Proper 15
Preaching
Lectionary Preaching Workbook
Series VI, Cycle C
Object:
COMMENTARY ON THE LESSONS
Lesson 1: Isaiah 5:1-7 (C)
Here's a splendid example of the lyrical phrasing of the prophetic word. The vineyard, however, was in for big trouble for producing wild grapes. I suppose this is another example of the expectation -- perhaps threat is a better word -- of punishment for wrongdoing. And while we now reject the idea that God punishes in quite the direct and specific way implied here, yet in more subtle ways, God has arranged punishment for wrongdoing. It takes place on two levels. One is social. We lose friends, we suffer legal consequences, we may lose jobs or find satisfactory employment no longer available, and we do damage to the people who love us. The other level is emotional. We suffer guilt, embarrassment, the pain of seeing the hurt we have inflicted, loss of self-esteem. Whether there is any cosmic punishment in the after-life is open to debate by the theologians among us. I believe we already suggested a sermon on the earthly consequences of wrongdoing as mentioned here. So, I might turn to yet another dimension of wrongdoing: the effect it has on our spiritual relationship with God. It can, if persisted in, damage that relationship. However God may wish to redeem us and save us, He cannot do that without our agreement. I often wonder what happens to people who die totally without remorse. Will we get another chance? My first-year professor of religion in seminary suggested that we pray for Adolf Hitler. It was his belief that when we die, we continue on along a road only partly traveled in this life, one which, however far we may have drifted from the intended path, may still be made to lead us safely home. This makes sense to me. It seems more in character with a God of love than the idea that either you make it or you don't and, as Baretta the detective used to say on television, "Dat's da name of dat tune."
Lesson 1: Jeremiah 38:4-6, 8-10 (RC)
Jeremiah and Hannaniah agree that God will "break the yoke" of Babylon, and the people will be brought safely home. Many of us live in one kind of captivity or another. Addiction is one. A sermon, perhaps, on the way God can help those who would break some terrible life-ruining habit. Or the chains of emotional illness. A large percentage of the population is said to be troubled by the problem of anxiety. God helps with that.
Lesson 1: Jeremiah 23:23-29 (E)
God will show mercy in spite of his distress at the waywardness of His chosen people.
Lesson 2: Hebrews 11:29--12:2 (C)
This passage on faith and daring adventure so perfectly mirrors what we considered in last week's lessons I would incorporate this lesson into the one for last week, perhaps using this as an illustration. Or, I would draw on last week's suggestions and use that sermon suggestion this week.
Lesson 2: Hebrews 12:1-4 (RC); Hebrews 12:1-7 (8-10) 11-14 (E)
Gospel: Luke 12:49-56 (C, E); Luke 12:49-53 (RC)
To make sense out of this passage, one must reflect on the culture of the times. This was really a tribal society in which loyalty to one's tribe and its mores was a life and death matter. It was an era in which infidelity was dealt with harshly. Don't forget, women could be stoned to death for adultery. We recall the books of Hosea and Amos in which we read that anyone married to a non-Jew -- a non-tribal member -- was cast out of the community. There was enough animosity among the people of Jesus' time within the community between Pharisees and Saduccees, for instance. But for some completely out-in-left-field preacher to come along with a message running almost totally counter to anything the Jews believed was a great deal too much. Jesus himself would eventually pay a heavy penalty for his teachings. It would be like a family member in a Ku Klux Klan household coming home to announce he was about to join the the NAACP. (That may be a bad analogy, since the Jewish people were in no way like the Klan.) But my point is this: anyone coming home to Mom and Dad to announce that he was leaving the Jewish temple to follow this new teaching would of course cause great consternation. It wasn't that Jesus wanted to hurt anyone. He loved those recalcitrant Jews every bit as much as he did the converts. But he foresaw the pain and disruption which lay ahead for anyone who followed him.
SERMON SUGGESTIONS
Title: "Brokenness Restored"
Text: Isaiah 5:1-7
Theme: While the theme of this particular passage is one of punishment for betrayal of one's birthright, the overarching trajectory of Isaiah's warning is one of forgiveness and renewal. If we bring this passage under the illumination of the New Testament, we are reminded that while the prophets may, at times, have spoken in scolding tones, their intent was to win and to convert. We know that God loves us, and our own experience as parents informs us that this love is long-suffering, always forgiving.
Do you have children? Have you noticed how much they are just like you, or your spouse? Or some combination? Have you ever noticed that sometimes the most frustrating things about children are the very characteristics which most mimic us, their parents? Sometimes it's necessary to tell ourselves: "Wait just a minute here. These children couldn't help their genetic makeup. They couldn't help the little mistakes I made as a parent. After all, I was only 22 or 23, hardly more than a child myself when my child was born, and I wasn't exactly the most mature person in this world back then. Nor was my child responsible for things which happened among his peers either. It wasn't his fault that he was slow in growing, and was therefore the last one picked when they chose sides for baseball. Or, she couldn't help the fact that she was chubby as a youngster and the children at school called her 'blimpy.' The time my child was accused of writing a naughty note which was intercepted by the teacher, and she hadn't written the note, but didn't want to rat on the real writer, so took the blame and got a 'C' from the teacher, then had to struggle through the issue of injustice while still too young to fathom what should have happened there: how do you blame that? Also ..."
What's my point? By the time we become adults, we have been shaped, molded, battered, scarred by forces we could not control. We have necessarily developed survival techniques which may not always seem attractive or justified to the outside observer who can never know the real me. Sometimes, a societal expectation is desperately hard to meet while coping with the inner "demons" which life has fused with my psyche. It's too simple to say to me, "From now on, I want you to act this way, and henceforth to refrain from doing this and that; I want you to feel so and so in these situations, and to want the following while having no interest in the things on this list." We can't dance to any other tune than the one which plays in our own head. Unless and until some benevolent force far greater than mere scolding, or even mere kindly urging, comes to bear, I cannot be other than I am. I may change my conduct, but I cannot be other than me. Thank God, then, God sees behind all of this. God doesn't disown me because I became a product of forces beyond my control. God loves me, even more than my blessed mom did. He is patient with me, understands the desperate efforts I must make in order to merely equal the conduct of someone else whose life was different. This is why Jesus told us not to judge others. We shouldn't judge ourselves too harshly either since we don't understand all the forces at work within us. Much of the negative dynamic at work in me takes place below my conscious level. Prayer alone can change any of this, prayer and perhaps some life-changing experiences which rearrange my inner perceptions.
1. God understands us, knows our needs. His judgments are almost surely tempered by this understanding of our individual lives. I grew up in a home where I was loved, encouraged to become educated, taught that I am worthy and deserving of the opportunity to make something of myself. The fellow across town who was one of nine children, whose father departed when he was a baby, whose mother was an alcoholic, later a drug addict, who ended up in three foster homes and ran away from the last because of the constant beatings, and spent the last years of his growing up in a custodial institution -- how can the same expectations and standards be brought to bear for both of us? They can't. When that other fellow commits his third crime and ends up in prison, you and I may celebrate that he's off the streets at last. But God is going to have a different view. God's judgment will make allowances for the abject tragedy of the other man's life.
2. We grow when we resist opposing forces. Walter Payton, when being celebrated as pro-football's outstanding player, was asked how he grew so strong as a boy. He replied, "Push-ups." That's where those arms came from. We all know this. We don't grow much when things run smoothly. It's when we stand up to trouble, resist those wrongful impulses, struggle against the demons within -- it's then that we begin to amount to something important. Once Jesus comes into our lives, we receive a new set of rules for living, and we begin to find those rules constraining in the beginning. But as we adjust to them, we find that life begins to become better, happier. And while I may have had many advantages as compared to that fellow across town, I have my own hangups too. As far as judgment is concerned, God will judge each of us according to what we had to work with. But he wants each of us to do our very best to live by what Jesus taught,
3. God helps. Jesus' entry into my life didn't change me into a perfect person. It did change the direction of my life. It did sensitize me to the many things I would wish to change in my life. And it also awakened in me the realization that some power other than my own volition was helping me along. One old lady said it well for me: "I ain't what I oughta be; I ain't what I wanta be; but thank the Good Lord, I ain't what I usta be."
4. We win. If I accept Jesus as my Lord and mentor, and if I allow his saving spirit to guide me in my efforts to be what he wants me to be, and if I did as well as I was able given what I had to work with (and work against), then God will accept that and I shall dwell in his house forever.
Title: "Not Peace But A Sword"
Text: Luke 12:49-56
Theme: My title echoes Jesus' warning as it appears in the Matthew version (Matthew 10:34f). This doesn't mean Jesus came with any intention of sowing misery among those who refuse to follow him. The misery will temporarily affect everyone. Jesus was simply letting us know what we are getting into when we decide to follow him. After all, he said that if anyone wants to come after him that person must be prepared to carry a cross.
One day two of the Peanuts characters, Lucy and Linus, were arguing in another room when Mother called in and told them that if they didn't stop, she'd be in to see that they did. At which point, Lucy told Linus to shut up or she'd hit him in the mouth. Linus then called out, "Never mind, Mother, Lucy just explained things in words I can understand." Direct communication, that. So here too.
1. Following Jesus can affect family relationships. I have a friend who is virtually alienated from his son who has embraced fundamentalism and refuses to discuss faith questions with his dad, a fine Christian. He lectures, and informs his dad that he is destined to go to hell. That, of course, is tragic, but here are two devout Christians who are separated by their faith.
2. Following Jesus will affect one's worldly relationships. There's the man who resigns from his poker club and quits drinking beer. Pretty soon, his old gang forgets to call him.
3. Following Jesus can affect our own inner state. Former conduct now feels wrong. There is often a real state of ambivalence when one begins to accept the new dictates of Christian conscience, while missing old friends and ways which are now being given up.
4. The final effect can be wonderful. Kindness, tolerance, gentle understanding, patience, good humor, all good Christian qualities can eventually rearrange relationships in a happy way.
ADDITIONAL ILLUSTRATIONS
Some time ago, Sports Illustrated printed an article about a football player named John Reeves. He was a star quarterback at the University of Florida. He graduated and was signed by the Philadelphia Eagles as their backup quarterback with a potentially great future in the NFL. But by his own admission, he soon began taking drugs and was quickly addicted. He married a lovely young girl, Patty, and she too became addicted to cocaine. In spite of his large salary, they were a hundred thousand dollars in debt, selling off furniture and jewelry to support their habits. Their lifestyle was completely destructive. Reeves described himself as "a crazy man."
One day, Patty became involved in a church and accepted Jesus Christ into her life. It changed her completely. She gave up drugs and alcohol. She said that one significant effect of her newfound faith was the fact that she had previously come to hate her husband, but now, her hatred was replaced by compassion. However, the two of them now faced the exact problem Jesus had predicted. Patty had a new faith, a new life style. Her husband was still on a collision course with self-destruction. As Jesus predicted, they were now set against each other.
We see here the change which takes place in a person when we genuinely begin to follow Christ. Hatred is replaced by love and understanding. Destructive habits beyond our control start to lose their power over us. Now we want to be a different person, and it's only natural that we want the same for those whom we love as well.
That article continues, however. John Reeves had heard Patty tell of the change in her life because of Jesus. One day he woke up in jail, sharply aware of the way he had ruined his life. And, he accepted Christ. The article quotes Reeves as saying that though his addiction had possessed him completely until that time, from the moment he accepted Christ, he was able to quit drugs entirely. His life was changed. But before the peace, a sword.
John Reeves won a reprieve. He was signed by the Tampa Bay Bandits of the then new United States Football League. Sports writers predicted that he would be a poor football player because of his history. As of the writing of the article I quote, he had lead his team to five victories in six games.
____________
In truth, we Christians are constantly having to deal with our own sensitivity to our failings, and to the needs of others.
I experienced this many years ago when my daughter was about eighteen months old. Her mother and I were leaving a downtown store, heading for our car. Amy was trailing a few feet behind us. We happened to pass a theater with marquee advertisements for a movie about circuses. I turned around and saw that my daughter, whom I had instructed to stay with us, had paused to look at the pictures. I scolded her sternly. With tears dampening her little face, she meekly did as she was told. But that evening, I realized what I had done. Here was a tiny little girl who got side-tracked by colorful pictures of circus animals and acrobats and dancers. For her it must have seemed a whole new world of color and fun. For goodness sakes, why didn't I stop for a moment and share that experience? A few seconds? What kind of father had I become, that I would rob my loved child of a magic moment because of my impatience? How I wish I could live that moment again, do it right. But we never get to relive our mistakes. We must live with them. But we can also learn from them. At least that. I'm sure I made many other mistakes in those years, but maybe not as many, not as bad, because I saw myself for what I had been in that moment. I grieved that night. But I was changed. I think that's a bit of what Jesus meant by a sword.
____________
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a theologian in Germany at the time of Hitler's rise to power. Seeing the ominous threat of totalitarianism on his country's horizon, Bonhoeffer came to the United States and was installed as a distinguished theologian in one of America's elite seminaries. But as the terrors of Hitler's regime became known, Dietrich Bonhoeffer decided that his duty was to return to Germany. This he did, and he founded a clandestine seminary to train clergy in resistance to Naziism. However, the day came when the Nazis caught Bonhoeffer. He was placed in the concentration camp at Flossenburg. Later reports revealed that the German guards had to be changed often, because of the man's unfailing kindness even to his enemies. But shortly before the end of the war, in early 1945, the order was given that Dietrich Bonhoeffer be put to death. A fellow prisoner reported Bonhoeffer's last words as he was led out to the gallows where he would die. He said this: "When God calls a man, he bids him come and die." That's the sobering word which Jesus spoke as well. We are called to a life of transforming happiness and joy. But make no mistake, the way leads to heaven by way of the cross.
____________
Bill Hybels, pastor at Willow Creek Community Church in Barrington, Illinois, told of receiving a call from a distraught parent whose eight-year-old daughter had been caught shoplifting in the church's bookstore. The parents hoped Hybels would meet with them and talk to their daughter. He agreed, and the meeting took place. He first asked the child why she had decided to steal a book. She tearfully explained that in the service she had heard the book mentioned and, not having any money, but wanting very much to possess the book, she tried to hide it under her coat.
Hybels then asked the child what she thought would be a fair punishment. Still in tears, she said she really didn't know. Then Hybels suggested she pay the five dollars the book would cost. In addition she should pay three times the book's value as punishment. The girl agreed, but this unleashed another torrent of tears, explaining that she had no idea where she would get twenty dollars. At this point, Hybels took out his checkbook and wrote her a check for twenty dollars so she could pay for her sins. Then he explained that that's what Jesus did for us.
____________
Psalm Of The Day
Psalm 80:1-2, 8-19 -- "Give ear, O shepherd of Israel."
Prayer Of The Day
We come before you, O God, grateful for your love, accepting your forgiveness, confessing that we have fallen woefully short of the life of Jesus. And yet, we are learning that in the very effort to follow him, new joys have entered in. Our sometimes-pain we gladly accept in order to continue on the path of Jesus Christ. Thank you, God. In his name we pray. Amen.
Lesson 1: Isaiah 5:1-7 (C)
Here's a splendid example of the lyrical phrasing of the prophetic word. The vineyard, however, was in for big trouble for producing wild grapes. I suppose this is another example of the expectation -- perhaps threat is a better word -- of punishment for wrongdoing. And while we now reject the idea that God punishes in quite the direct and specific way implied here, yet in more subtle ways, God has arranged punishment for wrongdoing. It takes place on two levels. One is social. We lose friends, we suffer legal consequences, we may lose jobs or find satisfactory employment no longer available, and we do damage to the people who love us. The other level is emotional. We suffer guilt, embarrassment, the pain of seeing the hurt we have inflicted, loss of self-esteem. Whether there is any cosmic punishment in the after-life is open to debate by the theologians among us. I believe we already suggested a sermon on the earthly consequences of wrongdoing as mentioned here. So, I might turn to yet another dimension of wrongdoing: the effect it has on our spiritual relationship with God. It can, if persisted in, damage that relationship. However God may wish to redeem us and save us, He cannot do that without our agreement. I often wonder what happens to people who die totally without remorse. Will we get another chance? My first-year professor of religion in seminary suggested that we pray for Adolf Hitler. It was his belief that when we die, we continue on along a road only partly traveled in this life, one which, however far we may have drifted from the intended path, may still be made to lead us safely home. This makes sense to me. It seems more in character with a God of love than the idea that either you make it or you don't and, as Baretta the detective used to say on television, "Dat's da name of dat tune."
Lesson 1: Jeremiah 38:4-6, 8-10 (RC)
Jeremiah and Hannaniah agree that God will "break the yoke" of Babylon, and the people will be brought safely home. Many of us live in one kind of captivity or another. Addiction is one. A sermon, perhaps, on the way God can help those who would break some terrible life-ruining habit. Or the chains of emotional illness. A large percentage of the population is said to be troubled by the problem of anxiety. God helps with that.
Lesson 1: Jeremiah 23:23-29 (E)
God will show mercy in spite of his distress at the waywardness of His chosen people.
Lesson 2: Hebrews 11:29--12:2 (C)
This passage on faith and daring adventure so perfectly mirrors what we considered in last week's lessons I would incorporate this lesson into the one for last week, perhaps using this as an illustration. Or, I would draw on last week's suggestions and use that sermon suggestion this week.
Lesson 2: Hebrews 12:1-4 (RC); Hebrews 12:1-7 (8-10) 11-14 (E)
Gospel: Luke 12:49-56 (C, E); Luke 12:49-53 (RC)
To make sense out of this passage, one must reflect on the culture of the times. This was really a tribal society in which loyalty to one's tribe and its mores was a life and death matter. It was an era in which infidelity was dealt with harshly. Don't forget, women could be stoned to death for adultery. We recall the books of Hosea and Amos in which we read that anyone married to a non-Jew -- a non-tribal member -- was cast out of the community. There was enough animosity among the people of Jesus' time within the community between Pharisees and Saduccees, for instance. But for some completely out-in-left-field preacher to come along with a message running almost totally counter to anything the Jews believed was a great deal too much. Jesus himself would eventually pay a heavy penalty for his teachings. It would be like a family member in a Ku Klux Klan household coming home to announce he was about to join the the NAACP. (That may be a bad analogy, since the Jewish people were in no way like the Klan.) But my point is this: anyone coming home to Mom and Dad to announce that he was leaving the Jewish temple to follow this new teaching would of course cause great consternation. It wasn't that Jesus wanted to hurt anyone. He loved those recalcitrant Jews every bit as much as he did the converts. But he foresaw the pain and disruption which lay ahead for anyone who followed him.
SERMON SUGGESTIONS
Title: "Brokenness Restored"
Text: Isaiah 5:1-7
Theme: While the theme of this particular passage is one of punishment for betrayal of one's birthright, the overarching trajectory of Isaiah's warning is one of forgiveness and renewal. If we bring this passage under the illumination of the New Testament, we are reminded that while the prophets may, at times, have spoken in scolding tones, their intent was to win and to convert. We know that God loves us, and our own experience as parents informs us that this love is long-suffering, always forgiving.
Do you have children? Have you noticed how much they are just like you, or your spouse? Or some combination? Have you ever noticed that sometimes the most frustrating things about children are the very characteristics which most mimic us, their parents? Sometimes it's necessary to tell ourselves: "Wait just a minute here. These children couldn't help their genetic makeup. They couldn't help the little mistakes I made as a parent. After all, I was only 22 or 23, hardly more than a child myself when my child was born, and I wasn't exactly the most mature person in this world back then. Nor was my child responsible for things which happened among his peers either. It wasn't his fault that he was slow in growing, and was therefore the last one picked when they chose sides for baseball. Or, she couldn't help the fact that she was chubby as a youngster and the children at school called her 'blimpy.' The time my child was accused of writing a naughty note which was intercepted by the teacher, and she hadn't written the note, but didn't want to rat on the real writer, so took the blame and got a 'C' from the teacher, then had to struggle through the issue of injustice while still too young to fathom what should have happened there: how do you blame that? Also ..."
What's my point? By the time we become adults, we have been shaped, molded, battered, scarred by forces we could not control. We have necessarily developed survival techniques which may not always seem attractive or justified to the outside observer who can never know the real me. Sometimes, a societal expectation is desperately hard to meet while coping with the inner "demons" which life has fused with my psyche. It's too simple to say to me, "From now on, I want you to act this way, and henceforth to refrain from doing this and that; I want you to feel so and so in these situations, and to want the following while having no interest in the things on this list." We can't dance to any other tune than the one which plays in our own head. Unless and until some benevolent force far greater than mere scolding, or even mere kindly urging, comes to bear, I cannot be other than I am. I may change my conduct, but I cannot be other than me. Thank God, then, God sees behind all of this. God doesn't disown me because I became a product of forces beyond my control. God loves me, even more than my blessed mom did. He is patient with me, understands the desperate efforts I must make in order to merely equal the conduct of someone else whose life was different. This is why Jesus told us not to judge others. We shouldn't judge ourselves too harshly either since we don't understand all the forces at work within us. Much of the negative dynamic at work in me takes place below my conscious level. Prayer alone can change any of this, prayer and perhaps some life-changing experiences which rearrange my inner perceptions.
1. God understands us, knows our needs. His judgments are almost surely tempered by this understanding of our individual lives. I grew up in a home where I was loved, encouraged to become educated, taught that I am worthy and deserving of the opportunity to make something of myself. The fellow across town who was one of nine children, whose father departed when he was a baby, whose mother was an alcoholic, later a drug addict, who ended up in three foster homes and ran away from the last because of the constant beatings, and spent the last years of his growing up in a custodial institution -- how can the same expectations and standards be brought to bear for both of us? They can't. When that other fellow commits his third crime and ends up in prison, you and I may celebrate that he's off the streets at last. But God is going to have a different view. God's judgment will make allowances for the abject tragedy of the other man's life.
2. We grow when we resist opposing forces. Walter Payton, when being celebrated as pro-football's outstanding player, was asked how he grew so strong as a boy. He replied, "Push-ups." That's where those arms came from. We all know this. We don't grow much when things run smoothly. It's when we stand up to trouble, resist those wrongful impulses, struggle against the demons within -- it's then that we begin to amount to something important. Once Jesus comes into our lives, we receive a new set of rules for living, and we begin to find those rules constraining in the beginning. But as we adjust to them, we find that life begins to become better, happier. And while I may have had many advantages as compared to that fellow across town, I have my own hangups too. As far as judgment is concerned, God will judge each of us according to what we had to work with. But he wants each of us to do our very best to live by what Jesus taught,
3. God helps. Jesus' entry into my life didn't change me into a perfect person. It did change the direction of my life. It did sensitize me to the many things I would wish to change in my life. And it also awakened in me the realization that some power other than my own volition was helping me along. One old lady said it well for me: "I ain't what I oughta be; I ain't what I wanta be; but thank the Good Lord, I ain't what I usta be."
4. We win. If I accept Jesus as my Lord and mentor, and if I allow his saving spirit to guide me in my efforts to be what he wants me to be, and if I did as well as I was able given what I had to work with (and work against), then God will accept that and I shall dwell in his house forever.
Title: "Not Peace But A Sword"
Text: Luke 12:49-56
Theme: My title echoes Jesus' warning as it appears in the Matthew version (Matthew 10:34f). This doesn't mean Jesus came with any intention of sowing misery among those who refuse to follow him. The misery will temporarily affect everyone. Jesus was simply letting us know what we are getting into when we decide to follow him. After all, he said that if anyone wants to come after him that person must be prepared to carry a cross.
One day two of the Peanuts characters, Lucy and Linus, were arguing in another room when Mother called in and told them that if they didn't stop, she'd be in to see that they did. At which point, Lucy told Linus to shut up or she'd hit him in the mouth. Linus then called out, "Never mind, Mother, Lucy just explained things in words I can understand." Direct communication, that. So here too.
1. Following Jesus can affect family relationships. I have a friend who is virtually alienated from his son who has embraced fundamentalism and refuses to discuss faith questions with his dad, a fine Christian. He lectures, and informs his dad that he is destined to go to hell. That, of course, is tragic, but here are two devout Christians who are separated by their faith.
2. Following Jesus will affect one's worldly relationships. There's the man who resigns from his poker club and quits drinking beer. Pretty soon, his old gang forgets to call him.
3. Following Jesus can affect our own inner state. Former conduct now feels wrong. There is often a real state of ambivalence when one begins to accept the new dictates of Christian conscience, while missing old friends and ways which are now being given up.
4. The final effect can be wonderful. Kindness, tolerance, gentle understanding, patience, good humor, all good Christian qualities can eventually rearrange relationships in a happy way.
ADDITIONAL ILLUSTRATIONS
Some time ago, Sports Illustrated printed an article about a football player named John Reeves. He was a star quarterback at the University of Florida. He graduated and was signed by the Philadelphia Eagles as their backup quarterback with a potentially great future in the NFL. But by his own admission, he soon began taking drugs and was quickly addicted. He married a lovely young girl, Patty, and she too became addicted to cocaine. In spite of his large salary, they were a hundred thousand dollars in debt, selling off furniture and jewelry to support their habits. Their lifestyle was completely destructive. Reeves described himself as "a crazy man."
One day, Patty became involved in a church and accepted Jesus Christ into her life. It changed her completely. She gave up drugs and alcohol. She said that one significant effect of her newfound faith was the fact that she had previously come to hate her husband, but now, her hatred was replaced by compassion. However, the two of them now faced the exact problem Jesus had predicted. Patty had a new faith, a new life style. Her husband was still on a collision course with self-destruction. As Jesus predicted, they were now set against each other.
We see here the change which takes place in a person when we genuinely begin to follow Christ. Hatred is replaced by love and understanding. Destructive habits beyond our control start to lose their power over us. Now we want to be a different person, and it's only natural that we want the same for those whom we love as well.
That article continues, however. John Reeves had heard Patty tell of the change in her life because of Jesus. One day he woke up in jail, sharply aware of the way he had ruined his life. And, he accepted Christ. The article quotes Reeves as saying that though his addiction had possessed him completely until that time, from the moment he accepted Christ, he was able to quit drugs entirely. His life was changed. But before the peace, a sword.
John Reeves won a reprieve. He was signed by the Tampa Bay Bandits of the then new United States Football League. Sports writers predicted that he would be a poor football player because of his history. As of the writing of the article I quote, he had lead his team to five victories in six games.
____________
In truth, we Christians are constantly having to deal with our own sensitivity to our failings, and to the needs of others.
I experienced this many years ago when my daughter was about eighteen months old. Her mother and I were leaving a downtown store, heading for our car. Amy was trailing a few feet behind us. We happened to pass a theater with marquee advertisements for a movie about circuses. I turned around and saw that my daughter, whom I had instructed to stay with us, had paused to look at the pictures. I scolded her sternly. With tears dampening her little face, she meekly did as she was told. But that evening, I realized what I had done. Here was a tiny little girl who got side-tracked by colorful pictures of circus animals and acrobats and dancers. For her it must have seemed a whole new world of color and fun. For goodness sakes, why didn't I stop for a moment and share that experience? A few seconds? What kind of father had I become, that I would rob my loved child of a magic moment because of my impatience? How I wish I could live that moment again, do it right. But we never get to relive our mistakes. We must live with them. But we can also learn from them. At least that. I'm sure I made many other mistakes in those years, but maybe not as many, not as bad, because I saw myself for what I had been in that moment. I grieved that night. But I was changed. I think that's a bit of what Jesus meant by a sword.
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Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a theologian in Germany at the time of Hitler's rise to power. Seeing the ominous threat of totalitarianism on his country's horizon, Bonhoeffer came to the United States and was installed as a distinguished theologian in one of America's elite seminaries. But as the terrors of Hitler's regime became known, Dietrich Bonhoeffer decided that his duty was to return to Germany. This he did, and he founded a clandestine seminary to train clergy in resistance to Naziism. However, the day came when the Nazis caught Bonhoeffer. He was placed in the concentration camp at Flossenburg. Later reports revealed that the German guards had to be changed often, because of the man's unfailing kindness even to his enemies. But shortly before the end of the war, in early 1945, the order was given that Dietrich Bonhoeffer be put to death. A fellow prisoner reported Bonhoeffer's last words as he was led out to the gallows where he would die. He said this: "When God calls a man, he bids him come and die." That's the sobering word which Jesus spoke as well. We are called to a life of transforming happiness and joy. But make no mistake, the way leads to heaven by way of the cross.
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Bill Hybels, pastor at Willow Creek Community Church in Barrington, Illinois, told of receiving a call from a distraught parent whose eight-year-old daughter had been caught shoplifting in the church's bookstore. The parents hoped Hybels would meet with them and talk to their daughter. He agreed, and the meeting took place. He first asked the child why she had decided to steal a book. She tearfully explained that in the service she had heard the book mentioned and, not having any money, but wanting very much to possess the book, she tried to hide it under her coat.
Hybels then asked the child what she thought would be a fair punishment. Still in tears, she said she really didn't know. Then Hybels suggested she pay the five dollars the book would cost. In addition she should pay three times the book's value as punishment. The girl agreed, but this unleashed another torrent of tears, explaining that she had no idea where she would get twenty dollars. At this point, Hybels took out his checkbook and wrote her a check for twenty dollars so she could pay for her sins. Then he explained that that's what Jesus did for us.
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Psalm Of The Day
Psalm 80:1-2, 8-19 -- "Give ear, O shepherd of Israel."
Prayer Of The Day
We come before you, O God, grateful for your love, accepting your forgiveness, confessing that we have fallen woefully short of the life of Jesus. And yet, we are learning that in the very effort to follow him, new joys have entered in. Our sometimes-pain we gladly accept in order to continue on the path of Jesus Christ. Thank you, God. In his name we pray. Amen.
