Into Practice

 Read Matthew 7:24-27

We will embark on a journey in the first part of 2024 that we will call the words of Jesus. How can you go wrong with something titled The Words of Jesus?

You can go wrong with the words of Jesus.  Jesus said so.  How?

The person who hears the words of our Lord and Master and Savior but does not put them into practice will see his life go to pieces, now and perhaps forever.

But this can’t be us, right?

We live in a time that I would say observes Casual Christianity. We know what the commandments are.  We know what Jesus said.  We cling to the words that we who are weary and heavy-laden should come to Jesus.  He will give us relief.  He will give us rest for our body and soul.

But we ignore the next verse that says take my yoke and learn from me.  Jesus said learn from him.  Jesus said to take his words and practice them.

We ignore the part that our rest is tied to putting the words of our Master into practice.

But instead of putting his words into practice, Casual Christianity says, make a post.  Use a Bible verse. Tell people if they don’t share, they are not really a Christian.

We live in a time where Christians have never had it so good.  We want for little. We have modern conveniences. We fuss about what to eat never wondering if we will eat.

We have a roof over our heads.  We can shelter from the Oklahoma winds. We don’t even have to go outside to draw water or use the bathroom.

It may seem like the end of the world when the Wi-Fi goes down, but we have it easier than any generation of Christians has ever known.

So, is our world at risk of crashing and leaving us devastated?  The world at large is headed for a very turbulent time—tribulation and great tribulation.  But what about us?

We are warned that the person who does not put the words of Jesus into practice risks everything.  He is like the person who builds a house on a flimsy foundation.

But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.  The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.

Have you ever been to the beach?  The sand looks the same day to day and week to week, but it’s not.  Some sand is washed ashore.  Some are washed back to sea.  Some migrate left or right depending upon the waves.

It looks smooth. It seems to be constant. But it is sand and it does not make a good foundation.

But there are high rise buildings along every coast with a nice beach.  Their foundation is not on sand.  Pilings are placed far into the ground until there is something to support the structure above.  Sand won’t do the trick.

No builder is going to put a $10,000,000 condo on a $10,000 foundation, but do we?

We who live in this time of Casual Christianity need to be sure of our foundation.  Jesus said that to be sure, we must put his words into practice.

That doesn’t mean Facebook wars over whose favorite scripture trumps someone else’s favorite scripture.

It doesn’t mean pointing out where others fall short of the words of Jesus.

It doesn’t mean finding the most convoluted interpretation of scripture to promote your own doctrine and make your own god.

It means taking what Jesus said and doing it.

That might take a little thinking of how to apply his teaching in our time, but that thinking process should not be debilitating. We are not to think on his directives for so long that we don’t do anything.

Here are the words of Jesus. Practice them. Learn from him by doing what he said to do.

Don’t skip over the ones that seem too hard.

Don’t just do something once and say, “I’ve got this.”  Remember, this is practice.  There is repetition in practice.

Don’t modify the instructions. Go and sin no more is not the same as do the best that you can. We are to strive to hit the target every time.

Do you understand the difference between shoot that way and hit that target.  Shoot that way is my metaphor for our best effort.  Hit the target is my metaphor for what Jesus told us to do.

Both shooters might miss the target but at least one is aiming for it. We must continue to aim for the target, not just something in the general area.

Sometimes, hitting the target involves only our hearts and minds.  Sometimes is physical action, but it’s always with focus on what Jesus told us to do.  That’s our target.  We must keep it in our sights.

God will never leave or forsake us but that does not mean that we get to lower the bar. Do the best you can is not the standard.  We must do the best that we can, but the target is whatever Jesus told us to do.

We probably won’t get it right the first time or the twenty-first time or for those like me the hundred and twenty-first time, but we keep practicing.

We practice. We put his words into practice.

Here’s one that I use often in the teaching of thinking skills.  Does practice make perfect?

No! Perfect practice makes perfect.

Back in my golfing days, I had a swing that was tolerable.  I could hit the fairways most of the time but I could also find the worst possible places on any golf course for the rest of the time.

I put my time in on the driving range, but I kept practicing the same old swing.  I got really good at a bad swing.

Why would I do this? It was comfortable. It seemed to work out most of the time. I wasn’t ready to do the work needed to get a good swing.

Are we ready to do what is required to live as our Master told us to live?

Do we understand that living his way is for our own good.  I’m not talking about going to hell. I am talking about abundant life. I am talking about weathering the storms of life. I am talking about finding your purpose in life.

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.

For the next few months, we will be looking at the words of Jesus.  We won’t cover them all. We will probably do this again sometime down the road.

For now, consider that every word that Jesus gave us was to be put into practice.  Some are direct. Some come in metaphor. All are meant to be applied in our lives.

What is worse than not knowing what to do in a situation?

Knowing exactly what to do and not doing it.

Jesus tells us what to do, how to live, and even what’s in it for us. We must be willing to move beyond our comfort zones. We must be willing to put the words of our Master into practice.

We must be willing to endure a little scorn from those who do not believe.

We must be willing to sacrifice when Jesus calls us to sacrifice.

We must be willing to reach out to those who are not in our social circles.

We must be willing to change our schedules.

We must be willing to love people that we don’t even like.

We must be willing to take the yoke of our Master and learn from him. Do you know what they call people who do this?

Disciples.

We must be the disciples of our Master.  We live in an age of Casual Christianity, but we must be serious about being the disciples of our Lord.

How?

We put his words into practice.

Amen.

To Ordain or Not to Ordain?

  

The Cumberland Presbyterian Church is in the middle of a controversy that other denominations have already addressed.  We avoided it for as long as we could.  We turned a blind eye and acquired deaf ears when the topic was nearing a tipping point for denominational discussion.

Camps formed, then entrenched themselves, and now are ready for battle.  How long will this take?  Will the denomination divide?  Is anyone truly ready to listen or are we content just to beat our own drums?

I offer this to the general discussion, but consider it likely that many—probably most—will quit reading or denounce it without reading it in its entirety upon encountering any point that causes dogmatic thinking to be challenged.

And there will be challenges for all concerned.  This is not a message to comfort the afflicted but to afflict the comfortable.  Some need to check out here for the sake of not having your comfort zone disturbed.

Let’s address what most call the Arkansas Amendments.  I begin by addressing the elephant in the room.  The amendments take aim at practicing homosexuals and their fitness for service as a pastor in all forms or as an elder. Deacons are not addressed.

Let me say from the beginning, if the amendments are adopted, we as a denomination will be completely biblical.  We will be biblical! The problem is that we will also be the biggest hypocrites since the Pharisees.  If fact, we will have raised the hypocritical bar a good deal.

The problem is that the wording of the amendments aims a shotgun, not a rifle.  It addresses all sexual relationships outside the boundaries of marriage and not just homosexual relationships.  Perhaps the shotgun syntax was intentional, perhaps even biblical.

Just what am I talking about? We get that homosexuality is a sin thing.  Read Leviticus.  We shouldn’t adopt the world’s take that we have outgrown this thinking or that as the death penalty is no longer imposed for this offense (at least in this country) so the offense is no more. We need to remain biblically based in our thinking and doctrine.

We understand that the amendment is talking about a continuing relationship not just a past experience.  If a one-and-done approach was administered, those who have murdered, stolen, dishonored their parents or other prohibitions listed in the top 10 directives, would be disqualified from our ordained ranks and our numbers would shrink considerably. 

Yes, I know we don’t have many murderers who have been ordained, but we have many testimonies of people fully immersed in a sinful lifestyle who repented and received life in Christ Jesus and went on to ordination.  One-and-done does work when we are looking for reasons to exclude.  All have sinned and fall short.  We know that part.

I think we are talking about a continued homosexual relationship, but what about adultery?  That could be a one-and-done, but what about those among us who are ordained, yet continue in an adulterous relationship?

What?

What about those divorced Cumberlands who have remarried and as such continue in an adulterous relationship?  Are they too disqualified for ordination in any form?

Hold your holy horses!  We have a plethora of exceptions that have been written into this biblical view.  Besides, with the number of divorced people who we have welcomed into our ranks, this is politically not viable.

My mistake.  I thought we were being biblical, not political or practical. So, what should divorced people who have remarried do, divorce again?  I thought God hates divorce.

That would be ridiculous.  Remarried Cumberland Presbyterians would only need to divorce if they wanted to be ordained as a pastor or elder.  Then they would need to abstain from marriage just as the homosexual desiring to be ordained would abstain from having sex with same-sex partners.

C’mon man!  I thought that you were inclined to the conservative side.  I am, but I won’t use that as an excuse to be a hypocrite.

But that stuff about adultery came from Jesus. It wasn’t that way in the original law.

If discounting the words and teachings of Jesus were a viable response, that might be worth considering.  Instead, I ask you to consider this.

Much of the Law of Moses served to mitigate the evil in the human heart.  Jesus wants us to replace our evil hearts with the divine heart of his Father.  It’s that whole repentance thing again.

Let’s move on to the shacking-up category.  I’m guessing that’s included in the scope of the amendment.  What if the shacking up has continued to the point of being a common-law marriage?

Do committees on preparation for ministry need to add a question concerning this to their applications?

So where does this leave us?

With a thinning of the ranks, that’s where.  Only the most pious may be ordained within this denomination. 

God might call you, but you can’t answer his call here unless you are single or in a traditional marriage for the first time.  No same-sex relationships.  No divorced and remarried.  No shacking up.

You might think, I can live with that, and maybe we can.  But why stop at sexual sin?  Shouldn’t we address others?

If someone is a serial killer, the world will likely take him or her out of our ordained ranks. That’s an easy fix, but what about pride, self-righteousness, and gluttony.  Should we put out a BOLO on those for the next go-round of amendments?

I don’t know if I can start running 7 miles a day again.  Back in the days when I was lean and mean, that would be no problem, but these days, I’m just mean.

Some of us who carry extra weight might say that God made us this way.  Isn’t that the secular justification for accepting homosexual behavior?  This keeps getting messier.

Perhaps, every 3 years we should focus on a handful of sins for disqualification from ordination and thin our ranks even more.  This wouldn’t be excluding anyone from our denomination.  Race, color, sexual orientation, fat or skinny, tall or short—whosoever will may come.  You just can’t be ordained.

We need to publish a taxonomy of sin so we can address them in an orderly fashion.

I’m somewhat tongue-in-cheek here, but not entirely.  If the choice is between whosoever will may come but you might not be ordained because of selected sins or whosoever will may come but only the purest of the pure may be considered for ordination (few are called but fewer—perhaps none—are chosen), I would take the latter.

Things are so clear when we can shape God in our own image and make his instructions conform to our own. But if we truly want to be biblical in our faith and practice, then we need to thin our existing ordained ranks and ordain ever so few—if any—in the future.

Are we willing to do that?

Yes, I know that I am a stick in the mud.  I have been accused of being tactful twice in my life but was acquitted on both counts.

Some will say that I don’t truly understand God’s word—or more likely I don’t conform to your understanding of God’s word—the one that includes the taxonomy of sin.

Here is what I understand.  These things miss the mark.  They transgress God’s ways.

Homosexual relationships.

Divorce.

Remarriage after divorce.

Shacking up for sex.

We are called to minister to people in all of these areas.  These are only sexual sins.  We all fall short of God’s glory in so many other ways, but the continuation of these ways seems to be what is at issue here.

The challenge is to ordain a clergy worthy of the calling that they/we have received. Our history is one of whosoever will may come.

We all come to God out of disobedience.

But if the homosexual would just repent and seek the ways of God going forward, there wouldn’t be a problem.  That’s not fair!  That’s too much to ask!

Yes, there is a problem that many don’t think that repentance is needed.  What God said long ago on this matter is no longer valid and not a sin.

That dog don’t hunt!  That’s not biblical. It’s still a sin.

Let’s apply the same standard to divorce. All the divorced person needs to do is confess that his or her divorce was a sin and seek the ways of God going forward, which would include abstaining from remarriage and sex.

That’s not fair!  Getting married again after divorce is not a sin! That thinking is not biblical! But it is. Abstaining from marriage after divorce is biblical but very inconvenient to so many Cumberland Presbyterians. 

Should the same standard not be applied to both groups of people as we consider the proposed amendments?

Much of the law mitigated the evil in our hearts.  Jesus came to lead us to a wholesale exchange of our hearts of stone for those of flesh. Jesus wants us to have a heart that he can shape into a divine heart.

Personally, I don’t really want to see a gay pastor leading a flock. I am less bothered by a gay woman than a gay man.  Perhaps, that’s because God only mentioned men in Leviticus.  More likely, it’s just that toxic masculinity thing that’s going around these days. I am less bothered by a divorced and remarried pastor.  I am less bothered by a couple that is shacking up—it seems that most that I have encountered who are seeking God through Christ are headed toward marriage.

That’s my hierarchy, not God’s.  If we could just go with my hierarchy, I might be happy.  That is until I looked in the mirror and saw a hypocrite.

If we are going to abide by the law, let’s abide by the whole law not just the parts that we like the most.

Is it even possible to have someone who is qualified to be a pastor?  None are good save God himself. All have fallen short of the glory of God.

But God has called many to serve him and some of those were called as pastors.  Of those whom God has called, none were qualified.  Some might have had a big DISQUALIFIED stamped on their resumes, but God called them.

Can we continue as a denomination known for our grace and connectional nature or will we be divided by human decision and weaponize the law or ignore it all together?

Should I prepare to surrender my ordination or start picking out my phylacteries?

If the choice is between whosoever will may come but you might not be ordained because of selected sins or whosoever will may come but only the purest of the pure may be considered for ordination (few are called but fewer—maybe none—are chosen), I would take the latter.

Better to fulfill our commission, take the gospel to the world, and make disciples—even disciples that will have to wrestle with the old self for all of their days—than to make God’s directives in our own image and be the best hypocrites of all time.

If we pass these amendments, let us prepare to reduce the ranks of pastors and elders among us—not because of a denominational divide but because of widespread disqualification of those now serving or hoping to serve.

We can beat our chests all day and proclaim that we are biblically correct, knowing full well we are more hypocritical than the Pharisees ever were.

Paul listed his religious credentials and said that they would stack up to anyone’s, but that he counted them as dung.  That’s manure in these parts. What is our ordination worth if we apply our own taxonomy of sin to qualify or disqualify?

We might need to do the same if our credentials, specifically ordination, are a stumbling block to our commission.  If we invite people into the church (which belongs to Jesus) but say in the Cumberland part of that church, this far and no farther, have we not made them twice as much a child of hell as we are? Have we not placed ourselves in the place of God?

You can be a member but your sin is worse than the sin of others and grace only goes so far, at least where ordination is concerned.

For this protracted pontification to have any merit, it should include something of a recommendation.  I do pray that we come up with something better, but here it is.

Adopt the amendments.

Cease immediately the ordination of pastors and elders who:

Practice homosexuality.

Are divorced and not reunited with their original spouse.

Are divorced and remarried.

Are shacked up for sex.

Over the next 3 years, pastors and elders should surrender their ordinations if they:

Practice homosexuality.

Are divorced and not reunited with their original spouse.

Are divorced and remarried to another spouse

Are shacked up for sex.

 

Tom, you are crazy!  That may be true, but I’m biblical.

These mentioned above are just the sexual sins.  If we are serious about qualifying or disqualifying someone for ordination, then every 3 years, we will select 5 more sins for this purpose. Let’s start with lust.  Maybe it was included in the amendment, but let’s be sure.

We can’t skip gluttony.  This one will disqualify many.  Let’s throw in anger, jealousy, and selfish pride.  Those are all sins that often continue beyond ordination.  I’m just throwing these out there as a starting point, but we need to start somewhere.  It will take a committee at least 2 years to sort out the next 5 sins and we have people to disqualify!  Time is of the essence. The purge must begin now.

Sometimes, I am not sure if I am tongue-in-cheek or not.

So where does that leave us?

If God has called you to preach, then preach.  You will not be ordained to preach by this denomination, but you can still answer your call.

If God has called you to serve, then serve.  You will not be ordained to serve by this denomination, but you can still answer your call.

We can still answer our callings, serve in this denomination, and bring glory to God but we will do it without the human validation of that setting apart by God and for God.

This sounds radical, mainly because it is, but the concept of mercy and grace is no less radical and that’s what we have been commissioned to take to the world.  We are sent into the world to call sinners to repent and if our ordinations and institutionalism become a stumbling block to that, then we need to count all of that as dung and get back to the business of going into the world without a denominational ordination, but with these words.

Repent and believe the good news!

Should we go this route, we will surely need other constitutional revisions with regard to administering the sacraments and marriage, but these are not terribly debilitating changes.

As stated previously, I hope someone comes up with something better, but I’m also considering buying the domain name phylacteriesRus.com.  Business looks promising.

We must pray for greater understanding and discernment by us all.  We will figure this out only if we stop building our ramparts and start listening to God and to each other.

Amen. 

Matthew 13 - Part 6

 

Read Matthew 13

 Parables about the end of the age, parables about the kingdom of heaven, parables about pearls and fish and seeds and Jesus just kept on teaching.

Yeast and mustard seeds and words hidden to some and so visible to others.  Welcome to chapter 13.  At least Jesus blessed his disciples and us with explanations of two of his parables.

Imagine drinking from this first-century fire hose.  You knew the law.  You knew something of the prophets.  You were obedient in worship and offerings and sacrifices and now you are overwhelmed by these teachings of the One you believe could just be the Anointed One, the Christ.

Do you throw out the old in favor of the new?  Putting new wine in old wineskins comes to mind.  How do you deal with the old and the new?

Come the last day of December, how many of you will be shouting out with the old and cautiously whispering in with the new?  Are we saying goodbye to 2020 with great expectations of things to come in 2021 or did we notice the reminders that the movie Mad Max was set in 2021?

We live in an age where a phone that is 18 months old is an old phone.

We live in an age where a 7-year-old car is an old car.

We live in an age where music from the 90s are called oldies.  I’m offended by that.

We live in an age where just about every print media is old news.

George Bernard Shaw said, “We don’t stop playing because we grow old.  We grow old because we stop playing.”

Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, “The young man knows the rules, but the old man knows the exceptions.”

Many have quoted this one.  “Growing old is mandatory.  Growing up is optional.”  That’s surely a universal law, at least for men.

We wrestle with new and old all the time.  I once thought I could help a college student with English and composition, but the names for all the terms had changed.

I once went to a two-day seminar on risk management. It was the late 1990s.  The course was full of formulas.  I brought a calculator as was required and worked through the many problems given to us as part of the course.  My brain hurt.  Some people brought slide rulers and enjoyed working out these problems.  They loved this stuff.  I had learned to use a slide-ruler 30 years earlier.  My dad was an electrical engineer and he taught me.  I loved the experience of my dad teaching me how to use this state-of-the-art device back in the 1960s but I was ever so glad to put it away when Texas Instruments made calculators affordable.

I know, calculators are dirt cheap and old school.  Now we have calculator apps.

There I was in a conference room in Seattle, Washington in the middle of nerd central.  I needed the mechanics of assessing risk for something other than a night attack or a single envelopment. I was procuring millions of dollars worth of service contracts for some very old training systems as well as for those just coming into service.  I needed some mechanism for assessing risk in those areas.

Near the end of the course, the instructor noted that there was software available that did stochastic modeling.  It was for those people who didn’t want to work out the math yourself.  I said, “How much?”  I was so ready for the new.

Every few months my phone directs me to upgrade the operating software.  I spend about a week trying to figure out where the icon for my email is now.  Sometimes, I just like the old, even if the old is just 3 months older than the new.

We deal with old and new all the time.  Jesus framed treasure in the terms of old and new.

Can we understand crossing over from death to life without understanding crossing over from slavery to liberty and a land promised for ages?

We can, but how much greater our wealth is it to know the old and the new?

Can we understand a sacrifice given once in divine blood without understanding the countless sacrifices given in the blood of bulls and goats?

We can, but how much greater our wealth is it to know the old and the new?

Can we understand grace without knowing the law?

We can, but how much greater our wealth is it to know the old and the new?

Knowledge, experience, and wisdom are all grist for the mill.  They are treasures that we have acquired over time.  They might be the old.  The teachings of our Lord are new treasures rooted in love.  Together we have treasures old and new. 

How much better equipped is the person who knows the law and the prophets and the psalms and the proverbs to receive the message of love one another?

We who study all of God’s word are equipped with treasures old and new.  We are blessed with treasures old and new.

Amen.