Posted on by Cheryl Norman

Re-JOY-ce!

Pastor Sherry’s message for December 12, 2021

Scriptures: Zeph 3:14-20; Isa 12:2-6; Phil 4:4-7; Lk 3:7-18

Dr. Helen Roseveare, missionary to Zaire, told the following story: “A mother at our mission station died after giving birth to a premature baby. We tried to improvise an incubator to keep the infant alive, but the only hot water bottle we had was beyond repair. So we asked the children to pray for the baby and for her sister. One of the girls responded. ‘Dear God, please send a hot water bottle today. Tomorrow will be too late because by then the baby will be dead. And dear Lord, send a doll for the sister so she won’t feel so lonely.’ That afternoon a large package arrived from England. The children watched eagerly as we opened it. Much to their surprise, under some clothing was a hot water bottle! Immediately the girl who had prayed so earnestly started to dig deeper, exclaiming, ‘If God sent that, I’m sure He also sent a doll!’ And she was right! The heavenly Father knew in advance of that child’s sincere requests, and 5 months earlier He had led a ladies’ group to include both of those specific articles.” (source unknown)

Have you ever noticed that this is the way our God often answers prayer? The results appear to be instantaneous, but God had the request in mind—and answered it–even before someone asked. We have learned this often happens with the Christmas shoeboxes we so recently packed and shipped. My favorite example is of the young boy who wanted a black t-shirt and a black hat, and was overjoyed to find one in his gift box. (I would not have thought to send a black pair, but a hat and shirt that was colorful. Instead someone packed just what this child wanted and God saw to it that he was the one who received that shoe box. And isn’t it true that we who prayed are often shocked, amazed, and filled with joy when we witness how God has answered our prayers?

In discussing God’s answers to prayers, Bill Hybels, in his book, Too Busy Not To Pray (IVP, 2008, p.74), writes:

If the request is wrong, God says, “No!”

If the timing is wrong, God says, “Slow.”

If you are wrong, God says, “Grow.”

But if the request is right, the timing is right and you are right, God says, “GO!”

Hybels obviously believes God always answers our prayers; He just doesn’t always answer them in the way we desire.

Our Scripture passages, on this 3rd Sunday of Advent, all revolve around God’s response to the prayers of believers. Remember, today we lit the candle representing “Joy,” the joy the shepherds experienced when the angel choirs told them Messiah had arrived.

A. The prophet, Zephaniah (3:14-20), foretells Jesus’ 2nd Coming as a warrior God! When Christ returns, at some unknown future date, He will have the authority to set all things right! This will not be “Jesus, Meek and Mild.” Instead, He will come back to earth in all of his kingly glory. The first time He came, it was as a poor baby, born to a homeless couple. But when he comes back, it will be as the all-powerful King of Kings and Lord of Lords!

Zephaniah wants his Jewish audience–and us–to know we will then have nothing to fear! Non-believers will be shaking in their boots as they face judgment; but we who love Jesus will experience great joy! In verse 17, Zephaniah predicts we will never again be afraid or anxious! How wonderful is that?! Instead, we will experience God’s delight with us. It will be as if we are infants in His arms, as He quiets us with His love, and rejoices over us with singing. When has anyone rejoiced over you with singing? Maybe your mom or dad sang lullabies over you as a child, or perhaps people sing for your birthday, but otherwise, it isn’t often than anyone sings over us. But imagine, the Great God of the Universe will do this with each of us who has asked Jesus into her or his heart.

At His 2nd Advent, our long-prayed-for and triumphant Jesus will gather us and restore us. He will eliminate evil, sorrow, and all of our burdens. I believe He will explain for us the purpose of our trials and suffering on this earth. And He will raise us up to honor and fame!

Isn’t this the ultimate prayer of all of us? Come Lord Jesus, make all things new, including us. Heal us, restore us, help us to rest in Your love and Your peace.

B. The message of Isaiah 12:2-6 is very similar. In that day, the time of Jesus’ 2nd Advent, [we will] (vv.2-3)…trust and not be afraid. The LORD, the LORD is my strength and my song; He has become my salvation. Our response to Jesus will be great joy! We will be so overflowing with gratitude, that we’ll be saying (as per Peterson’s Bible paraphrase, The Message, p.1228), verses 5-6🡪 Give thanks to God. Call out His name. Ask Him anything! Shout to the nations, tell them what He’s done, spread the news of His great reputation! Sing praise-songs to God. He’s done it all! Let the whole earth know what He’s done! Raise the roof! Sing your hearts out, O Zion! The greatest lives among you: The Holy One of Israel.

C. Paul’s message in Philippians 4:4-7 encourages us to act as if we believe in the prophesies of Zephaniah and of Isaiah. Since we trust that Jesus will grab us up in a joyous celebration at His 2nd Coming, we can (vv.4-5) Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!…The Lord is near. As we await Him, we want to put away all of our anxiety, our worry. Stated another way, Paul appears to be saying, Worry about nothing, pray about everything! That’s worth saying again: Worry about nothing, pray about everything! If you are afraid your prayer request– including parking places near the door to a store when it rains–is too little a thing to bother God about, remember that to God, every concern we have is a little thing! (not in value, but compared to His power).

Daily, we can send all of our worries to the Cross of Christ. That’s where they belong. Jesus is the only One who can redeem and transform them for us. So we present our requests to God with prayer and thanksgiving. Thanksgiving, because we know He hears us. Thanksgiving, because we know His answer will be either “No,” “Slow,” “Grow,” or “Go!”

Then because we have off-loaded our concerns to Jesus, we feel His peace come over us. It’s …the peace that passes all understanding (v.7) because it’s not dependent upon our circumstances–whether external to us, like jobs, relationships, news events, etc.–or internal circumstances, like our feelings, attitudes, health, and so on. It is dependent only upon our relationship with Jesus Christ.

D. Our Gospel lesson today, Luke 3:7-18, lands us right in the middle of John the Baptist’s sermon. He’s not a cuddly character, is he? He shoots form the hip and tells it like it is: Repent! Turn from pride, arrogance, greed, extortion, dishonesty. Ask God’s forgiveness for your sins. Be baptized with water, as an outward and visible sign of an inward spiritual truth: that we have been cleansed from our sins and have made a decision to behave differently. John the Baptist also exhorted the crowds coming to him to treat others with generosity, love, and respect. He was not Jesus, but only the forerunner to Messiah. He baptized with water. But Jesus baptized us with the Holy Spirit in His 1st Advent, and will baptize us with the fire of judgment in His 2nd.

For centuries, God the Father had had His prophets announce that Jesus was coming. John the Baptist says, Well, He’s here! Get ready! Be prepared! And, while you are at it, be ready for the Return of the King!

We can rest assured that our Lord is returning to earth to restore us and our world. We can trust that our Lord hears and responds to our prayers.

Listen to this very earnest call to prayer by a famous American leader:

Knowing that intercessory prayer is our mightiest weapon and the supreme call for all Christians today, I pleadingly urge our people everywhere to pray. Believing that prayer is the greatest contribution that our people can make in this critical hour, I humbly urge that we take time to pray–to really pray. Let there be prayer at sunup, at noonday, at sundown, at midnight–all through the day. Let us all pray for our children, our youth, our aged, our pastors, our homes. Let us pray for our churches. Let us pray for ourselves, that we may not lose the word ‘concern’ out of our Christian vocabulary. Let us pray for our nation. Let us pray for those who have never known Jesus Christ and redeeming love, for moral forces everywhere, for our national leaders. Let prayer be our passion. Let prayer be our practice. (Robert E. Lee).,

As we pray, we want to do so with the confidence of a long-ago professor at Dallas Theological Seminary, Rev. Dr. Harry Ironside. In its early days, the school needed $10,000 to remain open. During an emergency prayer meeting, Ironside prayed, “Lord, you own the cattle on a thousand hills. Please sell some of those cattle to help us meet this need.” Shortly after the prayer meeting, a check for $10,000 arrived at the school, sent days earlier by a friend who had no idea of the urgent need or of Ironside’s prayer. The man simply said the money came from the sale of some of his cattle!

I love stories like this! They deepen our faith and our trust in our Lord! We can be confident that, as believers in Jesus, we can await His 2nd Coming with re-joy-cing!

©2021 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams

Posted on by Cheryl Norman

Preparing our Hearts

Pastor Sherry’s message for December 5, 2021

Scriptures: Mal 3:1-4; Lk 1:68-79; Phil 1:3-11; Lk 3:1-6

What are your favorite “signs”/symbols of Christmas? My two particular favorites are the Advent Wreath and the music of Handel’s “Messiah.” Last week, we lit the first candle on our Advent wreath. The wreath is circular, signifying the eternality of God, or God’s endless love and mercy. The wreath is formed of evergreens, a symbol of our hope in God (newness of life; renewal; and eternal life). The outer four candles remind us of the 400 years from the prophesies of Malachi until birth of Jesus. In those years, God was essentially saying to the Hebrew people, “You have not listened to Me. Now I won’t say anything more (until Jesus).” There are 3 purple or white candles, which signify the following:

1st The Prophesy Candle, Messiah is Coming, which speaks of Hope;

2nd The Bethlehem Candle, signifying the Birth of Christ, and our need to Prepare our hearts for Him.

4th The Angel Candle which denotes Love. There is also 1 rose or pink candle. The third Candle, also called the Shepherds Candle, which indicates the Joy the shepherds felt at the birth of Jesus. The large, white candle in the center of the wreath signifies Christ. It reminds us that Jesus is the spotless Lamb of God; the light of the world; and the reason for the season. As the candles are lit, we symbolically note how the darkness recedes, and remember that we are called to be the light of God’s grace to a darkened and weary world.

My other favorite signal of Christmas is the music of Handel’s “Messiah.” Our Old and New Testament lessons this morning comprise a tenor and a bass aria, which you may recognize. Handel, a devout student of Scripture, set these verses to music in about 23-24 days. Modern psychology believes Handel was experiencing a manicy high as he wrote his massive and impressive “Messiah,” including music for both instrumentation and for voices. We believers know Handel was not a Bipolar, but was downloading gorgeous music given to him by the Holy Spirit, and he probably wrote it down as quickly as he was able. Clearly, he wisely understood the purpose of Jesus’ 1st Coming was to rescue/save His people; and, by demonstrating God’s saving love for them, to bring them comfort and reassurance. He also knew that when Christ comes again, He comes to judge the people of the earth, separating out the clean from the unclean.

Thus, the Second Sunday of Advent reminds us of the message of John the Baptist, the forerunner/proclaimer of Jesus: “Prepare your hearts! Stop! Pay attention! Get right with God!” Let’s see how these themes are present in the Scripture passages appointed for today:

A. Our OT lesson is from Malachi (3:1-4), the final book before the recording of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem. This is God’s final word to humankind prior to 400 years of silence. The prophet proclaims that just before the public ministry of the Messiah, a prophet will come on the scene to prepare folks to receive Him. All four Gospels reference this Malachi passage. So, we are left with no doubt that the 1st messenger is John the Baptist. His preaching about repentance and his call to folks to be baptized were meant to help people get their hearts ready to receive Jesus, ourSavior at His first Advent.

But even before the end of his first verse, Malachi also declares a …messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come…. This is Jesus, the Righteous Judge, who will appear suddenly at the end of times.

He will return to earth a 2nd time, as our Sovereign Lord. Malachi asks (v.2), Who can endure the day of His [2nd] coming? Who can stand when He appears? For He will be like a refiners’ fire or a launderer’s soap. His mission then will be to judge and to purify us. The only ones who will be able to stand in the presence of God and live, according to PS 24:3, are those who have…clean hands and a pure heart, and who have not sullied themselves with idol worship. If we had not been cleansed with the blood of Jesus—shed on the cross for us—we would not be able to meet this important criteria. But because, by believing in Jesus, we are covered by His righteousness, we will one day stand before, and live, in the presence of Almighty God.

Malachi’s message is one which reminds us to be prepared, to ready our hearts by inviting Jesus to be King on the throne of our lives.

B. Instead of a psalm, this morning, we are treated to a song of praise sung by the priestly father of John the Baptist (Luke 1:68-79)!

Remember, Zechariah was struck mute by the angel when he did not believe God would empower him to father a son as an elderly man. He was praying, in the Holy of Holies of the Temple—praying for the sins of Israel, and no doubt asking for a son—when the angel appeared with the answer to his prayers. He was no doubt so startled and amazed at the sight of the angels that he lost about 50 IQ points! He expressed unbelief and earned 9 months of silence as a result. He only recovered his speech when he affirmed that his infant son was to be named John.

In his song, he first rejoices that God is sending a Redeemer, out of the dynasty of King David. This Redeemer (Jesus) will…

1.) Provide salvation for God’s people;

2.) Show us God’s mercy;

3.) Demonstrate God’s covenant relationship with us;

4.) and Enable us to serve God without fear due to Jesus’ holiness and righteousness. Finally, and only at the end of his song, he declares that John the Baptist, his son, will be a prophet of the Most High. We can well imagine that Zechariah feels honored. We can tell that Zechariah rejoices in the fact that God’s rescue of His people is immanent.

C. In our Philippians 1:3-11 text, Paul reminds us of this very essential fact: He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Jesus, through the power of the Holy Spirit, will continue to work in us—if we allow Him to—to transform us into the best we can become. This is the second half of the Gospel. The first half is very big: Do you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior. But the second is also important and involves our willingness to cooperate with the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus loves us just as we are, but He also loves us too much to leave us that way.

In that light, Paul also prays that we might (1) abound in love, knowledge and discernment; (2) make wise decisions in the way we live so that we are ready for Christ’s 2nd Coming; and (3) be filled with the fruit of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22):…love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

D. Finally, in our Gospel lesson from Luke 3:1-6, John the Baptist himself, calls us to prepare for Christ. Notice how carefully Dr. Luke places John the Baptist in time: He dates his appearance on the historic scene by placing him in the context of non-Jewish governmental leaders from AD 25-26:

1.) Pontius Pilot, the Roman Prefect (military governing power);

2.) Herod, Tetrarch of Galilee (1 of 4 to take control over a quarter each of Alexander’ the Great’s empire after his death— Archaelaus was already dead);

3.) Leaving Herod, Philip (his brother), Tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitus;

4.) and Lysanias, Tetrarch of Abilene. Luke also places him during the high priesthood of Annas (out of favor w/ Rome but still pulling the strings) and Caiaphus, his son-in-law.

Then Dr. Luke makes sure we realize that the word of God Himself came to John the Baptist out in the wilderness (west of the Jordan). This recalls the 40 years wandering of the children of Israel, in the wilderness between Egypt and Israel, as God formed them into a nation. And later, Jesus will spend 40 days in John’s wilderness, strengthening His identity, understanding His mission, and deepening His faith and trust in His Father.

This poses the question, what is our wilderness? And are we using it to strengthen and deepen our faith and trust in God? But, this is a sermon for another day!

JtB then embarks on his ministry, calling folks to repentance; readying them to receive God’s forgiveness; and helping them to realize they/we need a Savior. Dr. Luke refers to Isaiah 40:3-5, which Handel so beautifully set to music—and sung so well this morning–in the 1st tenor aria of his “Messiah.” John’s role was to call us to prepare our hearts for Jesus. Just as crooked roads are straightened and rough spots are filled in and smoothed out, we are to ready ourselves morally and spiritually to welcome Jesus.

Advent is a season of expectant Hope! Advent fairly shouts, Don’t give up! Our God makes good on His promises! Jesus is coming a first time to redeem us. He will come a second time to make all things right. He will overcome all the “bad actors” in the world. He will usher in His peaceful kingdom. He will set all accounts right. So we want to be prepared. We want to live in a way that mimics the behavior of Jesus. We want to exhibit the fruit of the Holy Spirit. We want to express our gratitude, joining with St. Paul in saying, Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Alleluia, alleluia!

©2021 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams

Posted on by Cheryl Norman

The Alpha and the Omega

Pastor Sherry’s message for November 21, 2021

Scriptures: 2 Sam 23:1-7; Ps 132:1-12; Rev. 1:1-8; Jn 18:33-37

Let me begin by sharing two stories about kingship:

1.) Chuck Colson related this one in his book, The Faith: What Christians Believe, Why They Believe It, and Why It Matters (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2008, p.90). In 1990, he was in Russia, preaching at the Moscow Baptist Church, just blocks from the Kremlin, “He told a packed crowd of worshipers that all through human history, as far back as recorded time and doubtless before, kings, princes, tribal chiefs, presidents, and dictators have sent their subjects into battle to die for them. Only once in human history has a king not sent his subjects to die for him, but instead, died for his subjects. This is the King who introduces the Kingdom that cannot be shaken, because this King reigns eternally.”

Colson was, of course, referring to Jesus Christ, comparing Jesus’ selfless reign and rule to that of all other world leaders.

2.) In another story—so old there we do not know to whom to credit it—we have an anecdote concerning the King of England from 1014-1035, who was actually a Danish royal and a Christian, named Canute. “King Canute tired of hearing his retainers flatter him with extravagant praises of his greatness, power and invincibility. He ordered his chair to be set down on the seashore, where he commanded the waves not to come in and wet him. No matter how forcefully he ordered the tide not to come in, however, his order was not obeyed. Soon the waves lapped around his chair. One historian tells us that, therefore, he never wore his crown again, but hung it on a statue of the crucified Christ.” King Canute knew he lacked the power of Christ the King. He probably also realized he would not be willing to die for his subjects, as Jesus did.

Today is the last day of the church calendar, called Christ the King Sunday. Next week we begin our Christmas focus on the Advent or the 1st and 2nd Comings of Jesus. But for today, we close out the Church’s calendar year by focusing on the Kingship of Jesus. Jesus truly is Christ the King.

A. In our OT reading, 2 Samuel 23:1-7, the prophet Samuel records the last words of King David. David credits God with elevating him to the position of king from being a shepherd son of a peasant farmer. He admits the Holy Spirit worked through him—and spoke through him–during his lifetime, probably especially though the music he wrote and played (his psalms), his phenomenal military success, and the fact that he tried to rule righteously.

In verse 5, he alludes to the Covenant agreement David had with God—There would always be a descendant of his to rule Israel, as long as that descendant was obedient to the Lord. Those who did evil would be cast aside; but the Righteous One to be—Jesus—will reign forever and ever.

B. Psalm 132:1-12 was apparently written by King Solomon, King David’s son and immediate heir to his throne. In it, Solomon asks God to remember that David wanted to build an earthly dwelling suitable for the Lord. Solomon has just completed construction of the Temple in Jerusalem and is celebrating having moved the Ark of the Covenant from “the tent of habitation” to the Holy of Holies (a goal of his father’s). This psalm was probably sung at the Temple’s dedication service. Solomon asks God to come and dwell in this Temple—which He does. And then Solomon reminds God of His promises to his father, David:

1.) To always keep a descendant of David upon the throne of Israel, providing that descendant obeys the Lord.

2.) Solomon probably doesn’t realize it, but inspired by the Holy Spirit, he has just prophesied the kingship of Jesus in verse 11–The Lord swore an oath to David, a sure oath that He will not revoke: One of your own descendants I will place on your throne…The last of the Davidic kings was the rebellious Zedekiah (597-586BC). There is, at present, no king of Israel. But Jesus rode into Jerusalem as a kingly figure on Palm Sunday. He admitted to Pilate that He is a king. And He will be enthroned in Jerusalem when He returns to earth a 2nd time.

C. Our Gospel lesson is from John 18:33-37. It records a portion of Jesus’ trial before Pontius Pilate, the Roman ruler of Judea. It is said that Pilate hated Jerusalem and really disliked the Jews. He spent most of his time at Caesarea, on the Mediterranean coast. He made it his habit to visit Jerusalem during the great feasts, like Passover, when Jews from all around the world would crowd into the city to worship God. He hoped to impress his superiors by keeping the peace in a volatile country. Not truly understanding the Jewish religion, he finds himself having to adjudicate Jesus’ case.

Now Pilate was a pragmatist, a Roman military officer, not a philosopher. He probably thought Jesus was a nut-case if He claimed to be Israel’s king. Afterall, Israel was then under the rule of a Roman-appointee, Herod Agrippa, who owed his authority and privileges to Rome. What right would an itinerant rabbi have to call Himself King?

So he enters into the dialogue with Jesus:

PILATE. Are you the King of the Jews?

JESUS. Essentially, what prompted that question?

PILATE—Not me; your own folks say this of you.

JESUS—Yes, I’m a king, but not of this world, or more correctly, out of this world. He will not be a political king, rising out of the political system. He will be a true king, not a political hack. He will be—and is—a theocratic king and will come to earth again as King of King and Lord of Lords (but Jesus doesn’t explain all of this to Pilate).

D. However, this is where our NT lesson from Revelation 1:1-8 picks up. The year is somewhere in the 90’s (near end of 1st century). John is the oldest living apostle (in his late 80’s, early 90’s). Peter has been crucified, upside-down, at his own request! John’s brother James has been put to the sword by King Herod Agrippa. Paul has been beheaded in Rome.

John has outlived them all—some say he is the only apostle to die a natural death.

We find him in today’s narrative, confined to the prison isle, Patmos.

It was a rocky, inhospitable island, about 6 X 10 miles, in the Aegean Sea.

Inmates there were sentenced to hard labor in the mines and quarries, exposed to elements. Our passage tells us (verse 10), On the Lord’s Day, I was in the Spirit. Here he was, in harsh circumstances, isolated from friends, but worshipping God on Sunday, the Lord’s Resurrection Day.

He was praying, in the Spirit, when he has a Holy Spirit assisted vision.

John sees and hears from Jesus.

But I am getting ahead of myself here—Return to verses 1-3:

John tells us God the Father gave this revelation to Jesus Christ. The word, revelation comes from the Greek word, apokalupsis which means an UNVEILING, a REVEALING. In this god-forsaken place, Jesus Himself comes to John. What a comfort that must have been to the apostle:

John, I have not forgotten you! Even though you are elderly and in exile,

I have a job for you to do.

So Jesus is speaking this unveiling, this revealing to John, as the Ascended Lord, the King of the Universe! Jesus is in heaven, seated at the right hand of the Father. This means He is installed right next to God the Father, at God’s right hand of power. Jesus conveys the revelation to John thru an angel (messenger). And John obediently writes for us all that he saw and heard.

Whoever reads it, and hears it, and takes it to heart will be blessed.

So who is that? Us! Yes, it’s complicated and uses a lot of figurative language, (Old Testament allusions) but if we persist/puzzle through Revelation, we will be blessed! We will be blessed because it tells us how our great cosmic history turns out! The Good Guy wins! Through Him, we also win! (We are vindicated).

John greets the 7 churches in Asia Minor (Turkey):

These were specific church groups, but also types/representatives of churches. In verses 4-6, he states, Grace and peace to you from.

Him who is and who was and who is to come [the eternal Father], the 7 spirits before His throne [The Holy Spirit; the Complete Holy Spirit given all of His characteristics], and from Jesus Christ. Jesus is then called by several titles:

1.) The faithful witness— Jesus has told us truth and so He continues to tell us truth (I am the way, the truth, and the life, John 14:6).

2.) The firstborn from the dead—During His earthly ministry, Jesus resurrected 3 persons: His friend Lazarus; the son of the widow of Nain; and he synagogue ruler’s 12 year old daughter. But they all went on to die, again, later. Jesus is the first One resurrected to eternal life!

3.) The ruler of the kings of the earth—In Phil 2:9-11, we are told…at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Ultimately, at the end of time, all Caesars/kings, presidents, premiers, despots and dictators everywhere will acknowledge the lordship of King Jesus. Their eyes will be open to the Truth of Who Jesus is.

4.) V. 8. I am the Alpha and the Omega…who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty. Alpha is the 1st letter of the Greek alphabet; Omega, the last. Jesus is saying, I am the A through Z. He is the full revelation of God the Father. He is the beginning and the end, eternal, unchanging. As the writer to the Hebrews puts it (13:8) Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever?

The final outcome is ultimately a good one! God has the last word! We serve Christ the King. The resurrected Jesus Christ is alive and on His heavenly throne. The Alpha and the Omega will come again in glory to rule and reign upon the earth. I can hardly wait, can you? Amen! Maranatha! Come King Jesus!

©2021 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams

Posted on by Cheryl Norman

There’s Something Bigger than Phil

Pastor Sherry’s message for November 14, 2021

Scriptures: 1 Sam 1:1-20; Ps 113; Heb 10:11-25; Mk 13:1-8

Some of us are old enough to remember the comedians, Rob Reiner and Mel Brooks. Some years back, they performed a comedy routine called “The 2,000 Year Old Man.” (Maybe you remember hearing/watching it?) Reiner takes the role of a TV news reporter and Brooks, the 2,000 YO man (As related by Revs. Fearless & Chilton, in their Lectionary Lab Commentary, Year B, p.361):

        Reporter:  Well, did you worship God in your village?

        Old Man: No, at first we worshipped this guy in our village                     named Phil.

        Reporter:  You worshipped a guy named Phil?  Why?  

Old Man: Well, he was bigger than us, and faster than us, and he was mean, and he could hurt you: break your arm or leg right in two; so we worshipped Phil.

        Reporter: I see. Did you have any prayers in this religion?

        Old Man: Yeah, want to hear one?  PLEASE PHIL, NO!                      PLEASE PHIL, NO!

        Reporter:  OK, so when did you stop worshipping Phil?

Old Man: Well, one day we were having a religious festival. Phil was chasing us and we were praying PLEASE PHIL, NO! PLEASE PHIL, NO! And suddenly a thunderstorm came up and a bolt of lightning struck and killed Phil. We gathered around and stared at Phil’s body awhile and then we realized: THERE’S SOMETHING BIGGER THAN PHIL!

    This story reminds me of an indigenous Indian missionary named Andrew Swamidoss.  He came to speak at my seminary and related how the people of India worship many gods.  He told us that a fellow had been run over by a bus at a particular street corner.  The next day, there was a shrine there to appease “the god of the bus-wreck.”  Imagine having to pray to thousands of gods who—like Phil—to keep them from harming us. Thank God there is someone bigger—and kinder—than Phil and the god of the bus wreck!

    Our God is bigger and more powerful—and more loving—and can and does see us though the many bad things that happen in our lives.  We can all probably think of many bad things that have happened to each of us during our lifetimes. We don’t want to ruminate over them because that can lead to depression and despair.  

    Our Scriptures this morning offer two categories of “bad things” for us to ponder.

    A. In 1 Samuel 1:1-20, the dilemma is childlessness or barrenness.  This would be a heart-break for any of us who wanted a child.

Think of the incredible stress and the multitude of disappointments and pain for couples undergoing in-vitro-and other fertilization treatments. Making love can be reduced to a baby-producing procedure; and the clinical interventions like calendar-and-temperature-watching, as well as giving the wife hormone injections begin to take a toll on a marriage. Consider childless couples anxiously awaiting adoptions. We probably all know of someone who cared for—even funded–a young woman throughout her pregnancy, only to have her decide at the birth to keep the baby. Or how about couples who spent thousands upon thousands trying to locate an adoptee in a foreign country.

Hannah knows she is barren, and—to make matters worse—she lives with her husband’s very fertile 2nd wife, Peninnah. We would probably characterize Peninnah as a “mean girl.” She knows Hannah is their husband’s favorite, but she can brag that she has more children. She can and does make Hannah feel less than. She can and does make Hannah feel miserable.

    But Hannah appears to know that our God is bigger and better than Phil, or any other gods.  She worships God in His Holy Temple and she cries out her despair and her heartbreak, asking God to give her a child.  Hannah, whose name means grace or favor, is such a great example to us.  She takes her misery to the Only One who can do something about it.  Notice how David takes all his fears and desires for revenge to God in some of the psalms he wrote.  You see, it’s OK to take our disappointments, anger, and despair to God.  It’s much less effective (and Christian) for us to share those with others. 

But Hannah appears to know from Ps 113 that God is our Creator and our Redeemer. Perhaps she held in her heart the knowledge that our God does not exalt the high and mighty—the bullies and braggarts, like Peninnah—but instead advances the cause of the humble and the lowly—people like herself, perhaps even people like us. Maybe she had memorized and camped on verse 9–He [God] settles the barren woman in her home as a happy mother of children. At any rate, she cried out to the Lord in prayer. He heard the desire of her heart. He heard her promise to raise her child to serve the Lord as a priest. And the Lord gifted her with a son, Samuel, soon intended by God be an important prophet.

The story of Hannah speaks to the personal, the micro-level , while our Gospel lesson, Mk 13:1-8, addresses the global or macro-level. Jesus prophesizes the demolition of the Temple (not accomplished until about 35 years after His ascension, in 70AD). A disciple has called His attention to what a magnificent building it is. The folks of that day probably believed the Temple would endure forever, but my son, the structural engineer, tells me that buildings have a life span. Buildings require maintenance, don’t they? Materials rot, decay, or become bug-ridden or brittle, and must be replaced. Even marble can be destroyed. Jesus’ response to the disciple’s comment seems to imply, Don’t put your faith in buildings, no matter how spectacular. .

    Later, Peter, James, John, and Andrew draw Him aside and ask     what other events foretell the end-times.  Jesus cites the appearance of false messiahs; political turmoil, wars and rumors of wars, nations turning against nations; and physical calamities like earthquakes and famines.  Then, sadly, (verse 9) He predicts that Christ-followers will be persecuted by religious and political leaders. 

This passage is a “heads up” warning for us: Trouble is coming—some may say trouble is already here. Many of us cannot bear to watch the evening news anymore. We are sick and tired of multiple examples of lying, greed, power-grabbing, sexual abuse, drug abuse, murders, etc. Interestingly, Stephen King, the current master of the horror genre in fiction books, has said, Horror has not fared particularly well on TV, if you except something like the six o’clock news….It is very difficult to write a successful horror story in a world which is so full of real horror.” And I think many of us are also fed up with leaders who cannot or who will not take action to turn things around.

    The Good News is that there is something bigger than Phil. There is something greater than the bad stuff that occurs in our lives or in our communities.  That something is a Some One, Jesus who loves us.  That something is our faith that His reign over tomorrow will overcome whatever is going on in our todays and has gone on in our yesterdays.  Our God is bigger than our pain.  Our God is bigger than our sorrow.  Our God is bigger than our suffering.  Our God is bigger than our disappointments, betrayals, or abandonments.  Our God is bigger than whatever frightens us or holds us captive.  Our God’s promises are true.  Our God’s love never fails us.

We recently (at our Saturday “soup and cinema event) showed a movie about a high school football coach whose teams won 151 games in a row. That’s a true story. There is also a winning high school basketball coach, named Morgan Wooten, whose teams won 1274 games, losing only192 times (15%) during his career. His little 1st grade grandson, however, was not impressed. He told his teacher his grandpa didn’t know anything about basketball. The teacher was shocked and told the kid lots of folks think his granddad is a basketball genius. “Oh no,” the child explained, “He doesn’t know anything about basketball. I go to all his games and he never gets to play!”

    Sometimes we tend to believe God is like that…always watching, never getting into the game.   But our lessons today assure us that God knows (and foreknows) whatever we are dealing with or will deal with, the micro and the macro concerns of life.  He’s neither asleep at the wheel nor far away.  Remember that Baptist pastor who said, There is no situation that I can get into that God cannot get me out of.  If we trust God, we will be all right.

We serve someone bigger than Phil, or Joe Biden, or our Bishop, Mayor, the Pope, or whomever. We serve a mighty God! We worship a powerful Jesus! We can trust Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit to manage whatever troubles us—if we call upon them. Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ! Alleluia! Alleluia!

©2021 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams

Posted on by Cheryl Norman

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

Knowing What’s What

Pastor Sherry’s message for September 19, 2021

Scriptures: Psalms 1; Proverbs 31:10-31; James 3:13-4:3, 7-8a; Mark 9:30-37

Last week, we looked at the choice between wisdom or foolishness, and the cost of living foolishly. Our lessons this week, once again, center on wisdom. In his book, Knowing God, Rev. Dr. J. I. Packer—a brilliant theologian and a dedicated Bible scholar—defines wisdom as, “…the power to see and the inclination to choose the best and highest goal, together with the surest means of attaining it.” Someone once said (perhaps Yogi Berra), “You don’t have to be listed in Who’s Who to know what’s what.” Someone else has declared, “A wise man [or woman] learns by the experience of others. An ordinary man [or woman] learns by his own experience. A fool learns by nobody’s experience.” Isn’t that the truth!

As often as the topic is addressed in Scripture—and it does get a lot of print-space–it seems that our acquisition of wisdom is important to God. Let’s examine today’s passages to see what the Lord is trying to tell us about our need for wisdom.

A. Psalm 1 points out to us this same dichotomy we have been presented with for the past several weeks now: We can choose the way of sinners/the ungodly (remember Psalm 19 calls this way “foolishness”); or we can choose the way of righteousness/the godly person. It’s either one or the other, no in between. Inspired by God, the author of Psalm 1 wants us to choose to live a life focused on God—a life of righteousness. The wise person, man or woman, chooses to align his/her life with God’s teaching, not the culture’s. The wise person is a servant of (surrendered to) Christ. The foolish person, on the other hand, is captured by wickedness/sin. The righteous ultimately prosper, but the lives of the foolish are ultimately—in the words of Peter, Paul, & Mary (or even Bob Dylan)–“blowing in the wind.”

B. Verses 10-31 in Proverbs 31 are addressed to King Lemuel.

Scholars believe the description of the wise woman was told to Solomon by his mother, Queen Bathsheba. They think “King Lemuel” may have been her pet name for him. They think this first because there was never a king of Israel by this name. Secondly, they believe this because many of us give our kids nick-names. I called my son, David Morgan, “Rooney” when he was a little guy; and my daughter, Meredith Claire, “Merry Sunshine.” There is no rhyme or reason to these sorts of names. We just make them up and then use them, privately, out of affection and love. I imagine this name was may have been a private joke between them.

Whatever the case, Mamma Bathsheba is trying to convey to her son what he needs to live a good life. God bless her! By the time he died, he had 700 wives & 300 concubines! Surely, as she observed him acquiring all these women, she must have wanted him to realize he only needed one good woman. He didn’t need a beautiful wife or a woman who would bring with her grand political alliances. He certainly didn’t need a woman who would introduce him to foreign gods (as many of them did). Instead, he would have been so much better off with a virtuous wife, a woman of character, strength, & real ability; someone faithful; a helpful partner to her husband; energetic, not lazy; someone who would spend the family money wisely; someone who would manage the household (including raising children) wisely; someone kind and generous; someone wise in the ways Solomon was not. Sadly, as history bears out, Solomon did not listen to his mother. More’s the pity!

C. James 3:13-4:8a—James is in total agreement with our Psalmist. He, too, asserts there are two kinds of wisdom in this world: heavenly, or Godly wisdom and earthly, unspiritual wisdom. James says this latter kind is characterized by disorder and every evil practice. It is more than us just being what one of my doctoral professors termed “our bad old selves.” Rev. Dr.J. Vernon McGee writes, “the wickedness of the world is not merely human, but human plus something” [the devil]. In verse15, James says (people who are bitter, envious, or selfishly ambitious have chosen a ‘wisdom’ that)…does not come from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, of the devil. According to James, we have a choice as to which kind of wisdom we pursue.

Furthermore, he asserts that people will discern which we have chosen by the way we live our lives. Sometimes our choice of evil living shows in our faces. I once counseled a young woman who had been incested by her father for a period of years. He had impregnated her when she was only eleven. She miscarried that baby and finally escaped him by going to live with her aunt. When I met her, she was engaged to marry a really dear young man. Her father told her he would pay for a big wedding if she would allow him to walk her down the aisle. In my spirit, I thought, “No way! It’s not worth it!” But the decision was hers to make. She asked me to attend her wedding and when I did, I saw her father for the first time as he escorted her to her groom. Even if I hadn’t known what he had done, I would have sensed that something was off about him. He looked utterly debauched. It was as though his sin was written on his face.

Those of us who instead seek Godly wisdom will live lives that are (v.17) pure, peace-loving, considerate, submissive [surrendered to God], full of mercy & good fruit, impartial, and sincere. Like Paul demonstrates in his sin lists, James is concerned that we make wise choices in the way we live our lives. James is essentially saying we should live out the traditional Boy/Girl Scout virtues (e.g., kind, courteous, trustworthy, etc.).

Finally, James (vv.7-8) urges us to (1) submit our lives to God and (2) resist the devil. We must always be aware that he niggles about in our ears, trying to tell us stuff designed to lead us astray. We need to recognize that these sinful or destructive thoughts come from him—human plus something! And (3) then we need to tell him to beat it! “Get out of here, Satan, in the name of Jesus!” Again, tuck in with God–right under His arm—and He will embrace you.

D. Mark 9:30-37–Jesus has just finished telling them He is a Messiah who must suffer and die (in order to rescue us from our sins).

They park on His identity rather than His mission. They focus on His role, His title, and overlook the fact that He was sent to earth to die for our sins and rise again. They then begin to argue over who will have which position in what they envision will be His upcoming regime: No doubt, Judas wanted to be Secretary of the Treasury; Peter, Secretary of Defense, or of Homeland Security; Doubting Thomas, the “show me” Apostle, for Attorney General; the loving, charitable John, Secretary of Health and Human Services; etc.

In response, Jesus gives them the first “children’s sermon” If you want to be greatest, be like a child, the servant of all. If you want to be first, make sure everyone is served before you. In other words, be humble, loving, and not hung up on yourself. True wisdom comes from dying to self, from controlling “the sinful man,” or “our bad ole selves.” We need to focus on obeying God–just as Jesus did–and on loving others—just as Jesus did.

How wonderful that we are not left clueless about pursuing wisdom! This morning, God has used 4 different voices to teach us how to develop wisdom. It turns out that wisdom is within our grasp. Wisdom is possible for us to attain. It’s involved in all the choices we make, on a daily, hourly, sometimes minute-to-minute basis. Our God wants us to be wise and He is rooting for us!

I want to close with this story about the car manufacturer, Henry Ford (as reported in Today in the Word, 4/1990, p.27):

Automaker Henry Ford asked electrical genius Charlie Steinmetz to build the generators for his factory. One day the generators ground to a halt, and the repairmen couldn’t find the problem. So Ford called Steinmetz, who tinkered with the machines for a few hours and then threw the switch. The generators whirred to life—but Ford got a bill for $10,000 from Steinmetz. Flabbergasted, the rather tightfisted car maker inquired why the bill was so high. Steinmetz’s reply: for tinkering with the generators, $10.00. For knowing where to tinker, $9,900. Ford paid the bill.

Please note that Steinmetz was more shrewd than wise. But Ford, knowing his assembly line was sitting idle and his plant output reduced to zero without functioning generators—and recognizing Steinmetz’ ability to correct that—was wise to pay it. This week, and always, let’s focus on making wise, godly decisions. Amen! May it be so!

©️2021 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams

Posted on by Cheryl Norman

Spiritual Wisdom

Pastor Sherry’s Message for August 15, 2021

Scriptures: 1 Kings 2:10-12, 3:3-14; Ps 111; Eph 5:15-20; Jn 6:51-58

About 30 years ago, before I attended seminary, I led a mental health team who treated residents of 4 nursing homes in and around Tallahassee, Florida. In this work, I learned a hymn I’d never heard before. My colleague who provided music therapy for those who had Alzheimer’s would play this hymn and the patients–even if they could not remember their children’s names–all remembered it and would sing along! I was amazed.

What can wash away my sins?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

What can make me whole again?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Oh, precious is the flow that makes me white as snow.

No other fount I know,

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Such a great hymn and so true.  We were bought with a price and redeemed by the shed blood of Jesus Christ. Thank you, Lord Jesus!

    Our readings today have to do with gaining true wisdom, spiritual wisdom.  School began this past Tuesday here in North Florida.  The start of the school year always puts me in mind of our hopes that our children’s and grandchildren’s teachers and professors would…

    1.) Recognize and even appreciate their academic talents;     2.) Make allowances for and help them overcome their deficits. 

Some years back, I taught a male student at Santa Fe Community College who could not read.  He failed my first two exams.  After class following the second test, I asked him to verbally respond to the questions.  He knew the information completely.  He could remember the material but was sadly unable to “crack the written code.”  Some of my college students admitted they had never opened a book in high school; others realized, too late, they would have to study more to succeed in college. 

    3.) We also hope teachers and professors will not kill students’ desire to learn, nor their love for their God, their family, or their country.

We also hope that our kids/grandkids would be intent on being fully present; attentive; eager to learn; on time; well-behaved, and disciplined enough not to play games on their laptops or text on their cell phones. Wouldn’t it be great if students all sought wisdom in their educational endeavors? Similarly, wouldn’t it be wonderful if teachers/professors also exhibited wisdom in both the presentation of material in their classes, and in their evaluations of how much their students have learned?

    I don’t know about you but I find it interesting that, just as school is starting, our lectionary readings–which cycle around every three years—contrast the two forms of wisdom, academic or secular wisdom and spiritual wisdom?  It’s no coincidence, but rather a “God-incidence.”

    Our Old Testament reading comes from 1 Kings 3:3-14. It narrates events from 970 BC, almost 3000 years ago.   Having ruled from 1010-970 BC, King David has died.  His two eldest sons predeceased him:  As you may remember from last week, Amnon—son of David’s 3rd wife–was killed by Absalom—son of his 4th wife, for having raped Tamar, Absalom’s sister.  Nine years later, Absalom was slain in a Civil War he had started to wrest the throne from his father.  The next son in line was Adonijah, the son of David’s 5th wife, Haggith.  But God had selected, and King David had crowned Solomon—son of Bathsheba, his 8th wife—as his successor.  (Remember that  David had been the runt of the litter, youngest of 8 boys, when he was chosen by the Lord to be King).  Once again, God jumps the “normal” order of succession to bring about His choice.  After all, the King of Israel was both a political and a theocratic or spiritual king, who ruled at God’s pleasure.  So, despite his birth order, Solomon has assumed the throne.

In some verses skipped, he takes as his wife, in a political alliance, the daughter of Pharaoh and not a believer in the God of Israel. We are told in verse 3 that he loved the Lord. Initially, then, he lived according to the Law of Moses—he kept God’s Law. However, he also worshipped the Lord in Canaanite “high places” which had been set apart for pagan gods of fertility. From the get-go, Solomon seemed to be hedging his bets. He appears to have had a weakness for women, lots of women (having accumulated 700 wives and 300 concubines—many of whom worshipped pagan gods–by the end of his reign). So, over the long run, he did not remain loyal to God. He appears to have thought: I’ll follow the God of my father, David; but what can it hurt to honor other gods as well?

    This practice of mixing pagan elements with worshiping the One True God is called syncretism and is abhorrent to our God.  When I was in seminary, my daughter and I had a friend named Mrs. Wilson.  She was kind and generous to us, but she mixed her Roman Catholic beliefs in with the Hindu concept of reincarnation.  I remember asking her why she would want to risk returning to earth as a cockroach or a rat.  I assured her that Jesus Christ had done all the work necessary for her to reach heaven if she only put her trust in Him.  Such syncretism violates the 1st Commandment.  We are told (verse 5) that the syncretistic Solomon offered a very generous number (1000) of sacrifices to Israel’s God, Yahweh—but in a place devoted to pagan worship.  Thus Solomon ignores the urging of the one who wrote Psalm 111 who says, (verse 1) I will extol the LORD with all my heart, in the council of the upright and in the assembly.  The psalmist implores us to worship our God with single-minded devotion.

    Nevertheless, despite Solomon’s lack of a steadfast commitment to God alone, notice that God still planned to use him and to bless him.  This is good news to him and to us.  Except for Jesus Christ, there are no perfect people.  We tend to align ourselves along a continuum from not at all committed to God to totally sold out to God, and on any given day, we land somewhere in between–and often moving toward one pole or the other.  Even so, God chooses to use us.  How amazing!

That night, God spoke to Solomon in a dream. In what strikes me as a beautiful act of grace, God says to the not-quite-committed new king, (verse 5) Ask for whatever you want Me to give you. If I had been God, I doubt I would have been so generous. This guy is all too human—not as whole-heartedly faithful to God as his father David had been. Why should God trust him? Solomon, though, gives a great answer: Recognizing his limitations, he admits (verse 7), I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties. He honestly admits he knows he is not yet equipped or experienced enough to rule. As Eugene Peterson, in his modern paraphrase of the Bible, restates it, I don’t know the ropes, hardly know the ‘in’s’ and ‘outs’ of this job and the scope of it is intimidating. So please give me a God-listening-heart so I can rule your people well. He has asked for wisdom in judgment and in governmental leadership or statesmanship. He has asked to know what is the right thing to do as he rules. God is so pleased with this request that He rewards him. God notes that Solomon wasn’t moved by self-centered motives: a long life for himself, great personal wealth, or the deaths of his enemies. So the Lord grants his request, (v.12) I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be. Solomon will be the wisest king—other than Jesus—who ever lived!

However, he fails in moral leadership, in the way he lives his life. He asked for wisdom to govern well, not wisdom to guide his own personal life. That just occurred to me as I studied the passage this week. I had never seen it before. I always wondered how he could have messed up so badly and still been so wise. Under the influence of his foreign wives, he veers off into idolatry, and appears to have suffered from a sexual addiction. Perhaps Paul was thinking about Solomon as he wrote to the Ephesians in our New Testament lesson today (Ephesian 5:15-20). The apostle tells us Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise….Solomon had great wisdom for governing—oh, if we only had that in DC today! But he lacked a firm moral compass, rooted in faithfulness to the Lord. Believers who walk wisely, remain in the will of God. Jesus urges us in John 15:4 No branch can bear fruit by itself [“operating out of human wisdom”]; it [we, the branches] must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in Me.

King Solomon provides such a good lesson to us as someone who starts off pretty well, but ends up badly. Nevertheless, God knew he was inadequate and chose to work through him anyway. In a sense, all of us are inadequate to serve God. We can only go as far and as high as we do on our knees (in prayer and submission to God). We do best when we seek spiritual wisdom, God’s will. Again, the author of Psalm 111 writes, (verse 10) The fear of the Lord [awe, reverence for, respect of] is the beginning of wisdom. My Old Testament professor, Dr. Paul House, put it this way: Wisdom, even God-given wisdom, must be maintained by responsible human faithfulness. Serving God faithfully, according to Eugene Peterson, really is a long obedience in the same direction—us being obedient to accompany God in His direction.

    Jesus shocked His contemporaries by suggesting in today’s Gospel (John 6:51-58) that they feed on Him.  They didn’t understand that He meant spiritually.  We need to establish, nurse, and maintain a deep relationship with Him.  He is our source!  He is our Savior.  As the old hymn says, the shed blood of Christ protects and redeems us.  Recognizing and exhibiting gratitude for His great love for     us is true wisdom.

As your loved ones (or you yourself) begin the new school year, may you (and they) be endowed with Godly wisdom and an obedient heart, remaining faithful to the God who loves, equips, and blesses you.

©️2021 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams

Posted on by Cheryl Norman

Who’s On First?

Pastor Sherry’s message for 8/1/2021

Scriptures: 2 Sam 11:26-12:13a; Ps 51; Eph 4:1-16; Jn 6:24-35

    I’m dating myself, now, but do any of you remember a comedy routine by Bud Abbott and Lou Costello called “Who’s on first”?  The premise is that Bud [the smart, serious guy] is trying to explain the location of the baseball players—Who, What, and I Don’t Know–to Lou [the less smart but funny one]:

        Lou:  Who’s on first [base]?

        Bud: Yes, Who’s on first.

        Lou: That’s what I want to know, who’s on first?

        Bud: Exactly, Who’s on first.

        Lou (by now getting exasperated):  That’s what I want to know. What’s the fella’s name on first?

        Bud:  No, no.  What’s on second, Who’s on first.

        Lou (now pulling his hair, getting angry):  Let’s try something different.  Who’s on third?

        Bud:  No, no, no.  Who’s on 1st.  I Don’t’ Know’s on 3rd.

        Lou (now angrily shouting): If you don’t know, who does?

        Bud: Yes, Who knows, he’s the captain.

        And it continues as Lou gets increasingly upset and confused.

    This famous comedy routine is somewhat reminiscent of our Gospel lesson today, John 6:24-35.  It appears that Jesus, and some spokespersons from the crowd following Him, are talking from completely different perspectives/understandings. The crowd wants another free meal. But Jesus is not so much interested in feeding their bellies as He is in saving their souls.  It seems that Jesus and the crowd are speaking at cross-purposes with each other 

It’s just like the woman at the well (John 4:1-26). Jesus offers her “living water,” which she assumes means flowing [not stagnant] water. She’d like a private source of water that was clean and not algae-infested. Then she wouldn’t have to fill her pail at the public well and encounter the women who taunt her about her lifestyle. Like Lou in “Who’s on first,” she isn’t getting it. Jesus is actually offering her something better than clean water; He is offering her eternal life.

    The same is true of the Pharisee, Nicodemus, in John 3:1-18.  He is puzzled about what Jesus means by “rebirth,” thinking Jesus is requiring him to re-enter his mother’s womb as an adult.  Instead, Jesus is instructing him in what it takes to enter God’s Kingdom:  belief in Jesus as God’s Son.

    How patient our God is with them and with us.  Jesus is concerned foremost with our salvation—our deepest spiritual need; while they and we so often are more concerned with our physical and relational needs—hunger, thirst, healing, restored relationships, etc. 

    Let’s try to enter into God’s perspective on what’s most important in our lives by looking at our Gospel and our Old Testament readings:

    In John 6: 24-35, the crowd follows Jesus in order to obtain more food.  But He wants them to know that He is the Bread of Life.  They don’t get it.  They want to know what they must do to be fed.  Who’s on first?

They and we don’t have to do anything to be fed spiritually except to believe in Jesus.  It’s a free gift, but they can’t take that in.

So they ask for a sign. They’ve just had a sign. Jesus fed anywhere from 5,000-15,000 from next to nothing, the multiplication miracle I preached about last week. They want to see Him do it again. They ask him, How about producing manna, like Moses did? Jesus tells them that God, not Moses, was responsible for the manna. Now, God has sent His Son, Jesus. Manna sustained the Israelites for 40 years in the wilderness. Jesus knows what they really need is the true manna, God’s spiritual provision, in Jesus—which will sustain them eternally

    The question then strikes me, How much proof do we need?  Will another miracle be the event that tips us, them, into belief?  They had the Old Testament as their Scripture; we have the Old and the New.  What else do we need?  Often we need a personal experience of Christ, reaching inot our lives.  They have just witnessed Jesus feeding a horde of folks from 5 small loaves and two small fish.  He is not going to perform for them like a trained seal.  They need to realize that Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  He is the Living Water, the Manna from Heaven, the Only Way to the Father.  He is our Salvation!

    Our Old Testament Lesson, 2 Sam 11:26-12:13a, provides such a great example of why we need Jesus.  You may remember from last week that King David has sinned by 

        1.) Coveting and entering into an adulterous relationship with Bathsheba, Uriah’s wife;

        2.) And by arranging for Uriah’s death when she becomes pregnant by David.

    Though his sins are state secrets, several of the psalms he penned tell us he has not really gotten off scott-free.  Only Bathsheba, the servants who David sent to gather her, and Joab, his general, know of his treachery, and they are not talking!  They know he could have them arrested and executed.  Nevertheless, King David feels wretched.  Several of the psalms he wrote, including today’s psalm, Psalm 51, tell of his great, private shame, remorse, and misery: (v.4) For I know my transgressions, and my sin in always before me.  In Psalm 31:10, he wrote—My life is consumed by anguish and my years by groaning; my strength fails because of my affliction, and my bones grow weak.  Similarly in Psalm 32:3–When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.  We would say the Holy Spirit has brought him under conviction and he is suffering the resulting emotional anguish.

The only One who knows–besides those who refuse to talk—is the Lord. Notice that God does not abandon King David to his sin. Instead, He sends the brave prophet, Nathan, to call him to account. Nathan tells David a story about a poor man taken advantage of by a rich man. David, thinking this is a report about someone in his kingdom, is outraged! He wants the rich man brought to justice! So Nathan confronts him (v.7)—You are the man! The story was only a metaphor. Nathan conveys God’s disappointment in David. God had given him so much. The Lord has in fact “blessed his socks off!” But David’s sinful actions convey to God that he lacks gratitude to and has contempt for the Lord. (What a novel way to consider sin: Our sins show our contempt for God. YIKES!)

    David has 3 choices in the way he could respond:

        1.) He could deny his sin altogether—as they do in DC today;

        2.) He could have Nathan executed—as any despot would;

        3.) Or he could admit the truth.

This is how King David is a man after God’s own heart:  He admits his sin, he repents, and he asks God to forgive and restore him.

    Remember, this is a saga from the Old Testament.  It predates the saving work of Jesus Christ.  God graciously forgives David and Bathsheba, but He does not prevent the grave consequences of David’s sin from affecting him.  Notice the boomerang effect of the Law of Sowing and Reaping:

        1.) The child born to Bathsheba, a firstborn son, dies after birth (his death for a death?).

        2.) Later, one of David’s other sons, Amnon, covets and rapes his beautiful step-sister, Tamar (a sexual sin—rape–for a sexual sin–adultery). 

        3.) Absalom, Tamar’s full brother, kills Amnon in revenge (another death for a death).

        4.) Still later, Absalom will try to wrest the throne from David (lawlessness and rebellion against David for lawlessness and rebellion against God).

As God proclaims through the prophet Nathan, (v.16)—Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised Me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own. 

Psalm 51, is David’s great plea to be made right with God again, and is such a great model for us to follow when we sin. First, he makes it very clear that he regrets what he has done. Second, he admits that he knows what God requires of him. Third, he states his conviction, his faith, that God can forgive and renew him: Verse 7–Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Verse 10–Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Verse 17–The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.

    David begs for God’s forgiveness and God grants it.

    What would our Lord want us to learn from these passages? We too can get at cross-purposes with God when we come to Him always and only to meet our physical or emotional needs.  First and foremost, He is concerned with our spiritual life.  He wants to save us.  He wants our trust, our love, and our obedience.

God’s greatest concern is that we draw close to Him. When we sin and cut ourselves off from Him, what are we to do? Like King David, we want to confess our sins to God. Like King David, we want to ask for God’s forgiveness. Thanks be to God that we don’t have to worry about who’s on first. Jesus Christ, our outstanding Coach, has all the bases covered.

©️2021 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams

Posted on by Cheryl Norman

God’s Math

Pastor Sherry’s message for 7/25/2021

Scriptures: 2 Sam 11:1-15; Ps 14; Eph 3:14-21; Jn 6:1-21

Last week, I shared about the ministry of Mother Theresa, one of my “Heroes of the Faith.” This week, I want to mention another: Heidi Baker. She and her husband, Rolland, are both Pentecostal pastors with Ph.D.’s in Theology from the London School of Theology. They are also missionaries with a heart for orphans and the poor. While praying one day, God had told Heidi that He was “giving them Mozambique”–which was, at the time, one of the poorest nations in the world. Heidi and Rolland have been living and serving in Mozambique, Africa, since 1995. She and Rolland house, feed, and educate orphan children. She has become a noted speaker and “the public face” of their ministry. Her method in Mozambique has been to train up children to pray for others. She teaches them to pray: They pray for the deaf to hear, and they do. They pray for the blind to see, and they do. They pray for the paralyzed to walk, and they do. She claims that God has raised over 100 people from the dead, through the prayers of her various prayer teams.

In this destitute country, God has worked thru her and her husband to establish schools; provide medical clinics; distribute food; drill wells; and provide physically and spiritually for over 3,000 orphans. The Bakers have raised up many indigenous pastors and have planted somewhere in the neighborhood of 10,000 Christian congregations in mozambique!

One of my favorite stories from her ministry is about a “multiplication miracle.” A woman from Texas was visiting with the Bakers and offered to fix them dinner. She prepared a wonderful meal for 5, Heidi, Rolland, their two children, and herself. When she called the Bakers in to eat, Heidi expressed initial dismay at the small quantity as they always fed their 250 orphans whenever they ate. Heidi immediately suggested they pray for more food, then she told the woman to keep ladling out food from the pots as the plates kept coming. The woman was amazed to discover the pots never emptied. The Lord had multiplied her dinner until all the children and adults present received food. (See her book, Compelled by Love, to read about this story and others.) Wouldn’t it have strengthened your faith to have witnessed that?

Our Gospel for today focuses one of Jesus’ multiplication miracles, the feeding of the 5,000 from John 6:1-21 (also recounted in the other three gospels). John tells us (v.4) the Passover Feast was near. Jesus is not in Jerusalem; rather, He is preaching and teaching in Galilee. As I shared last week, a huge crowd had followed Him. In His compassion, He knows they are hungry. Perhaps recalling the Exodus and Numbers about the daily manna from heaven, as well as Elijah’s encounter with the Widow of Zarephath (1 Kings 17:7-24), Jesus tests the disciples, asking them where they might find bread (and meat) for the crowd to eat. A correct answer would have been, “Lord, you know,” or “Lord, You are able to provide. But instead of thinking of heavenly possibilities, they focus on the earthly realities. Philip and Andrew seem set on problem-solving. They assert in verse 7 that the group lacks the money to buy enough; but they also point out in verse 8 that they have inventoried the current supply and found some small provisions—5 hamburger-sized loaves and 2 small, dried fish–insufficient for the numbers of folks present

Rev. Dr. J. Vernon McGee (p.99 of his commentary on John) says the 12 desired to become Jesus’ Board of Directors, and thus formed a committee to look into the problem. McGee and others have defined a church committee as “a group of people who individually can do nothing, but collectively they decide nothing can be done” (Not my experience at WUMC). He also claims a church committee is “a group of people who take down minutes and waste hours.” Sure enough, the committee report is that feeding 5,000 men (approximately 15,000, if we conservatively add in 1 woman and 1 child per each male) is impossible. They recommend to Jesus that He send them home. They have resolved the issue without considering God’s math—the mathematics of a miracle.

Jesus resolves the problem in a way reminiscent of the Old and New Testament multiplication miracles: He provides for them abundantly, passing out more than enough bread and fish to go around. Just like at the wedding in Cana, where He turned 6 large jars of water into 100 gallons of the finest wine. Just like with the manna and quail in the desert, plenty for 1-2 million people, every day for 40 years! Just like with Elijah and the widow, enough oil and flour to make bread until the famine ended.

Jesus turns His wanna-be Board of Directors into a wait-staff. He has them distribute fish sandwiches to groups seated on the grounds. Then, in a wonderful display of God’s abundant provision, He has them pick up the left overs. Now we must bear in mind that these folks were not usually well-fed.

Given free food, you can imagine that they would have eaten their fill. Instead of gathering up bites left on their plates, they collected 12 baskets full of what were probably whole sandwiches. Again, as J. Vernon McGee says, “I tell you, if you have the 5 loaves plus the 2 fish plus Jesus, then you’ve got something, Friend. Without Him, you don’t have anything at all.”

Our God is a God of abundance. He desires to bless us, extravagantly.

Before we get carried away, however, let’s remember there are limits to God’s efforts to bless. These limits often arise from our own sin and our rejection of Him. This is the point, I think, of our Old Testament lesson today from 2 Samuel 11:1-15. Up to this point in 2nd Samuel, we have encountered David’s triumphs:

1.) Anointed King as a successor to Saul;

2.) Killing the giant, Goliath, in battle;

3.) Successfully eluding Saul’s jealous and zealous pursuit of him;

4.) Finally uniting all 12 tribes under his leadership;

5.) Subduing the enemies of Israel; and

6.) Bringing the Ark to Jerusalem, his capital.

Now we see him plunge into trouble, the first act of a cascade of subsequent heartbreaks.

In what may have been a midlife crisis, David does not go off to battle against his lone unsubdued enemy, the Ammonites. He sends the army ahead without him. At home in his palace, he appears to be restless and bored. Rather than take his troubles to God, or ask what he might do to better his people, he takes a walk at night on his rooftop. From this height, he sees the lovely, we-presume-naked-Bathsheba, bathing on her rooftop. Rooftops were cool at night; perhaps she was trying to escape the heat. Where were her privacy screens? Now David has several other wives at this point (he is approximately 40YO), but he sees her and lusts after her.

Do you notice the connection between wealth, power, and boredom here? It has been my observation that the evil one uses this toxic combination to lead many into sexual sin. Look at the fall of Rome. Consider Jeffrey Epstein’s “Lolita Express” in which rich, powerful men—like Bill Clinton and Prince Andrew, and unnamed others–flew to an isolated Caribbean island to engage in illicit sexual activities with under-aged girls. The king summons Bathsheba to his palace and begins an affair with her. He is married, several times over. And so is she. Her husband is Uriah, a Hittite believer and one of David’s “Mighty Men” (body guards). Scholars also believe she was the daughter of another of his Mighty Men, Eliam. The couple’s actions thus hurt a number of people and seriously offend God. In one night, given moods of boredom and dissatisfaction, David sins colossally. He breaks the 6th, 7th, 9th and 10th commandments.

He also misuses his God-given powers as king. He sent for Bathsheba. Was she a willing participant? Possibly, but we don’t know for sure. She becomes pregnant. Scripture is clear (v.4) that she was not impregnated by her husband, as her monthly cycle had just ended. Now David feels forced to mount a sophisticated cover-up.

Notice that God includes David’s (and Bathsheba’s) moral failure in Scripture. God neither denies it, excuses it, nor pretties it up. God desires to use it as instruction for us. As our Psalm (14) says, Only a fool believes there is no God. David authored this psalm. He knows that God is omniscient, all seeing, all knowing. But like so many of us when we embark on sin, he isn’t thinking of God’s response. Nevertheless, God sees and knows and holds David accountable.

Because we are in Christ, as Paul asserts in Ephesians 3:14-21, we are covered by His righteousness. This is great, good news! Unlike with King David, the penalty for our sins has been taken on for us by Jesus. The penalty for both David and Bathsheba was death. Because we believe in Jesus, however, we are spared. What we may not be able to dodge, though, is the Law of Sowing and Reaping. We reap what we sow. We are subject to the ripple-effect of our sins. I could be wrong, but, as I see it, the consequences of our sins often boomerang back upon us. As the culture puts it, “What goes around comes around.” We steal from someone, someone then later steals from us. We betray someone, someone later betrays us, etc. We might say that sin ripples are often a form of subtraction.

This week, let’s focus our attention on God’s multiplication. As with Mother Theresa and with Heidi and Rolland Baker, God wants to bless us. Let’s try not to fall into sin, but if we do, let’s be quick to repent and ask God’s forgiveness. We want to experience God’s blessings, not the adverse consequences of our poor choices. Let’s ask God the Holy Spirit to help us and let’s remember, as St. Paul says in Ephesians 3:20, our God…is able to do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine….

©️2021 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams

Posted on by Cheryl Norman

God’s Faithfulness and Compassion

Pastor Sherry’s message for July 18,2021

Scriptures: 2 Sam 7:1-17; Ps 89:20-37; Eph 2:1-13; Mk 6:30-34, 53-36

    One of my heroes of the faith is Mother Theresa.  She was a humble Catholic nun, an Albanian, who went to minister in Calcutta (Kolkata), India, in 1929 at the age of 19.  She taught school there for 17 years, until she had an encounter with Christ, in 1946, in which He called her to minister His love, His compassion, to the poor.  She began, by herself, to meet the physical needs of sick and dying children left on the streets. The Hindu faith ascribes to the notion of karma or fate.  So if you are left to die in the streets, that is your karma and no one is to intervene.  But Mother Theresa knew that Jesus would have us treat others—love others–as we do ourselves and not leave the sick and dying to cope on their own.  Her “hospice” ministry quickly expanded to sick and dying adults, as well.  As other women joined with her, she formed a new order of nuns, the Missionaries of Charity. By the time she died in 1997, she had gathered 4,000 nuns into her order; established hospice and healing centers in 90 different countries; and she had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (1979).  The Roman Catholic Church elevated her to sainthood in 2006.

    Senator Mark Hatfield tells of touring Calcutta with Mother Teresa and visiting her “House of Dying.”  There he saw dozens of sick children being cared for in their last days, and witnessed the poor line up by the hundreds, daily, to receive medical attention from her dispensary.  Watching her feed and nurse people left by others to die, Hatfield was overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of the suffering she and her co-workers faced daily. “How can you bear the load without being crushed by it?” he asked.  Mother Teresa replied, “My dear Senator, I am not called to be successful, I am called to be faithful.”  As this story illustrates, Mother Theresa is best known for her compassion for “the least of these,”and her faithfulness to God.

    These are the twin themes of our Scriptures today:

    A.  2 Samuel 7:1-17 tells of the time, about 1,000BC, when King David decided to demonstrate His devotion to God by building Him a house (a Temple).  He revealed his plan to the prophet, Nathan, who agreed wholeheartedly.  But, as Nathan was taking his leave from the king, God grabs ahold of him and says, Go back!  Tell David I said “no.”  Furthermore, God adds, whoever said I needed a house?  For years, God had met with His people in a tent!  An advantage of a tent is that it’s mobile.  It demonstrated that God is not confined to one geographic area, as were the false gods and idols known to the people surrounding Israel.  So, God is essentially saying, While I appreciate the thought, I choose not be contained by humankind.  Afterall, He’d appeared to the Children of Israel in a cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night as they traveled the Wilderness.  It was He who had told them to create the “Tent of Meeting,” in which He was present to them, but never confined.  This remained the case until God allows David’s son, Solomon, to build Him a Temple.  It also remained true until the Apostle John writes, in John 1:14, that–at the Advent of Jesus–The Word became flesh and dwelt (in the Greek, the word means tented; pitched His tent) among us —a tent of flesh!

God denied the gesture but Honored David’s love and devotion. He gives David more than he could have asked for or imagined. First, He calls David “His Servant.” This is a Biblical term of endearment which implies a special relationship with God. It is used only with regard to some patriarchs, several prophets, the nation of Israel, and Jesus. He says to Nathan, Tell David I will build him a house (a dynasty). David already has a luxurious palace. In the Hebrew, the word House (bayith) has 3 separate meanings: (1) It can mean David’s palace (verses 1-2); (2) Yahweh’s Temple (verses 5-7, 13); or, (3.)David’s dynasty (verses 11, 16, 18, 19, 25, 27, and twice in 29). This is the only royal house or dynasty that the Lord would ever sanction in perpetuity.

    Next, God sets out the terms of His Covenant with David, promising:

    1.) I will make your name great (famous/renown)

    2.) I will provide a place for My people (the present nation of Israel is a partial fulfillment of this; the ultimate fulfillment awaits the end of times);

    3.) I will give you rest from your enemies;

    4.) I will raise up offspring to succeed you (he did go on to have a number of sons);

    5.) I will establish the throne of your kingdom forever.  No one will usurp this throne.  The dynasty may fade—which it does–but it will not disappear completely.

    6.) I will be his Father/He will be My son.  This was true of David’s son, Solomon and later, of Jesus.

    7.) I will discipline Him….  David’s wicked descendants are later taken out by the Assyrians or the Babylonians.  When the sin of us all was laid upon Jesus, He is flogged and crucified.

    8.) But I will always love him!

    9.) Your throne will be established forever. The gospeler, Dr. Luke, tells us in Luke 1:32 that Gabriel told Mary, He [Jesus] shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God shall give Him the throne of his father David.

    Needless to say, 2 Samuel 7 is a very important passage in the Old Testament.  It presents the Messianic Hope! Our God is a faithful, promise-keeping God.  He predicted that Messiah would arise from the tribe of Judah, David’s tribe, back in Genesis 49:10.  This theme of “Messianic Hope” is reiterated 4 times in Isaiah, 3 times in Jeremiah, 2 times in Ezekiel, several times in Daniel, and once each in Hosea, Amos, and Zechariah.  Jesus arrives in the New Testament and embodies and fulfills this promise.

    B.  Psalm 89:20-37 is what is called a maschil, an instructive psalm.  The portion appointed for today reviews and commends the Covenant that God made with David (as per our O.T. lesson).  King David will have a son (descendant) who will sit on the throne of the Universe! Verses 34-37 contain God’s promise or oath to King David.  In other words, Messiah (Jesus) will be a descendant of his.  The entire psalm declares God’s faithfulness to His covenant promises 10 times.

    C. Our Gospel lesson, Mark 6:30-34, 53-57, emphasizes Jesus’ love and compassion.  The point at which we find Him today, both He and His disciples are tired.  The disciples have just returned from having been sent out to teach, heal, and cast out demons.  They are euphoric.  But we all know that euphoria is often followed by exhaustion and a need for sleep. Immediately after being reunited, Jesus however is confronted with crowds of people seeking Him out.  So He takes the time to teach and feed 5,000 (probably closer to 15,000, counting women and children).  He and the disciples try again to have a respite, a mini-break, a time-out.  They even escape to sea and attempt to sail away from the crowds.  But the people run around the lake, searching Him out in the seaside towns until they locate Him.  

    We might say that Jesus was at the “Height of His fame.”  Mobs of folks were desperate to find Him in order to be inspired and comforted by His teaching; to experience His healing; and to encounter His love.  Verse 34 tells us…He had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd.  God is love, even when He is tired.

    D. Finally, in our NT lesson, Ephesians 2:1-13, Paul declares some of the benefits to us of our God’s faithfulness and compassion:

Verses 4-5–But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ, even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace that you are saved.  God sent Jesus to earth to pay the penalty for our sins.  He saved us from the penalty—death—through Jesus’ substituting of Himself on the Cross for us.  The Father so loved us that He created and executed the plan to save our spiritual lives.  He saved us because we could not save ourselves.

    He also (verse 6) …raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms with Christ Jesus….Because we are in Christ (we have affirmed our faith in Him), we are heirs of heaven.

Our afterlife is assured!  Verse 7 goes on to tell us that these two great gifts are not due to us but entirely to God.  God has demonstrated His faithfulness to His promises to King David as well as His love and compassion for us.

    Now how are we to respond to God’s faithfulness and His compassion?  Mother Theresa once said, “Not all of us can do great things.  But we can do small things with great love.”  Most of us are not called to be a Mother Theresa.  However, we can each think of some small things we can do for others to demonstrate God’s love.  We can send a card, make a phone call, or take a meal to someone who is ill or to their family as they care for the sick one.  We can mail a card, place a call, or prepare a meal to take to those who are grieving.  Friday, a total stranger paid for my coffee at a hospital coffee shop.  I was visiting one of our parishioners and the barista could not make change for my twenty.  The guy next to me presented his credit card, saying when I thanked him, “Pay it forward.”  We can do kind things like that to pay God’s love forward.

    We can also be aware of God’s great faithfulness to us daily.  We can and should express our thanks and gratitude to Him everyday.  He never leaves or forsakes us.  While people may abandon us, God never does!  We can tell others about how He has been there for us.  This week and always, let us aspire to be known by our compassion and our faithfulness to our faithful and compassionate God. 

©️2021 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams