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Hercules: How To Be Strong

July 28, 2014 by Leave a Comment

GodOnFilm

 

 

 

 

God on Film – Hercules: How To Be Strong
Sycamore Creek Church
July 27/28, 2014
Tom Arthur

 

 

Peace Friends!

Today we continue in our summer series, God on Film.  We’ve been looking at a different summer blockbuster each week and exploring what the Bible says about a theme from that movie.  Today we look at the movie Hercules.

Most of us are familiar with who Hercules is.  We know he’s strong, but most of us don’t know many details about Hercules’ life.  Hercules is strong because he is the son of the god, Zeus, and the mortal, Alcmene.  In a fit of madness brought on by Hera, Zeus’ wife and Hercules’ step-mother, Hercules kills his wife and six sons.  He then seeks penance to atone for his actions.  He is given twelve labors by king Eurystheus, and we find that there is nothing Hercules can’t do.  His strength allows him to do whatever he wants, slaying and capturing fierce and fast wild animals and monsters: the Nemean Lion, Lernaean hydra, Golden Hind of Artemis, the Erymanthian Boar, all the way to Cerberus, the hound of hell who guards the entrance so no one gets in or out.  In the end because of his great strength and courage, Hercules is awarded immortality by the gods.

Here’s a news flash for us all today: None of us are Hercules.  Unlike Hercules, we can’t do anything we want.  We can’t gain immortality by our strength and courage.  So what do we do?  Today I want to talk about two ways that each of us can be strong.

1. Use your unique strengths to build God’s kingdom
Each of us has a unique set of gifts, talents, and passions that makes us unique and unlike anyone else.  Paul, the first missionary of the church, wrote about these calling them  spiritual gifts.  In his letter to the church at Corinth he wrote:

Are we all apostles? Are we all prophets? Are we all teachers? Do we all have the power to do miracles? Do we all have the gift of healing? Do we all have the ability to speak in unknown languages? Do we all have the ability to interpret unknown languages? Of course not!
~1 Corinthians 12:29-30 NLT

Each one of us is given a unique talent to use to build God’s kingdom here on Earth.  Some of those gifts may seem more grand or important than others.  It may seem like the pastor or the one who speaks and leads has the most important role in the church, but this isn’t true.  I refer to the media team as my co-preachers.  I can’t do what I do up front without them doing what they do behind the scenes (And if they do what they do well, then no one even notices them!).  So Paul says:

In fact, some parts of the body that seem weakest and least important are actually the most necessary.
~1 Corinthians 12:22 NLT

This reminds me of the Jewish morning prayer that I came across sometime ago in a Jewish prayer book.  I’ve shared it before but this prayer just never gets old!

Blessed are you, O Lord, King of the Universe, who formed humankind with wisdom, and created in them many orifices and passages.  It is revealed and known before your throne of glory, that if one of them were open [that should be shut], or one of them were shut [that should be open], then it would be impossible to exist and to stand before you.  Blessed are you, O Lord, Healer of all flesh, who does wondrously.

Paul lists several gifts in his first letter to the Corinthians but he also lists gifts in two other places: Romans 12 & Ephesians 4.  I don’t think Paul was trying to be exhaustive in his list but was trying to give us a general direction about how the church works together building God’s Kingdom by relying upon the strengths of each one of us.

If you want to get a better perspective on your own strengths there are several ways you can do that.  We offer a free online assessment tool called assessme.org.  If you paid for it yourself it would cost you $15, but we offer it to your free.  Follow this link and it will take you about twenty minutes to fill out four inventories: http://www.assessme.org/2364.aspx.  You’ll be given some tips on how to use those strengths that God has given you.  You’ll also be in our database so that when we’re looking for someone for a unique volunteer opportunity that requires your strengths, we’ll know that you would really thrive in that setting.

Another tool that I and the staff have found helpful lately in understanding our strengths is the DiSC personality profile.  Each of the letters stand for one of four different personality tendencies:

D – Dominance
I – Influence
S – Steadiness
C – Compliance

These four different personality traits follow along two different axis: Outoing vs. Reserved oriented and People vs. Task oriented.  Here’s a helpful picture to help you understand:

 

disc-profile

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jeremy and I recently took an online version of the DiSC that created a comparison profile between the two of us.  Jeremy’s primary personality trait is an “I” or influencer.  His secondary trait is a “S” or steadiness.  I am the exact opposite.  My primary trait is “D” or “dominance” and secondary trait is “C” or Compliance.    Here’s the cool thing about Jeremy and me: we compliment each other really well.  Our strengths walk side by side really well.  Jeremy is outgoing; Tom is private.  Jeremy is energetic; Tom is calm.  Jeremy is tactful; Tom is frank.  Jeremy and Tom are both strong-willed rather than accommodating.  Jeremy and Tom are both skeptical rather than accepting.  And lastly Jeremy and Tom are both driven rather than patient.

Another tool that we’ve found helpful lately in understanding our strengths is Go Put Your Strengths to Work by Marcus Buckingham.  Buckingham describes a strength as something that makes you feel strong.  The only person who can know your strengths then is you.  He says the key to lasting impact and success in whatever you are doing is to play to your strengths.  Here are the strength statements that Jeremy and I both came up with:

Tom Strength Statements:

  1. I feel strong when I spend time guiding, coaching, mentoring, brainstorming with competent, creative, and missional leaders (at SCC and elsewhere) for a better future for the church and seeing them put into practice our dreaming and visioning to develop successful programs that reach new people in a variety of ways.
  2. I feel strong when I create or spend time in environments that challenge me intellectually and philosophically with other people who are deeply interested in the same topic (reading, workshops, education, discussion groups, etc.).
  3. I feel strong when I have time to “breathe” (space and time) to accomplish the small things that add up.

Jeremy Strength Statements

  1. I feel strong when making inspiring and excellent music with other competent musicians when given the time to prepare and be creative.
  2. I feel strong when fostering/deepening existing and new friendships with those related to the ministry of Sycamore Creek Church in informal settings.
  3. I feel strong when following a leader I trust to motivate and encourage a competent, committed, and motivated team.
  4. I feel strong when executing plans that result in successful outcomes (i.e. retreats, worship services, off site gatherings, rehearsals, etc.).

What are your strengths?  How can God use those to build God’s Kingdom right here on Earth?  Take some time to pray about these strengths and give them up to God for God to use.

2. Let your weaknesses drive you to rely on God’s strength
So strengths are just one side of the coin.  The other side is our weaknesses.  You might think that there’s no way for weaknesses to make you strong, but you would be wrong.  Paul not only talks about strengths but he also talks about how weaknesses can make each of us strong.  In his second letter to the church at Corinth he says:

I will boast only about my weaknesses. If I wanted to boast, I would be no fool in doing so, because I would be telling the truth. But I won’t do it, because I don’t want anyone to give me credit beyond what they can see in my life or hear in my message, even though I have received such wonderful revelations from God. So to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud.

Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
~2 Corinthians 12:5-10 NLT

Here’s an important truth we learn from Paul: you can’t get rid of all your weaknesses.  He says that “three different times I begged the Lord to take it away” but God wouldn’t do it.  Sometimes weaknesses are a matter of maturity.  They will go away as you mature.  Sometimes our weaknesses are a matter of context.  They will go away as the context changes.  But sometimes our weaknesses are a matter of our humanity.  They will never go away.

Your weaknesses do two things.  First, your weaknesses drive you to use your strengths.  You can’t be someone you’re not.  Some of us are 5’3”, and we’re trying to play center under the basket.  Others of us are 6’11”, and we’re trying to play point guard.  If you’re 5’3” get out on the perimeter.   If you’re 6’11”, get under the basket.

Second, our weaknesses drive us to rely upon God.  Paul says, “So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses.”  Here’s the Achilles heel of strengths.  Strength breeds pride, and pride drives us away from God.  Pride is competitive.  C.S. Lewis describes pride in this way:

Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not. They are proud of being richer, or cleverer, or better-looking than others…It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest.
~C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Søren Kierkegaard, the 19th century philosopher and Christian says:

The proud person always wants to do the right thing, the great thing. But because he wants to do it in his own strength, he is fighting not with man, but with God.
~Søren Kierkegaard 

I think that the real crux of pride is that it is based on a lie.  Pride is not telling the truth about yourself.  It is an “inordinate and unreasonable self-esteem” (Evangelical Dictionary of Theology).

While strength tends to breed pride, weakness tends to breed humility, and humility is true and lasting strength.  Whereas pride is telling a lie about yourself, humility is true strength because humility is telling the truth about yourself.  Paul says, “If I wanted to boast, I would be no fool in doing so, because I would be telling the truth.”  Paul knows who he is, but he chooses not to boast about it because he knows it would breed pride and drive him away from God.  Augustine, a 4th century church leader, says, “If you asked me what is the first precept of the Christian religion I will answer, first, second and third, humility.”  Humility is having an appropriate awareness of your limitations in body, mind and spirit or knowing your physical, mental, and spiritual limitations.

Humility has three directions.  We are humble in relation to God.  The humble person knows that she is totally dependent upon God.  We are humble in relation to others.  The humble person knows that he is here to serve others rather than be served.  And we are humble in relation to the self.  The humble person knows that he is wounded, guilty, and in captivity and in need of healing, forgiveness, and rescue.  In all three of these areas we are unable to save ourselves.  The humble person knows this.  Paul hears from God that God’s “grace is all you need.”

All of us have a sense that the world isn’t quite like it’s supposed to be.  The Christian knows that the world was created for good by God.  But pride led us to depend upon ourselves and focus inward.  In the process the world was damaged by evil.  God saw the state of the world and had compassion on it.  He entered into the world in his son, Jesus Christ, to heal, forgive, and rescue the world.  He created a community that would have God’s resources to do these things.  We join that community when we ask Jesus to forgive us and lead us.  Then we join that community and are sent out into the world to accomplish that same mission: to heal, forgive, and rescue the world with the strengths that God has given each of us and relying upon God all the way.  You might think that we could do all this without Jesus, God, or God’s community, the church.  But relying upon ourselves was what got us into this mess in the first place.  That’s why our weaknesses are so important.  They drive us to rely upon God and God alone.

Take some time to consider your weaknesses and lift them up to God in prayer.  Here is a prayer that might be helpful to you today:

We thank you, God, also for those disappointments and failures that lead us to acknowledge our dependence on you alone.
~Book of Common Prayer

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Small Steps Toward Big Destruction

January 20, 2014 by Leave a Comment

samson

 

 

 

 

 

Samson – Small Steps Toward Big Destruction *
Sycamore Creek Church
Tom Arthur
January 19/20, 2014
Judges 16

Peace friends!

Today we continue in a series exploring the life of Samson, one of the strongest men who ever lived on the earth.  We’re applying the lessons to the men around us, but many of the principles are true for women too.  And women can also learn more about the men in their lives so that they know better how to partner with and pray for them.

Samson was chosen by God before he was even born to deliver his people, the Israelites, from their enemies, the Philistines.  He was called a “judge” in his day, and a “judge” was kind of like a tribal leader.  He had so much potential but he wasted it away on lust, entitlement, and pride.  We learned the last two weeks that Samson was:

  1. An incredibly strong man with a dangerously weak will (Satan likes to make strong men weak, but God makes weak men strong).
  2. Emotion driven, not Spirit-led (when a man lets his deepest need drive him to God, God meets his deepest need).

Samson led Israel for 20 years, a very long time.  So how can a man with so much potential, end up so poorly?  Here’s a key thought for the day:

Samson didn’t mess up his life all at once, he did it one step at a time.

Let’s see how Samson’s life plays out one step at a time.  We read:

One day Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute. He went in to spend the night with her.
Judges 16:1 NIV

Here we go.  One day.  What happened one day?  Here’s what happened.  Samson walked to Gaza.  Gaza is the headquarters of the Philistines and is 25 miles from his hometown.  25 miles.  To walk 25 miles would take 56,250 steps.  That’s 56,250 steps to destruction.  56,250 opportunities to stop.

No guy starts out saying, “In ten years I want to be a sex addict, obsessed in a fantasy world that is destroying my real world.”  It begins one day with a step: seeing an ad on Facebook.  Step.  Clicking the ad through to a youtube video.  Step.  Picking up the SI swimsuit issue.  Step.  Going a little deeper with softcore porn.  Step.  Going further with hardcore porn.  Step.  Consuming porn all…the…time.  STEP!

No guy starts out saying, “I want to go broke and bankrupt and have to beg for bucks.”

It begins one day with a step: a daily $4 coffee on the credit card.  Step.  Buying a new car.  Step.  Buying a boat.  Step.  Taking out a second mortgage.  Step.  Gambling to try to fix it all quick.  Step.  Deciding to start a new business when he can’t even balance his own check book.  Step.  Bankrupt.  STEP!

No guy starts out saying, “I want to destroy my marriage and my family.”  It begins one day with a step: looking up an old girlfriend on Facebook.  Step.  Sending a text.  Step.  Getting together for lunch.  Step.  A hug to say goodbye.  Step.  Jumping in bed.  Step.  Adultery that destroys your marriage.  STEP!

Today we’re going to explore three steps to Samson’s destruction.

Taunting the Enemy
When the Philistines realize that Samson is among them at Gaza they make plans to capture him, but he leaves early in the morning and eludes their trap.  But escaping isn’t enough for Samson.  He has to insult them in the process.  So he rips the doors of the city off their hinges and puts them on a hill for all to see.  This is no small feat.  This isn’t the hollow core door to your bedroom.  The doors to a city were massively reinforced to keep battering rams from breaking in.  These things probably weighed 700 or more pounds!  It’s like Samson is flipping off his enemies.  He’s taunting them and underestimating them.

Friends, too often we taunt and underestimate the enemy.  We read in scripture that the enemy of God is out to steal, kill, and destroy and is roaring around like a lion seeking someone to devour (John 10:10).  And we pretend that it’s like we’re at the zoo with a powerful cage between us and that lion, so we taunt our enemies.

One day I taunted and seriously underestimated my opponent.  I was with my roommate from college, Greg, and my new girlfriend, Sarah, soon to be wife.  For some reason, I don’t exactly remember why, I decided to wrestle my roommate.  I do know why.  I was trying to impress Sarah!  And when you’re trying to impress a girl the blood isn’t always flowing to the right parts of the brain.  The blood was definitely not flowing to the right part of my brain in that moment, because Greg was not someone you wanted to wrestle with.  He was a farm boy from Wisconsin.  He grew up wrestling steer into submission and throwing bails of hay onto trucks.  The man was and still is cut out of stone.  He is the first real person I saw up close and personal who had a real six-pack ab.  Not only this but Greg’s primary sport in high school was wrestling!  So what was I thinking trying to impress my girl by wrestling with my roommate?  He took me down in less than two seconds and held me there long enough to really let the embarrassment set in.  It’s the last time I tried to impress Sarah with my physical prowess, or lack thereof.  Thankfully Greg was not really out to steal, kill and destroy me.  He was my friend after all.  But he wasn’t going to let me score a quick point with my girlfriend at his expense.

Friends, too often we treat our enemy the way I treated Greg.  We put ourselves in tempting situations and underestimate and taunt the enemy.  We struggle with lust and then we go hang out in our girlfriend’s room.  We are married but we go out to a club on a business trip out of town.  (Side note: do you know that research has shown that most affairs are not caused by marital strife or marital dissatisfaction.  Most affairs are caused by opportunity!  It’s the affair that causes the marital strife and dissatisfaction. Read more here: http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/201206/promise-promiscuity).  We’re taunting the enemy.  We know that our family has a history of alcoholism but we decide one drink won’t hurt.  Then two.  Then three.  Then four.  Then five, and we’re smashed.  We don’t really have the money to buy a new car, but we go walk around the car lot “just window shopping.”  The first car I bought in my marriage was bought when I went to just look on the lot.  I didn’t plan to buy a car that day, but I got hooked.  Paul reminds us:

So if you think you are standing, watch out that you do not fall.
1 Corinthians 10:12 NRSV

Friends, don’t taunt the enemy.  Don’t underestimate the pitfall.  Stay humble.

Rationalizing the Same Old Sin
So far we’ve encountered two Philistine women in Samson’s life.  The first we read about last week was someone he wanted to marry.  It didn’t go well for anyone involved.  The second we just read about was a Philistine prostitute.  Two Philistine women and we haven’t even gotten to the most well known Philistine woman: Delilah.  But she’s about to come on the scene, and this is the third time that Samson is messing around with a Philistine woman.  (Side note: the issue here is not the difference in race.  There is no command in the Bible not to marry interracially.  The problem is that the Philistines worship another God.  The problem is a faith problem, not a race problem.)  So we read:

After this he fell in love with a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah.
Judges 16:4 NRSV

Too many of us say, “This is my one thing…This is no body’s business…I’m not hurting anyone…I’m always just looking…Nobody will find out.”  I have a friend who told me the other day that when he first got married he would go to the gym and take his ring off.  He took his ring off because there was this cute girl who was there at the gym, and he wanted to make sure he still had “it” even though he was now hitched.  So he flirted a little here and there, and it worked.  She asked him out.  Whoa!  She asked out a married guy she didn’t even know was married.  The problem here isn’t her problem.  The problem is with my friend.  He wanted to see if he still had it, and he deceived this young woman in order to meet his own needs of insecurity.  Thankfully he manned up to the situation and told her he was married, but the damage was already done.  He was taunting the enemy.

Back to Samson:

The lords of the Philistines came to [Delilah] and said to her, “Coax him, and find out what makes his strength so great, and how we may overpower him, so that we may bind him in order to subdue him; and we will each give you eleven hundred pieces of silver.”
Judges 16:5 NRSV

So she goes to Samson and asks to know his secret.  He tells her three different lies to the source of his strength: straps, ropes, and a pin in his hair.  Each time she binds him in the way that he says and the Philistines rush in to attack him, and he breaks out of the binding and beats them.  The third time he gets pretty close to telling the truth but not quite.  It’s like he’s walking up to the line but not crossing.

What amazes me is he keeps this game up.  The first time he tells her a secret and she shares it.  He does it again.  She shares the secret.  He does it again.  She shares the secret.  When will he learn?  Too late.

Then she said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart is not with me? You have mocked me three times now and have not told me what makes your strength so great.”  Finally, after she had nagged him with her words day after day, and pestered him, he was tired to death.
Judges 16:15-16 NRSV 

Samson was strong enough to kill a thousand men, lift a 700 pound door, slay a lion, but wasn’t strong enough to lead a woman.  Men don’t just be strong in business, hobbies, and sports but be strong leading people to God.  Be strong in righteousness, right relationships with God, with others, and with yourself.  Samson doesn’t have it.  He tells her his true secret:

So he told her his whole secret, and said to her, “A razor has never come upon my head; for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If my head were shaved, then my strength would leave me; I would become weak, and be like anyone else.”
Judges 16:17 NRSV

It’s kind of like he’s remembering for a moment who he was created to be: A Nazarite dedicated to God to save his people from their enemies.  He was dedicated from before birth!  Who were you created to be?  What gifts, passion, and callings are on your life to bring glory to God?  You were made to have a purpose, even several purposes.  You were made for more than just lust, entitlement, and pride.  Samson gives away what he was made for for the same old sin.

She let him fall asleep on her lap; and she called a man, and had him shave off the seven locks of his head. He began to weaken, and his strength left him.
Judges 16:19 NRSV

There it is.  The enemy has him.  How many men out of disobedience of God are doing battle with their own strength and missing God’s strength?  Your strength has left you.  Samson’s “one vice”, his “one sin” catches up with him.

The Cost of Disobedience
So far we’ve looked at two steps that let to Samson’s destruction: he taunted and underestimated the enemy and he rationalized the same old sin.  The third step is this: he assumed his disobedience would never cost him.

Then she said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” When he awoke from his sleep, he thought, “I will go out as at other times, and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the Lord had left him.
Judges 16:20 NRSV

Sometime your sin will catch up to you.  You’ll go to your wife, and she’ll say “That’s enough” and the marriage will be over.  You’ll promise your kids another empty promise (even if you really truly mean it this time), and they’ll say “That’s enough” and will give up on you.  You’ll go to your boss and apologize for not doing the work, and she’ll say, “That’s enough” and your job will be done.  Your sin will find you out.  There will be consequences.

We read about the consequences to Samson’s sin:

So the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes. They brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze shackles; and he ground at the mill in the prison.
Judges 16:21 NRSV

This didn’t happen all at once out of the blue.  It happened one small step at a time. Where are you stepping away from God?  Be honest.

No time in the Bible.  Step.
No time in prayer.  Step.
A sense of entitlement: I deserve this!  Step.
Giving in to lust: I want it!  Step.
Living in pride: I can handle it!  Step.
Blowing up in anger.  Step.
Apathetic to God.  Step.
Greed for more.  What you have is never enough.  Step.
Financial disobedience.  Not bringing the full tithe to God.  Step.

You are only as strong as you are honest!  How honest are you with God and those around you?  How honest are you with yourself?

So if you are stepping away from God in any way, what should you do?  Turn around!  Go the other way!  It’s not too late! It’s that simple!  Turn around.  When you turn around, who will be right there waiting for you?  God!  In God you will find grace.  Samson’s story isn’t over.  We read:

But the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaved.
Judges 16:22 NRSV

It is a sign of grace.  His hair begins to grow again.  That which gives you strength will grow again!  No matter how many steps down the road you have gone away from God, your life is not a waste.  Turn around and you will find God right there waiting for you and God’s grace will begin to grow your hair again.

God, may the men who hear this message not taunt and underestimate the enemy.  May the men who hear this message not become complacent in the same old sin.  May the men who hear this message not assume that their sin will have no consequence.  May the men who hear this message turn around and find you, and may your grace begin to grow their strength again.  In the name of Jesus and in the power of your Spirit at work in us.  Amen.

 

* This sermon and the series are based on a sermon series originally preached by Craig Groeschel.

 

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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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Amazing Stories – Wrestle Mania

May 29, 2012 by 2 Comments

Amazing Stories - Wrestle Mania

Amazing Stories – Wrestle Mania
Sycamore Creek Church
May 27, 2012
Tom Arthur
Genesis 32

Peace Friends!

Today we begin a new series called Amazing Stories.  Whether you’ve read the Bible or not, you know the big stories of the Bible: Adam and Eve, Noah and the ark, Moses parting the Red Sea, David and Goliath, Jesus’ death and resurrection.  These are all amazing stories. But there are many more amazing stories in the Bible that aren’t as well known.  Over the next several weeks we’re going to explore those not-so-well-known-yet-still-amazing stories.  In the end, I think you’re going to find that all the amazing stories in the Bible will help you live into the amazing story of your own life.  Today we begin with a story about wrestling.

Who or what do you wrestle with?  And I suspect that the wrestling has played a large part in defining who you are today.  Probably one of the biggest wrestling matches I’ve had over my lifetime is with my dad.  Boys wrestle with their dads in a way that defines them.  My dad and I have a lot of things in common, but there are some significant ways in which we are different.  I’ve wrestled with him about decisions he’s made in the past, mistakes he’s made, and differences of opinion about what the right thing to do is.  Sometimes that wrestling has been obvious: we argue.  Most of the times it’s not obvious.  I wrestle with my dad in my thoughts.  Wrestling with my dad has been significant in defining who I am.

Then there’s the wrestling I did with friends growing up. I wanted to find acceptance and fit in.  I wrestled with being funny (or not).  The person who made everyone else laugh was always well liked.  And one of the key ways to make friends laugh was to be in the know about the funniest TV shows, movies, music, or jokes.  These made up the currency of our conversations.  So being in the know was important to being accepted and fitting in.  Sarcasm was also a key to fitting in.  You couldn’t take anything at face value.  Then there were girls. Who had the prettiest girlfriend?  Who had the most girlfriends?  Who had the coolest girlfriends?  On all of these fronts, I was no where near the top.  I wasn’t the funniest.  Most of the time I didn’t have a clue what was going on in culture.  I wasn’t naturally sarcastic.  And my friends tended to think my taste in girls was a little off.  Wrestling with my friends has been significant in defining who I am.

Then there’s the wrestling with myself.  If you’ve gotten to know me you know I’m a perfectionist.  I have very high standards for myself, and I rarely if ever live up to them.  I’ve got an internal dialogue always going on, and it’s not always pretty.  It sounds something like this:  You should try harder at that.  You should be better at that.  You need to make sure you don’t make that mistake again.  Don’t mess up.  If you do that, they won’t love you.  You’re not doing everything God wants you to do.  This wrestling with my own perfectionism has been significant in defining who I am.

I’m not alone in wrestling with others or myself.  I asked my friends on Facebook how they are defined by wrestling with people, things, or situations.  Here are some of the responses I got:

About my struggles that define me…probably my low self esteem and my depression, and people pleasing.

As a child I had a parent with a substance issue and she was able to mask it in public for a long time. She was a pretty mean drunk, I protected my sister, and she focused on me. I learned to stand up for what is right, that sometimes you are going to pay a price for doing that, but that it is always worth trying to do the right thing.

I grew up as the youngest child and a Christian in a non-Christian home.  I got made fun of for being a Christian and always had to hide my faith in my home.  It has led me to not being very willing to be open about my faith as an adult.

Hear any common themes?  People wrestle with themselves, with the ones they love, and with the broader culture.  This weekend is Memorial Day weekend.  Perhaps this weekend as we remember those who gave their lives fighting for our country, you wrestle with having lost a loved one.  Or maybe you wrestle with your own memories of war.  Or maybe you wrestle with the enemies you fought against.

We all wrestle with people, situations, and things, and this wrestling tends to be very significant in defining who we are.

One of my favorite movies Nacho Libre, a monk, played by Jack Black, wants to be a wrestler.  But first he needs a partner.  He finds an unlikely partner, but first has to wrestle him into submission and a new understanding of who he is and who he might become.

We’re not the first people to wrestle with those around us.  The Bible tells the story of a famous wrestler named Jacob.  Jacob was constantly wrestling with others preparing for his big showdown with God.  When Jacob was born he was a twin. He came out wrestling with his brother, Esau:

Then the other twin was born with his hand grasping Esau’s heel. So they called him Jacob.* Isaac was sixty years old when the twins were born.
Genesis 25:26

Notice the * in the text.  It points you to a footnote in your Bible which tells us that Jacob means “he grasps the heel”; this can also figuratively mean “he deceives.”  The name “Jacob” is a play on the word “aqeb” which means “grasp.”  Jacob’s name is literally defined by his wrestling with his brother!  Their battle is epic and eventually leads to Jacob stealing Esau’s birthright from their father and then hightailing it out of Dodge.

Jacob runs to his uncle Laban’s house where he meets his daughter, Rachel, and falls in love with her.  He has to work seven years for Laban to pay to marry her.  On their wedding night, Laban tricks Jacob by marrying off his eldest daughter, Leah, first. We read:

So Laban invited everyone in the neighborhood to celebrate with Jacob at a wedding feast. That night, when it was dark, Laban took Leah to Jacob, and he slept with her…But when Jacob woke up in the morning — it was Leah! “What sort of trick is this?” Jacob raged at Laban. “I worked seven years for Rachel. What do you mean by this trickery?”
Genesis 29:22-25 NLT

Jacob ends up wrestling with his father-in-law over his two daughters.  The deceiver is now deceived, in the bedroom!

Laban does give Rachel to Jacob as well, but he has to work seven more years.  Eventually Jacob wrestles further with Laban and sneaks out of town to go back to his homeland.  On the way there it becomes apparent that Jacob is going to have a reunion with his brother, whom he hasn’t seen since he stole his birthright.  The night before Jacob meets Esau again, he wrestles with a mysterious man which most people have interpreted as God.  Here’s the story:

Genesis 32 (selected verses)
Jacob now sent messengers to his brother, Esau, in Edom, the land of Seir.  He told them, “Give this message to my master Esau: ‘Humble greetings from your servant Jacob! I have been living with Uncle Laban until recently, and now I own oxen, donkeys, sheep, goats, and many servants, both men and women. I have sent these messengers to inform you of my coming, hoping that you will be friendly to us.'”  The messengers returned with the news that Esau was on his way to meet Jacob– with an army of four hundred men!  Jacob was terrified at the news. He divided his household, along with the flocks and herds and camels, into two camps.  He thought, “If Esau attacks one group, perhaps the other can escape.”  Then Jacob prayed, “O God of my grandfather Abraham and my father, Isaac– O LORD, you told me to return to my land and to my relatives, and you promised to treat me kindly.  I am not worthy of all the faithfulness and unfailing love you have shown to me, your servant. When I left home, I owned nothing except a walking stick, and now my household fills two camps!  O LORD, please rescue me from my brother, Esau. I am afraid that he is coming to kill me, along with my wives and children.  But you promised to treat me kindly and to multiply my descendants until they become as numerous as the sands along the seashore– too many to count.”  Jacob stayed where he was for the night and prepared a present for Esau…So the presents were sent on ahead, and Jacob spent that night in the camp. 

But during the night Jacob got up and sent his two wives, two concubines, and eleven sons across the Jabbok River.  After they were on the other side, he sent over all his possessions.  This left Jacob all alone in the camp, and a man came and wrestled with him until dawn.  When the man saw that he couldn’t win the match, he struck Jacob’s hip and knocked it out of joint at the socket. Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is dawn.” But Jacob panted, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”  “What is your name?” the man asked. He replied, “Jacob.”  “Your name will no longer be Jacob,” the man told him. “It is now Israel, because you have struggled with both God and men and have won.”  “What is your name?” Jacob asked him. “Why do you ask?” the man replied. Then he blessed Jacob there.  Jacob named the place Peniel– “face of God”– for he said, “I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been spared.”  The sun rose as he left Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip.  That is why even today the people of Israel don’t eat meat from near the hip, in memory of what happened that night.

Let’s take a moment and look at a couple of key moments in this amazing wrestling match between Jacob and God.

Genesis 32:25-26
When the man saw that he couldn’t win the match, he struck Jacob’s hip and knocked it out of joint at the socket.

You cannot wrestle with God and walk away the same.  You will be “hurt.”  Something has to go.  God loves you just as you are and loves you too much to leave you there.  One of the key character traits you will walk away with from a wrestling match God is humility.  Humility hurts.  It hurts the ego and the pride.

One time early in my relationship with Sarah, I took her back home to my family’s house.  My “little” brother, Rick, was there, and he and I got into a little wrestling match.  What was I thinking?  My “little” brother is no longer smaller than me.  He’s probably easily got 50 pounds or more on me.  Maybe even a little taller too.  The short of that wrestling match was that it was very short.  He picked me up, manhandled me, and tossed me on the couch.  All this right in front of the one I was trying to impress with my physical prowess!  I learned humility that day, and it hurt.  And I never wrestled with my brother again!

Wrestle with God and you will be humbled.

Let’s look at another moment in this amazing wrestling match.

Genesis 32:29
“What is your name?” Jacob asked him. “Why do you ask?” the man replied. Then he blessed Jacob there.

What we wrestle with defines us, and when we wrestle with God, we don’t get to define God.  So often we tend to put God in the “dock” and cross examine him.  We tell God what he can and cannot do.  We tell him what is right and just and good.  Forget that he’s God.  We act like God and try to tell God how to be God.  But when Jacob tries to define God by knowing his name, he won’t give it to him.  God’s identity isn’t what’s at stake when we wrestle with God.  It’s our identity that’s at stake.

Let’s look at a third moment in this amazing wrestling match.

Genesis 32:28
“Your name will no longer be Jacob,” the man told him. “It is now Israel, because you have struggled with both God and men and have won [prevail/endure].”

While Jacob wants to identify and define his wrestling partner, the opposite happens.  God defines Jacob.  Actually, he redefines him.  He gives him a new name, “Israel.”  And so Jacob becomes the patriarch of the nation ofIsrael. Israelliterally means “he who wrestles with God.”  It’s in that wrestling that Jacob finds his truest and deepest identity.  His identity is no longer the one who grasps the heel of others, who wrestles with others, but is the one who wrestles with God!  And the cool thing about this is that this identity found in wrestling with God is already present in us in some way or another.  “Jacob” can also be a play on the word “yakbal”, and in this case “Jacob” means “May God protect.”

Wrestling with God becomes the center of our life, the reference point by which all our other wrestling is defined.  Jacob’s identity changes when he wrestles with God, and so does all his other wrestling.  So here’s the main point I want you to get.  If you don’t get anything else in this message, get this: When your identity is based on wrestling with God, your wrestling with others is redirected toward reconciliation rather than rivalry, revenge, or anything else.

There’s a move in wrestling called a snapdown reroute.  It’s where you push into your wrestling partner, and when they push back you use their own energy and momentum to redirect them where you want them to go.  Here’s an example.

When we wrestle with God, we push against God, and God uses that energy and redirects it away from things like rivalry, revenge, bitterness, anger, malice, and the like and toward reconciliation.

Reconciliation

Keep reading the story and you’ll see this redirection toward reconciliation played out in Jacob’s life.  He changes.  He isn’t a rival with his brother anymore.  He seeks reconciliation.  And reconciliation means learning some new behaviors.

Genesis 33:2-3 NLT
Jacob now arranged his family into a column, with his two concubines and their children at the front, Leah and her children next, and Rachel and Joseph last. Then Jacob went on ahead. As he approached his brother, he bowed low seven times before him.

Notice the humility here.  Before he was stealing from his brother.  Now he’s giving gifts.  Humility and reconciliation go hand in hand.

When you’re a student in a classroom are the other students rivals or friends?  Are you focused only on your own performance and your own grades, or are you helping others learn too?  Or what about when you’re in a band together competing for first chair, is the competition all there is in the relationship or are you also practicing with each other teaching your “rival” tricks you’ve learned about how to be a better musician?

How about when you find yourself liking the same girl or guy that your friend likes.  Is your rivalry for the romantic interests of this person what defines you, or does your life in God help you realize that there are many men and women that God has created that would be excellent life-long partners?

Let’s look at the workplace.  Some of us earn our living off beating the competition to the sale.  That’s the kind of economy we live in.  But is your life built around competition of this sort so exclusively that you ignore building a community where everyone can prosper?  Do you sometimes let that sale go because someone else needed it more?  Do you horde what you make or do you give generously to those around you who are in need?

Genesis 33:4 NLT
Then Esau ran to meet him and embraced him affectionately and kissed him. Both of them were in tears.

One key new behavior of reconciliation is forgiveness.  Jacob isn’t the one in the position to forgive.  Esau is.  And he does.  But Jacob helps by coming to the reunion with humility.

Do you nurse old wounds from family members who have hurt you?  Do you repeat those stories in your head and to those around you over and over, letting the bitterness come out every time?  Or do you risk the vulnerability of a meeting like the one between Jacob and Esau?

When we wrestle with God, our wrestling with others is redirected away from rivalry and revenge and toward reconciliation.  But when we approach those with whom we need to be reconciled, that reconciliation is not a forgone conclusion.  Did you notice that Esau brought 400 men with him (33:1)?   That terrified Jacob.  Reconciliation was not obvious or certain.

As well, while some level of reconciliation does happen between Jacob and Esau it is not complete.  We read that “Esau started back to Seir that same day. Meanwhile, Jacob and his household traveled on to Succoth” (Genesis 33:16-17).  In other words, while they are living closer than they have for a long time, they put some distance between one another.

We live in a world where we catch glimpses of heaven’s ultimate reconciliation with us and our reconciliation with one another, but those glimpses are not always complete.  And yet, sometimes they can be incredibly powerful.  We see reconciliation played out in Louis Zamperini’s forgiveness of Mushuhro Wantanabe, the WWII Japanese POW camp guard who tortured him (Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand).  We see it in Corrie ten Boom’s forgiveness of the German guard at the concentration camp where she and her sister were kept and her sister died (The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom).  We see it in Lloyd LeBlanc’s forgiveness of Patrick Sonnier, who killed his son (Dead Man Walking by Sister Helen Prejean).  We see it in the Amish who forgave the man who killed a school room full of Amish children.  We see it in the response of an elderly South African woman who sought reconciliation following the dissolution of apartheid in the Truth and Reconciliation hearings rather than revenge:

At one hearing, a policeman named van de Broek recounted an incident when he and other officers shot an eighteen-year-old boy and burned the body to destroy the evidence. Eight years later van de Broek returned to the same house and seized the boy’s father. The wife was forced to watch as policemen bound her husband on a woodpile, poured gasoline over his body, and ignited it.

The courtroom grew hushed as the elderly woman who had lost first her son and then her husband was given a chance to respond. “What do you want from Mr. van de Broek?” the judge asked. She said, “Mr. van de Broek took all my family away from me, and I still have a lot of love to give. Twice a month, I would like for him to come to the ghetto and spend a day with me so I can be a mother to him. And I would like Mr. van de Broek to know that he is forgiven by God, and that I forgive him too. I would like to embrace him so he can know my forgiveness is real.
(What Good Is God by Phillip Yancey)

This woman understood that when you wrestle with God, your wrestling with others is turned away from rivalry, revenge, and you-fill-in-the-blank and toward reconciliation.

Here’s a prayer I found for praying for your forgiveness in your family, but I think it could be prayed for any situation in need of reconciliation:

Sometimes, Father, we are cruelest to those we love the most.  Let my family members bear with each other and forgive one another just as you forgave us.  Help us get rid of all bitterness, and turn our offenses into testimonies of your love.  (Colossians 3:13, Ephesians 4:31-32)

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Life for Dummies – Be a Humble Poser

August 29, 2011 by Leave a Comment

life for dummies

Sycamore Creek Church
Be a Humble Poser
August 21, 2011
Luke 14:7-14
Tom Arthur

When are you poser?  What do I mean by “poser”?  I mean a time when you act phony, false, or fake; times when you put on a mask.  I pose sometimes.  I pose especially when I’m talking to someone and they assume I know the details of what they’re talking about.  This happens particularly for me around guy stuff.  Technical details that you’re supposed to know as a guy.

Guy: “I just put in a new SATA/IDE PCI Card”
Me: Oh yeah.  Um hmmm.  That’s cool.  POSING!  I have no idea what a SATA/IDE PCI card is.

Guy while watching basketball: “That was totally a charge.”
Me: Oh yeah.  Totally.  He totally charged.  POSING!  Confession: To this day I still don’t know how to tell when someone charged in basketball.

Guy at the auto repair shop: “The tie rod on your passenger side needs to be replaced.”
Me: Oh yeah.  I thought I heard that making noise.  POSING!  I rarely if ever know what I’m talking about when it comes to car parts.

I suspect I’m not the only guy to pose in a situation like this.  None of these are really that important, but recently I was very tempted to pose.  I had my yearly one-on-one evaluation with our District Superintendent, Bob Hundley.  I, and many other leaders in our church, have to fill out a lot of paperwork before this meeting, and then Bob and I talk about it.  At the moment of both filling out the paperwork and the moment of sitting down to talk about it, I had to ask myself, “Am I going to be honest about my weaknesses and the places I struggle, or am I going to put on a good face that says, Everything is just fine.  Nothing to see here.  Go look somewhere else.” I decided to be honest with Bob and share both my strengths and weaknesses over the past year.

I was talking with Bill Hoerner about this recently, and Bill told me that in his most recent yearly evaluation he went in to his supervisor and said, “I didn’t accomplish any of my goals this past year.” That’s a gutsy thing to do.  Bill was definitely not posing in that moment.  The good news was that Bill’s supervisor reorganized his work load so that he could accomplish his goals next year.

I also asked my female friends on Facebook about how women pose.  I found out that posing isn’t just for guys.  Here are what two female friends said about women posers:

I think a lot of women pose by acting like their relationships are going fine when they are often far from it. I’ve seen (and done myself) some posing by making sure the house/garden/makeup/clothe?s (etc) always look perfect for when guests come over. Not all that glitters is gold…

Personally, I think that women tend to “pose” way more often than men. Even though it’s an obvious generalization, I think that society tends to encourage women to do this because of the competition we tend to create amongst one another. Each has to be “better” than her neighbor, coworker, or even friend, and since this is impossible to do all the time, women “pose” to create the illusion that they are perfect.

So maybe you don’t pose quite these same ways, but you probably pose sometimes.  I think we are all concerned about the way others view us.  Posing can also have to do with our stuff.  We try to look a certain way.  We want others to think of us as certain kinds of people by the things we have.  I asked about this on Facebook.

The number one thing that popped up over and over again was technology.  Do you pose by the kind of cell phone you’ve got?  Second in the list was clothing.  Do you pose by the Abercrombie and Fitch clothing you wear?  Third on the list was automobiles.  Do you pose by the kind of car you drive?  Fourth on the list was homes.  Do you pose by the size of your house?  Next on the list was education.  Do you pose by the particular school you went to?

Juliet B. Schor, a professor of sociology at Boston College says:

A ‘horizontal desire,’ coveting a neighbor’s goods, has been replaced by a ‘vertical desire,’ coveting the goods of the rich and the powerful seen on television….The old system was keeping up with the Joneses…the new system is keeping up with the Gateses.

So we no longer try to pose by looking like our neighbor, but now we try to look like celebrities we see on the TV!

Jesus tells a pretty simple little story about a poser.

Luke 14:7-14 NLT

When Jesus noticed that all who had come to the dinner were trying to sit near the head of the table, he gave them this advice: “If you are invited to a wedding feast, don’t always head for the best seat. What if someone more respected than you has also been invited?  The host will say, ‘Let this person sit here instead.’ Then you will be embarrassed and will have to take whatever seat is left at the foot of the table!

“Do this instead — sit at the foot of the table. Then when your host sees you, he will come and say, ‘Friend, we have a better place than this for you!’ Then you will be honored in front of all the other guests.  For the proud will be humbled, but the humble will be honored.”

Then he turned to his host. “When you put on a luncheon or a dinner,” he said, “don’t invite your friends, brothers, relatives, and rich neighbors. For they will repay you by inviting you back.  Instead, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.  Then at the resurrection of the godly, God will reward you for inviting those who could not repay you.”

This is a fascinating story.  We tend to pose by thinking too much of ourselves.  Jesus is telling us to pose in the other direction!  I think he’s exaggerating a bit here, as he often does to get across a point.  What I think Jesus is talking about here is the way of humility.

Humility

Michael Casey in his book, Living in the Truth, says, “Humility aims to eliminate the phony aspects of our life and to help us to live in the truth.”  Eliminate the phony.  Take off the mask.  Get rid of the fake.  Stop posing!

He goes on to say:

Those who are humble experience no shame.  They do not need lies and evasions to inflate their importance in the eyes of their associates, or to buttress their self-esteem.  They have overcome the tendency to regard others as competitors or rivals, and so they work with whatever they have, and waste no time envying those who possess different qualities.  The humble are equally content with both the gifts and limitations that come from their nature or their personal history.

Humility is essentially about living in the truth.

When it comes to talking about humility, I think there are a lot of common misperceptions out there.  Here is a list of some things that humility is not:

Humility Is Not

Humility ? Passivity (We can be assertive and be humble).
Humility ? Mild Temperament (We can be an extrovert and be humble).
Humility ? Low Self-Esteem (We don’t have to put ourselves down).
Humility ? Institutional Conformity (We don’t have to do the same thing everyone else is doing).
Humility ? Humiliation (We don’t have to be taken advantage of).
Humility ? Non Faith Sharing (We do still share our faith).

Humility Is

On the other hand, humility is recognizing that we are not divine (We don’t get what we want right now).  We are creatures (We are dependent upon others, especially our creator).  We are sinners (We need to be forgiven, quite often).  We are stalled human beings (We may aspire to the highest ideals, but we rarely even live up to our own standards).

Take for example your movie queue.  Anyone have a movie queue on Netflix or the like?  Research has shown that we tend to think we’ll want to watch high artsy movies.  Serious movies about serious things.  Documentaries.  Foreign flicks.  Maybe even a French documentary.  My own queue is littered with these kinds of movies.  But when it comes right down to it on the night I’m deciding to watch a movie, I always choose something less than these high ideals.  I go for the action flick with a studly actor and beautiful actress, where the good guy after blowing up a lot of stuff gets the girl, and they kiss.  I am a stalled human being.  I suspect you are too.

Humility is, in a word, truth.  It is grasping and living into the truth about who we are.  Humility is in short order these days.  St. Benedict, the father of monasticism, had a three part rule: humility, silence, and obedience.  In contrast, today’s rule for living is vanity, gossip, and rebellion.

But what if you read Jesus’ story and you wanted to do what you could do to develop humility in yourself?  You can practice humility.  Practicing humility leads to having the habits of humility.  Having the habits of humility leads to having a humble nature.  Having a humble nature eventually leads to delighting in humble practice.  Jesus’ story points to a simple practice of humility: telling the truth about yourself, not being a poser.

I’d like to look at several situations we often find ourselves in and explore what it would be like to practice humility by telling the truth and not posing.

First Dates

What about a first date?  On first dates we tend to make ourselves look the best we can.  We clean up.  Wear our best clothes.  Exaggerate our strengths.  Look all together.  But in the movie, The Invention of Lying, there is a very awkward scene of two people having a first date and telling each other the “truth.”  Well, I’m not sure they actually tell one another truth.  They tell one another exactly what they’re thinking whether it is the truth or not, and there doesn’t seem to be any kind of filter between their brains and their lips.  This is not the kind of practice of truth telling that I’m talking about.  Truth telling would simply be not just putting your best foot forward.  What if you shared not only your hopes and dreams but also some of your fears and failures too?  I don’t know that you have to say absolutely everything about yourself, but you’re beginning to lay the groundwork for a possible future life together.  Will that life be based on posing or truth telling?  My parents’ marriage ended in divorce.  I think that neither of them really knew one another when they got married.  Who they thought they were marrying was an illusion.  Don’t begin building that illusion on a first date.

Wedding

I’m about to step on a whole lot of toes.  Let’s look at weddings.  What does a traditional American wedding look like?  It actually looks like an English wedding that took place on January 25, 1858 between Princess Victoria and Prince Frederick William.  Almost all of our modern traditions date back to this one wedding.  The problem with all this is that they had the national treasury to pay for their wedding.  We don’t.  But we end up trying to have a wedding that makes us look like a princess and prince, and we end up with the debt of a king and queen.  We try to pose like we’re William and Kate, but we don’t have parliament to pay for the wedding.  So we start life together with massive debt (or we pass it on to our parents).  Costofwedding.com puts the average wedding in Lansing between $15,839 and $26,398.  That’s crazy.

I’ve only presided over one wedding so far.  It was Danielle and Mike Johnson.  My impression was that Danielle was so happy that Mike was home safe from Iraq that she didn’t really care too much about all the details of the wedding.  Her focus was elsewhere, on her future husband.  Isn’t that where it should be?  They had a rehearsal dinner at a local pizza place.  Sarah and I loved it.  I asked her about this later on and she said, “We don’t eat like a prince and princess,” so why would their rehearsal be any different?

To practice humility at your wedding, here’s a simple truth telling practice: don’t go into debt to pay for your wedding.  Don’t pose as William and Kate.  Let the celebration be on par with who you are and what your family makes.

Parenting

Sarah and I have recently entered into the realm of parenting.  It’s quite scary.  Me a dad?  Yikes!  How do I practicing humility in parenting?  Micah has lately started to fuss or cry, the precursor to a tantrum, when he doesn’t get what he wants.  I’m tempted to give in just to get him to quit fussing or crying, but I don’t.  Then one time it happened while we were in the checkout line at a store.  Now I’ve got the eyes of everyone behind me on me and my crying baby.  I’m faced with a simple question: Am I more concerned with what these strangers think about me or the long-term character formation of my son?  I can in that moment give him what he wants so he shuts up and I pose like a parent who’s got it all together.  Or I can let him cry and face the staring eyes behind me resting in the truth that I’m doing what is best for him over the long-haul?  Every parent is faced with this kind of a dilemma.  Parents, choose humility in the crying baby over posing like you’ve got it all together.

Visiting a Church

Have you visited a church lately?  If you go on vacation, I hope you have.  You do go to church on vacation?  Right?  So what does the practice of humility look like when visiting a church?  I tend to turn on my church critic when I visit a church.  Sarah and I went to a church up north recently.  When we left, I graded everything about it from the hospitality to the building.  Literally.  Hospitality – D.  Preaching – C.  Music – B.  Building – B.  I’m not sure God spoke to me while I was there.  Then again, maybe I was being too much of a critic and not listening enough for God’s voice amidst this very human community.  I’d suggest that when you’re visiting a church, practice humility by sitting in the front.  Yes, the front.  In Jesus’ story the front seat was the best seat, but have you ever noticed how in churches the front seat is the seat everyone stays away from?!  Don’t sit in the back as a disinterested critic.  Get down in the middle of things.  And if you’ve moved and are looking for a new church, give each church three visits before you make a decision.  Maybe the day you went was an off day.  Practice humility when you visit a church or any community.

A Community Practicing Humility

Here at Sycamore Creek Church, we like to talk about igniting authentic life in Christ.  This means connecting to God and others, growing in the Character of Christ, and serving our church, community and world.  This word “authentic” is important to us because it means we’re trying not to be posers.  We’re trying to be real rather than phony.  We’re trying to unmask ourselves with others.  But this authentic life in Christ, practicing this kind of humility, isn’t going to happen with much depth if we’re just practicing on a Sunday morning. If you’re coming just on Sundays, but not getting involved in small groups in some way, then I think you’re going to have a very hard time growing in the practice of humility and being authentic.

This past weekend twenty-one men of our church met for our annual CRASH retreat.  A “crash” is a herd of rhinos!  Last year our men also met monthly for reCRASH events.  At one of those events, we ate breakfast then broke into small groups to answer the question, “How are you?”  That’s a simple question, and most of us pose when we answer it.  But that morning the guys in my group didn’t.  Ben Shoemaker, John Brinkerhuff, Keith Cantrall and I sat around a diner table and really answered that question.  We outlasted every group.

I came across a list of six questions that expand on that basic question.  I’d like to share them with you.  I’ve been trying them out lately, and I’ve found them to be particularly powerful for creating deep, meaningful, and very truthful conversations.  I think they provide a space to practice humility.  Those six questions are:

1. How are you?
2. What are you celebrating?
3. What challenges are you facing?
4. What are you doing to overcome those challenges?
5. How can I help you with those challenges?
6. What can I pray for you?

You can’t ask and answer these questions on a Sunday morning.  Who is asking you these questions?  Don’t be a poser when you answer.  Practice humility this week by sitting down with someone, answering these questions, and telling the truth.

Prayer

God, help us to practice humility by not posing.  Help us to tell the truth to one another.  Help us especially to tell the truth to you.  Give us courage to practice humility when we lack it.  In Jesus’ name, amen.

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