“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.