar as God.<br />During this privileged position where they did not have to proclaim that Caesar is God, a freedom that was present at the time of Jesus’ birth, and was present in the world until the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, the Roman Empire did not force the Jewish people or the Christians (they assumed that Christianity and Judaism were the same thing), they did not force Christians to proclaim that Caesar was God.<br />In this environment of freedom, Christianity, for this and many other factors, spread like wildfire.<br />Jesus was born into a time of relative peace. When the emperor Julius Caesar was assassinated there was great civil war in the Roman Empire. As his reign closed and Caesar Augustus came to the throne, which was about 25 years before the birth of Christ, peace broke out throughout the Roman Empire and there was relative peace for the next 200 years. Because of this time of peace, the Roman men were not tied up in battles, so they were free to build roads throughout the Roman Empire. Travel was safe. People could travel with ease. Hence, the expression was coined: “All roads lead to Rome.” In this environment the gospel was free to spread to the known world.<br />It was also the right time culturally. Because of the time, conquests of Alexander the Great before Christ was born, 350 BCE, many people spoke Greek. Greek language and culture brought an element of cohesion to society. More people were being educated and more people than ever were able to read than ever before. So when the New Testament was written, it was written in Konie Greek, the language the majority of the people understand. Because it was culturally oriented, the message of Jesus spread more quickly.<br />And it was the right time spiritually--there was the spiritual openness. Greek philosophers like Socrates, Plato and Aristotle had done a wonderful job raising questions about the meaning of life. Some people say that Greek philosophies plowed the fields and Christianity came and sowed the seeds of meaning. <br />The average Roman citizen was tired of the same old religions. The mythological gods of Greece and Rome were losing their grip on many people. Everyone was hungry for something more. It was a time when people were longing for a relationship with God that was real, and more than just about keeping certain rules.<br />So we see in the Christmas story the perfect timing of God, that in the fullness of time God sent forth his Son. Some of us may say, “Well, that may be true of Jesus Christ, the unique Son of God, the Saviour of the world, but would that be true for me?” Would God's timing be perfect in my own life?<br />In Proverbs 16 vs. 1 we read: In human beings belong the plans of the heart, but from the LORD comes the proper answer of the tongue (Proverbs 16:1).<br />Then in verse 9: In their hearts human beings plan their course, but the LORD establishes their steps (Proverbs 16:9).<br />In Acts 17:26 we read: From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands (Acts 17:26).<br />This does not mean that our lives will be free of stress and suffering. As we just noted, Mary’s pregnancy as a poor, unwed teenager in a very traditional society would have brought great shame upon her, yet God was fulfilling his purpose in and through her. <br />For Jesus, the will of God meant going to the cross, serving as a sacrifice for our sins. And his destiny for us may be a cross as well, but as was true for Jesus God will create good out of it and find a way to bring glory to his name. We see this throughout Scripture.<br />In Genesis we read that Joseph’s brothers betrayed him and sold him into slavery. They told their father that Joseph had been killed by a wild beast. Joseph, who became a slave in Egypt, was unfairly accused for making a sexual advance toward the wife of his boss Potiphar and was thrown into prison. He was eventually released and worked with such wisdom and effectiveness that he became the prime minister of Egypt.<br />Then there was a great famine in the region. Joseph’s brothers went to Egypt to get food from Egypt. They ended up meeting with the prime minister, who was Joseph, but whom they did not recognize. When Joseph revealed himself to his brothers, and said, “Look! I am your brother,” his brothers were deathly afraid. They were terrified. They thought Joseph would have them all executed. But Joseph said to them:<br />4 Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come close to me.” When they had done so, he said, “I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! 5 And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you ( Genesis 45:4-5).<br />20 You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives (Genesis50:20). <br />In ways that we are not aware, God is guiding our lives.<br />If you read the book of Esther, even though the word “God” isn’t even mentioned once in this book of the Bible, we see God’s providential hand throughout. In a story similar to Joseph’s, Esther ended up being nominated and winning the Miss Persia contest. The king does not know that she is a Jew. Then one of the king’s evil pawns aspires to have all the Jewish people exterminated because one of them offends him. Esther as queen is urged by her uncle Mordecai to intervene and to plead on behalf of her people. And he says, “Who knows, perhaps you have been elevated to the position of queen for such a time as this.” <br />In ways that we may not be fully aware of, God is guiding our lives. As is true of Mary, as is true of Joseph and Esther, that doesn’t mean that we will be free of suffering, but it does mean that God is for us, even in the estranged and difficult times of our lives. As one pastor puts it, God is not just showing up after the trouble and cleaning it up, he is plotting the course of managing the troubles for far-reaching purposes, for our good and his glory.<br />It is a mystery how God uses our free choices to serve his eternal purposes. As esteemed theologian J. I. Packer puts it in his book, Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God: “The tension between our free choice and God’s sovereignty is a paradox and an apparent contradiction that our minds cannot fully comprehend.” Those of us who were raised in the West have a difficult time with paradoxes and seeming contradictions. But as people from Asia and developing world can fully appreciate, the Scriptures which affirm both-- as J. I. Packer puts it is an antinomy, a paradox, a seeming contradiction in terms. He points out that light has sometimes been observed as a "particle" and at other times as a "wave," yet we accept with this apparent paradox.<br />In God sovereignty gives us free choice and yet guides our lives to serve his purposes of history.<br />Last weekend as I mentioned my friend Sam Rima was staying at our house:<br />When Sam and Sue arrived in LA. Sue was hoping to work as a waitress (the only job she had ever had) to put them through seminary – not a promising prospect for someone who would soon be six months pregnant. They also were uninsured and realized that costs would likely be upwards of $7,000 in 1982. They were running out of money. It was during a recession and both of them had looked for over a month for work, but they received rejection after rejection. Sam says, “I remember Sue and I laying in one another's arms on our bed weeping uncontrollably...”<br /><br />The next week Sue was out looking for work again and after numerous rejections she sought refuge from the August 100 degree heat by stepping into the lobby of a Home Savings of America to enjoy the air conditioning (their car didn't have any) and get a drink of water. While at the drinking fountain an older gentleman asked if she was a customer of the bank and she said no. He asked, "Well what are you doing here then?" She explained her husband Sam had come down to attend Talbot Seminary, and just needed to get out of the heat. He introduced himself as Mr. Oney, a Regional Sr. Vice President of the bank and a member of the Talbot Seminary Board of Directors. He told Sue if she needed a job, he would find her a job. He took her back to an office and began making calls to branch managers throughout southern California. After a few calls, he said the downtown LA branch would give her a job if she wanted it (heart of downtown at 7th and Figeuro). The branch manager told Sue if "Mr. Oney wants you to have a job, you have a job!" On the way home Sue began leafing through the personnel packet they gave her to check out the insurance coverage that the bank’s insurance company was the only insurance company in southern California that covered pre-existing pregnancy 100% after a three month waiting period. <br />Here’s a picture of Sam and Sue their daughter Jill in the middle who is now an adult and mother herself…<br /><br /> <br /><br />Even if you don’t believe in personal God I believe God can still guide us.<br /><br />Steve Jobs didn't believe in a personal God, but believed that some good a powerful force was guiding his life:<br /> <br />In a graduation speech at Stanford he said:<br />“I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?<br />It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.<br />And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.<br />Let me give you one example:<br />Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.<br />None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it's likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.”<br />Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something.”<br />You have to trust something….<br />You have to trust something….<br /> <br />Why not trust in the living God?<br />God can even use world events to shape our individual story in powerful ways.<br />We see in this story of Mary, Joseph and Esther, and in the lives of countless people who have looked back thoughtfully over their lives, there is a force greater than ourselves, a personal being in the universe—God—who is shaping the course of history for our ultimate good and for the glory of God.<br />Paul says in Romans 8:28: And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. <br />Some of us want to be the general manager of the universe, or at least our universe. But, there is no way that our limited mind can do a better job than an all powerful God, who is running the universe. God calls us to do all that we can in our power, but then invites us to surrender or destiny to him.<br />Someone has said that when you come to the edge of all that you know, you must believe that there will be earth to stand on, or that you will be given wings to fly.<br />When the angel Gabriel came to Mary, though she knew her life would be severely disrupted forever and never the same, she simply said, “Yes, may it be as you have said.”<br />That’s what God is calling us to. He is calling us to say “yes” to him and “May it be as you have said.” <br />The reason that we can do this is because of the One that Mary would give birth to—Jesus Christ. When Jesus Christ was 33 years old, as a human being he died on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins so that we could be forgiven and reconciled to God.<br />The Apostle Paul says in the Book of Romans: He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all-- how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all the things?(Romans 8:32).<br />God’s will is being revealed to us very day, sometimes through a surprise, sometimes through an inner nudging, sometimes through an ordinary circumstance, And as we say “Yes! Yes! Yes!” to God, he will weave something beautiful in our lives.<br />I close with a prayer of Thomas Merton:<br />MY LORD GOD, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.Shigematsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04506027536055632197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11017326.post-81764242629770633292011-11-05T09:04:00.000-07:002011-11-05T09:05:38.708-07:00Singleness and Spirituality(11Nov2011)Series: Relationships M1 11 11 06 <br />Speakers: Ken Shigematsu and Kirsten Rumary<br />Title: Singleness and Spirituality<br />Text: 1 Corinthians 7:25-35<br />BIG IDEA: Singleness offers a vacancy in our heart for the Lord and a unique freedom to serve him.<br /><br />Connections Dinner announcement:<br /><br />Introduction<br />In an episode of the popular TV show Friends, a crotchety neighbour named Mr. Heckles dies and leaves everything “to the two noisy girls in the apartment above mine, Monica and Rachel.” (Show photo) <br /> <br />As his friends go through his apartment they find memorabilia that includes Heckles’ old high school yearbook. They find out that Heckles was the class clown, played the clarinet in the band and was extremely picky about the women he dated—just like Chandler. <br /> <br />show photo of Chandler (next photo) only if the video does not work<br /><br /> <br /><br />(USE PHOTO OF CHANDLER ONLY IF VIDEO DOESN’T WORK).<br /><br />Chandler goes into a personal crisis because he sees that Heckles’ finicky dating habits kept him alone all his life. Heckles had kept pictures of women he dated with comments about why he rejected them: “too tall,” “big gums,” “too smart,” “too loud,” “makes noise when she eats.” <br />“This is me!” Chandler exclaims. “This is what I do! I am going to end up alone, just like he did.” “Come on, Heckles was a nut case,” Joey reassures Chandler. “Our trains are on the same track. Okay?” Chandler responds. “Yeah, I am coming up 30 years behind him. All the stops are the same! Aloneville, Bittertown, Hermit Junction!” (show video) Chandler says, “And now I have to get a snake! I am going to be a lonely old man. I am going to need a thing! I’ll be the crazy man with the snake…crazy snakeman. And I’ll get more snakes and call them my babies. Kids won’t walk past my place. They will run away from crazy snakeman.” <br />For Chandler the worst that could possibly happen to him is to grow old and die alone.<br />While Chandler’s feelings are amusing to us because they are so extreme, many people resonate with his concerns. Am I going to die alone? What if I never find somebody or a community to become part of?<br />The Scriptures do NOT share Chandler’s feeling that being single is a catastrophe. In fact, the Scriptures, in the New Testament in particular, honour the single life. It is really clear from the teaching of the New Testament that we have the freedom to remain single. We have the freedom to marry if we have desire and the opportunity to do so. But we also have the freedom to choose stay single.<br />Many people in ancient Israel, who lived who lived in what we would call Old Testament part of the Bible, did not feel free to remain single. Singleness for them in a real way felt synonymous with death and extinction. But now through the teaching of Jesus the unique son of God on the reality of a world to come, we are now truly free to be married, but we are also truly free to choose singleness.<br />Most of the people at Tenth Church, like most of the people in Vancouver and most of the people in North America, as of a few years ago, according to the New York Times, are single. And for those of us here who are married, the chances are that one day we will be single again, either through a possible divorce as much as we would not want that to happen about half of all marriages end in divorce, or through the death of our spouse. Occasionally a couple dies at exactly the same time—plane crash—but that is rare. <br />Jesus clearly taught that in the world to come people will not be married to each other – there is only a marriage between God and his people. This is hard to hear for people who are happily married to hear. But in the world to come I won't be Sakiko's husband; she won’t be my wife – we will be married to God. According to the Scriptures, the most enduring relationships that we have are not husband and wife but as brother and sister – as siblings in Christ.<br />And so I believe this message on singleness and spirituality as we begin the three-week series on relationships has relevance for all of us.<br />If you married and/or if you have children, we would like to invite you to our conference two weekends from now with Paul and Virginia Friesen.<br />The New Testament not only affirms our freedom to remain single in a way that wasn’t as true in the Old Testament times, but ennobles the single life. When God became a human being in Jesus Christ, he chose to remain single. One of the greatest people of history, the Apostle Paul, was a single man.<br />If you have your Bibles, please turn to 1 Corinthians 7: 25:<br />25 Now about virgins: I have no command from the Lord, but I give a judgment as one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy. 26 Because of the present crisis, I think that it is good for a man to remain as he is. 27 Are you pledged to a woman? Do not seek to be released. Are you free from such a commitment? Do not look for a wife. 28 But if you do marry, you have not sinned; and if a virgin marries, she has not sinned. But those who marry will face many troubles in this life, and I want to spare you this. <br /> 29 What I mean, brothers and sisters, is that the time is short. From now on those who are married should live as if they were not; 30 those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; 31 those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away. <br /> 32 I would like you to be free from concern. An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord’s affairs—how he can please the Lord. 33 But a married man is concerned about the affairs of this world—how he can please his wife— 34 and his interests are divided. An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the Lord’s affairs: Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit. But a married woman is concerned about the affairs of this world—how she can please her husband. 35 I am saying this for your own good, not to restrict you, but that you may live in a right way in undivided devotion to the Lord.<br />In verse 25 when Paul talks about virgins, he is referring to single people who have not been married. In their culture, unlike ours, people, particularly women who were not married, were virgins (and this is why the term virgin and unmarried were used interchangeably Paul's world). <br />Paul prefaces his comments in verse 26 by talking about this present crisis. Paul, along with many Jewish people of his day, anticipated a time of great suffering. They expected the world, at least as they knew it, to end. And of course with the siege of Jerusalem in the year 70 A.D., the Roman army led by the future emperor Titus besieged and conquered the city of Jerusalem. The siege led to the destruction of the famous temple in Jerusalem.<br />In the light of this, and in times of great periods of suffering in general, for example in wartime, when it was very possible to lose your spouse and children, the same kind of bias toward singleness and not having children applies. That’s why Paul says, “Because of this present crisis I think that it is good if a man or a woman is single to remain as they are.” He counsels people, “In this present crisis do not look for a spouse.” But he also says in verse 28: “But if you do not marry, you have not sinned.”<br />Then in verse 32, Paul says:<br />An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord’s affairs—how he can please the Lord. 33 But a married man is concerned about the affairs of this world—how he can please his wife— 34 and his interests are divided. An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the Lord’s affairs: Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit. But a married woman is concerned about the affairs of this world—how she can please her husband. <br />Clearing Paul is honoring the choice people might make to remain single – particularly given the present crisis that was facing his world.<br />Choosing to remain single is an honorable choice before God.<br />During spring break in my first year of undergrad, I went on a mission trip to South Carolina. We were there to help build a school for some underprivileged children in the African-American part of the community. One night around the fire pit, I noticed how the pastor who was leading the mission trip, a person whom I really admired, was unable to interact with the students on the mission trip because he had to look after two of his toddlers who were with him on the trip. He obviously had to attend to them. I remember watching this and praying “Lord, if you want me to remain single, I am open to that. If this would be best, lead me in that direction. Or if you want me to be married but to not have any children of our own, please lead me in that direction.” I wasn't consciously thinking of First Corinthians 7 at the time, but I intuited that as a single person or as a person without children of my own I might be freer to serve the Lord. <br />I was briefly engaged in my late 20s, but we broke up – she didn't feel led to move our relationship toward marriage and I didn't feel I wanted to keep dating her. When I became pastor here is a single person, as you might imagine, I knew that it would be difficult and complicated to date given my role. This is still back in the mid-1990s when eHarmony didn't exist. So I thought well maybe I will be single. And though there were struggles at times of loneliness, there was also great freedom (freedom that I can more fully appreciate looking back).<br />Then I got married. Just over year into our marriage Sakiko became pregnant and experienced a pregnancy complication which made us think that it would be difficult for us to have a child. It was hard at first, but then we embraced what we thought was our destiny and enjoyed the intimacy and the freedom of a married couple without children.<br />(And then to our great surprise along came Joey. And while parenting is rich in its own way, who also lost some of the freedoms we had before and while our marriages blessed. We’ve missed some of the unique closeness that a couple can have when they don't have children or are empty-nesters).<br />And speaking as one who is happily married and grateful to be a parent, I can also see why certain people choose to remain single, or married but not have kids. There are gifts and those stations of life.<br />A woman from our community here at Tenth named Beth Allinger served as a single missionary in India and Nepal for nearly 40 years. She has shared with me personally but also in public settings how as a younger woman here in Vancouver she had several suitors – young man who wanted to marry her, but who didn't share her vision to serve the Lord in South Asia. So she chose to remain single.<br />John Stott was a very respected pastor in England who recently died. His writings, teaching and a couple of personal conversations with him have had a great impact on my life. John Stott remained single throughout his life. According to a friend who asked him about his singleness, Stott never felt a particular call to singleness, but he never felt called to be married either.<br />John Stott also said, “The liberty of singleness is that single people experience the great joy of being able to devote themselves, with concentration and without distraction, to the work of the LORD.”<br />Single people have a special freedom to serve God and other people in a much more focused way. So if you're single, are you using your freedom in this way?<br />As will be true in the life to come, single people now have a special vacancy in their heart for God. <br />I recently read a beautiful book entitled The Long Retreat by Andrew Krivak. (Show jacket cover and photo) <br /><br /> <br /><br /> <br />Andrew Krivak was a poet, and an ocean lifeguard, who felt led to pursue the long retreat of entering into a process to become a Catholic priest and to join the order of the Jesuits. Near the end of his 8-year training, rather inconveniently, but rather naturally and beautifully, while he was studying at a seminary in Boston, he met a young woman named Amelia who had recently completed her undergraduate degree at Harvard and to whom he became attracted, and she like Andrew was deeply devoted to God.<br />In his memoir he writes: “Maybe it was her willingness to listen. Maybe it was the fact that she was so cute, with her silky ponytail, green eyes and wide grin. I began to test caution and let myself feel the desire that I had for so long pushed down inside, a feeling that I was being handed something I was certain I had lost forever, a loss of my own making. I committed it to prayer every day.”<br />As their friendship grew through their cautious gestures of friendship, a mutual affection was clearly deepening. <br />One day they were sitting on a stone bench and Andrew asked the question, “What is this we are feeling? Is it love?” She breathed out a prayer-like sigh. “It is,” she said, “at least for me.” And they watched swans float like white schooners across the lake.<br />And one day as they were standing along the banks of the inky Charles River which runs along Harvard College, Andrew looked into the river, took a breath and said nothing. And then he said this: “I think I never believed that anyone could love me without one day walking away,” Andrew said, looking into the water. “Not because of any great trauma. I guess because of those collective moments we have all had. After enough time, priesthood seemed like the best guarantee.” Then he turned to her, “I belong to somewhere or to someone, and that someone would be God. Love would be my love to Christ and you have to admit it’s a pull that’s pretty compelling.” <br />We have the freedom to choose singleness.<br />If you are unmarried, or if you are married without children, in some cases those are chosen states. In other cases they are not voluntarily chosen but are the result of circumstances. My friend Catherine from seminary shared with that from the time she was a young girl she wanted to remain single, to not become a biological mother, so that like Mother Teresa every child could become her child.<br />But, there can be real disappointment around these circumstances for some single or married people without children who didn’t choose these stations in life. But these states, whether voluntary or not, also provide a freedom with which to love and to serve God and others.<br />It’s different if you have chosen that particular path versus being on that path through circumstance you have not. But as Jesus and Paul affirm there are unique freedoms and gifts on that path.<br />KIRSTEN RUMARY:<br />At this time I am going to invite Kirsten Rumary to come forward. Kirsten is a long-time member of the Tenth community and she is going to share part of her journey with us today.<br /><br />Singles Talk at Tenth – November 2011<br />My story:<br />_ Singleness <br />o Talk at Tenth on Freedom and Loneliness<br />_ Three years ago, I had the opportunity to speak on singleness here at Tenth. I had been thinking about the topic for a while, and decided to do a “survey” of other singles for fun, to find out what was the “best and worst” things about being single. After sorting through hundreds of replies, I distilled that the best thing single people enjoyed was freedom in all areas of life, and the worst thing was perceived loneliness. POWERPOINT. <br />_ So I decided to explore how Jesus dealt with the freedom and loneliness he would have known, being a single man in ancient peasant Hebrew society, and I spoke about how it helped me to embrace my singleness and the call to discipleship in a greater way - to choose to let Jesus' life inform HOW I live in my singleness. That is a pretty broad topic, there's so much more I could and did say three years ago, so if you'd enjoy reading that you can find it on Ken's Message Blog in the month of November 2008. <br />_ Today Ken has shared about the benefits of choosing singleness, I want to talk about my experience of NOT choosing it.<br /><br />_ Engagement <br />o Craig<br /> <br />_ Since that time three years ago, I started dating a man I had known for a number of years through work connections. I really liked him. He really liked me! The way he communicated his affection for me was so extravagant I felt like being a plant being watered – it affirmed me in a way I had never experienced in relationship to a man before.<br />_ Christmas of 2009 we got engaged, and the whirlwind of wedding planning and pre-marital counseling sessions began. Three months after our engagement, my fiancé and friend that I loved, panicked and broke off our engagement very suddenly with little warning (two phone calls in a 24-hour period), and then refused to speak to me. <br />_ As you can imagine, this sudden and unexpected break was a terrible shock. In trying to explain that time in my life, it was as though I was in a boxing ring and someone hit me with a knockout punch. For a while I was just down for the count, I couldn’t even get up, and thank God for my family and friends who rallied around me and loved and supported me until I could feel and believe that I was on firm enough footing again.<br /><br />_ Singleness <br />o This current undesired state of affairs<br />_ So here I find myself, a year-and-a-half later, in a position that not only did I not choose for myself but that I do not want to be in. This was NOT where I thought my life would be today. I’m supposed to be living in another country, doing work I love with someone I love, building a life together. The opportunity has been thrust upon me to think about my life and my singleness in an even deeper way (the same truths about freedom and loneliness and how Jesus' life informs how I choose to live still applies – but the questions I’m asking now are closer to my heart). <br /><br />_ Am I significant? Do I matter? <br /> <br />_ Am I lovable? The man who said he couldn’t imagine being with anyone but me, walked away from me - is there something wrong with me? <br />_ Would it make a difference if I decided to be with just anyone now, so that I wouldn't have to be alone? <br />o Transition:<br />_ Now, I realize my story is singular in that it’s an extreme situation that not everyone would have experienced, but I think it is universal in that at the core of it, many of us who are single find ourselves so without necessarily wanting to be there, and we are faced with some of the questions I’ve posed, among others<br />_ Even though New Testament writers (like Paul) commend the state of singleness, it would seem that few are called to a life of celibacy in the modern-day church. (Celibacy as defined as the calling to choose never to marry in order to devote one’s life to God, as opposed to the calling to all believers to abstinence while unmarried, according to the scriptures). So I would make that distinction.<br />_ So for those of us who are undesirably single, how do we embrace God’s call on our lives while single – not assuming we are called to singleness for life? <br />_ (I want to be clear about one thing - I’m not saying God broke up my engagement because His call is for me to be single. Sometimes circumstances of life ambush us and it can be difficult to understand why things happen. Well-meaning people can default to saying “you know, Kirsten maybe it’s just God’s will that you be single.” (Or that this or that happened to you) I don’t equate what happened as God’s will for my life. I think a decision was made out of fear that impacted my life and placed me in the situation I now find myself in.) <br /> <br />_ Tragedy happens. Disappointment happens. It’s not necessarily God’s will, but can I still choose to respond to him in the midst of this place I find myself in?<br />_ <br /><br />The Comfort of Mary’s Story<br />_ As I was thinking about speaking today, a friend suggested that I read the story of Mary, the mother of Jesus, and her experience of having her “life interrupted”. His words: go for coffee and “take time” with Mary. As I did that I found her story strangely comforting. <br /> 26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”<br /> 29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus.32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”<br /> 34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”<br /> 35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called[b] the Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. 37For no word from God will ever fail.”<br /> 38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.<br />_ Mary finds herself in these circumstances that are “strange and troubling”, enough so that the angel takes the time to reassure her.<br />_ Then the angel gives her this news about what is going to happen to her, this miraculous work of God. We have the advantage of looking back 2000 years and seeing the whole story of Jesus’ life and the outcome that we all benefit from, but for Mary in that moment, her life has just been interrupted with an invitation she didn’t ask for, with circumstances she couldn’t have foreseen, an interruption that would have had significant consequences for her life:<br /> <br />o Some she would have known<br />_ The social backlash to getting pregnant in the “betrothal period” (technically married for one year, but not yet having sex) – the cultural shame and potential punishment<br />_ Fiancé had the right to leave her and there was the possibility of severe punishment<br /><br />o Some she wouldn’t have known<br />_ Couldn’t have known they would have to flee for their lives when Herod ordered all babies under 2 to die<br />_ Couldn’t have known that she would watch her son die<br /><br /><br />_ Still, Mary chooses to open herself to the invitation to let God’s plan be carried out through her<br />o Opens up her emptiness (womb) to be filled by God <br />o Her choice to embrace the circumstances and possible consequences of this offer changes the whole world – mother of the Savior<br />o Her response to the angel seems so simple, but I can’t imagine that it was just a naïve response of a young girl who didn’t know better. This is what comforts me: that she chose a difficult thing for her own life that we get to know the wonderful outcome of. She didn’t run from the circumstances she found herself in, she didn’t curl up in fear and hide; she didn’t complain and worry and fret. She chose to be open. <br />_ In light of her response, I am wondering: can I be responsive to God’s call in my life as I find it now and be open to Him in the troubling circumstances I find myself in? This is not something I have perfected by any stretch of the imagination. I’m doing my best as I go.<br /> <br />_ 3 areas where I sense God calling to me right now are:<br />o Choosing a more intimate love-relationship with Him. <br />o Choosing what kind of work I will do in the second half of my life<br /> <br />o Choosing to build on the relationships I will have <br /><br />_ Choosing to build intimacy with him: I’ve been seeing a spiritual director, someone who is helping me to look/listen for God’s “movements” in my life, and how to be responsive to that movement. <br />o For example, I am a very tactile person, so she is teaching me how to respond physically when I sense God’s presence close to me by creating something with my hands. I'm not this fabulous artist, by any stretch, but there is something about using my hands that helps me feel like I am talking to God, just not using words, and I experience it as being very intimate between Him and I.<br /><br />_ I’ve also chosen to see a counselor to look at how the loss of my fiancé has affected me, so that my intimacy with God isn’t clouded or impeded by the trauma of that. Our experiences of hurt from the past can carry over into the way we relate to God, (if we perceive that God arbitrarily allowed the situation to happen or that it's His will that we only know loss), and I want to keep making sure that I don’t see God through that distorted lens of human hurt. <br />_ These two things are a means of building intimacy with him that are easier for me to devote my time to, because I am single <br /><br />_ In terms of my vocational calling, in light of the fact that I won’t have my own children and the legacy of a family, the value of what I choose to do is taking on an even greater importance to me. <br />_ This isn’t to say that married people don’t do valuable work or have that desire – but sometimes they don’t have the freedom because they have to take into account what their spouse wants to do and they have to provide for their children (my parents). <br />_ I have tremendous freedom to choose what I want to do and respond to God calling me to a particular kind of work.<br /><br /> <br />o For example, in the last year I got an offer to take a particular career path that would guarantee an increase in income, but I actually feel called to the work I'm doing now and it gives me the opportunity to contribute to others in a way that feels more significant. <br />o Again, if I had a family, I might not have as much freedom to choose in this way. <br /><br />_ Lastly, in choosing to build relationships, I can find that difficult or disappointing as an aging single person. I choose to be in a small group where I can grow and be challenged in my walk with God, and I do have a few close friendships, but I struggle with feeling my “aloneness”. I can get caught up in feeling that only a marriage relationship is going to meet my need to not be alone. How I see my relationships as a single person must shift or I am in danger of becoming embittered by what I don’t have. Any time I choose to live as a “have not” the enemy has access to tempt me to choose less than God’s best for me, to try to meet my needs outside of God’s provision for my life. (I think of Adam and Eve, and the enemy tempts them with the one thing they can’t have, making them feel as if they were “have nots”, that God was holding out on them). <br />_ I have to choose to build on what I do have, the relationships I do have, and not let bitterness and envy take over in my heart, or I'm in danger of becoming a bitter, shriveled-up old lady. God in His tenderness invites me to choose to come close to Him if I start to travel down "Bitterness Road" and let HIM water and affirm me.<br />_ I believe that for every single person here today, God is wanting to draw close to you and water you<br /><br />So In Closing – Come Back to the Angel’s First Words to Mary:<br />_ It’s significant that his first words are words of affirmation, reassurance, and then affirmation again<br /> <br />o We know that every human being needs to know the depth of their value – everyone here needs to know that they are prized possessions in the eyes of God.<br />o But I believe for the purposes of today's talk that the single people here need to know at a core gut-level, as people who stand alone, that they are "enough" and that they are "chosen". <br />o I have to know in my core that the answer to my question: “Am I lovable?” is YES. I have to own that YES from God alone. (My family and friends were a huge part of my recovery after the breakup - I felt their love in a very tangible way) but that deeper knowing of my worth must come in relationship to God alone or my tendency will be to find my core value, my identity, in other places in my life (like work and relationships to men)<br />o Before Mary hears anything about what is to come, she is affirmed, reassured, and affirmed again. Even Jesus at his baptism is affirmed by God, before scripture records him doing anything of great significance. If God felt it important to affirm Mary and Jesus, how much more would He know that I need to hear those words, know them in my gut, particularly if I am going to choose to follow him with integrity as a single person, and invite deeper intimacy with Him in these circumstances I didn't choose for my life. <br />PRAYERShigematsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04506027536055632197noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11017326.post-39098688541675927152011-10-14T16:14:00.000-07:002011-10-14T16:15:55.216-07:00Growing in the Belly of the Fish(2011Oct16)Series: Jonah’s Journey M3 11 10 16<br />Speaker: Ken Shigematsu<br />Title: Growing in the Belly of the Fish<br />Text: Jonah 2:1-3:6<br />BIG IDEA: Suffering in the belly of the whale can prepare us for our life work.<br />Ignatian seminary announcement.. we can learn from Catholics… Father Thomas Green… prayer, Scripture and imagination… in prayer.<br />One Halloween a mom came to the door of someone I know to trick or treat. Why didn't she send in her kid? Well, the weather's a little bad, she said; she was driving so he didn't have to walk in the mist.<br />But why not send him to the door? He had fallen asleep in the car, she said, so she didn't want him to have to wake up.<br />This person I know felt like saying, "Why don't you eat all his candy and get his stomach ache for him, too—then he can be completely protected!"<br />Some of us are part of a generation of adults called "helicopter parents," because we're constantly hovering over our kids ready to swoop into our kid's education, relations, sports life, etc., to make sure no one is mistreating them and no one is disappointing them. We want them to experience one unobstructed success after another.<br /><br /><br /> <br /><br /><br />Psychologist Jonathan Haidt had a hypothetical exercise: Imagine that you have a child, and for five minutes you're given a script of what will be that child's life. You get an eraser. You can edit it. You can take out whatever you want.<br />You read that your child will have a learning disability in grade school. Reading, which comes easily for some kids, will be difficult for yours.<br />In high school, your kid will make a great circle of friends, but then one of them will die of cancer.<br />After high school this child will actually get into the college they wanted to attend. While there, there will be a car crash, and your child will lose a leg and go through a difficult depression.<br />A few years later, your child will get a great job—then lose that job in an economic downturn.<br />Your child will get married, but then go through the grief of separation.<br />You get this script for your child's life and have five minutes to edit it.<br />What would you erase?<br />Wouldn't you want to take out all the stuff that would cause them pain?<br />If we could wave a magic wand and erase every failure, suffering, and pain—are we sure it would be a good idea? Would it cause our child to grow up to be a better, stronger, more generous person? Is it possible that in some way people actually need adversity, setback, maybe even something like trauma, to reach the fullest level of growth?<br />In order for us to prepare for our life calling, like Jonah some of us are going to have to spend some time in the belly of a whale. <br />We are in a series in the book of Jonah.<br />To recap the context, God has called the prophet Jonah to go to the Ninevites, the arch enemies of his people, to call them to turn from their violent ways and to seek the Living God. <br />But Jonah doesn’t want to go.<br />Jonah does not want to go because he does not want to fail in his preaching mission: he doesn’t want to be mocked and killed by the Ninevites. He doesn’t want to fail in his mission, but even more he doesn’t want to succeed. He does not want the Ninevites to respond favorably to the message and turn to God and experience God’s mercy, so instead of going east to Nineveh, he bolts west to Spain, the Hawaii of his day, he boards a ship, goes down into his cabin, and falls asleep. He ends up drifting into great storm. The sailors cast lots to see who is responsible for the storm, and the lots fall on Jonah. Jonah suggests they throw him into the sea to quell the storm. Reluctantly, the sailors do so. The raging sea grows calm. <br />The LORD provides a huge fish (Jonah 1:17) to swallow Jonah and Jonah is in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. <br />We read in (Jonah 2:1) that in his distress Jonah begin calling out to the LORD. From the deep and the realm of the dead he begins to cry out to God for help. <br />In verse 5 we read: “The engulfing waters threatened me, the deep surrounded me, seaweed was wrapped around my head.”<br />We read in verses7-8: “When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, LORD, and my prayer rose to you in your holy temple. <br />Then we read in Chapter 3: 1-6:<br />1 Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time: 2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.” <br /> 3 Jonah obeyed the word of the LORD and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it. 4 Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” 5 The Ninevites believed God. They declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth. <br /> 6 When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. <br />Chapter 3 begins with the words: “Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time: ‘Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.’ ” <br /><br />When Jonah was called the first time to go to the great city of Nineveh and to preach against it, as we saw, Jonah bolted the other way. Then after being thrown overboard and then after being swallowed by that great fish, the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time. He is told second time to “go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I gave you.’<br /><br />As we look at the book of Jonah, and as we look at the Scriptures at large, we see that God calls us on a mission. Jesus’ last words to his disciples were: <br />19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” <br />A major focus for many of us who live in a place like Vancouver and especially for those of us who are part of generation X or generation Y, also called the millennials, i.e., roughly speaking people who are 40 somethingish and younger, is to experience the cool “sensations” that come from mountain biking, rock climbing, and snowboarding. And there is nothing wrong with these things. I personally love being outdoors and sport. But part of what the story of Jonah tells us, part of what the entire Scripture tells us, is that we were made for something that’s bigger than simply “cool personal experiences”—whether in the outdoors, through music or art or entertainment or travel to exotic places which are all good things. But, we were made to take part in a mission from God of bringing his love and justice to the world--something bigger than ourselves.<br />Whether you know it or not, if your life becomes connected to God you will have something for which to give your life. Look at every person who drew near to God in Scripture: Abraham, Sarah, Joseph, Esther, Mary, John. God invited each of them to participate in a mission that was bigger than themselves to bring God’s light and love to the world, something worth giving their lives for. And we see in the book of Jonah that God gives his reluctant, rebellious prophet Jonah a mission bigger than himself—a call to go and preach to the people of Nineveh, one of the great cities of his day. <br />We see in the story of Jonah that God prepares Jonah for his life mission by allowing him to inhabit the belly of a great fish for three days and three nights. God allows Jonah to go to sink to the very heart of the sea (verse 6), literally the place of sheol, the place of the dead, and then to be swallowed by the great sea monster – that is to suffer – to prepare him for his life mission.<br />What are some areas in Jonah’s life that need to be transformed? <br />Jonah himself in the belly of the whale acknowledges that he needs to experience change.<br />In chapter 2, verse 8, Jonah says, Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit God’s love for them. The Hebrew word for “love” is the word hesed, which can be translated loyal love or grace. Jonah in saying “those who cling to worthless idols” forfeit the grace of God that could be theirs. Jonah here is really confessing here his own idolatries.<br />What were Jonah's idols?<br />One of Jonah's idols was professional success.<br />As I said a couple of weeks ago, Jonah was a prophet who was afraid of professional failure. God was calling Jonah to walk into one of the most dangerous cities of the world and to call the people to get on their knees and humble themselves before God. It would have been like asking a Jewish rabbi during World War II to go and preach to Hitler. The most likely outcome: Jonah is either mocked or killed. A prophet or a preacher does not want to go to a place where they are almost certain to fail professionally. <br />One of the places where many of us need to experience transformation is in our need, our vain selfish need, to succeed professionally. Now of course we can be motivated by noble reasons to succeed. We can be motivated to succeed to contribute to the world, to develop and fully use our talents and opportunities. But we can also be motivated to succeed professionally for vain or superficial reasons. We can be motivated to succeed so that we will become personally financially prosperous or to achieve validation in our own eyes or respect in the eyes of our parents or someone is important to us.<br />Nathan Hatch, the president of Wake Forest University, admitted what educators have seen for years. A disproportionate number of adults have been trying to cram into the fields of finance consulting, corporate law, and specialized medicine because of the high salaries and the aura of success that these professions now bring. “Students were doing so with little reference to the larger questions of meaning and purpose,” said Hatch. That is, they chose professions, not in answer to the question “what job helps people to flourish?” but “what job will help me to flourish?” As a result there is a high degree of frustration expressed over unfulfilling work. <br />There is something about suffering, something spending time in the belly of the whale, that gives us perspective and frees us of our vain and selfish need to succeed professionally. <br />Steve Jobs the founder of Apple who recently died said:<br /><br /> <br />When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.<br />He then of course contracted pancreatic cancer and said:<br />Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.<br />And Jonah was in the belly of that great fish and he realized that his utter nakedness—all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure –all of the professional idols to which he was clinging, fall away in the face of his death, leaving only what is truly important: God’s call to bring light and love to the world.<br />As we see in the story, Jonah was afraid of professional failure – of being mocked, of being killed. Spending three days in the belly of a great fish freed him from his fear of failure. It at least healed him enough… so that when the fish vomited him up on the beach and God called him to go preach to Nineveh, he was willing to do so.<br />A second reason that Jonah was reluctant to preach to the Ninevites was not that he was only afraid of failure, but he was also afraid of success. The Ninevites, the people of Assyria, were, as I said, the arch enemies of Israel. They were a cruel and violent people. The empire was already demanding a tax tribute from Israel, a kind of international protection money. The Ninevites were these violent, murderous people who showed off their violent prowess by using the skulls of their enemies as decorations in their homes. <br />Jonah hated the Ninevites. He felt racially, culturally, and morally superior to the Ninevites. Part of the reason that Jonah did not want to go to Nineveh is that Nineveh was full of Ninevites, people of a different race, different culture, different value system; people who value violence over compassion, power over mercy.<br />In Jonah 2:8 he refers to his idols.<br />One of Jonah's idols was professional success.<br />Another idol he had was his race and cultural identity.<br />In order for Jonah to be freed of his idol of race cultural identity, from his superiority complex, he himself needed to experience the radical mercy of God. <br />When Jonah runs from God, is tossed into the heart of the raging sea by the sailors and then is miraculously rescued by that great fish, he realizes in the belly of the great fish that while the Ninevites were violent murderers he is also a sinner. He has been running away from God’s call on his life to bring God's light and love to the world. He was racist. He had a superiority complex and God had been merciful to him by rescuing him with this fish, so he figures somewhere in that fish’s digestive tract “God has been merciful to me for my running from him, from my racism, why couldn’t God be merciful to the Ninevites for their violent and murderous ways?” and he’s willing to go. (and Jonah BTW was partially, not completely, healed, as we will see in two coming weeks… But healed enough to go to Nineveh.)<br />When we spend time in the belly of the whale, when we experience suffering and then the mercy of God in the midst of our suffering, we will, among other things, become more humble, more compassionate, and more loving, and therefore less racist, less classist, less sexist. <br />It is a hard thing for us to admit that from the time we were little children there is a part of us that finds it difficult to live with ourselves the way we are, and so we need to make ourselves feel better by thinking of ourselves as superior to at least some of the people on the planet-- kids can be kind, kids can also be cruel to their peers, putting them down. It's hard for us to admit this, but from the time we were little we have had the psychological need to look down on someone. And all of us do this to some degree. In Jonah we see this prophet who feels better about himself as he sees himself as racially and culturally and morally superior to the Ninevites.<br />But, looking down on others because of your race or their race is just one way to make you feel better about yourself. If you are not particularly racist, you may feel better than people who are obviously racist (that racist redneck). If you are well-to-do, you may look down on people who are poor and see them as being lazy and irresponsible. If you are poor, you may look down on people who are rich and see them as arrogant and oppressive. If you are liberal, you may look down on people who are conservative. If you are conservative, you may look down on people who are liberal. If you are educated and cultured, you may look down on people who are into popular culture. If you are into popular culture, you may look down on people who are into high culture as snobs. <br />As Canadians we’re likely too polite to say it out loud, but each of us here probably looks down on someone or on a particular group of people.<br />And when we look down on a person, we can justify, if not putting them down outright, at least quietly despising them or ignoring them.<br />The Bible says that when we realize our true condition as spiritual failures before God and receive the undeserved favour of God or grace, we can be healed of our racism, of our classism, our sexism, our sense of superiority, whatever form that may take, when we realize, like Jonah, that the only reason that we have been received by God is because of his sheer mercy and grace, we will deeply humbled and healed of our any sense of superiority we might we have..<br />Sometimes God comes to us through a storm and allows us to spend time in the belly of the whale, a place of darkness, a place of suffering, a place with seaweed wrapped around our head, so that we recognize God’s extraordinary grace in delivering us. And in the belly of the fish we recognize his grace and we can be healed of our need to succeed for selfish reasons and of our attitudes of superiority.<br />Let me clarify. God may allow you to go through some kind of suffering, perhaps through no direct fault of your own, like the sailors on board who suffered through the storm because of Jonah’s disobedience. You too may suffer as a kind of innocent bystander because of someone else’s sin or just because of just the radioactivity of sin in the world.<br />The question is: How will you respond to suffering? Will you allow suffering to humble you and awaken you afresh to God’s grace? Or will you allow your suffering to make you bitter? Will you allow your suffering to make you a deeper person? Or will you allow suffering to make you a more superficial person by denying your suffering and trying to mask it with an addiction? Will you allow your suffering to make you more sympathetic of to the suffering of others, to make you turn inward and become self-absorbed? Will you make your suffering prepare you for you for your life mission, or disqualify you? <br />Sometimes when God wants to prepare us for our life mission, he allows us to go through suffering so we go on our mission to bring God’s light and love to the world humbly, without a sense that we are the Saviour, just someone who re-presents him. As God allows us to be humbled, don’t go with the sense that we are doing this world a big favour; so that we don’t go on our mission with a patronizing, paternalistic attitude, but so that we go humbly, just as one beggar telling another beggar where we found bread.<br />God is calls us to something bigger than ourselves and he prepares us through the belly of the whale. Even if suffering, as was true in Jonah’s case, comes from our failure, God can prepare us by allowing us to become humble through failure and more dependent.<br />The word of the LORD comes to Jonah a second time telling him to preach to the people of Nineveh. God had asked Jonah already to preach to the people of Nineveh and Jonah said no and ran the other way. He boarded a boat and heads for Spain, the Hawaii of his day, and sails into a storm, almost drowns at sea, but God saved him with a great fish and gives him a second chance. And God asks him again to go to Nineveh.<br />A word caution here. There are times when it seems that God does not give everyone a second chance, but there are times when we read of people in the Bible who disobey him and the door is closed. But, the over-riding nature of God is to give people second, third, fourth chances. The Bible tells us in Psalm 103 that God is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. I am not encouraging us to presume on the patience and grace of God. It is dangerous to ever willfully disobey God, but if we have disobeyed him and wondered about God’s will for our life, we can take hope in the Jonah story because God forgives him for disobeying his call to Nineveh the first time, and he gives him a second chance through this failure. As I said, when Jonah sailed into that storm, and was then thrown into the heart of a raging sea, and miraculously saved as God provided a great fish to swallow him, Jonah recognizes that he has been running from God. He realized that he too was a sinner who had received the mercy of God. And if he had received the mercy of God for running from God, for not being willing to preach to the Ninevites because of his racism and sense of cultural superiority toward them, he figured, “Well, then God can be merciful and compassionate toward the people of Nineveh in spite of their violence.”<br />And it may well be that part of the way that God prepares us for our life mission is by giving us a new sense of God’s favour by forgiving us of our past failure. If we have chosen to disobey, there is something about failure and grace that can prepare us for God’s mission.<br />When I was in seminary in Boston, I was able to get to know a pastor of a nearby church. This pastor in years gone by had a reputation for being gifted, but rather pretentious and arrogant. This person went on to become president of a very well-known Christian organization. Shortly after becoming president, it was disclosed that he had a brief sexual affair and was forced to resign.<br />It was some years after this that I got to know this man. One day over breakfast with him outside of Boston, I said, “You seem really capable and confident. Is there anything you are afraid of?” And he said, “You are looking at a man who destroyed the ministry opportunity that God gave him. He had no-one to blame, but himself. But after I had sinned and God in his grace allowed me to come back to him and receive his forgiveness and after some time away from ministry, God allowed me to enter into his work again. I have a deep, deep, deep sense of tenderness and gratitude. And I fear that I will lose that one day.”<br />I didn’t know this man before his failure. I believe that his ministry, while less well-known now than before his fall, is humbler, deeper and more powerful than ever before.<br />George Verwer, a respected missions leader and the founder of a worldwide mission called Operation Mobilization, who spoke here a some years ago at Tenth, has said that God can use failure as a backdoor to real success.<br />While my failures, by God’s mercy, have not been as dramatic as my friend’s in New England, there have been times when my vision has been blurred and when I have been vulnerable and tempted and experienced failure. Some years ago there was a season when I questioned whether I really had the character to be a minister of the Gospel. I went to see an old man who had the reputation of being very wise and very candid. I said to him very frankly, “In my past there have been some boundary violations.” I was very explicit about this. I said, “I can see myself working for a corporation and pursuing a career in journalism as my father did, and given my theological framework, I don’t see working for a corporation or in the media as being any way inferior to being a church minister.” This wise person said, “It may be that your life is prophetic in some way and it may be that you are called to pastor a church where people have failed in some way but are welcome. A pastor for those who are broken will find healing. It may be that God will use your past to prepare your way for your future.”<br />This may be true in your unique call in your life, as well. Through your weakness or vulnerability, or even maybe through the failure, or maybe just because of some suffering you’ve faced may become the pipeline that God uses to bring his life and love to the world.<br />Even when you feel like you failed, or have been crushed by life circumstances, or as good as dead – in the belly of a whale… God has a way of coming to us in raising us from the dead as he did for Jonah. See Jonah was not only an instrument of God's life, he was a recipient of God's life and love as well. And God wants to use you not only as an instrument of his life in love in the world, but wants you to be a recipient of his life. So if you feel like you failed, feel like you have died in some way, God can raise you from the dead.<br />God is in that business. When Jesus was asked by the Pharisees to give them a sign that he was the unique son of God, Jesus said, “The only sign you'll get is the sign of Jonah. I will die and three days later God will raise me from the dead.” God is in the business of taking that which is dead, and lifeless and considered worthless to the world and raising it to new life and to new purpose.<br />If you are a kind of helicopter parent simply fretting over how things are going for a family member or loved one, know that he can use that person suffering and even their failures and redeem them for his purposes.<br />And God can use your failure or our sufferings to prepare you for some new life and new purpose, so we more fully radiate his light and love in the world.<br />The God of Jonah saved Jonah, the God who raised Jesus from the dead, can take the broken glass of your life, the broken pieces of clay and make it into a beautiful mosaic for the world.<br />Will you let him do that?Shigematsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04506027536055632197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11017326.post-17787696334822551392011-10-04T10:07:00.000-07:002011-10-04T10:09:20.679-07:00Forgiving Others at Work(2011Sep 18)Series: Thank God It’s Monday! M3 11 09 18<br />Speakers: Ken Shigematsu and David Bentall<br />Title: Forgiving Others at Work<br />Text: Colossians 3:13<br />13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.<br />BIG IDEA: When we realize that we have been forgiven by Christ, we can be people who forgive others in our workplace.<br />(Connections Dinner announcement with slide)<br />Once in a while I am asked by someone who is considering entering vocational Christian ministry, or someone who is just curious, what it is like to work as a pastor?<br />I always say that being a pastor is like playing a contact sport. If you are called to it, it is the greatest thing. It can be fun and fulfilling, but you are also going to get hurt. You might notice that sometimes I walk with a bit of a limp. I might say, “I was driving through the paint trying to get to basket to the hoop, I drew lots of contact... getting hit, falling to the floor. Several times I sustained torn ankle ligaments.” Or I may say, “Look at my nose. It is crooked.” In Grade 10… I was playing quarterback, got hit hard and my helmet protective bar went right through my nose.<br />Pastoring is great, but like basketball or football, you are going to get hurt.<br />I would say the same thing about work, in general. Work is great. Work is a gift from God, first given to Adam and Eve before the curses of sin and their radioactive effects of sin came into the world. But when Adam and Eve did sin and fall away from God, as we see in the book of Genesis, everything in the world, even work, was compromised by the radioactive effects of sin. It became harder to farm the ground. Thorns and thistles started to grow. We find that sin and its effects pollute our work: computer servers crash, we get SPAM, there is office politics, gossip, we may get looked for a promotion, we may experience betrayal at work.<br />Studs Terkel, in his book Working, wrote in the introduction: “This book, being about work, is by its very nature about violence---to the spirit, as well as the body.” And though his book Working written in the 70s is somewhat dated, many people today experience work as being violent to their mind, body, and spirit. If you pursue a working life, whether in a business, school, hospital or even some kind of church or Christian organization, you are going to get hurt somewhere along the way. <br />When we are hurt, it is good to acknowledge our anger, to grieve and at times be willing to confront the person who hurt us, but we are also called to walk the road of forgiving others. <br />Those of us who belong to Christ have been given unique, powerful resources to forgive others. As we read about Jesus and his ministries in the gospels, we see that he faces increasingly threatening attacks and ultimately is crucified on the Roman cross. He is killed by human beings and yet, in spite of our unjust judgment of him, Jesus absorbs our sin and evil without passing them on. We are called to walk in the footsteps of Jesus. <br />In Colossians 3:13:<br />13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.<br />It is out of the experience of being forgiven by Christ that we ourselves are forgiven and we are to forgive others.<br /><br />At this time I am going to invite David Bentall to come and speak. <br />David and his wife Alison worship with us from time and time at our third service. If his name rings a bell, it is because his family company, as he will share, built the Bentall high rises which are in the heart of the financial district here in Vancouver. They also built what is now called Rogers Arena, the home for our Canucks. <br />He will be sharing more of his work and life experience so without any further delay let me invite David forward.<br />David Bentall:<br />As Ken mentioned, work is a contact sport, and people can get badly hurt on the job. Not the usual physical kind of injury, but the emotional, relational kind of hurt. Unfortunately, I have often been hurt in sport, as well as at work.<br />When I attended Magee High School, and then again while I was at UBC, I had the extraordinary privilege of playing on two championship rugby teams. I know, from first- hand experience, rugby is certainly a contact sport. With the Rugby World Cup now on, some of you may have already been reminded of how physical a game it is. A lot of people think that those of us who play the game are actually crazy. <br />During my many years playing the game, I broke my nose five times. All of our kids think it's pretty funny that this happened repeatedly. However, I have explained to them that I actually never broke my nose, but rather it was other people who broke my nose. Regardless, it really hurt. While touring in Japan, I received 7 stitches to close a gash in my forehead, and 7 more to patch up a cut above my right eye. During my playing career, I also suffered a separated shoulder, and a torn medial collateral ligament, that put me in a cast from my ankle to my hip. By most rugby players standards, I was relatively injury free.<br />However, in my work experience, I have been hurt much worse than anything that ever happened to me on the rugby pitch. Please permit me to explain.<br />I will share two stories from my life to illustrate this: one from our family company and the other from my experience working with the Olympic bid committee.<br />My grandfather owned, and for 40 years was president of Dominion Construction. The firm was once referred to in a magazine article as “the company that built Vancouver”. My dad worked for the firm for 50 years, and was the driving force behind the development of The Bentall Center, in downtown. The idea that I might follow them, and work in the family business was first discussed when I was in grade 5. Dad came into the den, and told me to turn off the TV and to do my homework. I said, “Dad, I'm watching Casper the friendly ghost. Leave me alone.” My dad didn't threaten to spank me, or to take away my allowance. Instead he simply said, “Son, turn off the TV, you can't be president unless you do your homework.” Beginning that day it was just assumed that I would spend my working life with our company.<br />For four decades my dad worked closely with my uncle Bob in the business. Sadly, in the end, they had a very bitter falling out. I was caught squarely in the middle of the crossfire. As a result, both my dad and I found ourselves involuntarily on the outside, looking in. It was a tragically painful experience for my dad, and a traumatic one for me.<br />After completing a degree in urban economics, I had joined the family firm straight out of university. I then worked in virtually every division of the company, and in essentially every geographic region. Over the next 10 years, I worked hard preparing to succeed my uncle as president. Then, all hell broke loose, to put it bluntly! I felt like the rug had been pulled out from under me. My career with our company was arbitrarily cut short, and the financial picture for our family was permanently altered in a very negative way.<br />A business executive who is very close to the situation watched with interest, as I was surgically removed from our family enterprise. Seven years later when we met for the first time, he explained that he'd been looking forward to meeting me for a long time. I asked him why. He said that he was there when they were plotting everything that they did to me. He said that I must be a very special person, and my faith must be very special, because I'm the only person he knows who would not have committed suicide based on what happened.<br /> I don't think I'm special, nor do I think my faith is special. However, had it not been for God's sustaining strength, I think I might not have made it through. During this horrifically painful time, my career, my life my identity and my self-esteem were in tatters. I often felt despair over what was going on. No matter what I did, I seemed powerless to fix the situation. Like an animal caught in a trap, the more I tried to wriggle free, the worse the jaws of futility tightened around me. <br />However, during this time, God's presence in my life made a significant difference. In spite of the bleak circumstances, I never lost hope. I had trusted God with my life, and I knew, somehow, someday, God would deliver me from the pain, and that there would come a better day. In addition, as I asked God to show me where I had gone wrong, I learned a very powerful lesson.<br />When I was born, I think God blessed me with a good mind. A mind capable of critical thinking. This was helpful for me, as it is for any leader, because a critical mind is necessary to enable us to make good decisions. However, what I discovered during this challenging time was that right beside a critical mind, lives a critical spirit.<br />Unfortunately, as a young man, I was so confident in my own opinions, that I became a harsh critic of those around me, and in particular my uncle, who was our company president. No wonder the company leadership decided they needed to get rid of a loose cannon like me. Bentall Real Estate Services has over 1000 employees across North America, with over $17 billion in assets under administration. I aspired to lead that enterprise, and in fact, I would have given my life for the place. However, because of my critical spirit, I forfeited my opportunity<br />Clearly, I am still disappointed that I made a mess of things. However, I'm grateful that God helped me to learn from the experience. Rather than blaming those who radically altered my career, God helped me to realize that I needed to go and ask them for their forgiveness.<br />As CS Lewis wryly observed, “Everyone says forgiveness is a lovely idea, until they have something to forgive.”<br />He was right. Forgiveness is not easy, because In order to forgive we need to let go of stuff. This may include letting go of our rights, or maybe our need to be right. In some circumstances we may need to let go of our desire for pay back, or revenge. One of my mentors, who I worked for in Toronto, was an advocate of finding ways to “get” those who had crossed him. He was fond of saying: Don’t get mad, just get even. I suppose, in a way, this may be an effective strategy for dealing with anger….but it’s not God’s way.<br />Here are some things I learned from this painful experience:<br /><br />1) We ought to be forgiving towards others, in light of our own failings. In other words, we should forgive, because we ourselves are in need of forgiveness. <br />We are reminded of this every time we say the Lord’s prayer for we are asking God to… “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors “ (Matthew 6:12).<br />2) We should abandon trying to figure everything out. We don’t know what the future holds, and so rather than trying to imagine how God will bring justice, we should trust our Heavenly Father for our circumstances. In the words of Proverbs Chapter 3 ( verses 5&6 ) we are invited to trust God “with our whole heart, and lean not on our own understanding.” In essence, we should quit trying to be God, and let Him look after things.<br />3) Finally, we would do well to focus on how we need to change and grow, rather than focusing on other people’s faults. Put another way, we should focus on our own imperfections as our first priority. Jesus stated this bluntly when he asked the question: “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye, and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? “ ( Matthew 7: 3) Frankly, I think most of us assume that the other person is the one with the plank, and so we often fail to honestly examine our own failings and shortcomings.<br /><br />Instead of holding on to our hurts, God wants us to place them at His feet, and let go of the wrongs that have been done to us. In short, to forgive. Then He wants us to trust Him to bring justice, in His own way, and in His own time. Finally, he wants us to focus on our own imperfections and seek to become more loving…… “better people, instead of bitter people.”<br />I think Abraham Lincoln must have understood much of this, because his response to his enemies was remarkable. Apparently, during his presidency, when perhaps half of the population of the country disagreed with his leadership, he received a lot of hate mail. In response, he wrote a letter of rebuttal to every critic. He then put each letter in the top drawer of his desk, never to be mailed. Likely this was cathartic. But more importantly, this legendary leader didn’t lash out in anger, instead he let things go! <br />(I assume that he was trusting God, in prayer, to deal with things in His own way, in His own time. )<br />As I have endeavoured to walk the path of forgiveness, I have been freed from bitterness. In addition, much to my amazement, God has taken all the pain and disappointment in my career, and is now allowing me to use these experiences to help others. Over the past 10 years, it has been my privilege to assist well over 50 other families in business, as they seek to manage the interface between business and family. I also routinely teach workshops and courses on the subject. In a sense, God has redeemed all those seemingly lost years, and as a result, I have been prepared to serve others<br />As I have explained, my pain and disappointment were almost more than a person could bear. However, others have had much more difficult challenges than I, and yet have been able to forgive.<br />Consider for a moment, Miroslav Volf. He is a theologian who teaches at Yale Divinity School. His thinking about love and forgiveness was forged in the crucible of Serbian and Croatian violence in his country of origin. His parents modeled for him, and for all of us, what forgiveness looks like, when they had to come to terms with the death of his sibling. At age 6, Miroslav’s little brother was killed, apparently by the carelessness of a Croatian soldier who was playing with him. He states….My parents “ just forgave him. Everything in you cries for justice, for revenge, yet somehow, in the deep recesses of your soul, a soul that was shaped by what God has done for us, you have the strength to forgive.”<br />He then goes on to say: “If I say I forgive you, I have implicitly said that you have done something wrong to me. But what forgiveness is, at its heart, is both saying that justice has been violated, and…” yet…”I release the offender from what the justice would demand to be done.”<br />No matter what challenges we may face at work, surely it is less difficult to forgive than the death of a child. I have not suffered like this, and I pray that I never will. However, I did have another challenging work experience after leaving the family business, which called on me to learn again the hard lessons of forgiveness.<br />In 1998, I received a phone call from the Chair of the 2010 Olympic bid committee, Arthur Griffiths. I first got to know Arthur when we were building GM Place ( now Rogers Arena ) for his company. Arthur asked if I could assist him in working on the domestic bid for the Olympics. Having just left the family business, I was on sabbatical, and therefore had the time to help out. Initially, there were just four of us working on this; Johnny Johnson, Bruce MacMillan, Arthur and myself. It was my privilege to be responsible for all the venue planning and budgeting. It was great fun to dream about where we should have each of the events, and my background in real estate and construction enabled me to pull together preliminary plans and estimates for all of the new building that would be required.<br />As we prepared to make a presentation to the Canadian Olympic Association, we were faced with stiff competition from the cities of Calgary and Québec. Calgary had already hosted the games once before, and therefore had experience and a solid track record. The city of Québec, was a well-known international destination, with a world renowned reputation for the arts and culture. These were important factors the IOC traditionally considered in the selection process.<br />In order to win the support of the COA, we needed to secure the majority of their 76 voting delegates. Along with Johnny Johnson, I volunteered, with no remuneration, to crisscross the country making presentations to various sport organizations, each of whom had a vote. In addition to the winter sports, we met with numerous other groups, including representatives for baseball, gymnastics, track and field, etc. It was an exhilarating time, and although I was originally quite sceptical, I gradually became more convinced that Arthur's dream might actually be achievable.<br />When the big day came, to present our bid in person, Glen Clark, our premier, and Ian Waddell, our Minister of tourism, travelled with us to Toronto to make the pitch. Former Olympians Steve Podborski and Silken Laumann also joined us. My job was to present the heart of our bid, including both the expected costs and revenues. Regardless of whether you're in favour of the Olympics or not, you have to admit it was an honour and a privilege to be at the center of this historic delegation.<br /><br />On the first ballot, we squeaked by Calgary, by just two votes. Quebec had the most. However, on the second ballot, most of Calgary’s support swung to us. Consequently, we obtained the endorsement of the COA, by a slim majority. In hindsight, I think it is fair to say that those 30 presentations, which I had made as a volunteer, likely had an impact in helping us to get those two decisive votes.<br /><br />Alison, and our four children sat in the front row, part of the crowd gathered at the Robson Square Media Center, when we received the exciting news. I was euphoric. Having overcome this first major hurdle, we were quite confident that we could ultimately obtain the support of the IOC to bring the2010 games to Vancouver.<br /><br />Shortly thereafter, Arthur Griffiths recommended to the board of directors, that I be hired to be the CEO of the bid corporation, to lead the international bid. However, because this was a public endeavour, the selection of the CEO needed to be a public process. Consequently, applications were submitted by executives from all across the country, and I was just one of 100 people who applied for the job. The selection committee created a long list of 50, then a shortlist of 12. Finally, five of us were interviewed. I came in second, when they chose someone else for the top job.<br />Soon, much to my astonishment, Arthur was removed from the board of directors, and someone else was appointed Chair. Johnny Johnson was no longer responsible for sport liaison, and Bruce MacMillan, who had worked full-time for over a year preparing our bid book, was also shunted aside. None of us were asked to be involved in any way, and we were all deeply hurt. In fact, the four of us felt a bit like soldiers who had captured the hill, planted the flag, and then when the reinforcements arrived, they took the flag, and shot us all. <br />As we sat on the sidelines, nursing our wounds, others took over, and led the initiative which ultimately secured the right to host the games. <br />As a token of appreciation, when the games were awarded to Vancouver, I received a signed copy of the bid book, sent to me by one of the bid corporation’s vice presidents. The words he scrawled on the inside of my limited-edition copy of the bid book actually stung. They said, “Those of us who know the true story, recognize that we would not have had a chance to even make a bid, had it not been for you and Arthur.”<br />At first, I was just disappointed to have been left out. However, over time, as I brooded over what had happened, I began to complain about the injustice of it all. I began routinely lamenting my case to anyone and everyone who would listen. One afternoon, my wife Alison jarred me back to reality with a series of questions. David she began:<br />Did you work on the domestic bid to bring the Olympic Games to Vancouver? Yes I did.<br />Did you want to win? Yes, of course.<br />Were you successful? Yes, we were.<br />Did you also want the international bid to win, so that the games would come to Vancouver? Yes, I did.<br />When I confessed that of course all of these things had happened, my wife, the sage, then offered the following advice….”Then be thankful, and stop your complaining!”<br />At the same time that Alison challenged me to make a decision to never complain, she was also asking me to be thankful for the good things that had happened. Of course she was right, this is what I should do. But knowing the right thing to do and being able to do it can be quite a different matter. <br />Then I remembered Peter Klassen. Peter moved here from Paraguay 46 years ago. I got to know him, because his wife, Berta worked as a housekeeper for our family for over 42 years. When he died a few years ago, I went to his memorial service. His nephew spoke eloquently about Uncle Peter. He reminded us that when Peter came from Paraguay, he had been an accountant. However, when he got to Canada no-one would accept his credentials, and was unable to find work in his profession. The best my dad could do to help, was to offer him a job, pushing a broom, in our millwork shop. For many years Peter worked hard, doing the lowest form of labour available in our company. After about 10 years, he was promoted to forklift operator, a role he occupied for 30 years. When he retired, Peter’s deteriorating eyesight made it harder and harder for him to see, and soon he was unable to read. With that his favourite pastime was gone. Having lost his profession and now his eyesight, Peter of all people, would have had lots to complain about.<br />After he passed away, his nephew found Peters’ Bible beside his bed. In between a couple of the well-worn pages, he noticed some notes from a sermon written many years earlier. The following words caught his attention. “Never complain. Complaining doesn't make anything better, and it only makes you feel worse. “ Having known Peter for over 4 decades, I can say, along with his nephew, neither of us ever heard Peter complain. He had lots of reasons to be disappointed with his lot in life, but he didn't waste his breath, or our time, telling us about his disappointments.<br />In his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul talks about some of the hard times he faced. He notes that he was shipwrecked three times, beaten with rods, imprisoned, and suffered 39 lashes on several occasions. He doesn’t mention all these things as complaints. Rather, he is pointing out God’s sufficiency in spite of all these hardships. <br />This is the same Apostle, who, in his letter to the church in Philippi, says he had learned the secret of being content. I believe that what he had discovered, included four of the things he encouraged the Philippians to do. In chapter 4, he says…<br />1) Rejoice always ( v. 4) <br />2) Be thankful ( v. 6) <br />3) Pray about everything ( v. 6) <br />4) Think about good things… those things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, excellent, etc. ( v.8)) <br />If you don’t think that this is practical or realistic, I would encourage you to think again. <br />Jim Murphy, the author of Inner Excellence, has spent over 10,000 hours researching the connection between what we think and how we perform. He asserts that it is not possible to worry and be thankful at the same time. No wonder God commands us to be thankful. It’s the perfect antidote to worry. Similarly, I believe that it’s not possible to rejoice and at the same time to harbour bitterness.<br />Therefore, when, in God’s word, we are exhorted to PRAY, REJOICE AND BE THANKFUL ALWAYS….we are not being offered pious platitudes. Rather, we are being given very practical advice for daily living. This is an inspiring strategy that can be directly applied to dealing with the hurts and disappointments we may encounter at work.<br />I also love the fact that when God provides divine guidance, He doesn’t just say…don’t do this…but He also offers direction as to what to do instead…Rather than just saying don’t harbour un-forgiveness, God invites us to cultivate a life of prayer and an attitude of thankfulness.<br />One of my best friends, Dave Phillips, has explained to me that if I do not forgive, I will provide an opportunity for bitterness to grow in my heart. If I hold onto my inner feelings of anger, I may reason that at least I am not letting “them” off the hook too easily. However, one day, I will wake up and realize that the cage that I have made imprisons not the person who hurt me, but rather I will have imprisoned myself. I will have become the prisoner, held captive by my own bitterness. I am not hurting the other person, I am only hurting myself. <br />I'm so thankful that Dave encouraged me to become a man of forgiveness, and that my wife Alison encouraged me to stop complaining. I'm also thankful that both the Apostle Paul, and my friend Peter Klassen modeled for me how to live this kind of life. Most importantly, I am thankful that God, by His Spirit has enabled me to learn to forgive those who have hurt me in my work experience. <br />My career didn’t turn out at all like I thought it would, but I am thankful that God, in his grace has given me an amazing new business. Just ask the members of our family….they will tell you, I LOVE MY WORK!<br />In fact, I say that almost daily….because it is such a privilege to do the work I do teaching and helping others. It’s far more rewarding than building buildings ever was.<br />When the Olympics came, I was a bit frustrated that I had virtually no tickets to attend any events. In the week prior to the arrival of the torch, I was really tempted to pout. However, by this time, I had over 7 years to practice being thankful, in spite of my circumstances, and so I prayed, and tried to put it out of my mind.<br />The day before the opening ceremonies, I got an unexpected call from Arthur Griffiths. He had been given two ALL EVENTS PASSES for the games, and he wanted me to have one. As a result, I had the awesome privilege of attending , 17 events during the two weeks of the games. I was even on the slopes when Alex Beladeau won the first Olympic Gold Medal on Canadian soil.<br />I only had one ticket, so I attended most of the events on my own. I was profoundly thankful, not just to Arthur, but more importantly to God. I didn’t see the tickets as some kind of divine vindication, nor were they necessarily deserved. But in a way, I felt like God had stooped down to kiss me….to let me know He understood my disappointment, and that He was looking out for me.<br />Now, I don’t want to promise any of you that if you obey God’s word, and walk in the path of forgiveness, that you will be given VIP tickets to attend the Olympics. However, I can promise you, based on my own experience, that if you forgive others, you won’t need to spend your days complaining, imprisoned by your own bitterness. God wants us all to be free. I encourage you to take Him at His word.<br /><br />Ken:<br />Is God calling you to forgive someone? Or stop complaining about some hurt in your life. Is God calling you out of prison or least to take a step toward the prison door?<br />The British author C. S. Lewis realized and made the following note in his journal: “Last week while at prayer I suddenly discovered---or felt as if I did---that I had really forgiven someone I had been trying to forgive for over 30 years. Trying and praying that I might.” <br />Forgiving others requires patience. Sometimes forgiveness, as Lewis discovered, is something that we only realize in looking back, perhaps after years of struggle. And yet perhaps this morning, (or this evening) God is calling you to take the first step to forgive someone that may have hurt you at work, at school, in your home, or in your childhood.<br />Reflect on how Christ has forgiven you. Give thanks for it.<br />Pray that God would help you move toward forgiveness...<br /><br /><br /><br />Amen.Shigematsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04506027536055632197noreply@blogger.com0