With God all things are possible

 Read Mark 10:17-31

This passage contains a story that most of us know well. The rich young man, rich young ruler comes to see Jesus asking him what he must do to inherit eternal life.

We will dig into the question a little more at the next service. For now, we will pick up after the point where we are told that Jesus looked at him and loved him and told him to sell all that he had and give the money to the poor. The man went away sad.

What came next?

Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!”

The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”

How hard is it for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God?  Just to skip past the logical follow-on and go straight to the answer, yes, that includes us.

We have so much stuff that rich is the only term that aptly applies.  This message is for us. We are rich. We have some stuff.

So, we come to the question, do we own our stuff or does it own us?  Who is the master here?  We should be master of our wealth and stuff and worldly possessions, but sometimes it seems like they are the master.

We cannot serve two masters. One of these masters goes by the name of money, stuff, or things of this world. That’s the one that we have to be on the lookout for so it does not supplant the one true God.

There is no way that anything could take the place of God in our lives. He is first. He is before all things. There are no other gods near him; yet, we can’t seem to work him into our day or our outing or our school event or our lives.

We park in the pews. We sing the songs. Some of you even get the words right, but is God first in our lives?

What if God told you to stop or cut down significantly the sports in your child’s life.  That’s stepping on some toes there. It’s my family’s time. I will manage it.

What if God told you to downsize your home or get a less expensive car? C’mon God, when I asked for help with my budget, I meant extra income.  I don’t want to cut my expenses. I want more money.

What if God told you to be reconciled with someone that you had planned on hating for the rest of your life? C’mon God, not him, not her.

Do you want to know if God is first in your life? Put a smile on your face and joy in your heart and do the thing he told you to do even though it’s the last thing in the world that you want to do.

Want to know if the one true God is actually the Master in your life? Do what he says even when you don’t like it and like it while you are doing it.

That’s some tough stuff. The disciples were exasperated.  Just who can get to heaven? How can any of us be saved?  This seems hopeless.

Left to our own devices, it is hopeless. The trappings and attractions of this world are too much for us. At some point, we will succumb.  It’s just too hard to do what God asks of us.

Unless we do it with him. We can do what seems impossible if we do it with God. Yes, we should do things for God. We should do things because God said to do them. We should desire to bring glory to God in everything we do. That’s some tough stuff and we probably can’t do it…on our own.

But God says, let’s do this together.

God did not just create us and kick us out the door with a “Good luck. See ya on judgment day.”

God is in this thing called life with us. He wants to be included in everything. If we must choose, we are to choose him first. It’s sort of like that Charles Barkley commercial where the kids are picking teams and the kid picks Barkley first. He is only two or three feet taller than the kids, but still he is excited about being chosen first.

I think God likes it when we choose him over the things of this world. I think he likes it so much that he will help us choose him.

I know that he loves us enough to make a way for us to spend eternity with him in right standing with him in spite of ourselves.

God wants us to put his words into practice. He wants us to have abundant life and he wants to help us get there.

God is with us.

God is for us.

God will never forsake us.

On our own, so much seems impossible. With God, we can do everything we need to do.

Listen to how this part wraps up.

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.”

Then Peter spoke up, “We have left everything to follow you!”

“Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”

We should commit to the Lord whatever we do and he will establish our plans.  God is in this thing called life with us. We are not on our own.

God wants us to succeed. The only things that should be impossible to us should be those things that go against God. We don’t want the things that go against God. For everything else, it is possible with God.

With God, all things are possible.

This pericope included the words camel passing through the eye of the needle.  Is that figurative language? Is the eye a narrow passage in some mountain range? Did Jesus mean to indicate a level of difficulty that would cause to to read that part literally?

Those are thoughts to pursue on another day. For now, remember:

With God, all things are possible.

Amen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets!

Every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets.  This now famous and ever so truthful quote is most often attributed to W. Edwards Demming though it may have first originated with one of his colleagues.

Let’s think about this.    Every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets.  That does not mean that it produces the desired result.  So, if the system consistently spits out three-wheeled shopping carts, that is what it is designed to do.  The fact that you wanted four-wheeled shopping carts is irrelevant to the system that produces those without much balance.

The issue here is how do we address this.  Do we work on other factors than the system in place?

·       If we only had a better sales force. 

·       If we could produce these dysfunctional carts in greater volume.

·       If our marketing were better.

Only changing the system to one that produces four-wheeled carts will produce four-wheeled carts.  The old adage, when you are riding a dead horse; get off, applies here.  If you continue to do the same things you have been doing, you should expect the same results.  If you expect other results, sometimes it is called beating a dead horse.

Someone, sometime ago put together a list of government rules for riding a dead horse.  They were written to show the absurdity of continuing to do things that don’t work.  These tongue-in-cheek rules were devised long before the internet was the ubiquitous form for such distribution, but we are blessed that the list survived and these golden nuggets are available online.  Here it is.

Beating a Dead Horse

Dakota tribal wisdom says that when you discover you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount.

However, government bureaucracies often try other strategies with dead horses, including the following:

1. Buying a stronger whip.

2. Changing riders.

3. Saying things like "This is the way we always have ridden this horse."

4. Arranging to visit other sites to see how they ride dead horses.

5. Increasing the standards to ride dead horses.

6. Appointing a committee to study the dead horse.

7. Waiting for the horse's condition to improve from this temporary downturn.

8. Providing additional training to increase riding ability.

9. Passing legislation declaring "This horse is not dead."

10. Blaming the horse's parents.

11. Acquiring additional dead horses for increased speed.

12. Declaring that "No horse is too dead to beat."

13. Providing additional funding to increase the horse's performance.

14. Commissioning a study to see if private contractors can ride it cheaper.

15. Removing all obstacles in the dead horse's path.

16. Taking bids for a state-of-the art dead horse.

17. Declaring the horse is "better, faster and cheaper" dead.

18. Revising the performance requirements for horses.

19. Saying the horse was procured with cost as an independent variable.

20. Raising taxes (any excuse will do).

And if all else fails:

21. Promote the dead horse to a supervisory position

What does any of this have to do with anything?  Oh, we are talking about the vending machine again.  Journalists are taught not to bury the lead, but when part of your readership stops reading and jumps to hatred and hateful comments when they cross the word vending machine, burying the lead is the preferred approach.

What?

Many people did not like the image of the broken vending machine, so let’s look at the fully functional vending machine.  It produced disconnection from the body of Christ.

The hope of many was that by putting in a form and spitting out a turkey and a bunch of food, it would connect people with the body of Christ.  It didn’t.

We made the process more efficient.  No change.

We changed the form.  No change.

We changed the form again.  No change.

We made the process even more efficient.  No change.

We sent out notices.  No change.

We put out hot chocolate and cookies.  No change.

We doubled the number of times that people said, God loves you.  No change.

We operated the vending machine with genuine Christian love, but the machine produced exactly what it was designed to produce—food and stuff.  Form in; stuff out.

Our hearts desired inclusion in the body of Christ.  Our hearts desired Kononia.  Our hearts desired that nobody be left out of the fellowship that we know.

Our vending machine was working against us.  We broke it and did not replace it, despite requests to do just that from people who presented themselves as Christians.

We did not replace it.  It followed the world’s model and was conforming us to the pattern of the world.  We somehow got away from the original model of the church.  We lost fidelity with the original.

Today, the church does not live in a commune, but we do share with each other.  We do hunger for the teachings of Jesus, not just for academic edification but to put them into practice.  We do so much together; yet so many remain disconnected.

We sacrifice much to help others.  Giving is as natural to us as breathing; yet some remain disconnected.

We have the desire but have been using the wrong—the world’s—model for application.  We are part of the reformed tradition of churches.  Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow; but his church changes to complete its mission depending upon the time and place.

Paul said that he became all things to all people so that some might be saved. 

Ecclesia semper reformanda est.  This essay does not need a Latin phrase for coherence, but as you have made it this far, you deserve one.  The church reformed and always reforming is a good standard.  In the last century, we might have used the term Kaizen. 

But, and this is a big but, one of our improvements was not really an improvement.  The vending machine approach backfired.  It reinforced disconnection, but it worked so easily that we just kept on filling the machine and leaving people disconnected from the body of Christ.

People remained in their disconnected comfort zone.  Christians who were active in the body, remained in their self-satisfied comfort zones but felt like they were connecting.  The vending machine not only hurt those with whom we tried to connect, it was a narcotizing drug for the body of Christ.   Being disconnected from the body of Christ should have been a discomfort zone, but the vending machine would not let that happen.

Thanksgiving baskets delivered vending machine style were mainline heroin to the body of Christ.  We should have been connecting with individuals and families on a year-round basis.  Instead we got a fix at Thanksgiving and another one at Christmas and the disconnected seldom, very seldom, entered into the fellowship of believers.

But, you could have invited more effectively when you gave out the baskets.

You could have followed up better.

You could have put more Bibles in the food boxes.

You could have put cards in the food boxes telling people how much you love them, and how much God loves them.

You could have…

We did.  We beat the dead horse every way that we could think of, and then some.  The vending machine was faithful to its design:  Form in—stuff out.

While many hateful comments accompanied my previous forms of discourse on the matter; we are staying the course of seeking the original model of the church—fellowship among believers.  The interesting thing is that I have promulgated this or a similar message for the past 4 years.

OK, in fairness, the first year, I just noted that we had unplugged the vending machine; so even the metaphor has been refined a little.  I got a few laughs when people explained how they had extended the metaphor rebutting some hateful comments.

I enjoyed the support but have asked this body of Christ to leave the vending machine metaphor to me.  Your job is to connect.

Many of the disconnect have been awakened.  They might be upset or even hateful, but they are no longer asleep.  Many of the connected body may still be on the narcotics of the vending machine high of feeling satisfied by putting a few cans of food into the machine and going away self-satisfied, but we have at least reached a semiconscious state.  In all parts of this equation, we need to wake up!

CONNECT!  Help open the eyes of those who have been conformed to the pattern of this world.  Connect now like never before.  Abundance in the Twenty -First Century is inclusion in the body of Christ.

Some people have asked me if everything has died down now.  I hope not!  Even if it is only anger and hatred directed my way at the moment, the effects of the narcotic need to wear off.  We need to connect and that is hard to do with people who are asleep or drugged.

Connecting the disconnected is something that we do year-round.   We are on a mission to share the good news and connect the disconnected.  Not all will connect, but some will.

Some will break away from the pattern of the world and desire to know the love of God in the fellowship of believers.

Some who read this will still be anchored in the model of the world and cry foul, saying that’s not love.  If that’s you, please read Mark 10:17-31 with special attention verse 21 before composing your dissent or hate-ridden comments. 

Consider that the church has forgotten how to speak the truth in love.  The young man in this pericope was content in his stuff, so much so that something severe was needed to liberate him from that which had become his god. 

If you are active in a church—sideline commentator does not constitute active--ask God for wisdom and discernment in how we take the gospel to the world and how we connect with those who are disconnected.

If you are a Christian tourist or on the sidelines, isn’t it time to get on the playing field of discipleship.  It comes with a cost.  You must leave the comfort of your recliner behind, but it is worth it.

Do I think that this short exposition will move the church out of the vending machine model and forward to what today’s model of Koinonia looks like?  No.

But I hope that it will prompt some to pray and ask God for wisdom.  Don’t pray asking God to confirm your comfort zone.  Ask him to show you what the church should look like in this century.  I have it on good authority that he gives his wisdom generously to those who earnestly seek him.

Consider that early church near Jerusalem.  There was koinonia and people wanted what the believers had.  They came to be saved in large numbers.  They wanted what the believers had—fellowship.  We see abundant life begin to manifest itself in the fellowship of believers. 

We won’t look exactly the same. In fact, there were many differences in that church and each of the churches planted that first century, but the fellowship of believers was and is essential to all.  Fidelity to that fellowship must be brought back into the modern church. 

I don’t see how we can do that and keep the old gods of the vending machine.  I don’t see why we would want to?  Our God is a jealous God.  His model is love.  His people know fellowship.  God’s people connect.  The vending machine disconnects.  We cannot serve two masters!

And all the people said…

Why can’t you just let this go?  If you were expecting an Amen, well that’s probably somewhere down the road when we are reading about old church vending machine models in history class. 

Why can’t I just let this go?

We let it go for too long and we replaced fellowship with disconnection.

OK, but do you really have to be so passionate and persistent with this message?

Jesus doesn’t like the lukewarm setting.  Why should I?

But you could have tried…

We are not beating the dead horse any longer.  Vending machine is out.  Love and fellowship are in.  We are connecting.  We are taking the good news to our community and beyond. 

We have returned to the fellowship of believers.  Some who have been sleeping or drugged by the world’s model will awaken, sober up, and connect.

CONNECT THE DISCONNECTED!