Humans make plans, life says....

Man makes plans.....

Reader Scripture – Jeremiah 29:11-13

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”

Sermon Scripture – John 15:1-11

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

The Vine

The section for today talks about how Jesus is the vine and we, his followers are the branches. I've seen a million and two ways to approach this passage. I'm sure that many of you have likely heard it preached on before. I know that I have. Most of the messages I've heard about it have focused on the fruit that the vine and branches bear together, or on the fact that it says there is pruning. Those messages are wonderful and awesome, but I want to go a slightly different route today.

First, let's pick apart this scene. We have Jesus likening himself to a vine while we are the branches. There is the Father, who is called a gardener, who walks along the vine and tends the plant.

I have a good friend who became a Christian when we were both teenagers. Shortly afterwards, she was having a hard time, and said to me “I thought everything was going to get easier.” There is this idea that life as a Christian should be two things: Predictable and Easy, and somehow if life isn't that, then you are doing something wrong. Let's look at the first assumption:

PREDICTABLE

Somehow we've got it into our heads that life should be predictable. We should do specific things at specific times in our life, and if we get the order off, well then there is something wrong with us, or we don't have enough faith, or whatever.

Baloney.

Jesus here says that he is the vine and we are the branches. Never in my entire life, in all of the places that I have been have I ever seen a vine growing in a straight, predictable line. As the vine grows, it turns in unexpected directions. Branches go in unexpected directions. People who cultivate vines put them up on racks to help them grow predictably, and they still end up with plants that are a bit squirrley.

Human beings like predictable things. Predictability equals less anxiety. There's an animated movie about cavemen that came out recently called “The Croods”. In this movie, they treat anything new and unpredictable as if it is going to end their lives. Their motto is “never not be afraid” and “new is bad”. If they encounter something new, they are going to DIE!

We laugh at this exaggeration, but how many of us live our lives like this? As though deviation from the predictable path means we will financially, emotionally, socially, or physically die? We like predictability. The problem is that reading the Bible shows us a Jesus who refuses to do the predictable thing. He ate with the socially excluded. He defied religious pompousness in favor of showing true love. He was constantly pushing people to grow in their faith, to grow in community, to grow in service to one another. Growth is unpredictable. The vine grew, and continues to grow, in unexpected ways. So do the branches.

EASY

Let's talk for a moment about the other idea, that somehow living as a Christian is easy, that somehow we will be spared the devastation that life throws our way simply because we are God's children.

There are a whole slew of Biblical figures who would laugh at this idea. Moses – a man born in Egypt as a Hebrew slave, grew up as a Egyptian prince, led the Hebrew people out of Egypt in the face of much adversity. Or let's think about Jonah (eaten by a whale), or King David (hunted most of his life by people who wanted to kill him), or Paul (poisoned, bitten by snake, beaten, thrown in prison, shipwrecked). These were not easy things! And all of these men are lifted up as heroes of the Bible.

We have this lie in our culture that if bad things happen to us as Christians, then we did something wrong. There is something wrong with us, God is mad at us, we don't have enough faith, we didn't pray hard enough, we can never measure up to the Biblical heroes, etc.

Baloney.

These are major and devastating lies. A major danger of this way of thinking is that it dumps shame on having hard times, when having hard times are part of living. It means that people are shamed or afraid of reaching out for community, for help, in fear of being condemned rather than loved. In Ecclesiastes it says “for time and chance happen to them all.”

This is hard stuff! But we cannot forget the Gardener. I've often found that when the image of the vine and branches is discussed, the Gardener rarely comes up. Jesus says plainly that the Father is the gardener, walking alongside the vine and helping it to grow and bear fruit. The promise is not that we will have a predictable and easy path, but that the Gardener will always be present, always walking with us, helping us to grow, being present in the difficulty, tending us through droughts, storms, fierce weather, snow in April. : )

Human beings make plans. Life, time, and chance happen to us all and change those plans. God says, “I will be with you in the midst of the chaos.”

WALKING WITH

As people, we want God walking alongside us to be big and dramatic. I want a seven foot buff guy walking with me to protect me from bullies. I want God's voice to ring out in lightening and thunderclaps when my voice is too small. We want these things, but we serve a God who often walks alongside of us in unexpected ways. We hear him in unexpected, unpredictable ways. A kind word from a stranger. A friend's hug. Money showing up when we most need it. Someone inviting us over for a meal when food is hard to come by. A comforting word from a friend when life is going to pot. God does not have to be huge and dramatic to let us know that he is walking with us.

This past week, Dahmon and I received a call from someone here in Lake City who has had life kick in their teeth despite the fact that they are doing absolutely everything right. Dahmon has spent some time with this family, which includes small children, & heard their stories, listened to everything they are doing to make things right, heard everything that has gone wrong. He heard from this family because they need help with their rent. Either their rent is paid tomorrow, or they are evicted from their home despite the fact that there are small children involved. They have nowhere to go.

I was with Drexel playing with him on the slide in our backyard when Dahmon came up to me and explained the situation. He asked if we could afford to help this family with rent. My next question? “How much do they need?” The amount he gave me made me inhale sharply. It is not a small amount. Immediately my need for predictability and a straight path came in and I said “no, they have to find another way.” They I looked at Drexel in all of his cuteness sitting on top of the slide, trying to work up the gumption to go down the slide by himself. For him, that slide is a scary thing. From his perspective, it is big and scary, and he's not quite sure what is going to happen when he reaches the bottom, if he reaches the bottom intact. He will hem and haw at the top of the slide about how he's going to go down, oh wait – he won't, its too scary. Eventually he will reach out to me and say “hold Momma's hands” and he'll zoom down the slide so quickly you would never think he'd ever hesitated.

In that moment, I felt myself at the top of this slide, hemming and hawing about all the reasons that we couldn't afford to help this family. In my mind's eye, I could almost see the slide. And then I remembered that they have several small children, one of them around Drexel's age. Those children having a home on Tuesday is more important to me than my desire for financial predictability. And I held my hands out to God and said “hold Abba's hands”.

Dahmon and I have committed to this family that their rent will be covered. We are working with them to figure out programs and such, but no matter what, either programs or Dahmon and I will cover their rent this month. If you are interested in coming alongside us & helping this family, come & talk to me.

Being a branch on the vine does not mean that we have a predictable, easy path. It does not mean that we get to choose where and how we grow. As the vine grows, as we grow in our faith and our journey with God, heck – as we live, our lives will go in unexpected directions and we will take unexpected journeys – some of them easy, some of them hard. The promise is that the Gardener is right there, tending us in the midst of it all, and he will never, ever leave us.

Sticks and stones, and all that

Sticks and Stones and all that

Reader Scripture: Ephesians 4:29 – 32

“Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.  And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.  Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.  Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”

Sermon Scripture: James 3:2-6

“We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check.  When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal.  Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go.  Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark.  The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.”

 

As I typically do before a sermon on a topic, I spent some time digging into the Bible and poking around on Google.  I found that when you search out the word “gentle” or “gentleness” in the Bible, two major patterns emerge.   The first is that in the Old Testament, gentleness has a habit of popping up when we are receiving instruction about how we talk:

·         1 Kings 19:12 - “After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire.  And after the fire came a gentle whisper.”

·         Proverbs 15:1 - “A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.”

·         Proverbs 25:15 - “Through patience a ruler can be persuaded, and a gentle tongue can break a bone.”

In the New Testament it often pops up alongside humility

·         Matthew 11:29 - “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”

·         2 Corinthians 10:1 - “By the humility and gentleness of Christ, I appeal to you – I, Paul, who am 'timid' when face to face with you, but 'bold' toward you when away!”

·         Ephesians 4:2 - “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.”

Keep in mind that Paul in Galatians was speaking Greek, and the Old Testament is written in Hebrew.  Paul's usage of the word differs from how the writers of the Old Testament were using the word “gentle”, but the ideas of gentleness and words along with gentleness and humility do have common ground.

Let's look at how Paul is using the word.  The word for “gentleness” in Greek that Paul uses, especially where used elsewhere in the New Testament, carries with it implications related to power dichotomies.  When Paul is using this word in Galatians, he brings up this idea of gentleness as a fruit of the Spirit being siding with the underdogs, someone acting towards another with humility instead of the power they may have in the relationship.

Every relationship carries with it an element of power.  Parents have power over their children.  Doctors have power over their patients.  Teachers have power over their students, etc.  In Paul's time, citizens of Rome had power over everyone.  He should know – many scholars believe that he was a Roman citizen before declaring his faith in Christ and tossing his hat in the same ring as early Christians.  They base this belief in Acts 22, where we see a story of Paul about to get a beating from Roman officials after telling his conversion story to a crowd.  They said he was not fit to live and were hauling him off to be flogged when he asked if it was legal to do so to a Roman citizen.  Well, it wasn't.  In fact, it says that after Paul said he was born a Roman citizen, "those who were about to interrogate him withdrew immediately.  The commander himself was alarmed when he realized that he had put Paul, a Roman citizen, in chains.” (Acts 22:29).  Paul knew well how much power Romans had in that area at that time. 

Paul also knew that the church to which he was speaking was a mix of Roman citizens and Jews, men, women, children, etc.  There were all kinds of power relationships at work here!  Men over women, adults over children, Romans over non-Romans.  This was a breeding ground for discontent and strife if everyone acted upon the power that their culture granted each person.  In fact, we see elsewhere in Acts a story where there were two groups of widows within the church, and one group was getting special treatment based on their ethnicity.  They had to appoint deacons in order to settle the dispute and ensure all were treated fairly. 

Into this situation Paul declared that gentleness is a fruit of the spirit.  Despite the fact that culture may grant people a position of power does not mean that we have to act upon it.  Jesus is consistently on the side of the underdog.

Jesus himself was God's very son, and he did not act upon that power in a way that we might expect.  The son of God rode into Jerusalem upon the back of a donkey.  He washed his disciples' feet.  He ate with beggars, tax collectors, and prostitutes.  He taught on hillsides.  He did the humble thing constantly and consistently.  He did not lord it over anyone that he was the son of God and because of this he was the bee's knees or the cat's meow.  He instead put himself in the position of a humble servant serving those who were considered the least and the lost.

But what has this to do with us?

A few weeks ago I was driving in downtown Red Wing.  One of my favorite musical artists is Josh Wilson and one of his CDs was playing in the car.  As I started praying about this sermon, Josh's song “Forest Fire” came on.  Now, let me share with you some of the lyrics:

                                    She's not half as strong, no/ As she'd like to let on
                                    She smiles, but she knows/ She can't take one more blow
                                    From the hate that she's heard for so long

                                    Our tongues are like matches/ Our ears are like trees
                                    Our words are like sparks/ On dry summer leaves
                                    It doesn't take much/ For the flames to rise/ And turn a soul/ Into a forest fire

I think that Wilson was basing these lyrics on our passage from James today.  Here James was speaking to “the twelve tribes scattered among the nations” (ch. 1, v. 1).  He tells them, and now us, that we all stumble many times, and that...

“the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark.  The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body,sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.” (James 1:1)

My brother and I used to go at it.  We were at each others throats constantly, bickering, arguing.  I wanted his toys, he wanted my crayons, I wanted to sit there, he hit me!, she hit me!, he ate the donuts I wanted.......just constantly bickering at one another.  It was so bad that at one point John, the gentleman I spoke about last week who lived with my family for awhile, took me aside and said that he was going to move out if Daniel and I didn't cool it. 

One day Daniel and I were arguing....again.  We were calling each other nasty names that at the time we were too young to really understand, and saying things that hurt.  My dad came storming up to us, and we got quiet.  Oh boy, we were in for it!  I was sure we were going to be grounded for a week, not allowed to watch TV until we were 50, something like that.  Dad simply got out a Bible, sat us down, and turned to our passage from James.  He had Daniel and I read it aloud and then ask how it applied to our argument.  Well, that argument was over!  Not to say that we didn't argue anymore, James in this passage says that “we all stumble many times”, but in that moment we were humbled by that passage.

I don't think it is a coincidence that gentleness in the New Testament often comes up alongside how we talk with one another.  We've all heard the song “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me.”  I used to sing it as a kid when my brother was teasing me.  But is it true?  Heck no!  Words can hurt more than anything and be more insidious than any other form of abuse because words travel with you, even when those voicing terrible things are no where close by. 

James says that our tongues are like the bits put in horses mouths, like rudders that steer a boat – where the tongue leads, the body will follow.  Our actions will follow.  The actions of others may follow (especially our children who look to us to learn how to interact with others). 

When the New Testament was penned, God knew human beings would always struggle with power dichotomies.  He also knew that these dichotomies would pop up in how we talk with one another.  Regardless of who is involved in the exchange, when we use negative words or gossip about another person, or slander them behind their back, or bully them, or swear at one another we are forming a power relationship where one may not have yet existed.  We are saying “you are less of a human than me for THIS REASON”.  With our words, we try to make ourselves stronger than another, better than another, in front of another. 

But Jesus is always on the side of the underdog.  He said “the last shall be first and the first shall be last.”  Jesus is always on the side of the one who is being maligned, accused falsely, sworn at, verbally abused, etc.  His example of humility calls us to something else, something that turns power structures on their heads.  We are called to be different, to be set apart and different.  Power structures will always be with us.  There will always be one set of people set in front of another, in power over another.  People will always be involved in multiple power relationships. 

But we are called to be gentle.  Paul and James together exhort us to use our power for the benefit of the one who is downtrodden, the least and the lost....not to get ourselves ahead, to put ourselves first!

Beth Moore said that “gentleness is responsibility with power,” and she is right.  What if we use our words in a way that shows we see all people as equals?  What if we use our words for the sake of the downtrodden, advocating for their rights as human beings?  What if we truly recognize Christ in each other person we meet in a way that means we cannot help but to serve rather than to boast in our stance of power?

What if we truly press into a form of gentleness being the act of recognizing how we exercise power dichotomies with our language?  Let's consider this: if we truly see Jesus in the face of the “other”, can we really say that to or about him?  God does not love us because we may perhaps be at the top of some power ladder.  He loves us simply because we are.  He loves us despite the power ladders we may top.  He loves us so much that he sent his son, who not only died for us, but showed us a way to live where everyone is equal, where being truly gentle means using your power for the benefit of others.  He loves us so much that he daily teaches us how to be love, how to be gentle with one another.

It's all God's anyways.

For the least of these....

Scripture reader – Luke 10:25-29

Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?” He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” And he said to him, “You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.”
But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”



Sermon Scripture - Luke 10: 30-37

Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.’ Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”

Many of us have heard the story of the Good Samaritan. A man on a trip was waylaid by robbers who left him for dead, presumably stealing anything he was carrying of value. He lay on the side of the road and was avoided by a priest and a Levite. Then another stranger happened along, and he “was moved with pity”, bandaged the man's wounds, put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn and tended him, then paid for his care.

There are a huge number of things that could be said about this parable, a huge array of angles at which to view how Jesus answered the question “who is my neighbor?” I want to focus on the “why”. WHY would the good Samaritan go out of his way to help this stranger who was busted and bleeding on the road? Asking why might seem a little silly to us – but we do not live in those times. In those times, someone who was on the side of the road may have been luring a gentle hearted person into a trap so that HE could be waylaid by robbers. In those times, contact with a dead body was considered to be defiling, so the priest and the Levite may have assumed the man was dead and avoided him in order to not be defiled.

WHY did he help this man? Jesus says “But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity.”

“When he saw him, he was moved with pity.” Jesus tells the story of a Samaritan helping a man on the road not because the Samaritan expected something in return, but because he was moved with pity at seeing the broken man's plight. He didn't expect anything in return....he simply helped the man because it was the right thing to do.

If patience is persistent love in the face of adversity...

If kindness is seeing ourselves in others and responding accordingly...

Then generosity is giving persistent love to everyone without expecting anything in return.

Generosity is about attitude.

Let's go back to the Good Samaritan. Presumably he was on his way to something as well if he was traveling on the road. Presumably he had a number of things he'd rather do, a number of other ways he'd rather use his resources. Yet he stopped and helped without expecting a return.

This is just what God does with us! He sees us broken and on the side of the road, wounded, bleeding, being passed over by others who can't trouble themselves with our plight. He bathes our wounds, sets us up on his ride, and brings us to healing. As he does, so he wants us to do.

But why is this story in Luke? A scholar named Mark Allan Powell put together a book about the Gospels. In one of his chapters on Luke, he states that:

“Luke wants to show his readers what God accomplishes through the lives of ordinary people to heighten their expectations of what God might accomplish through them. Luke wants his readers to believe that the possibility of God's will being accomplished in their lives an in the world is greater than they imagine.”

God works generosity through ordinary people. He shows his persistent, abundant love to people through ordinary people just like you and me.

This is me and my parents. Most of you know that I grew up in a cabin in the middle of the Alaskan forest, surrounded by trees and bears. Now, I mean “cabin”....Lincoln log style, one-room structure that flexed during earthquakes and kept us snug as bugs in rugs during the winter. Unfortunately, logs are rather flammable. When I was 9 years old, our cabin went up in flames in the middle of the night...of course in the middle of winter! Thankfully, we had some other structures on the property and we spent the night in one of those other structures. The next morning, my dad had to spend some time getting our snow machine working again because it had been parked close enough to the cabin that the side melted in a little bit. Once it was working, he went to town to let people know what had happened and to get help.

He came back with some food and supplies, the mail, and John.

Now, John is a man whom Dad had just met when he went to town for help. John was a man whom Dad had heard people whispering about, about what a “no good” he was, how no one trusted him, etc. People avoided him. Dad saw him, took pity on him, and took him to our house so that we could help him.

Wait a minute Dad, we just had a house fire...we lost everything....and you come home with someone who needs our help? Surely someone else can help him!

I think it was my Mom who pointed out to Dad that we had just lost everything, how could we help someone? Dad said we had another structure on the property where John could stay, and he gave the same answer he gave every time he helped someone and others asked why - “it's all God's anyways.”

My Dad often has the attitude of true generosity. It is all God's anyways. He saw John in an hour of John's desperate need, and he put him on our snow machine and brought him home with us that we might tend him and help him, without expecting a single thing from him in return. I now call John “brother”.

That is true generosity. True generosity is seeing Jesus in the reflection and responding with compassion, using “our resources” to tend the cares of those in need freely and abundantly without expecting anything in return.

Imagine you are homeless and being served at a soup kitchen. There are three dishes: peas, potatoes, and chicken. The peas are being served by a middle aged woman who is well to-do, who is there because she wants another feather in her social cap. The potatoes are being served by another middle aged woman, but she is there because she got in trouble with the law and has to be there to serve community service, or her parole officer is going to report her and she will likely be incarcerated again. The chicken is being served by a woman who wants to be there, who truly loves people who are homeless and wants to help. Where does true generosity live? Which station would be your favorite?

BUT HOW? WHAT DO WE DO??

Be truly generous – help anyone in need without expecting anything in return. Dahmon and I have often helped out our friends financially. We used to say that our tithing was in the form of helping friends when they were in need. Recently a friend whom we helped out came into some financial stability, and talked about “paying us back”, and was totally shocked when I said “you don't owe us anything.”

We are to be generous because it is simply the right thing to do, not because we will get something in return. If we are expecting anything in return, we are doing it for the wrong reasons, with the wrong attitude. The expected return doesn't have to come from the person whom we have aided. Sometimes we expect returns from those around that person, or from society for being “such a good person”.

But we are to do good things such that the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing (Matthew 6:3). Such that we are storing up treasure in Heaven, not here on Earth.

This is not to say that acknowledging the good someone has done is a bad thing. Certainly, that is not what I'm saying at all. In a world where darkness would squelch whatever light shines, it is not bad to acknowledge good things. By all means, extend thanks and support when you see someone or an organization that is being generous.

The point is that our generosity must not come from a place of “look at me, I did XYZ”, hence getting our reward here on Earth. It must come from a place of recognizing ourselves and Jesus in our neighbors and persisting in tending their needs, using our resources to love and help our neighbors as God has loved and helped us – freely and abundantly and without an expectation of returns. Just as the good Samaritan did with the man he saw on the road. Just as God does with us.

Gimme patience right now!

1 Corinthians 13:4-8a

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. (NIV)

Sermon Scripture: 1 Samuel 1:12-20

There was a certain man of Ramathaim, a Zuphite from the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah son of Jeroham son of Elihu son of Tohu son of Zuph, an Ephraimite. He had two wives; the name of the one was Hannah, and the name of the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.

Now this man used to go up year by year from his town to worship and to sacrifice to the Lord of hosts at Shiloh, where the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were priests of the Lord. On the day when Elkanah sacrificed, he would give portions to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters; but to Hannah he gave a double portion, because he loved her, though the Lord had closed her womb. Her rival used to provoke her severely, to irritate her, because the Lord had closed her womb. So it went on year by year; as often as she went up to the house of the Lord, she used to provoke her. Therefore Hannah wept and would not eat. Her husband Elkanah said to her, “Hannah, why do you weep? Why do you not eat? Why is your heart sad? Am I not more to you than ten sons?”

Ah, patience. As you may know, Dahmon and I have been traveling through a series on the 9 fruits of the Spirit as listed by Paul in Galatians. Last week Dahmon spoke on peace. We've also discussed joy and love. This week we move to patience.

Patience. Authors in the New Testament have a habit of using Old Testament figures as examples for patience (James cites Job, for example), and we shall do the same here. In the Scripture reading for today, we read about Elkanah.

Now, Elkanah was a man with two wives: Hannah and Peninnah. Here we find him and his family during their yearly pilgrimage to the temple in Shiloh to offer worship and offerings to the Lord. According to the Scripture, Hannah was the picture of dejection and miserableness because she was barren. Peninnah, after all, had “sons and daughters”, and delighted in lording them over Hannah – the text says she provoked Hannah severely.

Children in that time were status and assurance for the future. Being barren threatened Hannah's very life for two major reasons. 1) Under the law of the time, Elkanah could legally divorce her for not bearing him sons and fulfilling her role as a woman, and 2) if Elkanah were to die suddenly, Hannah would have no male to support her. For Elkanah's part, he had no male heir from Hannah, which was disastrous for his part of the family tree.

Anyways, Hannah was miserable because she could not bear children. To rub salt in an already open wound, the fact that Hannah's name is listed first when the wives are mentioned likely means that she was Elkanah's first wife. Though polygamy was not uncommon during their time, some scholars think it is likely that Elkanah took Peninnah as a wife after Hannah proved unable to bear him sons.

And bear him sons Peninnah did...but where did that leave Hannah?

Miserable. Not eating. Weeping. Worrying Elkanah, who responded to her in love despite the fact that she could not bear him sons and despite the fact that she was surely hard to be around.

Poor Elkanah! Surely his was not a peaceful life, as one of his wives was constantly dejected and lamenting her condition, while the other was gloating and being difficult to the other! Imagine what his home life must have been like – this is like living with sibling rivalry to a whole new level!

Yet he responded to Hannah with nothing but a love that went against the divorce that his culture said would have been perfectly permissible...even expected. Scripture says Elkanah would do his level best to show Hannah how much he loved her: when he was doling out special portions of a particular food, he gave twice as much to Hannah as he gave to Peninnah. He tries to encourage her to eat, to not be so sad. He loves her so much! He even asks her if he isn't worth as much to her as ten sons, indicating that she is such to him. It seems like he did this every year....

He loved her dearly and showed it despite the fact that she was barren in a society where being barren did not mean whole. Where being barren was grounds for divorce.

Elkanah is the one at whom we are looking today as an example of patience.

What do you think about when you hear the word “patience”?

Patience is often defined as “the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset.” Patience is enduring under difficult circumstances, exhibiting self-control and calm in the face of distress and/or waiting for something. In this context, patience was Elkanah loving Hannah through the difficult situation and showing her that love despite her less-than-whole societal status in a society that said he could ditch her with no repercussions for not giving him sons.

Isn't this what God does?

Despite all of our shortcomings, despite us constantly demanding and requesting things of God in the midst of our despair, despite society saying that we are not whole, or somehow unclean, or not worth love and patience, despite our abundant impatience, despite all of this God says “I love you and let me show you how!”

God responds to us in love when the world says He shouldn't.

What if part of patience, not all of it – but part of it, is exactly that: responding to a situation in love rather than frustration when the world gives you every right be frustrated. “The fruit of the Spirit is patience.” Part of the fruit of the Spirit is responding to a difficult situation in an unexpected way, one saturated with love and grace and lacks impulsive reactions that we later regret.

I have a younger brother named Daniel. I love him dearly, but he tries my patience...and don't siblings (spouses, friends, children) know just exactly how to push our buttons to try our patience!

A few years back, my parents were living in Arizona. My brother and I decided to drive down there from MN to visit them for Christmas. It was a great drive...but when you put two people in a car together for several days and add a flat tire, patience wears thin! On our drive back home (which took 3 days), one of our tires was losing air...fast! Whenever we stopped for gas, we had to add air to the tire. Obviously something was wrong, but it wasn't until we stopped for the night that we saw the problem – a nail. We had some fix-a-flat...but then started arguing over who was going to put it into the tire. I wanted to because I'd never done so before and wanted to learn a new skill. Daniel wanted to because he had done so before and he just wanted to go in the hotel and get some sleep. In a beautiful display of lack of patience with one another, our argument escalated until we were screaming at each other and I was literally stamping my foot in frustration like a three year old having a tantrum. My brother grabbed the car keys and reared his hand back like he was going to throw them in the bushes. I grabbed his hand and said “STOP!”....and we paused.

Now, people often tell me that I have infinite patience, but in that moment I was fresh out of it for my brother. I was tired and angry...so was Daniel. Two people provoking each other mightily had taken a molehill life circumstance and turned it into a mountain because we were responding to each other in anger. Doing so had at that moment robbed us of our love, joy, peace...and patience. I let go of Daniel's hand and turned around for a moment to recollect myself, and to pray...for patience. With God's help, I was then able to face my brother again and explain why I had gotten angry, apologize, learn from it, and move on. Eventually we took turns putting in the fix-a-flat, but that wasn't the point. The point was that we needed to reorient ourselves to God in the middle of a very frustrating, patience-robbing situation.

Elkanah was in the midst of a frustrating, patience-robbing situation. One of his wives was despondent and refused to be comforted despite his best efforts. His other wife was intentionally being irritating and gloating about her children. And this was a situation that endured for a long time. Scripture says “so it went on year after year.” Imagine the scene – constant bickering, little peace, loud noises!

But what was his response?

Scripture does not say that Elkanah divorced Hannah for not bearing him sons, which was certainly his right under Hebrew law at the time. It does not say that he yelled at the women for arguing. It says that he responded in love. He responded to a despondent woman by showering her with love instead of losing his patience. He persevered in showering her with that love - “so it went on year after year”.

This is one aspect of what Paul is talking about when he says patience is fruit of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit working in us is available to help us cultivate the practice of responding to a difficult situation in love rather than anger, frustration, etc.

I'm not saying this is easy. Turning away from my brother and reorienting myself through prayer instead of clobbering him wasn't easy – and goodness knows I've clobbered him in the past. I'm sure it wasn't easy for Elkanah to consistently respond to Hannah in love (at least according to what we know about him from Scripture).

The key is that patience as fruit of the Holy Spirit means that it is something that God wants to help us develop, and that He lives out in us. He is ready to help us show that persistent love in any situation. Patience is that pause, that deep breath, the “mommy time-out” to calm down before responding to a child who has been irksome. Patience is the husband who responds to his crabby wife not by hiding from her or being crabby in return, but by listening, hugging, and asking what can be done. Patience is the love response when the crabby response is easier.

Patience is recognizing that we do not have to depend solely on our own strength to show persistent love. We can lean on God, recognizing that He is the source of a love that defies societal expectations. That is kind of what Jesus is all about.

Joy to the world...no, really!

I delivered this as a sermon at Lake City United Methodist Church a couple of weeks ago.  I'm going to start posting the manuscripts of my sermons here.  Now, I tend to stray from the manuscript depending on where the Spirit leads, so what is preached is not word-for-word what is shown here.  That being said:

JOY to the world....no, really!

READINGS → 1 Thessalonians 5:14-18, Acts 16:22-26

Google says joy is defined as “a feeling of great pleasure and happiness”, but this gets at what we do constantly as a society: confuse joy and happiness. Happiness is largely the result of external circumstances. We have a new car, so we are happy. We had a nice meal, so we are happy. We hear all of the time “money can't buy happiness”, but we know that isn't entirely true. Money can buy things that provide happiness, or at least a sense of happiness, but that happiness is limited and not God-focused.

Joy is something internal, something that comes from the hope of God, something freely given along with the freedom of Christ. Joy is knowing that no matter what the external circumstance, God is bigger than every boogey man of life, every circumstance in life, and loves no matter what. Joy is laying claim to God's promise that he is present at all times, in all circumstances, to all of his children, no matter what. Joy is knowing God has better things in store. Joy is hope.

Let's take a look at Paul and Silas for a moment. To set this up a bit, Paul and Silas have been traveling around doing ministry work in an area where that ministry work was not really appreciated. They had just freed a slave girl who was conducting divination from the demons that allowed her to do so, and irritated the girl's owners, who had them arrested for robbing them of the income they'd received from the girl divining things for others. Anyways:

Acts 16:22-24: “The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates tore the garments off them and gave order to beat them with rods. And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them in prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely. Having received this order, he put them in the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.”

So Paul was with Silas in prison. They'd had better days. They had been following the will and call of God, and because of some of their work, they'd been stripped, beaten, severely flogged...and all before being thrown in jail. After being tossed in jail, they were put in an inner cell and chained up.

Imagine this with me: they were sore, bruised, bleeding, and chained up.

How often do we feel like that?

Oh sure, not many of us have been pulverized before being thrown in prison, but life pulverizes people on a daily basis. External circumstances flog us: I have a friend whose mother just passed away unexpectedly. Another friend has a little boy about Drexel's age who was just diagnosed with cancer. I know people who regularly struggle to put food on the table. External circumstances flog us.

Internal circumstances flog us as well. Mental illness buffets away at our stability and resolve to follow Christ. Low self-esteem erodes our ability to fully feel like a worthwhile human being. Personally, I struggle with anxiety a great deal, and this is often resulting from a lack of knowing what is coming. (get animated) I don't know what is coming and so can't structure this thing around certain anticipations, and I don't know where things are going to be or who is going to have done what or what is going to happen....and it robs me of my joy and fills me with fear. Worry worry worry.

And isn't that what regularly robs us of our joy? Fear, uncertainty, anger, worry.

And yet Jesus desires that we be filled with joy? In the midst of all this? What?

Let's return to Paul and Silas. They were chained up, beaten, bloodied, bruised. They were having a bad day. But then it says:

Acts 16:25-26 - “About midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody's chains came loose.”

Despite them having a terrible, terrible day, being in a place where they were literally beaten and bruised, Paul and Silas had the audacity to continue believing in this great big God. Not only believing in God, but singing praises to him despite their chains. This is an audacious thing to do! To choose to praise in the midst of the darkness is hard to do. Yet Paul and Silas did so and experienced freedom in a quite literal chains-opening-up kind of way.

Corrie ten Boom is also a woman who did just this. She and her family were Christians during the Holocaust who lived in an area affected by the Holocaust.  They were arrested by the Nazi police for daring to use their home to hide Jews in order to smuggle them out of the area.

In her book The Hiding Place, Corrie talks about an experience with living out the passage from Thessalonians that the reader read today. Corrie and her sister Betsy had just transferred to a new barrack in their concentration camp. Corrie was upset because fleas covered the place, and had been lamenting their living situation. Betsy had encouraged Corrie, based on their earlier reading of the verse from Thessalonians, to praise God in the midst of their difficult circumstances...and Betsy is praising God for everything: that she and her sister weren't separated, that their Bible hadn't been found and confiscated, that the women being so tightly packed in the barracks meant that many more would hear the word of God when they did their nightly devotional. Then Betsy began to praise God for the fleas that Corrie had lamented.

I've condensed it a little bit, but these are her words:

HER WORDS:

"'Thank You,' Betsie went on serenely, 'for the fleas and for--'
"The fleas!” This was too much. 'Betsie, there's no way even God can make me grateful for a flea.'
"'Give thanks in all circumstances,' she quoted. It doesn't say, 'in pleasant circumstances.' Fleas are part of this place where God has put us.
"And so we stood between tiers of bunks and gave thanks for fleas. But this time I was sure Betsie was wrong."
...she goes on to talk about reading the Bible with other women:
"At first Betsie and I called these meetings with great timidity. But as night after night went by and no guard ever came near us, we grew bolder. So many now wanted to join us that we held a second service after evening roll call. There... we were under rigid surveillance, guards in their warm wool capes marching constantly up and down. It was the same in the center room of the barracks: half a dozen guards or camp police always present. Yet in the large dormitory room there was almost no supervision at all. We did not understand it.
"One evening I got back to the barracks late from a wood-gathering foray outside the walls. A light snow lay on the ground and it was hard to find the sticks and twigs with which a small stove was kept going in each room. Betsie was waiting for me, as always, so that we could wait through the food line together. Her eyes were twinkling.
"'You're looking extraordinarily pleased with yourself,' I told her.
"'You know, we've never understood why we had so much freedom in the big room,' she said. 'Well--I've found out.'
"That afternoon, she said, there'd been confusion in her knitting group about sock sizes and they'd asked the supervisor to come and settle it.
"But she wouldn't. She wouldn't step through the door and neither would the guards. And you know why?"
"Betsie could not keep the triumph from her voice: 'Because of the fleas! That's what she said, "That place is crawling with fleas!'"

Now, I can't say that if I'd been in the same situation, I would have given thanks for fleas. I mean...ugh! The same goes for mosquitoes! :) And shrews.

But Betsy had a point – the Bible says to give thanks in all circumstances. Not for all circumstances, but in all circumstances: the good and the bad. This is what Paul and Silas did. Beaten and bloody, they gave thanks by singing and praying to the God who was bigger than their awful circumstances.

This is why I believe joy is tied strongly to HOPE. Claiming joy in the midst of the darkness is audaciously telling the bad things in life “God is bigger than you. God loves me. This dark situation does not define me, I am defined as a child of Christ who is bigger than death and darkness!”

As I thought and prayed about this during the past couple of weeks, it struck me that just as joy is tied to hope, it is also tied to POWER. God knew we'd be in the midst of difficult circumstances that make us go “the fleas?! Really?!” We were never promised an easy life as Christians. It is not a surprise to God when we are in a hurting place. God is not surprised by the things that cause the hurting places. God is not surprised that when we are in the midst of the hurting place, joy seems far away.

But what do we allow to have POWER over our being? It is so easy to allow negative circumstances to hold power over us, to allow ourselves to wallow and focus on the negative. It is so easy to be caught up in the bad things that happen to and around us and allow the darkness to have power over our mood and being.

But that is NOT what Jesus desires for our life. He came and loved on us and continues to do so in order that we might see that darkness is NOT the most powerful thing. This is part of the beauty of the Creator whom we worship here this morning and always. He sees those things that cause our hurting places, that throw our hearts in prison, and he desires to give us hope, to lay claim to His promises and wrap ourselves in his POWER, the POWER to overcome the difficult things and hold tight to the promise of light to come.

Now, this is not to say that reacting to the difficult things in life with sadness is a bad thing, or that it is not okay to feel discouraged. Even Jesus was sad sometimes. In Luke it says he cried when Lazarus died. He weeps with those who weep, and mourns with those who mourn, cries out with those who cry out. Daring to claim joy is not a flippant “just smile and everything will feel better” kind of thing. It is, however, a strength that comes from holding tight to the promise of Jesus Christ. Discomfort and sorrow at the difficult things in life is a sign that something in the world is not as it should be, and it is okay to react as we would naturally as humans.

The difference is that as Christians, we have a hope outside of ourselves, outside of our circumstances, that calls us to praise in the midst of the difficulty that we might experience joy, true joy.

Now, I've gotten annoyed at God in regards to this passage. When I am in the middle of a dark time, oftentimes the last thing I want to do is praise and give thanks. Really? Now you want this of me? The question that nagged at the back of my brain about this passage is “why?!” Why are we told to praise in all circumstances? And I always have been the “why child”....

So I prayed, and asked God “why?” He has got to be used to that question from me by now.

As I prayed about this question, I kept thinking about something that scientists discovered while back. They found that when you smile, it literally chemically improves your mood. There is something about the act of smiling that releases endorphins in a person's brain that literally make that person feel better.

What if the same is true for joy?

What if joy is a habit?

What if practicing joy, praising God in the midst of the difficult things, is a way for us to simply feel more joy? To claim right now a tiny bit of the Kingdom of God that exists despite the difficult things? By practicing joy, by practicing hope, by having the audacity to truly believe in God's promise to never leave or forsake us, we feel His love and promise that much more.

Yet I know that in the midst of the difficulty of life, it is the hardest thing in the world to claim God's power over darkness. Oftentimes we need help to see the hope. The point is not to be flippant and somehow say “it could be worse”. The point is to help people practice joy, practice turning the fleas into a praise. This is part of why we were created to be in community with one another, that when we are experiencing nothing but darkness, we can call on someone else to show us the light. That when we see someone else who is experiencing nothing but darkness, we can help show them the light.

But what does that joy look like? For Paul, Silas, and Corrie ten Boom, and elsewhere in the Bible, it is praising and giving thanks out loud in the midst of the pain. For me sometimes it has been a quiet “I trust you, Lord” when the world feels like it's about to cave in. Once, it was laughing when threatened with decapitation by a tired professor for being cheerful at 8am on a Monday. It is not always the huge, exuberant display, though that can be how it is displayed. It is about claiming the power of God's love and light in the midst of a world that would enjoy nothing better than to cloak you in the power of darkness.

I can sense God right now saying “I see your hurt. I see the things that rob you of joy, both the things that others know about, and the things secreted away within you, robbing you of joy even as you sit in the pew. I see it. I know it. I am bigger than it. I love you right here, right now, no matter what.”

God wants you to experience his love profoundly. When we do, we often cannot help but praise him no matter where you are. He loves you desperately, and that, his precious beautiful gem of a child, will never, ever change. Find strength in God, a God who loves you more than you can comprehend, who is bigger than those things that cause you pain. Let his joy and love for you be your strength and hope. Know that he will never leave you, your hope and trust placed in him is never misplaced.

INVITATION: I invite you to think of those things that rob you of joy, and bring them before God right now. Let's have a moment of silent prayer as we lay those joy-robbers at the feet of cross and claim God's victory over pain.