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Walking with Bilbo – The Purpose of Adventure

January 14, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Walking with Bilbo

 

 

 

 

Walking with Bilbo – The Purpose of Adventure
Sycamore Creek Church
January 13 & 14, 2013
Tom Arthur
Luke 5:1-11

Peace, Friends!

Today we continue in a series based on The Hobbit.  We’ll be walking with Bilbo, the main character in The Hobbit, as he transforms from an unassuming three foot six inch hobbit to the unexpected hero of the story.  Along the way Bilbo will find his clear purpose because of the adventure he goes on.

Many of us struggle with purpose.  Part of the reason we struggle with purpose is because we don’t often see ourselves clearly.  I struggle with this myself.  I often tell myself and others, “I’m not a very good counselor.”  I probably say this because when I was a psychology major in undergrad, I intended to be a therapist.  But then I did an internship and didn’t like clinical work at all.  So I redirected my studies toward research rather than therapy.  But then the other day I told someone that I wasn’t a very good counselor as they were sitting in my office seeking some help working through a problem.  After two different hour-plus-long meetings, this person said to me, “You say you’re not very good at this, but you’re actually really quite good.”  Hm…Maybe I don’t see myself as clearly as I think I do.

We all struggle with seeing ourselves clearly.  We say things like:

I’m the humblest person I know.
I used to think I was indecisive, but now I’m not so sure.
I can be spontaneous if I have enough time to prepare for it.

All jokes aside, here’s some examples of how we don’t see ourselves very clearly:

  • We think we’re poor, but in reality, we’re exceedingly rich.  According to globalrichlist.com, if you make $40,000/year like I do, you’re one of the top 3.17% richest people in the world.  If you add in benefits (health insurance, housing allowance, pension, etc.), then you’re in the top .82%!   If you make $20,000/year, then you’re still in the top 11.16%.
  • Single folks think they’re unattractive or will never find a life partner, but I look at them and think, “Wow, some day they’re going to really be a blessing to someone!”
  • I was reading some research the other day that showed that women tend to rate themselves further from an “ideal” than men do.  They think men want someone who is skinnier than they are, but the average woman in America is very close to what the average man finds attractive.
  • We all tend to think we’re basically “good people” but we ignore the little things that add up, including our inappropriate motives.  For example: we focus on the things in others that annoy us and downplay the things in ourselves that annoy others!
  • David Myers, in his introductory psychology textbook reports: “Most people see themselves as better than average. This is true for nearly any subjective and socially desirable dimension. In national surveys, most business executives say they are more ethical than their average counterpart. In several studies, 90% of business managers and more than 90% of college professors rated their performance as superior to that of their average peer. In Australia, 86% of people rate their job performance as above average, and only 1% as below average” (1998, p. 440, emphasis mine).

I recently met Whitney Banks, the adoption recruiter for Wendy’s Wonderful Kids.  She works with teenagers who need to be adopted.  She told me that almost all of the teenagers she works with think they won’t be adopted because their many problems and their age make them unadoptable.  So I asked her how many of the current teenagers she’s working with will she find a home for.  She said she will likely find a family for almost every single one of them!

In The Hobbit, when Gandalf tells the dwarves he’s chosen Bilbo, an unimpressive hobbit, to be the “burglar” for their adventure, the dwarves are pretty skeptical of Bilbo and Gandalf’s judgment, but Gandalf says, “There is a lot more in him than you guess, and a deal more than he has any idea of himself.”

If you haven’t sent the movie or read the book, this trailer will give you a glimpse of who Bilbo is, and the struggle he has to see himself clearly:

The Point
Here’s the point I want you get out of this message: Adventure with Jesus pulls out the clear purpose of our lives.

While we struggle to see ourselves clearly, when we go on the adventure that Jesus is calling us on, the clear purpose of our lives becomes evident.  Let’s take a look at one example of how this worked with one of Jesus’ followers, Simon, later called Peter.

Luke 5:1-11 NRSV
1 Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God,  2 he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets.  3 He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. 

Here we find a casual encounter between Jesus and Simon: Jesus simply gets into Simon’s boat because he needed to get away from the shore where people were crowding in on him.  Many of us are at this stage of the adventure: we’ve had a casual encounter with Jesus.  But this casual encounter leads to…

4 When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.”  5 Simon answered, “Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.”

Here the casual encounter turns to an invitation to trust.  The invitation to trust includes doing something counterintuitive and unexpected.  For Simon, who was a professional fisherman, it was the invitation to put out again to fish after a long night of catching nothing. Simon is the expert fisherman here.  Jesus is a carpenter.  What does he know about fishing?  Surprisingly, Simon accepts the invitation.  The acceptance of this invitation to do something counterintuitive and unexpected leads to…

6 When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break.  7 So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink.

The acceptance of Jesus’ invitation to do something counterintuitive and unexpected leads to an unexpected adventure.  Simon and his companions caught so many fish that the nets began to break.  They had been fishing all night and hadn’t had anything significant happen.  But when Simon accepts Jesus’ invitation to something counterintuitive and unexpected, unexpected adventure ensues.  This unexpected adventure leads to…

8 But when Simon Peter saw it, [ON KNEES] he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!”  9 For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken;  10 and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon.

This unexpected adventure that Simon finds himself on leads to a deeper trust through surrender.  He falls down at Jesus’ feet.  He recognizes that he’s standing in the presence of the Lord, and he surrenders to him symbolically by kneeling before him.  This act of surrender leads to…

Then Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.”

This act of trust in and surrender to Jesus leads to an unexpected twist in the purpose of Simon’s life.  He will no longer catch fish, but instead he will catch people.  This unexpected twist in the purpose of Simon’s life leads to…

11 When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.

This unexpected twist in the purpose of Simon’s life leads to a complete and total surrender to that purpose.  Simon leaves everything and follows Jesus.  There is nothing more important to Simon than this new clarity in the purpose of his life.

Again, here’s the main point I want you to get out of this message: 

Adventure with Jesus pulls out the clear purpose of our lives.

Simon’s life is transformed because Jesus saw something in him that he did not see in himself.  Later Jesus renames Simon to make obvious what Jesus sees in him:

And I tell you, you are Peter,and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.  (Matthew 16:18 NRSV)

So if adventure with Jesus pulls out the clear adventure in our lives, there are two things I want you to do this morning:

1. Go on an Adventure Following Jesus

I want you to join the adventure of throwing it all in with following Jesus, and risking your reputation, way of doing things, money, time, everything, so that you will find Jesus’ purpose for your life, a purpose Jesus knows you’re ready for, but you’re not yet so sure about.

J.R.R. Tolkien, the author of The Hobbit, was a philologist, someone who studies language, academic at Oxford University.  Philologists aren’t supposed to write children’s fantasy stories.  Yet he jumped into the adventure of writing The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings and risked looking silly in front of his colleagues.  In the end he found the purpose of participating in the creative act of God as what he called a “sub-creator.”  He found that he had an impulse (or a purpose) to create, because he was made in the image of a creator.  And hundreds of thousands if not millions of people have loved his stories ever since.

Linda Kidrick, a new attendee at SCC, accepted the adventure of celebrating Christmas differently this past year.  She attended our Christmas Eve service and tried to focus on the reason for Christmas.  Here’s what her experience was like:

Join the adventure of investing in the lives of our children (Kids Creek) and youth (StuREV), and take the risk of giving up some of your time and find the purpose of changing the life of a child or youth.

Join the adventure of being a steward of the money God has given you by taking the risk of living simply and giving generously and find the purpose of money in your life is really to bless other people.

Join the adventure of inviting your friends, family, co-workers, neighbors to church and risk feeling silly or embarrassed and find the purpose of being one step in someone having a life-changing encounter with God.

Join the adventure of a local mission (Maplewood, Open Door, Holt Senior Care), and take the risk of getting to know a group of people you didn’t know before (and were maybe even a little afraid of) and finding the purpose of sharing God’s compassion with others.

Each of the small groups in our church makes a commitment to serve in some local mission.  The elderly in nursing homes are often a forgotten people in our culture who don’t get much attention or much companionship.  The Agnostic Pub Group meets on the fifth Thursdays at Holt Senior Care home on Willoughby and simply plays games with residents.  It’s a little out of some and a lot out of others’ comfort zones.  At our last visit, we had about eight senior citizens joining us for cards.  One of those was a widower who rarely ever comes out of his room.  That night he and all of us laughed, talked, joked, smiled, and had loads of fun.  What an adventure to follow Jesus into the forgotten places of our culture!

2. Seek a Spiritual Guide or Spiritual Friends

Coming back to the problem we have seeing ourselves clearly, it is so important to have a spiritual guide or some spiritual friends who help us see ourselves better than we can alone.

In The Hobbit, Gandalf the wizard sees something in Bilbo that he does not see himself.  He has a kind of confidence in Bilbo that Bilbo doesn’t have in himself.  Bilbo reads about the dangers of the adventure with the dwarves and faints, but Gandalf never questions for a moment whether Bilbo will join the adventure:

Who is the Gandalf in your life inviting you out the door on to the road of adventure? Who are you seeking out intentionally to mentor/guide you?  This can’t always be me, the pastor.  I simply can’t provide ongoing personal guidance to a hundred and fifty people.  So who do you sit down regularly with over coffee to talk about life, someone who isn’t always a “Yes Man” in your life?  Who asks you the hard questions? Who is willing to be honest with you but is also encouraging?

If you’re a guest here today, I want you to know that you can’t find this kind of community in a big group setting like this.  It’s virtually impossible.  You’ve got to get into a small group of some sort.  It’s not the only way to receive this kind of guidance or to have spiritual friends, but it’s the best way we know as a church to try to provide an environment where these kinds of things can thrive.  So join the adventure of a small group, and take the risk of opening up and giving a true account of who you are and finding the purpose of authentic community.

Last Tuesday four dads gathered at McDonald’s with their kids to have fun and talk about being dads.  We shared one thing we were thankful for being dads in 2012 and one thing we learned about being dads in 2012.  It was a great conversation with fellow dads who see things about being a dad that I miss.

A couple of Sundays ago, I was talking with the small group at Pizza with the Pastor about how I felt like I didn’t have enough passion in life.  I was surprised to find that two people said they were at this church & were even following Jesus because of my passion!  Wow.  I didn’t see that coming.

One day I was having a particularly bad day.  Mark Aupperlee, a volunteer here at our church and a friend of mine, knew about how bad my day was going.  He called me and left a message on my voicemail simply saying, “I’m here with you on this adventure.  I’ve got your back.  I love you.”

Who are those kinds of people who provide spiritual guidance in your life, who see things in you that you don’t see in yourself?

Sycamore Creek Church
Imagine being part of a community that was on the kind of adventure that brought out these and other new purposes in your life and the lives of those around you, purposes you couldn’t see before but Jesus can see right now.  If only you’ll trust him enough to let him get in the boat of your life and lead you on the adventure of your life!

Imagine being part of a community where there were people along the entire spectrum of the adventure.  People who were new to the path.  People who had been traveling for a long time.  And imagine them sharing their wisdom with one another in shared guidance and mentoring.  That’s the kind of community we’re trying to create at SCC!

At the beginning of Bilbo’s adventure, Gandalf says of him, “There is a lot more in him than you guess, and a deal more than he has any idea of himself.”  And as Bilbo is getting ready to go in to meet Smaug the dragon, Tolkien as the narrator tells us, “Already he was a very different hobbit from the one that had run out without a pocket-handkerchief from Bag-End long ago.”

Prayer
God, help us to accept the invitation to adventure that Jesus puts before us, and to find the clear purpose of our lives.  Amen.

For further discussion on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/tomarthur01/posts/10100244064669254?comment_id=4206226&ref=notif&notif_t=feed_comment

 

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Walking with Bilbo – An Invitation to Adventure

January 7, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Walking with Bilbo

 

 

 

 

Walking with Bilbo – An Invitation to Adventure
Sycamore Creek Church
Tom & Sarah Arthur
January 6 and 7, 2013

Peace Friends!  And happy new year!

Today we begin a new series called Walking with Bilbo, based on the book by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit.  How many of you have:

  • Seen The Hobbit movie?
  • Read the book?
  • Seen The Lord of the Rings movies?
  • Actually read that trilogy too?

Some of you may be wondering why we as a church are spending four whole weeks on what is essentially a work of children’s fiction, and a fantasy story, at that. You may even be dreading these four weeks, if you’re not a fiction or fantasy lover. Well, it’s my prayer that God will use this series anyway, that you’ll find something to take away from this message. And I think as we unpack it all in the coming weeks, you will.

Let me begin by telling our story of what role this book has played in Sarah’s and my life, and then we can explore some of the spiritual themes in the book as a way to see how God is at work in the world, even the world of fiction.

Why The Hobbit?
Now, it came as something of a surprise to us, when the first Lord of the Rings (LOTR) movies came out ten years ago, that most people were completely unaware that Tolkien was a Christian.  Sarah had studied LOTR and The Hobbit as an English major at Wheaton College where she learned about Tolkien’s faith.  He wrote, “I am a Christian (which can be deduced from my stories), and in fact a Roman Catholic.” And he wasn’t just a Christian in name only. He really believed and lived this stuff—so much so, he was instrumental in the conversion of his friend C.S. Lewis (later author of The Chronicles of Narnia) from atheism to Christianity.  Tolkien wrote occasionally about the spiritual themes in his work.  He said, “In ‘The Lord of the Rings’ the conflict is not basically about ‘freedom,’ though that is naturally involved. It is about God, and His sole right to divine honour.”

It is important to understand that The Hobbit is not a Christian allegory like Pilgrim’s Progress where there is a one to one correlation between things in the story and the Christian life, but The Hobbit does share themes with the Christian journey. Did Tolkien intend for it to be a religious story? No, but when you are a Christian, the flavor of your faith comes through in everything you create. He created his stories as an act of joy, a labor of love, an act of worship, to the glory of God.

So Sarah wrote Walking with Frodo, named after the main character in The Lord of the Rings, and later Walking with Bilbo, named after the main character in The Hobbit, to explore spiritual themes in Tolkien’s works.  These books were originally aimed at a youth audience but people of all ages have appreciated them.

The Theme of Adventure
One of the spiritual themes in The Hobbit is the theme of adventure.  To get you into that theme, especially if you’re not familiar with the story, the trailer for the movie does a pretty good job of summarizing the theme of adventure.

Gandalf said to Bilbo, “I am looking for someone to share in an adventure that I am arranging, and it’s very difficult to find anyone.”

Hobbits are small human-like creatures—3 foot, 6 inches—who live in an imaginary world called the Shire, which is rather like rural parts of England. Most of them like good food, comfy homes, a good book, a pot of tea, and prefer peace and quiet.

Bilbo is the model hobbit, but with an interesting family history. He is part Baggins, which prefers to stay home and safe; but he is also part Took, which has a history of going on mysterious adventures.

Gandalf’s job is to appeal to the “Took” side of Bilbo. Gandalf has chosen and selected Bilbo to join an adventure with a group of dwarves who want to reclaim their mountain kingdom and their gold from an evil dragon. But Gandalf can’t MAKE Bilbo go on this journey. Gandalf can only extend the invitation. Now it’s up to Bilbo to accept it.

Like Gandalf, God has been in the adventure business for a long time, choosing and selecting unlikely people to participate in the great and small stories of human history.  All throughout the Old Testament, God is calling people.  Then Jesus came on the scene and called twelve disciples:

Luke 5:27-32
Later, as Jesus left the town, he saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at his tax collector’s booth. “Follow me and be my disciple,” Jesus said to him. So Levi got up, left everything, and followed him.

Later, Levi held a banquet in his home with Jesus as the guest of honor. Many of Levi’s fellow tax collectors and other guests also ate with them. But the Pharisees and their teachers of religious law complained bitterly to Jesus’ disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with such scum?”

Jesus answered them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners and need to repent.”

Difficult to Find
But “it’s very difficult to find anyone” who is willing to accept Jesus’ invitation to adventure–why is that?  Here are four possible reasons.

First, we don’t feel qualified.  But Jesus doesn’t call those who are supposedly qualified, the ones who are the obvious choice, who have their spiritual act together (back to Luke 5:29-32). He calls the ones you least expect, the ones whom the rest of the world has overlooked, whose qualifications and abilities are questionable at best. Tolkien “chose” hobbits, the small and unexpected, to be the bearers of such huge tasks and adventures.  He called this “ennoblement.” Bilbo doesn’t feel qualified to join the dwarves’ expedition. But Gandalf sees something in him that he doesn’t yet see in himself. The journey will ennoble him, offer him the opportunity to be part of a larger, more significant story. And that is enough.

Second, we’d rather play it safe. Bilbo would rather stay home where he is comfortable and well-fed and nothing dangerous ever happens. As he says, “We are plain quiet folk and have no use for adventures. Nasty disturbing uncomfortable things! Make you late for dinner!” And once he embarks on the adventure, he realizes that he actually underestimated how hard things would really get. If he had known, he would have stayed home. Following Jesus is not safe or easy. It’s not for the faint of heart. Jesus asks us to give up things we’re not willing to give up (habits, sins, attitudes). He also asks us to take on Christian behaviors that sound odd or annoying or downright boring. But the Christian life is anything but boring. G.K. Chesterton has said, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried” (Chapter 5, What’s Wrong With The World, 1910).

Third, we like our life the way it is and we don’t want God messing in our business. Tolkien’s friend C. S. Lewis, for a long time before his conversion, thought of God as the “Transcendental Interferer.” God is this powerful being who interferes with your life and makes you do things you don’t want to do. But once Lewis became a Christian, he realized that in Jesus there is freedom: freedom from sin, from fear, from pride, from other things and people having power over you.

Fourth, we’re afraid to take Jesus at his word when he says difficult things like “love your enemies” and “give up everything.”  Shane Claiborne, author of The Irresistible Revolution, is an interesting and unique example of a new kind of Christian who is really seeking to simply follow Jesus even when it is difficult. Claiborne is a Christian and an activist who helped start The Simple Way community in the ghettos of Philadelphia, where he lives and ministers with the poor. He wrote in an article entitled “Jesus wrecked my life:

I know there are people out there who say, “My life was such a mess. I was drinking, partying, sleeping around; and then I met Jesus, and my whole life came together.” God bless those people. But for me, I had it together. I used to be cool (I was prom king, for heaven’s sake). Then I met Jesus, and He wrecked my life.

The more I read the gospel, the more it messed me up, turning everything I believed in, valued and hoped for upside down. I am still recovering from my conversion.

I ended up at Eastern University outside Philadelphia, studying youth ministry and sociology. I had heard one of my college professors say, “Being a Christian is about choosing Jesus and deciding to do something incredibly daring with your life.”

I decided to take Jesus up on the offer. The adventure has taken me from the streets of Calcutta, where I worked with Mother Teresa, to the war zone of Iraq, where I lived through the bombing of Baghdad. Following the footsteps of Jesus, I can’t remember what it feels like to be bored.

http://www.youthworker.com/youth-ministry-resources-ideas/youth-ministry/11552643/

To get a deeper feel for how Claiborne follows Jesus, watch at least the first three minutes of this video:

 

Responding to the Invitation
Here’s the point of this message: Jesus is calling you to adventure.  For some of us, it may be simply to surrender your life—your habits, choices, attitudes, actions—completely to Jesus, to claim Christ as Lord of your life.  For some of us, like Shane Claiborne, Jesus might be calling you to live a radically different life than the rest of society, in order to take care of the poor or the sick or to meet some other need. You may be called to mission work or inner city ministry or living simply so you have more to give away. For some of us, as Shane said, the call may be simply to love one person well: to take care of an aging relative or to love a difficult coworker or to forgive someone who you never thought you could forgive. Like Mother Teresa, we are called to do “small things with great love”: it’s that simple and that challenging and adventurous.

The question is, will you respond? There is a now famous image of Gandalf standing at the door at Bilbo’s house at Bag End that has been used to promote the movie in theaters. It is a key moment in the story because there would have been no story to tell if Bilbo had not answered the door.

In the book of Revelation, the last book in the Bible, Jesus says, “Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends” (3:10).  There is a famous painting by William Holman Hunt of Jesus at the door titled, “The Light of the World.” The door has no handle, weeds have grown up around it, it has not been opened in a long time and can only be opened from the inside. The viewer is sort of holding one’s breath to see if anyone’s inside, and if that person will respond.

Jesus does not force his way in, but he is waiting at the door of your life, extending an invitation. Not to a boring life. Not to a life in which you’re simply a nicer person than you were before. But to a life of adventure, following God’s call into places and interacting with people and doing things you never dreamed you’d be doing. Like Gandalf, Jesus can’t guarantee that you’ll be safe. He can’t guarantee your reputation. But you’ll have a pile of stories to tell when it’s all over. And in the end you’ll be welcomed into the strong circle of adventurers led by Jesus himself, honored and celebrated for a life well lived.

As Sarah writes in Walking with Bilbo, “Faith is an adventure, not just a one-time choice. Once we hear the knock on the door and step onto the road, there’s no turning back. Life will never be the same again. Are you ready for the adventure?”

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Christmas Eve

December 29, 2012 by Leave a Comment

carols

 

 

 

 

Carols Remix
Sycamore Creek Church
Christmas Eve, 2012
Tom Arthur

Merry Christmas Eve Friends!

Tonight we’re going to walk through four different classic Christmas carols and unpack them and explore them to help you hear them and the Christmas story in a way you’ve never heard before.  We begin with the carol, O Holy Night.

O Holy Night
There’s a beautiful couple of lines in this carol:

The thrill of hope,
The weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks,
The new and glorious morn.

Here’s the problem about Christmas.  You’re supposed to be celebrating and cheerful, but really you’re just weary and tired.  We are a weary world.  Several weeks ago I invited those in our worship service to write on paper snowflakes what is causing them weariness.  I looked over the snowflakes later and read about hurt families, no money, no friends, no job.

We’re a weary people, but you’re not alone.  The Bible tells many stories of people seeking God amidst great weariness.  One such book in the Bible is the book of Lamentations.  Tradition says that the prophet Jeremiah wrote it after the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonian empire.  Jeremiah and many others were carted off in exile to Babylon.  He writes:

The thought of my affliction and my homelessness is wormwood and gall!  My soul continually thinks of it and is bowed down within me.  But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases,his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
Lamentations 3:19-23 NRSV

Christmas is a new morning.  It is a new beginning in the midst of the weariness that you feel.  When you give your entire life to Jesus in adoration, you experience that new morning and it brings with it three things:

1. Exactly what you need.
2. The hope to keep going.
3. The help you’re waiting for.

This is the Holy Night before the new morning of hope in Jesus.  Here’s a moment to contemplate those truths through the song, O Holy Night:

O Come All Ye Faithful
I’m guessing that when we think of the carol, O Come All Ye Faithful, that some of us, maybe even most of us don’t feel very faithful.  In fact, the rest of that line includes the joyful, and triumphant and I know that many of us don’t feel very joyful or triumphant right now.  Here’s the good news.  Jesus doesn’t call the faithful, joyful, and triumphant.  So who does Jesus call?

First, Jesus calls the sinners.

On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick…For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Matthew 9:12-13 NIV

Second, Jesus calls the weary and burdened.

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Matthew 11:28 NIV

So maybe we should rework the carol to sing: O come all ye sinners, weak and overburdened!  If that’s who Jesus calls to follow him, why do we feel like we have to have our lives all together to belong to a church?  If you’re a guest here tonight at Christmas Eve, I want you to know that we try to be a curious, creative, and compassionate community.  We’re curious about God – your questions are welcome.  You don’t have to have all this God stuff figured out to belong here.  We’re creative in all we do – we imagine, experiment, and make things happen.  That means that we’re not going to get everything right all the time.  And we’re compassionate to everyone – no matter who you are, where you’ve been, or what you’ve done, when you come here you’ll experience God’s compassion.   You don’t have to have your life all together to belong here, because Jesus doesn’t call the have-it-all-togethers to follow him.

And yet Jesus does help us become more faithful, joyful, & triumphant.

Jesus is the author and perfector of our faith.   His Spirit gives us joy which is different than happiness.  Happiness has to do with what happens while joy has to do with Jesus.  And the prophet Isaiah tells us that Jesus will triumph:

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever.
Isaiah 9:6-7 NIV

Wonderful Counselor.
Mighty God.
Everlasting Father.
Prince of Peace.

That’s not the kind of triumph like a great general on the battle field, but it’s the kind of triumph that reconciles broken relationships, binds up wounded hearts, convicts of sinful attitudes, and gives strength to love one’s enemies.  Jesus calls the sick and sinful, the weary and overburdened, that is all of us, and helps us become faithful, joyful and triumphant.  Contemplate those truths through the song: O Come All Ye Faithful.

Away in a Manger
Away in a manger,
No crib for his bed,
The little Lord Jesus,
Lay down his sweet head.

I want to zero in on that phrase: little Lord Jesus.  What does it mean to say that Jesus is Lord?  When the shepherds were visited by angels this is what the angels said:

Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.
Luke 2:10-11 NIV

Lord means controller, supreme authority. Is the little Lord Jesus Lord of a little of your life or all of your life?  We say “little”, and I think at times that means to us that he is Lord of only a little of our lives.  You can surrender partially or fully.  Here’s what the partially surrendered life looks like from a verse in the partially surrendered Bible:

Trust in the Lord with some of your heart, lean on your own understanding, in some of your ways, acknowledge him, and you can make your own paths straight.
Proverbs 3:5-6 PSV (Partially Surrendered Version)

But that’s not what it means to call him Lord.  Lord means he’s Lord’s of all of your life.  Here’s what the fully surrendered life looks like:

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;  in all your ways acknowledge [yada] him, and he will make your paths straight.
Proverbs 3:5-6 NIV

When we say that Jesus is “little” it means that he does not coerce you into receiving him as Lord.  He gives you the wonderful and terrible freedom to choose to receive his love and his lordship or to reject it.  Actually, he already is Lord of everything.  This is just a matter of you acknowledging it and living into it and then beginning to live like you mean it.  So, is the little Lord Jesus Lord of a little of your life or all of your life?  Contemplate that question through the song, Away in a Manger.

Emmanuel
O come, o come, Emmanuel.

An angel of the Lord appears to Joseph in a dream and says to him about Mary, his fiancée:

She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Emmanuel”—which means, “God with us.”  Matthew 1:21-23

Emmanuel means God with us.  Here’s the point of Christmas: God is, was, and will be with you!

Have you ever prayed, “God be with so and so.”  The truth is that God is already with so and so.  The trick is realizing it.  God is with you.  If you are alone, God is with you as your companion.  If you are sick, God is with you healing you.  If you are lost, God is with you as your guide.  If you are hurt, God is with you as your hope.  If you are weak, God is with you as your strength.  If you are sinning, well, God is with you as your conviction and as your savior.

Which brings us to an interesting point.  Sometimes God being with us means that God convicts us.  Sometimes the comfort comes only after the surgery.  As our doctor said to us while Sarah was giving birth, “I love you, and I have to hurt you.”  And yet in each of these ways God is with you right now.

God was with you.  Sometimes it is only clear how God was with you in hindsight.  In the midst of the struggle it sometimes feels like God has abandoned you.  You don’t get those tingles any more.  You don’t get those warm feelings.  Sometimes we get attached even addicted to the feeling of God’s love and God removes that feeling so we’re not loving the feeling of loving God but actually loving God.  All this become clear only in hindsight.

God will be with you.  What did Mary have yet to go through?  Conception – God will be with her.  Joseph’s acceptance – God will be with her.  Her son getting lost in the temple – God will be with her.  Her son leaving a perfectly good family carpentry business and going off to become a wandering homeless preacher – God will be with her.  Her son’s unjust trial and execution  – God will be with her.  Day 1 in the grave – God will be with her.  Day 2 in the grave – God will be with her.  Day 3 resurrection – God will be with her.

What is in store for you this year?  Graduation?  Marriage?  A child?  Divorce?  A new job?  A lost job?  Death of a loved one?  God will be with you.  Can any of these things separate you from God’s love?  No!

“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.”
Revelation 1:8

So God is, was, and will be with you.  There’s no question about that.  The question is: are you with God?  Here’s what it means to be with God.  It’s like a wedding ring.  I hunted around our families and found several rings that Sarah and I then used to create her engagement ring and our wedding bands.  Even though those rings were of great cost to someone else, they didn’t cost us anything.  And yet when we received them, they cost us everything, our entire lives.  That’s what it means to be with God.  So are you with God?

Contemplate that question through the song, Emmanuel.

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Carols – Emmanuel

December 24, 2012 by Leave a Comment

carols

 

 

 

 

Carols – Emmanuel
Sycamore Creek Church
December 23, 2012
Tom Arthur
Matthew 1:21-23

Merry Christmas Friends!

As he lay on his death-bed, John Wesley, the leader of one of the most extensive renewal movements in church history spoke these words as his last, “The best of all is, God is with us…I’ll praise, I’ll praise…Farewell.”

Who has ever prayed: God, be with me?  I’m remembering a certain Saturday Night Live skit where Jesus shows up at a Tim Tebow locker room huddle.  He shows up because Tebow prays for Jesus to be with them. He goes on to say that he always shows up where he’s invited which ends up being a lot of football games, country music awards, and beauty pageants.

The irony of praying, “God be with me/you/us” is that God is already with us. Today we’re going to look at a classic Christmas Carol that points us in that direction.  It’s the carol, Emmanuel.  “Emmanuel” means God with you.

This carol is the oldest of all the carols we’ve looked at throughout this series, and it’s probably one of the oldest Christmas carols that is still sung today.  It was probably an 8th century Gregorian Chant, and was one of the “O Antiphons.”  An antiphon is a short song sung before and after a psalm is read or chanted.  It is an “O” antiphon because it begins with, well, “O.”  “O come, O come, Emmanuel.”

To give you a feel for what it might have been like in its original form, here is a chant version of the O Antiphon, O Come, O Come Emmanuel.

In the 19th century, John Mason Neale, an Anglican Priest, translated this carol from Latin to English.  He wasCambridge trained and wrote and spoke more than 20 languages.  He had been sent to the poverty strickenMadieraIslands, off the northwest coast ofAfrica, where he founded an orphanage, a school for girls, and a house of refuge for prostitutes.  It was in the midst of these ministries that he translated “Emmanuel.”

Here’s a video to remind you of the lyrics of the song:

Matthew 1:21-23
She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Emmanuel”—which means, “God with us.” 

Here’s the amazing thing about this verse from Matthew.  Matthew is quoting the prophet Isaiah who lived 700 some years before Jesus.  And Isaiah prophesies what is happening at Christmas.  And he tells us what it means: God is with us!

What sent the shepherds back into the field rejoicing?  What caused the wise men to fall to their knees and worship?  Not God far away, a distant, uninvolved Creator.  Not just a God watching over you, but God with you!

“God with us” is an incredible radical concept.  We’ve become a little dull to just how radical this was in Jesus’ day.  Moses was only allowed to glimpse the back of God or he would die.  The priest could only go in to the holy of holies once a year, and even then he had to have a rope tied to him and bells on his robe so that if those outside stopped hearing the bells, they could drag out the presumably dead priest.  And in this context, Jesus, the Word, reason, idea, person of God became flesh!

This is hard to believe at times and so we don’t believe.  We don’t feel him.  There are no tingles.  We go through trials, especially at Christmas, which seems to magnify the good and bad, and we ask, “Where’s God?”  Or you’re ashamed of what you’ve done and ask, “Why would God be with me?”

The Point
Before you leave today, I want you to know God is, was, and will be with you! Because he is Emmanuel.  It is God’s very nature to be with us.

Emmanuel – God is with you!
The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”
Luke 1:28

God is the God of all comfort who comforts us in our troubles!  The Spirit of God is called in Greek, Parakaleo.  “Para” means “alongside” and “kaleo” means “called to.”  Thus, parakaleo literally means “called to your side” or “to come alongside.”  You don’t walk alone.

Recently we went to my family’s for Thanksgiving.  My brother has two beautiful full breed huskies that are kept in the garage.  My son, Micah, who is two years old, was fascinated with these huskies.  He would stand at the garage door and just watch them and talk to them.  But when we would walk through the garage, he always wanted me to carry him.  On the last day that we were there, we ran an errand and came back and parked in the driveway.  I asked him if he wanted me to carry him through the garage or if he wanted to walk.  He said, “Walk.”  And so he walked through the garage with his daddy alongside of him.  He was so brave in that moment, but he was brave because he knew that he was not alone.  His daddy was alongside him ready to do whatever was needed to protect him from any harm.

If you are alone, God is with you as your companion.  If you are sick, God is with you healing you.  If you are lost, God is with you as your guide.  If you are hurt, God is with you as your hope.  If you are weak, God is with you as your strength.  If you are sinning, well, God is with you as your conviction and as your savior.

Which brings us to an interesting point.  Sometimes God being with us means that God convicts us.  Sometimes the comfort comes only after the surgery.  As our doctor said to us while Sarah was giving birth, “I love you, and I have to hurt you.”  And yet in each of these ways God is with you right now.

Emmanuel – God was with you!
Sometimes it’s easier to see God’s presence in the past than in the present.  I think back to the story of Joseph.  Joseph was beaten by his brothers, thrown in a pit, sold into slavery, falsely accused by all kinds of people.  And we read:

But the LORD was with Joseph and showed him mercy, and He gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison.
Genesis 39:21 NKJV

God was with Joseph every step of the way.  In the moment, it didn’t look like it.  But looking back on it all, God’s fingerprints were clear.

Earlier this year I went with a medical clinic team on a mission trip to Nicaragua and ended up getting sick.  I was sick for about three days.  One doctor who was with us thought I had pneumonia.  Whatever I was sick with, I experienced what it was like to receive care because our medical clinic was there.  And when it was all over, I saw that God used that situation to teach me something about what it was like to be the recipient of the kind of medical care that we bring on these clinics.  What would it have been like had I been that sick without our medical team there?  God was with me in the midst of the sickness.

God was with Corrie Ten Boom, when she was arrested for hiding Jews in her home in the German-occupied Netherlands during WWII.  She and her sister were taken to a concentration camp where they were packed like sardines into a dorm infested with fleas.  She did not think they could live in such flea-infested dorms.  But what she later came to realize was that the camp guards left them alone because they didn’t want to enter into the flea-infested dorms.  Among other things, this allowed them the freedom to worship because the fleas kept the prison guards out.  God was with them, but they could only see it in hindsight.

My friend Norm was in prison after a long downward slide with alcohol.  He had hit bottom and wanted to commit suicide.  He prayed to God to give him something on work detail the next day that would let him kill himself.  As he walked through the line, the guard gave him a broom.  He cried out to God, “How am I going to kill myself with a broom?”  In that moment he met God.  God was with him all along the way, and it was only in hindsight that he saw it.

Or I think of that loved one you’ve been praying for, for years.  You’ve almost given up praying.  Your praying may have even become dull and stale.  You may have given up hoping that they would come to know the Lord.  But then you get a call or email and hear, they met Jesus and they called because they wanted to make sure you knew.  God wasn’t absent in all those prayers, God was with you, and your loved one.  You just couldn’t see it till much later.

Emmanuel – God will be with you!
What if you could look ahead in your life?  What could happen to you?  Cancer?  Marriage?  Divorce?  A new job?  A lost job?  College?  Whatever happens, know that God will be with you.

Think about what Mary had to look forward to from the point at which the angel comes and tells her that she’s about to give birth to a child even though she is a virgin.  There’s all these events:

  • Conception – God will be with her.
  • Joseph’s acceptance – God will be with her.
  • Travel on a donkey – God will be with her.
  • Birth in a barn – God will be with her.
  • Travel to Egypt (away from Herod) – God will be with her.
  • Lost her son in the temple – God will be with her.
  • Attending a wedding where her son turned water into wine – God will be with her.
  • Her son headed out to become a homeless, wandering preacher – God will be with her.
  • Her son’s corrupt trial – God will be with her.
  • Her son’s crucifixion – God will be with her.
  • Her son’s burial – God will be with her.
  • Day 1: the grave is quiet – God will be with her.
  • Day 2: the grave is quiet – God will be with her.
  • Day 3: Resurrection – God will be with her.
  • 40 days later and her son’s ascension to heaven – God will be with her.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble [NO!] or hardship [NO!] or persecution [NO!] or famine [NO!] or nakedness [NO!] or danger [NO!] or sword [NO!]…No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:35, 37-39

Nothing can separate you from God’s love.  Nothing!  Not doubts.  Not mistakes.  Not disappointments.  Not failure.  Not sin.  Nothing!  God will never leave you—never forsake you.  You will never be alone!

Compassion literally means to “suffer with.”  God doesn’t promise that there won’t be suffering but does promise that you will not suffer alone.

Even though I walk through the valley
of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me.
Psalm 23

“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.”
Revelation 1:8

Is, Was, and Will be.  God is with you.  God was with you.  God will be with you.

There is no question that God is with you. Here’s the real question: Are you with God?  Give yourself to God today.  How do you do that?  It’s like a wedding ring.  I gave Sarah a ring that we made from different rings in my family.  Her engagement ring and our wedding rings did not cost us anything.  But when we accepted them, they cost us everything, our entire lives.  We gave each other ourselves.  God is, was, and will always be with you, but that’s what it means for you to “be with” God.

Prayer
Emmanuel, you are, were, and will always be with us.  Let me respond today by giving myself back to you in love.  In Jesus’ name, amen.

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Carols – Away in a Manger / Sandy Hook

December 18, 2012 by 1 Comment

 

 

 

 

Carols – Away in a Manger
Sycamore Creek Church
December 16 & 17, 2012
Tom Arthur

My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me continually, “Where is your God?”
Psalm 42:3 NRSV

Today we mourn.  Today we cry.  Today our hearts our broken.  And how can we continue this Christmas celebration after the horrific tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut?  We’re in the middle of a Christmas series called Carols.  We’re supposed to be looking at a new carol each week and unpacking it and exploring it.  Today we were supposed to look at the carol, Away in a Manger.   I had a great sermon lined up to ask the question: is the “little Lord Jesus” Lord of a little of your life or all of your life?  But somehow that just didn’t work anymore, so I had to throw that sermon out and start again.

I must admit, even the carol, Away in a Manger, felt like a bunch of sentimental B.S. as I began reworking this sermon.  But as I collected my thoughts for what new thing God was calling me to say, I felt that the carol still had something to say to us today, or at least provided a framework for a word that God might be speaking to us today.  So to refresh your memory, here’s a music video for the song:

 

Away in Enemy Occupied Territory
Away in a manger,
No crib for His bed,
The little Lord Jesus
Laid down His sweet head;
The stars in the heavens
Looked down where He lay,
The little Lord Jesus
Asleep on the hay.

This is a quaint image of the “little Lord Jesus” in a cute little hay filled manger.  But the spiritual reality of what’s going on here is something much deeper.  Have you ever read the Christmas story in the book of Revelation?  You get a much different picture of what’s going on.

Revelation 12:1-9 NRSV
A great portent appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.  She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pangs, in the agony of giving birth.  Then another portent appeared in heaven: a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads.  His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. Then the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child, so that he might devour her child as soon as it was born.  And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. But her child was snatched away and taken to God and to his throne; and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, so that there she can be nourished for one thousand two hundred sixty days.  And war broke out in heaven; Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. The dragon and his angels fought back, but they were defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. The great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world — he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.  

The “little Lord Jesus” is born at ground zero of a spiritual war going on in heaven.  There are two forces at work in the world, the forces of light (heaven) and the forces of darkness (hell).  It isn’t always a clean cut issue of who is on what side, because each one of us is a mixture of light and dark, heaven and hell.  If you look within yourself and are honest with yourself, you’ll see some good stuff and some ugly stuff.  But in Jesus Christ, there is no darkness, only light.

1 John 1:5 NRSV
This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all.

So the first thing we need to recognize about our world when we encounter tragedies like the one that took place at Sandy Hook is that it is taking place amidst enemy occupied territory.

Away in a Manger: Jesus Does Cry
The cattle are lowing,
The poor Baby wakes,
But little Lord Jesus,
No crying He makes.
I love Thee, Lord Jesus;
Look down from the sky
And stay by my cradle
Till morning is nigh.

This is one verse that needs some work.  It needs some work because it implies some kind of not-human baby.  We need to separate fact from fiction in this carol.  There is no mention of animals in the Christmas story.  And there is no mention of Jesus’ crying status.  But somehow we have got it in our collective imagination, probably due to this song, that Jesus doesn’t cry, and if Jesus doesn’t cry as a baby, then Jesus probably doesn’t cry as an adult.  Not true.

When Jesus showed up four days after his friend, Lazarus, had died, Jesus wept (John 11:35).  It’s an odd place for Jesus to cry because it’s just before Jesus raises him from the dead!  But Jesus gets caught up in the emotion of the situation.  He feels the pain of those around him.  He suffers with them.  Jesus knows what its like to have a loved one die, and Jesus wept.

Jesus also knows what it’s like to suffer.  He was executed in a very painful way: crucifixion.  Crucifixion kills you not from bleeding, but because over time you get too  tired to pull yourself up to take a breath, and you suffocate.  Jesus was born in enemy occupied territory so as to lead a rescue mission to save all who would follow him by giving us the ability to follow his teachings on how to love God and others in a right way.  But the world encountered this perfect love and executed him.  Jesus didn’t want to die this way. He even asked his heavenly Father to do something else, but submitted to whatever happened.

And while Jesus hung on the cross he felt abandoned by God.  He cried out the first line of Psalm 22, My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?  In the face of his own suffering, Jesus asked God Why?  If Jesus asked God Why? then surely it’s OK for us too to ask God Why?  And let us remember too that in the midst of Jesus’ death on the cross, the Heavenly Father knows what it is like to lose a child.  The Father and the Son are not removed from our suffering but know intimately what it is like.

Sometimes It Gets Worse
Be near me, Lord Jesus;
I ask Thee to stay
Close by me forever
And love me I pray!
Bless all the dear children
In Thy tender care,
And fit us for Heaven
To live with Thee there.

When I heard about the shooting at Sandy Hook, the first scripture that came to mind was the massacre of the innocents.  Here’s the story:

Matthew 2:13-18 NRSV
Now after [the wise men] had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.”  Then Josephgot up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, “Out of Egypt I have called my son.” When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men,he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men.  Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah: “A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.”

When Jesus comes into the world and enters enemy occupied territory, sometimes it has to get worse before it gets better.  The forces of darkness don’t just lie down and play dead.  They punch back with everything they’ve got.  In fact, sometimes Jesus’ very presence, the presence of light amidst the darkness, is the very thing that causes it to get worse before it gets better.

In the face of things getting worse, sometimes we Christians say some things that I don’t think are very helpful.  One thing I think we often say to comfort one another in times of tragedy is that everything happens for a reason.  Is this really true?  This idea implies that God orchestrated these things to happen so that God could accomplish something.  It’s as though God set up the domino pieces of tragedy so that they would fall into suffering in just the right way.  According to this view, God caused these shootings to happen so that God could get something else to work the way God wanted it to work.

But does everything happen for a reason?  Did God cause this to happen for a reason?

Was this the will of God?

Closely related to these questions are some other questions: How can you believe in God in the face of something like this?  If God is good and all-powerful, how does God allow something like this to happen?

There are no easy answers to these questions but let me offer some ideas that point us toward answers.

First, the Bible isn’t Pollyanna.  Everyone in the Bible doesn’t get what they want and live a perfect and charmed life.  The Bible is full of stories of people hanging on to faith amidst great and terrible suffering.  So don’t think for a second that what the Bible is about is getting rid of all the suffering in your life.  My own experience is that often times following Jesus in a broken world causes me more suffering.

Second, Jesus is the “little Lord Jesus” because he does not force or coerce himself on us.  God allows freedom in the creation, but the natural world of “mother nature” and the human world of each one of our hearts.  God gives each one of us the wonderful and terrible gift of the freedom to choose or reject God and God’s ways.  This is not to say that God is disinterested in our lives or that God is a God who simply created the clock, wound it up, and lets it run.  But rather, most of the time God allows us all to live with the natural consequences of our behavior and the natural consequences of others’  behaviors.  And in that freedom, we people who are all a mixture of heaven and hell, do some bad things.  Some of those bad things are small, and some of those bad things are tremendous.

Third, God can and often does take something bad and turn it, twist it, conform it, even push it into something good. St. Paul tells us that “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28 NRSV).  Let me make sure you understand the distinction between what Paul is saying and the idea that everything happens for a reason.  “Everything happens for a reason” means that God made it happen.  What Paul is saying is that once something happens, God can use it to God’s purposes and God’s ends.  These are two very different ideas.  Do not confuse them.  Paul is not saying that everything happens for a purpose of God.  Paul is saying that everything that happens can be used for God’s purposes.

Lament is OK
Away in a manger,
No crib for His bed,
The little Lord Jesus
Laid down His sweet head;
The stars in the heavens
Looked down where He lay,
The little Lord Jesus
Asleep on the hay.

It’s Christmas time and we want to celebrate.  But this tragedy won’t let us celebrate.  And it is OK to lament.  It’s OK to lament because the Bible is full of laments.  The prayer book of the Bible, the Psalms, have more laments in them than any other kind of prayer including praises.  The book of Job, one of the longest books in the Old Testament, is basically one big lament.  Then there’s even a book of the Bible called Lamentations, written after the city of Jerusalem was sacked and many were taken off into exile in Babylon.

We are living in a world that is both already and not yet.  Jesus already entered into enemy occupied territory to initiate the great rescue mission, but the mission is not yet complete.  In the midst of it being not yet complete, it is OK to lament.  So I would like to end this message on a lament.

Lamentations 2:18-19 NAB
Cry out to the Lord;
Moan, Daughter Zion!
Let your tears flow like a torrent
day and night;
Let there be no respite for you,
no repose for your eyes.
Rise up, shrill in the night,
at the beginning of every watch;
Pour out your heart like water
in the presence of the Lord
Lift up your hands to God
for the lives of your little ones.

Lord, have mercy.

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O Come All Ye Faithful

December 10, 2012 by Leave a Comment

 

 

 

 

Carols – O Come All Ye Faithful
Sycamore Creek Church
December 9 & 10, 2012
Tom Arthur 

Merry Christmas Friends!

Today we continue in the series, Carols.  Each week we’re looking at a different classic Christmas carol and unpacking it to help you hear it in a way you’ve never heard before.  Today we’re exploring O Come All Ye Faithful.

This carol was written in the 18th century by John Francis Wade.  He was a Catholic who was persecuted in England and fled to France where he lived in exile with other English Catholics.   The first line of the song, O come all ye faithful, joyful, and triumphant is an interesting line from someone who was not politically triumphant!  Although Bennett Zon, the head of the Department of Music at Durham University believes that the song was “a birth ode to Bonnie Prince Charlie [the Catholic usurper to the English throne] replete with secret references decipherable by the “faithful.””  At least that’s the conspiracy theory about the song!

The song was originally written in Latin and was titled Adeste Fideles, Laeti Triumphantes.  Frederick Oakeley, an Anglican priest turned Catholic, first translated the song mid 19th century as “Ye faithful, approach ye.”  This wasn’t very catchy and didn’t really have much mass appeal, but later he retranslated the opening line as “O come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant!”  And that’s what we sing today.

Here’s a music video version of the song to begin today’s message.

Faithful, Joyful, Triumphant?
O come all ye faithful, joyful, and triumphant.  But what if you don’t feel faithful, joyful or triumphant?  The holidays can sometimes be depressing & weary.  Last week we explored the weariness of the season and wrote down on snowflakes where we’re weary right now.  We’ve got no money, no family, too much family(!), no friends, past bad memories, too much holiday (lines, not enough money for presents, too much food, and not enough time for all the parties).  I realized the irony of discussing this last week and then hosting a basement blessing and open house that night at the parsonage!  Even the church adds to your weariness sometimes.  YIKES!

Here’s the good news for today: Jesus doesn’t call the faithful, joyful, and triumphant!  Jesus calls the sinners, weary, and burdened.  Here what he says:

On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick…For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Matthew 9:12-13 NIV

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
Matthew 11:28 NIV

Maybe we should sing O come, all ye sinners, weak and overburdened!

Thankfully Jesus doesn’t leave you there.  Rather, Jesus helps us become faithful, joyful, and triumphant!

Faithful
The author of the book of Hebrews says:

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith…
Hebrews 12:2 NIV

Jesus perfects our faith.  Each of us grows over time more and more into the character of Jesus.  We don’t become Jesus, but we become like Jesus in his character.

A friend of mine, Charlie Matz, was a youth in my youth group in Petoskey.  He didn’t really attend youth group regularly, but he did attend guys Bible study that I led each week.  When he was a senior in high school he was part of a high school “mob” that ran through the high school building on the last day of school knocking over trash cans and in one instance knocking over a teacher.  This ended up making national news!  Mob of students in Petoskey!  There were three young men named in the newspaper as “ringleaders.”  Charlie and the other two were all in my guys Bible study!  On one level, I failed.  On another level, I succeeded because these were the three guys willing to take responsibility.

Well, Charlie’s life was kind of like this as a whole.  Sometimes he was faithful and other times he was not so faithful.  One summer I took this group of guys on a backpacking trip in theJordanValley.  We spent two days hiking about twenty miles, the second day in the rain.  Over the two days we studied the book of Romans, written by Paul to the church atRome.  Later Charlie would tell me that it was on that backpacking trip that he really came to make a commitment to Christ.

Fast-forward many years to 2012.  Charlie founded and runs a Christian video production company that makes videos for churches to use.  I contacted him and worked with him at the beginning of the year to help create a video for the United Methodist denomination that would show all the different ways that a church could be planted.  What a joy it was to work with him so many years later and see how he has grown up in maturity and faithfulness.  I had no idea how God would use him back when he was a high school “mob ringleader.”

By the way, here’s that video that we made:

Jesus helps us become more faithful.

Joyful
Jesus also helps us become more joyful. St. Paulsays in his letter to the Galatians:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy…
Galatians 5:22 NIV

We’re talking about the Holy Spirit here.  The Spirit of God and of Jesus.  Joy is the fruit of a right relation with God, and God’s Spirit at work in you.  It is not something you can create by your own efforts.  We receive it when we “come and adore him.”

It’s important to make a distinction between happiness and joy.  Happiness depends on what happens, but joy depends on Jesus!  Happiness has to do with our current circumstances, but joy is built on a hope that runs much deeper.  You can be unhappy with your current circumstances, but still full of joy because of the hope you have through a relationship with Jesus.

Let me give you an example.  This past week John Brinkerhuff died after a long hard battle with brain cancer.  It was his second battle with cancer.  I think in a time like this we’re all a little or a lot inclined to ask the big question: Why?  Why God did you let this happen to someone?  I want to tell you that it’s OK to ask, “Why?”  I know it’s OK because when Jesus, the perfector of our faith, hung on the cross, before he died, he asked God, “Why?”  If Jesus could ask God, “Why?” then it must be OK for us to ask God why too.

And yet in the midst of grieving John’s death and all the messiness of life that this entails, underneath it is a hope that brings Joy.  Where O death is your sting?  Jesus hangs on the cross and dies, but three days later he raises from the dead.  His resurrection is the first-fruit of the hope of our own resurrection in him.  It is this resurrection that provides the foundation of our hope that brings a deep foundation of joy amidst the unhappiness of current circumstances.

If you’re a guest here today and you don’t know Jesus, it may be a little hard to comprehend what I’m talking about.  It’s hard to know a peace and joy in the face of death if you haven’t experienced the hope that comes in Jesus Christ.  It’s like standing in the darkness one moment without Jesus, and then standing in the light the next moment with Jesus.  Know Jesus, know hope.  Hope = joy.  The “snowflakes” of weariness are here today and gone tomorrow, but the love of Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.  That brings hope.  That brings joy.  Even when we face death!

Jesus makes us more joyful.

Triumphant
When I hear the word triumphant I immediately hear horns blowing a military regal after a battlefield victory.  I think of the book I just read, Masters of Command – Alexander, Hannibal, and Caesar and the Genius of Leadership.  These were three of the best generals the world has ever seen.  And yet their appetite for triumph was insatiable.  They expanded their empire solely so that they could rule more and more territory.  Is this the kind of triumph that Jesus brings?  No way!

The prophet Isaiah says:

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever.
Isaiah 9:6-7 NIV

I don’t think Isaiah is talking about a government that makes war, but rather a voluntary kingdom of the heart where Jesus is:

Wonderful Counselor
Mighty God
Everlasting Father
Prince of Peace

I think of it like this: I’ve got a friend, Bill Copeland, who is an Ironman.  I’m talking about the triathlon where you swim 2.4 miles, run a 26.2 mile marathon, and then bike 112 miles.  The guy is one serious endurance athlete, and from time to time I get the great pleasure of backpacking with him.  When I backpack with him, I have a kind of confidence that helps me hike further and longer than I can hike by myself.  I’m confident because I know he’s got my back.

This is the kind of triumph that Jesus brings.  It’s a triumph of maturity.  It’s growing up in the faith.  It’s a triumph of resisting and enduring sin longer.  It’s a triumph over addictions, lusts, broken relationships, broken marriages, isolation, loneliness, materialism, consumerism, and more.  It’s a triumph of peace in your life.

O come all ye sinners, weak and overburdened.  And in your adoration of Jesus become all ye faithful, joyful, and triumphant!

Prayer
Jesus, we confess that we are sinners.  We are weak and overburdened.  We need your help.  Help us to become faithful.  Help us to become joyful.  Help us to become triumphant.  In your name, and in the power of your Spirit we pray.  Amen.

O Come All Ye Faithful
Joyful and triumphant,
O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem.
Come and behold Him,
Born the King of Angels;
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
Christ the Lord.

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O Holy Night

December 5, 2012 by Leave a Comment

 

 

 

 

Carols – O Holy Night
Sycamore Creek Church
December 2 & 3, 2012
Tom Arthur
Lamentations 3:19-26

Merry Christmas Friends!  Would you rather give up Christmas or your birthday?  That’s a question that was posed to me and the staff recently by a Would-You-Rather app I have on my phone.  I was a little surprised to find that 63% would rather give up their birthday than Christmas.  A minority of 37% would rather give up Christmas.  Christmas is time filled with a lot of traditions that many of us cherish.  One of those traditions is singing Christmas Carols.

Today we begin a new series simply called Carols.  Each week we’re going to explore a different well-known Christmas Carol.  We’re going to unpack it so that when you leave here, you’ll hear it in a totally new way.  Let’s begin today with the carol, O Holy Night.

O Holy Night was written in the mid 1800s by Placide Cappeau, a French wine/liquor merchant and poet.  He tended to be somewhat anti-church and religion, and was probably a bit surprised when his local priest invited him to write a poem to Luke chapter two, the classic retelling of the Christmas story.  Cappeau decided that his poem really needed to be a song, so he invited another non-Christian friend to write the tune.  The song soon took off and was extremely popular, even when it was learned who wrote it!

O Holy Night also has another historical distinction.  In 1906, Reginald Fessenden, a thirty-three year old Canadian university professor did the impossible.  He broadcast his voice over the airwaves inventing AM radio.  It was on Christmas Eve.  He read Luke 2:1 – In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world.   Then he played O Holy Night on his violin, which became the first song broadcast live across the airwaves on AM radio!

Here’s a great music video to bring you up to speed on the song:

A Holy Night or a Weary Night?
Alright, this song conjures up all kinds of images from nativity scenes you saw as a kid.  Let’s think about the night when Christ was born.  Mary, pregnant, had traveled on a donkey some eighty to a hundred and twenty miles.  When they finally arrive atBethlehem, there’s no room for them to stay in.  So they stay in the “stable.”  This was probably something of a cave cut into a rock face.  It was unsanitary and full of unruly animals.  The cattle were lowing.  What is “lowing?”  I have no idea, but I doubt that it was fun to listen to in the midst of giving birth!

Perhaps the night when Jesus was born was more like the night when my own son was born.  My wife, Sarah, had labored for over twenty-four hours.  She was exhausted.  I remember at some point in the middle of the night in the midst of trying to make a decision while sleep deprived, we were gathered around Sarah lying in bed.  The nurse was there, our doctor, Amanda Shoemaker (who is a member of our church), and our doula, Connie Perkins.  I was a mess.  Sarah was a mess.  Someone, I don’t even remember who, suggested we pray.  Now, I’m supposed to be the pastor.  Right?  Yeah, I’m supposed to be able to pray at any moment in any situation.  NOT!  I couldn’t pray.  I passed it off to Connie, and while I don’t remember what exactly she prayed, I remember it was perfect for the situation.  Thank God for Christian community amidst the weariness of the night when my child was born!

I suspect that a lot of you are pretty weary right now.  I know you are.  We’re weary with the daily grind.  Our emotions are worn down.  Our bodies are worn down.  Our time is worn down.  Our money is worn down.  And we’re supposed to rejoice at Christmas!  Spend time with family and various parties eating lots of food!  And buy everyone and their mom a present with money we don’t have to spend.

An anonymous prayer request came to the prayer team this week:

Please remember all those for whom the holidays are a difficult time. Perhaps they have lost loved ones whom they miss; especially when family gather at the holidays. There are those who have little or no family, or do not feel part of the family they do have. They may have major financial challenges that make it difficult to go see loved ones or to buy food for a nice dinner or gifts for their children. They may have both sad and happy memories of holidays past, but this year, they are sad and depressed and just getting through another day is a challenge. May our Lord be a strength and comfort to them!  May we remember to extend a hand of hospitality and friendship, not knowing how much it may mean to those around us.

This person puts the weariness of the time quite well.  What I’d like to do is look at one line in O Holy Night that you may never have even noticed:

A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.

Christmas at its essence (not all the cultural Christmas expectations) is a thrill of a hope amidst a weary world.  It is a new and glorious morning!  Where are you in need of a thrill of hope?  Where do you need a new and glorious morning?

A New and Glorious Morning
I want to explore this idea of a new morning at Christmas in a place that you might not think to look at Christmastime: the book of Lamentations.  Lamentations was written after the fall ofJerusalemin 586 BC.  The Babylonian empire sacked the city and took the leadership and all the wealthy and skilled into exile.  A most weary moment if there ever was one.  Let’s see what the author of Lamentations says:

Lamentations 3:19-23 NRSV
The thought of my affliction and my homelessness is wormwood and gall!  My soul continually thinks of it and is bowed down within me. But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases,his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

We’re talking about a major depression here.  And what does he do about it?  He calls to mind the truths of God.  Sometimes when we’re weary we forget to call to mind the truths and promises of God.  That’s all it took for the author to have hope!  And here’s the truth and promise he called to mind: that God’s love never ends; God’s mercy goes on and on and on; God’s mercy and love are new every morning.

Christmas is a new morning because it is the birthday of Jesus, the son of God.  And with Christmas comes the possibility for a new morning in your own life.  A new morning with Jesus’ birth in your life brings:

Exactly What You Need

Lamentations 3:24 NRSV
“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”

“My portion” probably is a reference back to the manna that the Israelites received while wandering through the wilderness.  After Moses led them out of slavery in Egypt, they spend forty years wandering around in the dessert.  One need they had was food, and God provided it every morning in the form of manna.  “Manna” literally means “What is it?”  It was a kind of flaky bread-like substance found on the ground each morning.  God told them to gather just enough to meet their needs for the day.  If they gathered more it would rot.  God wanted them to trust that he would provide what they needed, their portion, each and every day.  The LORD is my portion.  A new morning with Jesus gives you exactly what you need (not always what you want, but what you need). 

When we pray the Lord’s prayer one of the lines we pray is: Give us this day our daily bread.  That’s a request to God to meet our basic needs today.  What needs do you have today?  I’m not talking about a Red Rider B.B. Gun, but what basic needs do you have today?

Jesus is what your marriage needs.  Jesus is what your children need.  Jesus is what your past, present, and future needs.  When you are weak, he is your strength.  When you are lost, he is your way.  When you are hurting, he is your comfort.  When you are down, he is your joy.  A new morning with Jesus brings exactly what you need.  It also brings…

The Hope to Keep Going

Lamentations 3:24 NRSV
“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”

It has been said that you can live forty days without food, eight days without water, four minutes without oxygen, but only a few seconds without hope.  We tend to put our hope in all the wrong places.  We hope in the stock market. We hope in the biggest jackpot lottery of all time.  We hope in the company we work for. We hope in a boyfriend or girlfriend, a spouse, a child, or even a pastor.  Friends, I’m not your hope.  That job description is already taken.

The author of Hebrews says:

Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.

Hebrews 10:23 NRSV
We tend to let go of hope and hold on to our fears.  But we’ve got to let go of the fear and hold on to the hope.  Sarah and I have a friend who several years ago committed suicide. He took his life amidst a deep depression and circumstances that overwhelmed him.  He did it while standing in the pre-dawn waters of the Little Traverse Bay, the same bay that Sarah and I had watched sunsets and sunrises a hundred times.  I can’t help but think, if only he had hung on till the darkness of that bay had been eclipsed by the sunrise of a new morning, a new morning that offered the hope of Jesus.  If you’re at that place today, hang on. Hang on till the morning. Hang on to the hope that Jesus is hanging on to you more firmly than you can even hang on to him.  A new morning with Jesus brings the hope to keep on going. It also brings…

The Help You’re Waiting For

Lamentations 3:25-26 NRSV
The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him.  It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.

Wait for it…wait for the amazing difference that one day can make.  It can be the difference between life and death.  Being lost and being saved. 

Lazarus was dead for four days, and then Jesus raised him from the dead.  A woman with an issue of blood for twelve years was healed when she touched Jesus.  A man unable to walk for thirty-eight years was healed when he met Jesus while sitting beside a pool of water that supposedly healed people.  There is only one thing in common between how all these things happened: they each encountered Jesus.  

We are living in the darkness of the night.   But Christmas reminds us that a new day’s coming! A new twenty-four! St. Paultells us that

…The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here…

Romans 13:11-12 NIV
O Holy Night are amazing words written by a talented poet.  But while he knew the story of Christmas in his mind, he did not know it in his heart.  It is possible to know about Jesus without knowing Jesus.  To have the head but not the heart.  This Christmas, give your life to Jesus.  Follow him with everything you’ve got.  Don’t just know the story in your head, but know it in your heart.  Know the thrill of hope that a new morning with Jesus brings. 

Prayer
Jesus, we are weary.  We’re weary with all kinds of things.  We’re even weary with the way our culture celebrates Christmas.  But help us to encounter you amidst all the weariness of this Christmas season.  Be our need, our hope, and our help so that we might follow you more faithfully  Give us these things by the power of your Spirit at work in us.  Amen.

O Holy Night
O Holy Night! The stars are brightly shining,
It is the night of the dear Savior’s birth.
Long lay the world in sin and error pining.
Till He appeared and the Soul felt its worth.
A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.
Fall on your knees! Oh, hear the angel voices!
O night divine, the night when Christ was born;

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Ancient Hippies – Jonah

November 29, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Ancient Hippies

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Ancient Hippies – Jonah
Sycamore Creek Church
November 18 and 19, 2012
Tom Arthur
Jonah

Note: The basic idea of this sermon came from David “Welshy” Wilson who preached an excellent sermon on Jonah at the Wesley Fellowship at Michigan State University.

Peace friends!

Hippies are kinda weird.  They’re sometimes offensive.  At their best, they speak truth to power.  That’s the 1970s variety.  The ancient variety is called a prophet.  The prophets were ancient hippies.  The prophets in the Bible were kinda weird.  Sometimes they were offensive.  And they always spoke truth to power.  But sometimes the prophet needed truth spoken to him.  Today we explore an ancient hippie: Jonah.

One of the great things about the book of Jonah is that it is short and compelling and an entertaining read.  It has four chapters.  Pick it up this afternoon or this week and read it all in one sitting.  It’s not long at all.  Today we’ll have the chance to range over the entire book.  So let’s dive right in.

Jonah 1:1-3 NLT
The LORD gave this message to Jonah, son of Amittai:  “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh! Announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are.” But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction in order to get away from the LORD.

Most of us are pretty familiar with this part of the story.  God calls Jonah to go speak truth to power inNinevehand Jonah runs from his mission.  He went in “the opposite direction”!  What mission are you running from?

Sometimes even though I’m a pastor I run from the mission of sharing God’s love with others in explicit ways.  I’m a pastor but I’m timid to bring up spiritual things in conversation with people I don’t know well, or people that I think might not like me if I bring them up.  The other day I was talking with someone I had recently met and she brought up her spiritual story.  I’m such a bozo that I changed the topic!  What was I doing?!

Other times I’m timid to bring up questions of eternal significance with people who haven’t explicitly signaled to me that they want to talk about these kinds of things.  Maybe this is because of my experience “Mall Witnessing” as a teenager.  Do you know this behavior?  You go with your youth group to the mall and you try to lead people to Jesus who are complete strangers.  I was about as successful at mall witnessing as I was at picking up girls at the Mall!  Which is to say zero percent successful.  And all either ever did was make me feel really uncomfortable.

Or maybe I think I’m afraid of coming across like the guy who shot me with theological questions and Bible verses one day before our Monday night worship at Grumpy’s.  He came up to me and within thirty seconds said:

  • Do you believe in being born again?  It’s in the Bible.
  • What about regeneration?  Being made a new creature?  It’s in the Bible.
  • Do you believe in hell?  Do you preach about it?  It’s in the Bible.
  • Do you preach the Bible?
  • Do you believe that the body of Christ can be split?  The Bible says…

I don’t think he really cared about what I thought, he only wanted to quote the Bible at me.  He didn’t even really seem to care that I was working on setting up for a worship service!  I felt like hiding under a table.  Really.  I just wanted him to go away.  And I’m the pastor!

So if you’re a guest here today, I want you to know, that we’re not like this.  We’re curious about God.  Questions are welcome.  You don’t have to have it all figured out to belong here.  You’re free to even disagree with me!

I know I’m not alone when it comes to running from this mission of sharing God’s love with others in spiritual conversation with others.  I asked my friends on Facebook what keeps them from inviting people to church.  Here’s what I heard back from them.  They fear:

  • Forcing a conversation
  • Being pushy and preachy
  • Not wanting to look judgmental
  • Scared that their own faults will make them look hypocritical
  • Guilt by association – The church hurts people
  • Being asked a question they can’t answer
  • Being “out argued”

So sometimes we run from the mission before us, just like Jonah.  We run for a variety of reasons.  Let’s get back to Jonah and see what happens.  The big question in the book of Jonah is: What exactly is the mission in the book of Jonah?

As we keep reading we find that Jonah hops on a boat and goes the opposite direction that God wants him to go.  A big storm picks up and Jonah realizes he’s the reason for it.  He tells the sailors to throw him into the sea to stop the storm…

Jonah 1:15-17 NLT
Then the sailors picked Jonah up and threw him into the raging sea, and the storm stopped at once!  The sailors were awestruck by the LORD’s great power, and they offered him a sacrifice and vowed to serve him.  Now the LORD had arranged for a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was inside the fish for three days and three nights.

Growing up you’re told that the story of Jonah is about trusting God to provide in a time of trial, God sent a whale to save Jonah.  But that’s not what the story is about!  The mission ultimately isn’t about the whale.  Although God “appointed” or assigned a mission to the great fish.  The whale follows God’s mission when Jonah wouldn’t!  As we keep reading we find that the whale spits Jonah up on dry ground.

Jonah 3:1-4 NLT
Then the LORD spoke to Jonah a second time:  “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh, and deliver the message of judgment I have given you.”  This time Jonah obeyed the LORD’s command and went to Nineveh, a city so large that it took three days to see it all.  On the day Jonah entered the city, he shouted to the crowds: “Forty days from now Nineveh will be destroyed!”

Jonah finally obeys God’s command to go and speak truth to power inNineveh.  His heart isn’t in it, but he goes anyway.  How many times do we go through the motions out of obedience (for fear we’ll get swallowed by a whale!), but our hearts are far from God’s heart?  So what happens when we obey without our heart in it?  Let’s keep reading…

Jonah 3:5 NLT
The people of Nineveh believed God’s message, and from the greatest to the least, they decided to go without food and wear sackcloth to show their sorrow.

We find that obedience is important.  God will work in spite of our hypocrisy, our going through the motions on the outside, but not caring on the inside.  That’s pretty amazing.  God works in spite of us!  Thank you God.  And when you read the rest of chapter three, you see that even the animals repent.  The king orders everyone to wear sackcloth including the animals!  (I’ve always wondered if the cats submitted to this?).

So this is the mission of Jonah, right?  This is what we’re supposed to get out of this book, right?  Jonah was given a mission to speak truth to power.  At first he disobeyed but then he obeyed. Ninevehrepented and God did not destroy them.  That’s the moral of the story.  Right?  Well, actually no.  The mission of Jonah isn’t ultimately aboutNineveh.  In fact, most of us don’t even know what happens in the fourth and last chapter of Jonah.  So let’s keep reading…

Jonah 4:1-4 NLT
This change of plans upset Jonah, and he became very angry.  So he complained to the LORD about it: “Didn’t I say before I left home that you would do this, LORD? That is why I ran away to Tarshish! I knew that you were a gracious and compassionate God, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. I knew how easily you could cancel your plans for destroying these people.  Just kill me now, LORD! I’d rather be dead than alive because nothing I predicted is going to happen.”  The LORD replied, “Is it right for you to be angry about this?”

Here we find what the real mission is for Jonah.  It’s not about Nineveh.  The mission, the truth that needs to be spoken is more about Jonah himself!  The mission is to change Jonah, for Jonah to care about people he didn’t care about before, people who were literally his enemies. Nineveh was their capital of the Assyrian Empire which sacked Israel and took them off into exile.  Jonah understandably does not like them and only wants God to wipe them off the face of the earth.  But God cares for the Assyrians and wants to make a point to Jonah.  God’s heart is one of compassion and mercy to all, even our enemies.  That’s the truth that needs to be spoken to Jonah.  It’s the true mission of the book of Jonah.  Jonah needs to be saved as much as Nineveh!

The Problem and the Point
Here’s the problem both with Jonah and us: Our hearts don’t beat with God’s heart. We don’t care about the same things God cares about, people far from God.

Here’s the main point of the book of Jonah: The mission is to sync our hearts with God’s heart, to care about the same things that God cares about, which is to share God’s compassion with all.

Lately I’ve gotten a little…OK a LOT…hooked on The Voice.  I haven’t watched it before, but I have kept up with it this year.  Something happens each time someone leaves the competition: there’s often a disconnect between the mentors/judges and those watching the show.  Their hearts aren’t always synced.  The audience likes one person and the judges/mentors like someone else.  The mission of Jonah is to sync all those hearts together, to get them beating in unison.

The end of the book of Jonah is somewhat startling.  A plant grows up to provide Jonah some shade.  But the sun kills the plant.  Jonah is pretty upset that this plant died.  And we continue reading…

Jonah 4:8-11
And as the sun grew hot, God sent a scorching east wind to blow on Jonah. The sun beat down on his head until he grew faint and wished to die. “Death is certainly better than this!” he exclaimed.  Then God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry because the plant died?” “Yes,” Jonah retorted, “even angry enough to die!”  Then the LORD said, “You feel sorry about the plant, though you did nothing to put it there. And a plant is only, at best, short lived.  But Nineveh has more than 120,000 people living in spiritual darkness,not to mention all the animals. Shouldn’t I feel sorry for such a great city?”

That’s the abrupt end of the story.  What happened?  I don’t know.  Jonah’s heart at this point is such that he cares about his own comfort, while God’s heart is such that he cares about whether God’s comfort has come into the heart of all people.  The book of Jonah is written as if the end of the story is now up to you!  Will you obey even if your heart isn’t in it, but go even deeper by seeking a heart change, by seeking to sync your heart with God’s heart?  God’s heart is this: that all people would know the compassion and comfort of God.

So when was the last time you had a conversation about the compassion of God with someone who didn’t know the comfort of God?  When was the last time you invited someone to come to join our church in worship?

This month is our twelfth anniversary as a church.  We are twelve years old.  We’re only a pre-teen.  Pretty soon we’re going to get rebellious!  To celebrate our twelfth birthday, we recently interviewed Barb Flory, the “rebel grandma” who was the founding pastor of Sycamore Creek Church.  We asked her what excited her about SCC these days.  Here’s what she said:

Did you hear that?  Barb is excited that we’re stepping out of our comfort zone to creatively reach new people for Christ.  Yes!  Yes!  Yes!

Now here’s the deal as I’ve begun to experience it.  When you start something new like our Monday night Church in a Diner at Grumpy’s Diner, it’s super easy to invite people to it.  It’s also super important.  Because it’s obvious that if you don’t invite people, it won’t live to see another day.  Something I’ve noticed about our Sunday morning venue is that twelve years into it, we’ve become a little more concerned about our own comfort and a little less concerned about whether we’re sharing the comfort of God with others.  We can kinda coast on Sunday mornings.  But if we coast too long, we’ll end up slowing down and dying.

So I’d like to give you some practical tips this morning on how to invite people to experience the compassion and comfort of God by joining us for worship some Sunday or Monday.  I asked several different people how they invite people.  Here’s the responses I got:

Amberlee

Amberlee focuses on the feel of the venue.  It’s relaxed and casual.  The teaching is practical.

Mark

I love how Mark makes it seem so simple, like sharing about your favorite restaurant.

Gretchen

Gretchen has an idea that I’ve used myself.  When someone asks you how you’re doing, don’t just say, “Fine.”  Tell them you’re excited about something going on at your church.

Bill

Bill is the owner of Grumpy’s, and he’s always inviting people to join us.  He can’t attend a church on Sunday morning so this has become his church.  He simply shares with people what he gets out of it.

It doesn’t quite work the same way for me that it works for all of you.  A conversation with me always brings up church because people ask me what I do.  Then when I tell them I am a pastor, they ask about the church and location.  But I could stop there.  On my good days, I take the conversation at least one step further by asking, “Do you have a church family?”  I find that question is a non-judgmental way to ask about church.  If you ask if they attend church, then it kinda puts them on the defensive if they don’t.  But if you ask if they have a church family, then you’re asking about their community.  I had a conversation like this the other night with a dad I met at the pajama reading time at the Holt Library.  We both had sons in their pajamas “listening” to the librarian read bedtime stories.  He asked what I did, and we got into the conversation.  I asked him if he had a church family and he said he didn’t because he thought that religion causes a lot of damage around the world.  I told him I couldn’t agree more.  He told me that he still didn’t have his religious views figured out and I told him we were a community that is curious, you can bring your questions with you.  I said, “I’m a pastor, and I’ve still got questions!”  The conversation didn’t go much further than that, but I did invite him to our daddy kid night out.  I look forward to seeing him again at another pajama story time and continuing the conversation.

Now I wasn’t always comfortable in that conversation.  In fact, when he brought up the whole religion-does-a-lot-of-damage thing, I was working really hard not to get defensive.  But what I knew deep down was that God loves this guy.  And he’s got some kind of pain in his life that needs God’s comfort.  I don’t know what it is, but maybe someday I’ll get to know him better and will learn what that is.  But the mission in that moment was for my heart to sync with God’s heart for this other young dad whether I was comfortable with it or not.

Friends, look for God in the midst of your discomfort.  What is your discomfort telling you about what God cares about, where God’s heart is at?  It may be the exact opposite of where your heart is at.

Imagine this: we could double in size next week if everyone invited one person!  We could reach out to twice the number of people and share with them the love and comfort of God if each one of us brought a friend, family, neighbor, or co-worker with us next week.

It’s the Christmas season.  That’s the perfect season to invite people.  If someone is going to be open to coming to church, this is the time when they’re open.  We’re shooting a commercial today to help till the ground for you ahead of time, so that when you invite them, they’ll have already heard about us.  Our Christmas series is simply called Carols.  Each week we’re going to look at a Christmas Carol in a new way.  They’re songs you’ve heard over and over, but you’ll walk away each week hearing it in a whole new way.  Who can you invite to this series?  Take a moment and write down three names.

Here’s how I’ve seen invitation happen lately: Bill invited Carl and he came.  I invited Molly and she brought ten people with her!  Daniel invited Julie and Julie invited her whole family: 4 “kids” and 3 or 4 grand kids! Josh walked by and saw the Grumpy’s sign and invited his roommate, Tom.  His roommate invited a friend.  That guy invited a friend too!  Each of these people’s heart was synced with God’s heart to share the comfort and compassion of God with others.  Is your heart in the mission?

Prayer
Here are two prayers from a prayer guide I’ve been using lately:

Lord, you have such compassion on all you have made.  Thank you for loving this fallen world so much that you gave your only son to redeem it.  Help those who are lost to realize that you don’t want anyone to perish, but instead desire for everyone to come to repentance (Psalm 145:9, John 3:16, 2 Peter 3:9).

Lord, help me be more sensitive to those who are lost and outside the family of God.  Give me your heart of compassion for them because they are harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd (Matthew 9:36).

Amen!

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Ancient Hippies – Micah

November 6, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Ancient Hippies

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ancient Hippies – Micah
Sycamore Creek Church
November 4 & 5, 2012
Tom Arthur
Micah 6:8

Peace Friends!

Today we begin a new series called Ancient Hippies.  We’re getting our hippie on!  I hope you wore your favorite hippie accessory.  Now hippies are a little weird and crazy.  They are somewhat offensive at times.  They speak truth to power.  That’s the 1970s variety.  The ancient variety is called a prophet.  Today we begin with the prophet Micah.

Micah is a good place to begin because Micah is a book about the politics of the day.  And what are we right smack dab in the middle of today?  Politics.  On Tuesday, we elect a president.  So today I’d like to get a little, or maybe a lot, political.  I know.  I know.  Politics and religion don’t mix.  Well, hang with me for a second.  Don’t blow me off.  I think Micah has something to say to us no matter what side of the aisle we’re sitting on.

So just to keep you from squirming the whole time, let me tell you where I’m personally at when it comes to politics.  I don’t feel completely comfortable in any one party.  I like bits and pieces of all the parties out there.  To illustrate that, let me tell you a story about my involvement with politics.

Several years ago I set a goal for myself one year to meet with every person who was holding an office that I had to vote for.  So I met with my local ward representative in Petoskey.  I met with the mayor of Petoskey.  And so on.  Well, my local house of representatives congressman, Bart Stupak, was holding a town hall meeting one night.  I figured that would be my best chance to meet with him.  During the town hall meeting Q&A, I raised my hand and asked, “I don’t feel comfortable in any party.  What would you say to someone like me to woo me into your party?”  Bart Stupak gave a basic answer that I don’t really remember.  But what I do remember was that when it was all done, he made a bee-line right for me and started talking to me.  I told him that I’d like to talk politics with him some day, and he suggested that the next time he was in town I could spend the day with him.  Score! 

So I wrote his office a letter and told them about his offer.  A year later when he was coming to town for another town hall meeting, I got a call from his office, and they arranged for me to spend the day with him.  Do you know what a representative does all day long?  He meets with people who ask for money.  Money to complete this project.  Money to start this project.  Money to assure that this project will continue.  And on and on and on. 

It was an eye opening day.  During that day Bart Stupak offered for me to spend a day with him inWashingtonDC.  Score!  So a couple of months later I went and spent a day with him in DC.  He gave Sarah and me a personal tour of the White House, and I had the chance to go to several committee meetings with him.  I know that most of you would rather have your toe nails plucked out than spend a day in DC going to committee meetings, but I loved every second of it.  What other nation opens so wide their doors of power for the average person to see what goes on?  So do you know what our congressmen and women do when they go to committee meetings in DC?  They ask for money.  Money to finish this project.  Money to start this project.  Money to make sure that this project continues.  Do you sense a theme?  (Now this isn’t all bad because it takes money to keep our roads open and safe, to pay for our police and firemen, and to educate our children.  Don’t take me the wrong way here.) 

These two days are two days I will never forget.  I got some pretty intense time with Bart Stupak.  But after those two days, word got back to me from a friend of mine who knew Stupak better than I did, that Stupak was still confused about my political persuasions: He said he still didn’t know if I was a Republican or Democrat! 

OK, that was a long story just to tell you that when it comes to politics, I’m not particularly comfortable in any one party.  So when I say I want to get political today, rest assured that I’m not talking about trying to convince you who to vote for on Tuesday.  But what I want to do is bring up some things that Micah might say if he were alive today speaking truth to power.

The Problem
Here’s the problem in Micah’s day, and I think it is a problem that many of us feel still exists today: the corrupt rule.  Going back to the theme of money, it often seems like money buys the winners.  According to the New York Times, in the current presidential election, Obama and the Democratic National Convention and Obama’s Super Pac have raised a total of $934 million.  That’s almost one billion dollars!  Mitt Romney is not far behind.  Romney + RNC + Super Pac = $881.8 million.  Wow!  According to CNN, “Historically, the candidate who raises the most money is likely to win…In 2004, Senate candidates who raised the most money won 88% of the time and House candidates who raised the most money won an astonishing 97.8% of the time.”  Yikes!  It has been said that theUS has the best congress money can buy.

When it comes to who gives money to who, it often seems like both parties are in the pockets of big corporations.  According to the Center for Responsive Politics several big corporations give to both Democrats & Republicans.  Here’s a list with the percentage given to Democrats and Republicans in parentheses:

  • Comcast – $3.6 million (63/37)
  • Honeywell – $2.9 million (39/61)
  • Lockheed – $2.5 million (39/61)
  • Boeing – $2.4 million (42/58)
  • Citigroup – $1.9 million (43/57)
  • Bain Capital – $505,605 (37/63)

Micah
Stepping into this situation is the ancient hippie, Micah.  Micah is a prophet.  A prophet speaks for God.  One writer has said that prophets are “men [and women] of God going around saying things people did not want to hear but remarkably could not forget” (Ellen Davis).  Micah speaks judgment on the kingdom for breaking covenant with the LORD and speaks new vision for the future.  There are three famous passages in Micah that speak truth to power in his day and can still speak truth to power today.  From them we can learn the main point of this message: God desires justice, kindness, and humility.

Justice
Perhaps the most famous verse from Micah is Micah 6:8:

He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? (NRSV)

Here is the situation that Micah found himself in.  To pay the tribute to the Assyria Empire, the rich were taking advantage of the poor.  They were taking their homes and land (2:1-2).  Sounds like all the repossession going on today.  Micah tells the rich and powerful that they may take the land today, but they will eventually lose it.

The rich were also using false weights (6:9-16) to make as much profit as possible.  Sound familiar?  How ‘bout predatory lending today?  Micah tells them that while they may make money today, they will not enjoy their profit and it will be taken away.

Likewise, money ruled the rulers.  The rulers were taking bribes and gifts and ruling in favor of the powerful (7:3-4).  Sound familiar?  Perhaps they needed some campaign finance reform?  Micah warns them that while they have power now, they will lose their power.

Micah makes his point really sharp when he sums up the situation of the rich and the powerful saying, “The best of them is like a brier, the most upright of them a thorn hedge” (Micah 7:4 NRSV)!  Micah is serious about justice.

Kindness
In Micah 6:8 we read that God desires kindness.  The Hebrew word there for kindness is hesed.  That’s the same word that is used to describe God’s loving merciful kindness toward us.  God expects of us the same thing that God shows us. 

In a wonderfully imaginative verse Micah gives us a vision of what this kindness looks like in the future on the ground:

They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
(Micah 4:3 NRSV)

Peace is the final vision for God’s Kingdom.  Peace.  Shalom.  Well being for every person.

Let me give you a little historical context for this message.  Micah is living in a time where a civil war has splitIsraelbetween a northern kingdom, calledIsrael, and a southern kingdom calledJudah. Samaria, the capital of the northern kingdom, has attacked the southern kingdom,Judah’s capital,Jerusalem.  In order to fend off Samaria, Judah allies itself with the bigger empire, Assyria but must pay huge tributes for this protection.  Kinda like a mafia protection plan.  This alliance led toJudahworshiping other Assyrian gods.  Assyria comes down and takes on a three-year siege of Samaria that ends with its sack in 722 BC.  But then Assyria turns against the southern kingdom too and siegesJerusalem.  In the midst of this siege, something miraculous happens andAssyriais put in disarray and backs out of the siege. Jerusalemis safe for the time being.  But Micah lives 25 miles southwest ofJerusalemand has something to say about all this war: one day God will take all these weapons of war and turn them into instruments of peace.  God’s final vision for humanity is peace.

Over the years, faithful Christians have disagreed on whether war is ever acceptable.  I don’t take a black and white stance on this issue, but I tend toward the hippie side of things: make love not war.  There are moments of seemingly God-ordained war in the OT but none of them is a vision for the future, like Micah’s vision.  I lean toward active non-violent resistance as a way of responding to evil in the world.  Whatever the case may be, Micah’s truth to power is a vision of peace.  That’s the ultimate goal of kindness.    

While we’re at it, let’s talk a little bit about kindness in politics.  Things in politics get pretty nasty pretty quick, don’t they?  Here’s some counsel on voting from John Wesley, the founder of Methodism.  On October 6, 1774 he gave this counsel to his fellow Methodists:

“I met those of our society who had votes in the ensuing election, and advised them, 1. to vote without fee or reward for the person they judged most worthy, 2. to speak no evil of the person they voted against: and, 3. to take care their spirits were not sharpened against those that had voted on the other side.”  This is something we could all learn about showing kindness to those around us in the midst of this election season.

Humility
Micah is a book of contrasts.  He speaks judgment but ultimately looks for hope.  He speaks hard words to hear but ends with hope and a different kind of politics wins.  Here’s a third famous passage from Micah:

But you, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah, who are one of the little clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to rule in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days.
(Micah 5:2 NRSV)

Have you heard that one before?  When do we usually read it?  Around Christmas time when we read this New Testament passage: 

In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise menfrom the East came to Jerusalem…
(Matthew 2:1 NRSV)

It’s a prophesy about the messiah and the New Testament writers take it to be a prophesy about Jesus.  Immediately you see a different kind of politics beginning.  Bethlehem is a “little clan.”  Not the big powerful clan, but the little clan will produce a savior.  And of course we know the story of Christmas that Jesus is God come in the form a helpless little baby who is dependent upon those around him just like any baby is. 

Jesus ultimately sets up a different kind of politics, a different kind of kingdom: A kingdom not built by war, not built upon money, and not built upon worldly power and authority.  It is a voluntary kingdom of the heart.  That’s the kingdom we’re praying for when we pray the Lord’s Prayer: Your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.

Join the New Politics
If you’re new here atSycamoreCreekChurch, I want to invite you to join the story of SCC, a story about a different kind of politics, a different kind of kingdom.  One that the ancient hippie, Micah, pointed to.

Today is our twelve year anniversary or birthday as a church.  This church was founded by pastor Barb Flory, who while not an “ancient hippie” was what I like to call a “Rebel” Grandma.  She had a vision for this church being a different kind of church.  You see, Barb was first in life an atheist.  Eventually when she became a Christian, she wanted to start a church where everyone could come and have a place to share their questions about God and about faith and about Jesus.  She wanted a community, a politics, where that kind of thing was possible, where you didn’t have to leave your true self, your true questions at the door.  She didn’t find that kind of politics at many churches, so she set about to create with God’s help that kind of a church.

Today we talk about being a countercultural community that is curious, creative, and compassionate.  We’re curious about God.  Your questions are welcome.  You don’t have to leave them at the door.  We try to approach God with a curious humility.  We might wrong so we like to listen to you no matter where you’ve come from because we think God will say something to us when we listen to you. 

We’re creative in all that we do.  We’re creative because we’re always concerned about who is being missed.  Who is being missed by the way church is usually done?  Who gets left out because they don’t like the music or the style?  Being creative is actually an expression of justice because justice is all about paying attention to who is getting left out of the community.

We’re compassionate to everyone.  Compassion literally means co-suffering.  We can’t promise that you won’t suffer any more when you begin to follow Jesus, but we can promise that you won’t suffer alone.  We’ll show you kindness.  We’ll walk alongside you.  We’ll be loving, merciful, and kind because God has been all those things first with each one of us.

As we come to this week of electing our leaders for the future, may this ancient hippie speak some truth to the powers of our day and help us live a different kind of politics here at SCC:

He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice [be creative in reaching out to people so that no one is left out], and to love kindness [we’re compassionate to everyone], and to walk humbly with your God [we’re curious about God and your questions are welcome right alongside ours]?
(Micah 6:8 NRSV)

Prayer
God, help us to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with you.  Help us to do that in the politics of our country, but even more so in the culture of our church.  May this be true of us in the name of your son Jesus Christ and in the power of your Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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The Daily Grind – Financial Margin

October 30, 2012 by Leave a Comment

The Daily Grind

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Daily Grind – Financial Margin
Sycamore Creek Church
October 28 & 29, 2012
Tom Arthur
1 Timothy 6:6-10 

Peace Friends! 

One day, the father of a very wealthy family took his son on a trip to the country with the express purpose of showing him how poor people live. They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a very poor family.

On their return from their trip, the father asked his son, ‘How was the trip?’

‘It was great, Dad.’

‘Did you see how poor people live?’ the father asked.

‘Oh yeah,’ said the son.

‘So, tell me, what did you learn from the trip?’ asked the father.

The son answered:

‘I saw that we have one dog and they had four.
We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden and they have a creek that has no end. We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have the stars at night.

Our patio reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon.

We have a small piece of land to live on and they have fields that go beyond our sight.

We have servants who serve us, but they serve others.

We buy our food, but they grow theirs.

We have walls around our property to protect us, they have friends to protect them.’

The boy’s father was speechless.

Then his son added, ‘Thanks Dad for showing me how poor we are.’

The Problem
The problem I want to look at today is that we look prosperous but we’re really poor.  Today we wrap up a series called The Daily Grind.  It’s been about the stuff that slowly but surely grinds us down day after day.  Not the big blowout stuff, but the small stuff.  We’ve looked at emotional grind, physical grind, time grind, and today we’re looking at financial grind.

Sarah and I struggle a bit with the financial grind.  I get paid regularly and you all take good care of us, but Sarah’s income comes in big chunks.  It’s feast or famine at our household.  We’re either covering just the basics or binging ‘cause we just got a big huge check!  While this is somewhat true of us, of all the daily grinds (Emotional, Physical, Time), this is the one where we seem to have the least grinding.  It’s because we live simply (on one income) and give generously (mostly give Sarah’s income away).  We recently had a family financial emergency that was in the $1000s of dollars.  We had an emergency fund that could cover it and so while it was stressful, it just meant that we were going to have to tighten the belt for a while to rebuild our emergency fund.  Then Sarah got a royalty check.  She actually hasn’t gotten much of a royalty check in many years, but the royalty check was within forty-three cents, yes, forty-three cents of thousands of dollars of the financial emergency.  We gave thanks to God for how we were first, prepared with an emergency fund, and then for how we were taken care of above and beyond that!  I still marvel at it as I tell this story today.

The question of the day amidst an election year seems to be: What are the economic statistics doing?  But the question should be: What are the economic statistics doing to us?  It seems like layaway has become really popular again.  “Buy now pay later” = “Binge now pain later.”  We buy more and more stuff on debt and credit, which means that we have the perception of prosperity but the reality of poverty.  A couple of months ago I was talking with a local bank manager and he told me that his best guess was that 50% of the houses in the neighborhood surrounding the bank were underwater, they owed more than they were worth.  A friend of mine took out too many student loans, spent them unwisely, graduated and got too much house for too much mortgage, maxed out all his credit cards, and then it all came crashing down in bankruptcy.  Who is to blame, the politicians ask.  I think everyone: the banks and credit cards for loaning irresponsibly and my friend for spending way over what he could afford.

How much debt do you have?  How content are you with your current financial situation?  I’d guess that most of us are carrying more debt than we would like, and are not very satisfied with how things are going financially.

If you won $1,000,000 in the lottery, would that fix everything for you?  You might think so, but you would probably be wrong.  Did you hear recently about Amanda Clayton?  She won the lottery a couple of years ago but continued taking food stamps.  Recently she was found dead from a possible drug overdose.  If you don’t know how to take care of your money, getting more money will only make the problems bigger.  If you don’t have the discipline to build financial margin in your life with little money, then you won’t have the discipline to do it with a lot of money.

I’d like to turn to God’s Word today and see what it says about building financial margin in our lives.

1 Timothy 6:6-10 NLT
Yet true religion with contentment is great wealth.  [A new definition of wealth:] After all, we didn’t bring anything with us when we came into the world, and we certainly cannot carry anything with us when we die [Universal truth: we all die].  So if we have enough food and clothing [live simply], let us be content [to get a little bit more]. But people who long to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction.  For the love of money is at the root of all kinds of evil [not all evil but all kinds of evil]. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.

Main Point
Here’s the main point for the day: Living simply and giving generously produces financial margin.  If you get any one thing from this message get that.  When you live simply, that is below your means, and give generously, that is give sacrificially, then you will end up with financial margin in your life and financial peace no matter how much you make.

To live simply and give generously here’s what I want you to do.

Ditch Debt
Get rid of your credit cards.  If you can’t pay them off at the end of each month so that you don’t carry over any balance, then get rid of them.  And cut up those credit card checks as soon as they come.  Practice a debt snow-ball.  Pay off the smallest debt you have.  Then take that monthly payment and begin to pay off the next biggest debt.  Once you’ve paid that off, take those two payments and pay off the third.  And on and on until you’re debt free.

Decrease Spending
To be able to ditch your debt you’re going to have to decrease your spending.  Now a few very disciplined people can do this without a budget (but they’re probably not in debt to begin with), but most of us need to set a budget.  I was recently floored when Jeremy, our worship leader, showed me how they budget and track their money.  They use Google Docs.  Kristin, Jeremy’s wife, set this whole thing up online with a spread sheet for each category of spending.  I know that Kristin set it up because it’s way too advanced for Jeremy.  So every time Jeremy and I meet at Biggby Coffee and he buys something, he logs in to their Google account and types in what he just spent.  It shows him how much more he has that month to spend.  This is pretty amazing to me because of how detailed it is and that they set it up on their own.  But the discipline that he and Kristin show to do this every day is even more amazing than the technology. 

Sarah and I do the same basic thing but we found a website called Mint.com that does most of the work for us.  It pulls data from our bank accounts and it learns how to categorize your specific spending habits and all you have to do is check it to make sure it’s categorized everything correctly. 

Now budgeting doesn’t have to really include any technology except a pencil and pad of paper.  But whatever you use, use something to help you budget so that you decrease your spending so that you can ditch debt so that you can build financial margin.

Devote More to Savings
So you’re ditching debt by decreasing spending, but don’t forget to devote more to savings.  First you need to build an emergency fund.  Start by aiming for a $1000 emergency fund.  That will get you through two big emergencies.  That way when the water surge hits after the hurricane, you’re not taken out.  I mentioned earlier that Sarah and I had an emergency fund that was going to buffer our financial emergency.  While the financial hit didn’t feel good, it would have felt even worse had we not had the emergency fund. 

In an ideal world, you’d build that emergency fund to be six months of expenses.  That would give you six months to find a new job if you got laid off.  Wouldn’t that be great to have six months of cash to cover the loss of a job?  It’s a long-term goal, but one worth aiming for.

The general rule of thumb for devoting more to savings is to live on 70-80% of what you make and put at least 10% in savings.  So now we’ve come back to living simply.  Live on less than you make.  To do that you have to decrease your spending by budgeting and ditch debt.  Then you’ll be able to devote more to savings.

Sarah and I have also begun to think even more long-term.  How will we pay for Micah’s education?  We’ve begun a college savings plan.  We put $25/month toward it right now.  It’s not a lot, but it’s better than nothing.  I think one of the big temptations is to think that because you can’t save a lot or put a lot away, that you shouldn’t save at all.  Well, that’s a false assumption.  Save as much as you can.  And when you can save more at a later time, then save more.

Discipline your Desires
So we’ve looked at ditching debt by decreasing your spending, so that you can also devote more to savings.  All this is in order to build financial margin in your life. But let me share a secret with you: money has a spiritual dimension to it.  Money holds a kind of power over your heart.  It’s hard to do any of this when money finds a root in your heart.  The best and most effective way to break the power of money in your life and to break the hold it has over you is to give it away.  Money was not made to be given away.  When you give it away, you break down its power.  Money is like manure, spread it around and it can do a lot of good, but pile it up in one place and it stinks to high heaven.  Live simply and give generously.  It’s the motto for those who want to have financial margin in their lives.

I recently came across the amazing story of Howard Cooper.  Howard recently retired from his auto store, Howard Cooper Imports inAnn Arbor.  Howard had a surprise for his employees when he retired.  He gave all of them $1000 for every year they had worked for him!  Some people had worked twenty or thirty years!  Wow!  What generosity.  What kind of person gives away so much of their hard-earned savings when they retire?  I had to find out so I called up Howard and talked to him.  He told me he got the idea from a friend who had a concrete business.  This friend of his has not paid his employees as well as he would have liked because he was always bidding low so that he would get the bids.  When he retired, he sold the business and made a huge amount of money.  So to make up for his poor pay rates, he did the same thing: gave his employees big “retirement bonuses.”  Howard had treated his employees well, but felt that gesture still had merit.  As we talked he told me about his mother who was a very devout Methodist.  His mother was very generous with her money.  One time she had heard that someone had won $1,000,000.  She commented to Howard, “Think how much good that person could do by giving that money away.”  Howard’s mom’s attitude toward money rubbed off on him, and when he had the opportunity he decided to give generously to his employees.  When I grow up and have lots of money, I want to be like Howard Cooper!

I love what Howard did because it’s being generous with the people who are around him day in and day out.  I hope whenever I talk about giving money away, you don’t immediately think I’m talking about giving it to the church.  I do want you to give to the church because I think that’s part of disciplining your desires, but being generous is much bigger than that. 

But when it comes to giving to the church, the best way to do it is to automate it.  We automate everything these days.   In fact, I barely ever write a check.  I’ve created most of my financial life to take place automatically whether I’m even paying attention or not.  My pay check is automatically deposited to my bank account.  All of my regular bills are automatically taken out of my checking account.  And I’ve done the same thing with my tithing to the church.  Tithing means 10%.  It’s the basic standard of giving in the Bible.  Sarah and I do it through EFT, electronic fund transfer, but you could also do it through your online bank bill pay.

Some people point out to me how they like to put something in the offering bag and that feels like an act of worship.  That is probably true for many people.  When it comes to worship, we like the physical act of doing something.  But if you automate your giving, that doesn’t mean you can’t still do something.  When the offering bag comes around every week, consider simply touching it and saying a prayer of thanks.  That moment can be a moment of thanks for everyone whether you put something in it or not.  Touch the bag and be thankful.  Or if you want to put something in the bag, simply put an empty giving envelope in the bag.  Let that be a symbol for you that you gave in some automated way.

There are three different groups of people here today.  Those of you who have yet to give something to the church.  I want to encourage you to give something, anything, regularly.  Even if it’s just $5.  Then there are some of you who give regularly but don’t tithe.  Consider tithing today.  Then there are those of you who already tithe.  Consider taking the next step to radical generosity.  Give above and beyond 10%.

One last comment about disciplining your desires by giving generously.  Anyone start thinking about Christmas yet?  It’s just around the corner.  What’s your financial game plan for Christmas gifts?  Sit down and write it up.  And make sure you include giving generously.  We want to encourage you to remember that Christmas is not your birthday.  It’s Jesus’ birthday.  So give away as much as you spend on gifts.  Or cut what you spend in half and give the other half away.  Our Christmas Eve offering will be entirely focused on missions and meeting the needs of those in our community and world.  So begin making plans for Christmas generosity right now.

Financial Margin
John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, liked to say that financial margin was about making all you can (in honest ways), saving all you can (living simply), and giving all you can (give the rest away).  I heard him paraphrased lately this way: “Keep our needs low, our generosity high, and our expectations heavenward.”  What if we all had that kind of financial margin?  Imagine the joy of having your basics covered and not living pay check to pay check.  Imagine the joy of having an emergency and having money to cover an emergency.  Imagine the joy of giving lots of money away.  Imagine a whole community of 150 people doing that.  That’s whatSycamoreCreekChurchwould look like if we all had financial margin. 

You know what?  I already see it here at SCC.  I see people doing it in amazing ways.  There are people here at SCC who live way below their means.  They live very simply.  And that frees them up to do some amazing things with their money to help others find that financial margin too.  It warms my heart.  But perhaps the most heart-warming example is a teenager I found out about who tithes toSycamoreCreekChurch.  That’s someone who we’re already teaching how to discipline their desires.  I cried when I heard that story.  Thank you, God, for letting me be part of a community like that.

Prayer
God, help us be a community that helps rebuild the financial margin in people’s lives.  Help us be a community where people are ditching debt, decreasing their spending, devoting more to savings, and disciplining their desires.  Help us be so much that kind of a community that it rubs off on our children and teenagers.  May it be so in the name of your son Jesus Christ and the power of your Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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