Why God Speaks to Us: To Convict” Pastor Hines March 27, 2022

 

Why God Speaks to Us: To Convict”

Pastor Hines

March 27, 2022

The beginning of this text from Luke is a complaint that Jesus eats with sinners. The ending of the reading also emphasizes eating with sinners. A father gives a party with a feast for his son who has sinned in so many different ways. We all have our list of those we label as sinners. Who’s on your list? Some list people who break the Ten Commandments as “sinners.” People who break the Ten Commandments by using the Lord’s name in vain or working on the Sabbath may not be labeled as sinners as much as they were years ago. Serving other Gods by being greedy corporate managers, traffickers, drug dealers, thieves, liars, or adulterers may get a frown from Christians, but for most of us a “sinner” is a person we want God to judge and condemn because they don’t give us what we want and know we deserve. A sinner is someone we want God to send straight to hell because they make us mad or they make our friends and family mad. We all have our list of sinners.

Jesus can sometimes makes us uncomfortable. His lifestyle of eating with people we know as sinners does not sit well with us. Jesus is a friend of sinners. Seeing Jesus sitting down, being friendly and talking with someone we want to stay away from, may make us want to ask Jesus, “What are you doing? Whose side are you on?” Seeing Jesus eating with undeserving sinners, makes us less interested in accepting that invitation to the Lord’s Supper. No doubt Jesus deliberately eats with sinners. That convicts us. Shouldn’t we too be eating with sinners?  We might feel guilty. The question is do we feel guilty enough to ask Jesus what we should do about it. Do we feel guilty enough to be ready if Jesus calls us to pray for blessings on one sinner or another? Are we ready to have a change of heart with some sinner or a conversation, or a cup of coffee, or even sit at a table with Jesus? Are we at least ready to get ready?

Every story that shows the loving Jesus with one whom some called a worthless sinner is a story that convicts us to do the same. Luke tells the story of the Prodigal Son a young man who was called a sinner because he left home after disrespecting his family and squandering his family estate on loose living. A loving father, representing the Heavenly Father, the Son Jesus and the Holy Spirit, hovered over the Prodigal Son’s life with love and prayer. When the Prodigal Son returned home Love sat at a table and prepared a feast fit for a sinner whom was cherished.

In this Lenten season, doesn’t it make you want to take out your list of sinners and people you reject and name them one by one and ask Jesus how we should pray for them, what change of heart we should have toward them, what kind of conversation to have with them, or when to share a cup of coffee or even sit at table with them along with Jesus?

We all have our stories. It is stories like the Prodigal Son that convict us that we need to be like Jesus. Henri Nouwen (January 24, 1932-September 21, 1996) Catholic priest, professor, writer and theologian is known for his deep spiritual reflections, having written over 40 spiritual books. He saw himself in the story of the Prodigal Son. In his book entitled Return of the Prodigal Son, Nouwen reflects that he and all of us can be like the loving father who waited for his wayward son to return, like the son who left home angrily, and also like the older son who was angry that the father held a party with a feast for his stupid, worthless, sinner of a brother who only came home when his other choice was feeding slop to the pigs. Nouwen was a Dutchman and he was so enamored with this story as well as his fellow Dutchman Rembrandt’s painting entitled The Prodigal Son which hangs in Russia’s Hermitage Museum.

Because we love our God, we want to hear God’s call to conviction. We want to see Jesus at table with sinners because as Nouwen says “Resentment and complaints, deep as they may seem, can vanish in the face of him in whom the full light of Sonship is visible.”  Love saves us, love cures us. Would that we would be so convicted until we want to be with Jesus more and more even though he is sitting and even eating with those we quietly think of as worthless sinners or that anger us or our family and friends. Jesus is a friend of those sinners we want to avoid. They are messy, upsetting, and inconvenient.

Love shows up at that table to save and to cure sinners like you and me. Love shows up! How wonderful is that. It seems there are so many stories that convict us. The question is are we convicted enough to join the sinner at that table when it would be helpful.

I heard other stories this week that tell where love has saved and cured. There was Christina* a poor Brazilian who was young and beautiful. She ran away from home in hopes of a better life. Her mother Maria, knowing what happens to girls that wander the streets, took several pictures of herself with a note that said “Whatever you have done, whatever you have become, it doesn’t matter. Please come home.” Maria posted her picture with the note in every bar, hotel and bus stop she could until she ran out of money. Before long, Christina found one of the notes and she did go back home.

In another story **Jason had a faith crisis when his parents went through a divorce. He told his mom that he loves God but hates God’s people. His lifestyle began to center around woman, alcohol, and drugs in order to medicate the pain and struggle he had about his dad. She felt led to give her son Joseph’s Prince’s book entitled Destined to Reign. He scowled when she handed it to him but she was shocked to find him reading it during the next few days. Eventually, he confessed to her saying, “Mom, I thought that God was not healing my back because I don’t live right but God is going to heal me because He loves me!” He then began sharing the book with his young friends.

Dateline*** had a story that reminded me that sinners are everywhere, even in unusual places and everywhere love can save us and cure us. They need a friend in Jesus. God may be asking us to join them at the table. Nantucket had not had a murder in two decades, but a couple who had both gone to the University of Notre Dame started dating. Theirs seemed like a perfect world with perfect opportunities, no sinners in sight. Within 6 weeks this perfect situation ended in a tragic murder of the woman at the hands of her boyfriend who looked and acted successfully, but he himself said he was a great actor. His character was rotten with excessive drinking, smoking, anger and a murderous spirit. This story reminds us that Jesus is needed everywhere and that sinners can wear fancy clothes, be highly educated, and live in nice places or they can be lice ridden junkies who slobber.

Ryan Hampton a Clinton aide who, again, was the picture of success. He has a powerful story. After an injury he became addicted to opioids. He was in Florida when a law monitoring drug use made it harder for him to get pills from as many doctors as he could in order to feed his addiction. He knew if he tried, he would be arrested. He left a clinic with the most horrible withdrawal symptoms - vomiting, muscle pain, trembling. A heroin dealer was conveniently waiting for him in the parking lot. Heroin was cheaper and could quell the withdrawal symptoms. As a result of his addiction, Ryan lost his job and his home. He was homeless. I don’t know what his faith is, but it’s clear that he did not lose Jesus. Jesus was in his life to save him and cure him and to sit at table with him. His mother stood by his side and let him know that he could be saved, though 100,000 have died of overdoses and money goes into the wrong pockets while so-called rehab centers do not even have narcan that immediately revives overdose victims. Ryan is now in recovery and is an advocate for other addicts who are surrounded by doctors and others who prey on the pain of others by pushing pills for prophet. Ryan is working to change evil laws that are designed to hurt rather than help.

Hostage negotiator and crisis communication expert Chris White presented a mental health webinar for our Conferences. He reminded us that the pandemic has resulted in more experiencing poor mental health and a rising epidemic of suicide. He urges churches to listen carefully to those who show signs of distress, to listen without judgment, without trying to problem solve, but ready to affirm that telling how they are stressed is very brave. Chris encourages us to promote active listening and resources that help. We have numbers on our bulletin for those who need help.

There is plenty of bad news in this world. We Christians have good news. We are not the Prodigal Church. We have seen Jesus being a friend to sinners, eating at table with them. Seeing him convicts us. We want the world to know through our lifestyle that Love saves. Love cures.  Amen.

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*Max Lucado, No Wonder They Call Him the Savior, Multnomah Press, 1986, pp. 158-9.

**Joseph Prince

***Dateline March 24

 

 

 

“Why God Speaks to Us: To Convince” - Pastor Hines March 20, 2022

 

“Why God Speaks to Us: To Convince” - Pastor Hines

March 20, 2022

It used to be said that the brain is an underutilized part of our body. It was thought that we used a mere 10 percent of our brain and that most of us rarely reached our mental potential. Today, neurologists assert that with brain mapping, we actually use 100% of our brain every day. Our brains are not only like a machine, our brains are like a computer. Neurologist John Henley thinks that the myth that we don’t use most of our brain developed because only a small part of the brain is used at a time, but by the end of a day, our entire brain gets put to work.

What does it take for us to be convinced of one idea over another? God speaks to us. Why? In this series that began March 6, Why God Speaks to Us, we remember that God speaks to us in order to CHALLENGE us. We looked at Jesus temptation in the Wilderness where his appetite, his attention, and his altitude were challenged. Last week we saw God speaking to Abram to COMFORT him with the words, “Don’t be afraid.” This week we see another reason God speaks to us. God speaks to us to CONVINCE us.

What does it take to convince us humans that something is true or not true? Dr. Ray Matthews says it takes 20 years for us to catch on to a new idea. Dr. Matthews is a surgeon who has treated head trauma patients in an emergency room with dramatic success using high doses of vitamin D. A phlebotomist recently talked about being convinced that supplementing with vitamin D relieved her of the inflammation brought on by her auto immune disease. Dr. Matthews talks about how we experience winter blues and illness in the winter since our bodies make vitamin D from March to October. Our levels of vitamin D go down without the sun being at a certain angle, the same as why we don’t plant when the sun is not high. Years ago my doctor directed me to daily take a handful of vitamin D supplements for the sake of my health. That was not a typical recommendation 10, 20 years ago. Many have become convinced of the value of vitamin D.

It can take a long time for ideas to take hold in the world, but they can take off like a rocket after a while. The first practical TV set was demonstrated in 1930 at the World’s Fair. When World War II started, all commercial production of television equipment was banned. In 1946, there were 6,000 television sets in use. By 1951, there were 12 million. No new invention entered American homes faster than black and white television sets; by 1955 half of all U.S. homes had one.

New ideas often start out slow before they are accepted. We experienced this as the world went from car phones to smart phones. These days the world is wrestling with big ideas like climate change.  Greed is overusing the soil, keeping it from resting and replenishing. I heard Dr. Mark Hyman, wellness specialist, thinks that in 60 years, all the soil for planting will be stripped of its nutrients. There will be no soil left for planting. We all hope and pray for great ideas that bring about peace and abolish poverty. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if good ideas were known in every household and become the rule in every neighborhood.

In Jesus’ day, people had the same hopes that we do. A tower collapsed and 18 people were killed. We’ve seen towers, bridges and roads collapse. Our own Twin Towers and the World Trade Center collapsed September 11, 2001 killing 3,000. During the evening rush-hour on August 1, 2007, the center span of an eight-lane, steel truss arch bridge—one that carried Interstate 35W over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota—suddenly collapsed. Adjoining sections then crumbled. Last year, two people were killed and ten were injured when Hurricane Ida left 13 inches of water causing a deep hole on the two-lane Mississippi Highway 26.

Also, news in Jesus’ day was a story in this morning’s text about Pilate totally disrespecting the altar and the lives of God’s people. This is similar to the war crimes being perpetrated in the Ukraine with unbelievable acts of inhumanity and disregard for God. 

The only way to survive catastrophes and tragedies with a modicum of sanity is to stay on the Lord’s side.

Of course, when life is hard for somebody else, we count our blessings. But, depending on who and what has happened, we may think like some have thought from the beginning of time, that karma was at work, that the victims got what they deserved, that the negativity they sent out to someone, came back to bite them in the backside.

Jesus spoke to convince the people that not all bad things that happen, happen because of divine retribution or because of human failings. God’s ways are not our ways so says Isaiah 58.9. In John 9.2, Jesus’ disciples saw a blind man and assumed his condition was punishment for sin, because that was the major teaching and thinking of the day, so they naturally asked Jesus, “Who sinned, the blind man or his parents?” Jesus spoke to convince his disciples to grow spiritually and think in a new way. Jesus said neither the parents nor the blind man has sinned. His blindness is not God’s punishment. There was no explanation to replace their thinking. There was simply the assertion that God works in the worst situations and we need to keep our eye on God for God is doing something in every situation and every situation is not the same. Missy Cooper a teenager from the television series Young Sheldon would counter: Why should we pray if God is going to do what God wants to do anyway? Missy’s mother Mary Cooper answers her daughter saying, “Prayer is not a wishing well, but an opportunity to build a relationship with God.”

Understanding all the reasons behind senseless violence, debilitating sickness, and freak accidents, is just as impossible for us as our understanding how to travel in space like Sally Ride, a physicist and astronaut did in 1983 or like Mae Jemison Physician and engineer did in 1992. There are some things that are beyond us.

One of my favorite scriptural stories is in Chapter 13 of the book of Judges tells us that an angel visited Samson’s parents to let them know they were going to have a son next year. Samson’s father Manoah tried to be very hospitable to the angel and eventually asked what his name was, but the angel said, why are you asking me what my name is? Biblical names reflected a person’s profound purpose and calling from God.

Names are always deeply meaningful. Abraham’s name meant “father of many nations” and Peter’s name meant “rock upon which the Church would be built.” The angel told Samson’s father that even if he knew his name, he could not understood it anyway because his name was hidden, his responsibilities were highly secret, confidential, requiring special security clearances to access. The angel’s purpose was incomprehensible, extraordinary, and much too deep to be understood, except with the training and calling that causes us to keep our sights as high as an astronaut’s. Some things are beyond our comprehension until God gives us the spiritual training and understanding. Some situations require faith and trust in God.

In verse 6 Jesus speaks to convince listeners to “give a fig”  about growing and producing the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control!!! Year after year, we get enough manure to help us grow like many plants. Rather than hiding behind a fig leaf like Adam did, won’t it be better to surrender our whole lives to our wonderful, loving creator? Lent is a time to review, renew, revisit, and rework our covenantal connection with God while we can. It’s our choice day after day, at least while we still have a chance, maybe two or three chances.

Like the fig tree in Jesus’ parable today, we may not see the precious fruit of the Spirit in our lives. When a fig tree has leaves, it usually has fruit under those leaves. In Mark’s telling of the parable of the fig tree, we see leaves, but there is no fruit. Year after year, some of us have leaves, but no fruit, no love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.   

Has Jesus convinced you that now is the time to accept that God works a plan that we can’t always understand, but one that is sure to bring a life of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and even self-control?

May these ideas take off like a rocket in your life today, Amen.

“Why God Speaks to Us: To Comfort” - Pastor Hines March 13, 2022

“Why God Speaks to Us: To Comfort” - Pastor Hines

March 13, 2022

 Abram is the main character in our text this morning.  We know him as Abraham. At the age of 99 God changed his name from “Abram” which means “God is exalted” to “Abraham” meaning “Father of many nations.” God changed his name to reflect God’s great plan for Abraham’s life. Verse 1 begins - After these things – what things? Abram had just left the battlefield. He won the battle, but it’s true what they say: WAR is HELL.

After the battle was over, Abram had a vision. He had an enlightening experience. He perceived an important spiritual revelation from God almighty. Friends, it does not get better than that. A word from God is a good thing. Abram heard a word from the God who had just helped him win the battle, the God who is determined to comfort, console, and encourage all God’s children. Hopefully, we all know such a God. This God of comfort, consolation, and encouragement spoke to Abraham who had just fought off his enemies. Of course, Abram knew even after you win a battle you still have to watch your back. The words God spoke  are marvelous: “Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.”  When God tells us to not be afraid, that a shield will be provided, and we will be rewarded, that would be a hint to most of us that another battle is forthcoming.

 

It seems like Abram might have been complaining a bit when he says to God, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus? ‘You have given me no offspring, and so a slave born in my house is to be my heir.’”

One would think that God responded to Abram very gently, and not as a mere complainer. Verse 4 says, But the word of the Lord came to Abram, ‘This man shall not be your heir; no one but your very own issue (your own flesh and blood) shall be your heir.’ ⁵He brought him outside and said, ‘Look towards heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.’ (which, of course, he couldn’t) Then God said to Abram, ‘So shall your descendants be.’ Abram would have a wonderful legacy that would be known far and wide.

Last week we talked about the human need for positive attention. God promising to make Abram a father of many nations is a big deal. It’s positive attention. In God’s plan, one way or another, everybody is somebody. God can make good things happen as we walk with God who loves us. We are a big deal to God and that helps us to be a big deal to one another!

Verse 6 says Abram believed God would make his name great; the Lord reckoned it to him, that is, the Lord credited him for believing God’s promise is good. To believe God is to do something, to believe God is to act like you understand that God means business. To believe is to be good as gold, to be valuable to God’s kingdom, to believe is right living, or righteousness.

Verse 7 tells us what God does when we decide to believe. 7 Then God said to Abram, ‘I am the Lord who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess.’ God reminds us how we have been delivered and what blessings lie ahead for us. Have you ever been delivered and enjoyed the fulfillment of God’s promises?

Abram put a “but” in the conversation in verse 8. ⁸But Abram said, ‘O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it (the land)?’ ⁹God showed him the sacrifices that were required. They were listed from large to small. “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtle-dove, and a young pigeon.” Abram did what he was asked to do. Every social gathering and group, including the church, calls for an offering, a sacrifice, a giving of something to show you value and appreciate being a part of something important.  Sacrifices were used to affirm a covenant with God.

¹⁰Abram brought the five animals to God as requested. They were all ceremonially clean and acceptable sacrifices according to the law. *The law required these sacrificial animals to be one year old. But, in this case, God requested three year old animals. Scholars have a heyday with that distinction. Some speculate that three years symbolizes the three years of Jesus before he was sacrificed or the three generations of what is called the Blood Covenant as it would be for Abraham, Issac and Jacob, but not Reuben.

A covenant being legally binding, was cut like a contract or cut like a deal. In fact, the directions were to cut the sacrifices in half, representing the two parties - one piece on one side and the other piece beside it. One piece represented God, the other humans. Fire and smoke passed between the two in verse 17, representing God’s holy presence. We all know there are contracts and covenants that are not holy, don’t we. This covenant was designed to last three generations before it had to be reviewed, renewed, revisited, and reworked.

Lent is OUR season to review, renew, revisit and rework our side of our covenant with the Almighty! What a comfort it is to serve a God who is willing to be in covenant partnership with us, to never leave us or forsake us. God encourages us to grow, attempts to nurture us, accepts us as we are, yet loves us too much to leave us that way!

As the sun went down that day, according to verse 12, a dark cloud descended on Abraham. Life, even the Christian life, has plenty of sunshine and plenty of dark clouds. What was comforting for Abraham was that despite the warfare in his life, he fell into a deep, and what I like to assume was a peaceful sleep.  Psalm 4 says God blesses us with sleep and a sense of safety. If we have a restless night or tend to have insomnia, we may have to go deep in meditation and prayer to get to the blessing of peace-filled sleep that Abraham had. That day, God promised him land from the Nile to the Euphrates, a thousand miles away.

17 When the sun had gone down and it was dark. The darkness was terrifying. Instead of wine and caviar, the cutting of this contract was marked with the smoking fire-pot and flaming torch passing between the pieces of the sacrifice. This was a comforting cultural reminder of God’s holy presence, especially in a time of darkness and distress. It could also have been the creative darkness of the woman and the deep darkness of the ocean or as Howard Thurman puts it “the luminous darkness. That day, according to verse 18, that the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, ‘To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, Euphrates River.

The God of all comfort spoke to Abram with blessings that were bigger than life and bigger than death. The God of all comfort is ready to bless you as well. Are you ready to receive God’s blessings of comfort and care? Are you ready to share such blessings? Open your heart. Let it be so today! Amen.

 

*https://hermeneutics.stackexchange.com/questions/30823/why-was-abraham-required-to-bring-three-year-old-offerings-sacrifices-in-genesis#