Box of Chocolates

 

We have been through books of the Bible, One Month to Live, several years though the lectionary, the Confession of Faith, some segue-type connectors between our major excursions, and now today, Tom’s just going to preach some of his favorites.

I’m proud of you for doing the book-by-book approach to the Bible. We did it for 5 years. Do you realize that?

I remember that after 10 years of me suggesting this, we said we would do it and we did it. That was Christmas come early for me—figuratively and literally. We started in March and so did Covid.

But we—you—had read your chapter in advance before Covid, so when we went to online only mode, what you would hear on Sunday message from what you had been reading all week.

I think that closed some of the distance between those here and those remote. I am a little angry with myself on this, but I am being slow to being angry with myself because that was what was studied by you and preached by me in March.

What was I upset about?  After this whole Covid thing was over, I asked you if you listened or worship during the Facebook broadcast. I had a follow-up question. Who stood for the invocation? A fair number said they did.

So, what am I upset about?  I didn’t follow up, but I would still like to know if you wanted to stop by my office before the end of the year or shoot me an email.

I would like to know whether your weekly readings, followed by online Sunday worship, led to the continuation of the subject, themes, or a single verse during your lunchtime. In my initial proposals to sync study and sermon, I wanted to use this metric after a few months, but in the craziness of Covid, it just got bumped to the bottom of the list.

I thought that my metric was appropriate. It could produce good fruit. When I can leverage something for the good of a greater community, that’s in my DNA. It’s part of my fullness in living to the full.

I looked in my pocket the other day before I put my trousers in the dirty clothes hamper and found I still had A Round Tuit in there, so now I’ve gotten around to it. I would lie to know not just for me, but if here is something to this spill over effect, I want to pursue I more.

So back to the syncing of study and sermon among the older classes and me and the timing of implementation.

Over the years my private conversations with God, I wondered, “Why is your word not good enough for them? What’s the hold up?”

And then it hit me. God didn’t have to say anything. It was like I was watching this reel of Jeremiah going to the potter’s house.

I wasn’t at the potter’s house, but I could see this thing as well as Jeremah saw his. Let me show Tom why we are starting to read the Bible at this time and in this book.

It was perfect timing for us. I see it! I see it! We were Covid-ready for worship. I don’t just mean I had ordered one of those 60 or 84 rolls of toilet paper just before the infamous TP run of 2020. We were Covid-ready for worship.  I might have started the TP run with that purchase.

Of course, my own understanding had to be satisfied. There ought to be a proverb to help me. Then why couldn’t we start this 10 years ago?  We would be on a roll by now and not miss a step!

How long did you stick to that plan?

We did it for 5 years and then it was a bit much for some and some had just stopped reading every day, and so we stopped. “How  did you know it would be 5 years?”

I’m glad this wasn't an out-loud dialogue, but nothing is hidden from God, not even this beginning of a thought.

Have you ever been to an adult class or training session where the instructor said, “What are your questions. There are no stupid questions.”

Yes, there are.

And I’m thinking, we don’t do this whole act of penance thing here, but in addition to my reading of James, I reread Job with a viable empathy.

One last thing on this books of the Bible business.  I probably read the same scripture more than anyone here, usually involving multiple translations.  Danny’s probably close, but his PAS instructors have him reading a bunch of other books too.

While I understand that it might seem hard, hopefully nobody thought it boring, but I get it. It is the same scripture every day for a week. I know the drill.

I get it. This discipline business of a disciple starts our as a challenge before it has a chance of becoming a habit.

This has been my week for the past 17 years and I am filled. I am not anorexic, but I am constantly hungry for more.  Reading the scheduled scripture led me to so many other scriptures that sometimes I had to remember the scripture I was preaching.

I tell you this because I don’t want you to be afraid to try it again. Maybe a year or two is your current limit. The first time you walked upright, you probably didn’t get very far, but you did not quit. You gave it another try because you were somehow wired to continue. There was something of value in this new mode of moving forward.

Same with this approach. Keep it in your quiver.

 

Enough on that.

Do you remember Lonnie Webb? He had come from the Assemblies of God, through the Committee on Preparation for ministry to recognize his ordination, and needed to preach somewhere in the denomination, so we brought him here.

I was the chair of the committee, so my thinking was, ask your session before you start calling around. Lonny was about in the middle of Covenant, Eastlake, and us. I’m sure Leslie or Linda and their sessions would have found a time, but we received him here.

As we sat side by side during the service, Lonnie stared at his bulletin for a while and then said, “Man, you guys read a lot of scripture!”

 I said, “Yes we do.”  That put a smile on my face.

Now, I am going to give you some of my favorite scriptures. You heard them read earlier. I might sneak in another one or two dozen before intermission.

Joshua 1:9. Consider the interrogative that begins this verse, at least in most translations.  In the words of “Have I not commanded you?” is the revelation that this is not something new.

God and Joshua had previous conversations on this topic. There are no surprises here.

This is an affirmation that with the blessing and burden of command comes a heavy weight or responsibly. God told Joshua I’m with you in battle. See what I send to your enemies before you even get there.  I’m with you in this governing this too. I’ve always been with you.

I’ve got this. I should jump back over to the 23^rd Psalm. God’s got this. Do you think that Joshua knew he 23^rd Psalm?  That would be some stuff there.

Is it possible he got an advanced copy?

 But we will move on from those Elena read earlier.

Micah 6:8. What does the Lord require of me. What are the standards. I’m trying to figure out his whole God thing, but where do I start?

Seek justice. We should be fair people, watch out for those abused by others, be on the lookout for those abusing power, and we just want things done God’s way. That sounds like a solid plan for society.

Love mercy. The verb in the first part was seek. Seek is a verb generally associated with good things. It takes some effort, but love takes something more. To seek justice is a good thing, but to love mercy is to make mercy greater than justice.

Hosea gave us these words from God:

For I desire mercy, not sacrifice,
    and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.

Jesus gave us these words in Matthew 9:9-13

As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.

  While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

 On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Both are good. One is better. Do both. Give mercy the priority of your time, resources, and effort.

Some might be thinking, I love saying this most Sundays in our warmups, but now that you put it this way, I have been making some self-affirmations in what I say, specifically, that I value mercy above justice.

That’s what I have been saying. Am I giving mercy the status in my life that it deserves?

When I do those two things, I am ready to walk humbly with the Lord. What’s that mean?

Me and the Lord (I intentionally butchered the grammar for effect) got out groove on. It just feels right.  We are just walking and talking. It’s good.

Then the Lord says:

Go give that person a ride.

Go share.

Let this go.

Embrace my love and become my love.

This is good stuff and it is not mere conversation, though if God stopped with just the conversation, it would have been enough.

It’s sort of like building a team. There’s a process involved, sometimes not visible to those in the team. It’s simple: Forming, storming, norming, and performing.

Forming: We are coming into the fold.

Storming: We are fighting for our place on the team.

Norming: We see where we fit in. What’s our role or roles in the body of Christ?

Performing: That’s producing fruit season. That’s now we are in business sort of fruit. That’s where we get our groove on and just want to do what pleases the Lord.

I seek justice, but I love mercy. Now I know my place in the body. I am ready to humbly, not timidly, walk with the Lord.

 John 3:16-17. You know this and you know you should know that you are one of the very few congregations across multiple denominations that proclaims John 3:16 with the regularity that we do. I would venture to say that very, very few say 16 and 17 together.

It’s that 17 that I will give you just a nudge on. Jesus did not come to condemn but to save. Not to condemn but to save. Not to condemn but to save.  

Say it with me. Not to condemn but to save.

Why? That’s in 16. You know it. It’s love. It’s that everlasting love thing. We deserved condemnation and were given salvation.

When you are struggling with a verse or pericope, look at it through the lens of to save not condemn.

When you need that creative jumpstart on your eyes fixed on Jesus week, look at what you are reading through the lens of God’s great love for us.

There is no condemnation in Christ Jesus.

And while you are on this train of thought, remember that we were still God’s enemies when he did all of this.

 

On to John 5:24. Eternal life has begun for those who truly professed Jesus as Lord.   It’s not, I hope I live forever. It’s forever is underway.

I’m going nautical on you again. What do you do when you get underway?

Shift Colors!

Once you believe, you are part of the Body of Christ and we have set sail for wherever out Master sends us.

Ephesians 2:8-9, and 2 Corinthians 12:7-9 seem to couple. God alone saved us and that salvation is all that we need.  Our needs are satisfied.

Our greed might not be.

Our whimsical wish list is still wanting.

The things that are cutting us off in our race of faith don’t like that much.

This was fun but it was not for my amusement or yours. It is a model that you might want to try. Take 7, always a good number for a church project, 7 scriptures that you might call favorites. You might know them all by heart and then just start saying them or writing them down. See what happens.

The first time that I started making notes, one scripture led to another. The next time, others beckoned for my attention.

Did you notice that in the 6 scriptures I addressed, there were reference to dozens of others.

No. But you did notice that I only but 6 and I want you to do 7.

I have 7. I only had Elena read 6.

Number 7 comes from the 17^th verse of the 27^th chapter of Proverbs. As Iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.

So do this for yourself, then in a group of believers even though they may have different scriptures.  Why?

It’s a good direction towards grasping the full biblical witness. That’s a very desirable destination. That’s worth the trip.

I can visualize a frenzy feeding on God’s word. But maybe that’s just me.

I hope not. I think if it caught on, that would be some really cool beans. That would be the church we read about in Acts.

That would be the church that people would see as a light in the darkness.

That’s the church that will get people out of their apathy and ambivalence.

That’s the church!

Amen.