This Week's Sermon

Josh Broward, June 15, 2008

2008-06-16T03:00:00.000-07:00

KNU International English Church

Josh Broward

June 15, 2008

ONE PRAYER SERIES: “Make Us Connected”

John 15:1-14; Ephesians 4:1-6, 11-16; Deuteronomy 16:11-16

Last fall Ron had the great idea that the KNU international professors should form a basketball team to compete in the student sports festival. It sounded like a great idea at the beginning, and to be honest, we thought we really might win. Unfortunately, we got crushed. Alas, we just aren’t 20 anymore.

Well, before the big game, Gordon, Ron, and I decided to get together to practice. We were playing some 21.¹ On one play, there was a loose ball, and Ron and Gordon both went for it. Gordon and Ron collided shoulder to shoulder. Ron and I didn’t think it was that bad until we saw Gordon sitting on the ground holding his shoulder, rocking back and forth, and praying, “Oh Jesus, Oh Jesus, Oh Jesus.”

I said, “What did you do to him, Ron?”

Ron was like, “I didn’t do anything, man. We just ran into each other.”

Gordon was praying: “God, make it go back in. Oh Jesus, just let it go back in. Oh Jesus, please just make it go back in place.” Somehow that little bump had dislocated Gordon’s shoulder.

We helped Gordon stand up and supported him as we walked to a van to take him to the hospital. I have never seen someone scream with pain like that. Gordon made all kinds of faces that looked like they were straight out of a cartoon or a Jim Kerry movie. After three hospitals, several shots for pain, lots of pushing and pulling, and a whole lot of screaming, the doctors were finally able to get Gordon’s shoulder connected with the rest of his body.

As I began thinking about this ONE PRAYER series, it didn’t take me long to decide that my one prayer would be: “Lord, make us connected.” We – the church – are “the body of Christ,” but we are a disconnected body. We have disconnected Christians and disconnected churches strewn all over our world. We are a bunch of bones out of joint. We are stomachs and ears and toes scattered all over the hills. All of us – and all of the world – are suffering because we are disconnected.

So, I pray, “Lord, make us connected.” In Ephesians and Colossians, Paul. talks about the body of Christ being held together “ligament and sinews.” Somehow, we’ve lost the ligaments and sinews that hold us together. Somehow, we need God to re-form these basic connections in us.

But what would that look like? What kind of connections do we need?

First of all, we need to be connected to God. Jesus talked about this in our Gospel Lesson for today. Yoni, would you please read John 15:1-14 ?

Jesus is the vine, and we are the branches. A fundamental part of plant life is that branches have to stay connected. The branch only has life because the life of the vine is flowing through it. If the branch gets disconnected, it dies.

A few years ago, my computer stopped working. It wouldn’t even turn on. Nothing. No response. I pushed the button a thousand times. I checked the cords; everything was plugged in. I checked the power strip; it was working. Finally, I called the computer company for technical assistance. The techie guy who answered the phone said, “Take out all of the plugs and plug them back in again.”

I said, “I already checked the plugs. It must be something else.”

He said, “Do it again. Take every plug out and plug it back in again.”

I was sure he was crazy. I huffed around, bending behind my desk unplugging and replugging everything. “OK, I’ve plugged everything in again. This isn’t going to work.” I pushed the button. It worked.

I hate it when that happens! The computer guy explained that sometimes the plugs just get out of place – a bump here or there, and the circuit gets disconnected.

Sometimes, it’s easy for us to get disconnected from God. We’re still doing the same things. Maybe we’re still going to church, still reading the Bible (a little), still praying (or trying to pray), but we’re disconnected. The life of God is fading out of us. The Holy Sacredness of life is gone.

It might be time for you to check the plugs. Go back to the basics. Remember God’s basic commitment to you: “I will love you always and forever, no matter what. My grace is enough for you.” Renew your basic commitment to God: “I will follow wherever you lead me. I will live out the love you have put in my heart.” Figure out what helps you connect with God. We’re all different, and we all connect with God in different ways. Do what helps you connect.

Lord, make us connected to You!

But we also need to be connected to each other. No one lives alone. No human is an island. We are all in this together, especially in “the body of Christ.”

Yoni is going to come read our epistle lesson: Ephesians 4:1-6, 11-16.

I love this passage. Paul says, “live a life worthy of your calling,” and then he calls us to live deeply connected lives. Our calling as the people of God is to be deeply connected with each other. “There is one body and one Spirit … There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father, who is over all and in all and living through all” (Eph. 4:4-6). If we want God, we need each other.

A body is only as healthy as the connection of its parts. We are only as healthy as our connection with the body of Christ. Some of have been hurt by the Church, and we are frustrated with the body of Christ, so this connecting-with-the-body is hard. We’re too afraid of getting hurt or overcommitted to risk a deep connection. Let me suggest three basic ligaments of connection that might help.

1. Active love. In Romans 12, Paul says: “Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them … Love each other with genuine affection … When God’s people are in need, be ready to help them. Always be eager to practice hospitality” (12:9-11). We spend so much time pretending to love each other. We come, we smile, we go. That is not a real connection. That is not a ligament that supports anything. The connections of the body of Christ that mature us and grow us are the ones where we are actually loving each other in real actions and real words and real time. If we will just open up our hearts and our homes to each other, we will be amazed.

2. Find your job. Paul said, Christ “makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love” (Eph. 4:16). Figure out what your “own special work” is, and do it.

This will do lots of cool things. Your acts of service will help other people in our church, and it will help you. You will become more connected to the body. You’ll get to know the people you’re serving with and the people you help. You’ll get the satisfaction of making the world a better place. And, you’re likely to feel less critical and judgmental of the church because you’ll be part of the team.

3. The third ligament that will hold us together is honest communication. Paul says, “We will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ” (Eph. 4:15). We aren’t usually honest with each other. We hardly ever open our hearts to a friend and say, “Oh, man, I really need help here. I’m really struggling with this.” We hardly ever go to someone and say, “Hey, I’m really concerned about you. I think you might be going in the wrong way.” But this is the way of Christ. This kind of honest and humble communication is a basic ligament that holds us together.

If you have frustrations about this church or the Church, you’re not alone. When someone comes to me and complains about this or that, now I’m trying to say, “I often have the same frustrations you do. Would you please work with us to make the church better?” Near the end of his book, Irresistible Revolution, Shane Clairborne says: “If you have the gift of frustration and the deep sense that the world is a mess, thank God for that; not everyone has that gift of vision. It also means that you have a responsibility to lead us in new ways. Recognizing that something is wrong is the first step toward changing the world.”² Honest communication is key to the health of the church. If you’re frustrated, the Christian way is usually deeper in not farther out.

I’m really pumped about the work our Planning Team is doing. We listened to you at the Dream Session, and you asked for more small groups, honest accountability groups, and groups to help you actually live out the gospel. This kind of honest communication will help form the ligaments and sinews that hold us together.

Lord, make us connected to You as You make us connected to each other!

Finally, we need to be connected to outsiders. Jesus relentlessly pursued outsiders: the poor, the out-and-out sinners, the outcasts, the traitors. He left no one out. He even included the people who excluded him. If we follow Jesus, we do the same. If we don’t, then maybe we aren’t really following Jesus.

Jews have three basic festivals they celebrate every year. The first is the Passover Festival, and it’s only for insiders, people committed to the Jewish way. But the other two festivals are different. Yoni is going to read about these two: Deuteronomy 16:9-15.

What did you notice there? What were some of the words or themes you heard repeated? …….

The first theme I noticed was joyful celebration. These are supposed to be huge parties. God commands the people to celebrate with great joy! OK, if you insist.

The second theme that stands out to me is inclusiveness. Did you notice the guest list? “Celebrate with your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, the Levites from your towns, and the foreigners, orphans, and widows living among you” (Deut. 16:11). Well, that pretty much includes everyone. No one was left out. This party of God’s people was supposed to include the people usually on the outside. Jesus teaches us to live like this all the time, not just at special parties twice a year. But, two really great “outsiders” parties every year would be a really good start.

Shane Clairborne is dead right when he says, “the great tragedy in the church is not that rich Christians do not care about the poor but that rich Christians do not know the poor. … I truly believe that when the poor meet the rich, riches will have no meaning. And when the rich meet the poor, we will see poverty come to an end.”³

If we will just get connected with more people outside the church and outside our economic set, that connection will transform the Church and the world. We will all be transformed together. One of the coolest ideas from the Dream Session was having a sister church in a poor country. The idea is that we focus our giving and international efforts on this one church over a long period of time. We write to them; we visit them; we exchange pictures; we celebrate together; we work together; we worship together. Then, poverty has a face and a place. We know that these people need us, and we discover that we need them, too. The connection heals us both.

Hebrews 13 tells us something amazing: “So also Jesus suffered and died outside the city gates to make his people holy by his own blood. So let us go to him outside the camp…” (Heb. 13:12-13). If we want to be connected to God, we’ll find him on the outside, suffering with the outsiders, making a new kind of people who live with the outsiders.

It all goes together. Lord, make us connected to You, connected to each other, and connected to outsiders.

An old prophet named Ezekiel saw some crazy stuff and talked about it for God. One time he saw a huge valley filled with bones. There were parts of bodies disconnected and dislocated all over the place, and they had been disconnected for so long that the bones had dried up and turned white. God told Ezekiel that this valley of bones represented the people of God. They had become disconnected from God, disconnected from each other, disconnected from God’s purposes in the world. Now they were just a heap of scattered individual bones – dying from disconnection.

But then the Spirit of God started to move across that valley of bones, and those bones started to get up. They started clanking together and joining together and making skeletons. Muscles and ligaments and sinews started forming over the skeletons. Then, the bodies started growing skin. Finally, the Spirit of God breathed life into their bodies, and Ezekiel says, “They all came to life and stood up on their feet – a great army” (Ez. 37:10).

My ONE PRAYER for the Church is that God will move his Spirit across our world of dry bones. I pray that God will connect our dislocated shoulders and legs and ribs and put flesh and tendons and skin on us to hold us together as the body of Christ. And I pray that God will breathe the life of his Spirit in us, that God will connect us into a great army of love that changes our world.

Lord, make us connected!

June 8, 2008: Josh Broward, Matthew 13:31-33

2008-06-08T02:44:00.001-07:00

KNU International English Church
Josh Broward
June 8, 2008
COCKROACH THEOLOGY

Read Matthew 13:31-33
Most of us probably miss the strangeness of these two little stories. Mustard and yeast seem pretty basic to us. Add some flour and some (American) beef, and you’ve got a good sandwich. But once again, Jesus surprises us here.
Mustard seeds were not just something to put on your hotdog or to use for a gourmet dip. For Jews mustard seeds were dangerous. Sure, they were little bitty seeds, but they were dangerous.
Jewish rabbis even had a basic rule: Never plant a mustard seed in your garden. If you want mustard, plant it in some out of the way place where you don’t care about what happens. The mustard seed looks small and innocent, but it keeps growing and growing and growing, and it will completely take over a little garden.
There’s another thing about mustard seeds that’s worth noting. Mustard is strong. It is potent! There’s a lot of power inside those little seeds. If you don’t believe me, just go home and eat a whole spoonful of mustard. It’ll make your nose burn!
Jesus says the Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed planted in a garden. It grows and grows and just takes over the place.
In a way, we are like those little mustard seeds. We are small people. None of us are very important or very big in the world, but the Kingdom of God lives in us, and we have power.
The point of these two little stories is simple: We are small, but we are powerful. The Kingdom of God starts small, but it is has powerful potential to take over the world.
But I want you to get involved in this. It’s not enough just for me to say it. You need to say it, so when I say, “What’s the point?” You say: “We’re small, but we’re powerful!”
Ready? Let’s practice.
“What’s the point?”
People: “We’re small, but we’re powerful!”
Then, we have to ask ourselves a question. If we’re so small and powerful, what would happen if God planted us? What would happen if we let God invest us in the world? So here’s the question: “What could God do with us?”
What’s the question?
People: “What could God do with us?”
The Kingdom of Heaven is like a little plant called carpetweed. When I was a teenager, it was my job to mow the grass at our house. We had some great big trees in our back yard, and in Texas, there is a special kind of weed that loves shady areas. It’s called carpetweed.
I hated carpetweed. It looked kind of innocent and small at the beginning. It was just start out small as just a patch in one corner of the yard. It was only about 6 inches (20 centimeters) high.
It had these little round seeds with little fuzzy hair on them. They would stick to anything that touched them: socks, shoes, shoelaces, leg hair. When I finished mowing the yard, they were all over me.
Mowing down carpetweed didn’t even help. It just spread the seeds all around the yard.
To make matters worse, I discovered that I am allergic to carpetweed. One time, I decided to defeat the carpetweed, and I spent an hour or two pulling up every last piece in our yard. By the end of the day, my arms, my neck, my legs, my hands were all covered in an itchy red rash.
That’s when I started calling it “devil-weed.” I hated it. I hated it with a passion. When I saw the first picture of carpetweed when I was doing my research this week, I actually felt bitterness in my heart. I hated it, but there was nothing I could do to stop it. It just kept growing and growing and growing.
The Kingdom of God is like carpetweed that takes over an entire lawn.
What’s the point?
People: “We’re small, but we’re powerful!”
That’s right. We are powerful, so we have to ask a question.
What’s the question?
People: “What could God do with us?”
The Kingdom of God is like a crazy monk named Telemachus. Telemachus was living a peaceful life in the desert, when he heard God call him to Rome. That was the first sign that he was crazy!
He obeyed God and went to Rome. The second sign that he was crazy!
You remember, Russell Crow in Gladiator? Well, the gladiators were still fighting in Rome, when Telemachus got there, so he went to the stadium. What’s a super-spiritual monk doing in a Roman Coliseum where tens of thousands gather to watch people kill each other? This is the third sign that he was crazy!
Well, old Telemachus couldn’t take it. He got up out of his seat, and he climbed into that arena, right into the middle where the gladiators were fighting. He stood between the two gladiators and begged them to stop. They pushed him aside again and again. But he was stubborn. He kept coming back. “Stop in the name of Christ! How can you just kill each other? Stop! Stop!”
OK, so this was the final sign that he was officially crazy.
The people were furious that he was stopping their show (and maybe that the gladiators didn’t just slice him open). The thousands of people had gathered there in the stadium to see people kill each other, and somebody was going to die! They picked up stones and stoned Telemachus right then and there in the middle of the Roman Coliseum.1
That was New Years Day, 404 A.D, and that was the last day the gladiators ever fought in Rome.2 When the Roman Emperor heard the story of the crazy monk who tried to stop the gladiators, he banned all gladiatorial fights throughout the Roman Empire.
The Kingdom of God is like a crazy little monk who stops the gladiator games in the world’s largest empire.
What’s the point?
People: “We’re small, but we’re powerful!”
If we are as powerful as Telemachus, then we need to ask a question.
What’s the question?
People: “What could God do with us?”
“The Kingdom of God is like yeast a woman used in making bread. Even though she put only a little yeast in three measures of flour, it permeated every part of the dough” (Matthew 13:33).
Yeast is almost always bad in the Bible. Yeast became a symbol for some small bad thing that corrupted the whole batch of dough. Jesus told the disciples to be on guard against “the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy” (Luke 12:1). Paul compared yeast to sin (1 Corinthians 5:6-8) and to false teaching (Galatians 5:9), and both times he warned them: “A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.”
So this story about yeast is kind of scandalous. Jesus says the way the Kingdom of God works is very similar to the way sin works. Just a little bit of Kingdom goodness can work through the whole batch of dough. And just like sin, the Kingdom changes everything it touches.
And there’s one other surprise to this story. The woman mixes the yeast into “3 measures of flour.” These aren’t 3 little cups. This is enough flour to feed a small army. 3 measures of flour is nearly 40 liters of flour! It would make 50 kilograms (110 pounds) of bread! A little yeast really does go a long way!
What’s the point?
People: “We’re small, but we’re powerful!”
If we are as powerful as yeast, then we need to ask a question.
What’s the question?
People: “What could God do with us?”
The Kingdom of God is like cancer. It starts out small. It’s almost impossible to notice at first because it is so small.
Cancer can start with just one cell that becomes different, abnormal, counter-cultural. Usually, when this happens, our bodies push out that different cell and eliminate the rebel. But cancer cells are different in two ways.
First, they resist elimination. They resist the body’s normal immune system. They’re different and dangerous, but the body just can’t get rid of them.
Second, they multiply, and they spread. That’s the biggest problem with cancerous cells. There’s just more and more of them. The cancer reproduces faster than the body can deal with it.
Cancer can even jump from one part of your body to another. This is called “metastasizing.” Cancer that starts out in your stomach can jump to your liver. Cancer can start in your lungs and go to your bones.
The Kingdom of God is like cancer that starts out with one little cell that dared to be different and multiplies and grows and spreads until it takes over the whole body.
What’s the point?
People: “We’re small, but we’re powerful!”
If we are as powerful as cancer, then we need to ask a question.
What’s the question?
People: “What could God do with us?”
The Kingdom of God is like a colony of roaches.3 I grew up in Texas, and everything’s bigger in Texas – including our roaches. We have these huge tree roaches, and they’ll come into your house at night. When you try to stomp on them, they’ll start flying around the room.
But in Texas, we have a saying, “Big roaches aren’t bad. Little roaches are.” The big roaches live outside and look really gross, but everybody gets them inside sometimes, no matter how clean your house is. It’s the little roaches that really mean you have a problem. If you don’t keep your house clean, or if your neighbors don’t keep their apartment clean (like not doing your dishes often enough, or leaving crumbs on the floor), you can get an infestation of the little roaches. Then, you’re in trouble.
One roach can live up to 18 months, and a single female can lay 300-400 eggs. They’re hard to find because they live in the walls, under the floors, in the backs of cabinets and under the furniture. Once they take root in a home, they can just keep reproducing. They multiply and multiply and multiply.
Roaches may be small and easy to stomp, but if you get enough roaches in one place, they can drive the owner out of the home.
The Kingdom of God is like a colony of roaches. It starts out small, and one by one, it’s easy to squash. But just give it time, and it will take over the house.
What’s the point?
People: “We’re small, but we’re powerful!”
If we are as powerful as roaches, then we need to ask a question.
What’s the question?
People: “What could God do with us?”
You are small. But you have so much power. The Kingdom of God lives in you. What could God do with you? What could God do with us? What if we let God plant us in our world like a mustard seed or a bit of yeast or a bit of Kingdom Cancer or a little roach? What would happen? What would happen?

June 1, 2008: Josh Whiteside: The Weeds Among the Wheat

2008-06-08T02:43:00.003-07:00

The Weeds among the Wheat
Joshua Whiteside
June 1, 2008

I greet you in the strong and powerful name of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is with real fear and trembling that I stand before you as a feeble and most often soft spoken pastor. It is a fearful thing to stand before a crowd of people and attempt to proclaim truths about the word of God, especially in regard to our selected parable today. Yet, I do find confidence in the knowledge that our strength does not come from ourselves, but it comes from God working in and through us as weak and humble servants. So today, let us boast in nothing but the name of the Lord and open our hearts, minds, and ears in such a way that we are transformed by what is given to us today.
We began our journey through the parables of Matthew 13 last week with the parable of the seeds. This week we enter into another parable, the Parable of the Weeds found in Matthew 13:24-30. Let us listen together:
Read: Matthew 13:24-30
Shortly following this parable, Matthew shares that Jesus told the crowd two more parables likened to the Kingdom of Heaven, as well as inserting a break in the narrative to proclaim that as Jesus taught in parables he was fulfilling a prophetic word of God. This parable is already unique, for although Matthew is part of the three synoptic Gospels who share a lot of the same material with one another, it is only found within Matthew. Yet, what also sets it apart from many other parables is that it is followed by an explanation.
Read: Matthew 13: 36-43
I’m not sure if this explanation comfort anyone else, but I am far from content with just accepting this and saying “ok, that sounds good” and moving on with a happy-go-lucky lifestyle. Even after reading and studying about this passage I feel as if I have no real conclusions about this passage for us today. To be honest, it really seems the more I read through this passage, the more numerous and bigger the questions become. Especially since the explanation of this parable is give in the symbolic form of allegory, which my seminary professors taught me to greatly fear…Yet, we must recognize that it is here and perhaps in the midst of all the agonizing questions the parable takes us right where we need to be.
For as pastor Josh taught us last week using Brian McClarens Secret Message of Jesus:
Jesus: “Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand” (13:9). “Don’t just listen with your ears, listen with your heart. Don’t just hear my words, hear my deeper meaning. Don’t listen for the literal meaning accessible to your rational mind; seek deeper for a meaning that requires you to make a personal investment of your sincere effort and your imagination” (44).
Parables “hide the truth so that we need to do more than simply ‘hear with our ears’ or ‘read with our eyes’ on a literal level; we have to invest ourselves in an imaginative search for meaning – a meaning that will surprise us when we discover (dis-cover or unhide) it for ourselves” (45).
“Parables entice their hearers into new territory. … When a parable confounds them, it invites them to ask questions” (45).
Parables transform us from experts, know-it-alls, closed-minded adults who have life and God all figured out … into little children. The parable makes us teachable again.
Why is this important?
When Jesus talks about the Kingdom of God, he wants the transformation of hearts and minds. He does not want to pass on information. He wants to cause transformation. (46).
I will continue to borrow the words of Pastor Josh, not simply because I have been sick for the past two days and am cheating my way through a quick sermon, but because I do believe that he has given us some true words of wisdom in our journey through Matthew. I believe that we cannot move on through an examination of this parable now without taking account of where we have been in the recent past. Likewise, I have begun to understand the entire Gospel of Matthew in terms of recapitulation. This is a literary term that describes a brief summary that is given at the beginning of a story, which is then explained in greater detail throughout the rest of the story.
This is how the Gospel of Matthew is constructed. Repeated time and time again is the call for the hearers of the gospel message to “Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.” This was the message of John the Baptist in the desert, the first words of Jesus during the Sermon on the Mount, and the first words of the Commissioned Disciples. Similarly, The Sermon on the Mount calls for us, the hearers, to plunge our souls deep into the heart of God’s torah, especially as revealed in Jesus. And there, deep in the heart of God’s dream for the world, we need to discover together how to live in our world. This parable, as with the entirety of Matthew is an explanation of how we are to live Torah in such a way that we not simply ‘hear it’, but ‘do it’ in the practical conduct of our lives. As we enter into the story today we must recognize that this and all other parables call for special attention and openness if we are to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
I first took interest in this story because it involves plants. I spent the latter two years of college studying botany. Most specifically in one of those classes I studied the plants of the Bible and their literary usage in scripture. As seen in the Bible, the use of plants is a most significant way of explaining the unknown, especially to this First Century audience. This weed is most likely a plant called darnel, a plant that resembles the color and shape of wheat with the exception of their black and often times poisonous seeds only noticeable in the maturing stages of its growth. Darnel was and still is a hated nuisance plant in Palestine and I have read people take great care in of eradicating it from their fields of harvest. Likewise, this horrific story of an enemy sneaking onto the property of a farmer and planting darnel among the wheat was not completely uncommon either. Many parts of the Roman Empire outlawed and severely punished those caught of such a crime. What does become shocking to the original listeners of this parable, and perhaps us today, is the method of separation and the interpretation of the wheat and weeds that Jesus gives.
In the given interpretation it is made obvious that one who sows good seeds is the Son of Man (Jesus), the world is the field, the good seeds are the children of the kingdom, the weeds are the children of the evil one, the enemy is Satan, and the harvesters are the Angels of God. Simply put, at the end of this age the angels will separate the sinful and the righteous and give each their appropriate reward depending on who they are and what kingdom they are part of.
I love my grandmother with all my heart, and I have had extensive conversations with her concerning the end of the world and the second coming of Jesus. Knowing that I am a seminary grad she is eager to share with me the latest evidence of how the signs are coming together and pointing us to an immediate and climactic end to the world we know it. She’s good at it too, she shows me scripture and from a literal glance what she says makes sense; she’ll show me various countries, natural disasters, and even the twin towers that fell on 9/11. I graciously listen and simply tell her, “Grandma, I’m just not sure that it’s going to happen that way, and no one knows how long we have to wait for or how Jesus is going to return, we just have to wait.”
Nevertheless, my grandmother is not alone in her thinking. The doomsday predictions about the end of the world are popular. I’m not familiar with specific groups in Asia and Korea, but in the U.S., Americans have witnessed the cults of David Koresh and the Heaven’s Gate Community come to tragic ends because of their end-time beliefs. Likewise within the faithful Christian community there is popularity regarding end times, made evident in the Left Behind series. I do not want to bring about shame to you if you have found enjoyment in these books, but repeated predictions of apocalyptic endings of human history and the subsequent failures of those predictions do often erode the credibility of Christians and confuse people about Christian ideas.
I say this in hope of bringing some perspective into understanding a biblical concept of the end of the world. Theologians speak of God’s work in the world as Eschatology. In eschatology there is the expectation of a future in which God will be reveal to the entire world and the faithful of God’s people will be made blameless.
The first of these is prophetic eschatology, through which the expectation is that God will work within human history to accomplish his purposes for humanity. As with the expected Messiah, God will work within the structures of human history and transform them in a new and working way. The assumption in prophetic eschatology is that the evil in the world lies within the people of God. The main problem that stops God’s work in the world is the unfaithfulness and sin of God’s people from a failure to live out the principles of Torah.
The second view is apocalyptic eschatology, which also has the expectation that God will work to accomplish his purposes. Yet, it is different for it sees human history as becoming so contaminated that it is basically unredeemable and there is nothing worth saving. This assumption in apocalyptic eschatology is that the evil in the world is external to the people of God.
It is important to note that both perspectives are biblical, but each arises from a particular historical and social context. Prophetic eschatology is used when God’s people are free from external opposition and have the capability of making choices in how they live as God’s people. It arises from times of relative stability in which God can be easily marginalized because there is no real pressing need for him to defend his people. Apocalyptic eschatology arises from times of crises where there is no indication that things will get better, there is no vision of a good future.
Apocalyptic Eschatology arose out in the Old Testament as a theological response to Israel’s oppression by other world powers. Beginning with the Assyrian domination in the Eight Century up until the time of Jesus in the Roman occupation this was a dominant way of expressing hope within the scattered community.
What made Jesus’ message unique to the original audience of Matthew was his method of countering the apparent apocalyptic thinking of his day. Even with the occupation and oppression by the Romans, a scenario that did fit perfectly with everything that had developed in apocalyptic thinking, Jesus pushed for the people to return to a prophetic way of thinking. While the people may have expected the Messiah to overthrow the world order of the Roman Empire,
Jesus talked most about Justice and righteousness, about fulfilling the essential requirements of Torah expressed as loving God and neighbor. Jesus did not advocate the total destruction of the Romans in order to help God destroy the evil empire. Instead, Jesus talked about loving enemies and turning the other cheek, of carrying a soldier’s pack two miles instead of one, of giving Caesar what is his while also giving God what belongs to him. He even healed the servant of a Roman Centurion and commended him for his faith. Time and time again, Jesus emphatically pushed for people to return to a prophetic way of thinking through which they were to be faithful to a lifestyle of Torah, even while living in a world of evil and domination from foreign powers.
Still, while apocalyptic theology is not the norm for Christianity, there are places for it in the world today was expressions of faith. In the Chinese uprising of the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989 or in the underground churches of Northern Africa where Christian are often the targets of gunfire, there needed to be some hope that God is God beyond the hopelessness of present history. There is a need to express a faith in God that the world will someday reflect his purposes for his creation beyond the hopeless of the present moment.
Nevertheless for us today we live in an era of unprecedented prosperity and stability. Should we, who have the freedom to shape the world we live in resort to apocalyptic ways of thinking which takes on pessimistic ways of thinking that denies that history can be changed? Or should we hear the prophetic message that challenges us to practice justice and righteousness and be the people of God in the world in order to be a light to the nations.
I believe this is where today’s parable is calling us to go today. In v. 43 it says at the end of this time “Then the righteous will shine like the sun in their Father’s kingdom. Anyone who has ears should listen!”
It is the prophetic message that calls us out of judgmental expressions of our own self-importance and arrogance. It’s a prophetic message that recognizes that although we may be strangers on this earth looking to a heavenly kingdom, we are not estranged to the earth around us. We are still part of it.
This parable tells us strangely, yet realistically that the kingdom of heaven and even the Church will have both good and evil people in it. Though God would only plant good wheat, Satan, his enemy causes the church to be infiltrated with sinful people. This is a warning against overzealous condemnation that some people like to issue about sin in the church and the world. The allegorical interpretation acknowledges that our human efforts to uproot the sinners often do more harm than it does good. As we wait for the full realization of the Kingdom of Heaven, when God will reign sovereignty in the hearts of all people, we must live in the ambiguity of the time where good and sinful remain together.
This does not mean that we can never determine that a church member is sinning. What is does mean is that we need to be extremely careful about our judgments and our desired efforts to create a perfect church. We must be careful as to not allow our judgments and harsh attitudes mark us as the sinner who are in need of being thrown out.
We must be hearers of the Gospel. We, the children of God, must join in the mission of God and become agents of redemption of reconciliation. It is the message of Christ that says “Live as God’s people in the world! Feed the hungry. Clothe the naked. Visit the sick and those in prison. Preach the Gospel to the poor. Bind up the broken hearted. Give cups of water in Jesus name. Proclaim the Good News of reconciliation of God. Love God with all your hearts, and others as dearly as your own life.”
We should hear this parable as a prophetic word that is for guidance and direction to bring us into a right relationship to God. As C.S. Lewis said in the Great Divorce, “Only Christ could make himself tiny enough to enter into this hell to save a fallen humanity.” It here we see that God took what was ordinary and he invested himself into us. He took the name “Son of Man and made it into the glorious name as it was intended to be. So what we do matters, for in our practical lives as Chrsitians we are practicing to be brothers and sisters in Christ. For at the end of the day we sit at the table as adopted members of the family where our name is on his palm and his name is on our foreheads.
We have been empowered by God to change the world by being faithful to his call through the prophetic word that sees God at work in human history. We should therefore not retreat to an apocalyptic mode of thinking which denies both God’s ability and our own to redeem nothing less than even the darkest moment in history. To do so is to squander a precious treasure. I think God expects more from his people.

Josh Broward, May 25, 2008

2008-05-26T00:18:00.000-07:00

KNU International English Church

Josh Broward

May 25, 2008

Planting Stories

Matthew 13:1-23

I love stories

I am basically a story teller.
The fundamental job of leaders is to hear, to tell, and to reshape the story of the people. (Alban – Narrative Leadership)
The narrative character of the Bible (The Story of God – Lodahl ; The Story We Find Ourselves In – McClaren)
The essential narrative character of all of life

We go back again and again to good stories.

traditional folk stories (sleeping beauty; little red hen; princess in distress)
good movies (While You Were Sleeping; Braveheart; Monty Python; Princess Bride; Star Wars; Gone with the Wind; Casa Blanca)
like pausing to look at one of those great works of art; there is something in the art that shapes us; beyond logic, beyond reason; it is intangible – impossible to measure

Jesus was possibly the best story teller who ever lived.

For the next 3 weeks, we will be preaching on Jesus’ stories (parables) from Matthew 13.

Today we will discuss the first parable in Matthew 13.

Read Matthew 13:1-23.

Why parables?

Disciples: “Why do you use parables when you talk to the people?” (13:10).

Why not just tell them what you want to tell them? Why not just state the facts or make your point? Why all the stories?

Jesus: We are working with a mystery here. (“secrets” = mysteries)

Peter Rollins, How (Not) to Speak of God:

“The Word of God has mystery built into its very heart” (xiii).
God’s revelation both reveals and conceals (16)
“Revelation should not be thought of either as that which makes God known nor that which leaves God unknown, but rather as the overpowering light that renders God known as unknown” (17).
“Revelation … is the site where the impenetrable secret of God transforms us” (17).

Brian McClaren Secret Message of Jesus:

Jesus: “Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand” (13:9). “Don’t just listen with your ears, listen with your heart. Don’t just hear my words, hear my deeper meaning. Don’t listen for the literal meaning accessible to your rational mind; seek deeper for a meaning that requires you to make a personal investment of your sincere effort and your imagination” (44).
Parables “hide the truth so that we need to do more than simple ‘hear with our ears’ or ‘read with our eyes’ on a literal level; we have to invest ourselves in an imaginative search for meaning – a meaning that will surprise us when we discover (dis-cover or unhide) it for ourselves” (45).
“Parables entice their hearers into new territory. … When a parable confounds them, it invites them to ask questions” (45).
Parables transform us from experts, know-it-alls, closed-minded adults who have life and God all figured out … into little children. The parable makes us teachable again.
Why is this important?
When Jesus talks about the Kingdom of God, he wants the transformation of hearts and minds. He does not want to pass on information. He wants to cause transformation. (46).

Summary so far: Why parables?

Facts and statements are outside us.
Parables transform us into not-knowers, people who need to learn.
If we accept that position of a humble child, the parable works in us and grows in us and transforms us from the inside out.

What’s up with this parable?

N.T. Wright: This is “a parable about parables.”

Jesus is the Farmer scattering seed.
What is the seed?

The parables – the story or the stories of the Kingdom of God

Stages of growth.

Planting

Hard ground = hard hearts. All of these stories just stay on the surface.
First step – let the story of God’s Kingdom in. Admit that you have something to learn from Jesus.

Taking Root

Quick response, no follow through
Like the Palm Sunday worshipers who shouted “Crucify” on Good Friday
Scandalized or squeezed out

Growing and developing

Needs space
Can easily get crowded out

Our weeds:

Cares of life
Lure of wealth (fishing lure)

Barclay: “Second best is always the worst enemy of the best.”

The story of God is ever-expansive, ever-growing, ever-demanding yet always able to be snuffed out.

Peter Rollins: “Christianity involves a process of journeying and becoming…. Being a Christian always involves becoming a Christian.” Conversion never stops. (5-6)
Let the story

Take shape in our lives
Expand more and more
Take over our garden
Lead us (and our garden) in unexpected ways

What is the result of this story growing in us?

beautifully productive 30, 60, 100 x
What does it produce?

Grain produces more grain.
The stories of the Kingdom produce more stories of the Kingdom.

How do we live this?

We become the story – a living drama of the story of God.

Peter Rollins: We become living “icons.”
“Make me like Charlie.” – story
Paul: We become “the aroma of Christ.”
Rollins: “Instead of religious discourse being a type of drink designed to satisfy our search for answers, Jesus made his teaching salty, evoking thirst. … In a world where people believe they are not hungry, we must not offer them food but rather an aroma that helps them desire the food that we cannot provide. … we must embrace the idea that we are also called to be hints of the divine” (37).

Example of a church that let the story of God grow in them:

Burke Presbyterian Church (http://www.burkepreschurch.org/)

Virginia, USA
20 year partnership with sister church in Kibwezi, Kenya (school, library, meal centers, supplies for the church, letters and emails, mission trips)
One of the pastors tells a beautiful story about how the story of God merged with the stories around her and became something beautiful:
Pastor read this story in New York Times:
One family.

Father died of AIDS.

Older son sent off to work with a relative to get food for the family.
Mother also had AIDS.

She taught her 9 year old son life lessons before she died.

How to care for the baby in the family
How to get food
Last thing she taught: how to bury her when she died

Pastor: “It was as if God was speaking out of those pages to me: you need to start an orphanage in Kibwezi.”
Other stories started merging:

Email from a church member: 40 million AIDS orphans in Africa. What can we do?

American student returned from Kibwezi with a story: Director of school has 2 orphans already living in his house.
Woman from Kibwezi church: “What are we going to do with the children coming to the church?” – AIDS orphans who were just showing up.

Now, 4 years later, 25 orphans are being cared for because of this partnership.

This church let the story of God into their hearts.

They let the story take root in them.

They gave space for the story of God to grow and grow and grow – sometimes in unexpected ways.

Now they are experiencing abundant fruit.

What will happen if you let the story of God grow in you?

What will happen if we let the story of God grow in our church?

Josh Broward, May 18, 2008

2008-05-26T00:17:00.000-07:00

KNU International English Church

Josh Broward

May 18, 2008

If I Were a Cow …

Matthew 11: 20-30

If I were a cow …

If I were a cow, I would not want to be a feed cow. My grandparents raised beef cattle, and I’ve seen that kind of life. They spend all day just eating and walking and sleeping. Unless of course you’re a bull. Then, you’re life is all about eating and having sex – both as often as possible. That doesn’t sound too bad at first, but after a while it would get pretty boring. All in all, the total meaning of life is to make more beef for other people to eat. That’s not for me.

And if I were a cow, I wouldn’t want to be a milk cow. On the plus side, I’d get the cool black and white hide. On the down side, most of life is spent in a barn, hooking your udders up to some machine. Granted, milk is pretty important, but I wouldn’t want the meaning of my life to consist of a morning bowl of cereal for hungry 5 year olds.

If I were a cow, I would want some work to do. I would want my life to mean something. I would want to get out there and do something. I would want to be an ox. As a nice bonus, I’d get a cool set of horns. Seriously, though. Hook me to a yoke – that’s the big wooden thing connecting the two oxen – and let’s go do something. Let’s plow a field, pull a wagon, harvest some grain. Whatever, but let’s do something, not just sit around chewing our cud.

And if I were a cow, I would want a good yoke. You know how you can get blisters or corns from a pair of shoes that don’t fit right. Same thing with yokes. A bad yoke can really mess you up – if you’re a cow.

If you want a good yoke for your cow, you can’t just walk down to the market and buy a ready made yoke. It might fit. It might not.

Getting a good yoke is like getting a good wedding dress. It takes time. You have to bring your ox to the carpenter. The carpenter measures every part of your ox, from top to bottom, front to back. The carpenter uses those measurements to carve out the basic shape of the yoke. Then, you have to bring your ox back for a fitting. The carpenter puts the yoke on your ox. He carefully looks over every bump, every groove of skin, every part of bone sticking out. He marks every detail on the yoke and carves away all the imperfections. Finally, he gets out the file and rubs off every tiny bump, every sharp edge, every splinter, until the yoke is perfectly smooth and perfectly fitted to your ox.¹

If I were a cow, I would want Jesus to make my yoke. Seriously. Jesus was a carpenter or a builder. There is an ancient legend that Jesus made the best yokes in Galilee. The story goes that Jesus was famous for making good yokes, that people from all over Galilee came to Jesus’ little shop in Nazareth to get custom-made yokes for their oxen. He seemed to have such a deep love and concern for the animals themselves that he went out of his way to make a perfectly fitting yoke. Some people even say that the sign over the door of Jesus’ carpenters shop might have said, “My yokes fit well.”²

Yep. If I were a cow, I would want to be an ox. I would want a good yoke, and I would want Jesus to make it.

READ: MATTHEW 11:20-30.

Sometimes it’s hard to believe in Jesus.

It was hard for John the Baptist. He was the first prophet in hundreds of years. He was “a voice shouting in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord! (Mt. 3:3) He preached that God would come like a thunderstorm with an axe in one hand and fire in the other hand.³ (See Mt. 3:7-12.) In the words of Barbara Brown Taylor, John expected “a tidal wave of a Messiah … someone … impossible to miss,” overwhelming everyone with the goodness and justice of God. But “what John got instead was a steady drip of mercy from a man named Jesus, in whom plenty of people saw no Messiah at all.”⁴ John sent a message to Jesus, “Are you the Messiah we’ve been expecting, or should we keep looking for someone else?” (Mt. 11:3).

Sometimes it’s hard to believe in Jesus.

Haven’t you ever wanted to see a miracle? Or lightning from heaven or a vision of angels? Haven’t you ever wanted to experience some dramatic event that would put to rest all your doubts about God? But would that really help us really believe in Jesus? Would it give us the kind of faith that changes the way we live?

Sometimes it’s hard to believe in Jesus.

It was hard even for the people where Jesus did most of his miracles. They saw lots of miracles: “the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the Good News is being preached to the poor” (Mt. 11:5). That ought to do it, right? How many miracles does it take to cause life-changing faith? One? Two? Seven? Twenty-seven? I don’t know, but the people of Korazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum never got there. They saw Jesus do miracle after miracle, but they still wouldn’t put their trust in Jesus and learn his way of life. They saw his miracles, but they still rejected his message.

Sometimes it’s hard to believe in Jesus. Maybe it always is.

Why is that? Why is it so hard to put our trust in Jesus? Why is it so hard to really live life Jesus’ way?

Jesus says smart people are the most likely to miss out here. Jesus thanks God for hiding his message from “those who think themselves wise and clever,” from the “sophisticates and know-it-alls,” from the intelligent and educated. We’re in trouble here. We probably have one of the most educated churches in the world. Almost every person in this room has either graduated from university or will in the next 10 years. Many of us are “Masters” or “Doctors” in our fields. We are clearly smart and educated.

When it comes to God, sometimes all of our education and intelligence can get in our way. Don’t get me wrong here. I believe in study and in thinking the hard thoughts, but sometimes we have to put all of that aside and fall at the feet of Jesus like a little child and say, “I trust. I have questions. I have doubts. My educated mind is still processing all of this, but I trust. I trust you Jesus.”

Here’s the deal. Jesus says everything centers on him. Jesus is the very center of the universe. Everything revolves around him and is drawn to him. If you want to know God, go to Jesus. If you want a good life, go to Jesus. If you want inner peace, go to Jesus.

Jesus gives us an inside look on God. He has unique knowledge of the Father, and he uniquely represents the Father’s heart.

What do we see when we look at Jesus? What is the heart of God like? “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. … I am humble and gentle at heart … you will find rest for your souls” (Mt. 11:28-29).

At the heart of Jesus, we see the heart of God: humble and gentle love. The heart of God is humble love that serves others and brings healing and rest into their lives. This is Jesus. This is God.

It’s not overwhelming. It’s not a thunderbolt. It’s simple. It’s gentle. It’s real. God loves. God humbly and gently loves the whole world one person at time. Jesus humbly and gently gave healing and grace to one person at a time – one little miracle at a time, one little meal at a time, one little word at a time.

Then, Jesus does that thing that makes us love him and hate him at the same time. He says something that’s true but doesn’t make sense. “Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you … and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light” (Mt. 11:29-30).

Wait a minute. I thought Jesus was going to take our burdens away, right? We’re tired and carry heavy burdens. We come to Jesus, and he gives us rest – by taking the burdens away, right? Yes, but there’s more.

When we come to Jesus, when we put our trust in Jesus, we have to take off our old yoke. And we all have an old yoke. We all have that old way of life, that old way of trying to make things work in the same old way: working harder, doing more, buying more, playing more, praying more – whatever, we all have that old yoke, and if we’re honest, it’s wearing us out. Deep inside we are all straining and struggling to find meaning in our lives.

What do we do with that inner anxiety, that inner despair? Different yokes for different folks.

Some of us hitch up to the yoke of success: study or work all day, all night. Damn the wife. Damn the kids. I’m doing this all for them anyway, right?
Some of us choose the yoke of pleasure: play the pain away, stuff our minds with comedy, drama, sex, horror, anything to push away that inner anxiety.
Some of us yoke up to stuff: more money, bigger house, more techie toys.
Some of us yoke up to religion: pray more, read more, give more, study more, do more, be more, work your way into heaven. This is probably my greatest temptation.
Some of us yoke up to cynicism: doubt everything and everyone, stand aloof, be superior by being critical, if everything is wrong then I never have to commit, and if I never commit then I can never be hurt.

These old yokes become our way of life. They become the glasses through which we see the world, what Bible scholars call “our interpretive lens.”

If we come to Jesus, we’ve got to get rid of those old yokes and take on his new yoke. Here’s the good news: Jesus’ yoke fits us perfectly, but it doesn’t fit over the top of an old yoke. What Jesus expects from each one of us is custom made for each one of us, but we can’t have Jesus and materialism, Jesus and workaholism, Jesus and cynicism, Jesus and legalism. It’s one or the other.

Jesus says, “Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you.” Here’s the thing that we forget most of the time. Jesus yoke is a two cow yoke. Sure, Jesus is the carpenter who made the yoke, but Jesus is also the other cow. There’s one slot for Jesus and one slot for us.

Barbara Brown Taylor preached a sermon on this passage called, “The Open Yoke,” and she explains it like this: “Jesus is standing there right in front of us, half of a shared yoke across his own shoulders, the other half wide open and waiting for us, a yoke that requires no more than that we step into it and become part of a team.”⁵

Jesus is not a hard-hearted farmer snapping his whip into our backsides telling us to pull harder or to go faster. Jesus is the ox next to us, pulling our load along with us. Jesus has taken the yoke of humble love upon his back. He is teaching us how to carry this yoke by walking right along with us. We learn by watching Jesus and doing it with him.

How do we walk the walk of humble love? How do we take Jesus yoke upon us? A good place to start is with these basic words from Jesus. Look for those who are tired and carry heavy burdens, and see how you can give them rest. How can you relieve some of their burdens? How can you step into that yoke with them and help them pull for a while?

But how is this an easy burden? How is this light? How does this give us rest or heal our souls? This is the great mystery of the gospel. God doesn’t call you to be like me or Matt or Samuel or SuJin. God calls you to be you with Jesus.

God has a tailor-made life for you, a custom-made yoke for you. Your job is to find out how what you do best matches what the world needs most. Frederick Buechner put it like this: “The place where God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”⁶ You figure out what fires up your passions and makes your heart sing and find a way to make that connect with the needs of hurting people around you. Then, you do that. Give your life to that. It won’t be a burden because it makes your heart sing. It will be work, but it will be work that heals your soul.

William Barclay, an old British scholar, tells a story of a man who saw a little boy carrying a smaller boy on his back because the smaller boy had a crippled leg and couldn’t walk. The man said, “That’s a heavy burden for you to carry.”

The boy answered, “That’s not a heavy burden … That’s my wee brother.”⁷

Before I came to Korea, I was shopping in Wal-Mart, and my cashier was obviously a recent immigrant from Africa. (I can’t remember which country.) If you know me, you know I’ll ask anybody anything. The store wasn’t busy, so we started talking. He told me that he had been in America for about a year, and that he worked two jobs for a total of 80 hours a week. He told me that he lived with several other Africans in one house to save money. And every month, he sent 90% of his money back to his family in Africa. I asked him why he did this. He was smiling a real, genuine smile the whole time we were talking, but this time, he smiled especially big and said, “They are my family, and they have nothing.”

“For my yoke is easy to bear, and my burden is light.”

If I were a cow …

Let me finish we some good news and some bad news.

Bad news: We’re all cows.

Good news: We get to choose which kind of cow we are.

Bad news: We all have yokes, even if you can’t see them.

Good news: We get to choose which kind of yoke we wear.

Bad news: Jesus calls us to change our lives. Jesus calls us to give up our old yokes, our old ways of doing things, our old ways of making sense of the world, our old ways of feeling good about ourselves. Jesus calls us to lay all of that down and take up a new yoke – Jesus’ yoke of humble love.

More bad news: This is harder than it sounds. Trusting Jesus is hard. Humble love isn’t very logical. Hard work, hard play, hard cash – these are logical. Taking up Jesus’ yoke involves a leap of faith. We have to put our questions aside and fall at Jesus’ feet and trust his way of humble love.

Good news: Jesus’ yoke of humble love gives rest to our souls. It heals us from the inside out. It is still work, but there is just something about humbly loving and serving our world that makes us right inside. Jesus’ yoke is the way to life.

More good news: Jesus is there in the yoke with us, teaching us to be humble, helping us to love. We don’t have to do this by ourselves. We have each other, and we have Jesus.

If you were a cow … what kind of cow would you be?

If you were a cow … what kind of yoke would you choose?

Josh Broward, April 27, 2008

2008-05-26T00:16:00.000-07:00

Learning to Party

Matthew 9:1-17

Robert Louis Stevenson, author of the classic Treasure Island, kept a diary of his daily events. Once, he wrote a short account of his day as if it was an amazing event: “I have been to Church today, and I am not depressed.” Amazing!

Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote that he might have become a pastor except for one problem. Most of the pastors he knew acted like funeral directors.

Abraham Lincoln said, “If all the people who fell asleep in church on Sunday morning were laid out end to end … they would be a great deal more comfortable.”¹

I heard about an editorial in an English magazine. The writer talked about how most people had lost faith in the church and had stopped attending worship services. The title of the article was, “God to Leave Church of England.”
Following the precedent set by leading former Anglicans, God has indicated that He too is to leave the Church of England. … According to sources close to God he’s been unhappy for some time with the direction the Anglican Church has been taking and has now finally had enough. A Church of England spokesman said, “Losing God is a bit of a blow, but it’s just something we’re going to have to live with.”’²

There was a small town where almost everyone went to the same little church. One man was caught doing some very bad things, and he was banned from church. When he went to the doors on Sunday morning, they told him to go away. The man walked away and complained to God, “They won’t let me in, Lord, because I’m a sinner.” God answered him, “What are you complaining about? They won’t let me in either!”³

Read Matthew 9:1-17.

Sometimes religion has a way of sucking the life out of us. Sometimes religion dries up our grace and love so that the more religious we become the less love we feel and the less grace we show to others.

Jesus came to change this.

In our passage today, we have three very different stories: a paralyzed man who gets up and walks, a sinner who becomes a disciple, and some questions about religious duty. In each of these stories, Jesus challenges our view of religion.

In the first story, some people brought a paralyzed man to Jesus. They carried him in on a mat. Jesus was so impressed by their faith that he forgave the paralyzed man. Did you catch that? The paralyzed guy didn’t do anything or say anything. He was just laying there.

There’s a lot we could say about this, but here’s the basic point for today. Jesus forgave the guy before he had any faith, before he repented, before he even said, “I’m sorry.” Jesus forgave the guy before he did anything. Jesus gave him a total offer of forgiveness with no strings attached: “You are forgiven. Your sins are wiped away. Your relationship with God is restored.” The guy had not changed or prayed or even made a decision to change. He was just there in the presence of Jesus, and he was forgiven.

In the second story, we meet the bottom of the moral society: a tax collector. Tax collectors collected taxes from Jews to give to the Roman rulers, and they were also free to collect extra taxes to keep for themselves. They abused their people for their own profit.

I’ve been trying to think of what would be a modern-day equivalent of a tax collector. A tax collector might be like a drug dealer or a pimp⁴. They make their money by destroying the lives of others. They manipulate the lives of others for their own profit. They are the parasites of our community. Most of us feel a deep sense of disgust or even hatred toward pimps and drug dealers. They are morally repulsive to us. We could not imagine even having a friendly conversation with one of those people.

But Jesus walks up to a tax collector – think drug dealer or pimp – and says, “Follow me and be my disciple.” Remember, being a “disciple” didn’t just mean listening to Jesus teach or trying to be a good person. For a Jewish rabbi, like Jesus, his disciples were people who were training to become rabbis. So Jesus says to this tax collector – one of society’s greatest moral failures, “Follow me and be my disciple. You’ve got what it takes to be a rabbi. You can become like me. You’ve got what it takes to teach people what God really wants.”

What? Are you kidding me? Sure, maybe he could become a “Christian” – whatever we think that means – but a Rabbi? A moral instructor? A preacher? Jesus invites the lowest of the low to become the highest of the high.

Again, notice that Matthew didn’t repent first. Matthew was still sitting there at his tax table doing his dirty business, stealing from his own people. Jesus interrupted his life with grace and said, “I’ve got something better for you. Come and be like me.”

Matthew – the tax collector, Matthew – the pimp, Matthew – the disciple, Matthew – the Rabbi.

The story continues when Matthew throws a party. Matthew invites Jesus and all of his religious crew and all of his old tax collector buddies and “other notorious sinners.” These weren’t the people who forget to read their Bibles or accidentally-on-purpose sleep too late on Sunday morning. These were the people who had stopped trying to be moral. They were the out-in-the-open sinners, and all of them come together with Jesus for a big, fat party.

The religious people have finally had enough. They demand, “Why does your teacher eat with such scum?”

See, this was a big deal. Jesus was breaking the rules big time. In Jewish culture, sharing a meal together is like signing a pact of friendship. It is “a guarantee of peace, trust, fraternity, and forgiveness: the shared table symbolizes the shared life.”⁵ In his book Jesus Before Christianity, Albert Nolan explains, “By accepting them as friends and equals Jesus had taken away their shame, humiliation, and guilt. By showing them that they mattered to him as people, he gave them a sense of dignity and released them from their old captivity. … Moreover, because Jesus was looked upon as a man of God and a prophet, they would have interpreted his gesture of friendship as God’s approval of them. They were now acceptable to God.”⁶

This was unacceptable to the religious people. “Sinners are sinners, and we need to treat them as they are – unacceptable outsiders.”

But for Jesus, they were already forgiven. For Jesus, the door was wide open for a restored relationship with God. That Matthew Party was a picture of the Kingdom of God. Life with God is a great party, and everyone is invited – no matter what, no exceptions. Every last person on earth is invited to the great party of life with God. All is forgiven. All is forgotten. All we have to do is accept the invitation.

Some people go in to the party.

Some people stay outside and complain that God shouldn’t throw parties like this – letting just anyone in.

The third story builds on this. The disciples of John the Baptist come to Jesus and complain that Jesus’ disciples aren’t religious enough. All of the other religious people spend large amounts of time fasting and mourning. They go for days at a time without eating and cry out to God in repentance and sadness. But Jesus disciples live like there’s a constant party. What’s the deal Jesus? Why aren’t you’re followers doing the normal religious stuff?

Jesus says, “Wherever I am, there is a permanent party! I’m like the groom at the wedding reception. As long as I’m here, people need to eat their cake, drink their punch, and get out on the dance floor and celebrate!”

Then Jesus talks about patching old clothes with a piece of new cloth and putting new wine in old wineskins. The new cloth shrinks and rips the old clothes. The new wine expands and breaks the old wineskins. The problem is that the new stuff is changing and dynamic, but the old stuff is too old to change.

The Kingdom of God and the old religious practices don’t always mix. Sometimes we have to start over. The Kingdom of God is dynamic and changing. The Kingdom of God is alive! It’s a party. It’s a celebration of new life. People are being forgiven. People are being healed. People are getting new lives. Joy, freedom, and acceptance rule. Love is King. Joy is everywhere.

Everyone is invited to the party, and the party itself becomes an atmosphere of healing. Brennan Manning explains, “The living presence of Jesus awakened joy and set people free. Joy was in face the most characteristic result of all His ministry to [outcasts]. … [They] discovered that sharing a meal with Him was a liberating experience of sheer joy. … The contagious joy of Jesus … infected and freed his followers.”⁷

Walter Kasper brings this all home for us: “Salvation is joy in God which expresses itself in joy in and with one’s neighbor.”⁸

If the Kingdom of God is a party, then Robert Hotchkins is right: “Christians ought to be celebrating constantly. We ought to be preoccupied with parties, banquets, feasts, and merriment. We ought to give ourselves over to veritable orgies of joy because we have been liberated from the fear of life and the fear of death. We ought to attract people to the church quite literally by the fun there is in being a Christian.”⁹

Celebration changes us. It gives us life. It restores our souls.

I’m reading a leadership book about Southwest Airlines, the only major U.S. airline that has been profitable every single year for the last 30 years, and they make big deal out of celebrations. They say, “The cost of not responding to the human desire for celebration is very high. Celebration enhances our humanity. Without celebration, we are robbed of the life and vitality that energizes the human spirit. Latent and undeveloped though it may be, there is within our nature as human beings an inherent need to sing, dance, love, laugh, morn, tell stories, and celebrate. … To deny our need to celebrate is to deny part of what it means to be human.”¹⁰

Maybe that’s why Jesus made more wine for the wedding in Cana. (See John 2:1-12). Maybe that’s why Jesus celebrated and defended Matthew’s party. Maybe that’s why Jesus came “feasting and drinking” and why people said he ate too much and drank too much (Mathew 11:19). Jesus loves parties!

Here are our basic choices.

Option A: Be like John the Baptist and the Pharisees. Do you want to go around pointing out how wrong everyone is? Do you want to beat yourself up all the time because you aren’t good enough? Do you want to spend your time complaining that your church isn’t what you want it to be?

Option B: Be like Jesus. Do you want to forgive before people even ask? Do you want to receive God’s radical grace for yourself and share it with others? Do you want to live with joy and freedom? Do you want to eat and drink and celebrate in the ongoing party of God’s Kingdom?

Option B sounds like a lot more fun. Option B sounds a lot more like Jesus.

So here’s what you do to choose Option B.

Step 1: Accept God’s party invitation. You are invited to the feast of grace. You can’t buy your way in or stay in by being good enough, but you have a free ticket – just because of God’s love. Accept God’s radical grace and join the party.

Step 2: Learn to party. Most of us have spent so much time outside of parties that we don’t know what to do when we get in a party. We just kind of stand there with a drink in our hand looking around feeling awkward. We’ve got to learn to party. We’ve got to learn how to enjoy life, learn how to celebrate, learn how to live with joy and freedom and acceptance of others.

Step 3: Invite others to the party. Be like Matthew. Throw a Matthew Party. Get together some religious people and some irreligious people, and throw a great party. Your party will become a living sermon explaining the Kingdom of God. Your party will teach God’s grace and God’s joy better than anything I can say or do here.

If we do this, we will change the world! And we’ll have fun doing it.

"The Power and Authority of Jesus." April 20, 2008: Yoni Moorgan

2008-04-20T17:20:00.000-07:00

KNU English Church

Yoni Moorgan

April 20, 2008

The Power and Authority of Jesus

We have here the story of Christ’s casting the devils out of two men that were possessed. This chapter shows the divine power of Christ, by the instances of his dominion over bodily diseases, which to us are irresistible; over winds and waves, which to us are yet more uncontrollable; and lastly, over devils, which to us are most formidable of all more remarkable than the rest. This miracle happened in the country of the Gergesenes.

The authority of Christ for those with no faith

The scene moves from timid, weak-in-faith disciples to the story of two demoniacs that had no faith at all. No one brought the demoniacs to Christ. It seems that instead Christ went to them. There was no more ministry in that region except that of the two demoniacs. Christ pursued these two men to deliver them even though they had no faith to help them along the way.

Divine compassion

As the story unfolds, we witness Christ crossing the Sea of Galilee to avoid the crowd until He arrived in a region that was dominated by Gentiles. The fact that pigs were raised indicates this to be a Gentile region rather than Jewish. Jesus was met by "two men who were demon-possessed," i.e., they were under the control, domination, and authority of demons. Their minds, wills, and emotions belonged to the demons and not to themselves. To be "possessed" is to be under complete domination. The Greek is probably better translated as "demonized." They were described as men who had great strength and they could not be bound with chains. They struck fear in all that attempted to walk near them. "They were so extremely violent that no one could pass by that way." But the One possessing all authority did not balk at the sight of these demoniacs.

Characteristics of the demon-possessed:

1. First of all, demon possessed people seem to prefer to live by themselves, away from other people.

2. They tend to be impossible to control, even when chained. They have a supernatural power through which they are able to break free.

3. Often they hurt themselves and love to cry out

4. When someone is demon possessed, he/she is never in his/her right mind.

The description of the possessed men

Under the direct control of evil spirits

All unconverted men are under the control of Satan

Under the influence of violent frenzy

Regulated by a disordered nature

Dangerous to others

True of all who give themselves over to iniquity

Lived among the dead

Every sinner is dead even while he lives

Jesus’ power over demonic spirits.

1. (28-29) Jesus meets two demon possessed men.

When He had come to the other side, to the country of the Gergesenes, there met Him two demon-possessed men, coming out of the tombs, exceedingly fierce, so that no one could pass that way. And suddenly they cried out, saying, "What have we to do with You, Jesus, You Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before the time?"

"What business do we have with each other, Son of God?" The disciples had just asked themselves a question when the stormy sea was immediately stilled at the rebuke of Christ, "What kind of a man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?" Now two demonized men answer their question, "Son of God." This was no ordinary man but the only man with an unmixed, unmingled divine nature. The demons recognized the Son of God so much so that they could not flee His power, but were constrained to bow before Him (Mark 5:6). The demoniacs' question is more literally, "What to us and to you?" Jesus and the demons have nothing in common! We would say that they are not even on the same page. They are interested in torturing the men they possess and destroying all that comes their way. Christ brings peace to troubled, sinful lives, and wholeness out of destruction. The demons leave their victims in mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual shambles. The poor men lived among the tombs, had no friends, and cried day and night in their misery. But Jesus Christ transforms so that the whole man is affected by the power of the gospel. The demons were right - they had nothing in common with Christ.

That sets the stage for us to consider the compassion of Christ in the display of His authority. Here were two men that could do nothing for themselves. They had no interest in Christ because their minds were filled with hatred, bitterness, anger, lust, greed, and every vile thing imaginable. They had no will that would desire Christ or turn to Christ because their will was under demonic governance. No one could talk these men into turning over a new leaf or even to consider the gospel. They would not listen. They could not listen. But the authority of Christ stopped them dead in their tracks. Though inwardly clawing in the other direction, Jesus Christ subdued the two men by His power. With irresistible might, He conquered the mind, will, and heart of these men. His omnipotence claimed them for His own!

Though our hearts may not have been filled with demons as with these men, we were nonetheless under the dominion of the prince of the power of the air, as Paul explains (Eph 2:1-3). Our minds were darkened as was our understanding, and with great callousness we gave ourselves over to every kind of sin in rebellion against the law of God (Eph 4:17-19). But then the omnipotent Christ subdued us! It was not that our wills first turned to Him and gave Him an invitation to work in our lives. But like the demoniacs, we got a glimpse of the "Son of God" and felt the blow of His judgment upon us. Fear of His righteous wrath crushed us. But then in great compassion He made us His own.

Here is the compassion of Christ displayed by His authority to subdue the unwilling and make them His disciples. The human will lacks the strength to overcome the power of sin and darkness apart from God's compassion and grace. And so we rejoice that we have an omnipotent Lord that subdued our own hearts so that we might believe in Him.

They dwelt among the tombs; this is where they met Christ. The devil has the power of death, as executioner, and at Golgotha, the place of a skull, Christ conquered and subdued him. Living among the graves increased the frenzy of the poor possessed creatures, and it strengthened the hold evil had over them, and also made them more formidable to other people, who generally startle at any thing that stirs among the tombs.

They were exceeding fierce; mischievous to others, frightening many, having hurt some; so that no man dared pass that way. The devil bears malice to mankind, and shows it by making men spiteful and malicious one to another.

Demons paid homage to Christ

Recognized Jesus as the Son of God
Resented his interference
Dreaded his displeasure
Ask to be allowed to go into the herd of pigs

Realized that they would not be permitted to remain where they were
Did they not know of their future, or did they seek to cause problems for Jesus

The demons knew who Jesus was (Jesus, You Son of God), even if the disciples didn’t (Who can this be? in Matthew 8:27).

They were defiant to Jesus Christ, and disclaimed all interest in him, v. 29. It is an instance of the power of God over the devils, it was his overpowering hand that dragged these unclean spirits into his presence, which they dreaded more than any thing else: His chains could hold them, when the chains that men made for them could not.

The demon addressed himself to Christ as Jesus the Son of God; a good word, and at this time, it was a great word too, what flesh and blood did not reveal to Peter, ch. 16:17. Even the devils know, and believe, and confess Christ to be the Son of God.It is not knowledge, but love, that distinguishes saints from devils. We may remember that not long ago the devil had doubt whether Christ were the Son of God or not, and would have persuaded him to question it (ch. 4:3), but now he readily owns it. Though God’s children may be fearful in an hour of temptation, by Satan’s questioning their relation to God as a Father, yet the Spirit of adoption shall at length clear it up to them so much to their satisfaction, as to set it even above the devil’s contradiction.

c. Have You come here to torment us before the time? These demons also knew of both their immediate destiny (to be cast out) and their ultimate destiny (to suffer everlasting torment).

Their second question concerns their understanding that Jesus Christ is the Judge. "Have You come here to torment us before the time?" In this case, "the time" has nothing to do with chronological time but rather with the concept of an event - presumably the time of judgment at the consummation of the ages.

A word of defiance; What have we to do with You? First, It is true that the devils have nothing to do with Christ as a Savior, for he took not on him the nature of the angels that fell, nor did he lay hold on them (Heb. 2:16); they are in no relation to him, they neither have, nor hope for, any benefit by him to be forced to own the excellency that is in Christ, and yet that he has no interest in him. It is possible for me to call Jesus the Son of God, and yet have nothing to do with him. It is true, that the devils desire not to have any thing to do with Christ as a Ruler; they hate him, they are filled with enmity against him, they stand in opposition to him, and are in open rebellion against his crown and dignity. The devils have nothing to do with Christ as a Judge, for they have, and they know it. These devils could not say, What have you to do with us? They could not deny that the Son of God is the Judge of devils; to his judgment they are bound over in chains of darkness,

A word of dread; "Are you here to torment us—to cast us out from these men, and to restrain us from doing the hurt we would do?’’ To be turned out, and tied up, from doing mischief, is a torment to the devil.

(30-32) Jesus casts the demons into a herd of swine.

Now a good way off from them there was a herd of many swine feeding. So the demons begged Him, saying, "If You cast us out, permit us to go away into the herd of swine." And He said to them, "Go." So when they had come out, they went into the herd of swine. And suddenly the whole herd of swine ran violently down the steep place into the sea, and perished in the water.

There was a herd of many swine: The region of Galilee was populated by both Jews and Gentiles, so this may have been a herd of pigs owned by Gentiles. Pigs were unclean for Jews, they should not have been there, even if they were owned by a Gentile man.

These Gergesenes, though living on the other side Jordan, were Jews. What had they to do with swine, which by the law were unclean, and not to be eaten nor touched? Probably, lying in the outskirts of the land, there were many Gentiles among them, to whom this herd of swine belonged: or they kept them to be sold, or bartered, to the Romans, with whom they had now great dealings.

“Go!" Jesus demanded of the demons, and they rushed into the herd of swine while the demonized men were set free. The city people saw the demon-possessed "sitting down, clothed and in his right mind" (Mark 5:15). Transformed from the inside out, the man sat before Christ as a new disciple, ready and willing to follow Christ wherever He went. In obedience to Christ, this new believer returned to his home region proclaiming the great things that Jesus had done for him (Mark 5:20).

But there's another reason that the demons were given permission to enter the pigs. Some would declare that the demoniacs were really not demon-possessed but only had poor mental health, and only needed a little human kindness therapy to render them harmless. A pig might wallow in mud but he will not run into clear, deep water.

Upon the command of Christ, "Go," the demons "came out and went into the swine, and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea and perished in the waters." Pigs would not be spooked into water. They fled by the power of the demons that subdued their wills just as they had the two men. In contrast, the two men now stood whole as new creatures in Christ.

When they had come out, they went into the herd of swine: There is nothing really comparable to this in the Bible, the casting of a demon from a human to an animal. So why did Jesus do this?

The fact that the demons immediately drove the swine to destruction helps explain why Jesus allowed the demons to enter the pigs - because He wanted everyone to know what the real intention of these demons was. They wanted to destroy the man just as they destroyed the pigs. Because men are made in the image of God, they could not have their way as easily with the man, but their intention was just the same: to completely destroy him.

Jesus allowed the demons to enter the swine to indicate beyond question that their real purpose was the total destruction of their host. They asked permission to enter into the swine. They discover their own inclination to do mischief, and what a pleasure it is to them; let us go into the herd of swine, any where rather than into the place of torment, any where to do mischief.’’ If they might not be allowed to hurt men in their bodies, they would hurt them in their goods, and in that too they intend hurt to their souls, by making Christ a burden to them!

They recognize Christ’s power over them; that, without his permission, they could not so much as hurt a swine. This is great comfort to us, though the devil’s power be very great, yet it is limited, and not equal to his malice (what would become of us, if it were?) especially that it is under the control of our Lord Jesus, our most faithful, powerful friend and Savior; that Satan and his instruments can go no further than he is allowed.

They were commanded to leave. Christ said unto them, Go (v. 32), as God did to Satan, when he wanted to afflict Job. God does often, for wise and holy ends, permit the efforts of Satan’s rage, and allow him to do some things. They are not only Christ’s captives, but his vassals; his dominion over them appears in the harm they do, as well as in the hindrance of them from doing more. Thus even their wrath is made to praise Christ, and the remainder of it he does and will restrain.

They were not commanded to save their lives, and, therefore, they were made to run violently down a steep place into the sea, where they all perished, to the number of about two thousand, Mk. 5:13. The possession which the devil gets is for destruction. The devil hurries people to sin, hurries them to that which they have resolved against, and which they know will be shame and grief to them. This is Satan’s will, to swallow up and to devour.

The conduct of the Gadarenes

Rather than rejoicing over the deliverance of the men who had been demon-possessed, they mourn the loss of their pigs
Rather than being in the presence of the Lord, they were concerned about the loss of the pigs

(33-34) The people ask Jesus to leave the region.

Then those who kept them fled; and they went away into the city and told everything, including what had happened to the demon-possessed men. And behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus. And when they saw Him, they begged Him to depart from their region.

They begged Him to depart from their region: We would think that the people of the region would be happy that these two demon-possessed men had been delivered. Perhaps they were more interested in their pigs than in people.

Wasn’t this unfair to the owner of the pigs? "‘But the owners of the swine lost their property.’ Yes, and learn from this how small value temporal riches are in the estimation of God. He allows them to be lost, sometimes to disengage us from them through mercy; sometimes out of justice, to punish us for having acquired or preserved them either by covetousness or injustice."

What effect did this have upon the owner? The report of it was soon brought to them by the swine-herds, who seemed to be more concerned about the loss of the swine than any thing else. Christ did not go into the city, but the people knew He was there.

Their curiosity brought them out to see Jesus. The whole city came out to meet him, that they might be able to say, they had seen a man who did such wonderful works. Many go out, in profession, to meet Christ and have no real affection for him, nor desire to know him.

Their covetousness made them willing to get rid of him. Instead of inviting him into their city, or bringing their sick to him to be healed, they asked Him to depart out of their coasts, as if they had borrowed the words of the devils, What have we to do with thee, Jesus thou Son of God? And now the devils had what they aimed at in drowning the swine; they did it, and then made the people believe that Christ had done it, and so prejudiced them against him.

The devil kept the Gadarenes from Christ, by suggesting that he came into their country to destroy their cattle, and that he would do more hurt than good; for though he had cured two men, yet he had drowned two thousand swine. Thus the devil does mischief in the Christian church, and then lays the blame upon Christianity, and makes people angry.

There are a great many who prefer their swine before their Savior, and so come short of Christ, and salvation by him. They desire Christ to depart out of their hearts, and will not allow his word to have a place in them, because He and His word will be the destruction of their brutish lusts—those swine which they give up themselves to feed.

Here is the simple point of this story. If Jesus Christ delivered these men that were so subdued and dominated by the power of demons, He has the authority to subdue your will and mind that you might be set free from your sin. Are there sins in your life that you think Christ cannot conquer? Are there desires that you think are beyond His control? Hear Him that said, "Go," and two men were freed, and who now says, "Come," and drink the water of life freely through Him.

Application of the miracle

Sin’s ability to possess, to infatuate, and to destroy
The power of Jesus over sin, to rescue and to save

The good news is:

* Mark 9:23 "Everything is possible for him who believes." NIV

April 13, 2008. Josh Broward: Who's Asleep?

2008-04-10T04:37:00.000-07:00

KNU International English Church

Josh Broward

April 13, 2008

Who’s Asleep?

Matthew 8:18-27

Read Matthew 8:18-27.

The first thing for us to notice here is that Jesus called his disciples to follow him “to the other side of the lake.” This meant that they were leaving the Jewish territory and going into the Gentile territory. This is the first time in Matthew that Jesus has taken this radical step.

When the first guy says, “I’ll follow you wherever you go,” he probably means – even into Gentile territory. “Jesus, anywhere you go, I’ll go, even into the dark and dirty places of our world.”

Jesus responds to this guy and to the next guy with two difficult sayings. We could talk all day about what these mean, but the basic point is very simple: discipleship is not easy. Following Jesus is not easy. It involves sacrifice, and it challenges our basic perspectives on life. Jesus says, “If you want to follow me, follow me now. Don’t wait. Even if the road is difficult, even if it turns your life upside down, follow me.”

Not long after they started their journey across the lake or sea of Galilee, a storm came up. When Matthew says there was a “storm,” he says it was a seismos megas. This is the same word for “earthquake.” This was a mega-earthshaking-storm! The front of the boat is literally covered up by the waves. Now, remember, at least some of the disciples are professional fishermen. They have been through storms before, but this storm was freaking them out.

But there’s Jesus in the back of the boat, catching up on some sleep after a hard day of work. There’s an earthquake-like storm going on, the disciples are scared to death, and Jesus is snoozing on a pillow.

The disciples cry out: “Lord save us! We’re going to drown!” (Mt. 8:25). In Mark’s version of the same story, they say, “Teacher, don’t you care that we’re going to drown?” (Mark 4:38).

When I started thinking about this, I remembered that other people in the Bible felt like God was asleep when they needed him most.

When the people of Israel had been taken into exile, they cried out: “Wake up, O Lord! Why do you sleep? Get up! … Why do you look the other way? Why do you ignore our suffering and oppression? … Get up! Help us!” (Psalm 44:23-36).
When David was being attacked by an enemy, he cried out, “Arise, O LORD, in your anger; rise up against the rage of my enemies. Wake up, my God” (Psalm 7:6).
Isaiah called out to God, “Wake up, wake up, O LORD! Clothe yourself with strength! Flex your mighty right arm! Rouse yourself as in the days of old” (Isaiah 51:9).

That made me wonder … when do we feel like God is asleep in our world? When do we feel like God has checked out of Hotel Earth?

In the movie Tears of the Sun, based during a crisis in Africa, a priest gives a blessing, “Go with God,” and Bruce Willis’s character shoots back, “God already left Africa a long time ago.”
When I was in university, I met a Jewish scientist on a train. Yacov described himself as a secular Jew. When he saw a documentary on the Holocaust in elementary school, he became an atheist. He said to himself, “There is no such thing as God or the chosen people, or else this would not have happened.”
In the movie, Bruce Almighty, Jim Carrey’s character, raises his fist and shouts up to heaven, “The only one not doing his job around here is you!”

Don’t you feel like that sometimes? Where is God? Look at this mess our world is in. Where is God when children are dying of hunger? Where is God when people are killing each other because of religion? Where is God when we are destroying our air and water and plants for the sake of “progress”? Where is God when people are trapped in hopeless cycles of poverty? Where is God? Has God abandoned us? Is God asleep?

-- Hands and Feet of Christ Video: http://www.theworkofthepeople.com/index.php?ct=store.details&pid=V00330

Maybe we need to ask a different question. Who is asleep in our world? God is not asleep. We are. According to Jesus, God is there with the suffering people, suffering with them. We are the ones who are sleeping. It’s like we are sleepwalking through life. We are living life, but we aren’t really awake to what’s happening around us.

I did a little research on sleepwalking this week. It seems that 18% of the world's population is prone to sleepwalking.¹ Sleepwalkers seem to be awake when they are up walking around, but they are actually still sleeping. Sleepwalkers do a wide range of things while they are sleeping: have a conversation, get dressed, go to the bathroom, clean the house, move furniture, cook, eat, drive a car, and even have sex.²

I know some of you are thinking, “How can I get my wife to sleep walk more? She’ll clean the house, cook breakfast, and have sex. This is great! It’s the perfect scenario for working moms, right?”

When I was in college, one of my roommates was a sleepwalker. One night I found him having a long conversation with a poster on the wall.

Sarah used to sleep walk when she was a girl. Once she dreamed that she was putting clothes in a laundry bin, and she woke up to find that she had thrown all of her sheets and blankets out her bedroom window. Another time, when Sarah was five or six years old, Sarah walked into her parents’ bedroom in the middle of the night. She walked up next to her parents’ bed, turned around, pulled her pants down, and sat down like she was using a toilet. Then, she got up and went back to bed. (No – in case you are wondering – she didn’t actually pee on the bed.)

Sleepwalkers do some crazy stuff. They are sort of half-functioning. Their minds are only half working. They are moving through life, but they don’t remember it, and they aren’t actually engaging with the real world. They are half-waking and half-sleeping.

Many of us go through life like this. We are only half-awake. We are sleepwalking through life. We go through the motions. We do OK at our jobs and with our families, but we are basically out of touch with the world around us. We are living, but only half-living.

We have faith, but we aren’t living it out. We’ve got this faith in Jesus, but it’s not shaping the way we live. We are sleepwalking through our world – having conversations with posters, saying things without meaning, and doing things that don’t make any sense. Our world is dying in the streets, and we are only concerned about what is happening in our living room. 24,000 people die of hunger every day, and our churches are singing praise choruses and having debates about whether we should use paper plates or plastic plates for the fellowship dinner.

We need to wake up! We need to see the real world and start living in the real world.

Mad as Hell video:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-630209734509543956&q=mad+as+hell&total=3204&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0

(skip from 2:33 to 3:00; stop at 4:10)

Wake up church! It is time for some righteous anger – anything that will break us out of our status quo sleepwalking. I am so tired of church as usual. Imagine how our world could change if all of us around the world would wake up and start addressing the problems and opportunities of our generation.

It’s time for us to get angry: angry about wasting our time while the world is dying. It’s time for us to get hopeful: hopeful that we can actually do something about the world’s crises. It’s time for us to wake up!

Let’s wake up, church! Let’s be a church that wakes up! Let’s be a church where Jesus comes alive and starts changing the world!

That is why I’m still here. Over the past six months or so, I’ve been asking myself what is next for me. How long will I pastor this church? How long will we stay here? With so many poor nations in the world, why are we still here in the 11^th richest nation in the world? So then, I started asking a different question. What is the best thing I can do for the world? If following Jesus means, actively working for the good of all people, like I said a few weeks ago, then how do I do that? For right now, I think the best thing I can do is to help this church wake up and engage our world, to help us open up to the life of Jesus in us, and to work with Jesus to address the crises of our world.

Discipleship is getting into that boat and facing the storms of human problems. We get into the boat, knowing that there will be storms, but also knowing that Jesus is with us and with them - and he is not asleep. My passion, for the next few years, is to help us live this out. Let’s be a church that wakes up!

What will it mean for our church to wake up? At the very least, it will mean that we will start to do things differently. We will try out new stuff. We will do stuff that most churches don’t do. We will get engaged in our world, and we let God change our world – one life, one community at a time.

What does it mean for you to wake up? First of all, we all need to ask ourselves a basic question: “Am I doing the right thing with my life? Am I working the kind of job God wants me to work?” Does God really want you to be teaching English or working in the business world, or does God want you to engage more directly in the pain and struggle of our world?

After that question, we need to ask a different question: “If this is the job that God wants me to have, how can I wake up while I do this job?”

If God wants you in business, how can you use your business influence to help people in developing nations pull out of poverty? How can you reduce environmental pollution and waste in your business?

If God wants you in science, how can you use those scientific skills to engage the problems that affect the poorest people in our world? Get a government grant and start helping people!

If God wants you to be a teacher or a student, how can you help your class and your school wake up to the world around you? Maybe you’ll ask them to become pen-pals or e-pals with students from a developing nation. Maybe you’ll teach lessons or write papers on the crises of our world and how we can help. Maybe your school will collect supplies for a school in a developing nation.

When Jesus calmed that storm, the disciples were amazed. They looked at Jesus and said, “Who is this man? Even the winds and the waves obey him?”

If we wake up and enter the storms of our world with the power of Jesus, (feeding the hungry, healing the sick, eliminating poverty, setting addicts free, educating the hopeless), people will look at us in awe, and they say, “Who are these people? Poverty and hunger and hatred disappear wherever they go.”

Here’s the deal: God is inviting us on a wild ride. If we get into this boat with Jesus, there will be a seismos megas for us – a big earth-shaking storm. Our world is going to get shaken up. Following Jesus into the storms of our world will change everything for us.

We are like the two guys standing on the side of the beach. We sing our praise: “Jesus’ I’ll follow you wherever you go.”

Jesus says, “This isn’t an easy trip. It will rock your world, but that’s a good thing. Your world needs a good shaking, so come on! Follow me!”

The Bible never tells us what happened to those two guys standing on the shore. We don’t know if they got into the boat or stayed on the shore.

What about you?

Are you going to stay on the shore where it’s safe and sleepy?

Or will you get in the boat with Jesus where life is wild but real?

Matthew 8:1-17, Josh Broward

2008-04-03T02:03:00.000-07:00

KNU International English Church

Josh Broward

March 30, 2008

Restoring Community

Matthew 8:1-17

I am a reject. I am an outcast. I am an exile.

When I was growing up, I was never one of the popular kids. I was always a little awkward socially, and I was overweight.

I remember one time in the 5^th grade when our school was having a carnival. Some of the kids in my class got into a water fight near the dunking booth. I had a crush on a girl in my class, so I did what most boys do in 5^th grade who like a girl – I attacked. I poured a big bucket of water on her head. She shrieked and laughed and turned to run after me – which is, of course, exactly what I wanted. I got the impression that she actually liked getting soaked in water and might actually like me.

In true 5^th grader style, I took the great courageous step of asking a friend to ask a friend to ask the girl if she liked me. I sent off my messenger. I watched him have a short meeting with the female messenger. Then, a group of giggling girls - armed with female intuition - smelled the drama in the air, and a flock of geese laughed and whispered their way into the girls’ bathroom.

After a minute or two, there was an explosion of girls going every which way, and one was making a B-line for us. She got a few meters away from me and said with snorts of laughter, “She said, ‘I wouldn’t go out with that fat slob!’” I was left to skulk away on my own, knowing that this story would be retold countless times around the school.

When my family moved to Texas, I had a new experience. I was now also the minority. I was usually the only white kid on my school bus. This wouldn’t have bothered me if it hadn’t bothered the other kids so much. They seemed to feel like I was their opportunity to express all of their frustrations for the times when they were the minorities. I experienced a general sense of isolation along with some staring and name calling.

Once, the community tough guy started a fight with me – simply because I was white. When we were fighting, I was surprised to find that other people on the bus were also hitting me – taking their cheap shots while I wasn’t looking.

Often, when I got off the bus at my bus stop, the kids would look out the window and shout racial slurs at me. Sometimes they would spit at me as the bus pulled away. I learned to walk quickly to get out of spitting range.

Most of my childhood and early adolescence was a longer replay of these basic scripts, usually with much less drama. All of this caused me some problems with my identity as I was growing up. It might have sent me into a depression – as I have seen happen many times. I might have become a racist – as several of my classmates in the “Deep South” were.

But something saved me. As a young teenager, I became a Christian. God’s love for me began to override my peers’ rejection of me. But just as importantly, I experienced love and acceptance and community through the Church. Through my church and other churches in our area, I developed beautiful relationships with people with every color of skin. In a very real way, God saved me and healed me – through the church.

For the past two months, we’ve been studying Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. This is Jesus’ most famous teaching. He is explaining the way of the Kingdom, and he calls his followers to live in radically different ways in the world: loving our enemies, showing mercy, speaking with humility, keeping our promises, trusting God, and not worrying about money. Jesus summarizes all of this in one simple sentence: “Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you” (Matthew 7:12).

In chapters 8 and 9, Jesus begins to live out this Kingdom way of life. He meets three people who are rejects and outcasts, people on the margins of society. Jesus gives healing to these people, and, in the process, he gives healing to their communities as well.

Let’s read these three stories in Matthew 8:1-17.

Let’s take a look at these three stories. Who were these people? Why were they outcasts or marginalized¹?

The first person was a leper. Leprosy was the most-feared disease of ancient times. If you got leprosy, your body would literally rot away piece by piece until you were all gone. There was no cure, and the only known way to prevent it was total isolation. Leviticus explains the life of a leper: “Those who suffer from a serious skin disease must tear their clothing and leave their hair uncombed. They must cover their mouth and call out, “Unclean! Unclean!” As long as the serious disease lasts, they will be ceremonially unclean. They must live in isolation in their place outside the camp” (13:45-46). Jesus broke the rules simply by touching this man.

The second contact was actually with a pair of people, a Roman officer and his slave. These were gentiles. This word is similar to the Korean word weigookin, but it is much stronger. They were ethnic outsiders – not Israelites, and they were religious outsiders – not Jewish. Even worse, this man was a leader in the Roman army which was occupying and oppressing Israel. Israelites hated Romans like Koreans hated Japanese soldiers 70 years ago. Jesus would have offended many people by giving any help at all.

The third story is about a woman – Peter’s mother-in-law. Women were considered second-class citizens, maybe half a step up from slaves. They were not considered a valuable part of society, and a good Jewish man didn’t talk to women. Jesus broke the rules again just by touching her.

Imagine with me for a few minutes what kind of community this would have been. A righteous Jewish man of Jesus time probably prayed this prayer every morning:

Blessed are You, Eternal One our God, Sovereign of the Universe, who did not make me a woman.
Blessed are You, Eternal One our God, Sovereign of the Universe, who did not make me a Gentile.
Blessed are You, Eternal One our God, Sovereign of the Universe, who did not make me a slave.

Give me some audience participation. How would you describe this community? What adjectives describe the life of this community? … arrogant, isolated, fragmented, fearful, hostile, shaming, lonely, unloving, broken?

What we see here is a basic rule of life. When people are broken and rejected, the community is broken. When people live in unhealed brokenness, the relationships and systems of the community are fundamentally broken. Broken and rejected people are evidence of a problem in the community.

When the community rejected those lepers, they were making brokenness and separation a permanent part of their communal life. When the community rejected and condemned gentiles, they were cutting off contact with the outside world, limiting themselves to their own perspectives, and limiting God’s love to themselves. When the community pushed down their women, they were cutting their society in half, institutionalizing hostility and oppression and injustice.

When Jesus brought healing to all of these people, he was breaking through his society’s walls of hostility and rejection. He was restoring those rejected people to the community, and he was restoring the community to include the rejected people. By bringing healing to individuals, he was also bringing healing to the community.

But what about us? Do you know anyone with leprosy? None of us are practicing Jews, so we don’t have a problem with gentiles. And most of us are pretty comfortable with women playing an equal role in society. What do these stories have to say to us today?

Maybe we can get inside these three stories. Maybe we can begin to see these three people as living breathing people in our lives.

Maybe Peter’s mother-in-law could represent people in our families or in our churches who are marginalized or suffering or sick. Who is pushed to the edges around here? Who might feel unwelcome or lonely here? Who might be feeling unloved in your own home? Mother Theresa said, “The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty.”

I got an email this week from someone, who is a conservative Christian, and she is wrestling with how to be a good friend to her friend, who is gay. This is her first time to have a gay friend, and she isn’t quite sure what to do. She wrote,

Do I tell her she’s wrong if she asks? Do I engage her in philosophical/theological debate? Do I just let her be and be a friend if she needs one? Or do I go the opposite extreme and tell her that everything she’s doing is A-OK and natural (as some of her close friends do)? Or a mixture of all of the above? Or nothing?

I’m not sure exactly how to answer my friend’s questions, but I’m impressed with her commitment to be a faithful friend and to keep the relationship going. In the process of trying to figure out how to be a good friend, she has become an active learner. She has read a book about homosexuality and watched a reality TV show about a conservative Christian guy who lived with a gay roommate in San Francisco for 30 days. She is trying. She is working at it.

Even when community is hard, Jesus calls us to do that hard work of friendship and to learn to genuinely love each other. Who is your “mother-in-law”?

If we really get inside this story, maybe the man with leprosy can represent for us the people pushed to the edges of our society. Who is our leper? Who are the people we feel uncomfortable just being around? Are they orphans? Are they the migrant workers? Are they the homeless? Are they the hard-drinking, hard-smoking, hard-joking, hard-partying crowd?

I’m excited that some people in our church are reaching out to all of these groups of people. On Monday mornings, Stephanie and some other folks go to an orphanage here in Cheonan, just to play with the kids. Every other Saturday, Chris, Isabel, and the other folks from Compassionate Hearts Ministry go to Cheonan Station to give out kimbap to homeless men. Many of you have donated your old clothes, and this week several people from the Cheonan Migrant Workers Center came to my office to pick up a van load of clothes. Chris and I are talking about how we can have more fellowship with this center. YoungMin, Byron, Lindsey, and a few others play pool downtown with a group of hakwon teachers who tend to feel pushed away by church.

If we are followers of Jesus, we need to go with Jesus to the margins. We always need to be looking for the people our society or our church has pushed aside. We need to find those people and restore community by restoring the bonds of love to them.

If we really get inside this story, then maybe the Roman officer and his slave can represent someone in our lives too. Who is our “gentile”? Jesus healed this gentile’s slave without even going to his home? Who needs long-distance healing through us?

A 40 year old woman sat by the door of her hut in Swaziland (a small country inside South Africa). Her body was twisted into strange shapes as she tried to find a comfortable position. Cancer was attacking her breast, her stomach, and her back, so the slighted touch caused great pain. She leaned sideways against the chair and watched her children playing outside. Her mind moved into the future, and despair filled her face.

This pain of the future was her greatest pain of all. It was the pain of a mother infected with HIV, facing her last days. She knew that in a few months her children would be orphans.

This courageous woman turned to the team from the Nazarene Compassionate Ministries AIDS taskforce who was visiting her home. She spoke very softly, trying not to cough: “Who is going to take care of my children?”

More than 12 million children in Africa are orphaned because of AIDS. Like the Roman officer coming to Jesus, these African mothers and fathers cry out to us, “Who will take care of my children?”²

Some of you have already taken up this challenge by sponsoring a child. For only 25,000 won a month, you can make sure at least one child has enough food and a good education. Talk to Amanda to sponsor a child (or go to www.ncm.org).

Our church has also taken up this challenge. We are going to Tanzania this summer to help build a training center for Christian leaders in Africa. These leaders are actively engaging their communities in taking care of the children. We’re doing a small part to help them do that.

What will you do to answer the cry from far away? Will you just turn up the sound in your MP3 player? Will you toss a little money their way so you’ll feel better? Or will you get involved? Will you give your time, your energy, your heart to bring healing and to restore community?

Who is your suffering family member? Who is your leper – rejected by people in your social group? Who is your “gentile” far away asking for your help?

Here’s the key part. If we really get inside this story … if we see these three people as people in our lives, then who are we in this story? If we really get inside this story, and if this story really gets inside us, then we will be the Jesus who reaches out and loves and helps the people whom everyone else rejects or ignores. We become the people who break social barriers for the sake of love and healing. We become the people who restore people and develop a restoring, healing community.

Are you ready for this? Are you ready to live like Jesus?

Big Idea: Jesus restores broken people and broken communities.

Action Steps:

Identify your outcasts.
See their value as people whom God loves.
Touch or embrace them today.

Elevating Ethics, Matthew 7:12-29. Josh Broward

2008-03-23T05:27:00.000-07:00

KNU International English Church

Josh Broward

March 23, 2008

Elevating Ethics

Matthew 7:12-29

Read Matthew 7:12-29

“Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you” (Matthew 7:12). Without a doubt, this is the most famous thing Jesus ever said. This short saying earned the title “The Golden Rule” when Roman Emperor Alexander Severus had this rule written on his wall in gold.¹

Let me give you a short quiz on the Golden Rule. I call this Elevator Ethics.

Question 1: You are on an elevator with several other people. Someone you don’t know gets on. He’s wearing one of those plastic nametags showing that he’s participating in a conference of some kind. He also has a long piece of toilet paper trailing from his shoe. The elevator door opens at his floor. What do you do? Do you tell him? Do you just let him walk out into the crowd of people? “Hi. My name is John, and I’m the dork with the toilet paper on my shoe.”

Question 2: You are on an elevator. Earlier in the day, you had a wonderful but very spicy lunch. The spices are beginning to work through your system. You can feel your stomach rumbling. You try to hold it in, but suddenly you pass gas right there on the elevator. It’s one of those silent-but-deadly types. Everyone is making faces, and people begin to point to the slightly overweight, poorly dressed man standing next to you. Everyone thinks it’s him. What do you do? Do you speak out and take the blame, or do you walk away the as the secret farter?

Question 3: You are on an elevator, and a young Korean woman gets on the elevator with a very cute T-shirt that has an offensive English phrase on it. This has actually happened to me. One of my theology students wore a shirt with a picture of a motorcycle and the words, “I wish my boyfriend was as dirty as my bike!”² No kidding! What do you do? Do you try to explain that the shirt is not so good? Or do you let her walk on in ignorant bliss? OK, we all know what Patricia would do, but what would you do?

How do we apply “The Golden Rule” in these situations? Is this what “The Golden Rule” is all about?

In the generation just before Jesus, there were two famous Jewish rabbis: Shammai and Hillel. Once, a Gentile man went to Shammai and said, “I will convert to Judaism, but I have one condition. You must teach me the entire Jewish law while I am standing on one leg.” Shammai was so angry that he beat the guy out of the area with a stick: “Heathen! Gentile! How dare you insult the Law of Yehovah!”

Later, the same guy went to Hillel and said the same thing: “I will convert to Judaism, but first you must teach me the entire Jewish law while I am standing on one leg.” Hillel said, “What is hateful to yourself, do to no other; that is the whole law, and the rest is commentary. Go and learn.”³

Jesus seems to agree with Hillel. As Jesus closes the Sermon on the Mount, he gives a one line summary his whole sermon: “Ask yourself what you want other people to do for you, then grab the initiative and do it for them. Add up God’s Law and Prophets and this is what you get” (Matthew 7:12).

That is very close to what Rabbi Hillel and many other ethical teachers have said. However, Jesus’ statement is different in several important ways.

First of all, Jesus’ statement is positive: “Do to others whatever you would like them to do for you,” not just “Don’t do what you don’t want done.” This might seem like a small difference at first, but it turns into something big.

A negative ethic – a philosophy of not doing harm – is very limited. It is focused on the do-not’s. It is enough not to steal; we are not required to help someone who has been robbed. It is enough not to commit adultery; we are not required to give assistance to prostitutes or to help people escape from addictions. It is enough not to hurt someone; we do not have to help those who are hurt by others.

A negative ethic is all about avoiding sin and avoiding evil. It isn’t about actively being good or doing good for anyone. We tend to live a negative ethic. We go our way and live our own life and try not to hurt people and try not to make the world any worse, but we do not go out of our way to make the world radically better.

Jesus says simply: “That is not enough.” Goodness involves real action. Goodness involves actively doing good things, not just passively avoiding wrong things. The way of Jesus is to actively work for the good of all people.

Jesus’ Golden Rule is different in another way. It is unlimited. The Greek actually says: “Everything whatever that you would like others to do to you, you yourselves do to them.” Everything whatever! In every last thing! Always and at all times! In every situation, in all your actions, in everything you do, from the big stuff to the little stuff, do it all as you would want someone else to act toward you. This is unlimited.

Jesus’ Golden Rule is also unlimited in scope. We normally interpret this rule to mean that we should be nice and kind to the people around us – Elevator Ethics. But Jesus doesn’t limit this to people near us. Jesus says, “Every last thing you want people to do to you, do the same things for them.” People are all over the place, all over the world, not just in our neighborhoods. This is getting more radical. The way of Jesus is to actively work for the good of all people.

Jesus says, “This IS the law and the prophets.” Everything written in the Law of Moses, every word from God spoken by Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and all the prophets, every command, every promise, every warning – they all come down to this: “In every last thing, work actively for the good of all people.”

Then, Jesus warns us about people who talk big and act big but don’t live up to this Golden Rule (Matthew 7:13-23). Jesus says that simple unselfishness counts for more than big miracles or great church programs. You can tell if people are good or bad by their actions.

Are they just living Elevator Ethics, being polite and maybe even generous on occasion, but basically looking out for themselves? Are they involved in church, do they know all the Bible answers, do they smile and say Amen, and then go out and live their lives as if no one else really matters? Those are the fakes. They are rejecting God’s way in their daily lives. I don’t even like to say this, but Jesus says they’re going to be cut off and thrown into the fire.

Are they actively working for the good of all people? Are they thinking about how they live and how they interact with the world? Are they asking how they can help the people who most need their help? Are they taking action based on these questions? Those are the real people. They will be welcomed into the Kingdom of Heaven because they are already living God’s way in their daily lives.

Someone pointed out to me today that, earlier in Matthew 7, Jesus says, “Do not judge others …” Last week we talked a lot about not judging, but this week, Jesus is saying, “There are good people and bad people, and you can tell the difference by how they act.” Sometimes Jesus is hard to understand! We need to remember a few things from last week. We have to turn the question in upon ourselves first: “Are we actively working for the good of all people in every last thing we do?” Then, we come humbly together to talk out how we can live more faithfully together. The key here is humility. We judge issues critically, and we judge people mercifully and with humility. Only with humility can we begin to help each other live more faithfully.

So Jesus concludes his sermon with a famous parable. There are two builders. The smart guy builds his house on the rock, and his house stays strong even when the storm comes. The stupid guy builds his house on the sand, and when the storm comes, his house falls down in a mighty crash.

What’s the difference between the smart guy and the stupid guy? Only one thing. The smart guy actually lived Jesus way, and the stupid guy listened to Jesus but kept living his own way.

When we keep this parable in the context of the overall Sermon on the Mount, we get a startling message. Remember, Jesus’ summary of all his teaching (and all of God’s teaching ever) is very simple: In every last thing, actively work for the good of all people, just like you would want them to work for your good.

So, the smart guy did this. He built his life on these words. He actively worked for the good of all people in every last thing he did. And he experienced God’s true life.

But the stupid guy didn’t do this. He was a good listener, but not a good doer. He listened to Jesus, and then went his own way, maybe being a nice guy, but generally ignoring the needs of others. In the end, his life came crashing down around him.

A paraphrase from The Message, helps us apply this to our lives: “But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don’t work them into your life, you are like a stupid carpenter who built his house on the sandy beach.” Going to a Bible study doesn’t do much good unless we actually live what Jesus says.

Rick Warren, author of The Purpose-Driven Life, says that in his church, at the beginning of every small group Bible study, the group checks to see if the people actually lived out what they studied last week. If most people didn’t put it into practice, they stop right there and talk some more about how to live out what the Bible is talking about. They don’t study another chapter until most people in the group can honestly say that they are putting into action what they studied the week before.⁴

How would that change your Bible study? How would that change our church? How would that change our world? I challenge you to do this in your Bible studies. Don’t just talk about what the Bible says. Every week ask, “How can we live this? How are we going to live this? Did we actually live this out this week?”

“Don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it” (James 1:22-25).

What is this “perfect law that sets you free”? Jesus says it very simply, “In everything, do to people whatever you want them to do to you.” In every last thing, work for the good of all people.

You and I might say: “But this is very hard. Everything is … well … everything! And that’s a lot. And all people … well … there are a lot of people. There are a lot of people in our world with a lot of needs, a whole lot of needs, starving people, poor people, sick people. There’s a lot of people. It’s one thing just to not hurt them, but to actively work for their good in everything I do? Well, that would take … my whole life! It would be … um … hard!”

Exactly! It will take your whole life. It will be hard. “Don’t look for shortcuts to God. … The way to life – to God! – is vigorous and requires total attention.” (Matthew 7:13-14, The Message). “You can enter God’s Kingdom only by the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way. But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it” (Matthew 7:13-14).

The way of Jesus is actively working for the good of all people in everything we do. This is hard! Let’s not pretend. It’s difficult. In fact, sometimes it will even feel like dying. That’s why Jesus talked about taking up your cross and giving up your life. This is the way of the Kingdom. This is the way of Jesus. With all of our life, we actively work for the good of others. We give our lives for those who most need our help. This is the way of Jesus.

This way leads us to the cross, to our own cross. But it is only possible because of the cross of Jesus, and even more, the resurrection of Jesus. Today is Easter, and today we celebrate that Jesus lived his own philosophy. He actively worked for the good of others wherever he went, and in the end he gave up his life for the good of all people. Jesus paid the highest price so that he could share with us the highest good – new life, God’s life, the Holy Spirit of God living and breathing in us, giving us the power to live in new ways, helping us to love our neighbors as ourselves, giving us the imagination and the determination to work for the good of all people. Through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, God is creating a new world in us and through us.

Easter is the day of global transformation. And this global change starts with the local action of one changed life. One person dies and experiences new life with Jesus. One person actually shapes his life around Jesus’ teaching: in every last thing, do what you want others to do for you. This local change starts what Shane Clairborne calls an Irresistible Revolution.

Our death is our life. Our unselfishness is the best thing we can do for others and ourselves. The Dalai Lama said, “If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.”⁵ Jesus said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?” (Matthew 16:24-26).

Easter is the day of resurrection. Easter is the day that we lay down our lives again and experience Jesus’ resurrection again.

The way of Jesus is to actively work for the good of all people. Elevator ethics is not enough. This is a life or death choice. What do you choose?

Josh Broward: Matthew 7:1-5

2008-03-15T05:43:00.000-07:00

KNU International English Church

Pastor Josh Broward

March 16, 2008

How Do I Judge Thee?

Matthew 7:1-5

[[We will start by watching a series of short commercials by Ameriquest Mortgage Company. Each commercial ends with this line: “Don’t judge too quickly. We won’t.” You can view some of these commercials at YouTube by following this link: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6598159902729380720&q=don%27t+judge+too+quickly&total=1097&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=1.]]

Read Matthew 7:1-5.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote the famous lines, “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach…”

Maybe we can change the wording a bit today: “How do I judge thee? Let me count the ways. I judge thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach.” We are so judgmental! I hardly know where to begin.

This week, I asked Sarah, “How do I preach against being judgmental without being judgmental?” In classic Sarah style, she said, “Very carefully.”

First, I need to say this very clearly. I am guilty. I judge others harshly far too often in far too many ways. I am a perfectionist. I tend to expect perfection from myself and from others. Since none of us are perfect, I find lots to criticize. In fact, part of my psychological difficulty is that I tend to judge others harshly to help me feel better about myself.

I am guilty, and if any of you feel offended because of what I say today, please remember that I offended myself first! I myself need more of God’s grace, especially on this issue.

Now, let’s take a closer look at the text from Matthew 7.

Verse 1 is the most famous, “Do not judge others, and you will not be judged,” or in the old King James Version, “Judge not, lest ye be judged!” Your voice just has to get deeper when you say that verse. This whole passage has lots of connections with Jesus’ other teachings. “God blesses those who are merciful, for they will be shown mercy” (Matthew 5:7). “Forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us” (Matthew 6:12). “If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins” (Matthew 6:14-15). The list could go on and on. This is a big deal for Jesus.

Verse 2 increases the intensity through repetition. This isn’t really clear when we translate it into English, but in Greek it’s pretty striking. The Greek root word for “judge” is kri, and the Greek word for “measure is” metr – as in “meter.”

With the krimati krinete krithesesthe

judgment you judge you will be judged.

With the metro metreite metrethesetai to you

measure you measure it will be measured

Jesus is saying, “Hey folks, you’re going to get it just like you give it. God is going to measure other people with the same stick you use to measure others. Be hard on them, and God will be hard on you. If you judge others harshly, they and God will judge harshly right back at you.”

Verses 3-5 are actually pretty funny. Jesus has quite a sense of humor. It might help us understand this if we look at a few pictures.¹

Step 1: We notice that our friend has a problem, “a speck” in his eye, maybe a speck of sawdust – a tiny piece of wood.

Step 2: We offer to help, “Here let me help you get this speck out of your eye.” So far it all sounds reasonable enough.

But then comes Step 3: Jesus says that we actually have a huge log (or plank or beam) in our own eye. This is where it gets funny. Can you imagine walking around with a huge log sticking out of your eye? And, then we have the nerve to try to help someone else with a speck of sawdust! “Excuse me buddy,” wham! – we hit them in the head with our plank. “Well that was uncomfortable, but at least you won’t move now while I’m working on your eye!”

Some of the commentators point out here that the sawdust and the plank are made of the same thing: wood. So often when we criticize others, we have the same problems in ourselves, only in larger measure. “Quit judging me! You are so judgmental!” “You know that Sally girl? Ooh, she’s such a gossip! I can’t stand gossip.”

Jesus pushes us to Step 4. Stop pretending. Take the log out of your own eye first. Deal with your own issues first. Face up to your own sin and bad attitudes first. Before we do this, we have no right to say anything about whether someone else is right or wrong. Our vision is impaired. We are blind. We can’t see clearly about what is right and wrong in others until we sort out what is right and wrong in us. One pastor I listened to this week said, “Look at yourself first. You may not like what you see!”²

The point here is humility and honesty. We are only ready to help others when we are being honest with ourselves about our own sinfulness and weakness. Only from a point of humility, can we move on to Step 5: helping someone deal with a problem in her life.

There is a key point here that is often overlooked. Step 5 is helping someone deal with a problem. Step 5 is not talking to person A about person B’s problem. Step 5 is not throwing out an insulting criticism. Step 5 is not cutting off a friendship. Step 5 is going to someone humbly and having an open, caring conversation – with the goal of helping that person. If you are talking to someone about a problem someone else has, there is a very good chance that you are in the wrong. If you’re so concerned about the other person, do Step 4 (check your own heart) and then do Step 5 (talk directly with the other person).

Now it’s time to get specific. How are we likely to judge others? This is the point in the sermon when you are likely to get mad at me. In fact, there is a very good chance that I will be mad at me when I’m done with this.

How are we likely to judge others? How are we likely to condemn others and to be ungracious to others? Here are some of the most common ways.

1. We tend to judge others wrongly when they judge us. As soon as someone starts criticizing us, we get on the defensive. We defend by counter-attacking. We immediately notice 100 things that are wrong about the other person: “How can he say that when he’s this and he’s that?!”

Arthur Boer wrote a book with a great title: Never Call Them Jerks. The way we respond to criticism says more about us than the actual complaint. If we join in the judging game, we’re just as wrong as they are.

2. We tend to judge others wrongly when they have a different perspective. We Westerners have a real problem with this in Korea. How many times have you heard someone complain about something in Korea by saying that the Korean way is stupid or random or crazy? When we say things like that, we are judging wrongly. If we’ll take the time to listen and ask questions, we’ll usually find that the discomfort we feel comes from a differing perspective on the world. Neither perspective is wrong. It’s just different.

We also run into a similar problem here in our church. Our church is a beautiful and painful mixture of people from many different perspectives. We have young and old, conservative and liberal, modern and post-modern. We are naturally going to disagree about a whole lot of things. That’s OK. But if we increase that disagreement to judgmentalism, we will destroy our community.

We have people here who think absolute truth is the most important thing ever, and we have people here who think absolute truth is a foolish and impossible ideal, and we have everything in between. We can get into a lot of trouble if we start judging each other on these issues. And this judging can go both ways. Sometimes the liberal folk can feel like the victims even while they judge “those narrow-minded, bigoted, fundamentalists.”

We have got to learn to live with each other and love each other. We can’t write people off or send them to hell in our minds because they disagree with us – even if the issue seems very important to us. We need to find the grace to embrace our diversity as God brings us together through Christ.

3. We tend to judge others wrongly when they lack something. She is out of fashion. He dresses too casually. Her personality is a little rough. He doesn’t have very good social skills. His mind doesn’t work quite as quickly or as logically as ours. She doesn’t have a very good job. We can look at what people lack and decide that they are worth less because of what they lack. We naturally tend to distance ourselves from these people. We don’t want to hang around them. We might even make jokes about them. This is wrong. This is judging.

We all have “issues” we haven’t dealt with. We are all lacking something. We need to embrace each other, and we especially need to work hard to embrace those who don’t seem to fit in. This is a core part of being a loving community.

4. We tend to judge others wrongly when they have debatable ethical positions. In our epistle lesson, Paul says we should accept each other “without passing judgment on disputable matters” (Romans 14:1). There are many disputable matters. In Paul’s time, one of the big issues was what kind of food was OK to eat. Over the last 50 years, some big issues have been what kind of clothes are OK, what kind of entertainment is OK, and what kind of drink is OK. These are debatable issues, and we should not condemn or judge others because they debate the issue differently from us.

Let me speak to another big issue: homosexuality. You might think this is not a “disputable matter.” Wake up! This is probably the most disputed and debated issue of our time! It is definitely “disputable” or “debatable.”

So what do our texts today say about this issue? A paraphrase from The Message might help us here: “It's easy to see a smudge on your neighbor's face and be oblivious to the ugly sneer on your own. Do you have the nerve to say, 'Let me wash your face for you,' when your own face is distorted by contempt?” So often, our disagreements about homosexuality turn into contempt and judgmentalism. We’ve got to stop this.

No matter what we believe about this issue, or other issues like this, we’ve got to love each other as people. I feel so sick when I see how many people are driven away from God because of the judgmental attitudes of Christians. Way too many Christians go out of their way to reject “the gay lifestyle” and gay people. If you know someone who is gay, you need to go out of your way to show them love. This is the way of Christ. Love your neighbor as yourself.

My prayer is that we will be a church where everyone is welcome and feels welcome –conservative or liberal, fundamentalist or post-modern, straight or gay. My prayer is that we will be a community that invites all people to be renewed by God’s love so that we will love God, ourselves and others. My prayer is that everything we do will draw people to God and God’s people, not push them away from God and God’s people.

When we start talking about homosexuality, or any other hot topic issue, we need to be humble. We need to remember that people smarter - and maybe even holier - than us have honest and heart-felt opinions that are different from ours. Whatever we believe, we just might be wrong. Whatever we believe, we can still kneel together before God who is our final Judge.

Let me wrap up here. “Do not judge” does not mean don’t think. It doesn’t mean don’t evaluate whether something is right or wrong or good or bad. It doesn’t mean don’t criticize anything at any time. Jesus does a lot of thinking and evaluating and criticizing in the right context.

“Do not judge” means that we judge issues critically, but we judge people mercifully and humbly. Remember the limitations of your knowledge. You don’t know everything there is to know, and you don’t know that person’s history or current circumstances. And remember that you are a sinner, too. You just might have a plank in your own eye. I just might have a plank in my own eye.

“Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.”

God, have mercy on us all.

God, show mercy through us all.

Yoni Moorgan: The Problem of Worry. March 9, 2007

2008-03-06T03:50:00.000-08:00

Blem ofKNU English Church
Yoni Moorgan
March 9, 2008

The Problem of Worry!

The word "worry" (Greek--merimna) means "anxiety, care, that which divides, distracts the mind and which draws a troubled person’s mind in different directions." Sometimes the word is used of a healthy and helpful concern and care (1 Corinthians 7:32,34; 12:25; 2 Cor. 11:28; Phil. 2:20), but it is also used of an unhealthy and harmful concern and care, which we call "WORRY."
People worry about ANYTHING and EVERYTHING.
Matthew 6:31 Eat & drink
Matthew 6:34 Tomorrow
Matthew 10:19 What to say & how to say it
There are at least six reasons why we should never worry:

1) Worry is disobedience.
2) Worry is unbelief.
3) Worry is a form of atheism.
4) Worry can lead to physical problems.
5) Worry is illogical (senseless).
6) Worry can do no good.
Let’s take time to consider each of these:
1) Worry is Disobedience.
In Philippians 4:6, the Lord says, "Be Careful (full of cares and anxieties) for nothing" which means "worry about nothing" or "do not worry about one thing" or "stop worrying about everything." Therefore, whenever we worry about ANYTHING, we are DISOBEYING God’s command here in Philippians 4:6! When God tells us not to worry, He means it! God sees worry as SINFUL DISOBEDIENCE. Is that how we see it?
2) Worry is Unbelief.
The Lord Jesus gave some important instructions about "WORRY" in Matthew 6:25-34. In this passage, what verse clearly indicates that worry is UNBELIEF? The person who is troubled with worries and cares is really saying, "I DO NOT BELIEVE that God loves me and cares for me and is able to take care of my problems!" Worry and trust cannot live together in the same house. As long as trust abides, worry can never enter. When worry comes in, trust has already left! Worry starts where faith ends.
3) Worry is a Form of Atheism.
The atheist says, "There Is No God” Psalm 14:1). The person who worries is really saying, "THERE IS NO GOD who can handle my problems and take care of my life and my future." The one who worries, as well as the atheist, is a Fool (Psalm 14:1).
4) Worry Can Lead to Physical Problems.
Stomach ulcers and other physical problems can often result from needless worry and anxiety. Not only is worry spiritually unhealthy, but it is also physically unhealthy. Worry can never help us, but it can harm us.
5) Worry is Illogical (Senseless).
Worry makes no sense. In Matthew 6:25-26, the Lord Jesus illustrated how ILLOGICAL worry really is. Let’s look first at verse 25:
Take No Thought (do not be anxious, do not be worried) for your LIFE, what you shall eat, or what you shall drink; nor for your BODY, what you shall put on (Matthew 6:25a).
The Lord Jesus then asked, "Is not the life more than meat (food, nourishment)?" What is the answer to this question? YES. "Is not the BODY more than raiment (clothing)?" What is the answer? YES
Which is greater (more important), the life that God has given to you or the food that God has given to you? Would you rather have your LIFE or would you rather have a HAMBURGER? Can you survive without a hamburger? Can you survive without your life?
If God has given you life (which is the greater gift), will He not also give you the food and drink that supports life (which are the lesser gifts)? The worried person is really saying, "The God who gave me LIFE is unable to give me FOOD and DRINK." Does that make sense?
Which is greater, the body that God has given to you or the clothes that God has given to you? Would you rather have your BODY or would you rather have a SUIT or a DRESS? Can you survive without a suit or a dress? Can you survive without your body? If God has given you a body (which is the greater gift), will He not also give you clothes that cover the body (which are the lesser gifts)? The worried person is really saying, "The God who gave me my BODY is unable to give me CLOTHES to cover it." Does that make sense?

Illustrations: Suppose a father gave his child an expensive battery operated toy as a birthday present. Do you think this father would also supply batteries to go with it? Suppose a father goes to all the trouble of constructing a basketball court (with hoops and everything) in the backyard for his son. Do you think he would also supply a basketball to go with it? When Mom cooks supper, does she also supply all the plates, glasses and silverware to go with it? If God has given us a life and a body, will He also supply all of our needs (Philippians 4:19)?
Now consider verse 26 (Matthew 6): "Behold the birds of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your Heavenly Father feeds them." Again Jesus asked a question: "Are you not much better than they?" Which are more important and valuable to God, birds or men (Matthew 10:31)? If God feeds and cares for birds (which are of lesser value), will He not feed and care for men (which are of greater value)? If a mother feeds and cares for the family pet, will she not do the same for the family children? If a father takes good care of the family car (feeds it with gas, keeps it clean and polished), will he not do the same and much more for his children? The worried person is really saying, "The birds are of more value to God than me!" Does that make sense?
6) Worry Can Do No Good.
Worry has never been able to help anyone. Worry has never accomplished anything. Worry has never solved even one problem. Worry can look at problems but it can never solve problems. Worry does absolutely no good. The Lord Jesus said it this way, "Which of you by worrying (by being anxious, by worrying) can add one cubit unto his stature?" (Matthew 6:27).
The word translated "stature" is used in two different ways. It often means "age" (John 9:21,23; Hebrews 11:11), but it can also mean "stature" (how tall a person is)--(see Luke 19:3).
LIFE IS SHORT!
DEATH IS SURE!
SIN THE CAUSE !
CHRIST THE CURE!
WORRY CAN DO NO GOOD!!!
1 )What Should I Do Today, WORRY or WORK?
"Do not worry, therefore, about tomorrow: for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough evil (trouble, problems) of its own" (Matthew 6:34; translated from the Greek).

Worry is concern and anxiety over the future. We worry about what might happen tomorrow. Do we know what will really happen tomorrow (James 4:14; Proverbs 27:1)? Who does know what will take place tomorrow (Isaiah 46:9-10; compare Mark 13:23; John 14:29; 16:3-4.)? We do not know what the future holds, but we know WHO holds the future!
Today’s cares are ENOUGH! How foolish to ADD tomorrow’s cares to those of today! Tackle today’s troubles, and let tomorrow take care of itself. The Lord does not give us strength to face tomorrow’s problems today. He gives us strength to face today’s problems today (2 Corinthians 12:9-10; Philippians 4:13; Colossians 1:11). The burden of tomorrow’s cares added to the load of today’s trouble is too much for anyone to bear. According to Matthew 6:34 we must put all of our strength and energy and resources into solving today’s problems. If we WORK on tackling today’s troubles then we will not have time to WORRY about tomorrow’s troubles.
2) Casting My Cares on the Christ Who Cares

"Casting all your cares (worry, anxiety) upon Him; for He cares for you" (1 Peter 5:7).

1. What must I do with my care and worry (1 Pet. 5:7)? The word "casting" means "to throw something upon something else." In 1 Peter 5:7 the believer is to throw their cares upon Christ.

2. How much of my care and worry should I throw upon the Lord (1 Pet. 5:7)? ________
Imagine if you could hire one of your friends to do all of your worrying for you! It would be wonderful if they could handle all of your cares. Whenever a problem or difficulty should arise, all you would need to do is tell them about it, and they would worry about it for you! You would not have to worry about it at all! That would be their business. You would then be free to live as if you did not have a care or worry in the world! You have thrown all your care on another person. You do not even need to worry about how much money you should pay your friend for doing all your worrying for you. That is their worry! (Jay E. Adams, You Can Stop Worrying, p.3).
The Lord will not do your worrying for you, because GOD NEVER WORRIES about anything! Yet the Lord tells you to throw all your care upon Him. If you give your cares to the Lord and leave them with Him, then you will be free from worry! Let God carry your cares.
3. Why should you decide to throw your care and worry upon the Lord (1 Pet. 5:7)?
God cares about you! God is concerned about you. It matters to God about you. It is a concern to Him about you. He ever cares and He never stops caring about you. HE CARES FOR YOU!
Does God care for birds (Matt. 6:26)?
Does God care for lilies (Matt. 6:28)?
Does God care for sheep (Matt. 12:11-12)?
Does God care for oxen (1 Corinthians 9:9-10)?
Does God care for sparrows ((Matt. 10:29-31)?
IN LIGHT OF THE ABOVE . . .
Matthew 6:26: "Are you not much better than they?"
Matthew 12:12: "How much then is a man better than these?"
Matthew 10:31: "Are you not of more value than they?"
DOES GOD CARE FOR YOU ?
Which would cause you the most concern and which would you care about the most? Losing 500 won or losing 10,000 wonl? Which is of more value? If a person is concerned about losing 500 won , will they not be much more concerned about losing something of greater value?
God’s Loving Care
Animals die all the time and we usually think nothing of it. Often we see dead animals by the side of the road, and we pay little attention to them. We do not place a great value and importance upon sparrows, but THE CREATOR DOES! Matthew 10:29 says that not one sparrow will ever fall on the ground without the knowledge and consent (permission) and concern of God the Father. Sparrows are important to God! He created them! Who is much more important to the Lord (Matthew 10:31)? If God watches over sparrows, will He not much more take care of your living and dying?
"But the very hairs of your head are numbered" (Matthew 10:30). On the average, the human head has about 140,000 hairs. If you do not believe this, count them for yourself! The Lord knows exactly how many hairs there are on your head! If you were to lose one hair (and several fall off each day), you would think nothing of it! But is God mindful of that hair? Who is more concerned about that hair, you or God? Who is more concerned about the PERSON who lost the hair, you or God? Does God care about you more than you care about yourself? If one of your hairs is important to God, are not you as a PERSON much more important to Him? If God cares about the hairs that you have, do you think He cares about the problems that you have? If He is concerned about your HAIRS, is He not much more concerned about your CARES? Then, why worry?
If we would only believe that GOD CARES, then we would be free from worry. Believers often worry because they foolishly think the Lord does not care. Did the worried disciples think the Lord cared for them (Mark 4:38)? What was their real problem (Mark 4:40)? They had no faith.
3) Why Worry When You Can Pray?

"Be anxious for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, LET YOUR REQUESTS BE MADE KNOWN UNTO GOD" (Philippians 4:6).
In this important verse, the Lord first tells us what we must not do, and then He tells us something that we must do:
(1) We Must Not Worry
The believer is not to be CAREFUL (full of worry and care).
Today this word is used in a good sense, and it means "to exercise a healthy care and concern, to be cautious." Example: Young people (and older people) should he very careful about what kind of thoughts find their home in the mind (Phil. 4:8; Phil. 3:l9; Proverbs 23:7; Col. 3:1-2).
The believer is not to be CARELESS (without concern and caution, not thinking or watching what you say or do).
The believer must be CAREFREE (free from worry and unhealthy care).
Philippians 4:6 is a command: "Be worrying about nothing!" In other words, we should not worry at all. To worry about NOTHING means to stop worrying about EVERYTHING!
2) We Must Let Our Requests Be Made Known
Don’t worry, but pray! Let God know about your problems and your needs. Does the Lord already know about these things (Matt. 6:8)? Does He want you to ask Him (Matt. 7:7)? He knows before you ask, but He wants you to ask! He wants you to ask Him to take care of whatever you were worried about.
HOW (in what way) should my requests be made known? Our verse (Philippians 4:6) tells us five ways this is to be done:
1. In Everything
I must worry about nothing, but I must pray about everything. In every situation and circumstance of life I can let my requests be made known. In every problem and difficulty I face, I can ask God to work it out. Prayer can be applied to any problem and to any and every situation.
2. Unto God
Our requests (those things that we ask for) are to be sent in a GODWARD DIRECTION. We must send our requests towards the ONE who can really do something about them. In the middle of our troubles, where can we look for help (Psalm 121:1-2; 124:8)?
If we look in the wrong direction, then we are in trouble. If I look at my broken watch, then I will get all worried. If I look toward the watchmaker who can fix it, then I can relax because I know my watch is in good hands. Should a person look at his broken leg or should he look in the direction of the Doctor?
3. By Prayer
How can I let my requests be made known? Philippians 4:6 says, BY PRAYER! This word "prayer" is used many times in the New Testament (Acts 1:14; 2:42; 6:4; 10:4; 12:5; Rom. 1:9; 12:12; Eph. 6:18; Col. 4:2,12; 1 Tim. 2:1; 5:5; etc.) and it always means "prayer TO GOD." When a believer prays, they must COME TO GOD, and the person who comes to God "must BELIEVE that He exists" (Hebrews 11:6). Often we pray and we fall to realize WHO IT IS that we are praying to! PRAYER should make a believer GOD-CONSCIOUS and GOD-DEPENDENT:
GOD-CONSCIOUS:
Very Conscious of Who God Is.
Keenly Aware of the Almighty One We Are Praying To.
Deeply Sensitive to God’s Person, Power and Presence.
GOD-DEPENDENT:
I am unable. He is able!
I cannot. He can!
I do not understand. He does!
I am weak. He is strong!
I cannot solve my problems. God has the solution!
4. By Supplication
I must also let my requests be made known BY SUPPLICATION. This word "supplication" involves a person’s NEED. A person with problems has some very real needs. A prayer of supplication is a specific prayer for a specific need. The believer must tell God exactly what his problem is (BE SPECIFIC!). What really is the problem? What is it that you have been worrying about? The Lord wants you to recognize your particular need. When you let your requests be made known to God, BE SPECIFIC! Tell the Lord exactly what is troubling your heart.
5) With Thanksgiving
Prayer without thanksgiving is like a bird without wings; it can never rise to heaven. The giving of thanks is an expression of FAITH. God is able to take care of my problem and He is able to work out whatever I was worried about. I believe this, and therefore I say, "Thank You!" When I really say "Thank You" from my heart, then I really believe that God will work out my problem for His glory and for my good (Romans 8:28).
The cure for worry is PRAYER.

Jackie Bolen: The Lord's Prayer

2008-03-04T00:16:00.000-08:00

March 2, 2008
Matthew 6: 5-14
Jackie bolen

The Lord’s Prayer
A couple of weeks ago, Josh was preaching on one of the hardest to understand passages in the entire Bible. And I kind of got the impression that he liked the challenge of it. I’m the opposite kind of person…somewhat lazy and apathetic by nature although I think I hide it pretty well. In general, I will pick the path of least resistance and if something is too hard or too difficult to understand I won’t let it worry me.

So when Josh sent this email around asking for preaching volunteers, I was happy to do it. But…instead of picking the hardest and most difficult passage to understand, I picked what I thought would be the one of the easiest or most familiar: the Lord’s Prayer. Easy stuff. Everyone’s heard of it. I even had it memorized and had been saying it for years. However, as I sat down to start reading about this passage and writing this sermon, it became much harder than I ever had anticipated.

Basically, my difficulty came down to the fact that, prayer as described here in this passage is something I very rarely do. And not that I don’t think it has some value. Obviously the majority of people who follow Jesus would agree that it does. I just have a lot of questions I guess. Maybe like some of you? Maybe you’d like to know some of mine?

1. Do people actually pray these days? Most of my friends don’t really seem to and I know that I struggle with it. Maybe I just hang around with the wrong people, I don’t know. But it’s been a long, long time since I’ve met anyone where prayer was central to what their life was all about in an evident kind of way.
2. Of the people that do pray, does it actually make a difference in their lives? Why do people who claim to pray not really look any different from those who don’t in terms of the outward reality of their lives?
3. Does prayer actually make a difference in our world? Doesn’t God know what this world needs much better than we do even before we ask Him?
4. Isn’t the outward reality of our actions in the world much more important that the inward reality of things like prayer and contemplation? Like feeding the hungry, pursuing justice and equality for all and peace? Am I just too impatient and want to see instant results?
5. And the great debate…Calvin vs. Arminius. John Calvin said that God will do whatever He wishes, whether we pray or not and prayer basically just orients us to God’s will. So why waste our time I guess? But then Jacobus Arminius said that God’s actions towards us are determined by our praying. And there’s evidence of both of these positions within the Bible. It just all seems too confusing.

Anyway, it wasn’t always so complicated for me. Like I actually used to pray a lot. I’d even get up early every morning and spend time reading the Bible and praying in response to what I read. I’d pray with friends and for random people I’d see on the street or on the bus. I’d pray for people I was going to visit and pray for them after I left. I’d have these amazing experiences of listening to God when I went hiking or running by myself. At times, God’s speaking to me has been clear, in an unmistakable kind of way. Jesus was constantly in my thoughts and often still is today. And yet, I don’t really pray in a formal kind of way, like is described in the Lord’s Prayer. Everyday, my thoughts turn to God as I look at creation and I’m amazed. I am becoming a person who is much more honest and letting other people know a lot more about who I really am. Maybe as I let other people into my life, I’m letting God in as well. I’m learning to forgive and experiencing a lot more about God’s forgiveness in the process. I’m trying to be quiet and actually listen to people and help them figure out where God is at work in their lives. Is this even prayer? Am I just lazy? All these things seem kind of passive whereas the Lord’s prayer seems to involve some sort of active action. All these action verbs like “go” and “close the door” and “pray” and “forgive others.” It says in first Thessalonians to pray without ceasing. And praying for our daily bread in this prayer seems to imply that it’s an everyday kind of thing. It makes me feel kind of uneasy. And I wonder if those around me, myself and the world are somehow missing out on something because I don’t really pray in a formal kind of way.

It’s probably enough questions for today: let’s read our passage. (6-9) Matthew 6:5-14.

So it kind of seems to me that a lot of the stuff we do is for external rewards. Like at our jobs, I would have a hard time believing that if your boss is watching you, you wouldn’t work any harder or better than you normally do. Or, with friends and family, we often try to gain the upper hand or make ourselves appear funny or intelligent often at the expense of others. And of course our appearance….putting on our best outfit to go to Church on Sunday. To appear holy? To please God? I don’t really know.

(6) In verse 5, Jesus is critical of those who make private prayer public. The Greek word used for street refers to a major or a wide street where there would have been many people. The street corner where the hypocrites prayed would have had crowds of people gathered around. But not that Jesus is against public prayer, there are many recorded, positive instances of it in the Bible and Jesus himself prayed in front of His disciples. And I don’t really think Jesus is against street corners either. The Jewish people, back when Jesus walked around Palestine would have certain prayers they would pray at certain times of the day, no matter where they were. Actually, the Lord’s prayer is quite similar to one called the 18 Beatitudes, kind of like the short version of it. Anyway, Jewish people would often stand praying, wherever they were, which wasn’t really a big deal even if it was on a street somewhere. The issue seems to be more about the heart: whether it’s to be seen by men or to worship and commune with God.

It kind of reminds me of a story. Back in the Old Testament, a long time ago there was this prophet named Samuel. A prophet is basically someone who speaks for God in an audible kind of way. Anyway, God rejected King Saul because he did some not so good things. So God tells Samuel to go to Jesse and anoint a certain one of his sons as the new King. So Jesse passes 7 of his sons before Samuel and each time Samuel looks at his appearance and thinks he’s the one. But he’s not. Samuel was looking at the outward appearance but God was looking at the heart. Finally, all 7 of the sons don’t make the cut and Samuel asks if there are any more sons who aren’t home. Yes, there is one more, the youngest who is out tending sheep. So he’s summoned home and as it turns out he’s to be the King. Years later, David would be called a man after God’s own heart. You may disagree, but it seems to me that it is almost impossible to please both God and people. So let your praying be pleasing to God: don’t do it for the external rewards you will get from people. No one likes to be used for someone else’s personal gain. I have a feeling God is pretty similar.

Continuing on in verse 6. The word for room that Jesus uses actually refers to an inner room without windows. It’s common usage is for a storage closet and it basically means the most private room of your house . True prayer is an intimate kind of thing, oriented towards God alone as a reflection of a personal kind of relationship. Jesus, prayed with His disciples sometimes but he also went away, alone to pray to His Father.

(7) Verse 7 and 8. Back in the day of Jesus, prayer in Judaism had become ritualized. As in prayers were almost always memorized and could be simply repeated without even being conscious of what was said. Sometimes, they were sped through as fast as possible just to get them over with. Kind of sounds to me like all the prayers that we say before meals, in an embarrassed, get this over with kind of way. And not necessarily better were the pagans of the day who had the idea that God could be manipulated with their words and actions. They repeated certain magic words over and over again, thinking that perhaps their gods didn’t hear them the first hundred times.

This kind of reminds me of another prophet story. So things were looking pretty bad in Israel and Elijah was the only prophet left who was faithful to God. The people were wavering between worshipping God, Baal and Asherah who had 850 prophets. So Elijah set up a challenge on Mt. Carmel and invited all of Israel to come. So he gets two bulls and puts them on altars, one for him and one for the other prophets and the God who answers by lighting it on fire is the true one whom the people of Israel should worship. So these other prophets dance and called on their gods for hours but no response. Finally, Elijah gets tired of it and begins to trash talk them because their gods are so weak and decides to show them who’s boss. So he fills up these huge jars with water and pours them over his bull and the wood just so when the fire lights no one can think he’s playing a trick. Then he says a short prayer and the entire altar and all the water is consumed instantly.

So, there are no magic words or things we can do to manipulate God into doing what we want Him to do. It took me a while to learn that it’s actually about a relationship and just as it would be crazy to coerce and manipulate the people we love in our lives, so it’s just as crazy to expect to be able to do this with God. God is not a vending machine, ready to dispense based on our whims.

Verse 8 leads us to my big question of why we should pray if God knows what we need before we even ask Him? While comforting, I think this verse is kind of annoying. Like I’d be a lot more motivated to pray if it wasn’t in the Bible. I would never claim to actually understand this paradox of why God tells us to pray when He knows everything we need before we ask and I would be suspicious of anyone who claimed to have all the answers. But, maybe it has something to do with prayer being the means by which we admit to God what we need and through this, acknowledge our dependence upon Him. But don’t quote me on it…I’m wary of even writing this down on paper. And since in other places in the Bible, including the very next verse Jesus tells us to pray, we probably should. A bit of mystery and humility about the things of God is something we should be okay.

Moving on to the actual prayer. (8)

Jesus tell us that this is how we should pray. In English, depending on your Bible translation it’s kind of deceptive making it seem like this is exactly the way we should pray. In reality, the meaning is more like we should pray in this manner and use this perhaps as an outline or sketch of how we should pray and that we don’t necessarily have to repeat or babble these words endlessly.

The address of this prayer is to our Father, who is in Heaven, hallowed be His name. It kind of reminds me of another story. All these people were bringing their babies and young children to Jesus, so that He would put His hands on them and bless them. The disciples told them to go away and stop harassing Jesus. But Jesus said to let the little children come to Him because the Kingdom belonged to them and that everyone else should enter the Kingdom of Heaven like a child would. So it seems pretty appropriate that we would pray to God in this way, coming humbly and respectfully, knowing that our Father loves us. Also, it’s pretty similar to how many Jewish prayers started during the time of Jesus.

Verse 10, about God’s Kingdom is central to this prayer and the concept of God’s Kingdom is in essence, what all of the teachings of Jesus were about. The Kingdom of God is a past, present and future reality in that God himself, in Jesus walked upon this Earth. Today, God’s Spirit is at work in this world and we also look forward to the second coming of Jesus, as described in Revelation 21. So when we pray this prayer, we are praying for Jesus to come again and the Kingdom of god to become fully present. It’s about subverting the present world order in order that God’s order might come. We’re praying for healing for all people, both physically and spiritually. We’re asking that God would act in a real, concrete way to make this world better for all people.

Throughout history, there have been various groups of people who believed that the Kingdom or reign of God could somehow be ushered in through their own efforts. And yet, by understanding the Greek grammar of the Lord’s Prayer it’s obvious that this isn’t possible. The verbs are in the imperative, which in Greek is the most forceful way to tell someone to do something. So, there’s almost a desperation to this prayer. Secondly, the verbs are in the passive voice, which means that it’s only God who is able to do that which we’re asking. It’s not through our own evangelistic efforts or political agendas that God’s Kingdom comes. Our task it to pray and depend upon God for the results. But the paradox is that in other places in the Bible such as in the book of James we’re told that faith without works is dead. So, obviously we’re to love people and do good works but it seems unwise to me to spend a lot of time and mental effort figuring out how this all fits into God’s cosmic plan. So may God’s Kingdom come, both in our own lives and the life of this Church and also for the world as a whole to bring new life and healing.

Let’s move onto the next line, “Give us today our daily bread.” This phrase seems kind of meaningless to most of us I think who are well fed and haven’t really thought about where out next meal is coming from in the context of being able to afford it or not. I know I have the after-Church debate with friends about where to go for lunch but that I never have to look in my wallet and decide if I have enough money to go or not. But did you know that around 25 000 people die everyday from hunger-related illnesses in this world? It actually kind of disturbs me and hopefully you as well. Praying this prayer does 2 things: 1. It acknowledges that everything we have is a gift from God and that it is not inherently ours but we are just caretakers and stewards of this Earth. 2. As caretakers and stewards, we’ve been doing a pretty bad job and hopefully praying this line will remind of us that. And move us to action. As in consuming less so that everyone in this Earth will have enough for their daily bread. We need to share this world’s resources. Maybe we really did learn everything we needed to know in kindergarten. A friend of mine had a bumper sticker that said, “God has blessed the world, some people are just bad at sharing.” It seems that prayer and human activity are tied together in some way and that both are needed.

Verses 12 and 14-15 are closely related and all deal with forgiveness. But not just forgiveness in the sense that we are forgiven for our sins by God but that we need to forgive others as well or this won’t happen. This idea of human forgiveness and God’s forgiveness being tied together is central in Judaism and so Jesus is not introducing a radical, new idea here. But to some of our individualistic, western kind of ears, maybe it sounds this way. A lot of us have the idea that following Jesus is this individual kind of thing. Like Jesus is our best friend and that we accept him into our heart and go from there. But in reality, following Jesus can never be separated from the people around us. If following Jesus has no impact upon the way that you live your life with people, I would question whether you are actually following Jesus at all. Anyway, God loves us and wants to forgive us but in order to experience this we need to forgive people as well. And sometimes this is hard but Jesus for sure and probably at least a few people in this Church are willing to walk with you along this path.

Finally, verse 13. And in case we ever get too confident, thinking that we are strong enough to avoid sin on our own this can remind us that that’s not really the case. Any sense of security we have in our efforts to attain holiness is a false one because in reality it’s through Jesus that we’re made holy. It’s by His grace that we can turn from our sin.

Some final thoughts. It seems to me that this whole praying thing is wrapped up in paradoxes. Like how Jesus tells us to go pray in secret and yet our own forgiveness is wrapped up in our ability to forgive other people. And if you’re supposed to pray in secret why are all the pronouns in the plural form? Or how we should pray for God’s Kingdom to come because our actions can’t make it come any quicker but then how following Jesus involves loving other people. And how God knows what we need but we should ask anyway, for some reason that is not altogether clear. (10) Anyway, I try not to stress about it. I hope you don’t either. One day, things will be much clearer I think and until that day, I’m okay with walking around in this state of somewhat clueless confusion, wondering what this whole following Jesus thing is all about and what impact it actually has upon living my life. And now you’re maybe wondering and perhaps worrying about why I haven’t talked about hiking yet. Don’t worry…I actually believe that no sermon is ever complete without a hiking analogy. Like maybe you’re hiking and it’s been raining all night and you wake up and it’s stopped raining but the forest if filled with fog and mist. So you find the trail and start walking, and even though you can’t see more than a few meters in any direction, you just trust that this trail you’re on will get you towards your destination. And it always does as long as you follow the signs along the way. I kind of see our whole time on Earth as walking in the fog, filled with much confusion and uncertainty but walking towards our goal of knowing Jesus and trusting that one day we’ll get there. Because who really has everything figured out?

It kind of reminds me of another story. So back when Jesus was walking around Israel, there was this man who brought his sick son to the disciples for healing, but the disciples couldn’t heal him. It kind of sounds like the boy had seizures that left him unable to talk. Anyway, Jesus clearly blames the lack of healing on unbelief and wonders out loud how long he should put up with this unbelieving generation. The Father to Jesus says, if you can do anything, help us. Jesus then says everything is possible for one who believes and the father says Lord I believe, help my unbelief and the boy is healed. Maybe that’s kind of the way I think about prayer. Maybe you don’t have it all figured out, like me but you can still do it anyway. I have a feeling it’s a good thing for you and for this world.

Let’s pray the Lord’s prayer together, not as it is traditionally done but more in the way Jesus intended it I think. We’ll use it a framework for your own prayers. I’ll say a line and pause for about a minute. During that time, you can respond to God with your own thoughts and words.

Feb. 17, 2008. Matthew 5: 13-37, Josh Broward

2008-02-15T01:42:00.001-08:00

8. KNU International English Church
Josh Broward
February 17, 2008

Matthew 5:13-37

Read Matthew 5:13-37

As I was studying this week, I read two difficult quotes. One author said, “This is perhaps the most difficult passage to be found anywhere in the Gospel.” Yeah, I love to hear that when I’m getting ready to preach! Another author said that this passage to understand the Sermon on the Mount, the Kingdom of God, and the whole Gospel of Matthew. Great! So today’s passage is one of the most difficult and most important passages in all of Matthew. No pressure, huh? (I feel kind of like I’m up to bat with 2 outs in the 9th inning. We’re down by one run, and I never was any good at baseball.)

OK, so what’s the big deal here? What’s the great controversy? Well, this passage lots of basic questions. What is Jesus’ relationship with the Old Testament? And, now that we have the New Testament, what do we do with the Old Testament? Is it just helpful background knowledge, or does it still count? Does it still have authority over us?
Here’s the real difficulty. Jesus seems to contradict himself.
First, Jesus expresses undying commitment to the Hebrew Bible (the law and the prophets). “Don’t misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No I came to accomplish their purpose. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not even the smallest detail of God’s law will disappear until its purpose is achieved” (5:17-18). When Jesus says “not even the smallest detail … will disappear,” the word he uses is for the little dots and marks that complete letters, like the dot on an “i” or the cross of a “t.” As far as Jesus is concerned, even the teeny tiny stuff will not go away. It’s hard to get more committed to the Bible than that.
But then, 60 seconds later, Jesus starts ripping into the law like a kid with a pair of scissors. In six successive points, Jesus says, “You have heard that our ancestors were told,” and he quotes something from the Hebrew Bible, always from the Torah (the “law” section). Then, Jesus says, “but I say” something different.
This is amazing stuff here! Once, Jesus reinterprets the law (“love your neighbor” 5:43-44). Three times, Jesus adds to the law (murder 5:21-26; adultery 27-30; and vows 5:33-37). Two of those were from the 10 Commandments. Jesus said the 10 Commandments weren’t good enough!
Here is the really amazing stuff. Two times, Jesus even changes the law.
Moses said husbands could divorce their wives if “she does not please him” or if he discovers “something wrong with her” (Deuteronomy 24:1). Jesus seems a bit more realistic. In any marriage, there will be times when a wife will not please her husband or when he’ll find something wrong with her. Jesus says that faithfulness demands sticking with the marriage unless the other person commits adultery (Matt. 5:31-32). That was a big, big step forward for woman-kind. That kind of makes sense, but still, the Bible was wrong? Jesus later says, “Moses permitted divorce only as a concession to your hard hearts” (Matt. 19:8). So Jesus can change what Moses said in the Bible? Really?
OK, what about this? Moses was trying to keep people from going overboard in seeking revenge, so he said, “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” This concept was so important that it is in the Hebrew Bible three times (Ex. 21:24, Lev. 24:20, Deut 19:21)! But Jesus wipes all three of those aside and says, “Don’t resist an evil person! If someone slaps you on the right cheek, offer the other cheek also” (Matt. 5:38-39).
What?! Are you serious? OK, forget about whether or not we should actually “turn the other cheek” for a minute. Did Jesus just say that the Bible is wrong? Did Jesus just say that a command from the Bible, which was repeated 3 times, was wrong? Yeah, pretty much. It was good in its time. But Jesus says we’re past that now. Now we’re moving on to a higher morality, or perhaps moving down to the deeper morality which was at the heart of that command in the first place.

So Jesus says:
1) He has not come to get rid of the Bible.
2) He has come to fulfill the Bible.
3) Even the smallest part of the Bible is here forever.
4) We can’t ignore even the little stuff.
Then he says:
1) You guys just aren’t getting what the Bible is really talking about.
2) The Bible (even the 10 Commandments) didn’t go far enough.
3) Sometimes the Bible is wrong, or at least wrong for today.

Is anybody else confused, here?

I had a really hard time understanding what Jesus was talking about here, and I had an even harder time understanding what this means for us. I wrestled and wrestled with this. Sometimes I felt like hitting my head against the wall. Finally, I remembered the Hebrew word torah. Then, the lights began to go on for me.
We usually misunderstand the word torah. Most of the time, torah is translated into Greek or into English as “law,” and sometimes torah definitely means law or specific laws. But torah has a much richer meaning.
To start with, torah is also the name of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, and sometimes, torah is even used to refer to the whole Hebrew Bible. This in itself shows us that torah must mean something more than “law.”
Think about it. Jews of Jesus’ time calculated that the Hebrew Bible has a grand total of 613 “laws,” or specific commands from God. That sounds like a lot – 613! That would take a lot of memorization. But think about this. The Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament) has a total of 27,570 verses. If you figure that each command takes one or two verses, then “laws” make up only 3-4% of the OT and only 10-20% of the Torah.
Most of the Bible, even most of the Torah, is story. How can a story be “law”? Imagine if that you go to a lawyer or a judge with a legal question: “Is it legal if I …” And she says, “Once upon a time, there was a beautiful princess who …” Huh? Story can’t be “law,” but it can be “instruction” or “guidance.”
And that’s what torah is really all about. The torah is God’s guidance on how to live. Dennis Bratcher explains it like this: “The OT concept of torah is a lifestyle of nurtured and nurturing relationship with God and others... Torah is not primarily a book to obey or rules to follow; it is a path to walk, a way of life to lead.”
The point of the torah, and the Bible, in general is to teach us how to live God’s way, and really, the point is more than teaching. The point is to get us to actually do it.
The Biblical concept of torah is complicated. Torah is living and active. It is both stable and changing. Torah is law and story and application and song. Torah is old and new. Torah is written and unwritten. Sometimes torah is the written code of laws. Sometimes torah is the fresh voice from God to the people
In the first chapter of Isaiah, Isaiah says, “Listen to the torah of our God.” Then he goes on to tell the people that even though they are obeying the laws in a technical sense, they still aren’t obeying the torah. In fact, Isaiah’s preaching is an actual embodiment of God’s continuing torah or instruction on how to live. Isaiah says, “God doesn’t care about your sacrifices. Get your lives straight and help other people.” (See Isaiah 1.) Isaiah’s preaching is a new part of the torah of God.
Being committed to the torah is being committed to the ancient voice of God preserved for us from generations and being committed to the present voice of God who interrupts our lives and speaks a new word. Being faithful to the torah involves a commitment to the written words and a commitment to the Spirit of God who continually reinterprets those written words in our lives.

In our passage today, Jesus expresses a deep commitment to the written torah, but like Isaiah he is bringing out more torah from God. Jesus is helping the people to get closer to God’s original intent with the torah. Jesus is saying, “Look, this is what God really wants for us.”
Jesus is saying that it’s not enough just to read and do old written words. We have to dig deep into the written torah and discover God’s living and active torah for our lives today. We have to get to the heart of the torah. What was God really saying? What kind of life does God really want from us? What is the heart of God’s plan for his people?
But even that is not enough. It’s not enough just to discover the heart of God’s torah. It’s not enough just to figure out how God wants us to live. We have to get the heart of God’s torah into our hearts. We have to get the life that God really wants for us to come alive in our hearts. The Kingdom of God, the torah, God’s dream for the world, the revolution of God – it has to start in our hearts. It has to live in our hearts, and from our hearts it moves out into our lives and into the world.
This is what Jesus means, “Your righteousness has to be better than the Pharisees and teachers of the law” (Matt 5:20). He doesn’t mean we need to take their 613 laws and make 614 or 6,014. Our righteousness has to be qualitatively different, deeper, from the heart.

Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth. … You are the light of the world” (Matt. 5:13-14). Salt does lots of different good things. It makes fires burn hotter; it makes meat last longer; it makes food taste better; but basically it makes the world better. Light is pretty much the same. It makes things grow; it gives life; it shows the way; it makes the world better. Jesus says, “You are salt and light for the world. You are God’s instruments of change in the world. You are God’s instruction or torah to show the world how to live. So be salty. Live a bright life.”
Jesus said, “Let your good deeds shine out for all to see.” The Greek word for “good” here is not just “good in quality.” It is that kind of good, but it is also beautiful, attractive, alluring. It’s like Mother Theresa said, “Let’s do something beautiful together.” Jesus is saying, “Live a life so beautiful that the world sees what I really want. Live the Kingdom of God from the center of your heart. Live so that your very life becomes God’s torah for all who see you. Live so that people will want to follow you. Live way of God so beautifully that the world will become captivated by the beauty of God’s love. Live the way of God so that others will find the way of God.”

So what does this mean for us and Jesus, for us and the Bible?
First of all, God’s torah is still alive today. God’s Spirit is still alive, still giving his instruction to his people.
Second, we have to honestly face that the Bible is a difficult book. It’s not consistent. The Bible reinterprets itself. In the Bible, we see the ongoing process of the people of God trying to get closer and closer to the heart of God.
Third, that doesn’t mean we abandon the Bible. It means we run to the Bible. We need to go deeper into the Bible. We need to join the ongoing adventure of swimming into the deep depths of the Bible. We need to plunge our souls deep into the heart of God’s torah, especially as revealed in Jesus. And there, deep in the heart of God’s dream for the world, we need to discover together how to live in our world. Like Isaiah in his time, and like Jesus in the New Testament time, God has a new word a new torah for us. God has something new to say to us about how to be his faithful people in this time, our time. Together with each other and with the Spirit and with the Bible, we need to discover that.
When I was in college, some of my friends used to sing a fun little song: “If I had a little white box to put my Jesus in, I’d take him out and smooch, smooch, smooch, and share him with my friends. If I had a little black box, to put the Devil in, I’d take him out and SMASH HIS FACE, and put him back again.”
Sarah keeps telling me that the theology of that song is not so good. Maybe she’s right, but my point is that I think we spend a lot of time taking Jesus and the Bible out of our little white boxes and putting him back again. We like to tell Jesus how wonderful he is and then put him back in the box where we can contain him. We like to read our little Bible passage for the day or the week, and then put it back in its little box where it can’t disrupt our lives.
I think the call of Jesus for us today is this. Get so serious about the Bible that you open the lid of your box. Let God speak to you in new ways. You might find that it’s like Pandora’s box. The Spirit just keeps coming out, and you can’t contain it.
God’s torah is alive and active. Let it out. God’s Spirit has a new word for your life. God’s Spirit has a new word for our church. Let’s go deeply together into the Bible and deep into the Spirit, and open the box.
If we do, the Spirit might escape us. Once we let him out, we might not be able to stop him. Things might get out of control.
Make it so, God! Make it so!

Matthew 5:1-12, Jackie Bolen, February 10

2008-02-07T00:04:00.000-08:00

Jackie Bolen
Matthew 5:1-12
February 10, 2008
KNU English Church

In the hiking world, there are two extremes with regard to backpacking styles. The one extreme is the, “Everything and the kitchen sink” type. These people carry this massive first aid kit that would rival a well-stocked emergency room. Also in their packs are: a massive tent, indestructible and ready to face the fiercest snowstorm even in the middle of summer. Extra clothes for every imaginable situation. A winter sleeping bag, extra food rations, enough to last double their anticipated time on the trail. Guidebooks, maps, a compass, they have it all.

So what attitude is representative of these people? Fear! They fear the outdoors and think they need to prepare for every possible situation when the reality of dying in a bear attack, getting bitten by a rattlesnake or getting caught in a snowstorm is far lower than getting hit by another car on your way to the trail. Their fear is mostly irrational. These people view the wilderness as something to be conquered, overcome and kept at a distance. They are tied down by all their crap: it takes them at least a couple hours to pack up in the morning, get their bag organized and ready to start walking.

The second type of backpacker, on the other extreme is the ultralighter, When I go backpacking, I carry very little: almost no first-aid, no extra food or clothes. This type of backpacker is characterized by freedom, in that the less you have, the easier the walking is. It’s a life characterized by simplicity….you just have to wake up in the morning and walk. You just get rid of all the stuff that hinders you and have the minimum necessary to survive. It’s about working with the wilderness, being flexible and adapting to the conditions as opposed to trying to conquer it and preparing for the worst-case scenario.

Backpacking really is a pretty simple thing. You just walk through the forest. You get some water from the stream. You eat your simple food. You sleep in the forest. Then you wake up and keep walking. Maybe you see some animals or a beautiful sunset or have a good conversation with a friend or stranger. Yet most people try to make it into this thing that’s so complicated, requiring all this special equipment and preparation and turn it into this thing that is not so amazing or fun anymore. When you’re carrying 30 kilograms of stuff, and walking up a mountain it becomes more torturous than anything else.

Following Jesus, like walking through the forest is also a pretty simple thing that some people make a lot more complicated than it really is. Like where do all these Church type rules come from…about drinking, smoking or having to be nice or having to wear certain things or pursuing certain types of entertainment or conforming to a certain standard of sexual purity, or tithing a certain percentage of our income or who we should spend our time with. These rules are sometimes spoken, but often not. It’s just expected that you’ll follow them if you want to be part of the community. And where do these rules come from? It’s a lot of times not from the Bible or if it is, it’s based upon poor, narrow minded and simplistic interpretations of it that don’t take into account the larger context. These rules often don’t reflect the reality in which Jesus lived his own life. Did you know his first miracle was turning water into wine at a party when the guests had probably already had enough to drink and that he hung around with prostitutes? He was considered a glutton, a drunkard and a friend of sinners by the people of the day. Did you know that he sometimes got angry, like in the temple when he freaked out and starting throwing table and benches around because his father’s house was supposed to a place of prayer and not a market place? Clearly these rules that we follow about not drinking, hanging around with certain people and always being “nice” don’t reflect very well the reality that is Jesus.

So if we claim to follow Jesus, it would perhaps be pretty helpful for us to know what Jesus was actually like, apart from all these rules that we have, which we try to uphold and by doing so, think that we’re following Jesus. By having all these rules, we just end up looking a lot like the self-righteous Pharisees who Jesus didn’t have a lot of good things to say. Or, on the other hand, if we fail to live up to these rules, we just feel guilty all the time when in reality Jesus loves us wherever we’re at. I think God’s grace is far bigger than any of can even imagine.

In reality, following Jesus is pretty simple once you throw off all these extra rules and things that distract you from what is most beautiful and true and that is being loved by Jesus and loving him and the world around you in return. When you’re climbing up a mountain with 50 or 60 pounds of crap on your back, after about 10 minutes, you won’t be having a good time anymore. Sure, maybe it’s beautiful and peaceful and quiet and you’re with good friends but hey, who really cares…all you know is that you need to keep putting one foot in front of the other and you’re just so tired.

To follow Jesus is as simple as seeing the world through Jesus’ eyes and having a life that imitates His. Let me repeat that. That leads us to the question, “What is Jesus actually like and how can we see the world through His eyes?” The text for Today, Matthew 5:1-12 can give us a pretty good idea.

Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them saying:
"Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

"Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Let me give you a bit of background information. Matthew chapters 5-7 is called “The Sermon on the Mount” and it’s probably the most famous public speech that Jesus ever gave that we have recorded. I think it’s even cooler because it’s on a mountain. It kind of seems like all the big stuff in the Bible happens on mountaintops and this is no exception. The Sermon on the Mount is clearly a reference to Mt. Sinai, where God revealed His will to Moses in the Old Testament. Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of this law that was revealed to Moses and he comes to bring blessing instead of cursing.

The Sermon on the Mount, while closely related to the Old Testament radically differs from the current understanding of it, in the time of Jesus. The Jews looked forward to a Messiah who would rescue them. Their conception of it was that the Messiah would be this great political leader who would free them from the Romans who were ruling over them and that He would establish a new Jewish Kingdom to rule the world. But the Sermon on the Mount and Jesus’ life itself turns this conception upside down in that the most humbled are the most exalted. The poor, the mourning, the hungry, the merciful, the pure, the persecuted are what God’s Kingdom is all about. These are not exactly common characteristics of political rulers.

So not only does Jesus challenge the current interpretation of the Old Testament, he goes beyond it as well. The Laws of Moses in the Old Testament demanded righteousness. So did Jesus, but in addition to this, he demanded a right attitude as well. In reality, you had to BE right as well as doing right.

So let’s try to figure out what doing and being right actually means and who Jesus was and how we can look like Him.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.

Something that is very rarely talked about these days is humility and yet this is the very essence of Jesus: who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross.

I look around and see a lot of pride in this world. As in, “My country is better than yours.” “My Church denomination is better than yours.” “I have white skin and you have brown which means that I’m better than you.” “I’m a man and you’re a woman which means I have more value than you.” “I’m rich and you’re poor so obviously I’m not sinful and you are.” “God bless my country at the expense of the rest of the world.” The list goes on. We have all these rules and ideas that actually get in the way of knowing God and seeing the world through His eyes because they maintain our pride when in reality, it’s the humble to which God gives His Kingdom. It’s the poor in Spirit, who imitate Jesus all the way to death on a cross that are actually following Him. It’s in suffering like Jesus that He is all the more real. It’s in turning our eyes off of ourselves and to this hurting world around us that we are following Jesus. It’s regarding others as more important than ourself. And it’s depending on Jesus to help us with all these things and being thankful for God’s grace, both in our lives and those around us.

To the humble belongs God’s Kingdom. It’s actually quite simple really. Imitate Jesus in His suffering, dying to yourself and the things of this world. Forget about all these rules that only make you feel guilty or maintain your self-righteousness.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

There are 9 words for mourning used in the New Testament and the one used in Matthew 5 is the strongest possible one. It refers to the type of mourning you would do for the death of a loved one; it’s a deep, inner agony. Martin Luther calls the entire Christian life an act of repentance, for our sin and for the state of this world.

It’s actually quite simple really. The humble with receive God’s Kingdom and those who mourn will be comforted. I look at the world around me, so many hungry, sick people in the two thirds world juxtaposed with so much greed and apathy in the first world and I wonder how anyone could not mourn? I look at the world and see so many broken relationships and hate and wonder how you could not be sad about it. And finally, I see God’s beautiful creation being destroyed by our consumption and wonder if the people who claim to be truly happy all the time are just maybe not looking closely enough. The world will one day be made new and until that day, we should mourn for the imperfection of creation.

Blessed are the meek for they will inherit the Earth.

So I think that the Jews of Jesus’ day were a lot like us. We are all pretty good at spiritual pride and self-sufficiency. Like by focusing on the externals instead of living a life of simplicity seeking the things that really matter, we think that God will somehow love us more. The Jewish people 2000 years ago actually believed that when the Messiah came, he would commend them for their external acts of righteousness. Where they went wrong was forgetting about the bigger things like justice, mercy and putting others before themselves. I think they probably got a bit of a shock when they began to understand what Jesus was all about. Jesus, the weak and humble God-Man, somehow, meekly dying on a cross. Bizarre really, when you actually think about it. God, being the very antithesis of violence and vengeance, describing himself as a Shepherd, a servant of all.

Anyway, it all seems pretty simple. Humility, mourning and meekness all fit together easily it seems. It’s these people who will inherit this Earth in the age to come. Meekness, as in a willingness to follow God even to the death with a single-minded determination. Unrelated to our common idea that meekness means being nice or having a lack of conviction. This gives me hope. Some more Church type rules out the window it seems.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

I look around me and see a lot of well-fed people so I’m not sure we entirely understand what it means to be hungry and thirsty.

So one time when I was hiking, I ran out of water. It was a hot, hot June day in New York State. I usually don’t carry that much water because I plan pretty carefully where the streams are and where I can fill up. Anyway, I had no water by the time I got to this place where my guidebook and map said there’d be a stream. When I got there, it was this slimy, slow-moving, low-lying stream that I probably wouldn’t even let my dog drink out of. I consulted my book. Another stream in about 6 miles. So on I walked…getting hotter and hotter as the mid-day sun beamed down on me. My mouth got drier, my muscles got weaker, I started to feel kind of faint. I couldn’t stop thinking about water; it became an obsession. I started to get delirious and was practically sprinting down the trail…having visions of water all along the way. Finding the next stream was a happy, happy occasion.

Anyway, imagine if we actually hungered and thirsted for righteousness like our lives depended on it? This would involve becoming more and more dissatisfied with our self and our efforts to win God’s approval. It would involve freedom from dependence upon external things because nothing can really satisfy us except for God. People, addictions, money will never really fill the emptiness that we all feel inside of us, only hungering and thirsting for God will. It almost just seems easier and simpler this way. Hunger and thirst for God and His righteousness and you can stop worrying about all these other less important things that consume so much of our time and energy.

Blessed are the poor in Spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the Earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Of the Beatitudes, these previous 4 statements are considered the inward focusing ones. It’s upon having these attitudes of humility, mourning, meekness and single-minded righteousness that the next 4 outward focused statements can actually be realized.

Blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy.

To follow Jesus involves more than just an inward reality. While this is obviously part of it, if you’re truly following Jesus, this will have some sort of impact upon the way that you live your life. It’s more than just a feeling; it’s a desire to share with the world the mercy that God has shown to you.

And what exactly is mercy? 2 stories from the Bible come to mind. The first: a man was walking down the road when robbers came, beat him up and took everything he had. They left him for dead on the side of the road. A highly respected man, a religious leader crossed over to the other side of road because he was afraid of being made unclean. Then, another, a long-time Church-goer comes, and he also doesn’t want to get involved. He speeds up, diverts his eyes and goes along, on his way. Finally, a prostitute, the lowest member of society comes and mercifully, bandaged his wounds, brought him to a hospital, paid his entire bill and came to check on him in a few days. Who was merciful?

Or another story: there was this young, foolish boy whose father was very rich. When he was 18, he asked for his inheritance, which was almost like saying that he wished his father was dead and that he never wanted to see him again. He goes off to some distant country and squanders his wealth on prostitutes and partying. He’s destitute and resorted to life on the streets. He comes home again and his Father is standing at the end of the driveway, having stood there for years, watching and waiting for his lost son to come home, The boy was just hoping that he could at least be a servant. But his Father welcomes him with open arms and restores him to his full status as an honored son.

We have received mercy from God, so go and do the same to the world around you.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

So back when Jesus was walking around Israel, the dominant religious group were the Pharisees. They interpreted and reinterpreted the Old Testament laws in a very literal kind of way so that these rules covered almost every aspect of their lives in an extremely legalistic kind of way. Jesus’ main issue with them was that they ignored the bigger picture things like love and mercy and justice at the expense of all these little things. Basically, they thought holiness and purity of heart was found within all these rules. Maybe we’re not really so different today? I know I have to make a conscious choice to think big picture and not get caught up in all the little things. Maybe it’s kind of like when I’m hiking and there are mosquitoes and I’m thirsty and hungry and tired. My feet are sore and I stink like and look like a dirty hiker. And the trail is rocky and uphill, obviously all the way. So I walk and don’t feel happy because I’m so focused on the small things when in reality, the bigger picture is that I’m in this beautiful forest, surrounded by mountains and trees. It’s quiet and peaceful. Purity in heart is all about looking like Jesus and seeing the world through His eyes. It’s a single-minded devotion to the one who loves us.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called Sons of God.

So almost everything that we see around us tells us to put ourselves first. Consumerism comes at the expense of peace and a life that is sustainable for all people on this Earth. This spills over into politics where countries greedily seek after what is best for themselves and not the world as a whole. War is the result.

In way of summary, showing mercy, being pure in heart and being a peacemaker are countercultural, subversive and have the potential to be revolutionary. Imagine, if as a group of people, we were actually serious about living this way, how strangely the world would look at us. With the result probably being persecution for we would just be too different and serve as a condemnation for the rampant consumerism that’s so prevalent around us.

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Those who faithfully live out humility, mourning, meekness, mercy, purity and peacemaking will be persecuted. If this is something you aren’t interested in, it’s actually pretty easy to avoid: you just have to look like the rest of the world, compromise with it or look uncritically at it.

Being popular with everyone means one of two things: that you either have no faith at all or you have compromised it so much that it really is of no use in God’s Kingdom. Jesus was persecuted and harassed throughout His life and died a painful, humiliating death. Are we actually serious about following Him to this same end?

Listen to what Soren Kierkegaard has to say:

No one can be truth: only the God-man is the truth. Then comes the next: the ones whose lives express that which they proclaim. These are witnesses to the truth. Then come those who disclose what truth is and what it demands but admit that their lives do not express it, but to that extent still are striving. There it ends. Now comes the deceit. First of all come those who teach the truth but do not live it. Then comes those who even alter the truth, its requirement, cut it down, make omissions-in order that their lives can correspond to the requirement. These are the real deceivers.

Following Jesus is hard because it’s often at complete odds with the world. And most of us I think are pretty confused about how to actually follow Jesus because we have all these rules and things that we’re expected to do when in reality they’re not the bigger picture things. Kind of like when I’m hiking and because my pack is so heavy that I forget how beautiful it really is. Following Jesus is as simple as looking like Jesus and seeing the world through his eyes. We look like Jesus when we’re humble, mourning, meek, hungering and thirsting for righteousness. We see the world through Jesus’ eyes when we’re merciful, pure in heart and peacemakers. As a result of things we’ll be persecuted. Yet, the Kingdom of Heaven will be ours, we’ll be comforted, we’ll inherit the Earth, we’ll be filled, we’ll be shown mercy, we’ll see God and we’ll be called sons and daughters of God. It seems worth it to me.

Matthew 4:18-22, Josh Broward, February 3

2008-02-07T00:03:00.000-08:00

KNU International English Church
Josh Broward
February 3, 2008
Matching the Master
Matthew 4:18-22

Are there any music lovers here today – anyone who truly loves music? Today, before we begin talking about our text from Matthew, I want us to watch a video of Master Andres Segovia, the greatest classical guitarist of the 20th century. In this video we see Master Segovia in his 1965 class of guitar students who are also studying to become master guitarists.

Watch: http://profacero.wordpress.com/2007/11/19/andres-segovia-master-class-1965/.

Students were only admitted to Segovia’s Masters Classes by an invitation from Segovia. Such an invitation meant that he considered you to be (or to have the potential to be) one of the best guitarists in the world. A class usually began with students arriving early and tuning their guitars. They exchange music. A few may try to impress the others by playing some incredibly difficult piece.
Then, slowly, as the time approaches, a silence dawns, like the silence before a storm. The Master approaches. Segovia is on his way. Everyone waits. Suddenly Segovia walks through the door, with slow relaxation. Everyone stands.
Segovia sits at center. The students are now free to sit again. After some greetings and some instructions on the music of the day, Segovia calls a student to the center to perform. The Master offers comments: “Cleaner here. Would you please play that passage again? Crescendo here. Keep the tempo- don't pause at the end of each phrase. Be careful of your tone. … Well, you must work on that some more.”
One day in class, a student was amazed that Segovia could achieve such wonderful sound while his right hand hardly seemed to move. Segovia explained to the class how important it is to have absolutely perfect finger nails, to allow subtle differences in angle when touching the strings. At this point he began to demonstrate. Students came forward from around the room to get a closer look. Many sat on the floor in front of him. Some lied down at his feet looking carefully up at his hands to see the tiniest detail. The disciples were literally at the master’s feet.
However, these demonstrations of technique and the suggestions and criticism only account for a portion of Segovia’s impact on his students. In these Masters Classes, there was something that transcended the student/teacher relationship. Something more than knowledge or content or technique was being taught.
Michael Lorimer, one of Segovia’s students and now also a famous guitarist, explains it like this: “Just as important as everything he says, perhaps more important, is his presence. … The power of Segovia's teaching … is the relationship of apprentice and master, based on the idea that it is important to be in the presence of one who knows, a master.”
“Through Segovia's playing, my understanding of the guitar's potential expands. … Segovia's playing has shown me paths for transcending my limits and for reaching more feeling in my playing … Segovia has found the life force in the music and always keeps it in the center of his playing. He makes clear what is essential… Being around Segovia, I embrace more feeling in myself.”
The master and the disciple. Simply being with the master expands our universe. Giving loving, devoted attention to the master and to the master’s teaching shows us how to transcend our own limits. The master’s life “makes clear what is essential.” The master and the disciple in music.

To borrow a phrase from Brian McClaren, “Jesus was a master of making the music of life.” He didn’t use the wood and string of a guitar or a piano. He used the “skin and bone, smile and laughter, whisper and shout,” of a real body and a real life. And using this instrument, “he invited the disciples to learn to make beautiful life-music in his secret, revolutionary kingdom-of-God way. He helped each of them learn the disciplines and skill of living in the kingdom of God. They watched him play, watched him live and interact, and imitated his example until they began to have the spirit of his style, the power of his performance.”

When Jesus walked along the beach on the Sea of Galilee and called out to those fishermen, “Come, follow me,” he was inviting them into this kind of apprentice/master or disciple/master relationship. He wasn’t just saying, “Hey, come on, let’s go for a walk.” He was using a very special phrase that was used for rabbis (Jewish teachers) and their disciples.
Ray Vander Laan explains how this normally worked on his website: www.followtherabbi.com. (This is a great website, and I highly recommend it.) At age 5, boys began the study of the Torah. At age 12, if the boy succeeded in memorizing the Torah, he started learning two things: the rest of the Hebrew Bible and a trade (like fishing or building). At age 15, most people were finished.
However, a few of the most outstanding students looked for a famous rabbi to take them on as a disciple (or talmid). This was the top of the line – like getting into Harvard. Very few boys ever made it this far. Usually, the boy would find the rabbi and get up the courage to ask if he could “follow” the rabbi.
At this point, the rabbi had to “size up” the potential candidates. This was a really big deal for the rabbi because his reputation was on the line. Disciples weren’t just students. They weren’t just trying to get knowledge. Almost anyone can get almost any knowledge if they work hard enough long enough. But disciples were after something more. Disciples want to become who the rabbi is and to do what the rabbi does. So the rabbi has to decide, “Does this kid have what it takes to be like me? Does this kid have the ability, the commitment, the heart to do what I do, to live like I live?” Maybe he asked the boy some questions. Maybe he decided to just watch him for a while. But eventually, he either said, “Sorry, kid, you don’t measure up,” or “Come, follow me.”
Those words were very important. Once the rabbi said, “Follow me,” the kid became the rabbi’s disciple. Instantly, the kid’s life comes into focus. He was just admitted into the Jewish Harvard or Seoul National University. From now on, the kid has one calling, one consuming passion: to be like the rabbi. They want to be like the Rabbi more than anything else in the world. They listened to every word he spoke, every prayer he prayed. They watched everything he did. They answered his questions and asked more questions. They followed him wherever he went. They obeyed every instruction he gave. They were whole-heartedly, unreservedly committed to the rabbi, with one goal in mind: I want to be who he is.
Ray Vander Laan tells a story about a time when he saw a modern Jewish Rabbi (you know with the long beard and the little black hat) and his disciples (10-15 year old boys). They were traveling, maybe in an airport or a bus station or something, and the rabbi had to go to the bathroom. He gets up to go to the bathroom, and along behind him come the train of little disciples. They’ve got to be with him in the bathroom, maybe not in the stall, but at least in the bathroom. He might pray while he’s in there. He might say something to somebody. How does the Rabbi interact in an airport bathroom? This is an important question if you have committed your life to becoming exactly like the rabbi.
Are you starting to get a sense of what it meant to be a disciple? The disciple was passionately committed to the Master, to the rabbi. More than anything else in the world, the disciple wanted to be just like the rabbi.

Now, let’s go back to that story of Jesus and Peter and Andrew and James and John.
A young rabbi has just come to town, and he has been stirring up a lot of attention with his message: “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near” (Matthew 4:17). Capernaum was a small town (1,500 people), so everyone had heard the stories of this new rabbi. The fishermen brothers may have even been to hear him preach, “The Kingdom of God is at hand, right here at our finger tips. We just have to start living it.”
These guys have apparently finished their study of the Hebrew Bible, and they have decided to settle for fishing. They aren’t out looking for a rabbi. They aren’t trying to be anyone’s disciple. Maybe they just don’t think they have what it takes to be a rabbi. They are just going to pursue their trade: fishing. Not a bad life – a little smelly maybe, but always enough food for the family.
Suddenly, while the brothers are going about their day’s work, full of sweat and smelling like fish, they see the rabbi. He has already seen them, and he has something to say to them: “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people.”
Remember, now, “follow me,” was a special phrase, used only for rabbis and disciples. Jesus was inviting them to be his talmidim, his disciples. Jesus was saying, “Come, be my disciple, and I will show you how to do what I do, how to be who I am.”
This was extremely unusual. Rabbis didn’t usually recruit their own disciples. Usually the disciples went up to the rabbi, begging to be a disciple. But this rabbi, this young rabbi who preached that the Kingdom of God is near, went up to four fishermen and said, “Follow me. You can be like me.”
We have to get a real picture of the opportunity and the cost here. The cost was everything. Peter, Andrew, James, and John were committing everything they were and ever hoped to be into Jesus’ hands. They were leaving behind everything they ever had, their family, their way of living, their security. They were committing to change anything that needed to be changed, to whatever needed to be done, to go wherever they needed to go. The cost was total and absolute.
But for these four fishermen, the opportunity outweighed the cost. This was like winning the lotto for them. They were suddenly vaulted to the top of their class. They were the elite. They were invited to be talmidim, disciples. The freshest, newest, most powerful rabbi of their time believed in them. Not only that, Jesus believed that they could be like him. Jesus believed that these four fishermen could be like him. He believed in these guys so much that he didn’t wait on them to come to him. He went out to them and specifically chose them out of the crowd to be his disciples.
This rabbi seemed to understand the ways of God like no one else. And he was inviting them to be like him, to learn his life, to also understand and live the ways of God, and to “fish” for other people to live this way.

Maybe these four brothers felt like the people in Jesus’ stories: “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure that a man discovered hidden in a field. In his excitement, he hit it again and sold everything he owned to get enough money to buy the field. Again the Kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant on the lookout for choice pearls. When he discovered a pearl of great value, he sold everything he owned and bought it!” (Matthew 13:44-46).
Yes, the cost was great. The cost was everything. If they said yes, their life would never be the same. They would have to give up everything to follow Jesus. But obviously, the opportunity was even greater. They didn’t have to think twice. They were getting a bargain. They were giving up their lives to get his life! What a deal!
They said, “Yes!” Right then and there, Peter and Andrew dropped their nets on the beach and followed Jesus. James and John left their dad in the boat to figure out the nets for himself, and they followed Jesus. Of course, they would. Of course, they followed. This was the opportunity of a lifetime. Of course, they said yes.

Now, Jesus also walks down the beach beside our Sea of Galilee. He walks down SsangYong Daero or on the sidewalks of KNU. He walks down this middle aisle. And he looks into our eyes and into our hearts. He sees all that we are, all that we know, all that we have, all that we have ever been. He knows us completely, and he looks at us with a smile and says, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of people. Come, be my disciple, and I will teach you to do what I do. I will help you to become who I am. I believe in you. I believe you can be like me. Come, follow me.”
Did you catch that? Jesus actually believes we can be like him. Jesus actually believes we can do what he does. Jesus actually believes we can live like he lives. And he asks us to do it. He asks us to follow him.
Now, like Peter and Andrew, James and John, we need to face honestly the cost and the opportunity.
The cost is total, absolute. Jesus asks for everything. Jesus asks for unflinching, unlimited obedience and commitment. Those fishermen standing there beside the Sea of Galilee didn’t really know who Jesus was. They didn’t understand all about him and his message and the life he would demand from them. They hadn’t heard all of his teaching yet. They hadn’t seen him die on the cross yet. But they committed to follow him anyway. They put their old life, their old ways behind them. They made a total commitment to change whatever needed to be changed, to do whatever needed to be done, to go wherever they needed to go. The cost is great!
But for us as well, the opportunity is even greater. The greatest teacher who has ever lived has invited us to be like him. The wisest man who ever walked the face of the earth has invited us to learn his wisdom. The best life-musician who has ever played the music of life has invited us to sit as his feet for private lessons. We have the opportunity to be like Jesus, the Son of God. We have the opportunity to live in and to live out the Kingdom of Heaven in our everyday lives. We have the opportunity to change the world by fishing for people to join this movement of grace and love that will be the healing of the universe. We have the opportunity to live the very life of God in our world.
This is the great exchange. We get to trade our lives, our broken down, worn out lives, for Jesus’ Spirit-filled, love-charged, peace-giving, true Life.
The cost is great, but the opportunity is greater. The cost is great, but the opportunity is immeasurable. The cost is great, but the opportunity is infinite!

Jesus is here. Jesus is walking down these aisles, looking into your heart, and asking you a question: “Will you follow me? Will you be my disciple? Will you give up everything you have and receive everything I have? Will you give up all you are to receive all I am? Will you follow me?”

Lent begins this Wednesday, Ash Wednesday. We’ll be having an Ash Wednesday service here at 7pm. I hope you’ll come. Throughout Lent this year, we’ll be preaching from Jesus most famous sermon ever, “The Sermon on the Mount.” This is widely considered to be the summary of all Jesus’ teaching. This is Jesus’ basic view of life in the Kingdom of God. We’ll be talking about it for seven Sundays. I challenge you to read the Sermon on the Mount (in Matthew 5-7) at least once every week for the next seven weeks. If you really want to be a disciple of Jesus, if you really want to live life his way, this is a good way to start.

Jesus is looking into your heart and asking one question: “Will you follow me?” What is your answer?

January 13, 2008. Matthew 3:13-17, Josh Broward

2008-01-11T15:25:00.000-08:00

KNU International English Church
Josh Broward
January 13, 2008
Different
Matthew 3:13-17

Today, I want to tell you four stories of surprise.

Our first story is from the movie, Guess Who. A young woman is bringing her new boyfriend home to meet the family. Everyone is excited because he is a stock broker. There’s just one problem…. He’s white.
[You can view this clip at YouTube: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2857021581637431225. Start with the time 3:40.]

I love that: “But he’s white!”
Sometimes the person we get is different from the person we expected.
Eventually, Bernie Mac gets over the shock of Ashton being white. Near the end of the movie, he learns to look past Ashton’s white-ness to see a young man who will make a great husband for his daughter.

That happens again in this story from one of the best chick-flicks ever: Anne of Green Gables. Matthew and Merilla Cuthbert are getting older, and they decide to get an orphan boy to help them do chores on their farm. There’s just one problem. He’s a she.

[You can view this clip at YouTube: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-189426764983465038&q=anne+of+green+gables&total=481&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0. Start at the beginning, and watch until 6:30 (or 7:30 if you have time).]

Sometimes the person we get is different from the person we expected.
Matthew Cuthbert quickly overcomes the fact that their “boy” was a girl. It takes Merilla a little more time, but eventually Anne (with an “E”) wins her heart, too. Near the end of the movie, Matthew and Merilla are overjoyed that someone sent them Anne.

Sometimes the person we get is different from the person we expected. That happened long ago in the story of John the Baptist. John was a fiery preacher, as I tried to show last week. (I’ve always wanted to yell like that!) John was preparing the way for God’s new King to come and redeem Israel.
Like most Israelites, John probably thought of the Messiah in terms of Psalm 2.
1-6 Why the big noise, nations? Why the mean plots, peoples?
Earth-leaders push for position,
Demagogues and delegates meet for summit talks,
The God-deniers, the Messiah-defiers:
"Let's get free of God!
Cast loose from Messiah!"
Heaven-throned God breaks out laughing.
At first he's amused at their presumption;
Then he gets good and angry.
Furiously, he shuts them up:
"Don't you know there's a King in Zion? A coronation banquet
Is spread for him on the holy summit."

7-9 Let me tell you what GOD said next.
He said, "You're my son,
And today is your birthday.
What do you want? Name it:
Nations as a present? Continents as a prize?
You can command them all to dance for you,
Or throw them out with tomorrow's trash."

10-12 So, rebel-kings, use your heads;
Upstart-judges, learn your lesson:
Worship God in adoring embrace,
Celebrate in trembling awe. Kiss Messiah!
Your very lives are in danger, you know;
His anger is about to explode,
But if you make a run for God—you won't regret it! (The Message)

Most Jews expected the Messiah to come like this: exploding with anger and crushing the rebel nations. From all we can tell, John was part of this tradition. He was calling everyone to repent to get ready for this kind of Messiah. John the Baptist didn’t care if you were a priest or a king. If you were wrong and needed to change, he’d tell you.
When the religious leaders came out to the Jordan River to see what all of this baptizing was about, John called them a bunch of snakes and fakes.
When Herod Antipas, the king of Galilee, married his brother’s ex-wife, John shouted in the streets: “The King is a sinner! God’s law says you can’t wife swap like that!”
John was trying to get the people ready for the Messiah, and no one was going to stand in his way.
Listen to the story in Matthew 3:13-17.
13-14 Jesus then appeared, arriving at the Jordan River from Galilee. He wanted John to baptize him. John objected, "I'm the one who needs to be baptized, not you!"
15 But Jesus insisted. "Do it. God's work, putting things right all these centuries, is coming together right now in this baptism." So John did it.
16-17 The moment Jesus came up out of the baptismal waters, the skies opened up and he saw God's Spirit—it looked like a dove—descending and landing on him. And along with the Spirit, a voice: "This is my Son, chosen and marked by my love, delight of my life."
Did you catch that? John even argued with the Messiah. John had spent years living in the wilderness, eating bugs and honey, wearing itchy clothes, acting like a crazy man. For what? To prepare people for the Messiah.
And when John met the Messiah, what was the first thing he said, “You’re wrong!” Well, that sounds a lot like John. Remember, he’d stand up to anyone. John wasn’t going to let anyone get in the way of the Messiah coming, not even the Messiah.
Maybe we can just imagine what was going through John’s mind:
Baptizing Jesus is pointless. It’s worse than pointless. It’s wrong. It would give people the wrong idea of who Jesus is. People would think he is a sinner! People would think he is less than me. People would think he is just another guy coming to me to get ready for the Messiah, not the Messiah himself. If I’m not good enough to wash the dirt off Jesus’ shoes, I’m certainly not good enough to baptize him! It’s just plain wrong, and I won’t do it!

So John told the Messiah, “Um, sorry Mr. Messiah, but you’re wrong. You’ve got this backwards, you need to baptize me. Then everyone will understand who you are. Then, everyone will see you’re not like all of us other losers. Come on over here, and dunk me in the water and prove that you are someone special.”
But Jesus said, “Well, John, I hate to break this to you, but for once, you’re the one who’s wrong. We need to do this because this act of humility will fulfill a major part of God’s work of making everything right again.”
John may not have understood, but he obeyed. John tipped Jesus back and dunked him under the water just like he would a sinner.
And then all heaven broke loose! The sky opened up!
The Holy Spirit came down and landed on Jesus. The Spirit didn’t come with lightening or fire or an earthquake or a blinding light – you know lightning connecting to Jesus’ fingertips or something, like on Bruce Almighty: “I’ve got the power!” No, it was nothing as powerful and dramatic as John would have liked. The Spirit came down in the form of a simple, gentle bird: a dove.
Then God spoke from heaven! For 400 years, heaven was silent. Now the skies ripped open and God spoke. I get the feeling that maybe John was disappointed in what God said. I think John would have expected God to say something like this: “Hey, you idiots! Get your act together! This guy is the Messiah King! He’ll burn you up with fire from his mouth if you don’t step in line and kiss his feet!”
But God just said two little lines that were basically quotes from the Old Testament. “This is my Son.” That’s from Psalm 2, remember with the picture of the angry, crushing Messiah King (Psalm 2:7). Good so far. John must have been happy to get that reference in.
Then God went on to quote Isaiah 42, “He is my chosen one, who pleases me.” That’s OK, but listen the rest of Isaiah 42:
1 “Look at my servant, whom I strengthen.
He is my chosen one, who pleases me.
I have put my Spirit upon him.
He will bring justice to the nations.
2 He will not shout
or raise his voice in public.
3 He will not crush the weakest reed
or put out a flickering candle.
He will bring justice to all who have been wronged.
4 He will not falter or lose heart
until justice prevails throughout the earth.
Even distant lands beyond the sea will wait for his instruction.”

He won’t shout? He won’t raise his voice? He won’t crush the weakest reed? Who is this guy? Is he strong or not? Is he King or not? How can someone like that help anyone? How can someone like that come after John?
This all gets even harder to understand when we remember Isaiah’s other descriptions of God’s “servant,” the “chosen one”.
The servant says: “I offered my back to those who beat me and my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard. I did not hide my face from mockery and spitting” (Isaiah 50:6). What kind of Messiah is that?
The servant “was oppressed and treated harshly, yet he never said a word. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth” (Isaiah 53:7). What kind of King is that?

So Jesus climbed out of the river and followed the Spirit out to begin his mission of being God’s Messiah.
But John was still standing there in the river wondering what just happened. One minute John was looking into the face of the King of the Universe. The next minute the King had submitted himself to John’s puny little baptism for sinners, and God said the Roaring Messiah King would also be the beaten down, suffering servant Messiah. Huh? Who is this guy? Who is Jesus? What kind of Messiah is he?
Sometimes the person we get is different from the person we expected.

The last story I want to tell you is our story. In a way, we are all standing there in the water with John. We have our own set of expectations about Jesus. We want a Messiah who will help us feel better, someone who will help us make it through another day, another week. We want someone who will teach us how to be successful in our jobs, how to have a good family, how to fulfill our dreams. We want someone who will make our churches grow so that everyone will look at us and respect us for being part of such a wonderful church.
We want that kind of Messiah. But instead, we get someone who sometimes makes us feel worse, not better. We get someone who says that maybe we’re dreaming about the wrong things or working for the wrong things. We get someone who says it’s better to be friends with sinners than to look good. We get someone who says it’s better to help the poor than to build a church building.
Who is this Jesus? Who is this Messiah? What does he want from us? What does it mean to follow him?
Sometimes the person we get is different from the person we expected.
What will you do with this Messiah?

Josh Broward, Jan. 8, 2008KNU International English Church

2008-01-03T20:59:00.000-08:00

KNU International English Church
Josh Broward
January 6, 2008
Change Your Life!
Matthew 3:1-12

[To be read by today’s Scripture reader.]
For hundreds of years, the prophets spoke of the Messiah. For hundreds of years, the prophets encouraged God’s people with words of the Messiah.
The last prophet was Malachi. He was the last of the Old Testament prophets. He was the last prophet in Israel for almost 400 years. His last words of prophecy were:

1 ”Look! I am sending my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. Then the Lord you are seeking will suddenly come to his Temple. The messenger of the covenant, whom you look for so eagerly, is surely coming,” says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies.
2 But who will be able to endure it when he comes? Who will be able to stand and face him when he appears? For he will be like a blazing fire that refines metal, or like a strong soap that bleaches clothes. 3 He will sit like a refiner of silver, burning away the dross. He will purify the Levites, refining them like gold and silver, so that they may once again offer acceptable sacrifices to the LORD. 4 Then once more the LORD will accept the offerings brought to him by the people of Judah and Jerusalem, as he did in the past. (Malachi 3:1-4)

1 The LORD of Heaven’s Armies says, “The day of judgment is coming, burning like a furnace. On that day the arrogant and the wicked will be burned up like straw. They will be consumed—roots, branches, and all.
2 “But for you who fear my name, the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in his wings. And you will go free, leaping with joy like calves let out to pasture. …
5 “Look, I am sending you the prophet Elijah before the great and dreadful day of the LORD arrives. 6 His preaching will turn the hearts of fathers to their children, and the hearts of children to their fathers… (Malachi 4:1-6)

[To be displayed silently on the PowerPoint.]

Then there was silence.
There were no new words from God.
There were no prophets in the land.
Heaven was closed.
For 400 years.

Today, we will remember the 400 years of prophetic silence for Israel by taking 400 seconds of silence here.
400 seconds may feel like a long time.
Imagine how long 400 years must have felt!

For 400 years, the people of Israel had no new prophets.
So they read the words of the old prophets … again … and again … and again.

Joel 2
28 “Then, after doing all those things,
I will pour out my Spirit upon all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy.
Your old men will dream dreams,
and your young men will see visions.
29 In those days I will pour out my Spirit
even on servants—men and women alike.

Zephaniah 2
1 Gather together—yes, gather together,
you shameless nation.
2 Gather before judgment begins,
before your time to repent is blown away like chaff.
Act now, before the fierce fury of the LORD falls
and the terrible day of the LORD’s anger begins.
3 Seek the LORD, all who are humble,
and follow his commands.
Seek to do what is right
and to live humbly.
Perhaps even yet the LORD will protect you—
protect you from his anger on that day of destruction.

Psalm 85
8 I listen carefully to what God the LORD is saying,
for he speaks peace to his faithful people.
But let them not return to their foolish ways.
9 Surely his salvation is near to those who fear him,
so our land will be filled with his glory.
10 Unfailing love and truth have met together.
Righteousness and peace have kissed!
11 Truth springs up from the earth,
and righteousness smiles down from heaven.
12 Yes, the LORD pours down his blessings.
Our land will yield its bountiful harvest.
13 Righteousness goes as a herald before him,
preparing the way for his steps.
Ezekiel 36
25 “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. Your filth will be washed away, and you will no longer worship idols. 26 And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations.
Isaiah 40
3 Listen! It’s the voice of someone shouting,
“Clear the way through the wilderness
for the LORD!
Make a straight highway through the wasteland
for our God!
4 Fill in the valleys,
and level the mountains and hills.
Straighten the curves,
and smooth out the rough places.
5 Then the glory of the LORD will be revealed,
and all people will see it together.
The LORD has spoken!” …
9 O Zion, messenger of good news,
shout from the mountaintops!
Shout it louder, O Jerusalem.
Shout, and do not be afraid.
Tell the towns of Judah,
“Your God is coming!”

The people of Israel longed for a new prophet.
They prayed for a new prophet.
They cried for a new prophet.

“He is a voice shouting in the wilderness” (Isaiah 40:3).
They were looking for prophet from the wilderness.

Look! I am sending my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. … Look, I am sending you the prophet Elijah… (Malachi 3:1, 5:5)
Elijah wore “clothes that were made out of hair. He had a leather belt around his waist." (2 Kings 1:8)
They were looking for a prophet like Elijah.

400 years of silence ...
and then …
A PROPHET!

------- quiet music starts here ------
Matthew 3
1 In those days John the Baptist came to the Judean wilderness and began preaching. …
3 The prophet Isaiah was speaking about John when he said,
“He is a voice shouting in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the LORD’s coming!
Clear the road for him!’”
4 John’s clothes were woven from coarse camel hair, and he wore a leather belt around his waist. For food he ate locusts and wild honey. 5 People from Jerusalem and from all of Judea and all over the Jordan Valley went out to see and hear John. 6 And when they confessed their sins, he baptized them in the Jordan River.
This was his message:
-------- music stops ----------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [At this point, Josh will enter and speak John’s message.] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2 "Change your life. God's kingdom is here."
7-10 Bunch of snakes! What do you think you're doing slithering down here to the river? Do you think a little water on your snakeskins is going to make any difference? It's your life that must change, not your skin! And don't think you can pull rank by claiming Abraham as father. Being a descendant of Abraham is neither here nor there. Descendants of Abraham are a dime a dozen. What counts is your life. Is it green and blossoming? Because if it's deadwood, it goes on the fire.
11-12 I'm baptizing you here in the river, turning your old life in for a kingdom life. The real action comes next: The main character in this drama—compared to him I'm a mere stagehand—will ignite the kingdom life within you, a fire within you, the Holy Spirit within you, changing you from the inside out. He's going to clean house—make a clean sweep of your lives. He'll place everything true in its proper place before God; everything false he'll put out with the trash to be burned.
(Matthew 3:2, 7-12, The Message)

------- No more PowerPoint. -----------

REPENT!! REPENT!!
Change your life! Think Again! Start over!
The Kingdom of God is at hand!
You’re not as right as you think you are! You’re not as good as you think you are! You’ve got to change the way you think. You’ve got to change the way you feel. You’ve got to change the way you act. You’ve got to change your whole life.
The Kingdom of God is knocking on your door. The Kingdom of God – what we’ve all been waiting for - is here waiting for us. Repent, and open the door.
The Kingdom of God is arriving at your station. Stop blocking the path. Get your sins out of God’s way. Get your selfish living off the road of God’s Kingdom. Do you want God’s peace? Do you want God’s love to overflow in your life? Do you want that deep joy that can only come from God? Then get your selfish butt out of God’s way!
God has already told you what he wants: Do what is right. Develop a passion for showing mercy to others. Walk humbly with your God (Micah 6:8). Do that, and God’s Kingdom will take shape in your life. Do that, and you’ll have a clear path for the Messiah to show up in your life. Do that, and you’ll see God like you’ve never seen him before.
Change your life! God’s Kingdom is here! God’s Kingdom is here. Open the door by changing your life.

It’s not enough to be religious. It’s not enough to be in the religious system. That very system might be flawed. It’s not enough be born into the family of God’s people. God can make rocks into people in his family. It’s not enough just to do what your preachers and teachers tell you. Maybe they’ve got it all wrong. Maybe they are just working within the same old flawed system that was handed down to them.
It’s not enough just to go on living in the same old systems, the same old economic systems, the same old religious systems, the same old social systems. Go to work. Care for your family. Think about God sometimes. Try to be a nice person. Go to the worship service. Do you think it matters where you your butt one day a week? That’s just your butt, not your heart! That system is broken!
We have to think about everything again. We have to go back to the basics. Love God. Love people. What does that mean? Love mercy. Do justice. Walk humbly. What does that mean? Answer these questions. Really answer them. Don’t just give the same old tired answers that you learned in your Bible studies. What does it really mean to obey God now, today, here in this place? Answer that question. THEN DO IT!
You people say you want God to come. You say you want God to show up among us. You say you want the Messiah to be real here. But do you obey what God has already told you? Give me a break!

We have to be fruit-full. We are God’s garden. We are God’s orchard. We are his plants, his trees. God has business to do, work to accomplish. He is in the business of producing fruit. He wants to bless the world. He wants to spread his love, mercy, justice, and peace. God won’t allow parasite plants. Produce God’s fruit, or get out.
It’s check up time. God is walking through the garden now, and he’s got his ax in hand. Every branch that doesn’t produce good fruit is as good as dead. It’s a selfish branch – all intake, no output. It lives off God’s soil, God’s rain, God’s air, but it doesn’t give anything back. It doesn’t add anything to God’s mission. That won’t do – no parasites in God’s garden. Off they go! Down comes the ax! Dead branches into the fire! Make room for more of the branches that are actually doing some good in the world.
Don’t be a dead branch! You’ve got to live out what God teaches you. You’ve got to give out what God gives you. Produce fruit, or get the ax!

Listen people, I can baptize you with water as a sign that you are starting all over, turning in your old life for a new life. I can help you with that.
But what you really need is the Messiah. He’s so big - and I’m so little - that I’m not good enough to even clean his shoes.
I baptize you water, but the Messiah will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. He will clean you up from the inside out. He will put breath in your lungs and fire in your heart! He will give you the power to obey God like you’ve never obeyed him before. The Kingdom of God is at hand, and the Messiah will make it start within your own heart and life.

But first you have to REPENT! Change your life! Change your way of thinking and doing!
You have to consider the possibility that everything you’ve ever known about following God has been wrong – or at least partly wrong, misshapen, warped, disordered. You have to consider the possibility that following the Messiah might mean something completely different from what you think it means right now. You have to consider the possibility that the system your preachers have been preaching is wrong or flawed. You have to consider that God might want something very different from his people. God might want something different from you, something deeper.

The Messiah is about to break out among us. The Kingdom of God is here among us, knocking at our door. The Messiah we’ve been waiting for is waiting for us.
But before we open the lid on this can of worms, before we try to learn to follow the Messiah, we all need to repent. We need to break down. We need to come at this like little children, with everything to learn.
Most of all, we need to decide right now that we are going to obey. Whatever it is that we discover about what it means for us to follow the Messiah, we’re going to obey.
We need to start obeying today. We can’t wait until vacation or until we get that new job or until we are less busy. That time may never come. The time is now.
REPENT! Change your life! Change now! We don’t know where this change is going to lead us. We don’t know where the Messiah is going to lead us. We don’t know what the Messiah is going to ask of us. We don’t know what the Messiah is going to teach us. We don’t know how we might have misunderstood what the Messiah wants for us, for God’s people, for our world. There is so much that we don’t know. We have to accept that unknown and start changing anyway. We’ve got to start changing now and be open to changing more and more.
REPENT! The Kingdom of God is at our door, ready to break out among us. Let’s open the doors by changing our lives together.

Revolutionary King: Josh Broward, Dec. 2, 2007

2007-11-30T01:02:00.000-08:00

KNU International English Church
Josh Broward
December 2, 2007
Revolutionary King
Matthew 1:1-17

Here is a short quiz for you. Who is this person?
- He was sometimes painted as though he was a living star, with rays of light coming out from his face.
- His people believed they would be the fountain of divine justice (or righteousness) flowing out to the entire world.
- His followers believed he was sent from heaven to renew the earth.
- His followers believed he could set them free from their sins and guilt.
- His kingdom was based on faith, faith to believe that he would bring peace, health, security, and wellness to the world by uniting all peoples into his kingdom.
- One popular saying about him was: “There is no other name under heaven by which people can be saved than that of ______.”
- His messengers spread the “gospel” (the good news) that he is bringing peace and security for the world.
- He claimed to be god incarnate – God in human form.
- His followers built buildings to worship him and developed liturgies and various kinds of art worshiping him as God in the flesh.
- His followers celebrated a season called “Advent” to celebrate his birth, his “coming” to earth from heaven.
- When people gathered as a group and committed to worship him as Lord, they were called his ekklesia (or church).
- He was called:
o “Prince of peace.”
o “Lord.”
o “Savior of the world.”
o “Son of God.”
o “King of Kings”
o “Lord of Lords”

This is easy, right? I could have stopped a long time ago. You all know who I’m talking about, right? I mean come on: Advent, Savior, Son of God, Savior of the world, church. This is too easy. Of course, I’m talking about Caesar. … Come on. … Is anybody awake here? Is my mike on? … Caesar Augustus! … The ruler of the Roman Empire! His genius was the well-spring for the entire Roman system, the Roman economy, the Roman roads, and most importantly the Pax Romana (the Roman Peace).
If you were taking this quiz 2000 years ago, in 07 AD, you would have naturally answered, “Caesar Augustus,” and you would have been right.
The Roman Empire covered the entire Mediterranean world. All heads bowed to one man: Caesar. (You either bowed your head or lost your head.) Caesar Augustus was worshiped throughout the Roman Empire, but especially in the east. In the eastern half of the empire, whole cities petitioned Rome for permission to build temples in honor of the great god Caesar Augustus. People gathered in the temple, offering sacrifices and singing songs to Caesar, the provider of all their wealth and security and peace. The Roman world was a deeply religious world, and that political religion was dominated by the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Caesar Augustus.

But the Pax Romana was not all peaches and roses, peace and prosperity for everyone. The Roman Peace had a dirty underbelly of injustice, corruption, violence, and oppression. In many places, people wanted to be free from Roman rule, Roman taxes, Roman prisons, and the whole Roman system. The Jews looked for a Messiah to come and set them free, but others also looked for a fearless leader to rise up against Rome to bring freedom, peace, and justice.
With all of this tension, Rome had to have a plan to maintain authority. They did. The Roman Peace was upheld and maintained by two Roman instruments: the coin and the cross.
Romans maintained peace and prevented rebellion by making the local rulers rich. Rich people don’t rebel. People made wealthy by the Roman system were very unlikely to rise up against it. Golden coins directed to the right people prevented chaos. The rich got richer, and the poor got poorer. And because the system was rigged against the poor, they didn’t have the resources to stage an effective revolution.
But when the coin didn’t work, and fools tried to be revolutionaries, Rome had another option: the cross. Anyone who directly challenged the rule of Caesar was challenging the very fabric and foundation of the Roman Empire. Throughout the Roman Empire, people guilty of treason against Rome, rebellion against the government, revolt against the empire, these people were nailed to crosses – or if time was short, to a tree. They were left there to hang as a living or dying testimony to the foolishness of revolution against Rome.

Jesus was born into this context. He was born in Israel as a Jew, among a people who longed for a Messiah King to set them free from Rome and a Roman King who claimed to be God.
When Jesus died and rose again, his followers preached and taught in this context. They lived in a world where Rome was a god and the Roman Emperor was the god-King of the world. They preached a “gospel” of a new King, a better King, the perfect King, who was sent by the one true God, who lived the very life of the one true God. The followers of Jesus were starting a revolution. (No wonder the Romans killed them!)
Jesus came as a Messiah to the Jews, who were longing for the Messiah. For centuries, the Jews had been oppressed and conquered and taxed by outside armies and Gentile kings. David was the best king Israel ever had, and God promised that one of David’s descendants would always be king. So the prophets were always reminding the people that a king like David would come, and this king – the Messiah – would make everything right again. Listen to Isaiah’s prophecy about the Messiah in Isaiah 11:1-10:
1 Out of the stump of David’s family will grow a shoot—
yes, a new Branch bearing fruit from the old root.
2 And the Spirit of the LORD will rest on him—
the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and might,
the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.
3 He will delight in obeying the LORD.
He will not judge by appearance
nor make a decision based on hearsay.
4 He will give justice to the poor
and make fair decisions for the exploited.
The earth will shake at the force of his word,
and one breath from his mouth will destroy the wicked.
5 He will wear righteousness like a belt
and truth like an undergarment.
6 In that day the wolf and the lamb will live together;
the leopard will lie down with the baby goat.
The calf and the yearling will be safe with the lion,
and a little child will lead them all.
7 The cow will graze near the bear.
The cub and the calf will lie down together.
The lion will eat hay like a cow.
8 The baby will play safely near the hole of a cobra.
Yes, a little child will put its hand in a nest of deadly snakes without harm.
9 Nothing will hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain,
for as the waters fill the sea,
so the earth will be filled with people who know the LORD.
10 In that day the heir to David’s throne
will be a banner of salvation to all the world.
The nations will rally to him,
and the land where he lives will be a glorious place.
So the Jewish Messiah King was often called the “Son of David.” After Jesus healed a man who was blind and couldn’t speak, the people were amazed, and they asked, “Could it be that Jesus is the Son of David, the Messiah?” (Matthew 12:23). Several times when people want Jesus to heal them, they cry out, “Jesus, Son of David!” They were saying, “Jesus, you are the Messiah King. Heal us like the Messiah is supposed to do.” The “Son of David” was the “heir to David’s throne,” the King of healing, the true King who would bring salvation (which meant healing and peace) to the Jews and to all the world. The “Son of David” was a direct challenge to Caesar as the King of Kings and Ruler of the World.

That leads us to another important point. The Messiah King was coming to Israel to restore Israel, but the promises were for more than Israel. The promises were for the whole world. The Messiah reconnected people to God’s promise to Abraham. “I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others … All the families on earth will be blessed through you” (Genesis 12:2-3).
Isaiah understood this. The Messiah would come to Israel, but the Messiah would be for everyone. The Messiah would be the healing, peace-giving King for everyone everywhere: “He will give justice to the poor and make fair decisions for the exploited. … Nothing will hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain, for as the waters fill the sea, so the earth will be filled with people who know the LORD. In that day the heir to David’s throne will be a banner of salvation to all the world” (Isaiah 11:4, 9, 10).
Paul understood this. Let’s read Romans 15:8-13.
8 Remember that Christ came as a servant to the Jews to show that God is true to the promises he made to their ancestors. 9 He also came so that the Gentiles might give glory to God for his mercies to them. That is what the psalmist meant when he wrote: “For this, I will praise you among the Gentiles; I will sing praises to your name.”
10 And in another place it is written, “Rejoice with his people, you Gentiles.”
11 And yet again, “Praise the LORD, all you Gentiles. Praise him, all you people of the earth.”
12 And in another place Isaiah said, “The heir to David’s throne will come, and he will rule over the Gentiles. They will place their hope on him.”
13 I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Paul and all of the first Christians were asking people everywhere to believe that the promise of Abraham was coming true through Jesus the Messiah. Christians preached that Jesus came as the Jewish Messiah to bless the whole world, to heal the whole world, to save the whole world. They were asking people to worship Jesus instead of Caesar. Jesus, Son of David, the promised Messiah of the Jews, has become the King of Kings and Lord of Lords for everyone everywhere.

The book of Matthew was written in this context to this message. We will be preaching through the book of Matthew for one full year. The message of Matthew is simple, dangerously simple. Jesus is King. Caesar is not.
So we begin our journey through Matthew today with Matthew chapter 1. The beginning of Matthew is often considered the most boring passage in the Bible, but this is simply because we read this passage through our 21st century glasses.
In fact, this is how we approach most of the Bible. We read the Bible like it’s yesterday’s newspaper or a history of World War 2. We import into the Bible our expectations and our way of thinking. Sure we understand that their technology and their clothes were different, but we expect those people to think and to feel pretty much like we do.
When we come to the Bible like this, it’s like we are wearing tinted glasses. We see everything through our worldview, our experience, our culture, our history, our context. It’s as though the Bible was written to us in our time, not to a completely different people in a completely different place in a completely different culture. The Bible is different from us, very different. If we are really going to understand the Bible, if we are really going to understand Jesus, we’re going to have to learn how to take off our 21st century glasses. We’re going to have to learn to see the world through Jewish eyes, through Roman eyes, through 1st century eyes. We will never really understand what Jesus was saying until we understand the context in which he said it.
We need to re-learn who Jesus is and what Jesus did and what Jesus wants us to be and to do today. The only way to do that is to go back deep into the Bible and to begin to take our glasses off to see the text through 1st century eyes. We’ll never be perfect at this, but we have to keep trying.
Let’s start taking off our glasses by trying to see Matthew 1:1-17 through 1st century eyes.
1A record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham:
2Abraham was the father of Isaac,
Isaac the father of Jacob,
Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers,
3Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar,
Perez the father of Hezron,
Hezron the father of Ram,
4Ram the father of Amminadab,
Amminadab the father of Nahshon,
Nahshon the father of Salmon,
5Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab,
Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth,
Obed the father of Jesse,
6and Jesse the father of King David.
David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah's wife,
7Solomon the father of Rehoboam,
Rehoboam the father of Abijah,
Abijah the father of Asa,
8Asa the father of Jehoshaphat,
Jehoshaphat the father of Jehoram,
Jehoram the father of Uzziah,
9Uzziah the father of Jotham,
Jotham the father of Ahaz,
Ahaz the father of Hezekiah,
10Hezekiah the father of Manasseh,
Manasseh the father of Amon,
Amon the father of Josiah,
11and Josiah the father of Jeconiah and his brothers at the time of the exile to Babylon.
12After the exile to Babylon:
Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel,
Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel,
13Zerubbabel the father of Abiud,
Abiud the father of Eliakim,
Eliakim the father of Azor,
14Azor the father of Zadok,
Zadok the father of Akim,
Akim the father of Eliud,
15Eliud the father of Eleazar,
Eleazar the father of Matthan,
Matthan the father of Jacob,
16and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.
17Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Messiah.
Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham. Jesus is the Jewish Messiah who has become the King of the universe! Worship him, not Caesar!

We are going to sing some worship songs that celebrate Jesus as King. These songs were written within the last 350 years, but the wording of these songs is very similar to the theology of the early Christians. As we sing, as we worship Jesus together, pay attention to the words, and ask yourself some questions.
- What it would have been like to sing these songs with the first Christians, in the Roman Empire, say in 50 AD?
- What it would mean for us to worship Jesus as King with the same passion and commitment as the first Christians?
- Who are our Caesars?
- What does it mean for us to say, “All hail King Jesus?”
- What kind of revolution does King Jesus want to start today in our world?

“All Hail King Jesus”
All hail King Jesus. [[Hail = greet with honor, as to a king.]]
All hail Emanuel, [[Emanuel = “God with us”]]
King of Kings, Lord of Lords,
Bright Morning Star.
And throughout eternity,
I’ll sing His praises,
And I’ll reign with Him,
Throughout eternity.

“All Hail the Power of Jesus Name”
All hail the power of Jesus name!
Let angels prostrate fall. [[Let angels bow down with their faces to the ground.]]
Bring forth the royal diadem, [[Bring out the royal crown.]]
And crown him Lord of all.
Ye chosen seed of Israel’s race, [[You chosen people of Israel]]
Ye ransomed from the fall, [[You who are saved from sin]]
Hail him, who saves you by his grace,
And crown him Lord of all.
Let every kindred, every tribe [[Let every family, every nation]]
On this terrestrial ball [[On this earth]]
To him all majesty ascribe, [[Say that all majesty (kingly glory) belongs to him.]]
And crown him Lord of all.

Praying in Good Times and Bad Times: Anne Cave, Nov. 18, 2007

2007-11-15T00:41:00.000-08:00

Praying in bad times,
praying in good times
Psalm 63: 1-8
1 O God, You are my God;
Early will I seek You;
My soul thirsts for You;
My flesh longs for You
In a dry and thirsty land
Where there is no water.
2 So I have looked for You in the sanctuary,
To see Your power and Your glory.

3 Because Your loving kindness is better than life,
My lips shall praise You.
4 Thus I will bless You while I live;
I will lift up my hands in Your name.
5 My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness,
And my mouth shall praise You with joyful lips.

6 When I remember You on my bed,
I meditate on You in the night watches.
7 Because You have been my help,
Therefore in the shadow of Your wings I will rejoice.
8 My soul follows close behind You;
Your right hand upholds me.

This sounds very nice,
but what do we do when prayer is not that easy?

When it’s more like this…

Psalm 102: 1-9

1 Hear my prayer, O Lord;
let my cry for help come to you.
2 Do not hide your face from me
when I am in distress.
Turn your ear to me;
when I call, answer me quickly.

3 For my days vanish like smoke;
my bones burn like glowing embers.
4 My heart is blighted and withered like grass;
I forget to eat my food.
5 Because of my loud groaning
I am reduced to skin and bones.
6 I am like a desert owl,
like an owl among the ruins
7 I lie awake; I have become
like a bird alone on a roof.

8 All day long my enemies taunt me;
those who rail against me use my name as a curse.
9 For I eat ashes as my food
and mingle my drink with tears

How do we pray,
when our experience is more like this second psalm?

Praying
in
hard times
Use structured prayers
• the Psalms

• a book of prayers

A Prayer in Darkness
God, where are you?
I beg, I plead … and you do not answer.
I shout, I yell … and get nothing.
Break your silence,
O God.
Speak to me!
Teach me!
Rebuke me!
Strike me down!
But do not remain silent.
The God who is mute. Is that who you are?

You have revealed yourself as the speaking God – our communicating Cosmos.
You pointed Abraham to a city whose builder and maker was God.
You revealed your divine name to Moses.
You spoke with clarity
to David,
to Ruth,
to Esther,
to Isaiah,
to Ezekiel,
to Daniel,
to Mary,
to Paul,
and a host of others.
Why are the heavens made of iron for me?

Job, I know, experienced you as the hidden God. And Elijah held a lonely vigil over earthquake, wind and fire. Me, too.

O God of wonder and of mystery, teach me by means of your wondrous, terrible, loving, all-embracing silence.
Amen.
Richard Foster

Pray for others
Problems make us self-centered

“During hard times my vision narrows so that I think only of myself and my problems. Then, more than ever, I need to widen that vision, to expand the circle of God’s love.”

Read Christian books
Keep some favourite Christian books on your shelves and read them when the going gets tough

”Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” Philippians 4:8

Play Christian music
Playing Christian music has a
big
effect
on how you feel
and makes it easy to worship

Find God in the pain
THE BAD NEWS:
God is on the other side of our pain.
We have to go through the pain to find God again.
If we avoid the pain, we can’t find God.
Because we have to come to God with our whole being (mind and heart).
Prayer is a holistic activity.

Prayer is a holistic activity.
We can only encounter God with our whole selves.
The Psalmists knew this:
“I am poor and needy,
and my heart is wounded within me.”

HELP!
When you can’t do any of these,
just call out:
“Jesus, help!”

This actually works…

although
you may have to pray again
in an hour,
on a bad day
☹

Focus on Gratitude
Even when you feel dreadful,
if you can sit down for 5 minutes
early each morning,
and thank God for all that you can,
it will make a huge difference to your day.
There are always some things you can be grateful for, even if its just the sunshine.

Seven ways to pray…
• Use structured prayers
• Pray for others
• Read Christian books
• Listen to Christian music
• Find God in the pain
• Call for help!
• Practice gratefulness

Which ones
can
you do?

The effectiveness of our prayer in hard times, does depend to a large extent on our overall relationship to God.

“For this cause everyone who is godly shall pray to You
In a time when You may be found;
Surely in a flood of great waters
They shall not come near him.” Psalm 32:6

A relationship
where all we do
is ask for things,
is not a relationship.
That brings us to the question…

Why
pray
?

….because
it’s
a tradition

Psalm 1: 1-3
1 Blessed is the man
who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
or stand in the way of sinners
or sit in the seat of mockers.
2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither.
Whatever he does prospers.

Psalm 1 recommends immersion in God.

People have been immersing themselves in God for the 3-4,000 years of the Psalms.
This is not a new, untried idea!
We don’t have to try to decide for ourselves is it a good idea.
Just join the flow of thousands of years of people who knew this was the best way to live.

…to have
a relationship
with God

A relationship
where all we do is ask,
is not a relationship.

When asked to identify the most important rule in life, Jesus replied,
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”
Jesus marks love for God as the single most important goal in life.
How can I do this?

Teresa of Avila, who wrote a lot about prayer, said
“The important thing is not to think much but to love much.”

Only in prayer can we learn to love God with heart, soul and mind.

…to
be
encouraged

We are living

surrounded by God

suspended in God

Experiencing God’s presence in prayer reminds us of this,
and helps us to stay aware of the spiritual reality of life all through the day.

Praying
in
good times

The effectiveness of our prayer
in hard times,
does depend to a large extent
on our overall relationship to God.

What
is
prayer?

Prayer
is lifting
the mind
and heart
to God

How
do
I
pray?
It depends on your personality
• who you most deeply are
• your passions
• how strongly physical / emotional / intellectual you are

KNOW YOURSELF

“There never was and never will be anyone exactly like me.
If I fail to experience God in my own unique way,
that experience will forever remain in the shadow land of possibility.”
David Steindl-Rast

Often we are praying when we don’t realize it
What helps you connect to the presence of God?
What makes you feel fully alert, attentive and full of wonder and gratefulness?

Let’s start where we are,
with what comes easiest…
What is it you do with your whole heart?
• Maybe it’s drinking the first cup of coffee or tea in the morning
• going for a walk or a run
• drawing or painting
whenever we spontaneously come alive.

Then practice extending that wholehearted living to more of the day, so you are praying often through the day, keeping company with God who is already present.

BUT
we do need a short prayer time as well
as this prayerful living.
A set prayer time in the morning
is like a warm-up exercise:
it increases our awareness of God at all other times.
“This is the day the Lord has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Psalm 118

We need a time to
• Praise God, whatever we’re feeling
• Give thanks to God, recognizing that everything is a gift from God
• Listen to God (a relationship where only one person talks, is not a relationship)
Make your day holey
Make little holes in your day for God to get through!
Stop what you’re doing,
and spend 1 minute with God.
Gradually increase to 2, 3, 5 minutes.
C.S. Lewis said
“Hurry isn’t of the devil, it is the devil.”

Praying in bad times
• Use structured prayers
• Pray for others
• Read Christian books
• Listen to Christian music
• Find God in the pain
• Call for help!
• Practice gratefulness

Praying in the good times
Use the good times to create a prayer habit, so that when the bad times come, you have built your prayer life on a firm foundation.
"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.”
Matthew 7:24-25

Build on the moments when you are most fully alive, living in the present moment, feeling wonder and gratitude.

Extend these by making your day holey.
And spend a few minutes each day praising, thanking and listening to God.
Why pray?
Jesus said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”

God made us in the hope that we would choose to love God back.
God gives to us in the hope that we will say thank you.

The Joy of Giving: Josh Broward, Nov. 4, 2007

2007-11-04T20:30:00.000-08:00

KNU International English Church
Josh Broward, Pastor
November 4, 2007
Financial Peace #5: The Joy of Giving

A few months ago, I heard a sermon by Shane Clairborne. The sermon was great, but there was one part in an interview afterward that was just incredible. It was so good, in fact, that I want you to hear it in Shane’s own voice.

I think that what’s so exciting about giving is that … it’s beautiful. It’s life giving. It’s not just something we do out of duty, but something we do out of great joy. And there’s a lot of people who have taught me that.
I was on this radio show the other day, and the guy was telling me, he was like, “So are you saying that all suburban people have to hang out with poor folks?” I’m like “What a terrible way to say it!” I’m like: We all have an invitation to be with people that struggle and to bear those burdens with them, and there’s something healing that happens in all of us when that happens. Isaiah 58 says: “When we spend ourselves on behalf of others, our healing comes.” And so I think that’s something that I’ve learned. When we’re doing this, it begins to come naturally because it’s what we’re made for. You know, we’re made to love and to be loved.
I remember when I was in India, and there was one kid, that it was his birthday, and so I got him an ice cream cone. I figured that was a good idea, you know, it’s 120 degrees -give a kid an ice cream cone, and he gets this ice cream cone, and he’s so excited about it, he starts licking it, and he’s just shaking. And his impulse is: “I’ve gotta share it!” He rounds up all of his friends, and he’s like: “I’ve got an ice cream!” He goes around and has each one take a lick off it – you know – right around the circle, and then he gives it to me, and he’s like “Your turn.” I kind of faked this like – you know I’ve got this spit phobia thing going. But his impulse was, “This is such a beautiful gift that I can’t help but share it.”
And I think, what if that were our response – that the best things to do with the best things in life is to give them away or to share them. And people that have done that, they know the secret of that, that it’s incredible. So a lot of times, I think, when we think of blessing, we think of it just as something God is showering on us. But when so many people haven’t experienced those gifts and we get to share them, like there’s no greater joy than that, you know seeing somebody else get to experience the goodness of God.[1]

OK, now, before I really get started talking about the joy of giving, I want to let you guys talk first. One month ago, we gave you the 5,000 Won Challenge. We gave everybody here that day 5,000 won, and we asked you to use it bless someone else. It’s time to give your reports. Turn to someone around you and answer these three questions:
- What did you do with your 5,000 won?
- How did they respond?
- How did you feel?

We’ve been talking about money and finances for a full month now. Let’s do a little review.
Week 1: The basic message of the Bible concerning money is that God wants to bless us so he can bless the whole world through us.
Week 2: God’s basic desire is that everyone everywhere will have prosperity, security, and equity, but our world isn’t going as planned.
Week 3: We live in a global culture of consumerism. As part of this culture, we are spending way too much. We need to let God slow us down and help us get out of debt.
Week 4: It’s hard to wait. But by saving and investing our resources now, we can become financially free to serve God without concern about money.
Now we’re on to week 5, The Joy of Giving. You knew it was going to come to this, right? Me asking you to give more money. Why are churches always asking for money?! Like most of you, I think some churches ask for too much money, too often, too loudly, and with too many promises of God’s blessing in return.
I certainly don’t want to be one of those pastors in one of those churches. I’ve been pastoring this church for more than 3 years now, and I have never preached a whole sermon on giving money. But we just can’t escape this. Money is an important part of the Bible’s teaching, and giving is the most important part of the Bible’s teaching on money.
Think of it like this. Look at this picture of the Triumphal Arch in Tyre, Lebanon.[2] What is the most important stone in this large structure? It’s not at the bottom. It’s at the top. It’s the keystone. The keystone is the one at the very highest point of the actual arch. Without the keystone, the whole structure will collapse into a pile of rubble.
OK, imagine that the stones on the left side are right beliefs about money. Some of these right beliefs might be:
- God wants to bless us.
- God wants to bless the world through us.
- God owns everything. We are God’s money managers.
- God wants us to help make a more economically just world.
- God wants us to give to our church and to the poor in the world.

Now imagine that the stones on the right side are right actions concerning money. Some of these right actions might be:
- Making a budget or a plan for how to use our money.
- Spending less.
- Getting out of debt.
- Saving more.
- Investing our money wisely.

If these are stones we are using to build our Arch of Financial Peace, then the keystone is giving generously. Without giving generously, the stones on the left are just a bunch of empty religious talk. Without giving generously, the stones on the right are just an organized strategy for selfishness. From a Biblical perspective, financial peace is impossible without generous giving. Without giving, the whole structure just collapses into a pile of trash.
This is the climax of our series on Financial Peace. If we get this wrong, we’re just wasting our time, and we’ve missed the whole point of everything we’ve been talking about for the last month. If we really get this right, God will change the world through us.

OK, so what does the Bible say about giving? The Bible talks about at least 4 different kinds of giving: worship events, building projects, caring for the poor, and tithe.
Let’s talk about worship events first. In the Bible all giving is a worship event, and almost all worship involves some form of giving. Nearly every kind of worship event has a special kind of offering that goes with it. Worship is giving. Giving is worship. (See Leviticus 1-7.)
There are also a few special building projects in the Bible, and God’s people usually respond by giving generously. I love the story of when the people are preparing to build the first tabernacle (or tent) to worship God in the desert. God has given Moses instructions to build the tabernacle, and Moses asks the people to give the materials. Listen to how the people respond:
So the whole community of Israel left Moses and returned to their tents. All whose hearts were stirred and whose spirits were moved came and brought their sacred offerings to the Lord. They brought all the materials needed for the Tabernacle, for the performance of its rituals, and for the sacred garments. Both men and women came, all whose hearts were willing. They brought to the Lord their offerings … (Exodus 35:20-22)
But the people continued to bring additional gifts each morning. Finally the craftsmen who were working on the sanctuary left their work. They went to Moses and reported, “The people have given more than enough materials to complete the job the Lord has commanded us to do!”
So Moses gave the command, and this message was sent throughout the camp: “Men and women, don’t prepare any more gifts for the sanctuary. We have enough!” So the people stopped bringing their sacred offerings. (Exodus 36:3-6)
Have you ever heard of a leader saying that? “Stop giving! We have enough!” The people gave with great joy, and they gave in abundance.

The Old Testament talks a lot about giving to the poor, but the most famous passage about this is probably Jesus’ story about the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25.

But when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit upon his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered in his presence, and he will separate the people as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep at his right hand and the goats at his left.
Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.’
Then these righteous ones will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?’
And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’
Then the King will turn to those on the left and say, ‘Away with you, you cursed ones, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his demons. For I was hungry, and you didn’t feed me. I was thirsty, and you didn’t give me a drink. I was a stranger, and you didn’t invite me into your home. I was naked, and you didn’t give me clothing. I was sick and in prison, and you didn’t visit me.’
Then they will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and not help you?’
And he will answer, ‘I tell you the truth, when you refused to help the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help me.’ And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous will go into eternal life. (Matthew 25:31-46)
The last type of giving discussed in the Bible is the tithe (ship il jo). A tithe is giving 10% of our income to God. One of the best passages to explain tithing is Deuteronomy 14:
Be sure to set aside a tenth of all that your fields produce each year. Eat the tithe of your grain, new wine and oil, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks in the presence of the LORD your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name, so that you may learn to revere the LORD your God always. But if that place is too distant and you have been blessed by the LORD your God and cannot carry your tithe (because the place where the LORD will choose to put his Name is so far away), then exchange your tithe for silver, and take the silver with you and go to the place the LORD your God will choose. Use the silver to buy whatever you like: cattle, sheep, wine or other fermented drink, or anything you wish. Then you and your household shall eat there in the presence of the LORD your God and rejoice. And do not neglect the Levites living in your towns, for they have no allotment or inheritance of their own.
At the end of every three years, bring all the tithes of that year's produce and store it in your towns, so that the Levites (who have no allotment or inheritance of their own) and the aliens, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied, and so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. (Deuteronomy 14:22-29)
This passage shows us the 4 basic purposes of tithing:
1. Tithing teaches us to honor God. “Be sure to set aside a tenth” of your earnings “so that you may learn to revere the LORD your God always.” Tithing is a spiritual practice. It reminds us every time we do it that everything we are and have comes from God. It also teaches us to honor God in everyday life. Giving helps to heal our selfishness and materialism. Giving money away breaks money’s hold on us. Giving actually gives us the freedom to honor God more fully in our every day lives.
2. Tithing is a worship act of celebration. Did you notice what the Israelites were supposed to do with their tithe? They were supposed to get their families together and have a feast in the presence of the Lord. Our weekly worship services are acts of celebration. Our gifts come together to pay the rent, buy the equipment, and gather the food. This is our family celebration in the presence of the Lord.
3. Tithing provides for the religious leaders. Some people (like Levites, full-time pastors, or missionaries) devote all their time to helping others worship God. Giving a tithe makes it possible for these leaders to focus on helping the people of God instead of on making a living. The New Testament carries this principle forward:
Elders who do their work well should be respected and paid well, especially those who work hard at both preaching and teaching. For the Scripture says, “You must not muzzle an ox to keep it from eating as it treads out the grain.” And in another place, “Those who work deserve their pay!” (1 Timothy 5:17-18).
4. Tithing provides for the poor. Part of the tithe was stored up so that the people of God could always meet the needs of the migrant workers, the fatherless, and the widows.

About a year ago, my Mom said that I need to preach on tithing more. I said that everybody hates to hear churches talk about money, and I said, “Besides, tithing is an Old Testament idea. Tithing is not even talked about in the New Testament, not one time.” Sarah is always telling me that I should not make such drastic statements. I was wrong.
Tithing is in the New Testament also. In fact, Jesus himself says we should tithe. Jesus was really mad at the Pharisees for missing the point of tithing (and religion in general):
You Pharisees are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy—full of greed and wickedness! Fools! Didn’t God make the inside as well as the outside? So clean the inside by giving gifts to the poor, and you will be clean all over. What sorrow awaits you Pharisees! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore justice and the love of God. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things. (Luke 11:39-42).
The Pharisees were careful at tithing, but for Jesus giving 10% of our income is just the minimum standard. We need to go beyond that to the more important things of love and justice and caring for the poor.
The New Testament doesn’t say we don’t have to tithe. The New Testament actually says that giving 10% is probably not enough for most of us. The point is not meeting some minimum standard of giving: “OK, I’ve given 10%. That’s enough. Now I can do what I want with the rest.” The point is responding to the hurting world around us with the love of God. The point is remembering that we are all God’s children and that every poor person is part of our family. The point is loving God and loving people with everything we have.

Here’s the thing. If you have a problem with giving, you have a spiritual problem. God asks us to give him 10% of our income as a starting point, a regular act of worship. Then, he asks us to respond to the world around us with his love and our resources. If you have a problem with that, then you have a problem with God. If you have a problem with that, then you have a problem with Jesus because that’s what Jesus taught.

But here’s the other thing. If you have a problem with giving, then you are missing out on the great joy of giving. Giving is an act of celebration! God has provided for us! We get to be partners in God’s mission of blessing the whole world! Our giving changes the world! That is worth celebrating!
Give freely. Give regularly. Give joyfully. Give out of worship. Give out of thanks. Give and be glad! Give and be free!

[1] Shane Clairborne, “Finding Your Calcutta,” sermon at Mars Hill Bible Church, March 21, 2007, http://www.marshill.org/teaching/index.php, downloaded on 9.6.07. From 45:50-48:08.
[2] http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Tyre_Triumphal_Arch.jpg.

The Marshmallow Plan, Josh Broward. Oct. 28, 2007

2007-10-26T00:31:00.000-07:00

KNU International English Church
Josh Broward
October 28, 2007
Financial Peace #4: The Marshmallow Plan
Saving and Investing
Matthew 25:14-30; Ecclesiastes 11:1-2;
Proverbs 6:6-11, 21:5, 21:20, 31:10-12, 16-21, 25

Super-Lotto Video: http://media.premierstudios.com/nazarene/media/super_lotto.wmv

If you want to be financially free, you’ve got to have a plan. Super-Lotto and Vegas just aren’t going to cut it.
Today I want to present to you “The Marshmallow Plan for Financial Freedom.” To help you remember this, we’re going to give you all one marshmallow. (Ushers, can you help me out here?)
Now, you may be wondering why marshmallows and money have anything in common. There is a story behind these marshmallows.
In the 1960’s a researcher at Stanford University conducted the marshmallow experiment with a group of 4 year olds (5 Korean age). They gave each kid a marshmallow and said, “I have to go out for a few minutes. If you still have that marshmallow when I come back, I’ll give you another one.” Then, the researcher left the room for 20 minutes, and they watched what happened.
Some of the kids ate the marshmallow right away. Some of the kids waited for the reward.
Here’s the really interesting part. They did a follow-up study 14 years later when these kids were graduating high school. The kids who had waited for the extra marshmallow were “better adjusted and more dependable.” Amazingly, they were also better students. On the SAT (the USA’s college entrance exam) the kids who waited scored on average 210 points higher than the kids who couldn’t wait!

Most of us know that we should save money. We know that saving money will help us in the future. We know that saving money will help us in the future. We know this, but most of us don’t save – at least not very much.
I like how Dave Ramsey explains this:
Saving money is not a matter of math. You will not save money when you get that next raise. You will not save money when that car is paid off. You will not save money when the kids are grown. You will only save money when it becomes an emotional priority.
We all know we need to save, but most people don't save like they know they need to save. Why? Because they have competing goals. The goal to save isn't a high enough priority to delay that purchase of the pizza, DVD player, new computer, or china cabinet. So we purchase, buy, consume all our dollars away or, worse yet, go into debt to buy these things. That debt means monthly payments that control our paychecks and make us say things like, "We just don't make enough to save any money!" Wrong, wrong, wrong! We DO make enough to save money; we just aren't willing to quit spoiling ourselves with our little projects or pleasures to have enough left to save. I don't care what you make - you can save money. It just has to become a big enough priority to you.
If a doctor told you that your child was dying and could only be saved with a $15,000 operation that your insurance would not cover and could only be performed 9 months from today, could you save $15,000? Yes! Of course you could! You would sell things, you would stop any spending that wasn't required to survive, and you would take two extra jobs. For that short 9 months, you would become a saving madman (or madwoman). You would give up virtually anything to accomplish that $15,000 goal. SAVING WOULD BECOME A PRIORITY.
[What is] the secret to saving? FOCUSED EMOTION.

How do we get this “focused emotion”? What we are saving for has to feel more important to us that what we are giving up. We need a vision of why we are saving and investing. We need a clear picture in our minds of what is going to happen with this money that we are saving. The idea of just putting money in the bank is not going to stop us from buying that latte or movie or trip to Jeju. Bank – boring! Jeju, latte – fun! We need a clear picture of where that money is going. What do we want that money to do? What do we want our lives to be like in 10 years, 20 years, 30 years?

I believe God wants us to save money and to invest it wisely so that we can do three things.
1. Provide for ourselves and our families during hard times.
2. Become financially free, so we can serve God without concerns about money.
3. Help others.

Imagine being free. Imagine what your life would be like if you had zero debt. Imagine what your life would be like if you had enough money saved up so that you could pay your expenses just from the interest. What would you do? Where would you go? If you didn’t have to make money, what kind of work would you do? If you had enough money to pay your own way, where would you go and what would you do?
Imagine being free. Not free to spend all your money on yourself. Not free to play golf all summer and take cruises all winter. Imagine being free to give your life to God, free to give your life to the world. Imagine being free to give all of your time and energy to changing the world, making our world a better place. What would you do?
Take a few minutes to talk about with your neighbors. Get into groups of 2-3 and answer these questions: “If you had enough money saved up to support yourself and your family for the rest of your life, what would you do? How would you try to help the world? How would you serve God if money didn’t matter?”

---
Imagine being free. Imagine if you could do these things. Imagine if we could all do these things. Imagine a whole generation of 40, 50, 60 year olds – experienced leaders, teachers, doctors, managers – who are financially free and ready to change the world! Imagine if we all had enough saved up so that we didn’t have to worry about tomorrow. Imagine what would happen if we were all financially free and ready to work for economic justice, peace, reconciliation, and connection with God and humanity! Imagine what we could do! Imagine how we could change the world!
THAT is why saving money is important! That is why spending less is important. That – changing the world, in radical, new, full, never before, ways – that is why we need to save more and invest it wisely. That is our vision. That is why we should say no to that game of golf, that new shirt, that new computer. We can change the world! You can change the world! You can become financially free and give your life to changing the way our world works. Imagine that!

Before we go on, though, we need to address some popular money myths. So here goes.
Money Myth #1: Money is the root of all evil. Some Christians say that wanting to get rich is bad. Some Christians say that saving money is bad and shows a lack of trust in God. I understand where they are coming from. Money is a dangerous blessing, and it can easily become a curse to us.
But that verse from 1 Timothy 6:10 actually says, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.” Money is amoral, neither good or bad. It’s like a brick. You can throw it through a window, or you can use it to build a hospital. How you use money can be good or bad. Your attitude toward money can be good or bad. If we save money so that we can get rich and have nice things, that’s bad. If we are saving money so that we can become free and participate with God in blessing the world, that’s good.

Money Myth #2: Only rich people need to think about saving and investing. This is not true. If you live like this, you will always live from paycheck to paycheck, or at best from year to year. I love what Dave Ramsey says about this, “Do rich people stuff, and you get rich. Do poor people stuff, and you get poor.” If you want to build wealth, you have to do the actions that build wealth. That means saving and investing in wise ways.

Money Myth #3: You have to have money to make money. This is technically true, but what we usually think when we hear this is, “You have to have A LOT OF MONEY to make money.” We usually think that people who have average incomes are stuck with having low or average wealth. This is simply not true. What you do with your money is far more important than how much money you make.
Let me tell you about Anne Scheiber. She worked her whole career with the US tax office (the IRS), and when she retired in 1943, she was earning only $3,150 a year. When she retired, her total savings were only $5,000. However, she managed to live on her small pension and retirement benefits without using her savings. She spent very carefully, and she invested very wisely.
When she finally died in 1995, at the age of 101, she donated all her money to a Jewish university in New York. How much were her savings worth then? She started out with just $5,000, but 50 years later she had $22 million!
Behold – the power of compound interest! Compound interest is what happens to investments or debts over time. They grow and grow and grow and grow! Compound interest can be a Beauty or a Beast. If it’s working for you (like in investments), compound interest is a beautiful, wealth-building thing. But if it’s working against you (like in credit card debt), it is an ugly, beastly, poverty-inducing thing. The higher the interest, the higher the impact.
Consider some of these numbers. (I’m going to use US dollars, because the math is easier than Korean won.):
• $1,000 invested at 6% interest for 40 years becomes $11,000.
• $1,000 invested at 12% interest for 40 years becomes $119,000.
• $1,000 invested at 18% interest for 40 years becomes $1,300,000. That’s a whole lot of marshmallows!

What’s the moral of this story? If you put your money in a good investment for a long time, a little becomes a lot.

Money Myth #4: Expensive vacations, expensive food, and expensive stuff are worth the price. You have to consider the opportunity cost here. Is that vacation really worth a million dollars to you? Would you really trade a few dozen pizzas for half a million dollars when you retire? I’m not saying, “Never go on vacation. Never buy something new.” I am saying do something cheap. Be careful. Spend less, and save more! You’ll be glad you did.

OK, so now that we’ve busted a few myths, let’s get on to the planning. What is The Marshmallow Plan for Financial Freedom? How do we actually make this happen? How can we really become financially free?
It starts taking one little step at a time, baby steps.
Step #1: Save 1 million won ($1,000) as an emergency fund, ASAP (as soon as possible). Put this money aside in a separate account, and save it only for REAL emergencies (not a new pair of shoes or a new TV that is on sale).
Step #2: Pay off all consumer debts. We talked about this last week. Remember that $1,000 invested at 18% interest that grew to $1.3 million. There are some excellent mutual funds that will earn that rate most years. But there is one guaranteed way to get this kind of return for your money. Pay off your credit cards! Credit cards usually charge at least 18% percent interest, and if you are ever late on a payment, some cards jump to 25% or 30% interest! That’s a lot of marshmallows going down the drain.
Step #3: Increase your emergency fund to 3 to 6 months of your expenses. Money Magazine predicts that with in the next 10 years 78% of people will have a major negative financial crisis (5-10 million won problem). Be ready. Those aren’t good odds. Keep your emergency fund in a Money Market Account or, in Korea, a Cash Management Account (CMA). That way it will grow a little, but you can use it any time you need it.
Step #4: Invest for retirement. Most developed nations have some kind of tax-protected retirement savings account. Use it! If you save just $100 a month, every month, and you invest that money at 15%, look at the results.
After 30 years: total contributions = $36,000 → total value = $701,000.
After 40 years: total contributions = $48,000 → total value = $3,140,000.
If you invest wisely, a little bit for a long time makes a lot! Just double those numbers if you save $200 a month. (That’s about what Sarah and I are trying to save.) I highly recommend investing in mutual funds. They diversify your investment so that you have less risk. If you need help investing, get connected with a reliable investment agency and do some homework.
And you need to do this as soon as possible, before you pay off your low interest loans. Saving $100 a month for an extra 10 years makes the total value move from $700,000 to $3.1 million!
Step #5: Pay off low interest loans. Take your extra money (the money you’re saving by spending less), and pay off those school loans and home mortgages. For Sarah and I, our goal is to completely pay off our school loans by the end of 2008. That will mean using 100% of Sarah’s income for our debts.
Step #6: Save for education and big expenses. This week I realized that if we are going to pay for 100% of Emma’s university education, we will need to save about $5,000 if we start saving in 2009.
You can also save for big expenses. If you want to buy something that you can’t pay for right now, don’t go into debt for it. Save up for it. Let compound interest work for you not against you. This way you will also have time to think about whether you REALLY want to buy that expensive thing. There is an old saying in marketing: “a purchase delayed is a purchase not made.” After 6 months or a year, you may decide that you don’t really need that thing you are dying to have now.
Step #7: Keep saving, keep investing, and keep blessing others. As we become financially free, the real danger is to keep the blessing from becoming a curse. Remember that financial blessing is a dangerous blessing. As we save more and more and make more and more, we can easily decide to keep more and more and to spend more and more on ourselves. We can forget that God is blessing us to bless others. Remember why we are saving and investing. It’s not just so we can have more and see more and eat more. We are saving so that we can be free to join God’s mission of blessing the whole world.

Look at those marshmallows. This marshmallow represents all of those things you want to buy now but don’t really need. Look at it. Are you thinking of that stuff? I’m thinking of a new pair of pants, a coffee grinder, a new laptop, a blooming onion at Outback. What do you see? All of that stuff is in this marshmallow.
Now think about our reward. If we don’t eat this marshmallow, we can pay off our debts. We can save for the future. We can become financially free, totally free to follow God without concerns about money. Imagine what you could do if you were financially free. Imagine what we could all do together if we were financially free. Imagine what would happen if we could all join God’s mission of blessing the whole world without any concern about money. That’s a whole lot of marshmallows!
Don’t eat your marshmallow. Wait for the reward.

Financial Peace 2: Biblical Economics

2007-10-16T02:23:00.000-07:00

KNU International English Church

Josh Broward

October 14, 2007

Financial Peace 2: Biblical Economics

Prayer for Understanding: (Based on a Traditional Franciscan Blessing)

May God bless us with discomfort
at easy answers, half truths and superficial relationships
so that we may live deep within our hearts.

May God bless us with anger
at injustice, oppression and exploitation of people
so that we may work for justice, freedom and peace.

May God bless us with tears
to shed for those who suffer pain, rejection, hunger and war
so that we may reach out our hands to comfort them and
to turn their pain into joy.

And may God bless us with enough foolishness
to believe that we can make a difference in the world
so that we can do what others claim cannot be done
to bring justice and kindness to all our children and the poor.

McClaren Video – “Domesticated Jesus”

http://www.theworkofthepeople.com/index.php?ct=store.details&pid=V00335

Marx is right – at least partly right. “Religion is the opium of the people.” Religion can be something that puts us to sleep, something that calms our pain without healing our disease. Religion – even Christianity – has often functioned simply as a tool of unjust systems. Religion has often helped the rich people feel better about being rich and the poor people feel better about being poor without ever challenging the systems and choices which make some people rich or poor.

Religion really is like opium. We do our religious duties, sing our religious songs, and give to our religious charities, but we don’t really expect to change the world in a meaningful way. This is one of the great failures of Christianity. In fact, this is possibly the number one reason why nonChristians reject Christianity. We have become more concerned about our religion than we are concerned about justice.

So what happened? How did we domesticate Jesus and the Bible? How did religion become our social opium? What are we missing here? We are missing three basic things: truth, hope, and obedience.

Let’s start with the truth of the Bible. What does the Bible say about economic justice? When we look at the Bible, what kind of vision do we see for a just and fair society? The basic picture of Biblical justice is that we will be a whole community in which we live together faithfully and responsibly.¹

1. Communities of justice recognize the dignity and value of all people. Listen to how Genesis explains the creation of human beings:
God created human beings;
he created them godlike,
Reflecting God's nature.
He created them male and female.
God blessed them:
"Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge!
Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air,
for every living thing that moves on the face of Earth.” (Genesis 1:27-28).

God has created us to be like him. Every human being is representative of God in the world. We share his likeness. We are participants with God in the ongoing creation and management of our world. God has given us the power to create steel and computers and airplanes. God has given us the power to develop farms, fisheries, and libraries. Every human being has dignity and meaning in God’s plan for the world. A community of justice gives every person the real opportunity to live out her God-given destiny.

2. Communities of justice meet basic needs. Listen to how Deuteronomy describes justice:

For the Lord your God is the God of gods and Lord of lords. He is the great God, the mighty and awesome God, who shows no partiality and cannot be bribed. He ensures that orphans and widows receive justice. He shows love to the foreigners living among you and gives them food and clothing. So you, too, must show love to foreigners, for you yourselves were once foreigners in the land of Egypt. (Deuteronomy 10:17-19).

The minimum standard of economic justice is that everyone has the basics: food, shelter, and clothing. We can’t have a whole and healthy community while people among us are starving or freezing or homeless. Some people – like widows and orphans – simply can’t care for themselves. A healthy community cares for the helpless.

3. Communities of justice give people the opportunity for meaningful work.

We are designed to work. We are participants with God in the creation and management of the world. After God made Adam, “he placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it” (Genesis 2:15). Even when the prophets talk of the ideal kingdom when God restores everything, the people still have work to do. Listen to Isaiah’s picture of the restored community:

21 In those days people will live in the houses they build
and eat the fruit of their own vineyards.
22 Unlike the past, invaders will not take their houses
and confiscate their vineyards.
For my people will live as long as trees,
and my chosen ones will have time to enjoy their hard-won gains.
23 They will not work in vain,
and their children will not be doomed to misfortune.
For they are people blessed by the Lord,
and their children, too, will be blessed. (Isaiah 65:21-23)

In a community of Justice, everyone will have the opportunity to work, to provide for their families, and to make a meaningful contribution to the community.

4. Communities of justice give everyone access to capital. Capital is whatever we use to make money. Today capital is usually money and knowledge. In ancient Israel, where farming was the main business, capital was land. To keep things fair, God assigned an equal amount of land to each family. Listen to what the Leviticus 25 says about how a healthy community manages land as capital:

8 “In addition, you must count off seven Sabbath years, seven sets of seven years, adding up to forty-nine years in all. 9 Then on the Day of Atonement in the fiftieth year, blow the ram’s horn loud and long throughout the land. 10 Set this year apart as holy, a time to proclaim freedom throughout the land for all who live there. It will be a jubilee year for you, when each of you may return to the land that belonged to your ancestors and return to your own clan. …

14 “When you make an agreement with your neighbor to buy or sell property, you must not take advantage of each other. 15 When you buy land from your neighbor, the price you pay must be based on the number of years since the last jubilee. The seller must set the price by taking into account the number of years remaining until the next Year of Jubilee. 16 The more years until the next jubilee, the higher the price; the fewer years, the lower the price. After all, the person selling the land is actually selling you a certain number of harvests. 17 Show your fear of God by not taking advantage of each other. I am the Lord your God. …

23 “The land must never be sold on a permanent basis, for the land belongs to me. You are only foreigners and tenant farmers working for me. …

26 In this way the original owner can then return to the land. …

28 In the jubilee year, the land must be returned to the original owners so they can return to their family land. (Leviticus 25:8-28)

Due to bad choices or bad luck a family might have to sell their land. This would mean they would have to become hired workers, slightly better than slaves, for their neighbors. However, this unfortunate situation should not go on forever. The children should not be punished for the parents’ mistakes or problems. Every 50 years, the capital was redistributed, given back to each family group. Every 50 years, every family got the basic capital to make a decent living again.

In a community of justice, the whole community shares capital (land, money, knowledge) with every family so that every family has a fair opportunity to make a good living in the world. In a community of justice, children are not permanently held back by their parents bad luck or bad mistakes.

5. Communities of justice help people get out of debt and start again. Listen to how God asked his people to deal with debt in Deuteronomy 15:

1 At the end of every seventh year you must cancel the debts of everyone who owes you money. 2 This is how it must be done. Everyone must cancel the loans they have made to their fellow Israelites. They must not demand payment from their neighbors or relatives, for the Lord’s time of release has arrived. 3 This release from debt, however, applies only to your fellow Israelites—not to the foreigners living among you.

4 There should be no poor among you, for the Lord your God will greatly bless you in the land he is giving you as a special possession. …

7 But if there are any poor Israelites in your towns when you arrive in the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hard-hearted or tightfisted toward them. 8 Instead, be generous and lend them whatever they need. 9 Do not be mean-spirited and refuse someone a loan because the year for canceling debts is close at hand. If you refuse to make the loan and the needy person cries out to the Lord, you will be considered guilty of sin. 10 Give generously to the poor, not grudgingly, for the Lord your God will bless you in everything you do. (Deuteronomy 15:1-10)

God asked his people to forgive all debts every 7 years! I’m not sure exactly how we’re supposed to live this out. Our economic systems today are very different and more complex, but I think the basic principle is this: Don’t let debt become a burden that crushes the poor.

6. In communities of justice, the government works to protect the poor. The Bible consistently charges governments with the responsibility to do good for all their people, especially the poor. Psalm 72 is a prayer for the king of Israel. Listen to how it begins:

1 Give your love of justice to the king, O God,
and righteousness to the king’s son.
2 Help him judge your people in the right way;
let the poor always be treated fairly.
3 May the mountains yield prosperity for all,
and may the hills be fruitful.
4 Help him to defend the poor,
to rescue the children of the needy,
and to crush their oppressors.

A good government will share the wealth of the nation with everyone by caring for the poor and needy.

OK, so let’s review this biblical picture of a community of justice. The foundation is respect for every individual as one made in the image of God. From that foundation, we make sure that everyone’s basic needs for food, clothing, and shelter are met. Beyond those basics, we adopt three basic strategies to help the poor: 1) helping them get good jobs, 2) helping them get the money or knowledge they need to be successful, and 3) helping them get out of debt. Finally, we develop a government which actively supports and protects the poor.

If we live as a community of justice like this, God promises to bless us. If we don’t live like this, we are working against God, and God has no choice but to work against us. If we oppress the poor, or if we simply keep our blessings and don’t share generously with the poor, we will find ourselves in trouble with God.

Now let’s take an honest look at our world. To do this, we’re going to need help from all of you. Our world has 6.7 billion people, but that’s a hard number to work with. For the next 5 minutes, let’s just say there are 6 billion people in the world. Let’s divide this room in to 6 groups representing the 6 billion people in our world.²

Now, over here, on the left, are the people from high income countries(like Korea, Japan, the USA, New Zealand, or Canada). An average person from an average high income country spends about 80,000 won³ a day on things like food, housing, transportation, and entertainment. About 1 billion people live like this.

The next two groups are the middle class. About 2 billion people are in the middle class, and they make on average less than 10,000 won a day.

The next two groups are the poor. About 2 billion people are poor, and they try to survive on less than 2,000 won a day. They eat, but they don’t eat well or enough. They have homes, but maybe not clean water or working toilets.

The last group is the desperately poor. This group is struggling to stay alive on less than 1,000 won a day. There are many days when they don’t eat. Their water is dirty and diseased. Their children are sick. Seeing a doctor is not an option. They live in garbage dumps, shacks, huts, and on the streets.

Look at these statistics: 5/6 (83%) of the world lives on less than 10,000 won a day! ½ (50%) of the world lives on less than 2,000 won a day. 1 out of 6 people in this world lives on less than 1,000 won a day.

Let’s take one more step to help illustrate this. I need one volunteer from each income group. Let’s imagine that each of these people are going shopping today with their daily income.

Mr. Desperately Poor, with your 1,000 won, you can buy 1 roll of kimbap. That’s your breakfast. No lunch. No supper. Be sure to save the aluminum foil. You might be able to use that for something.

Mr. and Mrs. Poor, with your 2,000 won, you can buy an apple for breakfast and a roll of kimbap for lunch. No supper.

Mr. and Mrs. Middle Class. You are doing a little better. With your 10,000 won, you can buy several rolls of kimbap, some milk, an apple or two, and a book for your kids. They can probably go to school.

Now, Mrs. Rich. You are having a great day. You woke up in a nice, warm apartment. For breakfast, you stopped into McDonalds for a sausage egg McMuffin and a coffee. You took your vitamins and some medicine for your cold. You enjoyed a nice lunch at Outback with your coworkers. In the afternoon, after your big lunch, you were starting to feel a little tired, so you bought a 3,000 won cup of coffee (spending more than half the world spends all day). After work, you went shopping and picked up some groceries. You also grabbed a CD you’ve been wanting and some shoes you found on sale. Out of your 80,000 won, you had a few thousand left over, so you put that in the bank to use for later.

This is a picture of our world. Does this look fair to you? Does this look like a community of justice to you? Does this look like the picture the Bible describes? Is this what God wants for us?

Once upon a time, I met a millionaire (a man who owned a million dollars worth of cash and property). He said to me, “But I am not rich. My neighbor is a billionaire. He is rich.”
Let no one among us ever say again, “I am not rich.” This is a lie. This is a bold and terrible lie. It dishonors God. It dishonors the poor, and it deceives us all. Every person in this room is rich – very, very rich. In real life, all of us are in that far right category, spending more than 10,000 won a day. Most of us are like the average rich person, spending around 80,000 won a day. We are very, very rich, and half of the world is very, very poor. This is reality. Let’s not lie about it.

Once upon a time, I met a woman was sitting on the ground crying. She was concerned about the poor in the world, but she said to me, “Because I can’t do everything, I will do nothing.”

We have talked enough about the truth. What we need now is hope. We can’t do everything, at least not right away. But we can do something. We can do some things that will make a real difference in our world. I want to take a few minutes to share some success stories of how people have improved our world in real and significant ways.

Largely due to economic growth in developing countries, the percentage of chronically undernourished (consistently hungry) people in the developing world has fallen from 35% in 1970 to just 17% in 2002.⁴ We are improving.

In the 1990’s, Tanzania (Alfred’s home country) began a nation wide nutrition program. In just three years, they cut the rate of severe malnutrition in half.⁵

“During the 1980’s and 1990’s a few inexpensive actions saved the lives of millions of children. During that time, the immunization levels in the developing world rose from 20% to about 80%.” In the early 1980’s 2.5 million children died from measles each year. By 1999, only 800,000 people got measles worldwide.⁶

The list goes on and on and on and on. We are making a difference. Together, our governments and our social agencies are changing the world.

One of the biggest things you can do to participate in this change is to vote. Vote for the people and the parties who are most likely to help the poor. Make fighting poverty your #1 voting issue.

Another big thing you can do along these lines is to connect with an organization in your home country that is working to get your government to help the poor. The best organization like this in my home country is called: “ONE.” Through the ONE organization (www.one.org), I have written several letters to my congressmen asking them to vote in favor of bills to support the poor around the world. Most of the bills or amendments we have supported have carried, despite some close votes. Politicians really do listen when people speak.

These are good, but most of us need to do something smaller and more personal as well. Let me suggest three simple ways you can live a more economically just life.

Limit your spending. Most of us do one simple and very unjust thing. We spend way too much money on ourselves. 1 billion people are starving, and we’re eating out and going to movies and shopping for things we don’t need. Try setting a spending limit for your entertainment or eating out. Sarah and I are using a monthly “Date Night” budget. Every Friday night when we come home, we’ll write down what we spend and make sure we don’t go over-budget.
Think small. Maybe you can’t change the whole world, but you can change one person’s whole world. In a few weeks, Amanda will be talking to us about how to sponsor a child through Nazarene Compassionate Ministries (www.ncm.org). That changes the entire future for that child. If you have a business mind, you might want to check out micro-financing. This is loaning small amounts of money to people in poor countries so they can start their own business to provide for their families. This is a perfect example of sharing capital in a biblical way. Probably the best organization for this right now is Opportunity International (www.opportunity.org).
Give here. This may sound like a shameless plug to get your money, but I want you to know that we are changing the world together. With the money you have given this year, we have built 4 houses for poor families in Indonesia, fed children and families in North Korea, given food and seeds to people in Africa, and given kimbap to homeless people right here in Cheonan. We are changing the world, and you are helping.

So what happened? How did Christianity become just another religious opium? What are we missing? Do you remember the three things I said we are missing? Truth, hope, and – what was that third thing? Oh, yeah, obedience.

The truth of the Bible is that God longs for us to be a global community of justice in which we care for the poor and help them to care for themselves. The truth of our world is that we aren’t doing very well at that. Half of the world lives on less than 2,000 won a day.

The hope is that we can make a difference. Recent history is showing that large scale governments and small-scale organizations and individuals are changing the world and helping the poor in significant and meaningful ways.

And what was that third thing again? Oh, yeah, thanks – obedience. That’s up to you.

Financial Peace 1: Dangerous Blessing, Josh Broward. Oct. 7, 2007

2007-10-04T04:15:00.000-07:00

Here's the link to the sermon on Josh's blog.

Sept. 30, 2007, Matt Banner. Lazarus: Lk 16:19-31

2007-09-27T20:21:00.001-07:00

KNU International English Church

Matt Banner, Christian Education Pastor

September 30, 2007

Lazarus

Luke 16:19-31

I worked with children in the inner-city of Indianapolis for several summers while I was in university. There, I met many kids who were living awful lives, lives without hope.

I met Yu-san, who was this cute little boy with some energy. He was sweet and cute and he loved to draw. He would sit there and work on a craft for the hours on end. But one day, when he came to camp, his eyes were unfocused, and he walked around like a zombie. He couldn’t even pay attention to what I was saying. I asked his mom about it, and she told me that she was tired of him being so active all the time and never giving her any peace and quiet, so she took him to the doctor got him a sedative so that he wouldn’t bother her so much. This was a kid who was full of life, and they put him on medicine so that he wouldn’t bother anyone. And I wondered, “where is God here, where is the hope?” It’s just not fair.

And I met Ja’el, who had three older brothers and one younger brother. Now, each of Ja’els older brothers was in Jail, all of them for selling illegal drugs. His younger brother was only six months old. His baby brother came down with the chicken pox and his mom had to go to work, so Ja’el had to stay home and babysit his six month old brother all day. He was six years old at the time. How can a child that young be expected to have that much responsibility. And I wondered “Where is God here, where is the hope?” It’s just not fair.

But the hardest person I met in Indianapolis was John. John was an 8 year old, and he lived with his dad. We had to give him a little bit of extra food on Friday afternoon, because he would often get in trouble on Friday night and his dad would lock him in his room, and wouldn’t let him out of the room all weekend long. He wasn’t allowed to get any food, and he wasn’t allowed to use the restroom. His father just didn’t care. And I wondered, “Where is God here, where is the hope?” It’s just not fair.

Then I read about Lazarus:

Luke 16:19-27

19"There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. 20At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores 21and longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores. 22"The time came when the beggar died

So, here is a guy in scripture that I can relate to, He was poor, had open sores, and died a slow and miserable death. Lazarus lived a life that was not fair. And not only that, but there is this rich guy, who is living in the life of luxury. Where is God? How is this fair.

and the angels carried him to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried. 23In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. 24So he called to him, 'Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.'

25"But Abraham replied, 'Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. 26And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.'

All my life, I had heard that if you trust God, God will bless you and you will makes lots of money!

If you believe in God, God will help you become successful in business!

I God is the head of your family, you will eventually find health and joy and happiness!

How many times have you heard this? That things will turn around for you if you will only trust God? Your family members who are sick will become well. You will find money that you weren’t expecting, all good things will happen to those who are blessed by God.

But that doesn’t always happen. Sometimes, people who are sick stay sick, and people who are poor stay poor, and it seems like bad things keep happening to good people. And we are left to wonder, where is God? Why doesn’t God help the ones who need help? Why doesn’t God give us exactly what we want, when we want it.

I get so mad, because I see bad people getting good things, and bad things happening to good people. I saw it happening to my friends in Indianapolis, and I see it happen to Lazarus.

But, upon death, things switch. It is the rich man who is needy and suffering, and it is Lazarus who is living the life of luxury. So, what are we saying? Is it bad to be rich and is it good to be poor? No, of course not. I like money, and money is not evil. It is not bad to be rich. But, being rich and having a good life does not mean that God is blessing you. On the flip side, if a person lives an awful life, and circumstances are bad, it doesn’t mean that God has abandoned them. Look at Lazarus, his life was bad, but it is obvious that God loved him, because he is with Abraham when he dies. He is truly blessed.

Now, the rich man, in life he had everything, and he lived a life that everyone would want. But, he ended up on the wrong side when he dies. Why? Was he evil? Probably not. He was probably just selfish and thought only of himself. He never thought he needed help. He never understood that, despite all of his wealth, he really needed God.

My best friend in high school was like that. She had a great life, lots of money, great grades in school, and me as a friend. We had been friends for years, and whenever I brought up anything about God or my faith she always said the same thing. She said she didn’t believe in God, and she didn’t not believe in God, she just didn’t want to deal with it right now; she would deal with it after college. Then, her mom came down with cancer. Suddenly, God seemed so much more important to her. She eventually realized that she had to decide where she stood with God, and eventually she chose to follow God.

And what about Lazarus? He already realized that his life was in a bad way. He knew that he needed God. And he lived a virtuous life despite his terrible situation. Life was not fair for him. But where was God? God was loving him just the same. There are more important things than our life situations. God still loves us, even when our life situation does not improve. In the end, we are going to be living with God. Is there hope in that? Yes, there is.

For my kids in Indianapolis, their lives were unfair. And sometimes, I wondered where they could find hope. I wondered if God had abandoned them. The truth is, God still loves them. And I could tell them to hold on to the hope that God gives to us, and that their life situation does not define them. And more than anything, I hope to find them at the end of their lives, sitting in God’s embrace. Now, don’t get me wrong, I tried to help them in their life situations, to do everything I could. But, even if I fail, there is still hope.

How important is this scripture. Albert Schweitzer read it and found that he could no longer be self-content in his life, so he built a hospital in Africa in order to live his life looking forward to the hope of God being fulfilled. In doing that, he said “Ethics is nothing else than reverence for life.”

Luke 15:1-3, 11-23. Josh Broward. Sept 23-"Bubble Boy Religion"

2007-09-20T17:49:00.000-07:00

Bubble Boy Religion
Luke 15:1-2, 11-32

In 1971, David Vetter was born with severe combined immune deficiency syndrome (SCIDS). This disease functions like a super-AIDS. Little David had virtually NO immune system. The slightest germ or virus could kill him. David Vetter’s older brother had died at the age of 7 months from a similar disease. This time his parents weren’t taking any chances.
After lots of consultation and planning with the people at Texas Children’s Hospital, they had a plan. Less than 10 seconds after David was born, the doctors put him in a sterile plastic bubble. Everything that ever touched David after that had to go through a very long sterilization process to get rid of any possible germs, bacteria, or viruses. David’s parents fed him and held him and played with him through plastic gloves which allowed them to reach inside the bubble with out making actual contact.
As David grew, so did the bubble. Eventually, the bubble was the size of an entire room. This gave David the freedom to move around, read books, and watch TV.
NASA even became involved in David’s special case. They created a tiny, child-sized, perfectly sterile astronaut suit for David, at the price of US$50,000. This gave him more freedom for trips to parks or zoos.
But despite everything the doctors and scientists and psychologists tried to do for David to help him adjust to this unusual way of life, David still felt what was missing: real human contact. By the age of ten, David had still never touched another human being. He was isolated from the real world by his plastic bubble.

We hear this story, and we think “How sad! How tragic! How awful to be isolated from friends and family! How terrible to never feel the touch of another human being! How difficult it must have been to never experience reality!”
Yet, the truth is we live in a bubble, too – the Christian bubble. We have a bubble boy religion.
As soon as we become Christians, well-meaning Christians usually come along and suck us into the Christian bubble. It is as if we are “reborn” with out a spiritual immune system, so that any contact with sin, sinners, or sinfulness will corrupt our spirits and cause us to fall away from Christ. Everything must be sterilized: Christian music, Christian TV, Christian leadership books, Christian radio, Christian kids’ videos, Christian t-shirts, Christian jewelry, Christian everything, and most importantly Christian friends.
So we walk around inside our little bubble of the church, where we think everything is sterile and safe. We have our Bible studies and our fellowship dinners and our church activities. We live our little lives in this false reality of Christian fellowship, which has become the church.
And whenever we have to venture out into “the world,” that scary place filled with sins and temptations, we put on our Christian spacesuits. Of course we have to spend time with sinners when we shop or work or exercise, but with our handy-dandy Christian spacesuits, we don’t have to have any actual contact with them. Just a polite nod or a “thank you,” but no actual contact. And of course, with our protective Christian spacesuits, we never need to become friends with any of those germ-carrying non-believers! We never have to hear their doubts or feel their pain. We never have to get our lives messy, or God-forbid, contaminated with their messy lives. We are successfully sterile. We have successfully isolated ourselves from the world.

We sound a lot like the religious leaders of Jesus’ time. They really believed verses like this: “Therefore, come out from among unbelievers and separate yourselves from them says the LORD. Don’t touch their filthy things, and I will welcome you.” So they developed a bubble boy religion.
Their philosophy was holiness = separateness. We are called to be holy. God said, “Be holy, because I am holy” (Leviticus 11:44). How is God holy? Well, he is completely separate from us. He is God, and we are humans. He is pure, and we are sinful. God is completely without sin or anything relating to sin. So, they reasoned, if we want to be like God, holy like God, we must be separate, too. We must separate ourselves from anything and anyone that is sinful or unclean.
For these religious bubble people, holiness meant getting as far away from sin and sinful people as possible. For them holiness = separateness. This was as clear and obvious as 2 + 2 = 4. Holiness = separateness. It was part of their bubble boy religion, and they were proud of it.

Then, Jesus comes along and changes the equation. Jesus comes along and advocates a new way of doing religion, and they just can’t take it. Of course, 2 + 2 = 4. That’s an undeniable mathematical fact. Of course, holiness = separateness. That’s an undeniable religious fact.
Luke 15 tells the story:
(1) Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach. (2) This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such sinful people—even eating with them!

Now Jesus is pretty upset. This is the third time in Luke that the religious folks have come to Jesus complaining about his sinning friends. Up to this point, Jesus has given them short answers, but now Jesus tells three full stories to explain why he hangs out with “sinners.” Last week we read and talked about the first two. This week, we’ll read the third story, which is probably the most famous story Jesus every told.

11 To illustrate the point further, Jesus told them this story: “A man had two sons. 12 The younger son told his father, ‘I want my share of your estate now before you die.’ So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons.
13 “A few days later this younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money in wild living. 14 About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve. 15 He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him into his fields to feed the pigs. 16 The young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him. But no one gave him anything.
17 “When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, ‘At home even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger! 18 I will go home to my father and say, “Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, 19 and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant.”’
20 “So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him. 21 His son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son.’
22 “But his father said to the servants, ‘Quick! Bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him. Get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet. 23 And kill the calf we have been fattening. We must celebrate with a feast, 24 for this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found.’ So the party began.
25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the fields working. When he returned home, he heard music and dancing in the house, 26 and he asked one of the servants what was going on. 27 ‘Your brother is back,’ he was told, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf. We are celebrating because of his safe return.’
28 “The older brother was angry and wouldn’t go in. His father came out and begged him, 29 but he replied, ‘All these years I’ve slaved for you and never once refused to do a single thing you told me to. And in all that time you never gave me even one young goat for a feast with my friends. 30 Yet when this son of yours comes back after squandering your money on prostitutes, you celebrate by killing the fattened calf!’
31 “His father said to him, ‘Look, dear son, you have always stayed by me, and everything I have is yours. 32 We had to celebrate this happy day. For your brother was dead and has come back to life! He was lost, but now he is found!’”

We usually call this the story of “the Prodigal Son,” and “prodigal” means “recklessly wasteful or extravagant.” The younger son “wasted all his money on wild living” (Luke 15:13). He might have said something like, George Best, the Manchester United soccer superstar of old, “I spent 90% of my money on women and drink. The rest I wasted.”
But this story is not really about the “Prodigal Son.” It’s about the “Prodigal Father,” the recklessly extravagant father.
This recklessly loving father gave his son his inheritance early, so he could find out what the world is really like. This recklessly loving father welcomed his wasteful son back into the house, back into the family, back into “son-ship,” by throwing an extravagant and wasteful party. This recklessly loving father left the party to talk to his older son who was angrily boycotting the party. This recklessly loving father claimed no ownership of his own things, “Everything I have is yours” (15:31).
This father loved both his sons. But both his sons were lost. The straying son was lost in a far away land where he did all the wrong things. The staying son was lost even while he lived right at home and did all the wrong things. Neither one really knew the father’s love. The father loved them both equally, with an undying reckless love. When they were in the wrong, he went to them. He went out of his house, out of his place of comfort, to both of his sons. He welcomed the “sinning” son home, and he welcomed the bitter “righteous” son to come back and claim his home of grace.
The scandal is that God loves us all the same. God loves the stray-ers and the stay-ers just the same. He loves us all.
But perhaps the greatest scandal is that God comes to us. God goes out looking for the lost sheep or the lost coin. God comes out of the house and finds his lost children. God goes to us in our sinfulness and lost-ness. He stands together with us there in our lost place, and from that point of togetherness, he brings us home.

Jesus’ point in all of these three stories is often missed. The religious bubble crowd had been criticizing Jesus for being together with the “sinners.” They were saying, “Hey, holiness = separateness, so why aren’t you separate?! Why aren’t you separating yourself from sinners? You’re way to close to them to be holy.”
But Jesus is saying, “No, you’ve got it all wrong. Holiness is living like God, and God loves everyone. God is going to these lost sinners, like the wasteful son. God is together with them, asking them to come home. And God is going to you, the good kids who’ve stayed home and are bitter about the sinners. God has even entered your lost-ness, and there, together with you, he’s inviting you to come home to the party of grace.”
Holiness isn’t separateness. Holiness is togetherness. Holiness isn’t being separate from the world, separate from people, separate from sinners. Holiness is being together with sinners in a new way, being together with people in a way that draws us all closer with the Father. Holiness is a radical togetherness. Holiness is recognizing our togetherness with all of humanity, recognizing this so deeply that we live in a different – even separate – kind of way loving all people (the sinners and the self-righteous), being friends with all people (the churched and the unchurched), getting down and dirty with the reality of people’s lives.
And really, we are all sinners, so what are we hiding from? It’s just a different style, variety, or quantity of sin, but we’re all sinners. I think facing up to our common sinfulness is part of our togetherness, and therefore, part of our holiness.

Following Jesus out of “bubble boy religion” means taking some risks. We might get dirty. We might be exposed to some temptations. The pain and mess of other people’s lives might disrupt our nice, neat little lives, our nice neat little church. But here’s the thing. This is reality! This is where God is. When we live our lives insulated by our bubble boy religion, and we wonder, why we aren’t experiencing God more, maybe the answer is that we aren’t looking in the right places or living in the right places. God has set up camp with the outsiders, the poor, the broken, the lost. If we want more of God, that’s where we’ll find him.
It’s time for us to get out of the bubble church. It’s time for us to start following Jesus.

Living in the Scandal-Luke 15:1-10, Josh Broward. Sept. 16, 2007

2007-09-13T05:19:00.000-07:00

KNU International English Church

Josh Broward, Pastor

September 16, 2007

“Living in the Scandal”

Luke 15:1-10

Psalm 1

1 Oh, the joys of those who do not
follow the advice of the wicked,
or stand around with sinners,
or join in with mockers.
2 But they delight in the law of the Lord,
meditating on it day and night.
3 They are like trees planted along the riverbank,
bearing fruit each season.
Their leaves never wither,
and they prosper in all they do.

4 But not the wicked!
They are like worthless chaff, scattered by the wind.
5 They will be condemned at the time of judgment.
Sinners will have no place among the godly.
6 For the Lord watches over the path of the godly,
but the path of the wicked leads to destruction.

Ezra 9:1-4

1 When these things had been done, the Jewish leaders came to me and said, “Many of the people of Israel, and even some of the priests and Levites, have not kept themselves separate from the other peoples living in the land. They have taken up the detestable practices of the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians, and Amorites. 2 For the men of Israel have married women from these people and have taken them as wives for their sons. So the holy race has become polluted by these mixed marriages. Worse yet, the leaders and officials have led the way in this outrage.”

3 When I heard this, I tore my cloak and my shirt, pulled hair from my head and beard, and sat down utterly shocked. 4 Then all who trembled at the words of the God of Israel came and sat with me because of this outrage committed by the returned exiles. And I sat there utterly appalled until the time of the evening sacrifice.

Psalm 104:33-35

33 I will sing to the Lord as long as I live.
I will praise my God to my last breath!
34 May all my thoughts be pleasing to him,
for I rejoice in the Lord.
35 Let all sinners vanish from the face of the earth;
let the wicked disappear forever.

Let all that I am praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!

Proverbs 1:10 & 15

10 My child, if sinners entice you, turn your back on them! …

15 My child, don’t go along with them! Stay far away from their paths.

Luke 5:27-32

27 Later, as Jesus left the town, he saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at his tax collector’s booth. “Follow me and be my disciple,” Jesus said to him. 28 So Levi got up, left everything, and followed him.

29 Later, Levi held a banquet in his home with Jesus as the guest of honor. Many of Levi’s fellow tax collectors and other guests also ate with them. 30 But the Pharisees and their teachers of religious law complained bitterly to Jesus’ disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with such scum?”

31 Jesus answered them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. 32 I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners and need to repent.”

Luke 7:33-35

33 For John the Baptist didn’t spend his time eating bread or drinking wine, and you say, ‘He’s possessed by a demon.’ 34 The Son of Man, on the other hand, feasts and drinks, and you say, ‘He’s a glutton and a drunkard, and a friend of tax collectors and other sinners!’ 35 But wisdom is shown to be right by the lives of those who follow it.”

Luke 19:6-10

6 Zacchaeus quickly climbed down and took Jesus to his house in great excitement and joy. 7 But the people were displeased. “He has gone to be the guest of a notorious sinner,” they grumbled.

8 Meanwhile, Zacchaeus stood before the Lord and said, “I will give half my wealth to the poor, Lord, and if I have cheated people on their taxes, I will give them back four times as much!”

9 Jesus responded, “Salvation has come to this home today, for this man has shown himself to be a true son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost.”

John 8:1-11

Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives, 2 but early the next morning he was back again at the Temple. A crowd soon gathered, and he sat down and taught them. 3 As he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd.

4 “Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?”

6 They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger. 7 They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” 8 Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust.

9 When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. 10 Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?”

11 “No, Lord,” she said.

And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”

Special Song: “Words on the Ground” by Adam Smith

[Verse 1]

God came down from the mountain in the morning time

Sat like a man at the scene of an ancient crime

Crowd took its place as the lawmen's bright faces looked hard at his

eyes for a sign

And the girl on the ground with her red hands went down the parade ground of reason and rhyme

[Chorus]

There are words on the ground

There is rain coming down

There is life for the dust of the earth

[Verse 2]

God stooped down made no sound save for a steady hand

marking the dirt with some words none could understand

lawmen persisted and justice insisted and need made its righteous

demand

so the man on the ground broke his silence and sounded the sentence he'd set in the sand:

[Chorus]

[Verse 3]

God stood straight up and waited on the crowd of hands

broken stones for her bones stolen up from the land

They all heard his question and saw their reflection in the girl fallen

down on the sand

so the stones were returned and sweet justice was spurned and the

lawmen left hungry and sad

[Verse 4]

God stood alone with the girl on the broken ground

spoke in the stone-breaking rain that was falling down

the Girl heard his question and saw her reflection in the man with the

thorns in his crown

and the crowd and the lawmen the red-handed woman made a song from the

silence they'd found:

[Chorus]

No wonder they killed Jesus! You can’t just go around blurring the lines between right and wrong. You can’t mix religious folk and “sinners.” That’s like oil and water, acid and base. There’s bound to be an explosion somewhere. And that explosion hit Jesus in the face.

Read Luke 15:1-2.

1 Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach. 2 This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such sinful people—even eating with them!

Back in Jesus’ time, people used to say: “I saw them eating, and I knew who they were.”¹ For righteous Jews, eating a meal with others was a religious event. When they ate together, they celebrated their faith together. When they ate together, they were affirming the other person, saying something like: “You are valuable. We are united in life together.”

And there were some very important rules about religious eating. Cleanliness was very important: only clean food, only clean dishes, only clean hands, only clean people.²

That was Jesus’ big problem. He didn’t eat with the right people. The religious folk might be able to excuse the fact that sinners came to hear Jesus teach. “Those sinners could use a little religion – of any kind!” But what they could not forgive was Jesus sitting down at the dinner table with out-and-out sinners. They just couldn’t understand. It did not compute. They thought that anyone who unites himself with sinners must be a sinner too.

See, they lived their whole lives trying to move away from sin and sinners. They had long lists of rules to make sure they never, ever got close to doing something they considered sin. There were five kinds of people who were “on the outs” with Pharisees, five kinds of outsiders: people with dirty jobs, people with dirty sins, people who took the easy religious road, half-breeds (half-Jews and half-Gentiles), and Gentiles (weigookin).³ Then, in a special side category, were the tax-collectors. They were the Jews who collected taxes for the Roman government, kind of like Koreans who helped the Japanese during the Japanese Occupation of Korea. The Jews hated the tax collectors.

So when Jesus was hanging out with tax collectors and sinners, this was like religious rebellion, maybe even treason. People would question whether he was a real Jew, a loyal Israelite. Had he no standards? Had he no morality? How could he eat with people like that?

To really get the picture here, maybe we should substitute some of our own outsider categories. Imagine a busy, popular restaurant.⁴ At the center of the restaurant, there are several oddly shaped tables pulled together to make one central mess of a table that attracts everyone’s attention. There are lots of of people, roars of laughter, bags all over the place, lots of empty glasses and plates and bottles of different shapes and sizes, maybe a few too many bottles – if you know what I mean.

Sitting around that table are a strange assortment of people. There is a poor, single mother with four children gathered around her, running in different directions. There is a gay man with AIDS. There is a homeless guy, who still smells like last night’s beer. There’s one of those old men with the bent over backs who pull those carts to collect the cardboard. There’s a factory worker from Sri Lanka. Then, on the other side of the table are: an illegal arms dealer, an abortion doctor, a Muslim who looks very much like terrorist, and a child molester.

Right at one of the center chairs is Jesus. He is putting back a glass of wine, laughing at someone’s off-color joke, and passing the abortion doctor some cream for her coffee.

How do you feel about this picture? Do you feel uncomfortable? I do, but that’s exactly the point.

Read Luke 15:1-10.

3 So Jesus told them this story: 4 “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders. 6 When he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’ 7 In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away!

8 “Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Won’t she light a lamp and sweep the entire house and search carefully until she finds it? 9 And when she finds it, she will call in her friends and neighbors and say, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost coin.’ 10 In the same way, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels when even one sinner repents.”

“There is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away!” (Luke 15:7).

“Then Jesus told this story to some who had great confidence in their own righteousness and scorned everyone else: “Two men went to the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other was a despised tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer: ‘I thank you, God, that I am not a sinner like everyone else. For I don’t cheat, I don’t sin, and I don’t commit adultery. I’m certainly not like that tax collector! I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income.’ But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, ‘O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.’ I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home justified before God. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted” (Luke 18:9-14).

Watch this video: “Mercy Street Stories Part 1” at: http://theworkofthepeople.blogspot.com/.

Have you ever noticed that most people like Jesus? Really, most people, whether they are Christians, atheists, agnostics, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, whatever – most people, if they know anything about Jesus, they like him. They respect him as a teacher. They think he had some good things to say. They think the world would be better if most people kind of lived like him. Around the world, most people like Jesus. Have you ever noticed that?

Have you ever noticed that most people who don’t go to church don’t like church? Even a lot of people who do go to church, don’t like church! Have you ever noticed that? Really, most people all over the world, if they don’t go to church, but they know anything about Christians, think there’s something seriously wrong with the church. Have you ever noticed that?

So people like Jesus, but they don’t like the church. Hmm, do you see a problem here? People like Jesus, but they don’t like the one group of people who claims to follow Jesus. Why is that? What’s going on here? What happened to us?

Could it be that we – as the church – aren’t doing such a good job of following Jesus? Could it be that we, the church, are not so much like Jesus as we want to think we are? Could it be that we, the church, have become something far different from who Jesus is? Could it be that we have begun to live – and, in fact, have been living for many centuries – a kind of life that is far removed, far different from Jesus’ life? Could it be that we, the church of Jesus Christ, don’t even want to follow Jesus’ way of life any more?

Sept.9, 2007. Jackie Bolen: We all Want the Glamour. Luke 14:25-35

2007-09-03T20:26:00.000-07:00

We all want the Glamour: Luke 14:25-35

Introduction: Firefighters, Flying and falling on rocks. Following Jesus is the same. We pray the “prayer” and think we’re done but it’s a long, slow walk of things not so glamorous.

Luke 14: 25
Who were these crowds? 12 apostles, Jesus’ family, true believers, others interested in the miracles, people being raised from the dead, free food, the skeptics, the Pharisees. What follows is Jesus’ challenge as to why they are following: are they truly willing to count the cost of being a disciple? Challenge for us today as well.

Luke 14: 26a
What does this mean? It can’t possibly mean to actually hate your family. What about loving others, laying down our lives for our friends and honoring our mother and father? It’s probably not so literal as it about where our priorities are

North America: the family is often elevated to a kind of idol status. Families should seek Jesus together. Teach your kids how to pray, how to read the Bible, who Jesus is and how to be a part of a community of people seeking Jesus together.

We do a disservice to kids when we teach them that education, family, money, etc are more important than following Jesus. It’s your responsibility to teach your kids how to pray and to read the Bible and to do this together so they can learn from you.

Luke 14:26b
Hating life: does this mean being sad and depressed all the time? Also about priorities. Where your treasure is (or your priorities are), there your heart will be also. So many things to seek: education, entertainment, (Amusing Ourselves to Death) money, career, glory for self . Need to think about life and not live so unconsciously. What can I give to this world instead of what can the world give to me. Following Jesus will consume everything (Matthew 6:24).

What is a disciple? A learner/pupil/student. Someone who imitates. Someone who follows and is humble. Willful, deliberate choice. Example of teaching.

Luke 14: 27: A cross is a painful, humiliating way to die. To carry the cross implies some effort on our part. Jesus loves everyone but to follow Jesus requires some effort. It requires a conscious choice to follow Jesus, we don’t do it by default because we are too sinful. We also don’t follow Jesus simply by being born into a certain family or culture.

No middle ground or easy way. Examples: Rev. 3:14-18. Pick up cross and follow.

Luke 14:28-30. What was this person thinking? Following Jesus will be hard sometimes….count the cost. Will be a light to a dying world…they will hate you. I would go as far as to say that most true disciples of Jesus undergo persecution in some way.

Luke 14:31-33. Giving up everything. Count the cost. Requires nothing short of total surrender.

Luke 14:34-35. Salt has various uses, even more so in ancient times. Before refrigeration: preservative. Before modern medicine: disinfectant. Also: seasoning/wage/fertilizer.

Fertilizer makes the most sense in this context. Disciples are to be helping others in their growth in the Kingdom of God, helping them to become more like Jesus. Implication: different than world. Compromise with world: lose flavor and are useless to God’s Kingdom

What does a disciple look like today?
1. Someone who prays and knows the Bible. Have to know the one you imitate. Looks like Jesus in increasing quantities. Participating in the long, slow walk.
2. Loves people
3. Not consumeristic. Simplicity…seeking God’s Kingdom first.
4. Humble, dying to self. Reliant on God’s Spirit. Not so concerned about the glamour.
5. Someone who has surrendered everything to the one who created them and will do whatever it takes to follow Jesus in a radical kind of way, picking up and carrying their cross. It’s a life of imitating the one who went before us and died for our sins.