Posted on by Cheryl Norman

Watch Your Mouth!

Pastor Sherry’s message for September 1, 2024

Scriptures: Song of Songs 2:8-13; Ps 45:1-2, 6-9; Ja 1:17-27; Mk 7:1-23

The following is a true story out of Charlotte, NC, that I shared six years ago.  I want to share it again because it is such a great example of truth being stranger than fiction.  A guy bought a box of very expensive cigars.  He also took out insurance on them against “decay, spoilage, theft, and fire.”  Then he proceeded to smoke the 24 cigars in the box over the next few weeks.  When he finished the box, he filed a claim with his insurance company, stating that the cigars were lost in a series of small fires. The insurance company rejected the claim (You can almost hear them say, “Oh, come on!”). But the guy sued the insurance company in civil court.

In an astonishing turn of justice, the man admitted he smoked the cigars, but still won his claim because of a technicality: the insurance company had failed to specify what sort of fire was excluded, and the jury awarded the fellow $15,000 in damages (Don’t forget, he had also enjoyed smoking the 24 fine cigars). However, when he exited the court, he was arrested and charged with 24 counts of arson.  After all, he had admitted to setting “the series of small fires” which had caused his property loss.  This time, the North Carolina court convicted and sentenced him to 2 years in jail and fined him $24,000.  His spurious lawsuit cost him 2 years of freedom, and a net loss, after legal fees, of $9,000.  This guy bet on the letter of the law instead of the spirit of the law, and lost.  Don’t we wish that courts would act similarly, all over the country, in such nonsense, nuisance law-suits?

(J. Fairless & D. Chilton, The Lectionary Lab, Year B, 2014, p.286.)

Our Gospel today, Mark 7:1-23—and this story—point to the danger of following the letter of the law while violating its intent.

Just prior to today’s passage, Mark describes Jesus’ multiplication miracle of feeding the 5,000 (maybe more like 15,000, if women and children were included in the count); Jesus’ walking on water miracle; and His healing an unknown number of people on the other side of the Lake (Sea of Galilee).

This event predates by about a year or two the confrontations with the Pharisees I preached about last week.

A committee of Scribes and Pharisees had come out from Jerusalem to observe and to test Him.  He is teaching and they challenge Him because His disciples do not wash their hands before eating.  They question Him (v.5)➖Haven’t You, Jesus, taught Your disciples the correct customs regarding cleanliness?

Now we know that hand-washing is not a bad practice. Prior to the Covid outbreak, the habit of hand-washing had been abandoned by many.  Since then, we have re-learned that washing our hands, especially before eating, helps to eliminate germs and to limit contamination.

Now Jesus was an observant Jew who treasured the Law of God. The Law was a gift from God, not a burden. In the Code of Hammarabi, a contemporary Mesopotamian set of laws, it was stated, for instance, that if you somehow knocked down your neighbor’s wall, he could rebuild it with you and your family plastered into the repair. The provisions for revenge were severe. But God’s Law put a humane limit on revenge. Furthermore, it didn’t just protect the rich and the powerful, but also safeguarded the poor and disadvantaged.  Our Lord intended for the Law to cut down on the extent of retribution, but especially to demonstrate the believer’s obedience (set-apartness) to God. The Hebrew Law demonstrated that God values human life, and that slaves, widows, orphans, and the poor—not just the rich and the influential—had rights that were to be respected.  At the time, these attitudes/provisions were unheard of in other religions or law codes. 

What Jesus confronts in today’s passage is that the Pharisees chose to obey the rules without remembering the relationships underlying the rules.

Don’t we do this too?  Should baptism be done by dunking or is sprinkling okay? Our tradition is to sprinkle water on infants. At what age should children be allowed to take communion?  Some want to wait until 10-12 years old, considered to be the “age of reason.” This way we can be sure the child understands what the bread and wine represent. I have a friend who was the chaplain at a preschool. They provided communion to the little ones at their chapel services. A mother complained. The chaplain asked her 3 year old son if he knew what was in the bread and the cup.  He replied, “Jesus is in there.”  That settled the argument. 

The story is told of a father of two teenaged sons who proudly bought a “Dodge Touring Car,” in 1918 for $785.00. It’s hard to imagine a new car for that sales price now. By three years later, however, he had grown frustrated over his sons’ increasingly hostile arguments regarding whose turn it was to drive it. The rule was that they shared and each could drive the car on alternate Saturdays. When the boys resorted to fist fights to settle their dispute, the father locked the car in a garage and pocketed the keys. Four decades later, a museum purchased the car—it was covered with dirt and chicken manure, and only had 1800 miles on the odometer. The father had gone to great lengths to teach his sons about the value of relationships over rules.

(J. Fairless & D. Chilton, The Lectionary Lab, Year B, 2014, p.288.)

Consider how many court cases get thrown out because some procedure (rule) was not followed exactly. The guilty are spared at the potential expense of keep citizens safe.  You see, the problem isn’t washing before eating, the right way to baptize, how to correctly discipline teens, or even keeping people safe. The real problem is the condition of our hearts!

To the Hebrew mind, the heart was where all moral decisions were made.

The prophet Jeremiah laments in Jeremiah 17:9➖The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.  Who can understand it?  The prophet Ezekiel asserts God’s intentions in Ezekiel 36:24-25➖I [God] will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a..  And I will put My Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.

Our faulty human hearts must be transformed by God. Jesus lets the Pharisees have it because they have forgotten this important fact:  It’s not about rules, it’s about relationships; our relationship with God, our relationships with each other. There was no law from God that they must wash their hands before eating.  This was a tradition they had adopted. They were criticizing Jesus for not conforming to their traditions.  To address that issue, He tells them what goes into us is not the critical issue—like how clean our hands are, or what types of food we eat. The crux of the problem is rather what comes out of our mouths—which has its origins in our hearts.

Put rather crudely, it’s not what we excrete that causes sin problems, but what we vomit.

In the 300’s, St. Augustine said, there is a hole in our hearts that only God can fill, and our hearts are restless until they rest in God.  We have a sin problem, and we can’t fix it by living according to a set of religious rules.

Being a celebrity or a fantastic athlete won’t cure it.  Even rigid religious systems that require people to accumulate merit badges of good deeds do not address it.  Politicians can’t legislate it.  Having taught US History and World History for 15 years, I can safely assert that Socialism and Communism don’t work because they operate in ways counter to our built in “heart issues:” our tendencies toward self-justification, self-centeredness, and self-absorption.  We have a serious “I” problem.

To correct our sin problem, we need to allow the Holy Spirit to change our hearts!  We acknowledge that the shed blood of Jesus Christ makes up for our sin and replaces it with His righteousness.  And, as James teaches us in our New Testament lesson, we cooperate with the Holy Spirit by increasingly shunning sinful attitudes and behaviors, and living out attitudes and behaviors pleasing to God.  We need to approach God and others with love.

A child’s response to Sesame Street is a great illustration of this point.  In a live audience of kids watching Sesame Street, the kids nearly always watched the muppets rather than the grown-ups who manipulated them—even when they could see the puppeteers seated on the floor.  One little boy even saw Big Bird take off his top half and watched an actor step out.  Rather than focus on the fact that Big Bird was not real, the child told his mother, “Mom, Mom!  Do you think Big Bird knows he has a man inside?”  

(J. Fairless & D. Chilton, The Lectionary Lab, Year B, 2014, p.289.)

You see, the goal of the law was/is to remind us that we have a sinful human being inside us, in our hearts, in our souls, in the center of our being. This part of us is not focused on our relationship with God or with others. It just wants what it wants, when it wants it. Unfortunately, everyone else has a similar human inside of them as well. Fortunately, however, we also have inside us that part of us that longs for God…that finds its rest in God alone.

Perhaps you have heard of the Native American legend of the black wolf and the white wolf. The wise grandfather tells the grandson that we are a mix of both, but the one that comes to dominate our character depends upon which one we nurture or feed. If we want to please God, we need to watch our mouths to discover or to observe what is in our hearts. We accept that Jesus paid the price for the sinful human inside us; and we allow the wonderful Holy Spirit to remind us not to give our sinful hearts power over us, but rather to honor relationships over rules; and to live out of a loving vs. a self-centered or fault-finding nature.

Amen!  May it be so!

©️2024 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams 

Posted on by Cheryl Norman

Who can Pull Us up out of the Pit?

Pastor Sherry’s message for August 11, 2024

Scriptures: 2 Sam 18:1-33; Ps 130; Eph 4:25-5:2; Jn 6:35, 41-59

In the first church I served, we were to have composed our sermons by Tuesday so we could alert the Music Director, who would then choose music that complimented and reinforced the message.  This about killed me. I am often struggling to finish my sermon by Friday night or Saturday afternoon.  So I have relied here, at Wellborn Methodist Church, on the Holy Spirit to guide the selections our musicians make.  This morning, Joy’s anthem, “Undo,” by a band called “Rush of Fools,” was perfect.  Isn’t that just what we look to Jesus to do for us?  We need Him to pull us up out of the pit.  As the song says, “Turn me around, pick me up, undo what I’ve become.  You’re the only One who can undo what I’ve become.”

Paul, in our New Testament reading today (Ephesians 4:25-5:2), continues to remind us that as Christ-followers, we are to put away our old fleshly life, and adopt a new way of living that imitates the life of Jesus. To that end, we are to (1) be truth-tellers, not liars; (2) control our tempers rather than let anger drive our behavior; (3) say things that are good and helpful rather than foul or abusive (limit criticisms and eliminate cursing!);

And (4) be kind to others rather than spew out bitterness, rage, anger, slander, or any evil behavior (like holding grudges).  As imitators of Christ, therefore, we are to live lives characterized by love, and that demonstrate self-sacrifice, just as Jesus did. This is a tall order, isn’t it?  It’s a high standard to try to attain.  But this should be the life standard toward which we each aim.  If not, we find we fall into a pit of our own making, and we need the divine rescuer, Jesus—Who we just might call “The Great Undo-er.”

As you know, we are in an election year and it would be very easy to locate examples of each of the fleshly behaviors Paul warns us to avoid in the behaviors of various candidates.  But rather than do that, let’s look to King David’s family, and the legacy of violence and rebellion exhibited by his relatives in 2 Samuel 18:1-33.  Our passage opens with King David telling his army commanders to take it easy with the young man Absalom.  Why? What’s the deal with Absolom? To find out we have to rewind and review some earlier chapters:

Remember that some years prior, Amnon, the eldest of David’s sons, raped his half-sister, the beautiful Tamar.  David was angry about this, but did not avenge Tamar.  Perhaps he was still feeling guilty about his own sexual immorality with Bathsheba.  Perhaps he thought, “Who am I to punish him for actions I also took?  Maybe he realized this was part of the playing out of the consequences of his past sin.  The prophet Nathan had told him—even though God had forgiven him— Now, therefore, the sword [violence, rebellion] will never depart from your house [dynasty; extended family] (12:10).  Maybe David feared taking any punishing action would bring about more bloodshed. So, even though he could have insisted Amnon marry Tamar, thereby legitimizing her status as a wife, David did nothing.

This apparent inability of King David, to discipline his wayward son Amnon and to help restore his daughter Tamar, incensed Absalom, Tamar’s full brother.  Absalom slyly and covertly plotted revenge against Amnon for 2 years.  He invited Amnon, together with his father’s other sons by other wives, to a sheep-shearing festival at his country home.  Absalom got Amnon drunk, then had him killed.  Now, just as David had had Uriah killed so he could marry the pregnant Bathsheba, Absolom has had another person kill his half-brother.  David must realize Absalom’s murder of his eldest mirrors his own homicidal act. Furthermore, Absolom has demonstrated that murderous rage leads to bitterness and to evil behavior.

Absalom hits the road and is exiled from his father for 3 years.  Scripture tells us that, all that time, David longed to see Absalom—now his eldest, his heir, his favorite—and mourned his absence (13).  Curiously, though, he did not send for him.  Absalom is as good as banished.  In effect, David has now lost his 2 eldest sons—1 dead, 1 exiled. 

In a complicated strategy, Joab, David’s cousin and general, (14) manipulates David into calling his son home.  David agrees, but does not invite Absalom into his presence (Is he holding a grudge?).  Another 2 years go by and Absalom grows embarrassed and increasingly embittered.

Let’s examine David’s behavior toward Absalom:  David is uncharacteristically unforgiving!  He has nursed an offense toward his son.  The King has to be urged by his cousin to recall Absalom to Jerusalem.  Then, 2 years later, he has to be again urged by Joab to reconcile with Absolom.  So, 5 years after Absalom kills Amnon (7 yrs. after the rape of Tamar), David finally summons him.  The King greets him with a kiss, but this is too little too late.  The damage to their relationship has been compounded.  Many cultures in the Ancient Near East then, as now, were “Shame-based cultures” (Honoring the family was the supreme virtue). A son, even a prince, did not shame his father. By taking a father’s right to discipline Amnon, Absalom has shamed the King.  David had exhibited his corresponding displeasure by not inviting his son back home, thus shaming Absolom.  (Contrast this with God’s example of the father in the Prodigal Son story.)  Privately David loves Absolom and misses him, but publically his pride has taken a hit, and he harbors an offense against Absalom.  He builds up a wall in his heart, and he emotionally abandons his heir.

Now let’s look at Absalom’s behavior toward his father:  After having taken himself into exile for 3 years, then feeling ignored for another two, Absalom is embittered. Like Father, like son.  He too has registered a hit to his pride. He too has taken offense and held onto it.  He too has established walls in his heart against his father.  From all of this, it’s a simple step to betrayal.

  So (15) describes how Absolom campaigns—over the next 4 years—to win over his countrymen. He was exceedingly handsome and famous for his beautiful, luxuriant hair. Though he had slain his ½ brother at his own table (a huge violation of Ancient Near East hospitality rules), he is now nice as can be to everyone. It’s a presidential campaign! He is kissing babies, promising tax cuts, and telling people what they want to hear. He is also trying to usurp his aging father’s public popularity.

Then, before David even suspects what is happening, Absalom launches a coup, and a Civil War erupts between the followers of the father and those who are loyal to the son (Chapters 16-17).  David, the seasoned warrior, flees the city (He desires no fighting in Jerusalem). He has his experienced and loyal army with him (Green Berets, Navy Seals). One of his Mighty Men, for instance, was Benaiah. He was famous for having jumped into a pit on a snowy day, where he killed a lion with only his spear (1 Chronicles 11:22).  David’s military was brave, bold, and highly skilled. They beg David, due to his age, not to go into battle with them. They realized that if the king were captured or killed, Absolom would win the war. So David agrees, sees them off, but asks them to spare his son’s life (18).

Now remember Absalom is not a warrior (he is instead a shrewd politico). Lacking an army, he has to call in Israelite citizens to bear arms for him. These are like the “national guard.”  They have some training, but limited experience. The armies encounter each other in a large forest.  Absalom’s forces pick this place, but it is not a wise battle-site, as trees, hills, and cliffs appear to have impeded troop movements. David’s veterans overcome the larger, inexperienced forces.  Absalom may have been trying to retreat or desert, when his rich, lush hair entraps him. Even though Joab, David’s cousin, had been told to capture but not kill the rebel prince, he insubordinately kills him anyway and buries his body in a pit (adding insult to injury). By the way, isn’t this the same cousin who brought Absolom back to Jerusalem, only to murder him 4 years later? Perhaps Joab reasoned that Absalom was a trouble-maker who would never fall into line; that he would always present a threat to David’s reign.  Whatever his motivation, he ruthlessly brings a sad chapter in King David’s life to an end. Joab, a second cousin, kills a second cousin. And a bereft King David loses his favorite son and heir.

What might God be saying to us today through Paul, Absolom, and King David?

      (1) What do we do when relatives take offense? We cannot hang on to offenses. They expand over time. They harden into bitterness.  They shrivel our hearts and set our spirits up against God. We must recognize and take responsibility for our own sins of pride.  We must forgive the offense and pray for the person who offended us. We must make an attempt to make amends. From the perspective of time and distance, we can see where either Absalom or David could have attempted to mend the breach.

       (2) Isn’t it true that we reap what we sow?  David kiiled a man so that he could have that man’s wife. In the very next generation, one son is sexually immoral, ravaging a woman who was not his wife. The second son kills the first.  God forgave David and forgives us of our sins, if—like David—we just humble ourselves and ask it of Him. Nevertheless, He often lets us experience the fruit or consequences of our mistakes, either in our own lives, or in our children’s or grandchildren’s generations. I have seen this so often in my counseling practice.  Similar sin patterns run down the generations in a given family. One family may be characterized by multiple suicides, another—like the Kennedys—for violent deaths; another for pornography, adultery, and serial affairs.  Intergenerational sin patterns that are not recognized and repented of can be and are passed down.

        (3) We want to forgive, before it’s too late. I picture King David wailing, keening his grief, sobbing with regret, wishing he had handled Amnon, Tamar, and Absalom differently.  The child born of David’s adultery died, but three of his other children’s lives were also ruined.  I believe he must have been so sorry that he had not been as competent a father as he had been a king or a warrior.

(4) Who could have pulled King David out of the pit of despair?  It is the same God who pulls us up out of the pit. Psalm 130:1-2—Out of the depths [the pit] I cry to you, O Lord; O Lord, hear my voice.  Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy.  We turn to the Lord for help. As Jesus advises in our Gospel lesson (Jn 6:35, 41-59), we stay intimately connected to our Lord, through communion conversation, and worship.

When we find ourselves in the pit, let’s remember to call upon the Lord.  As the song says, “He is the only one to undo what we have become.” Let’s ask Him for wisdom and discernment; for strength to endure (resilience); and for assistance in living a life like that of Jesus.  Amen!

©️2024 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams 

Posted on by Cheryl Norman

Empowering Faith

Pastor Sherry’s message for June 23, 2024

Scriptures : 1 Sam 17:5-50; Ps 9:9-20; 2 Cor 6:1-13; Mk 4:35-41

I have borrowed the following illustration from a pastor named Vince Gerhardy (“Sucked In, Washed Up, Blown Over,” www.sermons.com, June 18, 2024).  It’s about a traumatized Parakeet named Chippie:

“The problems began when Chippies’ owner decided to clean Chippie’s cage with a vacuum cleaner. She removed the attachment from the end of the hose and stuck it in the cage.  The phone rang, and she turned to pick it up.  She’d barely said, “hello,” when “ssssopp!” Chippie got sucked in.

“The bird’s owner gasped, put down the phone, turned off the vacuum cleaner, and opened the bag.  There was Chippie—still alive, but stunned.

“Since the bird was covered with dust, hair, and all the stuff you find in a dust bag, she grabbed him and raced to the bathroom, turned on the tap, and held Chippie under the running water.  Then, realizing that Chippie was soaked and shivering, she did what any compassionate bird owner would do…she reached for the hair dryer and blasted the pet with hot air.  

“Poor Chippie never knew what hit him.

“A few days after the trauma, a friend who had heard about Chippie’s troubles contacted his owner to see how the bird was recovering.  ‘Well,’ she replied, ‘Chippie doesn’t sing much anymore—he just sits and stares.’”

The poor critter had a severe case of parakeet PTSD.  He’d been “Sucked In, Washed Up, and Blown Over.”  Trauma like that would steal away anyone’s reason to sing!

I imagine the disciples felt a lot like this when they encountered a fierce storm on the Sea of Galilee, while Jesus lay asleep in the stern (Mark 4:35-41).  We know what happens:  They panic, wake Jesus up, and He immediately quiets the storm.  Then, interestingly to us I think, He rebukes them for their lack of faith.  They had let the rough seas and the high winds replace what faith they had with fear.  

Now, remember we think John Mark wrote down Peter’s reminiscences for a mostly Roman audience.  So his Gospel is action-packed to appeal to men of action like Roman soldiers.  Soldiers would likely relate best to Jesus if they understood His authority.  So Mark’s Gospel begins with stories of Jesus that demonstrate His power.  The disciples had observed Jesus reveal His power over evil spirits, and over physical illnesses like fevers, paralysis, and leprosy.  They had witnessed Him debate and stymie the Pharisees.  They had heard Him declare Himself the Lord of the Sabbath.  But, to be fair to them, perhaps they had not yet perceived His power over and ability to control tumultuous nature. 

What if you had been in the boat with them that day?  Would you too have let your fear overcome your faith?  You know fear is a negative faith; it is faith in a negative outcome.  We who trust in Jesus are not to fear.  We worship the God of all hope.  We may go through tough times, but we can trust that the Lord is with us as we do.  If we believe in Jesus, we are not to be crippled by fear. 

Our Old Testament lesson (1 Samuel 17:4-50) provides us with a great example of how to overcome legitimate fear with faith.  The context is an ongoing war between the Philistines and the Israelites.  (By the way, did you know that the Philistines, perennial enemies of Israel, are the ancestors of present day Palestinians?)  The Philistines had invaded Israel and had amassed their army at Socoh, 15 miles west of Bethlehem.  They were now engaged in a stand-off against the Israeli army led by King Saul.  Daily, their champion, the giant Goliath, cursed and ridiculed them, trying his best to egg them on the send out one Israelite champion to fight him.  Mano-a-mano might not have been so intimidating except that Goliath was over 9 feet tall.  His chest armor weighed 125 pounds; the metal point of his spear weighed 15 pounds.  Archaeologists believe they have located the remnants of his bed, which is 13 feet long.  The guy was a beast!  He was totally intimidating!

Additionally, for 40 days, Goliath taunted the Israelites and not one of God’s chosen people volunteered to face off with him.  Three of David’s elder brothers were there–Eliab, Abinadab, and Shammah—and they hadn’t volunteered.  Neither King Saul nor his son Johnathan had been willing to take Goliath on.  Saul did offer a huge reward as an incentive for some warrior to step up and win: significant cash; Saul’s daughter, Michal, in marriage; and the promise of no taxation for life for the family of the warrior who might be brave enough.  Still no one came forward.  Do you think anyone was praying?  Praying for a brave soul or praying for God to intervene?

Into this tense situation, the young man, David (16-17 years old) arrives with food provisions for his brothers.  (In those days, there were no suppliers who traveled with the armies, provisioning them with rations.  Either your relatives sent you food, or you took everything not nailed down as your army passed through a locale.)  David hears Goliath’s taunts and is appalled (v.26)—Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?  Do you hear the faith that David has in God?

He recognizes that Goliath is not just a big, oversized bully.  Goliath is an enemy of God’s people and an enemy of God Himself.  David’s brother Eliab—probably jealous or perhaps even feeling guilty—lashes out at David and misperceives his brother’s motives.  David’s not conceited, thinking of how Goliath’s taunts demean him.  David is righteously outraged that a nonbeliever should be defaming God.

Saul tries to put him in armor with which David is not familiar.  He cannot believe that a teen could possibly pull this off.  But David lists his credentials (vv.36-37)—Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear [while guarding sheep]; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God.  [Now listen to his statement of faith] the Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.  

When teaching psychology in college some years back, I encountered several young men whose bravado had led to serious consequences for them.  Two of them were in wrecks while driving cars on dirt roads going 120 mph.  Both had been thrown from their cars and survived, by God’s grace.  The truth is that the amygdala, a tiny, pea-sized organ in our midbrain—that tells us to fight, flee, or freeze when confronted with danger–is not sufficiently connected to the frontal cortex in young men until they reach the age of 25.  Our frontal lobes are the seat of logical thinking and accurate risk assessment.  This weak connection is what is responsible for young men taking unnecessary risks prior to age 25.  Car insurance companies have known that young men are more likely to be involved in wrecks prior to their mid-twenties and have therefore charged them high insurance premiums until age 25.  They had based their decisions on statistics but, until recent brain research, did not understand why.  The amazing thing in this story is that David is not suffering from inadequate risk assessment.  He recognizes the threat Goliath represents, as he has had experience with killing other apex predators.  Instead, his faith in God the Father outweighs or overwhelms his fear.     

He takes his slingshot and gathers 5 smooth stones.  He confronts Goliath verbally first, saying (vv.45-47)—You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.  This day the Lord will hand you over to me, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head.…All those gathered here will know that is it not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s and He will give all of you into our hands.  

Such confident faith in God!  By the way, Biblical scholars think the stones David had were about baseball size, and hit Goliath at about 100 mph.  That kind of strike to the head would kill anyone.  Scholars also believe the extra stones were just in case Goliath’s four sons came for David after the giant’s death.

But look at what happens:  Praise God, David is victorious! The Philistines turn tail and run.  The Israelite army pursued them all the way back to their cities and killed many of them.  David’s unwavering faith in God—despite any fear he had—carried the day!  Real courage is feeling fear rather than denying it, but choosing empowering faith to overcome it. 

Our Psalm (9:9-20) provides further commentary on David’s unfailing faith in God’s protection.  King David appears to have written this psalm later on in his life, as an older, more experienced ruler.  In it, he celebrates God’s vindication of His people.  Some scholars even believe the older, more settled King David was thinking back to this battle with Goliath as he composed it.  David clearly views God as his protection, using images for the Lord like refuge and stronghold.  He is making statements about God drawn right out of his own experiences with the Lord:  In verse 10 he states—Those who know Your name will trust in You for You, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek You.  Additionally, the mature David has seen how those who oppose God reap what they sow (vv.15-16)—The nations have fallen into the pit they have dug; their feet are caught in the net they have hidden…the wicked are ensnared by the work of their hands.

Then we have Paul, in 2 Corinthians 6:1-13, remind us that because we are “in Christ,” we are not to live carnal lives but to demonstrate our faith with our behavior.  We are servants of Christ who endure and persevere through tough times.  We live out purity, love, kindness, understanding, and patience.  We remain truthful even if others slander us.  How do we have the ability to do this?  We are empowered by the Holy Spirit, due to our faith in Jesus.

Like that traumatized parakeet, we may feel at times like we have been sucked in, washed up, or blown over, but we do not give up or give in to fear.  Instead, we hold on to our faith.  We continue to trust in our God.  We do not allow any fear to overcome our faith, but rather call upon our faith to empower us to overcome any person or circumstance we fear.  Amen!  May it be so! 

©️2024 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams

Posted on by Cheryl Norman

Setting Us Right With God

Pastor Sherry’s message for February 25, 2024

Scriptures: Gen 17:1-7, 15-16; Ps 22:23-31; Ro 4:13-25; Mk 8:31-35

I read a humorous story this week.  Again, it has to do with a child’s perception of how things “ought to be”:

“A Sunday School teacher held up a portrait of Christ. She explained to the class that it was not an actual photograph of Christ but only an artist’s conception of what Christ might have looked like.

‘’But,’ said one little girl, ‘you’ve got to admit it looks a lot like him.’’’

(Borrowed from a sermon entitled, “A Pair of Ducks and Abundant Life,” www.sermons.com, 2/23/2024).

Isn’t that just the cutest thing?  I love how literal children tend to be and the humor that often results.  Little kids are trying to figure out how things in life work.  I remember when my 49 year old son was about 2 or two and a half and was trying to figure out animal categories. We had a dog with 4 legs, two ears, and a tail. In his child-logic, he looked at cows and told me (since they had 4 legs, 2 ears, and a tail), “Moo-tows are Biggggg doggies!”

It would be interesting to hear a child’s perspective on the elderly Abraham—at a great-great grandparent age—having a baby and his faith that God’s promise to him could still come true.  This constitutes the focus of several of our readings this morning:

A. In our Old Testament reading, Genesis 171-7, 15-16), God appears to Abraham for the 5th time, and reiterates His Covenant Promises:

God is giving him lots of land (the Promised Land, Canaan, or present day Israel; and even a baby from him and his elderly wife, Sarah.  Notice, the passage emphasized Abraham’s age, 99 (Sarah’s is 89).  God the Father wants Abraham—and us– to know that neither Abe’s biological age, nor his body’s elderly condition, could prevent God’s from fulfilling His promises.

Our God is capable of making awesome promises, with spectacular fulfillments.  The Israelites later did occupy God’s Land Grant.  And, at age 100 for Abraham (and 90 for Sarah), Isaac was born to them.  The Jewish people came from Abe via Isaac, and later Jacob.  The Arab people came from Abe via Ishmael, and Jacob’s twin, Esau.  By now, those two people groups constitute, in fact, millions upon millions of Abraham’s descendants.

B.  Paul is very taken by this fact, as evident in today’s epistle reading from Romans 4:13-25.  He is arguing for Abraham’s faith, and the need for our faith!  He is saying God fulfilled His promises to Abraham not based on anything Abe had done for God (except for trusting in Him).  God fulfilled His promises to Abraham due to Abe’s faith in the Lord to fulfill His promises.  This is so important for us to understand!  We are to trust in God, as Abraham did.  We are not looking for a promised baby in our old age, or a promised land.  We are looking for salvation.  Perhaps we are looking for healing or for peace.  We are anticipating living with God forever in Heaven—our happy ending.  But none of these gifts are due to any of our actions or our works.  Our salvation comes from the actions, the completed work of Jesus Christ and Him alone. 

Who would have thought His death on the Cross and His resurrection would be the means by which God would redeem us?  Who would have thought a 100 year olf man would birth a man who would then go on to have…first 2, then 12, then dozens, then hundreds, then thousands, then millions of descendants?  Clearly Isaiah the Prophet was correct when he quotes God as saying (Isaiah 55:8-9, as per Peterson’s The Message, p.1317)”I don’t think the way you think.  The way you work isn’t the way I work.”  God’s decree.  “For as the sky soars high above earth, so the way I work surpasses the way you work, and the way I think is beyond the way you think.“

Our God makes awesome promises.  He provides spectacular fulfillments.  In deed, He set us right with Himself.

C.  This is why Jesus gets so upset with Peter in today’s Gospel (Mark 8:31-38).  This interaction takes place just after Peter tells Jesus, “You are the Christ,” meaning the Messiah or the Anointed One.  It is also just before Jesus reveals Himself as God on the Mount of Transfiguration—during which Peter is present.  Jesus is trying to tell them all what His mission entails:  To redeem human kind, He must (v.31)— …suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and teachers of the Law, and that He must be killed, and after three days rise again.  Peter was so outraged after hearing this that he probably stopped listening when he heard Jesus say He would be executed.  We can imagine this, can’t we?  It’s just so human.  We don’t want someone we value or love or admire to die early.  Neither do we want them to die a horrible, gruesome death.  No, we want them to continue to live so we can enjoy their presence.  In speaking up so, poor Peter doesn’t realize he has just voiced to Jesus Satan’s short cut—take the crown but reject the cross.  Poor Peter doesn’t realize until he’s said it that Satan has used him to again tempt Jesus.  Jesus’ response is swift, isn’t it? (V.31)—Get behind Me, Satan!  Then He admonishes Peter—You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.  Or, as Peterson paraphrases it, Peter, get out of My way.  You have no idea how God works.”

It’s true, isn’t it?  Peter doesn’t want Jesus to suffer and die.  He wants Him to keep on teaching, interpreting Scripture, healing, and casting out demons…being his friend.  Obviously, these are the desires of men and women, but in this case, not of God.  Having total faith in the Father, Jesus is committed to doing God’s will God’s way.  Nothing will deter Him from it.

He knows His mission is a huge undertaking. It is nothing less than setting us right with God! 

D.  Additionally, Jesus is familiar with Psalm 22.  We will note on Good Friday that the first portion of the psalm predicts Jesus’ thoughts from the Cross.  In the portion assigned to us today, verses 23-31, King David (and later Jesus) assert that they will praise God the Father amidst the congregation of all the people.  Even from the cross, Christ will trust that God still loves Him.  The hours on the cross, when Jesus becomes sin for us, the Father will turn His face from Him.  Nevertheless, He knows His Father is waiting to welcome Him back, to resurrect Him.  Too exhausted to speak, He praises God in His heart, crying out only (v.31) Tetelestai/it is finished.

Jesus’ final words from the cross are that He has completed the work of redemption the Father gave Him to do.  He has set us right with God again.

Thank you, Jesus, for Your courage and bravery!  Thank you for Your great agapeo (New Testament)/hesed (Old Testament) love for us.  Your loyal, everlasting, long-suffering love for us.  Thank You that You love us enough to have done for us what we could not do for ourselves.  Thank you for setting us right with God.

None of us knows what You look like, but I’ll bet Your face in Your resurrected body is beautiful.  (Isaiah said that His face would be unremarkable in His first Coming, so as to not attract the kind of fame a rock star gathers about himself; see Isaiah 53:2.)  Keith Greene, a Christian musician who died at 28 years old–way too young–in a 1982 plane crash, wrote and sang a song about the face of Christ.  The words go like this: 

Oh Lord, You’re beautiful,

Your face is all I see,

For when Your eyes are on this child,

Your grace abounds to me.

I want to take Your word and shine it all around

But first help me just to live it, Lord

And when I’m doing well help me to never seek a crown

For my reward is giving glory to You.

Oh Lord, please light the fire

That once burned bright and clean

Replace the lamp of my first love 

That burns with holy fear.

Oh Lord, You’re beautiful,

Your face is all I see,

For when Your eyes are on this child,

Your grace abounds to me.

Listen here.

May it be so for each of us.  Amen and Amen.

©️2024 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams 

Posted on by Cheryl Norman

Heavenly Surprises!

Pastor Sherry’s message for February 11, 2024 

Scriptures: 2 Kings 2:1-12; Ps 50:1-6; 2 Cor 4:3-6; Mk 9:2-9

Last Sunday, my kids, grandkids, and I all drove up to Valdosta, GA, to see the first three episodes of season 4 of “The Chosen.”  If you have not tuned in to watch it, I highly recommend it.  It very closely follows Scripture.  And the actor who plays Jesus does a phenomenal job!  You can purchase the first three seasons’ worth on video now.

I won’t spoil the suspense, but let me just say that season 4 begins with Jesus’ frustration over the fact that His disciples do not really understand His mission.  We saw last week, in Mark 1:29-39, that they assumed He would remain in Capernaum, healing all that needed Him there.

He assertively redirected them.  He told them in v. 38 Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also.  That is why I have come.  His mission was greater than serving just Capernaum.  They kept trying to guide Him here and there–or to protect Him from this Roman soldier or that Pharisee–according to their ideas of what the Messiah should be doing.  But He kept gently resisting their need to control or to shape His ministry.

Imagine, then, how unsettling it must have been for Peter, James and John to have witnessed Jesus’ transfiguration!  Isn’t it true that we form these ideas of how God should act, and then are so surprised or even shocked when He behaves in ways we never imagined?  Let’s look at what our Scriptures today have to say about this phenomenon:

A. The Gospel (Mark 9: 2-9) is Peter’s (via John Mark) account of the Transfiguration.  Peter had earlier proclaimed to Jesus (in Mark 8:29)—You are the Christ (Lk 9:20—the Christ of God).  The word, Christ, remember, is a title—the Greek word for anointed one, or Messiah, in the Hebrew.  Peter gets that Jesus is indeed the long awaited Messiah.

Luke tells us it was about 8 days after this (Mark tell us it was 6) that Jesus took the three with Him (9:28)—…onto a mountain to pray.  Imagine their thoughts when they observed Him in all of His heavenly glory!

Luke describes His face changing, and His clothes…(v.29)—…became as bright as a flash of lightning.  Mark (v.3) describes the same thing this way—His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them.  Matthew writes (17:2)—His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light.  They used the words they had to describe the incredible brightness of how Jesus shone.  These three disciples were being treated to a mind-blowing sight!  (I have seen something similar as I work with clients who are in a residential treatment center for addictions and mental health issues.  Their pictures are taken when they first arrive; but as they learn, grow, and heal, their visages change so as to be almost unrecognizable from those original photographs.  There is a transformation that takes place that is seemingly miraculous.)

In addition, the three disciples see the long dead but clearly resurrected Moses and Elijah talking with Jesus.  If that were not all, then they are treated to hearing the actual voice of God the Father speaking from out of a cloud (v.7)—This is My Son Whom I love.  Listen to Him!  (not to your ideas of what He should do, but to My ideas….) 

If you had been there to witness this Heavenly Surprise, wouldn’t you have been shaken up? Jesus is not just the long-awaited for Messiah, the Christ, the anointed One.  He is God incarnate!  How would that realization shape your responses to Him?  How would that new, earth-shaking knowledge shift your ideas of what he can and cannot, should or should not do?  I believe any of us would immediately move to “Who are we to try to direct Him to do what we want?”  Or, “Who are we to try to protect Him from anyone?”

B.  Our Psalm (50:1-6) fits this set of insights so nicely.  Asaph, the choir director, tells us that when God speaks (v.1)—He…summons the earth from the rising of the sun to the place where it sets.  Our most powerful God has created the sun and set the earth into an orbit such that it appears the sun rises and sets over planet earth.  Additionally, God manifests in fire and tempests, when He appears in judgment.  He is so powerful that when He summons the heavens or the earth, these great celestial creations do His will.  Asaph wants us to realize (v.6) our God is all powerful and totally righteous…and so too is Jesus!

Scripture talks about Mary, Jesus’ Mother, who (Luke 3:51)— treasured all these things in her heart.  Can’t you just picture Peter, James, and John all doing the same?  Pondering this great heavenly surprise; trying to process it, to figure out what this meant for and to them.

C.  This is what Paul is referring to in 2 Corinthians 4:3-6.  He directly follows this up in verse 7—We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.

What is the treasure to which Paul is referring?  It is the knowledge that Jesus Christ is God Himself, come to live among us and to die to redeem us.  What are the jars of clay?  Those are us!  We are fragile repositories of this great and precious knowledge.

Paul describes Jesus among us as a light (v.6)—like the light of His transfiguration—which shine[s] out of the darkness.  It illuminates this dark world.  It guides us and gives us comfort.  Best of all, this light of Christ, this heavenly surprise— shine[s] in our heats to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.  Jesus draws us into His redeeming light.  Knowing Jesus, loving Jesus, ensures we will dwell with Him in His light eternally.

D. Then we have this unusual passage from 2 Kings 2:1-12.

What a send-off for a mighty prophet!  Elisha, his loyal side-kick, goes with Elijah on his farewell tour.  Directed by the Lord, they say goodbye to prophets at Gilgal, Bethel, and Jericho.  Elisha remains with his mentor as they cross the Jordan River, moving outside the Promised Land.

Then Elijah asks Elisha what he wants (v.9)—”Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit,” Elisha replied.  It may sound greedy to us, but what it meant was that Elisha saw himself as Elijah’s spiritual son and wanted what a firstborn son would inherit from his father, a double-portion (all the rest got divided among any other children).  He was essentially asking to be equipped to carry on his spiritual father’s ministry.

This was a difficult request for Elijah to honor as the prerogative to instill Elisha with Elijah’s power belonged to God alone.  God must have quickly told the older prophet that the heir would know his request had been granted if he saw Elijah jet off to heaven.  This is exactly what happens!

What a heavenly surprise, what a dramatic exit!  Elijah is carried away by a chariot and horses of fire.  Elisha witnesses this and knows his request has been granted.  He grieves the loss of his mentor, but he is allowed to see that Elijah is…taken up to heaven, bodily, without dying—like Enoch (see Genesis 5:24); and taken away outside the promised land without leaving a grave, like Moses.  This is a bigger deal than the funeral of a king.  The Lord is saying Elijah, and now Elisha–and not an apostate king–is the true representative of God on earth.

Once again, in a spectacular fashion, our Lord demonstrates the truth of Isaiah 55:8-9—”For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord.  “As the heavens are higher than the earth so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.”  Who would think that the Lord would carry off His prophet in a fiery chariot?  Who would think Jesus would appear to His 3 favorites as His pre-Incarnate, heavenly self?  How terrific of God to frame these events in bright lights and pyrotechnics we might never even think of!  If we had seen them, our faith would never waver, would it?

Not only that, but do you see that our Lord is capable of spectacular surprises?  Peter, James, and John must have been blown away by what they saw and heard on the Mount of Transfiguration with Jesus.  Elisha, too, must have pondered what he had seen at length.  Such events expand exponentially our concept of what God is capable of.

Additionally, as the disciples eventually discovered, we don’t want to be found thinking we can direct God or dictate to Jesus what He will do.  If we do, we will find ourselves highly disappointed.  We hear people express anger because God did not do what they prayed for.  The truth is we can ask, but we cannot demand.  He will answer, but He may tell us “Yes,” “No,” or “Not yet.”  We need to remember that God is God and we are not.

©️2024 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams

Posted on by Cheryl Norman

The Transforming Power of the Holy Spirit

Pastor Sherry’s Message for January 14, 2024

Scriptures: Gen 1:1-5; Ps 29; Acts 19:1-7; Mk1:1-11

The story is told that Dwight L. Moody—the great American evangelist who lived in the later part of the 1800’s—while witnessing to a large group of folks, asked how he might get the air out of a simple drinking glass. One listener shouted out that he should pump all the air out. Moody listened attentively, but replied that pumping the air out would create a vacuum, which would result in shattering the glass. He patiently heard some other suggestions, then took a nearby pitcher of water and calmly filled the glass. “’There,’ he said, ‘all the air is now removed.’ He then went on to explain that victory in the Christian life is not accomplished by “sucking out a sin here and there,” but by being filled with the Holy Spirit.”

(Illustration borrowed from Today in the Word, September, 1991, p. 30.)

Our Scriptures today each provide examples of the power of the Holy Spirit, perhaps as a way of encouraging each of us to be filled with the Spirit:

A. The Genesis account cited this morning (1:1-5) places the Holy Spirit at the beginning of creation. We are told that the Spirit hovered over the face of the water. Let’s read Peterson’s modern paraphrase of these 1st two verses (The Message, p.20) First this: God created the Heavens and Earth—all you see, all you don’t see. Earth was a soup of nothingness, a bottomless emptiness, an inky blackness. God’s Spirit brooded like a bird above the watery abyss.

Then God (the Apostle John tells us this was Jesus) spoke the first element of creation into existence. What came first? Light. He formed light and separated it from darkness. The Holy Spirit empowered the formation of day and night. The Holy Spirit is God’s power source. A former pastor of mine used to explain the Spirit as the electricity that flows behind our walls. We plug into it, and become empowered. But then we sin and pull our plug out and lose our power. The analogy is helpful but somewhat simplistic as the Holy Spirit is not just confined to our walls. Nevertheless, the metaphor poses the question: Are you cooperating with the creative, transformative power of the Holy Spirit in your life? Are you staying plugged in?

B. Our psalm (29) compares the powerful voice of the Lord to a storm in nature. We’ve had a few of these this week, haven’t we? We could hear the wind, a very strong wind (65-75 mph; some reported gusts to 105).

We could see our long, leggy, Florida pine trees bending over from the wind’s force. We saw the sky darken, as rain clouds rushed in. The rain commenced and quickly turned into a torrent. If you were in it, you wanted out of it; if you were in your house, you expected the lights to flicker or go out. Some of us did experience temporary power outages.

King David wrote Psalm 29 and it is clear that he is familiar with the voice of the Lord in all its manifestations: (1) Like in Genesis 1, (v.3)—the voice of the Lord is over the waters. (2) (V.4)—the voice of the Lord is powerful. (3) (V.5)—The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars. (4)

(V.7)—The voice of the Lord strikes with flashes of lightning. (5) (V.8)—The voice of the Lord shakes the desert. (6) (V.9)—The voice of the Lord twists the oak and strips the forests bare. David wants us to be aware of God’s mighty power, which He tends to use to (v.11)—…give strength to His people. His Holy Spirit power could function as a massive destructive force. But instead, He intends the Holy Spirit (1) to lead us to the Truth; (2) to heal us; (3) to help us understand Scripture; (4) to be our companion and friend; and (5) to remind us of the teachings of Jesus.

C. On his 3rd missionary journey, Paul traveled to Ephesus from Corinth. He stayed for 2 years, teaching folks at the Greek School of Tyrannus about Jesus. When he realized that 12 disciples (who had come to Christ through the teaching of Apollos) had been baptized by water, but lacked the Holy Spirit, he saw to it that they were also baptized with the Holy Spirit. The baptism of John the Baptist, which was the only one Apollos knew of at the time, is a baptism of repentance for sins, and places us under the leadership of Jesus. But the baptism of the Holy Spirit is what changes our behavior, our attitudes, and even the words that come out of our mouths. Paul wanted the Ephesian disciples to have the power of the Holy Spirit in their lives. The Holy Spirit lives in our hearts, but can you discern a difference in yourself as a result of His presence? Do others see evidence of the Spirit’s transforming power in your life?

D. Finally, in our Gospel lesson, the baptism of Jesus (Mark 1:1-11), we see that the power of the Holy Spirit came upon Jesus as He submitted to John’s water baptism. Jesus was without sin—He did not need a baptism of repentance, but He underwent the ritual in order to identify with our humanity. When He did, the heavens opened and…the Holy Spirit descended upon Him, empowering Him for His public ministry. He also heard His heavenly Father bless and affirm Him, saying (v.11)—You are my Son, whom I love; with You I am well pleased.

Even Jesus, the 2nd member of the Trinity, needed the power of the Holy Spirit at work in Him—energizing Him to teach and preach, and empowering Him to do miracles.

Before leaving Florida to attend seminary, I asked some Christian friends to pray with me for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. We went out to the beach at night and prayed in a pergola perched in the sand. It took a while, but I felt a strong wind come up and blow in my face. It didn’t exactly howl, but it did moan. If you have ever walked the beach during a “nor-easter,” you know the wind comes at you so strongly that you can hardly take a breath. That’s what it was like for me. Afterward, I asked the others if they heard the moaning wind and if they had had trouble catching a breath. They told me they had neither heard nor felt what I did. God had directed that wind of the Spirit just to affect me. In a similar way, when the Bishop laid hands on me to ordain me much later, I felt a huge weight descend on my head. I wondered if the Bishop was trying to push me through the floor. Later I realized the Hebrew word for God’s holiness is kavod, which also means the weightiness of God. The Lord conferred on me both His Holy Spirit power and His sign that He had set me apart for ministry. Praise God!

Todays’ readings compel us to ask, “Are you cooperating with the creative, transformative power of the Holy Spirit in your life?” Our Lord wants to make us more and more like Jesus—and He has the power to pull it off! Are we assisting this process in ourselves, or are we hindering it? He will not force Himself upon us. We have to agree to baptized with the Spirit. Are we willing to take charge of what comes out of our mouths, instead of just allowing ugliness to slip out? Are we willing to restrict our own behavior, doing what will bless but not harm other people? Do we believe that God is with us in the storm, and that He will see us through it? Do we listen for and hear the voice of the Lord in our lives?

Today, let’s pray for a fresh anointing of the Holy Spirit on each of us, as we continue to move in 2024: Father God, we ask in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth—our true Lord Jesus Christ—that you would send your Holy Spirit to anoint each of us with Holy Spirit power. Power to do the ministries You have set out for us. Power to cooperate with the Spirit and be molded and shaped into better people. Transformative power to become more and more like your son, Jesus. We pray this in Jesus’ precious and most powerful name. Amen!

©️2024 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams

Posted on by Cheryl Norman

Waiting on Jesus

Pastor Sherry’s message for December 3, 2023

Scriptures: Isa 64:1-9; Ps 80:1-7, 17-19; 1 Cor 1:3-9; Mk 13:24-37

Waiting is difficult, isn’t it? Think of all the times you’ve had to wait…

1. Would you get the job you just interviewed for?

2. What about the results of that medical test or scan you just underwent?

3. Did that person you fell in love with also love you back—remember the agony of that wait?

4. Would your child get into the college or internship of their choice?

5. Would your house sell? Would the sellers of the house you want accept your offer?

6. How about that last month of pregnancy? Would that baby ever make an entrance?

7. What about waiting on a grant to come through or a check in the mail?

8. How about those hostages of Hamas, waiting to be set free, or their families, dying to know how they are?

9. Remember being a kid and having to wait for Christmas morning to finally arrive?

Most of us hate to wait. We wring our hands. We pace the floor. We lose sleep. We grumble and groan and complain. We engage in what addiction counselors are now calling “BEEPS” Behaviors, Experiences, Events, People, and/or Substances that help us self-medicate or suffocate our anxiety as we wait.

(Ed Khouri, Restarting, Life Model Works, 2010, p.32.)

If we’re really smart, we pray and ask God to help us wait, so that we can learn what He means for us to learn during this time; so that we may develop the spiritual fruit of patience.

Today is the first Sunday of Advent—a time of great anticipation as we wait upon the arrival of Jesus.

A. In Isaiah 64:1-7, the prophet reminds us both that God controls the entire universe and that our condition as humans is that of unclean sinners (vv.5-7). Verses 1-2 constitute a cry, a plea for God to come down to earth, to defeat Israel’s enemies (and ours), and to make things right.

Isaiah recalls times God did intervene on the behalf of Israel doing (v.3)—…awesome things that we did not expect. He also reminds them and us, (vv.4-5)—Since ancient times, no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God beside You, who acts on behalf of those who wait [there it is, wait] for Him. You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember Your ways. In other words, we can and should call upon God for help when we are troubled or anxious, when we are worn out with waiting. Isaiah assures us God will respond!

But notice, the prophet attaches this caveat: God rescues those who do the right thing, who remember to do as God would have us do.

I have told you before that I had some difficulty and fear around selling my house when I was leaving seminary. I had listed it in September of 2001, but then 9/11 took place and no one in SW Pennsylvania was buying or selling homes. By January 21, 2002, I had completed my degree but still had no buyers for my home. Worse yet, I had no job and no money. I was sick with a cold and would awaken all through the night whenever I became too congested to breathe. I would take something then return to bed, begging God in prayer to sell my house. Finally, at about 4am, I asked the Lord if I were doing something or not doing something that served as an impediment to Him taking action. I heard Him say, in my spirit, that I had not surrendered to being a lead pastor. He was of course right. I had thought to assist someone, as my gifts are in teaching and counseling, not in administration or leadership. I immediately agreed to surrender to His will, got up at 8:00am, and sent off letters to 4 small parishes in North Florida (I wanted to go home and I wanted a church small enough so I could know everyone’s names.) I put those letters in the mail at 10:30am on January 22nd. My realtor called at 11am with a couple interested in my house. They came at 5:00pm that day and signed a contract by 8:30pm. Additionally, I needed to close on February 7th as my next mortgage payment was due on the 8th and I knew I would be unable to pay it. My Jewish realtor said there wasn’t enough time to make that happen, but I replied that she did not know my Jesus. Sure enough, we closed on my house on the 7th, thanks be to God! I learned from this that God sometimes waits for us to change before He moves on our behalf. We have to be willing to ask if our wills are blocking His will and take action to rectify that.

Finally, Isaiah reminds us in this passage that we are like clay in the great Potter’s hands. We want to conform to His will. We want to allow Him to mold and shape us into the image of our best selves. When we wait upon God to act, God is working on our character, transforming us more and more into the image and likeness of Jesus. We may hate to wait, but God uses that time to do a work in us.

B. Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19, is both a prayer for God to relieve the peoples’ suffering—especially after an attack by brutal enemies—and a plea for God to lead them again. The psalmist, Asaph, a contemporary of King David, appeals to God as our shepherd king as He is enthroned in heaven. He is asking God to move on behalf of His people. In the desert wanderings, the ark and the cloud would move out for the days’ march. This signified that God was their leader. When camped, three tribes situated themselves to the north of the ark, three to the east, three to the west, and three to the south, with God at their center. When they moved, however, the tribe of Benjamin, along with the half-tribes of Joseph’s sons Ephraim and Manasseh (remember, Benjamin and Joseph were Jacob’s two favorite sons), would past like the Red Sea, allow the Ark to lead them, then follow directly behind. Then the other 9 tribes would all fall in behind them as well.

Asaph asks for God’s favor (v.3)—Restore us, O God: Make Your face shine upon us, that we may be saved (This is repeated 3 times). This is a poetic way of saying, smile at us. Demonstrate on your face that you enjoy being with us. Picture how people hold an infant and smile as they talk baby-talk to the new little one. Our faces often “shine upon” or look with great favor upon babies when we talk to them.

He also uses the images of eating and drinking tears to describe how much Israel has suffered. Some biblical experts believe there is no nation ever that has suffered to the degree that Israel has—and survived. (J. Vernon McGee, Commentary on Psalms, Chapters 42-89, Thomas Nelson, 1991, p.5.) According to Paul, as he writes in Romans 11, the Jews have suffered because they rejected Jesus as the Messiah when He walked among them. However, when “the time of the Gentiles” is over–or after the Church is raptured–and when the Great Tribulation begins, there will be a huge harvest of God’s original chosen people, as they finally recognize Jesus Christ as their Messiah.

Indeed, verse 17 predicts that Messiah, Jesus, will be standing at God’s right hand and will come (2nd Coming) to save them. We are to await that great day with hope and faith.

C. In 1 Corinthians 1:3-9, Paul refers to Jesus Christ a total of 5 times in 7 verses. The season of Advent calls upon us to be a waiting people. Who or what are we waiting for? Paul asserts it is Jesus, the end all and be all of our lives. And Paul assures us He will impart to us grace with which to await His 2nd Coming.

D. Finally, in our Gospel lesson (Mark 13:24-37) we are reminded, as we wait, of Jesus’ 2nd Coming. At the Incarnation, Jesus’ 1st Coming, God broke into human history, as a flesh and blood infant person. He came to preach, teach, heal, encourage, and to demonstrate to us God’s great saving love for us. When He comes again, it will be as the Great King of the Universe, and as a conquering military hero, to judge all the people of the earth. He will liberate all of the Christ-followers who are left from the effects of a fallen world.

His 2nd arrival will follow what the news media will probably proclaim as great heavenly catastrophes and climate change calamities: The sun and the moon will no longer give off light (the light source will be God the Father and Jesus). The stars will fall and planets will change their orbits. Non-believers will be horrified, terrified of what is to come. But Jesus will have already gathered to Himself the Church in the Rapture, and will at that time, then gather in those who have come to believe in Him through the Great Tribulation. Christ’s warning to us is clear: We are to be ready for when this happens…this afternoon or tonight, next month or next year. We don’t know the hour or the day, but while we wait, we need to get ready.

We hate to wait, so what can we do to help us wait with grace and peace? First it helps to understand that waiting can reveal to us our true motives. Are we committed enough to take some time. Or, are we so “me focused” that we are impatient and won’t postpone gratification?

Second, waiting builds the spiritual fruit of patience. The old saw goes, “Don’t pray for patience. If you do, God will put you in a situation that requires that you develop it.” God will and does answer that prayer, but you may wish He had taught you that virtue another way.

Third, waiting builds anticipation, so that we better appreciate those things that did not come to us immediately.

Fourth, waiting builds intimacy with and dependence upon God. Remember that waiting is the crucible of the saints! Back before pills were packaged, pharmacists used a mortal and pestle to pulverize substances into powder form, then sold the compounds they created in little bags. We are like those substances, with God grinding out our impurities as we wait. We are not alone in having to wait. In fact, waiting is a grand Biblical tradition: Abraham waited 25 years for Isaac; (his descendants waited 440 years to inherit the Land). Jacob, his grandson, worked for Laban 21 years before returning to “the Land” as Israel. Joseph was a slave in Egypt in Potipher’s house for 7 years, then in prison for another 7 before being raised second only to Pharaoh. Moses waited 40 years in Egypt, then another 40 years as a shepherd in Midian, before he led the nation of Israel out of bondage. King David was anointed by Samuel, then waited 20 years to become king. Jesus was 30 before beginning His ministry.

As I have said before, waiting molds and shapes our character. God uses it to train us to trust and to persevere. God uses the time to burn off or grind down our impurities (impatience, anxiousness, bad temper, Beeps). God uses it to make us dependent upon Himself. The result, if we wait and trust, is fantastic! The prophet Isaiah wrote in 40:31—Those who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength. They shall run and not grow weary; they shall walk and not be faint.

We have a God who keeps His promises! Let us wait upon Him and His timing with grace and in faith. In this season of Advent, let’s not grow anxious or impatient. But, instead, let’s trust in God’s goodness and loving kindness towards us, and in His perfect timing!

©️2023 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams

Posted on by Cheryl Norman

Reckless Love

Pastor Sherry’s message for October 15, 2023

Scriptures: Ex 32:1-14; Ps 106:1-6, 19-23; Phil 4:1-9; Matt 22:1-14

Back in 2017, Corey Asbury, a worship leader at the Bethel Church in Redding, California, wrote a worship song called “Reckless Love.” The lyrics go like this:

Before I spoke a word, You were singing over me.
You have been so, so good to me.
Before I took a breath, You breathed Your life in me.
You have been so, so kind to me.
Oh the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God!
Oh it chases me down, fights til I’m found, leaves the 99.
I couldn’t earn it and I don’t deserve it;
Still You give yourself away.
Oh the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God!
When I was Your foe, still Your love fought for me.
You have been so, so good to me.
When I felt no worth, You paid it all for me.
You have been so, so kind to me.
Oh the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God!
There’s no shadow You won’t light up,
No mountain You won’t climb up, coming after me.
There’s no wall you won’t kick down,
Lie You won’t tear down, coming after me.

It’s pretty clear from his song that Corey Asbury has experienced God’s intentional, loving pursuit of him. He’s a grateful man. He’s fallen in love with God because God has “recklessly,” unrelentingly sought him out. We can all be grateful that our God has not given up on any of us.

Now some well-meaning critics have taken issue with Corey’s characterization of God’s love as reckless. Asbury addressed this in a facebook post:

“Many have asked me for clarity on the phrase, ‘reckless love.’ Many have wondered why I’d use a “negative” word to describe God. His love isn’t cautious. No, it’s a love that sent His Own Son to die a gruesome death on a cross. There’s no ‘Plan B’ with the love of God. He gives His heart so completely, so preposterously, that if refused, most would consider it irreparably broken. Yet He gives Himself away again. The recklessness of His love is seen most clearly in this – it gets Him hurt over and over. Make no mistake, our sin pains His heart. And ‘70 times 7’ is a lot of times to have Your heart broken. Yet He opens up and allows us in every time. His love saw you when you hated Him – when all logic said, ‘They’ll reject me,’ He said, ‘I don’t care if it kills me. I’m laying My heart on the line.’ To get personal, His love saw me, a broken down kid with regret as deep as the ocean; my innocence and youth poured out like water. Yet, He saw fit to use me for His kingdom because He’s just that kind. I didn’t earn it and I sure as heck don’t deserve it, but He’s just that good. Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God.”

This is the theme of our readings today. With God’s reckless love for us in mind, let’s examine them together:

A. Psalm 106:1-6, 19-23, as we have seen before, is an historical psalm. It almost reads as a confession of Israel’s sins of not trusting in God and of continuously rebelling against Him. In today’s portion, the incident of the golden calf is memorialized. Lord, have mercy! They had just been dramatically rescued by the Lord, and then given the 10 Commandments, only to break the 1st and 2nd ones once Moses was away for 40 days. They incorrectly assumed he was dead (Remember the saying, “assume makes an a__ out of u and me”). They further erred in believing that the God Who had just made covenant with them had abandoned them! Rather than trust, pray, and wait to see what would happen, they lapsed into idolatry. What foolishness! God had proven His faithfulness to them.

He had protected them and provided for them. But, by a month or so later, they had forgotten it all. They let their fears overcome their good sense and their past experience with God.

Isn’t this so like us? Things aren’t going well for us. So, rather than remember all that God has done for us in the past, we focus on what He does not appear to be doing in the present. I recommend that you write down on a 3 by 5 card the encounters you know you have had with God—times you know He has been there for you and has arranged circumstances to bless you. Tape it to your bathroom mirror, to your dresser top, or to your car dashboard so you can remind yourself of God’s faithful, reckless love for you. He really does deserve greater faithfulness from us.

B. Our Exodus passage (32:1-14) describes the golden calf incident in greater detail. Aaron, Moses’ older brother, has just been made high priest. His job was to lead worship that glorified God; and help the people develop a right or proper relationship with the Lord. Instead of doing his God-appointed job, he caved to their demands (he became a people-pleaser rather than a God-pleaser) and dared to fashion the golden calf idol! YIKES! Later, when caught (vv.22-24), he will tell Moses he threw the people’s gold into the fire and a golden calf just jumped out. Oops, Aaron also broke the 9th commandment against lying. Additionally, the pagan idol reminded the people of pagan religious orgies. The Hebrew word for revelry is strongly suggestive of sexual misbehavior. Instead of remaining pure and chaste, as God desired of them, a number of them engaged in sexual acts abhorrent to Him.

No wonder God is disappointed and angry! Do you know that anger is the smoke whereas hurt is the burning coals underneath? Anger is generally a response to having been offended or realizing someone we love has been injured. God must have been so hurt that they would abandon Him so soon.

How ridiculous of them to want to worship something made by human hands, instead of the Creator Himself! Where’s the power in something they created? And how can one have a relationship with an inanimate gold statue?

In verses 11-13, Moses intercedes to God for them. It’s fairly easy to ask God to grant us our prayer-needs. In intercessory prayer, however, we offer up someone else’s needs. This is truly an example of loving our neighbor as ourselves. God had contemplated wiping them all out and forming a new nation from Moses and his progeny. But Moses selflessly reminds God of His long-suffering love for them. He points out how killing them all off in the desert will look to the Egyptians. He also reminds Him of His covenant promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: (1) Progeny—they will multiply their descendants until their number is like that of the stars in the sky or the grains of sand on the beach; (2) Property—He means to settle them in the Promised Land; (3) Protection from enemies; (4) His Presence with them; (and,5, the promise of Prosperity He made to Abraham).

God listened to Moses. Out of His “reckless love,” God relents. Thank God for Moses’ love and loyalty to the people. Thank God for His own goodness and kindness to them and to us.

C. In our Gospel lesson (Matthew 22:1-14), Jesus continues dialoging with the chief priests and the Jewish religious leaders.

The confrontation began when they challenged His authority (21:23-27).

You may remember that two Sundays ago we learned He took them to task for their willfulness, arrogance, and hard-heartedness. Last Sunday we read that He told a parable in which He predicted His death and also that His Church will take over from the Jews the mission of leading people to God.

In today’s Parable of the Wedding Banquet (Matthew 22:1-14), He issues a third prophetic warning. The certain king is God the Father. It is God Who has prepared a wedding banquet for His Son, Jesus. The Jewish Chosen People had been invited to this banquet, (v.3)…but they refused to come. He invites them again, but some are otherwise occupied and blow off the invitation, rudely and heedlessly offending God. A confession I learned as an 8th grader, from the 1928 Episcopal Book of Common Prayer, says “We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. There is no health in us.” The devices and desires are our own plans that get in the way of following God’s plans. Others mistreat or kill the servants (the prophets) He sends to gather them in. As a result, the King (v.7) sent His army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. (This actually happened in 70AD when the Roman Titus burned Jerusalem and destroyed the Temple. No doubt any of these religious leaders alive at that time were killed in that punitive action.) Then the King invites anyone His servants can locate—this refers to we Gentiles, to us! He even provides, out of His extravagant love for us, wedding clothes which are the righteousness of Christ. Jesus is thus warning them ahead of time that no one will enter into God’s Kingdom or heaven except through faith in Jesus Christ.

Through Jesus’ teachings and model, the Father had shown His people what was necessary for them to come to His banquet. Really, due to God’s reckless and extravagant love, all are invited (See John 3:16.). However, many refuse to believe in Jesus and miss out. Jesus is graciously and lovingly inviting the religious authorities—and us–yet again, to accept God’s invitation. The choice involves faith in Jesus. Those who reject God’s Son, will be ultimately thrown into…the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (v.13).

Our God has gone to great lengths—including sending Jesus to die a gruesome death on a cross—to redeem us, to save us, and to win our love for Him. He so courageously puts Himself out there, daily, hourly, for each one of us. How many of us would be willing to do so for another? For years I have protected myself with a “three times rule”: Offer friendship or love 3 times and if rejected each time, I stop after three. I tend not to trust that person and to afterward hold them at arm’s length. I forgive them and pray for them, but I am unwilling to risk my heart again. But Corey Asbury contrasts my self-protective stance with that of God: Yet He gives Himself away again. The recklessness of His love is seen most clearly in this – it gets Him hurt over and over. How amazing and how brave! Rather than being as fickle and faithless as the Israelites, or as self-protective as me, let us consciously commit ourselves to returning His relentless, reckless love, now and always. Amen!

©️2023 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams

Posted on by Cheryl Norman

Render to God

Pastor Sherry’s message for October 22, 2023

Scriptures: Ex 33:12-23; Ps 99; 1 Thess 1:1-10, Matt 22:15-22

Today’s Gospel (Matt 22:15-22) recounts another confrontation between Jesus and Jewish leaders. The story is told that a…young woman…”was soaking up the sun’s rays on a Florida beach when a little boy in his swimming trunks, carrying a towel, came up to her and asked her, “Do you believe in God?” She was surprised by the question but she replied, “Why, yes, I do.” Then he asked her: “Do you go to church every Sunday?” Again, her answer was “Yes!” He then asked: “Do you read your Bible and pray every day?” Again she said, “Yes!” By now her curiosity was very much aroused. The little boy sighed with relief and said, “Will you hold my [dollar] while I go in swimming?” (As relayed by http://www.Sermons.com, 10/22/2023.)

This child was wisely trying to discover if the young woman was trust-worthy and honest enough for him to entrust her with his cash. But in our Gospel lesson today, the Pharisees and Herodians (a political party loyal to King Herod) were neither wise nor honest. They were unwilling to put their trust in Jesus. They really weren’t even all that interested in his input on an issue of doctrine. They were, in fact, hoping to trip Him up and make Him look bad enough to arrest.

If He supported paying a hated tax—and it was hated—they figured He could not have been their Messiah. Additionally, the coin used to pay the tax, a dinar, had Caesar’s image on it. Jews weren’t allowed to put the likeness of a human face on their coins—so this was already an offense to them. Even worse, the inscription on the coin declared that Caesar was the “Son of God” and “High Priest.” They firmly believed their Messiah would never condone such coinage. However, if He told them not to pay the tax, they could turn Him over to Rome as an instigator of rebellion. To defy Rome in those days usually led to painful death.

But Jesus is absolutely brilliant in His answer, isn’t He? He points out that the coin has Caesar’s image on it. Then without committing Himself to either choice they provided, He simply tells them to render (give or deliver) to Caesar what belongs to him and to God, what belongs to Him. Now the Romans had provided a unified coinage, good roads, and law and order throughout the empire. In other words, Jesus is saying that citizens should be expected to pay Caesar for such perks.

But, what has God provided them/us? How about life, for starters? A beautiful world in which to live? Skills and talents with which to make our way in this world? Family, friends, a nation to provide us with a sense of identity, and a sense of belonging in community? And let us not forget, Someone much bigger and more powerful than us to both give us standards to live by, and provide Himself as a divine entity to Whom we may direct our love and worship? Jesus raises the issue of what we should render to God, but He doesn’t specify His answer in this Gospel lesson, does He?

I think a case can be made that our other passages today provide some answers:

A. In our Old Testament lesson, Exodus 33:12-23, Moses expresses to God his wish to know Him (to see Him). We know Moses met with Him on the mountain top to receive the 10 Commandments, additional laws, and the design for the Tabernacle (Chapters 20-31). Did he see God up there? Not exactly. John 1:18 tells us that no one has ever seen God. So Who did Moses see whenever he visited the tabernacle to meet with the Lord? In John 14:9, Jesus says, Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father. Jesus is the full revelation of the Father in human form. So, Moses was meeting with the Pre-incarnate Son of God, Jesus (in the Old Testament, He is often called “the Angel of the Lord”—not “an angel” but “the Angel”).

One verse before our lesson today reports The LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend. Moses spoke with Jesus but did not see the face of the Father. In this passage, however, Moses expresses a desire to see the Father, face-to-face. He wants to know the Father more intimately. This is what Paul means when he says in Philippians 3:10—>I want to know Christ…. This is what Philip was referring to when he asked Jesus in John 14:8, Lord, show us the Father…. Rev. Dr. J. Vernon McGee writes (Commentary on Exodus, chapters 19-40, Thomas Nelson, 1991, p.120)—>”I believe every sincere child of God has a desire to know God.”

Now consider the Father’s response to Moses (v.20)—>You cannot see My face, for no one may see Me and live. He is going to pass before Moses, but He will shield the man from viewing His face.

Instead, Moses will see God “in his rearview mirror.” In other words, Moses has asked to become very intimate with God and the Lord has allowed it.

What does this mean to us? It means that if we pursue friendship with God as Moses did, our God will allow us this kind of intimacy with Himself.

We can render to God a desire to know Him intimately, to walk with Him daily, and to talk with Him often.

B. Psalm 99 celebrates God’s kingly might and His holiness. It calls upon all believers to praise the Lord. We are to praise Him because

1.) He reigns and is exalted over all the earth;

2.) He is holy and reigns justly. He does what is right, always.

(Wouldn’t we love to see this in our elected officials at all levels?)

3.) He answers prayers.

4.) He is present to His people of old and to us now.

5.) He forgives our sins, yet punishes us when we deserve it.

Verse 6 admonishes us to Exalt the Lord our God and worship at His holy mountain, for the Lord our God is holy. The psalm reminds us to render to our God worship and praise.

C. Paul commends the infant church in Thessalonica (1 Thessalonians 1:1-10), for living out the Christian virtues of faith, hope, and love. They had turned from idolatry to faith in Christ Jesus. This was their work produced by faith (v.3). They experienced considerable persecution for their faith, but persevered regardless. Second, they labored for the faith because of their love for Jesus (and Paul). Love compelled their obedience to God (and to Paul’s teachings about Jesus). Love for God is expressed by us in our obedience to Him. Third, despite persecution by nonbelievers, their endurance [was] inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ (v.3). Their hope was in Jesus’ 2nd Coming—so is ours! Their hope did not reside in human heroes, political movements, presidential candidates, or the alignment of the stars, etc. It rested firmly on Jesus.

Martin Luther, the Protestant reformer once stated, “Everything that is done in the world is done by hope.” The British poet, Alexander Pope, wrote, “Hope springs eternal in the human breast.” Our own statesman and past president, Thomas Jefferson, said, “I steer my bark [small boat] with hope in the head [God], leaving fear astern [behind].” Thomas Carlyle, a Scottish philosopher (1795-1881), asserted, “Man is, properly speaking, based upon hope, he has no other possession but hope, this world of his is emphatically the place of hope.”

So, like the infant church in Thessalonica, we can render to God…our faith in Him; our love expressed in obedience to Him and in loving gestures to others; and in our continued hope—despite the current world situation–in Jesus’ 2nd coming, when He will make all things right.

So what shall we render (give or deliever) to God? Render to God our desire for intimacy with Him. Today, if you use the term intimacy, many people would assume this is meant in a sexual sense which would be abhorrent to God. Instead, I am referring to intimacy in the emotional and spiritual sense–coming to know God as well as you do your spouse, your children, or your best friend. Render to God sincere worship and praise for His power, righteousness, mercy, grace, and love. Render to God faith, love, and hope. Amen! May it be so!

©️2023 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams

Posted on by Cheryl Norman

After Suffering Comes…

Pastor Sherry’s message for August 13, 2023

Scriptures: Gen 37:1-28; Ps 105:1-22, 45b; Ro 10:1-15; Matt 14:22-36

In a new twist on an old story, a young woman texts her parents from college:

Dear Mom and Dad,

Just thought I’d share with you my new plans: I’ve fallen in love with a guy named Jim. He quit high school in the 11th grade to get married. About a year ago, he got divorced. We’ve been dating for about 2 months and just decided to get married. I will be moving in with him shortly as we believe I’m pregnant. Don’t worry, though. I dropped out of all my classes last week, but I do plan to finish school at some point in the future. Unfortunately, I’ve been smoking a lot of pot, but intend to quit if it turns out I am expecting.

About 10 minutes later comes a second text:

Mom and Dad,

I just want you to know that everything I’ve texted you so far today is false. NONE of it is true! But, it is true that I made a C- in French and failed my Math class. And it’s also true that I will soon need a lot more money for tuition. Love you! Your Daughter.

(Chuck Swindoll, The Tale of the Tardy Oxcart, Word Publishing, 1998, p.445.)

I hope you’ve never been this frightened, or this manipulated, by someone you love. This devious, scheming young woman shocked then reassured her parents! It’s a sales technique: 1st ask an impossible “big,” then 2nd follow that up with a smaller, more reasonable request (people then tend to acquiesce to the smaller “ask”). Probably without meaning to, she was also illustrating how often, in the Christian walk, we have to endure suffering before we either come into an understanding of why God allowed difficulties to come our way, or enter into a time of blessing.

This truly is the focus of our Scripture lessons today.

A. Our Genesis passage (37:1-12) begins the Joseph narrative.

More chapters of Genesis are devoted to Joseph than to Abraham, his great grandfather; to Isaac, his grandfather; or to Jacob/Israel, his father. One reason is that he represents the nation of Israel. Remember, the name Israel means he who struggles or wrestles with God and with men and who comes through or prevails (though, as I pointed out last week, who can prevail against God?). Joseph endures some very tough times, but, because he is basically a righteous man, he is eventually blessed by the Lord. He also becomes a source of blessing to his family, his nation, to the Egyptians, and to unknown numbers of other Gentiles trying to survive the famine. It is through Joseph that the Lord moves the future leaders of the twelve tribes of Israel to Egypt, and ultimately sets the stage for the Exodus.

A second reason Joseph gets so much biblical coverage is that, as J. Vernon McGee writes, “There is no one in Scripture who is more like Jesus in his person and experiences than Joseph.” (McGee, Through the Bible Commentary: Genesis, Chapters 34-50, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1991, p.43.):

1.) Both births were miraculous;

2.) Both were especially loved by their fathers;

3.) Joseph was set apart by his special coat, while Jesus was set apart by his sinlessness;

4.) Both were ridiculed for asserting they would one day rule over their brethren;

5.) Both were obedient to their fathers at considerable cost to self;

6.) Both were sent by their fathers into danger;

7.) Both were hated and rejected by their brothers (in Jesus’ case, His countrymen);

8.) Both redeemed/saved their brothers.

Our passage today provides the backstory for Joseph’s betrayal by his brothers. The 10 (half) brothers born to Leah and the 2 concubines were murderously jealous of Joseph. They resented their father’s favoritism. It’s never good to favor one child over another. The favored one can ultimately feel guilty or develop an unhealthy arrogance; the non-favored becomes resentful and can be plagued by low self-esteem. Jacob should have known better since his father, Isaac, had favored his twin, Esau. As a licensed psychologist, I can tell you I have seen this again and again: without Jesus, we later become or re-enact as an adult what we hated as a child. These brothers resented his dreams of future grandeur. They also despised the fact that their oblivious father tasked Joseph with ratting them out!

So they plot to kill him, their own flesh and blood. Reuben, the by- now discredited eldest, attempted to rescue him, thinking he would recover Joseph, return him to their father, and perhaps regain some favor with dad. Judah, the one to whom the leadership of the clan had passed after Reuben’s gross disrespect of Jacob, talked them out of murder and into selling Joseph into slavery—a likely avenue to death, anyway, but without having bloodied their hands. These dreadful brothers then sell Joseph to Ismaelite traders (descendants of Abraham’s son, Ishmael) for 20 shekels (another foreshadowing of Christ, who was betrayed for 30 pieces of silver.)

B. As our Psalm (105:1-22, 45b) recounts in verses 17-22, God intended Joseph’s descent into slavery—They bruised his feet with shackles, [and] his neck was put in irons—as well as his later rise to prominence—Till what he foretold [in his two dreams] came to pass, till the word of the Lord proved him true. King David, the assumed author of the psalm, relates how Pharaoh freed Joseph and made him master over all of Egypt in the time of a devastating 7 year famine. He also describes how God elevated Joseph—through Pharaoh—to instruct his princes as he pleased and teach his elders wisdom. Joseph was 17 when sold into slavery. For 14 years, God prospered both Potiphar’s house and the Egyptian prison under Joseph’s supervision and influence. Everything Joseph touched “turned to gold.” Once he was freed, he did instruct Pharaoh and the Egyptian leadership in the meanings of Pharaoh’s dreams. And by saving his family from starvation, he taught his 10 elder brothers and even his father about the sovereignty of God, and the value of forgiveness.

C. As I said last week, our God has not given up on the Jews, His Chosen People. Fortunately for us, we, Christ’s followers, are also God’s chosen people through the saving work on Jesus Christ on the Cross for our sake. We have been grafted into the lineage of Jesus by our belief in Him. We are co-heirs with Jesus, our Lord and our brother. Paul makes it clear in Romans 10:1-15 that keeping God’s Law saves neither us nor the Jews. Since we are sinners who cannot keep it perfectly, the Law simply serves the purpose of proving to us that we need a savior. In verse 9, Paul emphatically asserts what it takes to be saved If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved! Jesus has done the hard work of salvation for us. We just respond with belief, with faith in Him.

Verses 11-15 contain Paul’s urgent plea that we, Christ’s Church, reach out to evangelize the Jews. He quotes the prophet Joel (2:32) Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord [who believes in Jesus] will be saved. He also quotes the prophet Isaiah (53:1) How beautiful are the feet of those who bring Good News. I remember a friend’s father telling me in the 8th grade that I had pretty feet. I remember thinking at the time that that felt rather “icky” and I couldn’t imagine why he would say such a thing. Everyone knows our feet are not really that attractive. But the prophet means that the one or ones who convey the Good News to those who haven’t yet taken it in are beautiful in God’s sight, feet and all. Paul’s heartfelt prayer is that his Jewish brothers and sisters come to a saving faith in Jesus. And he believes that those of us who try to evangelize the Jews–who have suffered dreadfully down through the ages–will be particularly blessed by the Lord.

D. I’m not sure Jesus would say it this way, but in today’s Gospel Lesson (Matthew 14:22-36), He urges us to…

1.) Get out of the boat. Let go of our fear. Let go of our pride. Let go of our insistence in our self-sufficiency, our willfulness, our disobedience. Do what God is calling us to do, even if it is emotionally uncomfortable for us.

2.) Keep our eyes on Jesus. Just attending church won’t save us. Even reading Christian books won’t save us. Having wonderful Christian friends won’t save us. These things can help move us in the right direction, but it is having faith in Jesus and confessing our faith aloud that saves us.

3.) And trust in Him to help us do what would be impossible for us—like walk on water—without Him. Our God…is able to do exceedingly and abundantly more than all we ask or imagine…. (Ephesians 3:20). I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength (Philippians 4:13).

When asked why God allows good people to undergo bad experiences (suffer), the famous Presbyterian preacher, R.C. Sproul, answered, “I haven’t met any good people yet, so I don’t know.” He was, of course, considering the Apostle John’s assertion from 1 John 1:8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. Or as the Apostle Paul states (Romans 3:10) There is no one righteous, not even one.

The next time you find yourself in a season of suffering, remember that—unlike the college co-ed–God does not manipulate us. He does, however, test us. He allows us to walk through suffering for a season, but always with a purpose. The purpose is to mold and shape our character; to reduce our dependence upon anything but Him; and to deepen or strengthen our faith. And he brings us out of that suffering both transformed and blessed. Look at Joseph. Look at Jacob/Israel and his extended family. Look at Peter. Look at Paul. Look at you! Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Alleluia, alleluia!

©️2023 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams