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

Posted on by Cheryl Norman

Keep it Humble, Honey!

Pastor Sherry’s message for July 4, 2021

Scriptures: 2 Sam 5:1-10; Ps 48; 2 Cor 12:2-10; Mk 6:1-13

    I came across a number of stories this week in which folks turned defeat into victory:

    1.) Originally, Will Rogers’ stage specialty was rope tricks. As his luck would have it, in the middle of his act one day, he got tangled up in his lariat. Instead of getting upset, however, he drawled, “A rope ain’t so bad to get tangled up in if it ain’t around your neck.” The audience roared. Encouraged by this, Rogers began to add humorous comments to all his performances.  It was his jokes rather than his rope tricks that eventually made him famous.

    2.) Some years back, a guy named Jim Burke was promoted to head up a new products division at Johnson & Johnson.  One of his first assignments was to develop a children’s chest rub (perhaps a forerunner of Vick’s Vapo-rub).  His prototype, however, did not live up to expectations and Burke anticipated that he would be fired. When he was called in to see the CEO, though, he was very surprised by his reception. “Are you the one who just cost us all that money?” asked Robert Wood Johnson. “Well I just want to congratulate you. If you are making mistakes, that means you are taking risks, and we won’t grow unless you take risks.”  Some years later, when Burke himself became the chairman of J&J, he continued to operate by that philosophy.

    3.) After the horrible carnage and the Confederate retreat at Gettysburg, General Robert E. Lee wrote the following report to Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy: “We must expect reverses, even defeats. They are sent to teach us wisdom and prudence, to call forth greater energies, and to prevent our falling into greater disasters.”

    When we are experiencing a failure of some sort, we tend to look only at the immediate fall-out.  Our instantaneous responses are probably grief or anger.  We may blame others or our circumstances.  We may be embarrassed or feel like a failure.  I know that I felt like a failure during and just after my divorce.  I thought to myself, “Obviously I don’t know how to make a marriage work.”  I felt defeated and embarrassed.  But as I have come to know God better, I think that He—like the persons in the 3 examples I just provided–invites us to view defeat or failure in another light.

Let’s see how the individuals in the Scripture passages appointed for today respond to frustration, and what God appears to be teaching them and us through our disappointments.

    The context of 1 Samuel 5:1-10 is that David, anointed king by the prophet Samuel back when he was a teenager, had been chased down for years by a jealous and paranoid King Saul.  By the time of our passage, Saul has finally died, so the logical assumption would be that David would now reign.  He does, but over his tribe of Judah only (1 of 12 tribes of Israel).  He has settled Hebron, south of Bethlehem, as his headquarters.  Up to the north of Jerusalem, an important general loyal to Saul, Abner, puts Saul’s only surviving son, Ish-Bosheth on the throne of the 11 remaining tribes.  Thus ensures civil war for 7 years!

    Finally, in the 7th year, David’s cousin, Joab (acting on his own as a loose cannon), ambushes and kills Abner.  Then two of Abner’s underlings, Rechab & Baanah, take it upon themselves to murder Ish-Bosheth in his sleep (a vicious and cowardly act).  Like the goofball who claimed to have killed Saul, these two bring Ish-Bosheth’s head to King David, expecting him to reward them for ambushing Saul’s last son and roadblock to a unified Israel.  Instead, David is outraged by their crime and has them executed.

    By this point, the other 11 tribes realize it is foolish to continue to resist David’s kingship.  (Did anyone think 7 years earlier to check in with the Lord to see what He wanted?  No.)  A delegation from the eleven tribes approach David, waving a white flag of peace.  They remind him that they are his extended family, a fact they could have remembered earlier.  David accepts their allegiance and  becomes, finally, the King of Israel.  He is 30YO when this takes place.  His first act as king is to move his capital from Hebron to Jerusalem.  The arrogant Jebusites, the clan with control over the city, taunted him saying he would never breach their defenses. They underestimated him and they underestimated God.  David sent his troops up their water supply, an underground cistern, surprised them, and took over the city.

    What are we to learn from this?  David was anointed the new king, in place of Saul, when he was about 15-16YO, a teen.  But he has had to wait on the Lord’s timing (15 years) to take the throne.  Many times, he seemed defeated, but he persisted, in faith, and relied upon the Lord.  During his wait, he also gained experience in leadership, military skill, popularity with the people (because he was a winner), and he clearly knew his kingship was granted to him by God–not due to his own efforts.  You see, David had developed humility.

    In 2 Corinthians 12:2-10, we see Paul come to a similar understanding.  Paul reveals, indirectly, that he had been taken up into heaven.  He calls it “the third heaven.”  The first heaven is our sky, the environment of clouds, birds, bugs, and apparently UFO’s.  The second heaven is outer space.  The third heaven is God’s dwelling place.  I find it interesting that folks say our spacecraft have never encountered heaven during their pioneering ventures into the second heaven.  My response is that they didn’t find it because they weren’t invited in!  Do we really think human beings can storm the third heaven?

    Only three persons in Scripture have ever returned to earth from the 3rd heaven:  Jesus, the Apostle John, and later, the Apostle Paul.  Both John and Paul had been “beamed up” into God’s throne room.  John was told to write what he saw, which he did in the Book of Revelation.  Paul, however, had been told not to relate what he saw there.  But imagine what seeing heaven would do for your faith.  No wonder Paul was such a long suffering and highly motivated zealot!

    So, Paul writes, in verses 7-9 (according to Eugene Petersen’s modern paraphrase, The message ) Because of the extravagance of these revelations [what he learned from seeing heaven], and so that I wouldn’t get a big head, I was given the gift of a handicap to keep me in constant touch with my limitations.  Santa’s messenger did his best to get me down; what he in fact did was push me to my knees.  No danger then of walking around high and mighty! At first I didn’t think of it as a gift, and begged God to remove it.  Three times I did that, and then He told me, My grace is enough; it’s all you need.  My strength comes into its own in your weakness.  In other words, Paul realizes that God is using the “thorn in his side” to keep him humble.  God has answered his prayer with a “NO!” and yet Paul comes to view his “thorn” as a gift!  He sees setbacks and disappointments as a way God uses to keep him dependent on Christ.  Truly, the weaker he gets—or we get—the stronger he and we become in Jesus.  Wow, If only we could each learn the same thing!  Sometimes I have it, then I forget it for a time.  Perhaps you do too.  Paul’s attitude reminds me of the a college football coach who once said regarding how to deal with failures: “When you’re about to be run out of town, get out in front and make it look like you’re heading a parade.”

    Last, but certainly not least, let’s look at Jesus’ example in today’s Gospel, Mark 6:1-13:  In what is apparently a 2nd trip back home to Nazareth, Jesus is again rejected.  The 1st time, recounted in Luke 4:14-30, He read from Isaiah 61, His job description prophesied some 700+ years before His birth. His former neighbors and friends spoke well of Him until He chastised them for their lack of faith. Then theytried to throw Him off a cliff, but He miraculously escaped.

    This time, they were again amazed at His teaching, until they reminded themselves that He was a hometown boy.  Apparently they didn’t believe the Messiah could come from their town—in a way, they thought so little of themselves, that they could not afford Him the benefit of the doubt.  They did not believe.  Look at the results of their unbelief:  The Great High God of the Universe could only heal a few sick people and could do no miracles there.  He would not override their free will.  In effect, their unbelief handcuffed His power to heal them.

    Now critics would and did say that Jesus was a failure in Nazareth.   And I am sure that Jesus was saddened that folks He’d grown up with and did business with would consider Him a fraud.  But what do you think God the Father was teaching Him–and us–through this?

Jesus says, (v.4) Only in his hometown, among his relatives and in his own house, is a prophet without honor. He recognized that it is difficult to change people’s perceptions once they’ve formed an idea of who a person is. He also realized He would not succeed with everyone. Sadly for us, our unbelief, our lack of faith, also limits what Jesus and the Holy Spirit can do in our lives. And for those of us trying to lead others to Christ, it means that if Jesus Himself did not succeed with everyone, why would we expect to either? We know that not everyone we share with about Jesus is going to come to faith. Nevertheless, our failures teach us wisdom, patience, endurance, faith, and strengthen our character.

This week, let’s remember that both Will Rogers and the Johnson and Johnson exec learned that growth and success arise out of making mistakes. As Robert E. Lee said, our mistakes also teach us humility, patience, and caution. God knows all of this and redeems our defeats so that we learn to lean on His strength, and to keep it humble, Honey!

©️2021 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams

Posted on by Cheryl Norman

Respect and Grace, Not Revenge.

Pastor Sherry’s message for June 27, 2021

Scriptures: 2 Samuel 1:1-27; Psalm 130

We live in a time when we are encouraged to get our revenge on our enemies, political or otherwise. Recently I heard a news commentator, Trey Gowdy, do a monologue on why he prefers sports to politics. (Gowdy used to be a US representative from South Carolina, but did not run for re-election due to his disgust over the corruption he encountered while serving in D.C.) He compared our national situation to a choice between golf, baseball, and professional wrestling: He said that in golf, players call penalties on themselves (The best golfers own their mistakes. No one respects the ones who lie or cheat.). In baseball, all agree to abide by the rulings of an umpire, and we all hope the umpire is fair to both sides. But in professional wrestling, there are no rules; no fairness; the end justifies the means (do whatever it takes to win); the outcome is fixed; and it is less a sport than entertainment.

Gowdy strongly implied that our national government is currently run more like professional wrestling than we might think or want. Political wrongdoers lack the integrity to hold themselves accountable or to admit and apologize for their wrongs. There is no national umpire/referee to enforce the rules fairly. And one’s political ends clearly appear to justify the means.

Nevertheless, Gowdy went on to opine that he has hope for America, due to how we tend to behave in sports:

1.) He reported having seen a woman in pro-golf recently pull for her opponent to sink a crucial putt.

2.) He related how another woman golfer–who had led the tournament only to lose at the end–did not blame others, the course, or her circumstances, but graciously thanked the fans for lifting her spirits.

3.) He shared how the Alabama softball team’s coach responded at the college world series. They interviewed him as his team was losing (This seems like kicking a guy when he is down, but reporters do this all the time). Rather than display anger or a vengeful attitude, the coach praised 2 other coach-peers who were retiring after the series.

The commentator hopes we will, as a nation, respond more like the sportswomen and the coach he referenced and less like politicians who do not congratulate or pull for their opponents; who only appreciate their followers but castigate those who disagree with them; and who blame anyone else for their defeat and desire revenge against their opponents.

A similar story is told about General Robert E. Lee, from about 150 years ago now. It appears that General William Whiting, a confederate peer, loudly and critically criticized Lee behind his back. You might think that Lee would wait for an opportunity to seek revenge upon the man. In fact, an opportunity presented itself one day when President Jefferson Davis summoned Gen. Lee to meet with him. The President asked Lee what he thought of Gen. Whiting. Without hesitation, Lee commended Whiting with high praise for his military abilities. Another officer who was present at the meeting called Lee aside to suggest that he must not be aware of the unkind things Whiting had been saying about him. Lee answered: “I understood that the President desired to know my opinion of Whiting, not Whiting’s opinion of me.” General Robert E. Lee was a man of integrity and a true gentleman—and a personal hero of mine. Lee could have potentially cost Gen. Whiting his career, but chose to take the higher road, instead.

Our Old Testament lesson today (2 Samuel 1:1-27) speaks to how our God wants us to take the higher road as well. The context finds Saul, his sons, and the Israelite army at war once again with the Philistines (about 14-15 years after David had defeated the Philistine champion, Goliath). David, not yet king and trying to maintain some distance from the murderous Saul, has been fighting the Amalakites.

As our passage opens, David has defeated his Amalakite opponents and returned to Ziklag, a town now unknown but reputedly somewhere south of Jerusalem.

It was there that he learned that Saul and Jonathan had been killed at Mt. Gilboa, in southern Galilee (to the north of David). Jonathan, as well as his two brothers, Abinadab, and Malk-Shana, was killed in battle. Saul himself had been seriously wounded but chose to fall on his own sword (to commit suicide) rather than being taken captive by the victorious Philistines.

David is severely grieved at the death of his dear friend Jonathan, but also very distressed at King Saul’s death. He had had 2 opportunities to kill Saul himself but had held off because he knew Saul was “the Lord’s anointed”. 1 Samuel 24:6 The LORD forbid that I should do this thing [kill Saul], to the LORD’s anointed, to put out my hand against him, seeing he is the LORD’s anointed. The Lord had agreed to Saul’s kingship. The people chose him and God had the prophet Samuel anoint him king. David reasoned the Lord would remove kingship from Saul when He, not David, determined. Notice: David waited on the Lord, the theme of our psalm today, Psalm 130.

Saul’s death was a big deal—he was the 1st King of Israel. We might equate his death with another: Back in March of 1991, one of the oldest and largest Redwoods in California died and fell to the ground. Locals called thetree “the Dyerville Giant,” and apparently it still lies where it landed. The tree had been 362 feet tall (the height of a 30-story building). They measured its diameter at 17 feet and its circumference at 52 feet. Experts somehow estimated its weight to exceed one million pounds and believe it was probably 2,000 years old. (My daughter has a degree in forestry and has told me that trees do have a life span. Like us, they grow old and die—no matter how well we water or fertilize them–just as this amazing redwood did.) When the Dyerville Giant hit the ground, people from a mile away said thought they had heard a train wreck. The vibrations were felt 10 miles away, and no doubt some thought they had experienced an earthquake. The death of this tree had a huge physiological impact on many. Additionally, people were touched and saddened at the demise of something so monumental.

But, sadly, in our contemporary view of things, there is no such respect—like for Saul or even for this tree–for those in authority with whom we disagree. We speak badly about them. We dismiss them or hold them in contempt when they fail to meet our expectations, or disappoint our hopes. And, in the extremes of “the cancel culture,” we target them for revenge, even when they are out of power, blasting them and castigating them in the press and on social media; trying to prevent them from getting new jobs, eating lunch peacefully, or just going about their lives; intimidating them with nuisance lawsuits and even threatening their lives.

Notice how David responds to the Amalekite man who brings him Saul’s crown and bracelet. (Obviously this guy does not realize that David has just been battling his own people.) Not understanding David’s godly forbearance for Saul, the guy mistakenly thinks David will reward him for falsely claiming he killed the king. Instead, David has the fellow killed, saying, (v.15)à Your blood be on your own head. Your own mouth testified against you when you said, “I killed the Lord’s anointed.”

Then, David writes a lament which he intends for all the archers in Israel to memorize and recite as they each work on their bows. He expresses his grief:

1.) He curses Mt. Gilboa for being the site of Johnathan’s and Saul’s deaths. I looked this mountain up on the internet and saw where it is to this day only barren rocks and soil. Nothing seems to grow on it, over 3,000 years later.

2.) He praises Saul for the good he did, especially for bringing such prosperity to Israel that women could dress in red cloth (expensive due to dying techniques of that day).

3.) And he mourns for his close friend, Johnathan, who had proven more devoted to him (not in a homosexual way) than had most of his wives—including Johnathan’s sister, Michal, who Saul had given to him in marriage as a reward for killing Goliath.

4.) He seasons the lament with the repeated refrain, How the mighty have fallen! (which reminds me of the tree!)

I must admit, I am not always very respectful of those in power who make what I consider bone-headed decisions for our country, nor am I often kind to sports opponents. I wonder if the Lord is chastening me to be more respectful and grace-filled toward those with whom I disagree. I do believe that we are all called by Christ to offer grace and to respect the rights of those we consider our opponents. That’s part of the Gospel message, isn’t it? We are to love our enemies and pray for them. As Paul says in Romans 12:19-20àDo not take revenge, my Friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge. I will repay,” says the Lord. On the contrary, “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”

While our culture may currently resemble professional wrestling, this is not God’s desire for us. This week, let’s try to be like a good golfer and admit our faults and correct our failings on our own. Let’s also remember we do have an eternal, heavenly, perfect umpire/referee who enforces the rules fairly; offers grace and forgiveness to us all; and who doesn’t miss a thing!

In closing, I would ask you to consider the former custom of a prehistoric tribe in New Guinea. When they prepared to confront an enemy tribe in battle, they would preface their attack with what they called “murder songs.” As they sang these songs, they named before their gods the specificpersons they wished to kill. However, once they converted to Christianity, instead of shouting the names any people they hated, they shouted the names of the sins they hated, and called on God to destroy these sins. We could take a lesson from these Paleolithic tribesmen! Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ! Alleluia! Alleluia!

©️2021 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams

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Posted on by Cheryl Norman

Faith Like A Mustard Seed

Pastor Sherry’s message for June 13, 2021

Scriptures: Mark 4: 26–32

In 2010, 8 of us from Servants of Christ Anglican Church, in Gainesville, Florida, went on a mission trip to Turkey.  There we worked with a missionary who ministered to Iranian refugees.  Through the missionary/interpreter, I was able to interview a 24 year old man who had recently been baptized.  His name was Navid.  I wanted to know how he had come to faith in Christ.  Now bear in mind that the missionary and his wife had studied Turkish for 1 year, then Farsi—the language of Iranians—for 3.  He would present my question to Navid in Farsi, then share Navid’s answerwith me in American.  It was a time-consuming but very elucidating conversation.  

Navid shared that his father had been an Islamic cleric who was desperate for him to become a pious Muslim. His father went so far as to offer to set him up in his own business—a shoe manufacturing concern—if he would just agree to worship Allah. But, like many young people from Iran at that time, he associated the poverty and rigid governmental controls with his father’s religion, and wanted no part of it. We learned that young Iranians were opting to dive into the drug culture, obtaining high quality drugs from over the border in Afghanistan, or were finding their way to Jesus and other faiths. Navid admitted a peer had approached him to consider Jesus, but he was not interested in any form of religion. That very night, as he slept, he had a dream in which Jesus appeared to him. Jesus told him three times, “I want you to reconsider.” I asked, “How did you know it was Jesus?” He answered, “You just know.”

​Somehow Navid obtained a copy of the New Testament and began attending the only authorized Christian Church in Tehran.  He read the Gospel of Matthew to the end and wanted to be baptized.  The church pastor told him he could not baptize him or they would both be killed.  Soon thereafter, the authorities did find him exiting the church and beat him severely.  He waited 3 days until he was feeling good enough to move and fled the country with his wife, Camilla.  She was so precious.  I asked the missionary to ask her what made her come to Christ.  She too had not been very interested in Christianity until she saw how knowing Jesus Christ had changed her husband.

I tell you this story to illustrate that the Kingdom of God—which is God’s rule over not just us on earth but over the universe—moves forward one person at a time. Sometimes it moves quickly, as with the 3,000 on the day of Pentecost. But I find it usually is a slow work, requiring patience, time to develop relationships, and lots of prayer. Let’s see what our Gospel lesson has to say about the gradual but compelling way in which God’s Kingdom advances.

Mark 4:26-32 contains two parables involving seeds:

​The first, peculiar only to the Gospel of Mark, involves scattering seed on the ground.  No matter what the farmer does, waking or sleeping, the seed “does its thing.”  The man may apply some fertilizer or water, but God superintends the growth!  The seed takes root, then sends up a shoot which erupts through the earth.  This little seedling becomes a stalk, which continues to grow, and then it “bears fruit” or ripens.  The farmer or the planter harvests what God has caused to grow.

​Notice the role of the person.  He or she broadcasts the seed, but he/she cannot really control the growth.  In God’s Kingdom, that part is left up to God.  As St. Paul later writes in 1 Corinthians 3:6, I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow.  This is the same point made again.  We do our part, but real growth only comes from the Lord.

​As a pastor, I consider myself a “water-er,” an irrigation system if you will.  Probably someone before me has introduced you to Jesus.  They spread or planted the seed.  I have then come along to explain God’s Word to you.  I can also demonstrate my faith by the way I live my life and by my personal testimony as to how loving God has changed my life for the good.  This is the kind of irrigation or watering of the Word that I do.  But neither the one who sowed Christ into your life, nor me as the “water-er,” can really control your growth as a believer.  I can’t make you love Jesus.  I can’t force you to read the Bible or to pray daily.  I can’t compel you to tell others who don’t know Jesus yet about how essential He is to your life.  In God’s Kingdom, that part is left up to God the Holy Spirit, and to you, cooperating with Him.  Recall that a young man tried to tell Navid about Jesus.  He rejected that invitation.  He accepted Christ when Jesus Himself appeared to him.  Nevertheless, I believe the unnamed peer sowed a seed that Jesus caused to take root in Navid.  In ways perhaps imperceptible to Navid, in ways inscrutable and supernatural, God then began to work in his life.  Today he has been granted Canadian citizenship, lives up North, and I understand he is now a pastor and a church planter there.  Jesus has really grown his faith, hasn’t He?!

​Consider who sowed into your life:  As we approach Father’s Day, was it your Dad or another Father-figure (a Spiritual Father) who introduced you to Jesus?  Perhaps it was a Spiritual Mother.  My grandmothers told me about Jesus.  My paternal grandmother was a Presbyterian who saw to it that I was baptized at 3YO.  She took me to Sunday School and read me the Bible.  My maternal grandmother was a Pentecostal Holiness who taught me many of the old hymns we sing today.  She also helped me learn to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit.  Maybe it was the example of a peace-filled or joy-filled Christian friend who convinced you.  You may want to thank whoever it was.

The second parable is the famous one of the mustard seed. My paternal grandmother gave me a necklace containing a tiny, yellow mustard seed, when I was a child. I understood it meant that my faith might start small, but like the tiny seed, it could grow into a large tree if I nurtured my relationship with Jesus. Later I wondered if she meant to remind me that God likes to use little things, even little people, to do great works. Both of these interpretations of the mustard seed are correct, but they also seem just a little too tame!

Consider that Jesus taught in parables in order to challenge people’s thinking. He seemed to delight in overturning their usual assumptions, to frustrate and then transform them–and us:

​1.) It was a hated Samaritan who nursed the Jewish man back to ​​​health.  No Jewish listener in the crowd would have expected the ​​rescuer to be an enemy.

​2.) The shepherd leaves the 99 to go rescue the one lost sheep.  Who ​​​leaves 99 to go after one?  Surely He left other caretakers in ​​​charge or had the 99 penned up in a corral, but Scripture is ​​​silent on this.

​3.) The Father forgives the rascally prodigal son and reinstates him, ​​​while the righteous, well-behaved elder son sulks.  Both sons are ​​disappointments, but the Father loves and forgives each one.

​4.) The last laborer gets the same pay as those who toiled longest.  To ​​our American sensibilities, this seems most unfair!

Pick your favorite parable. Jesus turns human logic on its head. So we want to look for what might be radical about a mustard seed, or for the ways in which Jesus might just be challenging our common conceptions.

What if we have generally interpreted this parable from the perspective of mustard seeds that are cultivated, or “tame mustard” seeds? These are planted in neat rows in order to harvest mustard for medicinal purposes, or to be made into spices and condiments.  This interpretation doesn’t really seem authentic as it involves too much human control.  What if we thought, instead, of “wild mustard” seeds?  These varieties are the Biblical equivalent of Kudzo!  They are a weed that you would hate to take root in your yard or garden.  If you have ever struggled with getting rid of bamboo, or ivy, potato vines, or dandelions, you know what I mean.  Wild mustard just takes over!  (My farmer son-in-law tells me there is wild mustard growing here in Suwannee County!)

​Normally, cultivated or tame mustard grows in shrubs that reach about 3-4 feet high.  Wild mustard can, however, become tree-sized, if allowed to run amok.  Could our Lord be telling us, tongue in cheek, I’m not saying God’s Kingdom grows like a tame and cultivated variety of plant, carefully shaped by humankind into something resembling an English garden (or clipped and snipped to look like Mickey Mouse or Goofy at Disneyworld).  Oh no!  I’m talking about God’s Kingdom reaching out and overtaking people.  Maybe not with allot of noise or commotion.  Maybe not even in a way you and I can see and evaluate as it’shappening.  The Kingdom of God—or God’s reign in the human heart—is notsomething you or I can limit or manage.  Like the seed described in the first parable, it moves at the direction of the Holy Spirit.

Our God looks within and works from within. As with the seed, from the first parable, our growth in Christ starts inside and works up and out. My prayer for you this week is that our love of Jesus may spread, like the Kudzo-like mustard seed, out of Wellborn United Methodist Church into Wellborn, Live Oak, over east to Jacksonville or west to Tallahassee. May our love of Christ transform us and take over our communities. AMEN! May it be so!

©️2021 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams

Posted on by Cheryl Norman

Semantic Spin Revisited

Pastor Sherry’s message for June 6, 2021

Scriptures 1 Sam 8:1-20; Ps 138; 2 Cor 4:13-5:1; Mark 3:20-35

Three years ago, when these Scripture passages appeared in the Lectionary, I preached about “Semantic Spin,” and the distinction the media and politicians were making at that time between a “spy” and an “informant.” I referred to that as a real life example of defining something one way to deflect criticism, when in truth it is actually the opposite.  Despite the 9th Commandment, which prohibits lying–or bearing false witness against another—isn’t it all too frequent that we find our politicians, media, business leaders, educators, and neighbors, spinning lies to in an attempt to manipulate our cooperation/compliance/agreement?  Some notable examples recently include: 

​​1. Critical Race Theory—now embedded in our school curricula, government, military, and corporations—and touted as truth, it defines human history as a struggle between oppressors, usually white, against everyone else.  This is Marxism with a new spin.  Rather than breeding a spirit of unity in our country, it actually promotes racial division and hatred.

​​2. We were told the Group “Black Lives Matter” exists to encourage and strengthen black families; but it is actually a front for funding and fomenting civil unrest and hatred toward America.

​​3. We were told Covid-19 did not originate in a Chinese Virology Lab, so as not to offend the Chinese Communist government. But now a significant amount of evidence supports the conclusion that it was manufactured by the Chinese and escaped containment.

​​4. The power elites advocate that, contrary to science and to God’s order, there is no such thing as two genders.  Kindergarteners in some school districts are being taught this as truth.   They are also recommending that kids as young as 8YO should be allowed to opt for sex ​change surgeries and authorized to use powerful sex change hormones.

​​5. President Biden’s proposed Budget for 2022 resumes federal funding for abortions because they are considered by some as a women’s health issue.  What about the health of the unborn baby?

6. 1 year ago, segregation was immoral, but now we are going to segregate those who have declined taking the Covid vaccine from these who have taken it. If we begin this sort of discrimination, what might be next? Will we segregate those with Hepatitis-C, with TB, or with HIV-Aids?

Radical influences in our culture would like us to set human will above human nature or even common sense, let alone good theology.

My favorite news commentator often ends his show by stating that his program is “the sworn enemy of lying, pomposity, smugness, and group think.”  These four are all good things to oppose and are currently rampant in our culture.

​Our Scriptures today provide two further examples of Semantic Spin, and how God responds to it:

1 Sam 8:1-20àThe Israelites are unhappy. The Prophet Samuel has reached retirement age, so the question has arisen as to who should replace him. Like Eli’s sons before him, Samuels’ two sons did not walk in the ways of the Lord. They were either not believers at all, or they knew better–but lacked integrity–and sold their influence to the highest bidder. The people did not want these two young men to lead them. Up until this point, there had been no king in Israel. God had appointed a prophet (or a judge) who was to hear from God what He wanted, then convey God’s will to the people. So rather than ask the prophet to inquire of God who God wanted to lead them, they ask for a king. Notice, Samuel could have inquired of the Lord but he didn’t. And now the people have an excuse they spin to justify getting a king: A reliable prophet has not been assigned us.

So, we’d like to be like all the other countries of the known world, and have a king.  What they really mean—but don’t say—is that we want to do things our way rather than be led by the Lord.

​In verse 9, God tells Samuel not to take it personally—God knows they are actually rejecting Him, not Samuel—but to warn them what having a king might mean for them.  God has a special house, the Tabernacle, but they will have to build another special house for the king, a palace.  This will cost them money, which means they will be taxed.  A king will want to have his own army, which will result in higher taxes.  And their sons will be conscripted into the army, while their daughters will serve as palace maids, artisans, and possibly wives and concubines.  Samuel warns them in verses13+àHe [a king] will take the best of your fields and vineyards and give them to his attendants….He will take the best of your menservants, maidservants, cattle and donkeys….He will take a 10thof your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves.

​Nevertheless, despite all these arguments against it, the people still demand a human king.  What were they thinking? God is not fooled!  They can spin it however they want, but they are rejecting God’s leadership.

We gotta have a king…is a semantic spin on disobedience.  It’s a “no confidence vote” for God—we don’t trust The One who is the same today, yesterday, and forever—so we want to place our trust in a human, fallible, possibly self-focused leader.  REALLY?  YIKES!  They will get a king but at considerable cost.  Accepting semantic spin is ultimately expensive.

​In our Gospel lesson, Mark 3:20-35, Jesus is teaching in Capernaum, 30 miles from Nazareth.  He’s been so swamped by ministry at this point that He has ducked into a home to get a meal (probably Peter and Andrew’s house). But the teachers of the Law have followed Him, to accuse Him:  This time they claim He is doing His miraculous work by the power of Satan.  Good gracious!  Think of this:  They are saying the 2ndPerson of the Trinity, who stands before them, is doing work inspired by the Father (Person 1), through the power of the Holy Spirit (Person 3)—and they are claiming He is instead drawing on the power of Satan.  Even Satanists will tell you their power comes from the Devil.   What an insulting charge! What an outrageous spin!

​But Jesus responds to them calmly and logically.  Essentially, He says, I am casting Satan out of people; why would Satan want Me to work contrary to his goals?  He asserts in verses 23-26àHow can Satan drive out Satan?  If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.  If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.  And if Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand; his end has come.  Then He warns them—I am doing what I do by the power of the Holy Spirit.  If you call what I do a work of Satan, you have blasphemed/falsely accused both the Holy Spirit and Me, two persons of the Trinity.  This is not smart. This is in fact an unforgivable sin because it credits the Work of God to Satan; and it indicates a heart already taken over by Satan.  Again, semantic spin is very expensive!

​Now He’s really said it, hasn’t He?  The crowd is murmuring, no doubt speculating how long Jesus has before the power elites arrest Him.  Some gossip, or perhaps even some well-meaning person, runs the 30 miles to Nazareth to get Mary, James and Jude to rescue Jesus before He is arrested.  No doubt they cry, He’s talking crazy!  He’s making them mad!  They’ll arrest Him for sure!  You better go see about Him!  Afterall, John the Baptist, Jesus’ cousin, has already been arrested and jailed.  His family knows what tends to happen to religious zealots.  They’ve suggested Jesus is crazy, but He is just honestly challenging the illogical arguments of the teachers of the Law.  He’s being defined as out of His mind—semantic spin–

but He’s actually exercising His power as God to define what is true.

Nevertheless, Mary and her grown sons rush to rescue Him. When Jesus is told that His family has arrived, He responds in an unexpected way. We/they would have expected Him to go greet them. Instead, Heredefines the concept of family: Verse 33àWho are my mother and my brothers? Verse 34àWhoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother. He is saying the spirit-ties of those who believe in Him actually form a closer relationship to Him than blood ties do. Haven’t you found that this is so? I share much more in common with the Body of Christ than I do with my blood kin who do not accept Jesus as Lord. I can and do love them; but there is not the same meeting of the mind and heartwith them that I enjoy with my fellow-believers. We have heard, “Blood is thicker than water.” But here Jesus is saying that the waters of Baptism are supernaturally “thicker than the blood of family.”

So, let’s return to the business of “semantic spin revisited.”

There’s a lot of this going around in our culture today. We need to know God’s Word to discern the truth. We need to call upon the Holy Spirit to pare away fiction or lies from the truth. We can ask the Holy Spirit for spiritual gifts of wisdom and discernment. He can and will help us identify—and resist–lying, pomposity, smugness, and group-think.

​​

Let’s pray: Gracious Lord, please lead, guide and direct us. Help us not to be taken in by those whose motives are to tear down another and advance their own cause. Help us to discern truth and to recognize semantic spin. The enemy tried so many times to accost you with lies, Lord Jesus. We appear to be similarly bombarded with lies today. Reveal to us the truth in every political and governmental situation. Bring integrity and truth-telling back into the halls and agencies of our national and state governments. Rule and overrule the hearts of anyone who is corrupt or who is advancing an evil plot. Bring all lies and corruption out into the light of Christ, we pray in His all-powerful name. AMEN

©️2021 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams

Posted on by Cheryl Norman

God is on His Throne

Pastor Sherry’s message for May 30, 2021

Scriptures: Isaiah 6:1-8; Ps 29; Rom 8:12-17; John 3:1-17

Today is Trinity Sunday. Nowhere in Scripture is the word Trinity used, nor is the concept explained. It is simply assumed as “a given.” However, there are a number of direct and indirect references to the Trinity in today’s lessons:1.) Isaiah 6:8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” (“Us” means “more than one.” The ancient Hebrews never used the royal prerogative of later European kings and queens, whereby they referred to themselves in the plural.) So this means there is more than one person in the Godhead.

2.) Romans 8:12-17 (God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.) In verses 13-14, we are to be led by the Holy Spirit; and in verses 16-17, we are sons [and daughters] of God the Father, thus…heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ.

3.) John 3:1-17contains Jesus’ conversation with the Pharisee, Nicodemus. In verse 5, Jesus tells Nicodemus that…no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. In verse 16, He instructs the Pharisee that…God [the Father] so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. Thus, Jesus mentions His Father, Himself, and the Holy Spirit.So we have these references to the Trinity, but what is it and how does it work?

Our passages today do not explain how God is 3 in 1. Since Easter, we have been studying the roles of the 3 persons of the Trinity, and especially, since Pentecost, the function of the Holy Spirit. To get any clearer, we would have to borrow a line from my Aunt Vona: She was a dear heart who would talk on the phone with her friends for hours. When it came time to end the call, she would invariably end the conversation by saying, “I would tell you more, but I already told you more than I heard myself.” It’s certainly OK to do so in human discourse, but we have to take care with God and not say more than we know. How the Trinity operates is what the Roman Catholics would call a “Holy Mystery.”Mystery.”

Since I cannot really explain the Trinity, what I want to focus on today is Isaiah’s encounter with it, especially with God the Father (or perhaps the pre-incarnate Jesus).

Isaiah 6:1-8 contains Isaiah’s call to be a prophet.

Jewish tradition tells us Isaiah’s father, Amoz, was a brother to King Amaziah (a.k.a., King Ussiah). This would make Isaiah Uzziah’snephew. Isaiah appears to have loved and respected his uncle. Uzziah had assumed the throne in Jerusalem at age 16 and reigned for 52 econd, when we are years! Under him, Judea became very prosperous. He is particularly remembered for having defeated and subjugated several long-term enemies of Israel: the Philistines, the Ammonites, and the Arabians! In fact, he was considered the last of the great kings of the Southern Kingdom–until he became proud and took it upon himself to offer a sacrifice in the Temple (a task God had ordained only priests to perform). He had usurped a prerogative of the religious officials, so God disciplined him with leprosy. This made him ritually unclean; therefore, he could no longer enter the Temple. Ultimately he died of leprosy.[1]

No doubt Isaiah was grieved both by Uzziah’s grave sin and by his punishment and death. No doubt he thought, “He was a great king! What will become of us now?” Perhaps he feared for the nation and for himself. Nevertheless, because Isaiah was first of all a priest, he goes to the Temple to pray and he actually sees the Lord, the True King of Israel.

The Temple is filled with smoke and the building trembles—signs of God’s presence. Back in Exodus 19:18-19 Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the Lord descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, the whole mountain trembled violently…. The smoke was a sign Isaiah and others could see.

The trembling, like an earthquake, could be felt and heard. This was a theophany (a God-sighting), with fanfare. Biblical scholars don’t believe Isaiah really saw God the Father because no one can see God the Father and live—but what he did see was awe inspiring. He probably saw the Pre-incarnate Christ, seated on the throne, surrounded with bright light much like what St. John saw in the throne room of heaven and described in Revelation 4.

Isaiah saw the train of God’s robe fill the Temple, indicating the vastness, the immensity of God. And he saw and heard the seraphim, greatliving creatures (a type of angel) with 6 wings. He heard their loud voices proclaiming God’s holiness. The word seraphim comes from the root word meaning to burn. Their job appears to be to search out–and call out–sin. They are accompanied in the throne-room by cherubim—another form of angelic being—whose job it is to protect the holiness of God.

Since he is in the presence of the sin-seeking seraphim, Isaiah is immediately made aware of his sinfulness: Verse 5 Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord almighty!

He is both grieved and afraid. He fears he is in mortal danger. He knew that (Exodus 3:6) Moses hid his face from God, and that God’s presence filled Job with self-contempt and repentance (Job 42:6). Later saints like Peter and Paul are similarly struck with their unworthiness in the presence of God: In Luke 5:8, Peter asks Jesus to …depart from me for I am a sinful man. In Romans 7:24, Paul says, What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? We can assume from these examples that all those who stand in God’s presence are immediately made aware of their sinfulness.

But, thanks be to God for His great grace! The Lord provides a way for Isaiah to become cleansed from his sin. A seraph brings a burning coal from the altar and touches it to his lips. His sins appear to be what comes out of his mouth as he is made aware—as though he sees his soul as in a spiritual mirror—For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips…. He’s not burned, but is cleaned up! (Verse7)…See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for. The coal cleanses him spiritually. Remember how I have often told you, the Old Testament predicts, or points to the New Testament? Thus the coal is seen by Biblical scholars as a symbol of both the purifying power of the Holy Spirit and the redeeming work of Jesus Christ as He took our sins upon Himself on the Cross.

Then Isaiah hears God ask, (v.8) Whom shall I send? Who shall go for us? God presents Isaiah with a call beyond being a priest. He is to be a prophet; He is to serve the Trinity, the “Us.” Isaiah obediently agrees…Here I am. Send me!

In Psalm 29, King David praises God’s voice, likening it to what we perceive in a fierce thunder storm (maybe a hurricane):

1.) Verse 3 The voice of God thunders;

2.) Verse 4 The voice of God is powerful and majestic;

3.) Verse 5 The voice of the Lord breaks mighty trees (Apparently the Cedars of Lebanon then were like the Sequoias of today);

4.) Verse 7 The voice of the Lord strikes with flashes of lightening;

5). Verse 8 The voice of the Lord shakes the desert;

6.) Verse 9 The voice of the Lord twists the great oaks.

What King David is saying poetically is that God is great! God is powerful!

Who can contend against Him? No one who is smart! Who can overcome Him? No one at all!

So what do these 2 passages mean for us today?

First, our God is still present to us in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In fact, when we pray, we pray to the Father, through the intercession of His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the power of the Holy Spirit. Paul tells us in Romans that even when we lack the words to say, the Holy Spirit interprets our very groans to God in heaven.

Second, when we are upset by either national or personal events, we—like Isaiah—should pray! Isaiah provides us with the perfect example of a response to grief or fear: Seek the Lord! We can and should put our confidence in God. Governments, human beings, family feuds, all come and go. But our God is on His throne eternally.

Finally, our God is strong and able. He can manage anything we are struggling with: My spouse is unfaithful; my spouse has died; my child has tuned against me, our family, and/or God; my job is killing me! My job has been eliminated! My body is failing me; my mind (or my memory) has gone off somewhere and I can’t find it. We can put our trust in God with regard to all of these concerns. Give to Him each one. Trust in Him to be present with you and to act in your very best interests.

Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord, Jesus Christ! Alleluia! Alleluia!

[1] He reigned for 52 years (792-740);

​​​​​

©️2021 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams

Posted on by Cheryl Norman

Come, Holy Spirit!

Pastor Sherry’s message for Pentecost Sunday—May 23, 2021

Scriptures: Acts 2:1-21; Ps 104:24-35; 1 Jn 3:1-7; Jn 1526; 16:5-15

In 1995, Mark Batterson and a small team planted the National Community Church in a movie theatre on the Metro line (subway) in Washington, DC. It has since grown, through prayer and sovereign moves of the Holy Spirit, to 7 locations in and around DC, and ministers to around 3,000 members. This week, I reread 2 books Batterson has written: In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day and Wild Goose Chase.

In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day is based on 2 Samuel 23:20-21 Benaiah son of Jehoida was a valiant fighter from Kabzeel, who performed great exploits. He struck down two of Moab’s best men. He also went down into a pit on a snowy day and killed a lion. And he struck down a huge Egyptian. Although the Egyptian had a spear in his hand, Benaiah went against him with a club. He snatched the spear from the Egyptian’s hand and killed him with his own spear.

Benaiah, a mighty Hebrew warrior, chases a lion into a pit on a snowy day and kills it. Why would anyone do such a thing? Adult lions weigh about 500 pounds. Let’s guess that Benaiah weighed about 180. Clearly he was out-weighed by about 320 pounds. Add to that the fact that a lion’s paws, claws, and teeth were better suited to combat in a slippery environment than a man with no rifle or semi-automatic (but perhaps Benaiah had a spear or club). Whatever his weaponry, Benaiah slays the lion. Now I believe the Holy Spirit must have both led Benaiah to the pit, and empowered him with the courage and the skill to overcome the lion. This feat becomes the most prominent feature of his impressive resume. He is subsequently hired by King David to lead his body guard. Later, he rises to become the commander of the king’s armies.

Essentially, Batterson encourages us, in this book, to become “Lion Chasers,” pursuing the divine appointments, the God-given opportunities our Lord provides of us. He also points out how often “lion Chasers” are rewarded by the Lord.

In his book, Wild Goose Chase, Batterson distinguishes between a wild goose chase and chasing a wild goose. We tend to think of a wild goose chase as a fruitless endeavor, a waste of our time.

But the Celtic Christian name for the Holy Spirit is An Geadh-Glas, or the Wild Goose. Please understand that the Celts meant no disrespect. (The Lakota Sioux thought of the Holy Spirit as a buffalo, upon whom their plains existence depended entirely.) Like a wild goose (or a buffalo), the Holy Spirit is unpredictable, and out of our control—and sometimes even scary. But if we chase after Him, if we follow His nudges and urges, the Lord leads us into some amazing adventures.

Given this background, let’s look at our 1st reading, Acts 2:1-21: the empowerment of the HS at Pentecost. The context of this passage is that the 120 disciples, men and women, are praying in the Temple. Jesus had told them (Acts 1:4)àDo not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised…in a few days, you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. So they are being obedientàthey waited, they prayed. On Pentecost, 10 days after Jesus’ ascension, the Holy Spirit shows up! This is a theophany! A God-sighting! And He arrives with significant supernatural fanfare, or signs and wonders.

(1) 1st sign (which was heard)àSuddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind. This was no gentle breeze! Like tornados, it probably sounded like dozens of freight trains. God had done this beforeàEzekiel 37:9àGod sends the wind to raise the dry bones of Israel to life. When I was baptized by the Holy Spirit, I was at the beach with a group of friends who were praying for me. A moaning wind came up in my face. It was so strong that I could hardly breathe. Afterward, my friends denied having heard or felt it!

(2) 2nd sign (which was seen)àThey saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. Imagine if you had been there! Fire over your head, fire over the heads of your friends, no one burning up! Wow! But God had done this before, tooàExodus 3:2-5àMoses and the burning bush. The bush was on fire, but it did not burn up. God used that bush to light a fire in Moses. In Isaiah 6àIsaiah’s callàIsaiah realizes he is a sinful man called to serve as the Lord’s prophet. An angel brings a burning coal and applies it to hislips and tongue. He is purified without being burned. He did, however, get fired up to serve the Lord!

​(3) 3rd sign (which was again heard)àAll of them were filled with the HS and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.  They were all supernaturally empowered to do something they had never done before, speak ​in a foreign language.  Parthians, Medes, and folks from other nationalities visiting Jerusalem heard them praising God in their native tongues—and according to scholars, with the correct accents!  These foreign visitors realized something extraordinary was happening as they recognized the 120 as simple folk from Judea.  Now God had done this before as wellàIsaiah 50:4àThe Sovereign Lord gave me [Jesus and the prophet Isaiah] an instructed ​tongue; i.e., inspired speech.   I have heard of a number of incidents, especially from missionaries serving abroad, when they suddenly either spoke or understood a language they had never been taught.  Peter quotes the prophet Joel,(Acts 2:28)à[The Lord, speaking thru the prophet Joel, promises],…I will pour out my Spirit on all people.  Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.  Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.

The Holy Spirit did show up, big time, on the Day of Pentecost! But why would God go to all this trouble? (wind, fire, inspired speech?)

(1) Pentecost marks the birth of the Christian Church (Big C, all Christians despite denominational differences) and inaugurates “the Church Age” (which begins with Pentecost and will continue until the Rapture).

(2) The Holy Spirit empowers us to tell others about Jesus. The disciples were waiting, praying, in the Temple, when the Wild Goose manifested in these very surprising ways. Jesus had given them the Great Commission, Matt 28:18àGo and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them…and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. Now, filled with the HS, the disciples began telling anyone who would listen about Jesus. Like Benaiah jumping into the pit, they rushed out, with great urgency, to share with others what God had done for them. Like Benaiah jumping into the pit, we need supernatural help to share our faith with others. We need God-given opportunites, divine appointments so we know with whom we are to share the Good News. We need instructed tongues, so we know what to say when we do share.

(3) Empowerment to do the kinds of things Jesus did for the building up of God’s Kingdom. Through our prayers and faith, God can use us to heal others. My friend and seminary buddy, Hazel, had a healing ministry in Charleston, SC. Through her prayers and those whom she trained, one person grew back a kidney; another had their gall bladder healed. A third was healed of Bi-polar Disorder; a 4th had a brain tumor shrink to nothing.

Similarly, Agnes Sanford, the wife of a clergyman, also had the gift of healing. Her parents were missionaries to China in the 1930’s and 40’s. Agnes laid hands on a crippled Chinese man when she was 3YO and he was healed. Her parents did not understand her gift (their theology taught that all the gifts of healing ended with the Apostles), and told her not to do it again. Later, as an adult during WW2, she suffered from depression until a pastor friend released her to work in her gifting. She laid hands on injured GI’s, prayed for them, and they were healed of either their physical or emotional problems.

Graham Cooke, a present-day British Christian healer has a gift of “prophetic healing.” In other words, in the healing conferences he leads, God tells him what is wrong with a person as they are coming forward to him for prayer. He relates the story of a man who came forward suffering from a long-standing porn addiction. As the man approached him, the Holy Spirit told Graham that God intended to heal him of his addiction. Indeed,Graham prayed and the guy was set free.

Through our faith and our obedience, we can be equipped by God to do things we would never have thought possible. The 120 were waiting in anticipation, but I bet when they awoke on Pentecost, they never thought they would be evangelizing in foreign languages later that morning. I doubt Benaiah anticipated slaying a lion with only a spear or a club that day. I grew up wanting to be a mother and a teacher, then later—when my high school students kept coming to me with their problems–a psychologist. God has given me gifts of teaching and wisdom to impart to those I counseled. Yet, here I am now serving Him and you as your pastor. The Holy Spirit also gifts us for specific ministries at different times of our lives.

Moving at the nudge/inspiration of the HS is like chasing a Wild Goose (the Celtic An Geadh-Glas). It is an adventure! We wore red in honor of Pentecost today. Red reminds us of the tongues of fire. Red reminds us of one of the ways God chooses to show up. This week, be sure to be aware of how God might show up in your life. Savor your divine appointments. Write them down so you remember them. Share them with others, as God directs you.

Let’s remember this week—and always—that our God empowers us through His Holy Spirit to both tell others about Jesus and to operate in the gifts He has given us. Even if it seems as scary as jumping in a pit with a lion on a snowy day, let’s look for God-given opportunities and divine appointments. And let’s ask Him for the courage of a Benaiah—and of a Mark Batterson–the courage to do what the Lord has given us to do.

©️2021 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams

 

Thanks to the Geiger family for Pentecost altar flowers.