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Mothers Give More than Money

May 14, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Not So Random Acts of Giving
Not So Random Acts of Giving – Mothers Give More than Money
Sycamore Creek Church
May 13, 2012 (Mother’s Day)
Tom Arthur

Peace Friends!

I’m a new parent.  I have a seventeen month old.  Like every good parent, we occasionally dress him up in our alma mater, Wheaton, which has me thinking.  How am I going to pay for college?  How am I going to prepare for his future financially?  Micah’s godparents gave us a jumpstart on this by contributing to a college savings account.  So on his first birthday and first Christmas, we asked family to give to this college savings account rather than give him lots of gifts. 

But along the way, I’ve also been thinking a lot about how to intentionally teach Micah about God’s plan for money.  He’s got a lot to learn to not end up in the same boat as a lot of college students.  According to creditcards.com, the average household carries almost $16,000 in credit card debt.  In 2008 half of undergraduates had at least four credit cards, up from 43 percent in 2004 and 32 percent in 2000.  (Source: Sallie Mae, “How Undergraduate Students Use Credit Cards,” April 2009).  The average college student graduates with almost $20,000 in debt, and average credit card debt has increased 47 percent between 1989 and 2004 for 25- to 34-year-olds and 11 percent for 18- to 24-year-olds. Nearly one in five 18- to 24-year-olds is in “debt hardship,” up from 12 percent in 1989. (Source: Demos.org, “The Economic State of Young America,” May 2008).  According to USA Today, the average undergraduate carried $3,173 in credit card debt.  Yikes!  How can we all help teach our children to live differently?  We talk a lot about how to live differently when it comes to money, but rarely do we talk about how to intentionally teach our children how to live differently.  Thankfully the Bible has some principles that can guide us.

An old Methodist way of summarizing what the Bible teaches about money is to say make all you can, save all you can, and give all you can.  What I’d like to do today is walk through each of these and ask how we can intentionally teach our children how to live the way the Bible teaches.

Make All You Can

Lazy people are soon poor; hard workers get rich. 

A wise youth harvests in the summer, but one who sleeps during harvest is a disgrace.
Proverbs 10:4-5 NLT

For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil
1 Timothy 6:10 NLT

The Bible is clear that providing a living for yourself, your family, and your community is an important part of being human.  We aren’t made to lounge around in leisure all day long.  The question is, how do you teach your children to “make all they can” while at the same time not to fall into the love of money?

Over the past week I interviewed several different moms to see how they intentionally taught their children how to live into God’s plan for their money. Here are some of the ideas I heard along with a couple from Larry Burkett’s book, Financial Parenting.

Kris Richards’ family gives their children—Noah, Elise, and Lindsay—a commission on doing housework.  While there are some things everyone is required to do and not get paid for (like clearing the dishes from the table), they have a list of things that need to be done (trash, kitty litter, etc.) and they are required to do it to get paid.  If they don’t do it, they don’t get paid, but they are still required to do it!  Kris also provides several other opportunities around the house to do various projects to get paid. 

Marilyn Mannino got her daughter, Miranda, involved in 4H at a very young age.  Miranda was seeing other friends raise animals, take them to auction, and get paid at the end of it.  Miranda began with chickens and then progressed on to hogs.  She was required to pay all the expenses to feed and house the hogs. 

Sarah Arthur, my wife, grew up with parents who were in no hurry to have her find a job.  They encouraged her to be creative and enjoy time with family and friends, especially spending time outside.  They grew up without a TV so they weren’t wasting their time inside, but they also weren’t driven to get a job just so they could buy more stuff.  Eventually Sarah did get a job, but it wasn’t until her later teens. 

Larry Burkett recommends thinking of the family as a community.  There are certain benefits that one receives by being a part of a community, and there are certain responsibilities.  He suggests not tying too closely together those benefits (allowance) and responsibilities (chores).  Both are expected.  At the same time, he suggests hanging up a list of extra projects that can be done to earn money (e.g., mow the yard – $20).  These extra projects allow kids a chance to be assertive in making some extra money on top of their allowance. 

Save All You Can 

Know the state of your flocks, and put your heart into caring for your herds, for riches don’t last forever, and the crown might not be secure for the next generation.
Proverbs 27:23-24 NLT

Unless you’re part of 4H or live on the farm, you probably don’t have to teach your kids about flocks and herds, but you do have to teach them about how income and expenses come and go.   Here we’re talking about teaching your children how to live simply, save, and budget. 

Kris Richards has a three-envelope budgeting system with her children: giving, savings, and spending.  When they are given their “commission” each week, they put part of it in each of these three envelopes.  The kids have over time saved up hundreds of dollars.  When I asked her what they were saving it for, she didn’t have a specific thing, but imagined that it would probably be used for a car some day in the not so distant future (Noah and Elise are both thirteen).  Kris also mentioned that her kids can sometimes get focused on stuff.  They notice fancy new cars in their neighbors’ driveways and in-ground pools in their backyards.  Kris and her husband, Brian, often remind them that these things are probably bought on a lease or debt.  

Marilyn Mannino has had a hard time with this over the years because her husband doesn’t like to budget.  While they live simply and have paid off all their debts, and save to buy for cars, they have always made a comfortable living and haven’t needed the discipline of a budget.  At the same time, she has found it important to try to teach her children about budgeting.  Her son, Joe, wanted to go to prom this year.  So they put an envelope in his drawer and began contributing to it weekly.  They had to plan ahead because the tickets were so much and only sold at certain dates. 

Sarah Arthur’s parents gave Sarah and her sister comparative huge allowances each month because they gave them money for all their monthly expenses: lunch money, clothing, school supplies, entertainment, etc.  They were required to budget this money and make it last.  If they ran out, that was too bad.  They’d have to find a way to make it to next month’s allowance and plan better.  Also, when Sarah did begin working, her parents required her to pay a certain percentage (about 15%) for “room and board.”  She was expected to contribute to the household.  What she didn’t know was that her parents were setting that aside and when she got married, they gave it to her as a gift. 

Larry Burkett suggests beginning with a basic budget like Kris Richards’ family: give, save, spend.  As the children grow older, this budget should get more complex and become more and more like real life.  Burkett even suggests as they become teenagers to institute a household “tax” of 5%.  This money then goes in a community fund that the family decides together how to spend.  This helps them realize and learn about taxes and making financial decisions with a community of people.  Perhaps, one of Burkett’s more startling ideas is that as teenagers get older, they should be given a supervised opportunity to run the family finances for six months.  He likens it to teaching kids how to drive. 

Give All You Can

 Remember this — a farmer who plants only a few seeds will get a small crop. But the one who plants generously will get a generous crop. You must each make up your own mind as to how much you should give. Don’t give reluctantly or in response to pressure. For God loves the person who gives cheerfully. And God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others.
2 Corinthians 9:6-8 NLT 

If you sow generously by giving generously, then you’ll reap generously.  But if you’re a scrooge with your money, then you won’t receive many blessing back either.  I don’t think the Bible is always talking about financial blessings here.  Giving generously and cheerfully nurtures a kind of joy and freedom that is priceless.  So how do families intentionally teach their children how to be generous?  Back to our moms. 

Marilyn shared about how she tries to model it.  This is a little tricky at times because she and her husband aren’t always in agreement on this, so she tithes from her own income.  In this way she models it for her kids. 

Kris makes this part of each child’s budget.  She says it’s not hard for them to give joyfully because they began young.  It was all given to them freely in the first place, so why get upset when they’ve always been required to put aside 10%?  Because an offering isn’t taken in the youth gathering (something we’ll explore changing!), Noah and Elise both give their portion to their younger sister, Lindsay, to give in Kids Creek.  

Sarah described how her parents never complained about what they weren’t being able to buy because of their tithing.  She remembers driving with someone one time and hearing this person wistfully comment about a big house they were driving by, “If I hadn’t tithed my whole life, maybe I could have afforded a house like that.”  This way of thinking was foreign to her.  Sarah has also watched her parents be generous with us.  Two times they have given us interest free loans: when we bought a house to make some upgrades, and when we had our son to buy a new car.  In both ways they were able to give generously not just to church but to their family because they were living simply.  I recently wrote them a note thanking them for their generosity and telling them that when I grow up I want to be generous just like them. 

Larry Burkett points out that sometimes children who are natural savers need to be encouraged to spend their money.  Hoarding isn’t a biblical idea.  The Bible teaches that money is for living and giving.  One wonderful reminder that Burkett gives parents is that savings can also be used by children to give generously to the needs of others.  Giving is one way of “spending” savings. 

Changed Lives

What would our church look like if all our parents were teaching their kids about God’s plan for money?  If parents intentionally taught their children God’s plan for money, I think that we would be a seriously counter cultural community that would have several distinctive features: 

First, we’d be a community full of families living in peace.  Imagine not having arguments about money.  Imagine not being torn about whether to pay this bill or that bill.  Marilyn described the conflict in her family growing up because of money issues.  It was what motivated her to live differently so that her children didn’t have to live with the same kind of stress. 

Second, we’d be an attractive community.  If all our families were living full of peace about finances, how long would it take before our friends, extended families, and neighbors began to notice and be curious about what was making this peace possible?  Not long.  Sharing our faith is most effective when it comes from a place of transformation. 

Third, we’d have more integrity in our own financial dealings.  It’s said that teaching is learning twice.  If all our families began intentionally teaching children how to handle money, they just might begin living into those principles more fully themselves.  Kris said that this already happens for her.  Her children are reminders of what they have taught them about living differently. 

Fourth, we as a community could be more generous with our church, community, and world.  We could reach out and touch more lives.  We could meet more needs.  A generous church is generous because it is made up of generous families. 

So what’s your plan?  How will you intentionally teach your children about God’s plan for money?  Don’t have a plan? Then set aside some time this week to make a plan.  Or check out the resources listed below.  Let me pray for you in that effort. 

Creator God, all that we have is yours to begin with.  Help us to be good stewards of those gifts, and help us to be good stewards of the children that you have given us.  Help us to intentionally teach them your plan for money.  May it be so in our lives in the name of your son, Jesus Christ. Amen. 

Further Resources

www.daveramsey.com (Brian and Kris Richards – 393-6107)
Financial Parenting by Larry Burkett and Rick Osborn
Share, Save, Spend Money Discussion Cards by Vibrant Faith Ministries

Small Group Discussion Questions

Each week we provide discussion questions for small groups that meet regularly to discuss the message for the week.  Want to find a small group to join?  Email Mark Aupperlee – m_aupperlee@hotmail.com

 How are you intentionally teaching your children or how did your parents intentionally teach you to…

1. Make money in honest ways?
2. Budget, save, and live simply?
3. Give generously and cheerfully?
4. What helpful resources are you familiar with for family finances?

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Big Bang Faith – The Faith and Medicine Algorithm

May 8, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Big Bang Faith

Big Bang Faith – The Faith and Medicine Algorithm
Sycamore Creek Church
May 6, 2012
Tom Arthur
Luke 4:14-20

Bazinga, Friends!

I am naturally a skeptic. When it comes to the supernatural and miraculous, I tend to have a lot of questions. I’ve never seen a miraculous healing, even though I hear claims about them all the time. When I was in elementary school, I had a bad skateboarding accident and seriously cut up my knee. When I walked the mile to get home with blood streaming down my leg, I found an empty house. My mom was gone. I got into bed and prayed that if God stopped the bleeding, I’d read the Bible from front to back. I picked up the Bible and began reading Genesis. Well, the bleeding did eventually stop, but it didn’t appear to be anything more than natural processes at work. I did eventually read my entire Bible, but not for several years.

While reading for this sermon, I was at a café and put my book on the counter to pay. One of the employees picked it up and asked what I was reading. It was a book titled Miracles. I told her it was a book about miracles and then asked her if she had ever experienced any miracles. She thought for a moment and then went on to tell me how every day life is a miracle. She is a gardener and finds the beauty of flowers to be a miracle. I agree, but that’s not really what I mean when I talk about a miracle. I’m talking about something that doesn’t happen every day. Something unexpected.

While researching for this message, I came across a show called Miracles for Sale by a famous British illusionist named Darren Brown. The U.K.’s version of David Copperfield. Brown studied the “tricks” that faith healers use, a mixture of illusion and psychological suggestion, then secretly auditioned actors to play the part of a faith healer and taught that person how to use illusions and psychological suggestion to “heal” people. They traveled to Texas and put on a faith healing service, and “healed” people. Their attack was not against faith or the church, but against manipulative, fraudulent faith healers who sell miracles. I found the whole show very compelling, but while certain faith healers who closely tie together money and healing may be charlatans, I’m not sure that healings are always just illusions.

The closest I’ve come to something miraculous are two stories my mom tells about encountering angels. One happened while I was in elementary school and riding in the car with her. She had left her wallet on the top of the car when she filled the gas tank up. She was a single mom at the time, and when she realized what she had done, she became very anxious. She had a car full of kids and was on a busy road, so she prayed for God to send her someone to help her find her wallet. She locked the doors, told us to stay put, and went looking for her wallet. At some point she looked up and a man was walking toward her. He had her wallet. She was extremely grateful and thanked him profusely. When she turned around to walk back to the car, she decided she ought to give him some cash from her wallet as a gift for helping her. She turned back around to give him some money, and he was gone! Vanished! Nowhere to be seen. She believes God sent her an angel.

I think that many of us have this one basic question when it comes to faith and healing: do miraculous healings happen?

Miracles?

David Hume, one key Enlightenment era philosopher, had this to say about miracles:

There is not to be found, in all history, any miracle attested by a sufficient number of men, of such unquestioned good sense, education, and learning, as to secure us against all delusion in themselves.

I think that a lot of us have that same sentiment. Hume’s statement also has a subtle prejudice in it that comes out more strongly elsewhere when he says:

It forms a strong presumption against all spiritual and miraculous relations, that they are observed chiefly to abound among ignorant and barbarous people.

Basically, Hume is saying that if you’re not a white educated western man, your thoughts on this topic aren’t very reliable. And if we’re honest, I think most of us hold at least some version of this same prejudice. Those cultures in “third world” countries are naturally more superstitious and too easily believe in the supernatural.

In his book The Screwtape Letters C.S. Lewis tells the story of an elder demon mentoring a younger demon. In the preface to this book, Lewis says,

There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them.

Perhaps those of us in the west are too prone to disbelieve in the supernatural and those in the majority of the world are too prone to believe in the supernatural. While it may be inappropriate to fall in the extremes when it comes to faith and healing, there is no doubt that healing is part of the story of Jesus as told by the Bible.

Jesus Heals

At the very beginning of Jesus’ public ministry and teaching, he stands up in a synagogue and reads from the book of Isaiah. Here is what he reads and says:

Luke 4:14-21 NLT

Then Jesus returned to Galilee, filled with the Holy Spirit’s power. Soon he became well known throughout the surrounding country. He taught in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.

When he came to the village of Nazareth, his boyhood home, he went as usual to the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read the Scriptures. The scroll containing the messages of Isaiah the prophet was handed to him, and he unrolled the scroll to the place where it says:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
for he has appointed me to preach Good News to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim
that captives will be released,
that the blind will see,
that the downtrodden will be freed from their oppressors,
and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.”

He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the attendant, and sat down. Everyone in the synagogue stared at him intently. Then he said, “This Scripture has come true today before your very eyes!”

Jesus claims that in him the prophesy of Isaiah that justice will come and people will be healed has come true. And then as you read the first four books of the New Testament, you see this coming true. Jesus heals the blind, lame, deaf, paraplegic, demon possessed, epileptic, and more. Gerd Theissen and Annette Merz, Bible scholars at the University of Heidelberg, say that “nowhere else are so many miracles reported of a single person as they are in the Gospels of Jesus.” Another scholar points out that “31 percent of the verses in Mark’s Gospel involve miracles in some way, or some 40 percent of his narrative!” (Keener, pg 66).

But aren’t these healing stories just an example of the big fish story? It was so big that by the time it got away and the story has been told over and over, it was the size of a whale! Aren’t these miracle stories just legendary mythical additions to the text over time? Craig Keener points out that “contrary to assumptions that miracle stories would always grow in time, other Gospels’ use of Mark shows that abbreviation was as common as development” (Keener, pg 31). John Meier, a New Testament scholar at Notre Dame adds that “the early dating of the literary testimony to Jesus’ miracles, the closeness of the dates of the written ‘docs’ to the alleged miracles of Jesus’ life, is almost unparalleled for the period” (Keener, pg 71).

It turns out that these miracle stories, while they can’t be proved, are not so spurious as some have thought. But assuming that Jesus did really heal people back in the day, will Jesus heal me?

Pray for Healing and Make Healthy Choices

Sometimes I think that we treat God like a genie in a bottle. Got a problem? Rub the bottle and out pops God to give us three wishes. But God is even more generous than the genie, because every time we have a problem and rub the bottle, we get three more wishes!

My own observation, which I think is pretty obvious, is that while God can and does heal, God does not always heal when and how you want. God’s usual way of working in the world is to allow actions to have natural consequences. Do you expect God to overturn the natural consequences of poor choices? Do you not study for a test and then pray to pass? Do you sit on your duff all day long without ever exercising and pray for your heart blockage to be healed? Do you smoke a pack a day and then pray for God to heal your lung cancer? God’s usual way of working in the world is to work through natural means. So seek out doctors, physical therapists, trainers, coaches, dieticians, and the like. God is less like a genie and more like a surgeon. He is less likely to give you your three wishes and more likely to cut the cancer out of your bad habits.

Now there is a perception out there that being a Christian is somehow a kind of an unhealthy mental illness. If you’re a believer, you must be unhealthy. You can see this in one of the new atheists, Richard Dawkins’ book titled: The God Delusion. The implication is clear: Faith = mental illness.

Research actually shows the opposite. The Duke University Center for the Study of Religion and Spirituality has been studying the effects of faith and faith practices on health for many years now. The truth is that if you participate in faith practices, you are likely to be more healthy. Here is a list of some of their findings:

  • People who regularly attend church, pray individually, and read the Bible have significantly lower diastolic blood pressure than the less religious. Those with the lowest blood pressure both attend church and pray or study the Bible often.
  • People who attend church regularly are hospitalized much less often than people who never or rarely participate in religious services.
  • People with strong religious faith are less likely to suffer depression from stressful life events, and if they do, they are more likely to recover from depression than those who are less religious.
  • People with strong faith who suffer from physical illness have significantly better health outcomes than less religious people.
  • People who attend religious services regularly have stronger immune systems than their less religious counterparts.
  • Religious people live longer.

(Taken from The Healing Power of Faith by Harold Koenig, M.D.)

So pray for healing and expect to be healed, but don’t forget to make healthy choices too. And one of those healthy choices is choosing to pray!

The Purpose of Healing

So is disease always about the poor choices you made? Are you sick because you sinned? Jesus is asked a question like this:

“Teacher,” his disciples asked him, “why was this man born blind? Was it a result of his own sins or those of his parents?” “It was not because of his sins or his parents’ sins,” Jesus answered. “He was born blind so the power of God could be seen in him.”
John 9:2-4 NLT

Jesus points out that this blindness has nothing to do with personal sin. No one sinned in such a way that the man was born blind. Since the man was born blind, I guess the people asking Jesus this question thought that someone could sin before birth! Jesus points out that they’re asking the wrong question. The ultimate purpose of healing is to bring God glory.

Imagine with me for a moment what kind of glory we would bring God if SCC became known as oasis of health and healing amidst a broken and diseased culture. What if we became known as a hospital for the sick? We should attract the sick, but if we are faithfully teaching how to practice the faith, they should experience healing here too.

Actually, I already see it happening. There’s a small group of women who, concerned about their health, are meeting to run and/or walk in preparation for an upcoming 5K. They call it a Run for God small group. Exercising in a group is always easier than exercising alone. There’s an accountability in the process of being active with friends.

I see people in our church losing weight. I myself have lost some weight lately. All the men in my family are overweight and suffering from some kind of diabetes. I have a covenant with my pants that I will never leave them nor forsake them. Back in November my pants were getting a little tight as I was hitting the upper end of my healthy weight limit. Instead of waiting until I was overweight, I decided to lose some weight. I bought into Weight Watchers online and have lost fifteen pounds since November, and now I’m in the middle of my healthy weight range. But I also know some among us who have lost thirty or forty pounds and have regained significant health in the process.

I have seen people in our church quit smoking or give up drugs or alcohol. They’ve done so after being convicted by God’s Spirit at work in their heart or mind. Some who are struggling with emotional or relational issues have found support and help for coping in our support group that meets twice a month. I see people rebuilding broken relationships, forgiving past harm, and renewing their marriages. God is at work healing in our church. So does God heal, and can God heal you? Yes, but not always how or when we want. God is God, not your personal genie.

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Not So Random Acts of Giving – Begins this Sunday

May 7, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Not So Random Acts of Giving

If you want to get better at anything, what’s the best way to do it?  Wait for random opportunities or create a plan?  The answer is obvious.  The same is true about the way that we handle our money.  God wants us to give generously.  So what’s the best way to go about growing in our generosity?  Waiting for random opportunities or creating a plan?  The answer is obvious.  Join us for a two-week series where we explore God’s plan for growing your faith and love by intentional giving.

May 13, 2012 – Mother’s Give More than Money

May 20, 2012 – Big Dreams and Bold Prayers (Commitment Sunday Annual Pledge)

Audio Downloads

Meeting at Lansing Christian School
3405 Belle Chase Way
Lansing, MI 48911
517-394-6100

Sunday Worship & Nursery – 9:30 AM & 11:15 AM
Kid’s Creek and StuREV – 11:15AM

Map

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Big Bang Faith – The Evolution of Faith and Evolution

May 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Big Bang Faith

This past Sunday, Mark Aupperlee, a cancer researcher at MSU and volunteer at SCC, spoke on evolution and faith.  It was an amazing sermon.  Mark doesn’t write out manuscripts, but here’s a link the audio download.  It’s well worth listening to.

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Big Bang Faith – The Reverse Projection Theory

April 28, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Big Bang Faith

Big Bang Faith – The Reverse Projection Theory
Sycamore Creek Church
April 22, 2012
Tom Arthur

Peace, Friends!

Today we continue our series on faith and science by looking at the science of psychology.  Christianity and psychology have had a somewhat tumultuous relationship ever since the founding father of psychology, Sigmund Freud, wrote:

To begin with, we know that God is a father-substitute; or, more correctly, that he is an exalted father; or, yet again, that he is a copy of a father as he is seen and experienced in childhood – by individuals in their own childhood and by mankind in its prehistory as the father of the primitive and primal horde.

According to Freud, God is simply a projection of our fathers, both current and primal, upon the heavens.  We want a good and powerful father, and we don’t have one, so we imagine one in the sky.

I don’t doubt that too often we project our desires for who we want God to be upon God.  Too often we make God in our own image or in the image of whatever it is that we desire God to be.  But just because we have a tendency to project our image upon God doesn’t rule out that we were first made in the image of God ourselves.  That’s what the Bible claims:

So God created people in his own image;
God patterned them after himself;
male and female he created them.
Genesis 1:27 NLT

While Freud makes a powerful argument, I wonder if the opposite argument can’t be made.  Do we at times project upon the heavens our own desire for there not to be a God?  Freud himself said:

Religious ideas…are illusions, fulfillments of the oldest, strongest and most urgent wishes of mankind.

Is this not true to some extent of all our ideas?  Religious or atheist?  C.S. Lewis, a contemporary of Freud’s often wrote in response to the new psychology.  When it comes to this idea of religion being wish fulfillment he says:

Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for these desires exists. A baby feels hunger; well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim; well, there is such a thing as water. Men feel sexual desire; well, there is such a thing as sex. If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.

So is God just a projection of our wishes upon the sky?  Could be.  But the opposite could be true too.

All Truth Is God’s Truth

It seems that Freud wanted to put a lot of distance between faith and science.  But is there no overlap?  How do the science of psychology and faith work together?  The wisdom of the Proverbs says:

God delights in concealing things;
scientists delight in discovering things.
Proverbs 25:2 The Message

In other words, God didn’t write a text book that explained exactly how everything works.  No quantum theory text book there.  It is God’s delight to hold back his cards when it comes to some things, and let people discover them.  But when it comes to psychology, there is a little more overlap between faith and science.  According to David Myers, a psychologist at Hope College, there are four ways that psychology and faith converge.

2. We are awesome but flawed

When it comes to our brains, we are the most complex organism the world has ever seen.  And yet our brains in all their complexity are prone to judgment errors.  This sounds a lot like the Bible teaching that we are fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139) in the image of God, and yet all have fallen short of the glory of God and have sinned (Romans 3).  Psychology and faith converge in agreement upon this point.

2. Self-serving bias

This second place of convergence between psychology and faith grows out of the first.  We tend to act in self-serving ways.  We ignore the needs of others around us to secure our own needs.  Christianity teaches that not only do we sin, but we have a bent toward sin called original sin.  We are unable not to sin.  Psychology and faith converge in agreement upon this point.

3. Attitudes affect action and action affects attitudes

Psychological research has found that there is a reciprocal relationship between our attitudes and our actions.  They affect one another.  It’s not a one way street.  Likewise, Christianity has taught that faith and works go hand in hand.  Faith, our attitude toward God, affects how we live, but also what we do either grows our faith or diminishes it.

4. People and situations influence each other

The fourth place of convergence is an expansion of the third from the personal to the communal: our environment shapes us and we shape our environment.  Who you spend time with and where you spend time are important decisions for the kind of person you will become.  Christianity teaches that God has created a community to help us become who God has created us to become.

Critiques/Limitations of Psychology

While there are at least four if not more points of overlap between faith and psychology, there are some limitations of the science of psychology.  Let’s talk about three.

1.      Scientific Method vs. Psychological Method

Psychology has adopted the scientific method which is based upon the observable phenomena of objects moving and interacting with one another.  But how does one observe a mental process?  Using the scientific method to study phenomena that are not easily observable has some limits.

2.      Not Value Neutral

More so than the physical sciences, psychology must deal with values and values are not neutral.  Take for example the question, “What is healthy?” Can data answer this question?  Theory has to answer this question.  Theory provides a framework for interpreting data.  Values of health that psychologists hold influence psychology in significant ways.  You can see this in one simple way: psychologists don’t all agree on what “healthy” is.

3.      Doesn’t Answer Ultimate Questions

Lastly, while psychology can shed considerable light on our lives, it cannot answer the ultimate questions.  Leo Tolstoy posed these three ultimate questions: “Why should I live?  Why should I do anything?  Is there in life any purpose?”  Psychology cannot answer these three questions, but faith does.  Just to give you an example, the first question of the Westminster catechism is: what is the purpose of man?  The answer is: to glorify God and enjoy him always.

Psychological Value

So what exactly is the value of psychology?  First, I’ve found my own personal experience with psychology to be very helpful. I have sought out counselors several times in my life around two basic issues: relationships and emotions.  When my relationship with my family has been strained, I have sought out a counselor for help.  Likewise I have struggled with two emotions, anger and anxiety, that have sent me looking for some help.  In all of these instances, I have found talking to a counselor helpful in giving me guidance for restoring relationships and managing emotions.

Second, the question arises for a person of faith whether to go to a counselor who is also a person of faith or someone else.  My own sense is that I have always begun by seeking out a person who shares my faith, but this has not always been available to me.  So I have seen both Christian and non-Christian counselors.  Both were helpful, but I found meeting with Christian counselors to be more helpful.  Some of this may simply be that I feel like I have less to explain and more in common.  But even with Christian counselors, there are good and bad counselors.  Wisdom can be found both in Christians and non-Christians, and I would seek out wisdom wherever it is to be found.

Lastly, Christianity is psychology and ministry is counseling.  What we do here at SCC is itself a kind of psychology and counseling.  Psychological research has shown that the more kind of social supports you have around you, the more robust you will be in dealing with psychological challenges.  It turns out that going to church and being involved helps you psychologically.  Practices like being in a small group provide people to talk to who may not be trained psychologists, but are people who will listen and reflect on life together.  Contrary to what Freud suggests, faith isn’t a disease, “the universal obsessional neurosis,” but faith practices make you more healthy!

Conclusion

While the father of psychology had a bone to pick with religion, time has shown that psychology and faith are much more compatible than Freud was able to see.  The church itself even turns out to be helpful to people’s psychological health.  So how involved are you?  How many opportunities are you taking to build social supports through worship and small groups?  Not only will these practices help your psychological health, they’ll also help answer the ultimate questions of life:

Why should I live?
Why should I do anything?
Is there in life any purpose?

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Big Bang Faith – The Who Banged It Theory

April 17, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Big Bang Faith

Big Bang Faith – The Who Banged It Theory
Sycamore Creek Church
April 15, 2012
Tom Arthur
Genesis 1:1

Peace Friends!

Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence. Faith is belief in spite of, even perhaps because of, the lack of evidence.
~Richard Dawkins

Religion and science are incompatible, incongruent, and irreconcilable.
~Christopher Hitchens

So say the new atheists.  Science and faith just don’t go together.  Science is about truth.  Faith is about something else.  But is this really true? Are science and faith so incongruent after all?  Or do we need to divorce the two and get on with our lives?

I’d like to suggest to you over the next four weeks that science and faith are not in contradiction to one another.  Sometimes they overlap more than other times, but all in all, science and faith can not only coexist but thrive together.

Perhaps a quick analogy is in order.  Science asks the question How? Science tells us that a kettle boils because gas combusts with oxygen and releases energy in the form of heat.  But is this all that can be said about what’s going on here?  What about the Why?  A kettle boils so friends can sit down for a cup of tea.  Or in the case of one group of friends, a men’s tea party!  Can science answer the question of why a men’s tea party?

Men's Tea Party

Literal or Something Else?

Ok, let’s back up a bit.  Let’s go back to the very beginnings of the clash between science and faith.  Who do we go back to here?  Galileo.  Right?  The big controversy of the day was between Galileo’s teaching that the earth moved around the sun and the church’s teaching that the earth was the center and everything else moved around it.  Who was right?  Galileo.  OK, Galileo, the church was wrong.  We’re sorry.  Please forgive us.

Actually, in apologizing to Galileo we’re making an apology within the Christian community because Galileo was a Catholic and remained one (on house arrest).  He even saw that what he was doing was part of fulfilling God’s purposes for his life.  So when we, the church, apologize to Galileo, let’s remember that we’re apologizing to one of our own.  Just in case he missed it the first time: Galileo, we’re sorry.  We were wrong.  You were right.  Please forgive us.

Now let’s look at some of the scriptures that the church used to argue against Galileo:

The world is firmly established; it cannot be shaken.
Psalm 93:1 NLT

The sun rises at one end of the heavens and follows its course to the other end.|
Psalm 19:6 NLT

Does any Christian of any stripe or flavor today believe that these verses (and others like them) require us to believe that the Earth doesn’t move and that everything else (sun, stars, galaxies, etc.) revolves around the Earth?  No. I have never met even the most ardent fundamentalist who wants to hold that because these two verses are in the Bible that Christians must believe in an Earth-centered universe.  We have noticed since the time of Galileo that these verses are poetic in nature.  They are in the Psalms, a book of poetry!

So let’s look at another more contentious (by today’s standards) verse:

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Genesis 1:1 NLT

If we continue reading this we all know that the way the story goes, God created everything in six days and rested on the seventh.  The question before us then is this: is this story at the beginning of Genesis more like the poetry of the Psalms or is it more like the history of some other books of the Bible?

You may think that this is a question that has only arisen in modern times by modern Christians wrestling with science.  You would be wrong.  This is a live question throughout almost all of Christian history. Just to give you a taste of Christians who wrestled with this in much earlier times, here are two:

Now what man of intelligence will believe that the first, the second and the third day, and the evening and morning existed without the sun, moon, and stars?
Origin (2nd-3rd Century)

We do not read in the Gospel that the Lord said that I send to you the Paraclete [Holy Spirit] who will teach you about the course of the sun and the moon, for he wanted to make Christians and not mathematicians.
Augustine (4th-5th Century)

Did you catch that?  As early as the second century, Christians were thinking that Genesis chapter one is perhaps not to be taken literally.  So if not literally, then how are we to take Genesis’ creation story?  Here’s my educated guess at this point in my understanding of what is going on in Genesis’ creation story.

Genesis chapter one is a poetic account of God creating his very own temple.  The creation of this temple runs parallel to the creation of the tabernacle as it is told later in the Torah, the first five books of the Bible.  When someone creates a temple, what is the last thing that gets put in the temple?  The idol.  Right?  Interestingly enough, the word that is translated “idol” in other places in the Old Testament is translated “image” in Genesis.  Now who or what bears God’s image in creation?  Human beings are made in the image of God.  Creation is God’s temple, and we are God’s images, God’s idols, if you will.  Why is this important?  Because there is a political undertone, a subversive message in a story that says that all humanity (men and women) are made in God’s image.  Remember who was considered God’s image in ancient times?  The kings.  So if a story about creation suggests that the king isn’t the only one made in God’s image, whose power is that story undermining?  The king’s power!  So Genesis is a poetic story of God creating God’s temple and creating all of us as God’s image so that we wouldn’t forget that it’s not just the kings who matter to God.  Genesis’ creation story is less a science book and more a political manifesto.

The Big Bang Theory

Christians have often considered there to be two books by which we learn about God.  The first book is of course the Bible.  We’ve been looking at that book so far.  But there’s another book: the book of creation.  Science is the study of this book.  Science does its best to answer the question of How? when it comes to describing the book of creation.  It should be obvious but let me say it anyway, all truth is God’s truth no matter where you find it.  When you find truth in science, it is God’s truth.  When you find truth in people who aren’t Christians, it is God’s truth.  When you find truth in the Bible, it is God’s truth.  All truth is God’s truth.  Science is an exploration of the truth about creation.

Science tells the story of the beginning of creation in a different way than the book of Genesis tells it.  The title of Science’s story is often called the big bang theory.  In a nutshell, science has shown mathematically how the universe is expanding.  If you take those trajectories and run them backwards, you end up with what science calls a singularity: the moment when all matter is condensed into a single point.  It all had a beginning.

Did you know that the first person to prove this idea mathematically was a Belgian Catholic priest named Georges Lemaître?  Yes, it was a Christian who first proved the Big Bang!  Lemaître even went head to head with Einstein on this.  Einstein said, “Your math is right, but your physics are abhorrent.”  In the end Lemaître won that argument.

Not only did Lemaître win that argument with Einstein, but he also took his information to Pope Pius XI.  This was so compelling to Pope Pius that he proclaimed the big bang theory as compatible with Christian faith.  Pope Pius was more confident than Lemaître about this.  Lemaître was concerned that should his math or physics be proven wrong, then the faith would be disgraced by the Pope’s public proclamation.  Well, in the end neither Lemaître nor the Pope proved to be wrong and the vast majority of physicists believe that the big bang theory is a correct way to describe the beginnings of the universe.

One very interesting piece of science that goes along with the big bang theory is what some physicists call the anthropic principle.  “Anthropic” means human-centered. Here’s how it works: There are six fundamental constants of matter that allow human life to exist because they are exceptionally fine-tuned.

Let’s look at one of those constants called Lambda or sometimes “dark matter.”  Lambda is the parameter which controls the long-range acceleration of the expansion of the universe in relativity.  Did you catch that?  Neither did I.  But basically it has to do with how fast the universe expands from that moment of singularity in the big bang.  The value of lambda is a factor of 10-120.  That’s a one with a hundred and twenty zeros following it.  If lambda were a shade off one way or another, human life could not exist.

So how improbable is it that lambda and these other five universal constants are so finely tuned?  Just to have one of them so finely tuned would be would be equal to “getting the mix of flour and sugar right to within one grain of sugar in a cake ten times the mass of the sun” (Tony Hewish as quoted by Polkinghorne).  Or consider making a hole-in-one on the golf course.  The current record is 448 yards.  The fine-tuning of one of these constants would be like hitting a hole in one teeing off from Pluto times thirteen!  Put all these together, and I’ve heard it described this way: It’s like a tornado blowing through a junk yard and creating a fully functioning 747.  The probability of these things happening as they have is beyond minute.  The universe is exceptionally fine-tuned to support human life.  Did it just happen that way?  Or were the dice loaded?

A Strange World

The world is stranger than we all thought.  In some ways it’s stranger than we could have ever imagined.  Quantum theory has shed a strange light on what we know about the way the universe works.  Classical physics, the brain-child of Isaac Newton (who was a Christian), attempted to describe mathematically the way that objects move, but as we began to be able to see ever smaller and smaller objects (protons, electrons, quarks, and now bosons, nick-named “the God particle”), physicists noticed that they didn’t move the way that classical physics said they should.  Things are weird at the subatomic level.  Matter and energy act like both waves and particles.  Werner Heisenberg developed his famous Heisenberg uncertainty principle: you can know where something is going or where it is but not both at the same time!  In fact if you shoot an electron at a wall with two openings on it and record where it goes, you’ll notice something strange: it appears to have gone through both openings!  String theorists think that the electron going from point A to point B takes every possible path to get there.  This means that every possibility is possible.  And this has led some physicists, like Stephen Hawking, to believe in a multiverse: multiple universes where every possibility plays out at least once.

Faith Seeking Understanding

The world is definitely even stranger than you can imagine.  And yet when I read about these developments, I am inclined to simply be more and more in awe of God.  I don’t see the progression of scientific knowledge as antithetical to my faith.  I see it as informing my faith in a very interesting and dynamic conversation.  And I’m not the only one.  One scientist I have learned a lot from is John Polkinghorne.  Polkinghorne was professor of Mathematical physics at the University of Cambridge from 1968 to 1979 before he left his endowed chair to become a priest.  Now he spends his time lecturing and writing about the intersection of faith and science.  I listened to his introductory textbook , A Short Introduction to Quantum Theory, while preparing for this series.  It’s not a book about faith or God. In fact God never comes up in the book.  It is a basic text book for upper-level physics classes, or perhaps physics for non-physicists.

Polkinghorne is a theoretical physicist scientist through and through, and yet in his book he told the story of researchers finding the positron.  The positron is a subatomic particle the size of an electron (much smaller than a proton) but positively charged.  No one even looked for this particle until a new radical theory suggested it should be there.  So researchers went about looking for it and found it.  They even went back to old experiments and noticed that it could be seen there too.  Polkinghorne comments that “researchers tend not to notice things they aren’t looking for.”

Several hundreds of years earlier, Augustine said basically the same thing: “Therefore do not seek to understand in order to believe, but believe that thou mayest understand.”  We tend to think that you have to understand before you can believe, but as the search for the positron shows, sometimes you have to believe before you can see or understand it.  Anselm, a Christian scholar writing in the eleventh century wrote a book called, Faith Seeking Understanding.  In it he suggests that Christians should seek understanding about God and our world from a foundation of faith.  There is a kind of humility in both Augustine and Anselm.  It is a humility that recognizes that we don’t know everything.  Our knowledge is and always will be finite.

Christians can learn from science and science can learn from Christians.  Science seeks to answer the question of How?  And faith seeks to answer the question of Why?  Why is there something rather than nothing?  And that brings us back full circle to that men’s tea party.  I’m not so interested in how this exists, but why does it exist?

Men's Tea Party

For Further Exploration
www.testoffaith.com
John Polkinghorne – Questions of Truth
John Lennox – Seven Days that Define the World

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Big Bang Faith

April 10, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Big Bang FaithScience and faith are contradictory.  Are they?  God is just a psychological crutch.  Sure about that?  Evolution proves God isn’t necessary.  Does it?  Miracles don’t really happen.  Never?  Join us for a four week exploration of modern science and faith.  Along the way we’ll meet scientists who are also people of faith.  In the end you’ll have a better understanding of how faith and science complement one another.  Or do they?

April 15 – The Who Banged It Theory (Faith and the Beginning of the Universe)
April 22 – The Reverse Projection Theory (Freud and Faith)
April 29 –The Evolution of Faith and Evolution (Darwin and God)
May 6 – The Faith and Medicine Algorithm (Healing and Faith)

May 6 – Special Film Screening: Test of Faith (Details TBA)

Meeting at Lansing Christian School
3405 Belle Chase Way
Lansing, MI 48911

www.sycamorecreekchurch.org
517-394-6100

Sunday Worship & Nursery – 9:30 AM & 11:15 AM
Kid’s Creek and StuREV – 11:15AM”

Map

 

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The Languages of Easter

April 10, 2012 By Leave a Comment

The Languages of Easter

The Languages of Easter
Sycamore Creek Church
April 8, 2012
Tom Arthur
John 20:1-29

Jesus is risen, Friends! Happy Easter!

Today I’d like to explore the way that God talks to us at Easter.  Are you familiar with the idea of love languages?  Gary Chapman, a psychologist and marriage counselor, wrote a very influential book several years ago called The Five Love Languages.  The basic idea of this book is that each of us speaks one of five love languages.  It’s our natural way of showing and hearing love.  They are: 

  1. Words of Affirmation
  2. Quality Time
  3. Receiving Gifts
  4. Acts of Service
  5. Physical Touch

If you try to speak love in a language they don’t speak, then they won’t hear it, and your relationship love tank will be depleted over time.  If you learn what love language your loved one speaks and speak it, then you will fill up their love tank and your relationship will be full of warmth and joy.  That’s the basic idea of The Five Love Languages.

As I was reading the Easter story this year, I began to notice a similar thing going on with each of the characters in the story: John, Mary, the Disciples, and Thomas.  Each one seemed to believe in a different way.  Could each one of them have a different “faith language”?  As I studied and reflected more, I began to see that not only do each of them have a different faith language, but amazingly, God spoke to each person in language that they could understand.  While I didn’t find five faith languages, I did find four.  I’d like to look at them one by one this morning and see how God gives to each person exactly what they need to have faith that Jesus really was resurrected from the dead.  So let’s dive into the story and hear how God speaks different languages at Easter.

Simple Faith – The Beloved Disciple (John)

John 20:1-10 NLT
Early Sunday morning, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. She ran and found Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. She said, “They have taken the Lord’s body out of the tomb, and I don’t know where they have put him!”

Peter and the other disciple ran to the tomb to see. The other disciple outran Peter and got there first. He stooped and looked in and saw the linen cloth lying there, but he didn’t go in. Then Simon Peter arrived and went inside. He also noticed the linen wrappings lying there, while the cloth that had covered Jesus’ head was folded up and lying to the side. Then the other disciple also went in, and he saw and believed —  for until then they hadn’t realized that the Scriptures said he would rise from the dead. Then they went home.

We see three different characters in this story and they all experience the same thing: an empty tomb.  Mary Magdalene sees the empty tomb and thinks that his body has been stolen.  We don’t really get what Peter thinks when he sees the empty tomb.  But “the other disciple” which is John’s way of talking about himself has a very distinct response.  We read:

Then the other disciple also went in, and he saw [the empty tomb] and believed.
John 20:8 NLT

What? John sees an empty tomb and believes? Why not have Mary’s response: they’ve stolen the body?  Why not ask a million questions about what could have happened?  Why does he simply believe?  The answer is: because John speaks the language of simple faith.  He doesn’t need a lot of explanation.  He simply believes.

We all know people like this.  We may even be a person like this.  The person who speaks simple faith simply believes.  Questions about this or that don’t get under their skin.  They’re content trusting that God knows the answer even if they don’t.  The person who speaks the language of simple faith is often said to have the faith of a child.  In this moment, God speaks a language in the empty tomb that some of us with simple faith can clearly hear.

Simple Faith – Today

Two examples come to mind of people more recently who have this kind of faith.  One is Corrie and Betsy ten Boom.  OK, the ten Booms aren’t exactly alive today, but they lived during the Nazi invasion of Netherlands.  They were Dutch Christians, and they hid Jews in their home.  Eventually they were raided and the two sisters were carted off to a concentration camp.  Betsy died in the camp, but Corrie lived and ended up traveling the world telling their story and sharing their faith.

Another example of this kind of faith today is Bethany Hamilton.  Bethany has become known through the book and movie Soul Surfer.  Let’s let her speak for herself:

[This video can’t be embedded so go check it out and come back to the message.]

http://www.iamsecond.com/seconds/bethany-hamilton/

Personal Faith – Mary

John 20:11-18 NLT
Mary was standing outside the tomb crying, and as she wept, she stooped and looked in. She saw two white-robed angels sitting at the head and foot of the place where the body of Jesus had been lying. “Why are you crying?” the angels asked her.

“Because they have taken away my Lord,” she replied, “and I don’t know where they have put him.”

She glanced over her shoulder and saw someone standing behind her. It was Jesus, but she didn’t recognize him. “Why are you crying?” Jesus asked her. “Who are you looking for?”

She thought he was the gardener. “Sir,” she said, “if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and get him.”

“Mary!” Jesus said.

She turned toward him and exclaimed, “Teacher!”  

“Don’t cling to me,” Jesus said, “for I haven’t yet ascended to the Father. But go find my brothers and tell them that I am ascending to my Father and your Father, my God and your God.” 

Mary Magdalene found the disciples and told them, “I have seen the Lord!” Then she gave them his message.

Mary initially sees the empty tomb and thinks that Jesus’ body has been stolen. Unlike John, she does not simply believe.  Then as the story unfolds, she runs into some angels and still doesn’t believe.  Next she runs into “the gardener”, or that’s who she thinks she’s talking to.  She is completely confused about what’s going on until Jesus says her name:

“Mary!” Jesus said. She turned toward him and exclaimed, “Teacher!”
John 20:16 NLT

Mary speaks the language of personal faith.  Personal faith needs a personal encounter with Jesus to believe.  Mary needs to hear her very own name spoken.  It is not enough to  know that God knows the name of every star in the universe, the one who speaks the language of personal faith needs to hear their name spoken personally to them by the God of that universe.  In the Easter story, we see that God speaks this language to Mary.

Personal Faith – Today

Two people who jump out at me today that have this kind of faith are Louis Zamporini and Brian Welch.  Zamporini has become well known lately by the book titled Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand.  Hillenbrand also wrote Seabiscuit.  In Unbroken, Hillenbrand tells of how Zamporini was an Olympic runner ready for the 1938 Olympics when WWII broke out.  Instead of going to the Olympics, he joins the United States Air Force, ends up going down in the Pacific Ocean, sets a new record for surviving in the ocean, is picked up by the Japanese Navy, is tortured in a POW camp, eventually is set free when the Allies win the war, comes back to the states, becomes an alcoholic, attends a Billy Graham crusade, and encounters Jesus.  Following this personal encounter, he throws out all his alcohol and his life is completely transformed.  Like Corrie ten Boom, he begins traveling to tell his story and share his faith in Jesus.

A similar story to Zamporini’s is Brian Welch, the former lead guitarist for the nu metal band, Korn.  After an exceptionally successful run with Korn, Welch finds his life hitting rock bottom.  Let’s hear how he tells the story:

[This video can’t be embedded so go check it out and come back to the message.]

http://www.iamsecond.com/seconds/brian-welch/

Communal Faith – Upper Room

John 20:19-23 NLT
That evening, on the first day of the week, the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! “Peace be with you,” he said. As he spoke, he held out his hands for them to see, and he showed them his side. They were filled with joy when they saw their Lord!  He spoke to them again and said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”  Then he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.  If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven. If you refuse to forgive them, they are unforgiven.”

So after all this craziness the disciples, the closest followers of Jesus, are out proclaiming Jesus, right?  No.  They’ve locked themselves in a room because they’re scared.  They are circling the wagons.  All of a sudden as they are gathered together in community, Jesus shows up among them:

Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! “Peace be with you,” he said.
John 20:19 NLT

It isn’t until they are together that Jesus shows up and they believe.  Some of us hear God most fully in the voice of others in small groups or as we gather together in worship.  Something about the community gathered attunes the person who speaks the language of communal faith to hear God’s voice clearly.

Communal Faith – Today

One example of this kind of faith today is Enuma Okoro.  Enuma is a friend of Sarah and me and has recently written a book titled Reluctant Pilgrim: A Moody, Somewhat Self-Indulgent Introvert’s Search for Spiritual Community.  Listen to her and some others speak about their experience with God:

Did you hear how she choked up talking about experiencing God in the Eucharist or communion?  These moments of worship with others “confirms that God is real.”  Some of you really get that.  You experience God in that way too, communally.  In another telling of the Easter story, Luke shares how some disciples are walking on the road to the village, Emmaus.  Jesus shows up and walks with them, but like Mary, they don’t recognize him.  They only recognize him when they sit down for a meal, for the breaking of bread:

As they sat down to eat, he took a small loaf of bread, asked God’s blessing on it, broke it, then gave it to them. Suddenly, their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And at that moment he disappeared!
Luke 24:30-31 NLT

Another modern-day person who has aspects of this kind of faith is Anne Rice.  She is best known for her Vampire Chronicles.  Rice grew up in the Catholic Church but became an atheist later in life.  After many decades as an atheist, Rice began an intellectual exploration of ancient Judiasm that eventually led her to ask some questions about Jesus.  She began attending mass again, but not taking the Eucharist.  In her spiritual autobiography, Called Out of Darkness, she tells the story of how in the midst of celebrating the Mass, she felt “united to God again” (pg. 198).  Rice has since wrestled with this community of Christians, but the experience remains, she heard God again through the community gathered for worship.

Reasoned Faith – Thomas

John 20:24-29 NLT
One of the disciples, Thomas (nicknamed the Twin), was not with the others when Jesus came. They told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he replied, “I won’t believe it unless I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in his side.”

Eight days later the disciples were together again, and this time Thomas was with them. The doors were locked; but suddenly, as before, Jesus was standing among them. He said, “Peace be with you.”  Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Put your hand into the wound in my side. Don’t be faithless any longer. Believe!” 

“My Lord and my God!” Thomas exclaimed.

Then Jesus told him, “You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who haven’t seen me and believe anyway.”

Thomas is my favorite character in this story.  Probably because we speak the same faith language.  Thomas is a skeptic.  He isn’t going to go for any of this wishy-washy simple, personal, or communal faith.  He wants evidence that he can see and touch.  He won’t believe until Jesus shows up and lets him put his fingers in his wounds and poke around a little to make sure he really was dead and really is alive.  While you’re at it, let’s hook him up to an EKG, run him through an MRI, and get some blood samples for DNA testing.  Let’s make sure this guy really is alive and really is the same guy.

So one day when the disciples were gathered again, Thomas was with them and Jesus shows up:

Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Put your hand into the wound in my side. Don’t be faithless any longer. Believe!”  “My Lord and my God!” Thomas exclaimed.
John 20:27-28 NLT

Thomas needs reasons to believe, and here in the moment, Jesus gives him real reasons to believe.  Thomas speaks the language of reasoned faith.

Reasoned Faith – Today

If you’re this kind of person, like me, I’d like to recommend a couple of people to you.  The first is C.S. Lewis and especially his book, Mere Christianity.  Lewis was an Oxford Don and an atheist.  Through the reasoned encouragement of his friends, including J.R.R. Tolkien, he eventually came to believe that Jesus was who he claimed to be: the Son of God.  Mere Christianity provides a step by step argument for the basics of Christianity that all Christians hold.  Lewis’ children’s books, The Chronicles of Narnia, were instrumental in my own faith journey during a time of crisis when I let of go of my faith and was wandering around in the darkness of life without God.

Another person today who follows in the footsteps of Lewis is Francis Collins.  Collins was the director of the Human Genome Project and is now the director of the National Institutes of Health.  In his book, The Language of God, he describes how science and scientific exploration uncover a kind of language that God speaks to us about himself and who we are.

Now we’re to the rub for the person of reason.  Aren’t faith and science contradictory?  Isn’t faith built on blind trust and science built on hard evidence?  You can’t be a scientist and a Christian.  Or can you?

If you are a person who speaks the language of reasoned faith, you need reasons and evidence to believe, I want to encourage you to come back and join us for our next series: Big Bang Faith.  We’re going to be exploring how faith and science intersect in many different ways.  I’m going to interview different scientists each week throughout this series who are also members of our church.  We’ll see what they have to say about God and science.  On the final week of the series, we’ll be showing a video after worship called Test of Faith and inviting these scientists and you to respond to the video.  Here’s a taste of what’s to come:


The Most Important Questions

So which language do you speak?  Simple, personal, communal, or reasoned faith?  There’s one more answer to this question: some of us simply aren’t even listening for God.  Some of us have our ears plugged up. No matter what language God speaks, you won’t hear it if you’re not listening.  There are two basic questions that are the most important questions in all of our lives:

  1. Is there a God?
  2. Does God love us?

God speaks different languages at Easter, but gives one answer to these questions.  It is Easter’s answer.  Paul, one of the writers of the Bible, answered those two questions this way:

For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:38-39 KJV

Are your ears open?  Are you listening for God’s voice, for Easter’s answer to the most important questions of life?  If you listen the Easter story shows us that God will speak in a language that you can hear and have faith.  Have you heard your faith language spoken today?

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The Languages of Easter

April 2, 2012 By Leave a Comment

The Languages of EasterSunday, April 8th

What do you need to believe?  We all speak different faith languages.  Some of us just believe.  Simple faith.  Others of us need to experience God personally.  Personal faith.  Some experience God in the voices of others.  Communal faith.  And some of us need evidence for faith.  Reasoned faith.  Does God speak your language?  Find out as we celebrate Easter 2012.

Meeting at Lansing Christian School
3405 Belle Chase Way
Lansing, MI 48911
517-394-6100

Sunday Worship & Nursery – 9:30 AM & 11:15 AM
Kid’s Creek and StuREV – 11:15AM

Map

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Prayers That Stick – DUH

April 2, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Prayers that Stick

Prayers That Stick – DUH (Psalms of Confession)
Sycamore Creek Church
April 1, 2012
Tom Arthur
Psalm 32

DUH Friends!

This past week I found myself facing something of a trial.  I was throwing my own little pity party and saying to myself, “I deserve better than this.  I shouldn’t have to deal with this.  People should make my life easy.”  I was driving down the road speaking this way to myself when I heard more clearly than I’ve heard in a long time, “Who promised you a trial-free life?  Jesus certainly didn’t have one.”  DUH!  The next morning as I was writing in my journal and examining myself for sin, I realized the sin I had fallen into: pride.  Pride is a tricky sin.  It’s subtle and hard to notice, but pride basically tells us a lie.  Pride tells us that we’re something that we’re not.  Humility is telling the truth about yourself.  So in my journal I confessed my pride to God.

Today we continue a series called, Prayers that Stick.  We’re looking at the book of Psalms which is basically a book of all kinds prayers in the form of poetry.  These aren’t the kind of prayers that feel shallow.  They’re prayers that stick with you for a long time.  They’re prayers that are worth sticking in your memory by memorizing them.  They’re prayers that we believe stick with God too.  So far we’ve looked at prayers of praise, prayers of wonder and awe, prayers of lament and cursing, and today we look at prayers of confession.

It’s a good time to consider confession.  It’s a good time to confess.  Well, actually any time is a good time to confess, but today is Palm Sunday and it begins the week leading up to Easter called Holy Week.  This week ends the 40 days of Lent in which we prepare ourselves for Easter.  Part of that preparation is confession.  I’ve picked Psalm 32 to help us do that this morning.  Admittedly, Psalm 32 is more a psalm about confession than a psalm of confession, but I think we’ll still learn something that will stick with us.  So let’s begin with Psalm 32.

Psalm 32 NLT

Oh, what joy for those
whose rebellion is forgiven,
whose sin is put out of sight!
Yes, what joy for those
whose record the LORD has cleared of sin,
whose lives are lived in complete honesty!

When I refused to confess my sin,
I was weak and miserable,
and I groaned all day long.
Day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me.
My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat.
Interlude

Finally, I confessed all my sins to you
and stopped trying to hide them.
I said to myself, “I will confess my rebellion to the LORD.”
And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone.
Interlude

Therefore, let all the godly confess their rebellion to you while there is time,
that they may not drown in the floodwaters of judgment.
For you are my hiding place;
you protect me from trouble.
You surround me with songs of victory.
Interlude

The LORD says, “I will guide you along the best pathway for your life.
I will advise you and watch over you.
Do not be like a senseless horse or mule
that needs a bit and bridle to keep it under control.”

Many sorrows come to the wicked,
but unfailing love surrounds those who trust the LORD.
So rejoice in the LORD and be glad, all you who obey him!
Shout for joy, all you whose hearts are pure!

Thank you God for Psalm 32!

Did you notice that there were a lot of different ways to describe sin in the first couple verses of this psalm?  There are four kinds of sin according to Psalm 32:

32:1 Rebellion (pe-sha) – an active rebellion against God’s will;

32:1 Sin (hka-ta-ah) – un/intentionally missing the mark of God’s will;

32:2 Sin/Iniquity (a-ohn) (guilt) – accumulated guilt from rebellion or missing the mark;

32:2 Deceit/honesty (ru-me-yah) – deceiving oneself and/or others.

When I look at this list of the ways to sin, I realize that there are a lot of different ways to sin just like there are at least four words to describe it.

When we commit these kinds of sin there are consequences.  We learn more about that as we keep reading the psalm.  In verse three we read about how unconfessed sin tears us apart inside, and how God doesn’t leave us alone but convicts us of this sin:

When I refused to confess my sin,
I was weak and miserable,
and I groaned all day long.
Day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me.
My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat.

In the end we’re left without much strength, perhaps physical, emotional, or spiritual strength.

When I was working at another church, we had a copier that you really weren’t supposed to put card stock through it.  It was apparently bad for the machine.  But I needed something printed on card stock and decided to run it through it anyway.  As I was doing this the secretary walked up and noticed I was using the machine in a way I shouldn’t be using it.  So what did I do?  I lied.  Yes, I was working at a church, and I lied.  I told her that I didn’t know that I wasn’t supposed to do it.  Active rebellion.  DUH!

Well, over the rest of the day my conscience would not let me go.  My stomach was in knots.  Every time I saw her I felt like I had betrayed her trust.  I probably didn’t look any different on the outside, but on the inside I was being eaten up.  Finally I went to her, and I confessed.  I said, “Sue, I need to tell you something.  When you saw me putting card stock through the copy machine, and told me I wasn’t supposed to do that, I lied to you.  I told you I didn’t know, but I did know.  I’m sorry that I lied to you.  Will you forgive me?”  She was gracious and forgave me, and I felt the weight of the sin lifted off of me.  Thank you God!

What are all the kinds of ways you find yourself sinning and what is it doing to your physical, emotional, and spiritual strength?

Just in case you’re having a hard time coming up with ways that you’re sinning, there are several places in scripture where different writers list different sins.  That’s one of the benefits of daily Bible reading.  You learn how you’re life isn’t hitting the mark, and you’re given the grace of conviction so that you can confess those sins and be made right with God and others.  Here are some of those lists of sins to ponder and examine yourself:

Romans 1:29-31 NLT

Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, fighting, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They are forever inventing new ways of sinning and are disobedient to their parents. They refuse to understand, break their promises, and are heartless and unforgiving.

Ephesians 5:3-4 NLT – Let there be no sexual immorality, impurity, or greed among you. Such sins have no place among God’s people. Obscene stories, foolish talk, and coarse jokes — these are not for you.

Colossians 3:5-9 NLT – So put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you. Have nothing to do with sexual sin, impurity, lust, and shameful desires. Don’t be greedy for the good things of this life, for that is idolatry…Now is the time to get rid of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language. Don’t lie to each other…

1 John 2:16 NLT – For the world offers only the lust for physical pleasure, the lust for everything we see, and pride in our possessions. These are not from the Father. They are from this evil world.

Revelation 2:5 & 3:16 NLT – Look how far you have fallen from your first love…Since you are like lukewarm water, I will spit you out of my mouth!

Have we become Luke Warm?

When I look at that last one in Revelation, I regularly ask myself, have I become lukewarm?  Have I lost my first love?  Have I made anything else in my life more important than my love for God?  Sometimes, church, I wonder if we have not become a lukewarm church.  Here are some questions to ponder about whether we’ve become lukewarm or not:

  • Do you spend unhurried time daily with God? Or does God get your crumbs of time if even that?  If you’re too busy for this, then you’re too busy.  (I was talking with Jana Aupperlee earlier this week.  Jana is helping to lead the Run for God small group that is doing spiritual and physical training to prepare to run a 5K race.  She told me how she has been convicted in the past that she is able to find daily time for exercise and running but not always for God.  Are the rest of us like that?)
  • Do you seek counsel from other Christians in your spiritual walk?  Are you in some kind of small group?  Or are you a solo-Christian who thinks you can go it alone, that everyone else is wrong, crazy, and ignorant?
  • Do you give cheerfully? Do you give regularly and intentionally?  Do you give sacrificially?  Do you give from the first portion of what you receive?  Or do you give begrudgingly when you feel like it or not at all?
  • Do you serve cheerfully?  Or have your extracurricular activities so overcommitted you and your family that you serve only because we chase you down?  Do you serve only when it’s convenient for you?
  • Do you have an overflow of joy for inviting people to know Jesus in and through the community we call SCC?  Does your love for God and for this church naturally flow into your conversations with people around you?  Or is this whole church and Jesus thing just a game rather than life and death and eternity?  Have you taken the opportunity to invite three people to Easter seriously or do you brush that opportunity aside and ignore it?
  • Do you come to church with a bib on only to feed yourself, or do you come to church with a towel in hand so that you can help feed others?  Do you stick to the people you know on Sunday morning or are you regularly working on building community here at SCC with people you don’t know, especially guests among us?

Friends, if we are turning into a lukewarm church, then that’s something we need to pray to be convicted about, confess to God, and then do a U-turn and get going the other way.  But how do we confess?  What does a confession look like?  Psalm 32 provides some guidance.  Just like there were multiple words for sin, so too are there multiple words for confession.  We read about four ways to confess in verse 5:

1. I confessed (ya-da) – Made known;

2. I did not hide (ca-sah) – Uncover, only God can cover our guilt;

3. My iniquity (in the NLT it simply says “Them”, but literally the Hebrew says “a-ohn” or guilt) – Take responsibility, the guilt is mine;

4. I will confess (ya-dah) – Cast it off (and onto God).

So confession includes making the active rebellion, missing of the mark, guilt and deception known, uncovering it and putting it where it can be seen, taking responsibility, and casting it off of oneself (by God’s grace) onto God.

Usher, a contemporary R&B singer has a song called Confession.  In it he tells the story of how he cheated on his loved one and now his “chick on the side” is having his baby.  Here’s the lyrics to the song:

Chorus: These are my confessions
Just when I thought I said all I can say
My chick on the side said she got one on the way
These are my confessions

Verse 1: Now this gon’ be the hardest thing I think I ever had to do
Got me talkin’ to myself askin’ how I’m gon’ tell you
’bout that chick on part 1 I told ya’ll I was creepin’ with, creepin’ with
Said she’s 3 months pregnant and she’s keepin’ it
The first thing that came to mind was you
Second thing was how do I know if it’s mine and is it true
Third thing was me wishin’ that I never did what I did
How I ain’t ready for no kid and bye bye to our relationship

Is this a real confession?  It’s not bad, but somehow it feels forced to me.  It feels like he’s been backed into a corner and is looking for a way out. If he found it without confessing, I get the sense that he’d take that route.  If his “chick on the side” would have an abortion, then he wouldn’t have to confess.  If he found out the baby wasn’t his, then he could deny the accusation.  But for now, it appears that he’ll have to “man up” to it and confess.  I’d prefer for him to take more responsibility.  His confession could go something like this:

I have done wrong to you.
I have done what I should not have done.
I was unfaithful emotionally and sexually.
I would like to ask you to forgive me, but I expect that if the relationship continues, it will require a lot of hard work to repair the broken trust.
I am sorry for what I have done.

In the same way that there are several ways to sin and several ways to confess, there are several ways that God forgives us.  We read about these back in verse one and two:

32:1 – Our active rebellion is Forgiven (na-sa) – It is lifted up off of us.

32:1 – Our sin is Covered (ca-sa) – We uncovered it in confession and God covers it with forgiveness.  The verb here is passive.  God does the work.  We receive it.  Augustine says, that our “sins are buried in oblivion.”

32:2 – Our guilt is Cleared (hka-sha) – God does not count it in some heavenly ledger.

Interestingly there is no word for forgiveness that is paired with deceit.  Maybe that’s because deceit hinders us from making the sin known to begin with.

When I read about all these ways that God forgive us, an image comes to mind.  Many mornings I do exercise in my living room.  Micah, my sixteen-month-old son is usually running around at my feet.  He often wants to use all my exercise equipment: bands, pads, balls, and dumbbells.  I have one set of five pound dumbbells, that he can barely lift if at all.  The weight is way too heavy for him.  He is bent over by it.  But I can pick it up with ease.  I could easily throw it across the room.  The five pound weight is everything to Micah, but it is nothing to me.  Maybe our sin is to us and God what that five pound weight is to Micah and me.

If we begin to confess our sins in all their shapes, colors, textures, flavors, and styles, there are some new habits that we’ll be practicing.  Psalm 32 lists those new habits.  In verse eight of NLT we read “The LORD says, ‘I will guide you…”  But in the Hebrew the phrase “The LORD says” is not there.  The line of the psalm just begins with “I.”  Who is the I?  Obviously the NLT translation team thinks the “I” is God speaking.  I tend to disagree.  I think because its poetry that the I can be both God and the psalmist who is writing the psalm. Thus, not only does God guide us but the wisdom of those around us guides us too.  Verse eight goes on to list three things that this person does with us: guides us, advises us, and watches us.  In other words, we don’t do it alone.  We do it with God in community.  We share in the wisdom of those who have gone before us, and God gives us the grace and power not to do it again.

There are at least three ways I seek guidance from those around me.  First, I have a small group that I meet with regularly.  I don’t lead this small group.  I just show up and participate like any other person in the group.  Some of that participation includes  confessing my sins to them and seeking their guidance on how to make my relationship right with God and with the person I sinned against.  Second, I also have another pastor that I meet with regularly.  His name is Jon, and Jon is also my internet accountability partner.  I have a program called X3 on my computer that monitors what websites I visit.  It also runs on my cell phone.  Every two weeks it sends a report to Jon for us to discuss.  In this way I confess my true self to Jon.  Third, my wife, Sarah is a confession partner.  I regularly confess my sins, screw-ups, mistakes, and hang-ups to her.  In my better moments I even listen to what she has to say after I confess.

Who are the people who are guiding, advising, and watching you?

Psalm 32 draws a picture of the results of this kind of confession.  Our hiding place becomes God rather than hiding in sin.  The sorrow of sin, for sin itself is its own torment, disappears and is replaced with God’s unfailing love for us.  All of this can  simply be called joy.

Remember that sin of pride I told you I confessed to God in my journal earlier this week.  After I confessed it to God I sensed a kind of release from the weight of that pride, and some release from the anxiety of the trial.  I was given a new energy and enthusiasm to tackle the problem.  That’s what confession does.  DUH!

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