Sherwood Presbyterian Church

I have to imagine that every once in a while the disciples got incredibly frustrated with Jesus. Like during today's reading. After all, at this point in John's story it's Thursday night, on the eve of the crucifixion, and Jesus has just told the disciples a) that he's leaving and b) they can't follow him. Then he says, "Do not let your hearts be troubled." And I'm guessing their reaction was the first century equivalent of, "Gimme a break!"

Or maybe that's just my twenty-first century reaction. Do not let ours hearts be troubled? Are you kidding? Look around! Economic woes. People out of work. A seemly endless war in the Middle East. Churches in conflict just about everywhere you look. Political fights over immigration, health care, the reform of our financial system. Oil spills. Bombs in New York and Pittsburg. And yet we're not supposed to be troubled? For crying out loud, what's not in trouble?!

This is what makes Jesus' promise of peace difficult to take. Peace is just what it feels like we're missing right now. Peace, after all, would mean the cessation of all this conflict, the end of all this turmoil, the conclusion of all our waiting and wanting and worrying. Right?

I wonder. I mean, I've usually thought of peace as the absence of something negative -- the absence of war, or strife, or fear, or anger. And, indeed, the first definition in the dictionary corroborates this view: "peace: freedom from disturbance." But it occurs to me on reading and re-reading Jesus' words to the disciples that maybe I've got it wrong. Maybe peace isn't an absence of something, but instead is its own presence. Maybe peace is something, all on is own. Maybe it creates something positive, makes something wonderful possible, not just curtails something negative. Maybe this is what Jesus means by saying, "My peace I give to you. I do not give it as the world gives."

If that's so -- if I'm willing, that is, to question the way I usually think about peace -- then maybe I should also call into question my sense of faith more generally. I think I tend to operate with a sense that our human problem is that we have within us a need, an awareness of our lack, a restlessness, a hole. You know, Augustine's "My heart is restless, O God, until it rests in thee." Actually, I think that's pretty accurate. But I suspect that along with that picture of our human condition comes a correlate picture of how God responds: God fills that hole, meets that need, fills in what we lack. Okay, so bear with me, I know this is a little complicated. In one sense, I think that's true. But I'm just not sure that means that once we come to faith everything is suddently hunky-dory, that we're no longer aware of our need or lack or hurt or brokenness. Or, at least if I'm honest, that's not how I actually experience the life of faith.

Do you know what I mean? Faith, when I think about it, doesn't so much take away all the difficult things in life as makes them bearable. It's actually a little more than that. Faith doesn't take away the difficult things in life, it just keeps them from dominating, from having mastery, from defining who I am and the possibilities around me. It's like these things -- our needs, wants, broken places -- they still are accurate descriptions of us, at least parts of us, but they no longer define us. We are more than what's missing. We are, as Paul says and Revelation promises, a new creation. Faith makes this possible. Faith understood not as some divine plug for the hole we each carry around inside of us, but rather as a summons to be more, to live and love more, to share more because there is so much more that God desires and designed for us.

I suspect, on the whole, that there are probably two view of the religious life. Both acknowledge that this world we share is full of tumults and challenges, of sometimes seismic ups and downs. One view of the life of faith assumes that when you come to faith, things settle down, stop shaking, and make suddenly sense. The other view of faith, however, doesn't promise an end to the tremors but enables you to keep your footing amid them.

I think that's what Jesus is talking about. After all, the Spirit he promises comes as the Advocate -- the one who takes to our defense when we're accused -- and the Comforter -- the one who will not leave our side during trouble. Understood that way, there is nothing about Jesus' words that would suggest either that he's promising us an end to problems or that he's inviting us to ignore them. Rather, he promises peace -- not merely the cessation of disturbance but instead a confident expectation and hope about the future.

I've heard this next quotation ascribed to both Francis of Assisi and Martin Luther, and I'm not sure either said it, but it fits my picture of Luther so I'll claim it for him: Once asked what he would do if he thought the world would end tomorrow, Luther replied, "I would plant a tree today." That's not optimism, but hope; not simply a lack of fear, but courage; not only the absence of disturbance, but peace -- Jesus' peace, a peace the world cannot give.

You've got your own worries this week, Working Preacher. Whether they come from home, work, or the world. I know that. Which means that what you do -- proclaiming to us that peace which passes our understanding -- is all the more amazing. Thank you. Even more, thank God for you. For through your work and your words, God tends our restless hearts and grants us a measure of peace.

The Gospel of John could be summed up by a number of different key words. It could be called a gospel of life, a gospel of light, of believing, of knowing, of sending and being sent, a gospel of signs, or, above all, as we will see from this passage, a gospel of glory and of love. Throughout John, the understanding of any key word eventually leads to all the key words. They draw meaning from each other, or more accurately, from their connections to the words and works of Christ. They resist definition, serving more as pointers to Christ. One knows what these words mean to the extent to which one knows Jesus, the incarnate Word sent from God into the world.

Jesus tells Nicodemus, "We speak of what we know and bear witness to what we have seen" (3:11). Later he explicitly connects "understanding" with his "works"--"even though you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father" (10:37-38). Life, light, believing, knowing, glory, love--the meanings of these words do not lie in the dictionary; they lie in the actions of Christ. They describe life and a way of life, and they can be known only as experienced in their incarnation.

Gospel of Glory
One cannot preach on the glory mentioned in verses 31-32 without setting it in the context of the whole of John. The meaning emerges within the narrative. The glory is inherent in the Son, something he had in God's presence BEFORE the world was made (17:5) and that he brings with him into the world (1:14). Those who are his can see that glory, the ultimate outward sign of inward grace and truth (1:14-18). At the same time, it is inherent in him, however, it does not reach its fullness until he has completed the work his Father sent him to do (7:39; 17:4). Thus, although his glory is revealed to the disciples at Cana (2:11), promised to be shown again following the illness of Lazarus (11:4), and promised again to Martha at Lazarus' tomb (11:40), in a real sense, only with the arrest, crucifixion, and death does the hour finally come for him to be glorified (12:23; 17:1).

As always in John, this glorification of Father and Son is not something between them alone; it does not stop with Christ. The capacity to glorify God extends to Christ's followers and is laid upon believers as a charge--"My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples" (15:8). Believers are empowered to do the same works that Christ did, and even greater works. Whatever works believers ask him to make possible, he will do, so that the Father will be glorified in the Son (14:12-14). The Father will not only be glorified in the Son, but also in the community of faith.

Our actions show God's glory, too. At least, we are charged that it be so. Jesus prays, "All mine are yours and yours are mine, and I have been glorified in them" (17:10). Here the focus lies on promise and possibilities, looking at the fullness of God's gifts: "The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one ... so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me" (17:22-23). As was true for Christ is true for us. We cannot fully show the glory until we have completed the work God has sent us to do. Or, more positively, we show the glory as we complete that work.

Gospel of Love
As stated with regard to "glory," one cannot preach on the commandment to love (verses 34-35) in isolation from the larger narrative. Only in its depiction of Christ can we see what it means to love one another as Christ has loved us.¹ This is CRUCIAL, since Christ establishes love as the defining characteristic of believers (verse 35). All the works mentioned above that show God's glory are at their core works of love, and if we complete no other work, we have done what are called to do.

This work, however, is demanding, is no mere feeling, but stands as an enduring, abiding will to do whatever God sends us to do. Jesus states this starkly, three times. "If you love me you will keep my commandments" (14:15), "Those who love me will keep my word," (14:23), and "If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love" (15:10a). Love of God and obedience to God become almost synonymous.

However, this is not obedience out of a joyless sense of duty or command. This love/obedience flows out of communion with Christ. It is who we become, the more we come to know God. As imperfectly as we might embody love ourselves, the GOAL is that love constitutes the essence of who we are and what we do. God will ALWAYS call on us to love. And if we love as Christ did, that love is strong, enduring, and faithful; we will love to the end (13:1). This love is not easily shaken or deterred from its primary task, which is simply to express itself in action, drawing from God's unlimited supply. I love how John puts the promise--"Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them" (14:23).

This love flows out of his abiding presence among us. When we live in his love, we can, if called upon, fulfill the highest form of love. "There is no greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends" (15:13). These are high standards for a high calling. We might look at our friends and wonder--if the moment ever came, would we be willing to die for them?

Bishop Chrysostomos of Zakynthos, was an Orthodox Bishop on the Greek isle of Zakynthos, in World War II, now memorialized at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC. The Nazis came one day, demanding that he provide them, the next day, with a list naming every Jew on the island. The next day he handed them a list containing only one name, his own. He loved them to the end, indeed. We might never be tested to those utmost limits of love, but even if we are not, we are still called to fulfill whatever works of love lie before us.

In this passage, Christ's NEW commandment calls on us to seek them out.

Lectionary that I am following spends the first half of the church year answering the question, “Who is Jesus?” The second half focuses on his ministry and teaching and answers the follow up question, “What does it mean to follow Jesus?”

So here we are on the 4^th Sunday after Easter and we have before us a portion of Jesus’ discourse on the good shepherd. Except it’s not, exactly. It’s actually 3 months later, during Hanukah (Festival of the Lights [Dedication]– dedicating the 2^nd temple), and Jesus is STILL talking about sheep and shepherds. No wonder, then, that those who are talking with him ask, with a translation that more likely reflected common speech, “How long will you keep on irritating us with this? If you think you are the Messiah, then say it plainly.”

Christ a Mother Hen?

Mother hen?  It seems odd that Jesus would refer to himself this way, doesn’t it?

We’re more comfortable with the image of the king and warrior. “Our Father who art in heaven.”  We’re not used to hearing feminine images when thinking about God.  In fact, some people get quite angry if you dare use a female pronoun to refer to God.

“God is not a woman.  God would never be a female.  It’s just not possible.  It’s not natural.  It’s not right.”

And yet . . . here is Jesus referring to himself as a hen, mother bird. Here’s the passage in Luke:

34Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! 35See, your house is left to you. And I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.’”  (Luke 13:34-35)

This mother bird is facing some very vicious foxes.

Herod and the Pharisees are seeking to have Jesus killed for the way he is causing trouble throughout Galilee.  He is filling people with thoughts about God as accepting all people, loving the unlovable, the unclean, the contaminated, the annoying.  It’s not enough that Jesus is saying that all these undesirable individuals should be allowed into our churches, into God’s kingdom.  Now Jesus has to go and call himself a mother hen.  That’s downright offensive.

Nobody likes a mother hen.  Mother hens are overprotective, interfering, overbearing.  They cluck and pick and watch constantly.  Nobody likes a mother hen.

Unless . . .  you are a vulnerable chick in need of protection.  Unless all your life you’ve been deprived of a mother’s care.  Unless all you’ve known is the feeling of being abandoned, left to your own devices, stranded to face the fox all by yourself.

Then maybe having a mother hen would not be so bad after all.

Some years ago I read a story about Margaret Cundall, a retiree who offers sick children from Chernobyl an incredible gift – the chance to boost their health. The 9-and-10-year-old children, from Belarus, in Russia, which suffered 70% of the fallout from the nuclear disaster in 1986, take to Margaret like chicks running to a mother hen when she welcomes them in the summer.  She is caring, physically demonstrative, and exudes warmth that draws the children to her.[1]

When your life is filled with suffering and pain, it’s nice to have a mother hen.  Caring, welcoming, warm.  I think those are qualities I would like in the God I worship.

Did you know that mother hens have the ability to feel their chicks’ pain?

This is a quality called empathy, an ability that was once thought to be uniquely human.  But recent studies suggest that animals may also experience empathy. “A new study has uncovered, for the first time, that mother hens are such attentive, caring parents that they ‘feel’ their chicks’ pain.  In experiments, female chickens showed clear signs of anxiety when their young were in distress.  [They] found that adult female birds possess at least one of the essential underpinning attributes of empathy – the ability to be affected by, and share, the emotional state of another.”[2]

Empathy.  The ability to feel my pain.  Being moved to protect me from pain.  I think those are qualities I would like in the God I worship.

The hen and the snake.

Delmer Chilton, a Lutheran pastor and writer, tells the story of going to get eggs from his grandmother’s chicken yard one evening and hearing a racket.  “A sudden raising of dust, flurry of feathers and scattering of hens and chickens, much screeching and squawking, and then, just as suddenly, things calmed down and an old gray hen emerged from the bushes with a large black snake in her mouth.”[3]

Strength.  Courage.  No-nonsense.  A bold female risking all to protect her chicks.  I think those are qualities I would like in God I worship.

Like that old gray hen, Jesus is not afraid of that fox, King Herod.

Jesus is not afraid of dying, and he sends a message back with Pharisees that Herod doesn’t even have to come after Jesus. Jesus will go to him, right to Jerusalem.  Because that’s what a prophet does – goes bravely into the spaces of danger to confront evil.

But when he mentions Jerusalem, suddenly the tone of Jesus’ words shifts.  They turn to words of sadness.  He laments that the people of Jerusalem are like chicks that refuse to be cared for, looked after or protected.  “You were not willing.  Your house is left to you.”

Says Chilton: “All too often, we have failed to understand or respond to God’s love. All too often, we have turned God’s word of love into a life of hate; all too often, we have turned God’s call to repentance into pointing fingers and a call to arms.  The sly fox of the world turns us away from that which is good and eternal and pulls us in the direction of those things that satisfy now but do not linger and live with us for an eternity with God.”[4]

The mother hen sat crying in my office.

She was sharing with me the pain she felt knowing that she could not protect her daughter from the drugs and alcohol that had taken over her life.  Her tears flowed as she recounted the many times, she tried to bring her daughter back into the loving embrace of her family, away from the fox of addiction.  But every time, the daughter made choices that pulled her farther and farther away.  Instead having the protection of those holy wings, the daughter served time in jail, wasted away in strangers’ homes, and wandered the streets of the city. But the mother looked me in the eye and said, “Pastor, I know God understands that I have done everything I can.  I have to let her make her own decisions.  I am at peace.”

Knowing what it’s like to love someone who doesn’t want protection.  Knowing the pain that comes in realizing that you can’t save them, you can’t make them change, you can’t make them choose a different path.  Knowing a mother’s pain and yet giving her peace.  I think those are qualities I want in the God I worship. 

And then, Mom added these words.  “No matter what happens, my daughter knows my arms are always open to her.”

Arms open.  Heart exposed.  Wings spread. Feathered breast exposed.

The mother hen, like the dove that fluttered away from Noah’s hand over the receding flood waters. . .

Like the dove fluttering from heaven, hovering around Jesus as he emerged from the baptismal waters . . .

Like a mother bird, wings pinned to the cross, still sheltering us from evil.

You can have your king-god.  You can have your warrior-god.  You can have your father-god.  Today, I’m opting for the Mother-Hen-God.  The God who welcomes all her children under her wings, no matter how they behave, or how they look, or what annoying and inappropriate things they do.  The God who opens her heart of healing.  The God who feels what I feel, who assures me that when I have made mistakes, when I have wandered from the right path, and when I have been overwhelmed by the foxes, those holy wings are still spread over me, protecting me, sheltering me, keeping me safe, loving me.

Many of the ideas for this sermon come from: “Jesus, Mother Hen: This is the God I Want to Worship,” by Leah D. Schade. Patheos. May 10, 2017. https://www.patheos.com/blogs/

ecopreacher/2017/05/jesus-mother-hen/

[1] (“She’s like a mother hen; Nominated for caring nature,” Mark Welford, Evening Gazette (Middlesbrough, England), August 15, 2009; http://www.thefreelibrary.com/She%27s+like+a+mother+hen%3b+Nominated+for+caring+nature-a0205904357. Accessed Feb. 23, 2013).

[2] (Copyright 2011 Asian News International (ANI) – All Rights Reserved. Provided by Syndigate.info an Albawaba.com company.  http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Mother+hens+’can+feel+their+chicks’+pain’.-a0251104710. Accessed Feb. 23, 2013.)

[3] (“The Fox in Our Henhouse,” Delmer Chilton, 2013; http://www.livinglutheran.com/blog/2013/02/the-fox-in-our-hen-house.html#.USk5ZqUsmSo. Accessed Feb. 23, 2013.)

18, 20181 Samuel 1:19-2:20 New International Version (NIV)

19 Early the next morning they arose and worshiped before the Lord and then went back to their home at Ramah. Elkanah made love to his wife Hannah, and the Lord remembered her. 20 So in the course of time Hannah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, (Heard by God) saying, “Because I asked the Lord for him.”

Hannah Dedicates Samuel

21 When her husband Elkanah went up with all his family to offer the annual sacrifice to the Lord and to fulfill his vow, 22 Hannah did not go. She said to her husband, “After the boy is weaned, I will take him and present him before the Lord, and he will live there always.”[b]

23 “Do what seems best to you,” her husband Elkanah told her. “Stay here until you have weaned him; only may the Lord make good his[c]word.” So the woman stayed at home and nursed her son until she had weaned him.

24 After he was weaned, she took the boy with her, young as he was, along with a three-year-old bull,[d] an ephah (36lbs) of flour and a skin of wine, and brought him to the house of the Lord at Shiloh. 25 When the bull had been sacrificed, they brought the boy to Eli, 26 and she said to him, “Pardon me, my lord. As surely as you live, I am the woman who stood here beside you praying to the Lord. 27 I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him. 28 So now I give him to the Lord. For his whole life he will be given over to the Lord.” And he worshiped the Lord there.

2 Then Hannah prayed and said:

“My heart rejoices in the Lord;
    in the Lord my horn (symbolizes strength) is lifted high.
My mouth boasts over my enemies,
    for I delight in your deliverance.

2 “There is no one holy like the Lord;
    there is no one besides you;
    there is no Rock like our God.

3 “Do not keep talking so proudly
    or let your mouth speak such arrogance,
for the Lord is a God who knows,
    and by him deeds are weighed.

4 “The bows of the warriors are broken,
    but those who stumbled are armed with strength.
5 Those who were full hire themselves out for food,
    but those who were hungry are hungry no more.
She who was barren has borne seven children,
    but she who has had many sons pines away.

6 “The Lord brings death and makes alive;
    he brings down to the grave and raises up.
7 The Lord sends poverty and wealth;
    he humbles and he exalts.
8 He raises the poor from the dust
    and lifts the needy from the ash heap;
he seats them with princes
    and has them inherit a throne of honor.

“For the foundations of the earth are the Lord’s;
    on them he has set the world.
9 He will guard the feet of his faithful servants,
    but the wicked will be silenced in the place of darkness.

“It is not by strength that one prevails;
10     those who oppose the Lord will be broken.
The Most High will thunder from heaven;
    the Lord will judge the ends of the earth.

“He will give strength to his king
    and exalt the horn of his anointed.”

11 Then Elkanah went home to Ramah, but the boy ministered before the Lord under Eli the priest.

Hebrews 10:11-25 New International Version (NIV)

11 Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool. 14 For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.

15 The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First, he says:

16 “This is the covenant I will make with them
    after that time, says the Lord.
I will put my laws in their hearts,
    and I will write them on their minds.”[a]

“Their sins and lawless acts
    I will remember no more.”[b]

18 And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary.

A Call to Persevere in Faith

19 Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Hebrews 10:11-14 (15-18) 19-25

Jesus was a one-and-done Savior. And that’s a good thing!

It’s been more than a decade since the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the players’ union agreed to a rule that says players either need to be 19 years old or be one year removed from high school before being eligible for the draft.

Article X of the collective bargaining agreement struck in 2006 contains the core of the agreement that has since come to be known as the “one-and-done” rule. It refers to the player who graduates from high school, plays one year of college and then bolts for the NBA to make boatloads of money.

The rule will almost certainly be revised. Coaches in both the NBA and in college basketball don’t like it, and players don’t either. Many older NBA players do not believe that kids coming into the league at 19 are ready for showtime and the level of play that exists at the professional level.

Most 19-year-olds are not Kobe Bryant or LeBron James, or this year, college basketball’s new phenom, Zion Williamson.

But the kids don’t like the rule because they feel their right to work is being unfairly restricted. If they come out of high school and can get a job in the NBA, then why not?

Whatever the outcome of the rule, the expression “one-and-done” skipped from its origins in basketball to the lingo of the larger culture.

Today, the expression might be uttered in a variety of contexts.

Disposable products. Diapers, for example, are usually a one-and-done product. You put it on, you take it off. Done. Or paper plates. You fill the plate with potato salad, baked beans and chips. You eat. You toss the plate into a large, 50-gallon plastic tub lined with a one-and-done, black plastic bag.

The Bible says that in the dual role of high priest and sacrifice, he was one-and-done.

He acted as a high priest once. And was done.

He offered a sacrifice once — himself. And was done.

Typically, the temple priests were never one-and-done. They were always acting as priests and always offering sacrifices for sins, including their own sins!

So, Jesus’ one-and-done priesthood was special — an unusual arrangement. Priests in Judaism going as far back as the establishment of the Levirate priesthood offered sacrifices of sheep, bulls, lambs and goats. And they did this many times. “And every priest stands day after day at his service, offering again and again the same sacrifices that can never take away sins” (v. 11).

But no priest ever offered himself as a sacrifice!

It would have been pointless because the sacrifice has to be without blemish. No human being has ever been without some blemish. No human, priest or otherwise, has been perfect. We “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” according to the apostle Paul in Romans 3:23.

Jesus qualified. He was a perfect sacrifice. Spotless and without blemish. He was a one-and-done priest. A one-and-done Savior. It was a “single sacrifice for sins,” says the writer (v. 12).

Jesus came to earth once — and was done.

How do we respond to this?

The biblical writer now leaves the ritual and theological foundation and begins to build a practical structure in which we can live. He begins with “Therefore.” In other words, all that has been said previously is context and foundation. The footings have been poured. The stones have been laid. The foundation has been set. Jesus is our one-and-done Savior.

Now, let’s get practical.

First, let’s hang on hard (“hold fast”) to our faith (v. 23). Our salvation is priceless. It cost Jesus his life. Let’s hold on “fast” to our faith in Christ “without wavering.”

Sometimes, it’s tempting to dabble in other religious traditions. When we look across the religious fence at other pastures, we see some things we might like. There’s nothing inherently wrong in being respectful of other people and their faiths. Justin Martyr even said that we can learn a lot from the writings of “pagans.”

But we have come to Christ, and Christ suffered and died for our sins. Let’s be clear about who we are, and who we are not.

Next, let’s remember that because Jesus is a one-and-done Savior and has entered the Holy Place, as it were, we can now approach God ourselves without the benefit of an earthly, mortal, corruptible priest. GOD IS APPROACHABLE (v. 22). We will not be struck dead if we are so audacious as to enter into the presence of God.

Next, we can remember that God is faithful (v. 23). God will do what God has promised.

We should also offer ourselves as living sacrifices. Jesus offered himself as a sacrifice for sin and we should give ourselves sacrificially as well. The apostle Paul uses this phrase in Romans 12:1. In some services of the “Lord’s Supper,” this language is used: “In remembrance of these your mighty acts in Jesus Christ, we offer ourselves in praise and thanksgiving as a holy and living sacrifice, in union with Christ’s offering for us, as we proclaim the mystery of our faith” (United Methodist Hymnal, 10ff).

The writer of Hebrews also believes that the foundation of Jesus’ one-and-done ministry should help us inspire other people to do loving things. “Let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds” (v. 24). When we think of the word “provoke,” we usually hear it in a negative way. One dictionary defines the word this way: “to stir up, arouse, or call forth (feelings, desires, or activity); to incite or stimulate to action; to give rise to, induce, or bring about.”

We are called to be provokers, a community of provocateurs!

To love and good works.

By regularly meeting together, and by encouraging one another.

So now we know one reason we come to church: to provoke one another!

But we can provoke each other to do good works and commit acts of love and kindness when we “encourage one another” (v. 25). The writer says something similar earlier in his letter: “Exhort one another every day as long as it is called ‘today’” (3:13).

Why don’t we encourage each other more often?

Is it because we don’t have enough time?

Is it because it just isn’t part of our nature?

Is it because we are so emotionally fragile that we can hardly keep ourselves pumped up, let alone try to help someone else?

Often, the act of offering encouragement to others results in spiritual growth for ourselves. Encouraging someone is not hard. Stacey Wiebe has a great article about how to do this. Some of her suggestions include learning someone’s “love languages,” that is, the special ways in which they feel most valued. In his book, The 5 Love Languages, Gary Chapman explains that not everyone’s emotional needs are met in the same way, and that it’s important to learn to speak others’ love languages. The five love languages are words of affirmation, quality time, receiving gifts, acts of service and physical touch.

Wiebe says that we might also “make celebration a more regular part of [our] relationships. Celebrate others’ victories, large and small, with a note, coffee together, a special meal, a congratulatory phone call or just a high-five!”

There are myriad ways in which we might encourage one another.

But let’s not forget one of the reasons we do this.

We do it not just to make them feel better. We don’t do it just to make ourselves feel better.

We do it because we’re trying to provoke them.

We hope that they, in turn, will be provoked into passing it on, sharing a blessing with someone else.

Soon, the whole community is blessed and praising God!

This sort of loving community is possible because of a one-and-done Savior. His selfless act of sacrificial love is the basis for our own loving actions for others.

But this lifestyle of loving sacrifice is not a one-and-done lifestyle.

We can’t say, “Well, I did this and I can scratch it off my list.”

Jesus was one-and-done.

But we are not one — we’re a community; and we’re never done.

We keep loving and giving until … Jesus comes, or we go to Jesus!

The Associated Press, “N.B.A. commissioner is ready for change in ‘One-and-Done’ rule. nytimes.com. June 1, 2017. Retrieved May 15, 2018.

“Choster.” “Meaning and usage of “one-and-done.” English Language & Usage Website. english.stackexchange.com. August 30, 2016.

Wiebe, Stacy. “19 ways to encourage others. thelife.com. Retrieved May 19, 2018. (Wiebe’s ideas are adapted from the book, 52 Simple Ways to Encourage Others, by C.E. Rollins, Thomas Nelson Publishers: Nashville,1995.)

When we need advice or forgiveness, our personal priest is not far away.

When evangelist Billy Graham died last February at the age of 99, many commentators noted his friendships with U.S. presidents, beginning with Harry S. Truman.

Graham, perhaps the last in a long line of populist American evangelists including Whitefield, Finney, Moody and Sunday, had the ear of every president following Truman. President Barack Obama was the only sitting president to visit him at his mountain home in North Carolina.

Many of the presidents who invited Graham to the White House later acknowledged with appreciation both the friendship and the counsel received from him.

For some, he was a sort of de facto White House chaplain, or priest, as it were. When you’re the president of the United States, you get to have your own personal pastor, and Billy Graham often functioned in a pastoral way when at the White House.

Some presidents — Bill Clinton, for example — had other “pastors,” sometimes known as “spiritual advisors.” Tony Campolo is known to have functioned in this role.

Even Pope Francis has a confessor. For years, his confessor was the late Father Berislav Ostojic (d. 2015), a Croatian Franciscan priest whom the pope knew when he was in Argentina.

You may not have realized this, but you have a personal priest.

And what this personal priest has to offer is nothing short of amazing.

—He is willing to take on several roles as he shares his life with you. For example, he regards you as his friend (John 15:14). He also sees himself as a shepherd, indeed, the Good Shepherd. As our friend and shepherd, he’s made certain commitments to us, such as to stay with us, never leave us and lay down his life for us.

—Yes! He’s willing to lay down his life for us! See John 10. In fact, that’s what friends do, he says. It’s what the Good Shepherd is all about — putting his own life at risk for the sake of the flock.

—Oh, wait! He did that — laid down his life — at the cross! Jesus’ death on the cross was a priestly action. At the cross, Jesus not only offers the sacrifice for sin, a function and duty of a priest, but he offers himself as the sacrifice itself!

—He’s divine, so he’s got the power. His priestly and voluntary offering of himself as a sacrifice for sin was done not only for you, but for everyone. He’s got that kind of power. And yet, his power is personal, and the impact of his priestly work is immediate.

—He’s human, so he knows you inside and out. If we’re going to have someone traveling with us, it helps if that person is connected with us, knows us and knows our history. It just makes life easier.

But here’s the thing — Jesus not only knows us — he’s one of us! He’s human. He knows what it’s like to be tempted, perhaps in ways we don’t even like to talk about. He not only helps us with a problem; he helps us to resolve the problem. He helps us to admit it, quit it and forget it.

Why is this important? Because his humanity is the essential aspect of his person that qualifies Jesus “the priest” to offer Jesus “the sacrifice” for sin. Were he only divine, he really could not do the sacrifice part. Justice demands that if humanity sins, humanity must pay the price.

In the days of biblical priests, the Law required that a priest first offer a sacrifice for his own sins before offering one for the people. First, the priest washed his hands and feet. Then he would clothe himself in gleaming white linen. Servants brought a bull that the priest himself had purchased. Placing his hands on the animal’s head thereby transferring his sins, the priest would offer a prayer of confession: “O Lord God, I have committed iniquity; I have transgressed; I have sinned, I and my house. O Lord, I beseech thee, cover over the sins and transgressions which I have committed, transgressed and sinned before thee, I and my house.”

Jesus offered no confession such as this one because he had nothing he needed to confess.

—He’s immortal, so there’s no chance he’s going to die on you — again. He died once, and that’s it. The Bible says that Jesus “ever lives” to make intercession for us. That’s what priests do. Make intercession. And our priest is personal!

—He acts as an intermediary or intercessor between you and God. Already mentioned this. See above.

—He is not only our priest, but he is our Savior because any penalties we owe, he paid for us.

Basically, because Jesus is our personal priest, Jesus has our backs. This is what a priest does. We’re in trouble? Our personal high priest says, “Hey, I got this! Wait here.”

The writer of Hebrews contrasts these qualities of Jesus, our Personal Priest, with the earthly priests of the Old Testament. Those priests were human. Because they were only human, they died — and never came back to life! Because they were human, they sinned. Because they sinned, they had to offer offerings for their own sins, as well as the sins of the people. When the priest died, another fallible human took his place.

Jesus is so not like this kind of priest!

Of course, some might argue that I am your Priest, a sort of in loco episcopus, since Jesus doesn’t seem to hang around in flesh and blood and rarely makes personal appearances. But I prefer to think of myself as your “personal spiritual trainer”, the “personal pastor, life coach and mentor.”

My hope and prayer is that you would see me in a sense, as being present with you, walking alongside you, and trying to faithfully point you in a path that draws you closer to God.

Yet, I want you all to remember that — each of you and me, and every pastor, priest (including the pope) and coach are in need of a high priest ourselves.

And if that is true, and it is, then we need to ask: “What is my relationship with this amazing priest?”

First, it should be a relationship of trust. If you cannot trust the one in whom you confide, the relationship will not last long.

Second, it should be an ongoing relationship, not an on-and-off relationship. Too often, we confer with Jesus only when we’re in crisis. For a relationship to grow, interaction should happen often.

Third, it should be a relationship that acknowledges the roles. We are the humble penitent; Jesus is Lord and Advocate.

Fourth - Also, it should be a relationship to which we have immediate access. We should not hesitate to consult our Personal Priest.

Fifth, we should follow the counsel of our Confessor. What is the point of having an advisor if we refuse to follow his advice?

Sixth, we should live in a manner that pleases our Personal Priest.

Seventh, we must always remember that there’s no need to impress our Personal Priest. He knows everything about us.

Eighth, it is comforting to understand that even though our Personal Priest knows the absolute worst thing there is to know about us, he still loves us. See Romans 5:8.

Having a personal priest is not a luxury.

It is not something that only the rich and famous can have.

It is not a perk reserved for presidents.

Each of us has a very personal priest, someone who was human like us, was tempted like us and knew what it was like to suffer like us. Someone who died for us.

But he is also a priest who is alive and well — and whom death can never again touch!

Yes. He is Jesus our Lord!

“Billy Graham: Pastor to Presidents.” billygraham.org. February 2, 2018. Retrieved March 26, 2018.

Ostling, Richard. “Did Pope Francis have to go to confession?” April 7, 2014. Patheos.com. Retrieved March 23, 2018.

2 Corinthians 12:2-10

Prayer resets our spiritual-attention clock.

This is World Communion Sunday, a day that encourages us to remember our kinship with Christians around the globe, most of whom we’ll never know, but who are seeking to be God’s people in their locations.

So, picking one of those places — India — let’s see if you can identify someone from the description we offer here. She was a woman not born in that country, but who spent most of her adult life there, working as a Christian missionary among the poor. She founded a religious order for women to assist with her work in aiding people in need and became highly regarded for her selfless dedication to others. In fact, although she was unmarried and had no children, she was sometimes referred to as “Mother.” She lived into her 80s and died in India in the 20th century.

Now, if you think you know this person, great! But before you commit, here is one more hint: She was not Roman Catholic.

Okay, what was her name?

Apologies to all who were ready to say “Mother Teresa.” And no wonder, for she does fit all those facts except that she was Roman Catholic.

The description, however, is of a woman who predates Mother Teresa by a few decades. The woman is Amy Carmichael, who was sent as a missionary to India by the Church of England. It’s not surprising, however, that her name is unfamiliar, because although both women worked in the 20th century, Carmichael was earlier. In fact, when she began her mission work, it was still the 19th century. Mother Teresa died at age 87 in 1997. Carmichael died at age 83 in 1951. Much of Mother Teresa’s work was with the dying. Much of Carmichael’s work was helping women and girls caught in human trafficking.

Carmichael was born in Ireland in 1867. Her mother had blue eyes, which the little girl thought were beautiful, but she herself had brown eyes. Her mother had told her, however, that God always hears and answers prayers. So while she was still quite small, Amy prayed one night that God would change her eyes to blue. She then went to bed quite confident that God would do as she asked. When she awoke in the morning, she went straight to a mirror to see her new blue eyes, only to be disappointed. Her eyes were still brown.

We’ll tell you more about her eyes in a few moments, but first a bit more about Amy’s life.

When she was 19, her family traveled to England to attend a spiritual conference. The purpose of the conference was the promotion of holiness or what people sometimes called the “higher Christian life,” and there, Amy responded to God’s call. Eventually, she offered her services to the church, and in 1895, she was commissioned by a missionary society of the Church of England to go to Dohnavur, India, where she served the next 56 years in mission work, without a furlough.

A major part of her work there was devoted to rescuing babies and children from situations and backgrounds of extreme danger, including girls who had been sent to the local temples to serve as prostitutes. She eventually started the Dohnavur Fellowship, which became a place of safety and refuge for children. In 1916, needing help with the work, she formed a religious order called Sisters of the Common Life.

Through Amy’s work and that of her sisters in Christ, more than 1,000 children were rescued from neglect and abuse. There probably would have been even more, except that in 1931, a serious accident curtailed Amy’s mobility and forced her to spend much of her time confined to the Dohnavur Fellowship’s compound. Even then, however, she wrote a number of spiritually helpful books. The Dohnavur Fellowship, by the way, continues yet today as a home and community for children in South India.

Amy had requested that when she died, no stone be placed at her grave, so instead, the children she had cared for put a birdbath over it with the single inscription, Amma, which means “mother” in the Tamil language.

Back to Amy’s brown eyes. That morning, when she awoke to find that her eyes had not changed color despite her prayer, she ran to her mother to complain. It took Mrs. Carmichael several minutes of careful explanation before Amy understood that “no” was an answer, too. God meant for Amy to have brown eyes for a reason, explained Mrs. Carmichael. Just what the reason was, she might never know. But meanwhile, brown eyes were perfectly lovely, her mother said. Amy wasn’t so sure. Smiling Irish blue would always be her favorite color, even if God said “No.”

We’ll come back to Amy’s eyes once more, but let’s think for a few moments about this matter of praying for things we want. Prayer is something we Christians do at the direction of our Lord and of the Scriptures, but as Amy’s story reminds us, sometimes the answer is “No.”

Some people in the Bible found that out, too. In 2 Corinthians, for example, the apostle Paul says that he prayed three times to be relieved of a certain “thorn in the flesh,” presumably some physical ailment. It did not happen. Instead, he perceived the answer to be, “My grace is sufficient for you, for [my] power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). God promised grace, but what Paul asked was not granted.

It was not granted despite his persistence. Second Corinthians tells us that he prayed three times. This probably means that there were three separate periods in his life when he made his physical condition a matter of urgent prayer. It is unlikely that he said a prayer on Tuesday of one week, another prayer on Friday of the following week and a third prayer on Sunday. No, it’s more likely that the text suggests three specific occasions or periods in his life in which, as the suffering became so great, he asked the Lord to let this particular cup pass from him. And the Lord said, “No.”

It was a prayer request that was not granted in spite of the fact that Paul of all people was eminently worthy of the request. He had already suffered for the Lord. He documents his persecutions in his letters to this church at Corinth. In his letters to the Galatians, he describes his life as one “crucified with Christ.” So, you’d think the heavenly Father would take what he had already suffered into account, and grant Paul his request.

You’d think. But no.

It was a prayer request that was refused even though had it been granted it might have enabled Paul to minister more effectively. After all, the shipwrecks and beatings he endured were episodic and periodic. After they were over, they were over. But the physical issue about which Paul was praying was chronic. It sidelined the apostle. It weakened him. And it would only continue to do so. Asking God to heal him made perfect sense for the sake of the ministry to which Paul was called.

Again, what made sense to Paul was foolishness in the eyes of God. And God says, “[My] power is made perfect in [your] weakness.” End of story.

And then there’s Jesus. If Jesus doesn’t get a prayer answered, then how can we demand that God answer our prayers? In the garden of Gethsemane, on the night of his arrest, Jesus prayed that if it were his heavenly Father’s will, he would not have to “drink the cup,” by which he meant he would not have to go to the cross. As you know, that request was not granted either.

Here is the interesting part: Neither Paul nor Jesus himself found in these rejections any reason to stop praying. Prayer remains a vital exercise of the spiritual life, but its purpose, apparently, is not to persuade God to do something God has hitherto had no intention of doing.

There are, however, some passages in the Bible that, on a surface reading, may give us a different impression, such as this one from Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount. He was talking about prayer and said, “Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened” (Matthew 7:7-8).

Taken by itself, this language almost sounds like the wording of a guarantee. Follow these instructions faithfully, and you will get the desired results. At first glance, the words seem to promise that we can receive anything if we pray with enough intensity and persistence.

Yet that is not what the New Testament teaches, as the examples from Paul and Jesus show.

So if Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount are not a guarantee that faithful praying will get us what we ask for, what do they mean? Like most verses we read in the Bible, the meaning becomes clearer if we read them in context. In the Sermon on the Mount thus far, Jesus had already asked his hearers to live righteously, to forgo anger, to shun retaliation, to avoid lust, to love their enemies, to forgive those who injured them and to not be anxious about the future.

Well, if you had been in the audience that day, what would have been going through your mind? Maybe something like, “Well, Jesus, that’s all very nice, but how am I going to do all those things? I can’t even forgive my neighbor for making too much racket, so how am I going to love my enemy? And then there is anger and lust. I don’t want those things, but they just overtake me when I am not expecting them. You might as well ask me to give up eating or breathing!”

Jesus, it seems, anticipated those questions, and thus his comments about prayer. He tells his audience to just ask God. Ask for the ability to live righteously, to love one’s neighbor, to forgive those who hurt them and so on. Those are the qualities praying affects. In other words, Jesus tells them that the answer to prayer for ourselves most often comes in the form of spiritual graces in our lives, not in material treasures or in God changing the course of events.

To say this yet another way (and, folks, this is sort of the preaching point right here), Jesus called his listeners to change upward, to step up their game, take it to a new level. How? By asking God to help.

It is often true that people who pray regularly talk about the prayer experience in “upward” language.

So, one purpose of prayer is to help the one praying to change upward.

There is, however, another meaning of “change upward,” for it is the name of a teaching technique.

To do some research a few years ago, observers were sent out to several college classes to watch what happened to students’ attention spans as professors presented the day’s lessons. In classes where the teachers presented the material by lecture, for example, the observers noticed that the students seemed eager to tune in, taking notes and paying attention for the first 15-20 minutes.

After that, obvious lapses of attention began to occur, with students staring off into space or failing to take notes. Following these short lapses, the students would seem to rejoin the lecture and get involved again. The researchers concluded that this behavior was driven by attention spans, so they recommended that periodically throughout the class period, teachers should have something called a change-up, which restarts the attention clock.

Simply put, “change-up” means varying the teaching method. If the professor has lectured for the first 15 minutes, then switching to a class experiment, showing an illustration or using some other teaching methodology for a few moments, often re-energizes the students, even as the professor then turns back to lecture.

In a sense, prayer is like that. We go along in our lives, wanting to be spiritual people, but our attention lapses. Praying is a change-up that restarts our spiritual attention clocks, so that we also learn to change upward.

Still, there is this matter of praying and not getting what we ask for. Amy’s mother told her that God must have a reason for giving her brown eyes. That, of course, sounds like the sort of explanation a mother might give to a small child to help the child deal with disappointment.

But now jump ahead several years. Amy has arrived in India, and before long, she has learned about the temple girls. Even some Christians were against Amy when she stepped into the struggle to end the service required of the little girls, because they thought she exaggerated the situation.

Indeed, the truth of what went on behind the scenes was so hard to get at, that Amy found she must pretend to be an Indian and visit the temples herself. Dressed in a sari with her skin stained, she could pass as a Hindu. Now she understood why God had given her brown eyes. Blue eyes would have been a dead giveaway. Her naturally brown eyes completed the disguise.

Sometimes, if we are patient, we may learn why God says “No” to some of our prayer requests, but we always should pray, because we need the change-up to reset our spiritual attention clocks, and we need prayer so that we can change upward, move up to higher ground.

What we ask for may be too low.

We seek blue eyes, but God gives us compassion.

We seek healing, but God gives us grace.

We seek escape from sorrow, but God gives us eternal life.

It is higher ground, heaven’s tableland, changing up.

And prayer is the upward path.

“Amy Carmichael.” Wikipedia. Retrieved March 7, 2018.

Graves, Dan. “Amy Carmichael, kindly kidnapper.” Christianity.com. Retrieved March 7, 2018.

“Sisters of the Common Life.” tituswomensministry.org. Retrieved March 8, 2018.

Middendorf, Joan and Kalish, Alan. “The ‘Change-up’ in lectures.” The National Teaching and Learning Forum, Vol. 5, No. 2, 1996, 1ff, docstull.files.wordpress.com. Retrieved March 8, 2018.

James 3:13-4:3, 7-8a

Conversion is a start on the road of discipleship, but several more conversions lie ahead.

Have you heard that business about how we use only 10 percent of our brains at any given time? The 2011 movie Limitless takes that idea and runs with it, spinning a story about a writer who takes a secret experimental drug that allows him to use 100 percent of his mind. This causes him, until the drug wears off, to be the perfect version of himself, incredibly creative and attentive. Everything he's ever read or seen is instantly organized in his mind and available for him to use in whatever way he needs. While he's taking the pills, he's such a radiant and appealing person that people are immediately drawn to him. And with his entire mind focused like a laser, he's able to grasp the details of complex business situations and outguess the stock market, a skill he uses to great financial success. 

Of course, there's a wrinkle -- bad guys who want to get their hands on this drug and kill anyone else who has it. The movie is an action-thriller that keeps you engaged until its surprising end.

If nothing else, the movie presents one vision of what any of us might be able to do and how dazzling we'd be if only we could use 100 percent of our brains.

But here's the problem: Turns out, we're already using most of our brains! The old assertion that we are using only 10 percent is a myth. Now that we have better technology -- like PET scans and MRIs -- for studying brain activity, researchers have found that any mentally complex activity uses many areas of the brain, and over a day, just about every part of our brain gets a workout. Other evidence that the entire brain is operating most of the time is the devastating impact even a small amount of brain damage has on a person.

Smart that isn't smart 

Our text says, however, that even if we're brain-smart, we might still be dumb -- we might still do really stupid things. In our reading, James talks of wisdom that is from above and wisdom that is earthbound, and he makes his remarks to Christian believers. In verse 16, James speaks of "disorder," which commentator Thorsten Moritz says "is a reference to the schizophrenic situation in which Christians who are double-minded find themselves. They claim possession of wisdom from above on the one hand, while on the other hand they display the fruits of wisdom from below" (emphasis added). Earthbound, human smart isn't always very smart. 
James, who was very concerned about how Christians behaved with one another in the faith community, saw that the community was fit and vigorous ONLY when it was hyperlinked to divine wisdom. James's distinction between the two kinds of smart is especially clear in The Message, Eugene Peterson's paraphrase of the Bible: 

It's the way you live, not the way you talk, that counts. Mean-spirited ambition isn't wisdom. Boasting that you are wise isn't wisdom. Twisting the truth to make yourselves sound wise isn't wisdom. It's the furthest thing from wisdom -- it's animal cunning, devilish conniving. Whenever you're trying to look better than others or get the better of others, things fall apart, and everyone ends up at the others' throats.

Real wisdom, God's wisdom, begins with a holy life and is characterized by getting along with others. It is gentle and reasonable, overflowing with mercy and blessings, not hot one day and cold the next, not two-faced. You can develop a healthy, robust community that lives right with God, and enjoy its results only if you do the hard work of getting along with each other, treating each other with dignity and honor.

When it's put that plainly, we might want to say that this so-called earthbound smarts is not smarts at all, and James acknowledges that when he says, "It's the furthest thing from wisdom -- it's animal cunning, devilish conniving." But he's meeting people where they are, where even some Christians viewed people who were getting ahead by mean-spirited boasting, twisting the truth and pitting one person against another, as cunningly wise. 

Think Different 

It may sound strange to say that even some Christians admired such persons, but sometimes there is a begrudging admiration for the cons among us, or the bullies who get away with their behavior because of their brilliance in other ways. Steve Jobs comes to mind.

Who cannot -- on some level -- admire the guy. His biographer, Walter Isaacson, compares him to Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931), the "Wizard of Menlo Park," the prolific inventor of a little more than a hundred years ago. Edison was a 19th-century Steve Jobs, the Genius (Jobs hated the word) of Silicon Valley. Jobs changed the world we live in, as did Edison. We can't go through a single hour anymore without being affected in some way by a product Jobs created. 

Yet as smart as he was, he was a beast of a human being to work with or work for. Isaacson cites colleagues, friends, family and acquaintances, and the adjectives that come rolling off the tongue include autocratic, controlling, mercurial, temperamental, cold, absent, obsessive, distant, passionate, rebellious, and so on. He shouted, he yelled, he bad-mouthed people, he misled. He was a jerk. "Velvety diplomacy was ... not a part of his repertoire," writes Isaacson. 

He was also only one of the most influential people of the past 40 years. 

His mantra might be identified by the ad campaign Apple ran for some time: Think Different. 

Jobs knew that for Apple to succeed, the company had to not only have a kind of smarts that was unlike its competitors', but that it had to encourage its customers to tap into their own creativity. He also spotted the wisdom in the idea that "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication" -- a word which itself is rooted in the Greek word for wisdom, sophia. 

So, isn't it true that we're sometimes in awe of people who, on the basis of their brainpower, carve out a moneymaking niche for themselves? People who think different, like Mark Zuckerberg launching Facebook from his college dorm room, jobless J. K. Rowling writing the Harry Potter series from a story idea she thought of, and young Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak founding Apple in Jobs's garage. Isn't theirs a kind of wisdom that many of us envy? Or how many of us have said something like, "I wish I'd had the wisdom to invest in [successful company] when it first started." 

Becoming smart 

What we get from our text is that Christians don't automatically get a dose of heavenly smarts. The other kind of wisdom -- the world's wisdom -- too often predominates in the community of faith. Commenting on this passage, Luke Timothy Johnson says that James "is addressing members of the Christian community who gather in the name of Jesus and profess the faith of the glorious Lord Jesus Christ, but whose attitudes and actions are not yet fully in friendship with God." Johnson is not condemning this congregation, but simply recognizing that conversion does not remove the ambiguity of life and that complete consistency "is not given by a first commitment. It is slowly and painfully won through many conversions" (emphasis added). He also says, "There is always double-mindedness, even among those who truly want to be friends of God. The wisdom from below is not easy to abandon or avoid, precisely because it is the 'way of the world,' inscribed not only in the language and literature of our surrounding culture but also in our very hearts."
True story (yes, this is a true story): One day, this "Bowery bum" (his description) wanders drunk as a skunk into a downtown mission. Let's call him Frank. He's come to the mission for the free dinner but stays for the service, and when the preacher issues an "altar call," this Frank finds himself going forward, where a counselor prays with him. 

Well, that night is the "big turnaround," as Frank himself describes it. And long story short, he goes on to recover and becomes a productive member of society. And though it doesn't always happen this way, Frank doesn't drink again after his trip to the altar. 

But he says that in many ways, his conversion was only a start. He felt that his sins had been forgiven, but in most ways, he was the same self-centered, profane, bigoted, uncaring person he'd been -- EXCEPT that NOW, he was attending worship services where he prayed and started listening for God. One by one, God revealed things to Frank that he needed to give up or rethink or do differently or take on if he was to continue following Jesus. Little by little, he began to make those adjustments -- more conversions, if you will. He never said he had "arrived," but he had a sense of where -- and toward whom -- he was headed.

The point here is not the nature of Frank's conversion, but that he didn't get zapped with divine wisdom in some firestorm of heavenly magic. The appropriation of wisdom that is from above is a lifelong learning event, and that should not discourage us, but animate us. C.S. Lewis puts it this way using a house -- a lifelong building project -- for a metaphor:

Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what he is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on. ... But presently he starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on Earth is he up to? The explanation is that he is building quite a different house from the one you thought of -- throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage; but he is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it himself.

If current brain research is correct, we're already using most of our brains each day. But that doesn't keep us from being double-minded. Maybe we're giving only 10 percent of our thinking power toward living a holy life. That doesn't disqualify us from discipleship -- but it gives us lots of room for growth ... and lots of room for Jesus to build on.

Participation Pointers: 

- Stephen L. Wotring suggests that the preacher could use some optical illusions to show how the brain struggles to interpret and understand. 

- Angel Christ says that people could be asked to call out or write down some of the wisest decisions they have ever made and then some of the dumbest decisions they ever made. Follow up or prep work could be done through social media, asking for feedback on: Is wisdom a product of individuality or of living in community? 

- Lee Zehmer reminds us of the Michael Card song, "God's Own Fool": "We in our foolishness thought we were wise. He played the fool and He opened our eyes."

Sources: 

Cool, Lisa Collier. "5 brain myths -- busted." Yahoo! Health, November 21, 2011. http://health.yahoo.net/experts/dayinhealth/5-brain-myths?page=1. 

Helmuth, Laura. "Top ten myths about the brain." Smithsonian.com, May 20, 2011. www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/Top-Ten-Myths-About-the-Brain.html. 

Johnson, Luke Timothy. "James 3:13--4:10," The New Interpreter's Bible. Vol. XII. Nashville: Abingdon, 1998, 212. 

Isaacson, Walter. Steve Jobs. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2011. 

Lewis, C.S. Mere Christianity New York: MacMillan, 1960, 174.

Moritz, Thorsten, "Eighteenth Sunday After Pentecost, Year B," The Lectionary Commentary: The Second Readings, ed. Roger Van Harn. Grand Rapids.: Eerdmans, 2001, 534.

Here we go again: - The pictures, filling up gas cans, buying water, empty shelves at the super market, the power off, the mandatory evacuations, trees bent and broken, debris, closed roads, the hurt, the hopelessness, FEMA, help is on the way.

We’re not even over Hurricane Matthew. Over 200 families (that we know) who have not nearly recovered. Some recovered now broken – again.

Yet – for many of us it was an inconvenience – and things are pretty much back to normal. Life goes on….. Not seeing devastation can lead to out of sight, out of mind mentality.

What are we to do in this situation? James makes it quite clear that we are to be Doers of the Word and not just Hearers. He contends that a Dynamic, alive faith calls us to be obedient to God’s Word and to DO.

Vision Poem – It is what we as brothers and sisters in Christ are called to do.

Even dead faith is subject to resurrection.

Doctors sometimes must tell people in a waiting room that their loved one is dead.

It’s a pronouncement none of us ever wants to hear regarding a loved one, but when a person is declared dead, it’s important that the declaration be correct. Rarely, but occasionally, a person who appears to have died, is not dead after all! He or she suddenly exhibits signs of life again, and some even recovered. So doctors want to get it right.

Because of medical life-support procedures, the cessation of heartbeat and breathing is sometimes not sufficient to say definitively that death has occurred. A stopped heart can sometimes be restarted (in fact, stopping and restarting a patient’s heart is standard procedure during heart surgery), and breathing can be sustained by a ventilator.

Therefore, in cases when a person is sustained by life support but is believed to be otherwise dead, there’s a standard that’s been adopted by every state in our country: The patient is dead when there is no longer any functioning brain activity.

This is determined in two ways: first, by a detailed process that ascertains the person’s inability to respond to voice, touch, pain or other stimuli; and second, by confirming that the brainstem no longer works to regulate the person’s breathing. Thus, if removed from the ventilator, the person will not breathe on his or her own.

Dr. Cory Franklin, who was director of medical intensive care at Cook County Hospital in Chicago for more than 20 years, says, “No patient with a proper diagnosis of brain death ever has recovered to come off life support. Even with life support, no one has survived for a prolonged period, and when life support is withdrawn the heart invariably stops within minutes.”

WHEN IS FAITH DEAD?

While physical death is not our subject, we’ve begun with the matter of setting criteria for when death occurs because, in a sense, that’s what the biblical writer James is doing in our passage for today.

But he’s not talking about dead people; he’s talking about dead faith.

He gives the shorthand version of his criteria in verse 17: “So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.” But in the preceding verses, he spells it out more clearly. James’ criteria for dead faith includes:

+ Acts of favoritism and partiality that result in dishonoring the poor within a Christian context (vv. 1-7).

+ Failure to keep the whole law, but instead choosing bits and pieces. This practice does not honor the divine law behind them all: love your neighbor as yourself (vv. 8-12).

+ Showing no mercy (v. 13).

+ Paying lip service to one’s faith and not expressing that faith through good works (vv. 14-17).

But all of that can be summed up in his declaration that “faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.”

These criteria for declaring faith dead aren’t given to help us make judgments about other people’s faith; rather, they are for self-diagnosis. With the help of the Holy Spirit, James’ signs of dead faith can enable us to resuscitate our faith when it is no longer moving.
NO LONGER MOVING

“No longer moving” is exactly the right phrase, because unlike when a person physically dies and no longer communicates and no longer moves, people with dead faith keep right on talking, even when they’ve stopped “moving,” as it were.

The late Ethel Barrett, who was well-known for her skill in telling Bible stories to children, put it this way: “You have a tongue in your head and two tongues in your shoes, and no matter what the tongue in your head is saying, the tongues in your shoes tell what you’re doing and where you are going. And the awful truth is that the tongues in your shoes have the last word.”

And it was the psychologist Alfred Adler who said, “Trust only movement. Life happens at the level of events, not of words. Trust movement.” Thus, it follows that what we do tells more about the state of our faith than what we say. And that indeed is what James meant when he said, “So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.” Or, as it’s sometimes popularly put, WE NEED TO NOT ONLY TALK THE TALK BUT ALSO WALK THE WALK.

JAMES AND PAUL

Some go off on a tangent at this point to argue that what James says about good works seems to contradict what Paul said. In Romans 3:28, Paul declared, “For we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law” (3:28). And in Galatians 2:16, he said it again: “And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by doing the works of the law, because no one will be justified by the works of the law” (2:16).

But Paul was talking about when we were STILL in the DARKNESS OF SIN, where faith plus nothing else but the grace of God brings us to new life. James is talking about AFTER we’re IN THE NEW LIFE, LETTING IT DIE BY NOT WALKING THE TALK. Or, as Barrett put it, coming to faith and then not expressing that faith in works “makes as much sense as whamming a ball over the back fence for a homer and then just standing there on home plate.”

Besides, Paul is as clear as James that works matter in the Christian life. Paul writes in Ephesians 2:10, “For we are what [God] has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life”.

The faith/works dichotomy in the New Testament does remind us, of course, that being a disciple of Jesus is not all about good works — there are important matters of repentance and belief involved — but FAITH and WORKS belong together.

We might think of being in a rowboat with the word “faith” on one oar and the word “works” on the other oar. When we try rowing with either of the oars alone, the boat simply goes in a tight circle, clockwise with one oar and counter clockwise with the other. To actually go anywhere, both oars need to be used together.

A WORKING FAITH

In case any of his readers don’t know what James means by “works,” he gives an example: “If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,’ and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that?” (vv. 15-16).

That’s lip service, not good works.

For an example from our own time, consider a cartoon we saw. It showed a woman lying on a couch, obviously sick, and miserably so. The sink was stacked with dirty dishes. A huge basket of clothes to be washed sat nearby. Two dirty children were fighting in one corner, and in the other, a cat was licking milk from a puddle where a carton had split open. A smiling woman stood in the doorway, saying, “Well, Florence, if there is anything I can do to help, don’t hesitate to let me know.”

But let’s not think of works ONLY as addressing obvious needs that present themselves to us. James does not offer his criteria of dead faith as a general and theoretical document. Rather, he is responding to a specific scenario. He says in verse 2 that he’s addressing what he’s seen happen when a wealthy person comes “into your assembly” — that is, into his readers’ specific church community. He notes that the rich person may be offered a seat of honor, while a poor person is shunted to the side. In so doing, James says, the church members involved are dishonoring the poor. It’s an attitude of favoritism. The good work, in this case, is to respond to even everyday situations in ways that reflect the values of Jesus.

THE RESURRECTION OF FAITH

This is a good time to remind ourselves that a cornerstone of the Christian faith is resurrection. Even DEAD FAITH CAN COME ALIVE AGAIN. Indeed, that was likely James’ aim in issuing his criteria for knowing when faith was dead — so that believers would get moving and become doers as well.

There’s an old fable about a man walking through a forest who saw a fox that had lost its legs. The man wondered how the fox lived. Then he saw a tiger come with game in its mouth. The tiger ate its fill and left the rest for the fox. The man saw the hand of God in this, and he decided that he would rest in a corner with full trust that the Lord would provide him with all he needed, just as he did for the fox.

So he did this for many days, but no one brought him anything. When he was almost at death’s door, he heard a voice say, “O you who are in a path of error, open your eyes to the truth! Follow the example of the tiger and stop imitating the disabled fox.”
As Paul said, in agreement with James, “We are what [God] has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.”

Barrett, Ethel. Will the Real Phony Please Stand Up? Glendale, Calif.: G/L Publications, 1969, 81-93.

Franklin, Cory. “When are you officially dead?” Chicago Tribune, January 10, 2014, articles.chicagotribune.com. Retrieved March 20, 2018.

Most of us remember learning to drive a car as an arduous process involving swerving around a parking lot with mom or dad, heading to the DMV, taking a written test and nervously navigating the road with a state trooper or driving instructor tracking our every move. All of that practice and instruction was rewarded with a driver’s license and its accompanying sense of freedom.

But what if you could skip all that hassle and just “YouTube it” instead?

That’s what an 8-year-old boy in Ohio did on one recent Sunday night. Our young innovator had a problem: mom and dad had fallen asleep early, and the boy and his 4-year-old sister had a hankering for some McDonald’s. The golden arches were a mile and a half away — too far for a walk in the dark. So, the boy did what any self-respecting Gen-Z kid would do when confronted with a conundrum. He looked up “How to drive a car” on YouTube, emptied his piggy bank, then bundled his sister into the car and headed out for a cheeseburger.

Police said later that the boy obeyed all the traffic laws, didn’t hit a single thing, and drove “effortlessly” through town as though he had been driving for years — all because he watched a few minutes of video instruction and then did precisely what it said to do.

Our pint-sized adventurer seems to have grasped early on what many of us grasped much later in life. That is that, on the internet, someone somewhere has created a video to show you how to do what you’re about to attempt. Whether it’s a repair for your home or your car, how to put on makeup, learning self-defense or making dinner, all you need to do is look it up on the world’s most popular video site and soon you’ll be an expert yourself.

There are millions of these tutorial videos, most produced by average people who have learned a skill and simply want to share it. It’s the crowd sourcing of expertise that makes it possible for the most mechanically inept person to fix a faucet, or a maker of microwave mac and cheese to become a gourmet chef. Of course, all this instruction depends on the viewer’s willingness to experiment and put the information into practice. Without that, it’s just another internet time-waster.

How do we stay faithful?

People in the ancient world obviously didn’t have YouTube. Most of their learning was accomplished by watching someone model the activity in question face to face or by receiving a letter from a distant instructor.
So James wrote this letter to Jewish Christians who were caught up in the social tensions of the mid-first century, where outbreaks of violence and insurrection were taking place in Jerusalem and environs — a conflict that would culminate in the Jewish revolt of A.D. 66-70. In fact, the whole Roman world was dealing with unrest, including economic problems, food shortages, and the rapid turnover of Roman emperors that led to an erratic government policy toward Christians, Jews and others.

The problem before the church in this time of uncertainty can be summed up something like this: “How do we remain a faithful Christian community in the midst of this time of trial and temptation?” James wrote to encourage his brothers and sisters and to give them some instruction on how to navigate in difficult times.

Faithfulness must be practiced. The letter reads like a series of random tutorial videos on the Christian life, but in this section, James made clear that no amount of instruction matters unless it is put into practice. James wanted the church to become experts not only in hearing the instruction but doing the instruction as well.

“Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him” (v. 12). James saw the current situation as a time of testing for the Christian community, but also an opportunity to demonstrate faithfulness.

Faithfulness will often be challenged or tested. For James, this time of testing was not something that God had thrown down in front of his people to break them, but rather it was a “gift” that God had given to his people — a chance to shine in the midst of a dark world as a community of the new creation that God had brought forth in the death and resurrection of Jesus (vv. 13-17).

Faithfulness is rooted in the trustworthiness of God. In the Greco-Roman world, many people consulted astrology and the alignment of the stars as a kind of first-century YouTube to help determine their course of action. James called the church to remember that they have been given the “perfect gift” of God: the “Father of heavenly lights” and the one who actually created the stars in the first place.

Unlike the changeable nature of events in the present world, God’s nature does “not change like shifting shadows” (v. 17). And it was God who chose to give the church “birth through the word of truth” (v. 18).

James sets this up as a direct contrast to the other kind of “birth” people have under sin; a birth conceived in desire, bringing forth sin which, in turn, gives birth to death (v. 15). You can look up “How to give birth” on YouTube and find a whole bunch of videos (you know, in case it becomes a DIY project). But for James, the only birth that really matters is the one that happens when we are born anew by God’s word of truth, which prepares us to be the “first fruits” of his new creation (v. 18).

Faithfulness is also grounded in the word. With that “word of truth” in mind, James then turns to the problem at hand and lays down a quick take on how to manage oneself while the world seems to be spinning out of control. It’s tempting to give into anger, revenge and nasty words. While there are a ton of instructional videos on YouTube, there are plenty of folks who also use that platform to rant and spew venom about some person, cause or issue. James would say, however, that this is like trying to deal with a problem without taking the time to read the directions first. “Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires” (vv. 19-20). James instructs his brothers and sisters to get rid of that kind of reactivity and to, instead, “humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you” (v. 21, emphasis added). The same “word of truth” that gives new birth also guides the words and actions of the one whom God has saved.

Faithfulness puts the word into demonstrable and visible action. So how does that word get activated in one’s life?

James says that you have to practice it. “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says” (v. 22). The purpose of receiving instruction, receiving the “word of truth,” is to put the information into practice. If, say, I watch a YouTube video on how to fix a leaky faucet but never pull out the tools and get to work putting what I’ve learned to good use, then I will still be stuck with a constant drip. If I really want to fix the problem, I need to set up my phone next to the sink and follow along step by step with the video.

On the other hand, if I just watch the video and say, “Yeah, I’ll get back to that sometime,” I’ll quickly forget everything I’ve learned. James says the same thing happens when we only hear the word of God and don’t put it into practice. It’s as though we looked at ourselves in a mirror briefly and then walked away, almost instantly forgetting what we looked like. Only the very wealthy had access to a mirror in the ancient world (and it was usually made of bronze and not very effective). Forgetting one’s image was easy to do. When we fail to take the word we have received and put it instantly into practice, building a kind of spiritual muscle memory, then we forget who God created us to be and our vocation as people created for God’s purposes (vv. 23-24).

If, on the other hand, we keep our focus on “the perfect law that gives freedom,” and persevere in the midst of trial, being hearers and doers, we will be “blessed” in our doing. In fact, it’s the “doing” of the word that matters most for James (v. 25).

Finally, faithfulness is easier when we’re in fellowship with a community. Some YouTube tutorials don’t quite convey the information in a way that’s easy to follow. Try tying a bow tie while watching a video or looking at a chart, for example. It’s extremely difficult because that mirror image forces you to do everything backwards. To tie that bow tie effectively you need someone standing beside you to show you how, guiding your fingers and helping you develop the internal memory of the process until it becomes second nature. It’s one thing to conceptualize the process, and quite another to execute it.

The same is true for real “religion,” says James. It’s not simply about running at the mouth and declaring one’s faith as a matter of intellectual belief; nor is it about lashing out at those who might be challenging you (v. 26). Religion that “the Father accepts as pure and faultless,” on the other hand, is religion that is demonstrated in practice — practice that comes as second nature to those who have internalized the word of truth. It’s religion that cares for the most vulnerable people (widows and orphans) and keeps oneself “from being polluted by the world” (v. 27).

It is religion, in other words, that uses the model of Jesus for both its belief and its practice. Like tying that bow tie, there are some things YouTube just can’t teach. It can’t teach you how to be a follower of Jesus. Oh, sure, it can teach you the principles of discipleship, but to really learn it you have to have someone live it out in front of you and guide you along the way. Information alone won’t get it; it takes imitation as well.

That’s why we need a community of faith to guide us and give us examples for putting the word into practice. In a culture where there is plenty of social upheaval, we must see the opportunity to be shining stars that reflect God’s glory rather than lash out in fear or join in the culture’s calamity. We shine most brightly when we are doing the Word of God in a way that causes others to see us and want to be instructed in how to do the same.

An 8-year-old learned to drive perfectly by watching a tutorial video and then grabbing the keys. All the motivation he needed was found in the prospect of a Happy Meal.

May we be motivated to take the instruction we have been given by the word of truth, put it into practice and then head out to an even greater destination.

Sources:

“8-year-old learns to drive on YouTube; heads to McDonald’s.” USA Today. April 13, 2017. usatoday.com. Retrieved August 31, 2018.

Keener, Craig. The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament. IVP Academic, 1994.

“You can learn anything on YouTube.” The Ellen Show. June 28, 2017. youtube.com. Retrieved August 31, 2018.

Drop one ant in water, and it's dead. Drop a tablespoon of ants in water and they live through interconnection.

Bodysurfing. Almost anyone braving the breakers has tried it at some point. The concept is simple -- instead of riding waves using a surfboard or Boogie-board, a person surfs on his own body. Line up in front of a big enough wave, take off swimming, and that wave will pick you up and surf you along its crest.

A great ride and a real rush -- if you can handle the crushing turbulence and foam at the end of the line.

Not only humans have been spotted bodysurfing. Recent scientific research has shown that fire ants are actually saving their own lives by ... bodysurfing. All written up in the Journal Science.

Yes, fire ants. And yes, bodysurfing -- of sorts.

These painful pests have developed a stunning way to survive huge rains that flood their colonies -- common occurrences in the American South. They'll link together and assemble into flat waterproof rafts that float atop the flood waters.

The disc-shaped rafts are actually water-repellent due to the interlocking pattern between the ants. Some ants in the raft even remain submerged below the water's surface, but the structure of their interconnection traps air bubbles between them that these ants use to breath. On top of the raft, other ants surf along until the colony washes up onto dry ground.

Southerners are no doubt irritated that scientists haven't devised an efficient way to drown these stinging sextapods. But linked together, they're so water repellant that an ant raft can float for up to two months! This has engineers trying to link ant raft methods to technologies for waterproof materials and self-sealing lifeboats.
The key to these rafts is the strength of the interconnection between each ant. The whole raft is held together as the ants clutch to one another with jaws and claws. By measuring the force required to break these links, scientists have determined that the ant's grip force is on par with that of a human being able to suspend six elephants off the ground -- or on par with the clutch strength you have if someone tries to take away your coffee or your Coke Zero before 8 a.m.

But the key finding surrounds the necessary interdependence of the fire ant community. Drop one ant in the water, and it's dead. Drop in a tablespoon of ants, and they live through interconnection.

Okay -- so how does this stuff about bodysurfing ants speak to the body we call the church? The apostle Paul helps us with that. The ant raft is the church. It's the surfing body which hangs together, the body that when carried on a flood of cultural confusion, links up and survives. If the following applies to an ant raft, it also applies to the church:

- The individual lives to help others.
- What appears to be personal sacrifice is actually service.
- One's service has meaning only when others use it, accept it or take advantage of it.
- Nobody can survive and thrive without the help of others.

While I am sure Paul had no concept of fire ant rafts, his words in Eph 4 can teach us many important points using the ant analogy.

Probably writing from a Roman prison, Paul wants believers at Ephesus to end the Jew-Gentile division that was fracturing the church. He wants them living on purpose and on mission. He wants them experiencing healthy interconnections.

He's begging a response from the church (v. 1), literally calling them to his side -- parakalew. This is Paul's ant raft exhortation -- a call to mutuality, unity and dependence. A challenge to Western individualism. Verse by verse he unfolds different aspects of how we are to be connected with one another.

A quality of relationships

Paul's vision for the church looks a lot like an AA meeting. Humility because of brokenness. Gentleness toward one another, as we need grace. Patience because we'll be imperfect again. Bearing with one another in love -- change rarely happens without it. (See Col 3:12-14 – virtues of living a worthy life.)

Paul's concept of the church is not that of a building one goes to once or twice a week. Experiencing church isn't about the quantity of time spent at a purpose-built structure, but about the quality of relationships nurtured in a purpose-built community. It's what we experience when we're engaged in relational linkages, gathering around Good News, sharing common beliefs and practices, and living our shared lives in grace and truth with and for one another.

This fuller experience of church requires interdependence. Trusting others. Being dependent on and depended upon. Making mistakes and seeking forgiveness. Metaphorically, making a raft together instead of surfing solo.

That's the church Paul's talking about.

A unity of relationships

Paul desires unity. (1:22-23; 2:14-16, 18). The Jew-Gentile thing is bothering him. In just three verses, the word "one" shows up 7 times referring to an element of faith shared by those divided (vv. 4-6). Paul wants singularity. Harmony thru a shared identity. But we can't be naive about unity like this. Doesn't come naturally, easily. Paul says we must make every effort to maintain it (v. 3).

Unity is like keeping a clean house. It isn't the result of cleaning just once. Life happens. Kids happen. So a clean house MUST be maintained and attended to -- on a regular basis. Our relationships are no different. Think of the small group, the committee or the volunteer team. We all bring the same thing to those settings -- ourselves. We bring our brokenness to bear on our relationships. Like clean houses, our relationships in churches will degrade unless regularly maintained.

Paul has cultural reconciliation in mind in this passage, but we must apply the appeal for unity to all forms of division in the church -- racial, gender, age, maturity gaps, differences in personality, worship preferences, etc. With the grip strength of ants in a flood, an interconnected community requires so much external force to break it apart that it can survive for huge stretches of time against adversity. Our churches should have a chosen unity -- which is not always natural unity -- but it's unity nonetheless. The apostle doesn't care if it doesn't seem natural. Unity is something you work at, even if it's sometimes painful.

A purpose in relationships

The church is intended to be a body living out the missio Dei -- the mission and purpose of God from the church and to the world. But to get there God envisions ministers making ministers.

Much has been made of the five-fold ministry of 4:11, but let's focus on the result of those gifts. The purpose of these ministerial functions is to encourage even greater ministry in and from the church. But less attention goes to the second purpose of this interconnectedness in the church -- maturity.

Ask the average adult in our churches how we grow spiritually, and you'll probably receive a smattering of answers addressing good preaching, devotional life and small group discussion.

But ask most college students, and they will tell you about the mission trip when they were in youth group. They'll talk about being asked to lead freshmen when they were seniors. They'll share HOW their faith and comfort were stretched by feeding the homeless. Maybe we need to learn from ants and students?

Is it possible that mission leads to maturation? That the fruit of service is spiritual growth? Is that why we have a children’s outreach ministry?

A security in relationships

Paul's concerned with the disorienting influence of false doctrine (v. 14). His sense of the church is that it might serve as an anchor of shared belief in a heretical storm.

One of my Korean youth described his experience of the body this way: "Church is where I come to remember what I truly believe."

In Life Together, Dietrich Bonhoeffer captures this security of shared faith so eloquently: "The Christ in his own heart is weaker than the Christ in the word of his brother; his own heart is uncertain, his brother's is sure."

Many of us have had a spiritually disorienting experience when we shared our faith with a friend. With all the isms of people today -- relativism, humanism, naturalism, pluralism -- it can be a daunting experience to share our faith. We can feel shaken. Discouraged. Confused. In need of hope again.

During times of doubt like this, we need the security of our Christian relationships. We need others who will speak the truth in love (v. 15) -- to remind us of who we are and whose we are.
To pull all of these interconnected church images together, Paul concludes with a familiar metaphor. But while we know the words, are we experiencing the reality? With Christ as the head of the Church Body, we become an interlinked bodysurfing raft that by equipping, serving, sacrificing and hanging on survives for the glory of God.

Truth be told, that is the church we truly want to experience. Maybe we really can learn something from our ant brothers and sisters…..

Sources:

Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. Life Together. New York: Harper Collins, 1954.

Meyers, Catherine. "Fire ants surf floods on rafts of their own bodies." Science Magazine, April 25, 2011. http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2011/04/fire-ants-surf-floods-on-rafts.html.

I remember the day THE WALL that came down in Berlin. It was Nov 9, 1989. Brandenburg Gate crawled with youth. West Berlin had been a loop hole that was exploited by thousands of East Germans and in 1961 the East German Govt built a 26-mile wall that completely cut off West Berlin. An additional 70 miles were built to separate East and West Germany. Within a year East and West Germany were officially reunited. The wall’s destruction was officially completed in 1992. Somewhere between 140 and 200 people were killed trying to escape over the wall.

President Regan was credited with causing the wall to fall when he called on Soviet Premier Gorbachov to “tear down that wall.”

We all want peace. Look at current efforts to denuclearize North Korea. Peace, desired. Peace, claimed. But real peace??????

BUT there is one “eternal covenant” that has lasted and will last – the one made by the eternal God, sealed by the blood of Jesus Christ.

It is Christ’s peace mission between the Jews and Gentiles that the Apostle Paul explains in today’s scripture.

3 words summarize this great work: Separation, reconciliation and unification.