Posted on by Cheryl Norman w/a Mary Jo Delaney

PASSING MARKS

Pastor Sherry’s message for October 10, 2021

Scriptures: Job 23:1-17; Ps 22:1-15; Heb 4:12-18; Mk 10:17-31

The story is told of an Ohio State University student who was academically competent but tended to need time to complete assignments (smart but not speedy).  You may know the type.  They do know the material, but think things through carefully until they have the right answer.  Others may come to the answer more rapidly but few are as careful as this.

The student was troubled by a Calculus class he needed to pass—and wasn’t—with a demanding, annoying professor.  The guy seemed to delight in frustrating his already discouraged students.  During exams, he would walk around, watching them like a hawk, expecting to discover someone cheating.  He would frequently announce the amount of time left—30 minutes, 20 minutes, 10 minutes, etc.- just to interrupt their trains of thought and to agitate everyone.  In a class of 1,000 students, the slow-but-steady young man was the only one not to turn in his exam when time was called.

The prof waited impatiently and then, an hour later, when the young man finally finished his test, the prof asked him what he thought he was doing.  The kid answered, “Turning in my exam.”  The prof replied, “Your exam is an hour late. Congratulations!  You’ve failed it.  So, I will see you next term when you repeat my class.”  The student smiled and asked, “Do you know my name?”  The prof replied gruffly and incredulously, “What?” The student rephrased his question, “Do you know what my name is?” With irritation, the prof replied, “There are 1,000 students in this class.  What makes you think I would know your name?”  The student then smiled, and, lifting up a tall stack of test booklets, placed his completed test in the middle of the pile and casually exited the huge lecture hall.

Life sometimes presents us with tests–and authority figures– like that one.  We may think our prospects are slim and we don’t have much of a chance of succeeding. But the truth is that if we have a relationship with the Lord, we can make it through any trial that might come.  Let’s see what our passages today have to add to this issue:

A.  Our OT lesson comes from Job 23:1-17.  You may recall that the Lord is so confident of Job’s righteousness that He allows Satan to strip him of his family, his wealth, and his health.  Satan is sure Job will turn against God if his blessings are all removed.  But Job is such a faithful believer that he does not, even though his wife advises (Job 2:9), Curse God and die (Great advice, right? Horrible!).

Instead, Job spends much of the book trying to figure out how he has offended God.  He believes he is being punished, but stops short of blaming God (This is such a good lesson for us!).  In today’s chapter, he begins to believe his faith is being put to the test.  So he wants an opportunity to speak to God face to face.  In verse 3 he admits he doesn’t know where to find Him; in verses 4-7, he is sure that if he could locate God, and confront Him, God wouldn’t find any problems with him.

YIKES!  Don’t you just want to tell Job 3 things:

    #1, None of us is without sin—as Paul says, except for Jesus, No, not one!  As J. Vernon McGee says, No one can go into the presence of God to defend himself.  We must all go before God to plead guilty before him.  Every one of us is guilty (commentary on Job, p.125).  We are only made righteous—we only have passing marks– because we have been cleansed by the shed blood of Jesus Christ.

    #2, So, if we think we can defend ourselves before God, we need to remember to approach Him with humility.  He is God; we are not! 

    #3, Finally, anyone who seriously wants to find God will do so.  Our God is not hiding from us.  In fact, He calls us to Himself.  If we really want to meet up with Him, He will make Himself known to us—through Scripture, dreams, billboards, overheard conversations, song lyrics, and life events (to name a few means at His disposal).  And unlike the calculus professor at Ohio State, God is for us, not against us.

But praise God!  By the time Job arrives at verse 10, he realizes he is being tested for some purpose.  Like us, he doesn’t yet know what the purpose is.  Like us, he doesn’t understand why he needs testing.  But—hopefully also like us—he does believe that God is using this testing to somehow bring about His good purposes in Job’s life.  If we let it, trouble strengthens our faith.  If we let it, trouble improves our moral character.

If we let Him, God will comfort us and equip us as we move through our difficulties.  Some unnamed wise person once said, You know that God has never promised that we would miss the storm, but He has promised that we would make the harbor.

B.  Psalm 22 is known as “the Psalm of the Cross.”  Written by King David (around 1,000BC) before the Romans invented crucifixion, it provides us a clear window into Jesus’ thoughts as He hung on the Cross.  Some scholars believe Jesus recited this psalm from memory while nailed to the Cross.  In verses 1-2, Jesus essentially cries out to His Father, My God, where are you?  He is feeling deserted and abandoned.  In verses 3-5, He reminds Himself that His Father is the Holy One in whom the patriarchs of Israel put their trust…they trusted and You delivered them…in You they trusted and were not disappointed.

Unlike Job or us, Jesus was entirely without sin.  He had personally done nothing to merit death.  In verses 6-8, He states that He knows He has not provoked the attacks of vicious and vindictive men; and that, thus far, God has not delivered Him from their cruelty.  He reminds His Father that He has trusted in Him from birth.  Finally, verses 12-15 describe His deep physical and emotional distress.  Here is indeed a portrait of unjust suffering.  By the end of the psalm, however–as by the end of the book of Job–we find that the truly righteous, despite their suffering, still maintain their faith in the Lord.

C. Our Gospel lesson (Mark 10:17-31) relates Jesus’ encounter with a rich young man.  The fellow mistakenly believes in his own righteousness.  He says he has kept the last 6 commandments all of his life, the ones that have to do with how we relate to others.  We are told that Jesus loved him, even though He realized the man has probably not kept the first 4.  How did Jesus know?  He recognized the man’s wealth was an impediment to his relationship with God.  Jesus asks him to give it up.  The young man walks away from Christ because he cannot (his wealth was his idol); and both he and Jesus are saddened by his decision.

The message is to give up whatever keeps us from remaining close to Jesus.  At one time with me, it was my children.  I didn’t trust God to care for them.  I had to give that up and then noted how much better they did than when I tried to control them.  Later, I learned that God was not selling my house because I was not willing to pastor a church.  I thought I had been called to ordained ministry, as a psychologist, to do therapy with the clergy.  But the Lord made it clear I had to give that goal up too.  The day that I agreed to do whatever God asked of me, my house sold.  My realtor brought a couple by to see it at 5:00pm and I had a signed contract by 8:00pm.  Jesus promises us we will receive blessings 100 times greater than whatever we have to give up for His sake.  He promises us eternal life, despite any and all persecution.

D.  The writer to the Hebrews (4:12-18) wants us never to forget that God’s Word activates us/energizes us to hold firm to our faith.  Scripture is more than words on a page.  It comes with power to help us achieve what God has for us.  Secondly, it exposes us to God’s sight.  If we compare ourselves to the biblical standard, we see where we fall short.  We can’t really get away with slipping our exam booklet into the middle of the pile.  God knows all about us.  Thirdly, Jesus’ example, and His once and for all perfect sacrifice for our sins, allows us now to approach God’s throne of grace not with fear of condemnation, but with confidence in God’s loving grace and mercy.

None of us wants to suffer, do we? Nevertheless, we have to realize that following Christ does not give us a pass to avoid problems.

Rather it is a guarantee—as we see in the outcomes of Jesus and of Job—of blessings and God’s favor following our faithfulness through trials.  Because of God’s grace and mercy, we are all like calculus students who have gotten away with not finishing on time by putting our test booklets in the middle of the pile.  Chuck Swindoll has written (in One Step Forward, Two Steps Back, p.35), “Every problem is an opportunity to prove God’s power.  Every day we encounter countless golden opportunities, brilliantly disguised as insurmountable problems.”

Let us pray:  Lord, we know we make better than passing marks when we remember that You do not promise to save us from trials, but You do promise to be present with us as we endure them.  We ask Jesus to tattoo on our hearts the reminder that He suffered untold agonies to atone, in advance, for our sins.  Help us to recognize that there is nothing we can do to achieve or earn our salvation.  Our money will not get us to Heaven, just as our good behavior or our generosity toward others will not.  It is only by loving You and Jesus, and accepting our grace-filled redemption at Your hands, that we are saved.  Assist us to let go of all and any impediments or roadblocks to having a satisfying, deeply faithful, intimate relationship with You.  Amen! 

©2021 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams

Posted on by Cheryl Norman w/a Mary Jo Delaney

True Security

Pastor Sherry’s message for September 5, 2021

Scriptures: Proverbs 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23; Psalm 125; James 2:1-17; Mark 7:24-37

The following story was included in an edition of Our Daily Bread:

A group of botanists went on an expedition into a hard-to-reach location in the Alps, searching for new varieties of flowers. One day as a scientist looked through his binoculars, he saw a beautiful, rare species growing at the bottom of a deep ravine. To reach it, someone would have to be lowered into that gorge. Noticing a local youngster standing nearby, the man asked him if he would help them get the flower. The boy was told that a rope would be tied around his waist and the men would then lower him to the floor of the canyon. Excited yet apprehensive about the adventure, the youngster peered thoughtfully into the chasm. “Wait,” he said, “I’ll be back,” and off he dashed. When he returned, he was accompanied by an older man. Approaching the head botanist, the boy said, “I’ll go over the cliff now and get the flower for you, but this man must hold onto the rope. He’s my dad!”

A story from an anonymous source recalls the initial construction on the Golden Gate Bridge. Apparently, no safety devices were used and 23 men fell to their deaths. For the final part of the project, however, a large net was used as a safety precaution. At least 10 men fell into it and were saved from certain death. Even more interesting, however, is the fact that 25% more work was accomplished after the net was installed. Why? Because the men had the assurance of their safety, and they were free to wholeheartedly serve the project.

These stories illustrate so beautifully the source of our security in life. The boy could have trusted in the scientists as they were eager to obtain the rare bloom. But he knew he could feel true security only in his own father’s hands. The Golden Gate construction crew could have trusted in their own prowess and skills. Nevertheless, they performed more efficiently and effectively with the security provided by a safety net.

Last week, we looked at what it takes to dwell with God. This week, our Scriptures assert that God is our sure hands and our safety net.

A. Our OT lesson contains 6 Proverbs. Together these assert for us our God created all of us. Rich or poor, or in-betweens, He brought us into being; however, this doesn’t mean that He views all of us the same way. As verse 8 tells us, He who sows wickedness reaps trouble, and the rod of his fury will be destroyed. The Bible divides the people of this world into two camps: the righteous and evil-doers, sheep and goats. Those who are evil-doers will reap what they sow. God will both repay their evil with evil (Boomerang effect), and ultimately thwart/stymie/interrupt their ability to continue their evil practices. The righteous, on the other hand, will be blessed.

This point is reiterated in verses 22-23: Do not exploit the poor because they are poor and do not crush the needy in court, for the Lord will take up their case and will plunder those who plunder them. Yikes! Again we see the principle of reaping and sowing, of “what goes around comes around.” God oversees the world and punishes evil-doers, either in this world or the next. Even if we don’t see the evidence of this at present, the principle still holds—our God is in charge and we can count on His justice!

B. Psalm 125 is called the “Song of Security.” It asserts that

God protects and provides for us, and that the wicked, in eternal terms, have short shelf-lives. Think of the worst tyrants in history. Many were assassinated; many others went mad or took their own lives. True security comes from our intimate relationship with God. It is as rock solid as the mountains around Jerusalem. As Peterson paraphrases (The Message, p.1072), we can trust ultimately that God will round up the backsliders, corral them with the incorrigibles.

C. James 2:1-17 continues this theme. If he were present with us today he would tell us there is no “brotherhood of all humankind.” Instead, there are two kinds of folk: Good people and evil-doers, those who love God and those who reject Him. The “woke folk” would assert that this is intolerant and bigoted, prejudicial and inequitable. But the Bible asserts over and over again that we chose our path. God doesn’t coerce us to take one direction or the other. Our own choices place us on His team or off. We choose whether or not to join the “fellowship of believers.”

So, given this Biblical truth, James spends 11 verses telling us to be sure to demonstrate/live out loving our neighbor. We’re not to show favoritism to rich people over poor, attractive over unattractive folks.

If we are unmerciful and judgmental toward others, God will respond that same way toward us. In verse 13, James reminds us: Mercy triumphs over judgment!

D. Finally, John Mark (probably writing for Peter) shares with us two examples of Jesus’ mercy:

In the first, Jesus treks up to Tyre, north of Israel, to find respite and rest from the crowds following Him. Nevertheless, a Greek woman (according to Matthew) born and living in Syro-Phoenicia, tracks Him down. We don’t know if she believes in the Hebrew God, but she appears to have faith that Jesus can heal her demonized daughter. She garners His attention then enters into a debate with Him. He appears to tell her He isn’t meant to offer healing and salvation to non-Jews (the children at the table). She may not see herself as a dog–like the Jews of the time would have–but she argues that even they get the crumbs that the children drop while eating. In other words, she believes Jesus offers enough to go around to even her. (I remember how my toddler son, from his highchair, would take a bite then hand his cookies or biscuits to our German Shepherd. As a partner in crime, the dog would gently take and eat these offerings.) Jesus is impressed by her humility, her faith, and her perseverance. He assures her that her daughter is healed. He says she is healed from the distance, and Mark reports that the woman returned home to find it was true. As James would say, Mercy triumphs over judgment. Unlike His disciples, Jesus does not overlook the needs of the non-Jews who approach Him in faith. Our God’s mercy transcends the man-made boundaries of race, nationality, political affiliation, and gender.

Next Jesus travels back south to the Sea of Galilee–imagine how many miles He put on His sandals!–and east to the area known as the Decapolis (10 towns). Folks there ask Him to heal a deaf-mute man. Jesus takes the man out of the limelight (off TV, away from phone cameras). He puts His fingers in the guy’s ears first; then, in a way that seems very unsanitary to us, He places some of his spit on the man’s tongue. (This puts me in mind of “mom spit.” How many of us have had spots on our faces washed with mom-spit applied to her finger or thumb? They should examine its chemical properties to discover how it cleans.) Jesus exclaims Ephpatha! Open up! And the man’s hearing and his speech is restored. We don’t know if the guy was a believer, but his friends had faith in Jesus’ ability to heal. This is yet another example of Jesus’ mercy.

Intent on discovering His “healing method,” I once did a review of all of Jesus’ healings recorded in the 4 Gospels. I had to conclude there was no one method we could imitate. He healed some with a word, others with touch, still others with spit or the command to do something (pick up a mat, go see the priests, go wash, etc.). He even insisted that some healings came about due to prayer and fasting. Though His methods varied, what He did appears to have been tailored to meet the needs of each individual.

In conclusion, we can truly rest secure in the fact that our God loves us, protects us, and provides for us. Again the story is told from a daily devotional:

There is a monastery in Portugal, perched high on a 3,000 foot cliff, and accessible only by a terrifying ride in a swaying basket. The basket is pulled with a single rope by several strong men, perspiring under the strain of the fully loaded basket. One American tourist who visited the site got nervous halfway up the cliff when he noticed that the rope was old and frayed. Hoping to relieve his fear he asked, “How often do you change the rope?” The monk in charge replied, “Whenever it breaks!”

Thank God our God is more proactive than that group of monks!

Let us believe in what the psalmist asserts (125:1-2): Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be shaken but endures forever. As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds His people both now and forevermore. Jesus Christ is our safety net. Jesus Christ—not our bank accounts, our human contacts, our personal power, our intellect, our degrees, our influence, or safety features like security systems, guns, or non-frayed ropes–provides our true security. Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ! Alleluia! Alleluia!

©️2021 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams