Self-Serving
Stories
Contents
What's Up This Week
"Self-Serving" by David O. Bales
"The Old Egyptian" by David O. Bales
Self-Serving
by David O. Bales
Psalm 112
Pastor Moen scooted aside his computer keyboard and grabbed a pencil. What he was going to write needed careful attention to every word, to the point of feeling what he wrote. He resolved to represent Jesus Christ and not to allow his negative feelings to overwhelm God’s grace. After a gaze at the ceiling with one last sigh of prayer, he began:
———
Dear Friends,
I am writing to the congregation to inform you of my resignation. I have not come to this decision quickly or casually nor am I doing this completely alone. I have prayed and received counsel from my fellow clergy and denominational officials. An explanation is necessary because the size of our congregation limits to about a quarter of our members who know most of what is going on here (including progress and problems) and about half do not know much. The other quarter? As I have said before, I do not know everything.
What I know, who I know, is Jesus. That is the crux of the problem here at Trinity Church and why I am resigning. It started six months ago when I was going on vacation and could not find anyone to preach in my absence. I searched among both clergy and laity and was a week away from departing, yet with no one to fill the pulpit. Finally, a member of the congregation said that a friend in another congregation recommended a fellow who had a “great message,” which I have come to recognize is his only message. It is known as the “Prosperity Gospel.” Simply put: Everything will go well with believers, especially with money. People in our congregation had not heard of such a thing before because as Christians our faith centers on Jesus. We believe that Jesus explains life to us, which means that Jesus also interprets the Old Testament — especially noting that the Prosperity preacher spoke from the Old Testament.
Since I arrived home from vacation, I have been overwhelmed by a handful of dear members requesting more of this “gospel,” which a critic aptly describes as treating God like the order window of a fast food restaurant or expecting God to slip a winning lottery ticket under your pillow. This eruption of the Prosperity Gospel among us has revealed some strained relationships within our fellowship and dusted off a few long held grudges — including political differences that stretch from local to national politics.
Since the Prosperity preacher spoke from Psalm 112, I would like you to look with me at that psalm from a broader Christian view.
Happy are those who fear the LORD, who greatly delight in his commandments. Their descendants will be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed. Wealth and riches are in their houses.
This mention of wealth and riches tumbling to the righteous is not unusual in the Old Testament. The book of Proverbs abounds in promises of health and wealth to those who are faithful to the LORD. But, the Old Testament books of Ecclesiastes and Job provide a dampening if not the exact opposite view.
Another important part of psalm 112, however, states: they are gracious, merciful, and righteous. It is well with those who deal generously and lend, who conduct their affairs with justice.
Although there are differences in the Old Testament about whether the LORD will automatically bless the faithful, all parts of the Bible summon us — for the LORD’s sake — to be concerned for others, not just what we can get for ourselves. That is certainly where Jesus guides us. Look at his life. He was righteous but not rich. He did not promise wealth to his followers. In fact he said they would be persecuted. He went around helping others and pointing them to a life in God’s presence, and he did not line his pockets doing so.
This is the liturgical year of Luke’s Gospel, so I quote a few verses from Luke and ask how much of it squares with the Prosperity Gospel. Jesus’ mother praises God in 1:53 that God has sent the rich away empty. Jesus teaches people in 12:33: Sell your possessions and give to charity; make yourselves purses which do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near, nor moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. He makes us all gulp when he pronounces: none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions (14:33). Read the Book of Acts (also written by Luke) about the earliest church after Jesus and you will search in vain through the apostles’ speeches to hear anyone say, “Follow Jesus and grow rich.”
Jesus’ message and his life were in perfect parallel. He lived for others and for God’s glory. For him, faith meant giving. His entire ministry was to help others. When he prayed for himself, it was so that he would complete his ministry for others. His disciples and earliest followers set out to imitate him. The Apostle Paul, for example, worked for a living and at times refused contributions from believers so they would understand that what he gave them was free. He wrote: for God loves a cheerful giver, not a cheerful receiver. As Psalm 112 puts it: They have distributed freely, they have given to the poor.
Jesus calls us to be faithful and does not promise we will be successful. Pastor Fromm was my first pastor. I grew into adolescence with him and he will always be the image in my mind of a faithful and loving pastor. He drowned at 41 in a Bolivian river where he went to help missionaries. He left a wife and four young children. His faithful Christian life was not one immune from tragedy, but was one of service. I have sat at the bedsides of devoted Christians whose lives were cut short by disease. I have wept with Christian parents whose children were found dead beside drug paraphernalia. I have accompanied police to try to identify a body dragged from a car wreck which might be a parishioner. And in this same line of disasters: Jesus was crucified. The tragedy of his cross is the center of our faith. Did he die so we could buy a fancier SUV to drive to our opulent beach house or so we would serve him and trust him no matter what?
Whereas some Christians want to concentrate only on Jesus’ empty tomb, a full Christian faith — the kind that has lasted 2,000 years and will last into eternity — embraces both the cross and the resurrection, meaning that both our unearned suffering and Jesus’ eternal life infuse our lives now. Not one or the other, but both … until we meet Jesus in glory.
Christians can mine the Old Testament for texts that promise they will get what they desire; but, they will get only Jesus. The Old Testament leads to him. If they do not like what Jesus lives and teaches, life with God in heaven will be a disappointment too.
As I leave you, I ask you to rejoice with me that I have received a call to help train pastors in Ukraine. It is not an easy assignment. Dangerous in fact. Yet, I believe this is what I am called to do. I will continue to pray for this congregation. I ask that you continue praying for me that I may faithfully follow my Lord Jesus and, as Psalm 112 says, that I may rise in the darkness as a light for the upright.
In Christ,
Pastor Moen
———
He laid down his pencil slowly and shoved the paper far across his desk. He wished he would never have to look at it again. Yet he knew that to be faithful, merciful and righteous, he must read it carefully and excise anything that would injure others or harm the congregation’s ministry after he left.
Preaching Point: The Bible instructs us not in serving ourselves, but in serving God and others.
* * *
The Old Egyptian
by David O. Bales
Jeremiah 2:4-13
On a clear morning in the first oasis east of Tahpanhes, the old Egyptian gathered the group of children. He waved away three sheep and spread his rug in the shade of a palm tree — careful to miss the sheep manure. Each child or two also brought a small rug to sit on. “Your clan rescued me in the desert and I will earn my keep as your teacher.” He spoke while getting comfortable on his rug. “That’s what you need to know about me and why you’re here today.” As their parents had instructed them, the fifteen children sat looking attentively at the oldest man they’d ever seen. Once seated he scooted himself nearer to the oasis’s spring whose water was trickling into a trough. He spoke Hebrew with a decided Egyptian accent. The children, having heard both Hebrews and Egyptians all their lives, understood him well. They often translated the Egyptians’ language for their older relatives. “I will be here with your tribe to tell you what’s worth knowing for you to live well. You already can herd sheep, cook meals, and pack, unpack and pitch your tents. I will tell you day by day about life itself, life with one another and with God.” No child moved.
“First, you need to know that your people haven’t always been here,” the old Egyptian spoke in a quiet growl. “Of course, some of your relatives were in Egypt 1,500 years ago. But your immediate families only arrived two generations ago, fleeing from Judah which is northeast of here, a month’s walk for you children.”
Each child peered at the old man. They were as intrigued by the shaggy appearance of the ancient human heap in front of them as by the words that rumbled from his mouth. At the end of the day they must return to their family tents and repeat what he told them and they’d be punished if they couldn’t give a good accounting of the old teacher’s stories.
“Your great-grandparents arrived here when I was a child. They’d abandoned their homeland, hopeless that they could live peacefully, being occupied by the Babylonians who kept conquering them. You know what that means?” he said, pointing to the largest boy, perhaps ten or eleven years old. The boy was startled and answered, “Uhh.”
“It means the Babylonian armies had thrashed the armies of your nation Judah and its allies. It means your great-grandparents were a beaten people. That’s who you are: You remain in Egypt as a defeated people. Did you know that?” he asked, pointing to a little girl. No matter what she knew, she had the presence of mind to nod yes and look confident.
He coughed heavily, turning his head down and away from the children. “Because I don’t know how long I’ll be worth your tribe’s providing for me, it’s important to tell you about two men your great-grandparents dragged around with them. They brought a prophet along with his helper: Jeremiah and Baruch. The two didn’t want to join your great-grandparents escaping from Judah, but once here they continued to serve your one God, the Lord Yahweh.
“Although you live on the edge of Egypt with its array of gods, this one God whom you Hebrews worship always summons you — points to you personally, no matter what group you’re sitting in — to be faithful to his way of life, meaning treating others justly and kindly, as Yahweh does with you. And if you don’t first live justly and kindly with others, you won’t live with Yahweh. That was Jeremiah’s message and his entire life. He started serving Yahweh when he was your age.” He pointed to a boy on his rug. “And he served until he was as old as I am,” which brought a gasp from a couple children.
The old Egyptian paused as a small swirl of wind sent a sprinkling of sand onto his rug. He looked at the newly deposited sand and said, “Jeremiah talked about a kind of life that doesn’t blow away with the sand. He told your people — I heard him — he told them about being faithful to Yahweh-God. You’re supposed to love Yahweh’s kind of mercy, which means caring for the most vulnerable and needy people and not trying to get every good thing just for yourself. When you live Yahweh’s life it becomes satisfying to care for others. His life becomes who you are.”
He paused and took a slow breath, wagging his head slowly side to side. The children wondered if he’d be able to keep speaking. “Jeremiah proclaimed that Yahweh’s people must know what’s important in life, what’s truly worthwhile, what will last. Our human lives won’t last long. I know that as I see the rope of my life burning ever closer to the end.
“He constantly taught how useless idols are. You’ve bumped into them in the villages and tents of others, those little statues you’d think were dolls to play with. People paint then, clothe them, bow to them, kiss them, and pretend to feed them. You’ve seen that?” He pointed to the back of the group. The boy must have been listening carefully, for he answered, “Yes, sir. Father says they think that’s worship.”
“And I’m here to tell you, show you if I can, where that kind of worship leads. I’ve seen it, watched it here in Egypt and Jeremiah convinced me — even if he wasn’t always able to teach your ancestors — that your one God, not a group or a family of gods, deserves our complete attention, constant worship, and the devotion of our lives. There’s no comparison between those worthless idols and your God Yahweh.”
He turned to the spring beside him. “Yahweh and the life he offers is like this cool, flowing water. You look forward to coming to this oasis for the water don’t you?” They all nodded. “Then think of it this way. Yahweh offers a life to his people like this water. And those who turn away from Yahweh are like those trying to store water in cracked cisterns. They’re as pitiful as those who’d direct this clear spring into a channel that just empties into the sand.” The children looked appalled. “Don’t want that to happen, do you?”
“No,” they all spoke together, shaking their heads.
While the old Egyptian had taught, the shadow of the tree had moved so that now he squinted and tipped his head to the side in stay out of the sun without moving his whole body. He seemed to use all his strength to conclude, “I don’t want you children to become worthless and wasteful with an idolatrous life. To begin life within your one God, obey Yahweh as you do your parents and trust his love for you as much as you trust your parents’ love. You’ll learn more about life for Yahweh, but that’s a beginning.” Without another word he swished a hand back and forth to send them away.
When the children were gone, he took a long time struggling to his feet. He shuffled toward his host’s tent, dragging his rug, and listening to the bleating of the sheep. He seemed almost like Jeremiah, wondering how long these ex-patriot Judeans would keep carrying around someone whose only value was to tell them about Yahweh.
Preaching Point: Will a new generation listen to Jeremiah’s message?
**************
StoryShare, September 1, 2019, issue.
Copyright 2019 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Hwy., Lima, Ohio 45807.
What's Up This Week
"Self-Serving" by David O. Bales
"The Old Egyptian" by David O. Bales
Self-Serving
by David O. Bales
Psalm 112
Pastor Moen scooted aside his computer keyboard and grabbed a pencil. What he was going to write needed careful attention to every word, to the point of feeling what he wrote. He resolved to represent Jesus Christ and not to allow his negative feelings to overwhelm God’s grace. After a gaze at the ceiling with one last sigh of prayer, he began:
———
Dear Friends,
I am writing to the congregation to inform you of my resignation. I have not come to this decision quickly or casually nor am I doing this completely alone. I have prayed and received counsel from my fellow clergy and denominational officials. An explanation is necessary because the size of our congregation limits to about a quarter of our members who know most of what is going on here (including progress and problems) and about half do not know much. The other quarter? As I have said before, I do not know everything.
What I know, who I know, is Jesus. That is the crux of the problem here at Trinity Church and why I am resigning. It started six months ago when I was going on vacation and could not find anyone to preach in my absence. I searched among both clergy and laity and was a week away from departing, yet with no one to fill the pulpit. Finally, a member of the congregation said that a friend in another congregation recommended a fellow who had a “great message,” which I have come to recognize is his only message. It is known as the “Prosperity Gospel.” Simply put: Everything will go well with believers, especially with money. People in our congregation had not heard of such a thing before because as Christians our faith centers on Jesus. We believe that Jesus explains life to us, which means that Jesus also interprets the Old Testament — especially noting that the Prosperity preacher spoke from the Old Testament.
Since I arrived home from vacation, I have been overwhelmed by a handful of dear members requesting more of this “gospel,” which a critic aptly describes as treating God like the order window of a fast food restaurant or expecting God to slip a winning lottery ticket under your pillow. This eruption of the Prosperity Gospel among us has revealed some strained relationships within our fellowship and dusted off a few long held grudges — including political differences that stretch from local to national politics.
Since the Prosperity preacher spoke from Psalm 112, I would like you to look with me at that psalm from a broader Christian view.
Happy are those who fear the LORD, who greatly delight in his commandments. Their descendants will be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed. Wealth and riches are in their houses.
This mention of wealth and riches tumbling to the righteous is not unusual in the Old Testament. The book of Proverbs abounds in promises of health and wealth to those who are faithful to the LORD. But, the Old Testament books of Ecclesiastes and Job provide a dampening if not the exact opposite view.
Another important part of psalm 112, however, states: they are gracious, merciful, and righteous. It is well with those who deal generously and lend, who conduct their affairs with justice.
Although there are differences in the Old Testament about whether the LORD will automatically bless the faithful, all parts of the Bible summon us — for the LORD’s sake — to be concerned for others, not just what we can get for ourselves. That is certainly where Jesus guides us. Look at his life. He was righteous but not rich. He did not promise wealth to his followers. In fact he said they would be persecuted. He went around helping others and pointing them to a life in God’s presence, and he did not line his pockets doing so.
This is the liturgical year of Luke’s Gospel, so I quote a few verses from Luke and ask how much of it squares with the Prosperity Gospel. Jesus’ mother praises God in 1:53 that God has sent the rich away empty. Jesus teaches people in 12:33: Sell your possessions and give to charity; make yourselves purses which do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near, nor moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. He makes us all gulp when he pronounces: none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions (14:33). Read the Book of Acts (also written by Luke) about the earliest church after Jesus and you will search in vain through the apostles’ speeches to hear anyone say, “Follow Jesus and grow rich.”
Jesus’ message and his life were in perfect parallel. He lived for others and for God’s glory. For him, faith meant giving. His entire ministry was to help others. When he prayed for himself, it was so that he would complete his ministry for others. His disciples and earliest followers set out to imitate him. The Apostle Paul, for example, worked for a living and at times refused contributions from believers so they would understand that what he gave them was free. He wrote: for God loves a cheerful giver, not a cheerful receiver. As Psalm 112 puts it: They have distributed freely, they have given to the poor.
Jesus calls us to be faithful and does not promise we will be successful. Pastor Fromm was my first pastor. I grew into adolescence with him and he will always be the image in my mind of a faithful and loving pastor. He drowned at 41 in a Bolivian river where he went to help missionaries. He left a wife and four young children. His faithful Christian life was not one immune from tragedy, but was one of service. I have sat at the bedsides of devoted Christians whose lives were cut short by disease. I have wept with Christian parents whose children were found dead beside drug paraphernalia. I have accompanied police to try to identify a body dragged from a car wreck which might be a parishioner. And in this same line of disasters: Jesus was crucified. The tragedy of his cross is the center of our faith. Did he die so we could buy a fancier SUV to drive to our opulent beach house or so we would serve him and trust him no matter what?
Whereas some Christians want to concentrate only on Jesus’ empty tomb, a full Christian faith — the kind that has lasted 2,000 years and will last into eternity — embraces both the cross and the resurrection, meaning that both our unearned suffering and Jesus’ eternal life infuse our lives now. Not one or the other, but both … until we meet Jesus in glory.
Christians can mine the Old Testament for texts that promise they will get what they desire; but, they will get only Jesus. The Old Testament leads to him. If they do not like what Jesus lives and teaches, life with God in heaven will be a disappointment too.
As I leave you, I ask you to rejoice with me that I have received a call to help train pastors in Ukraine. It is not an easy assignment. Dangerous in fact. Yet, I believe this is what I am called to do. I will continue to pray for this congregation. I ask that you continue praying for me that I may faithfully follow my Lord Jesus and, as Psalm 112 says, that I may rise in the darkness as a light for the upright.
In Christ,
Pastor Moen
———
He laid down his pencil slowly and shoved the paper far across his desk. He wished he would never have to look at it again. Yet he knew that to be faithful, merciful and righteous, he must read it carefully and excise anything that would injure others or harm the congregation’s ministry after he left.
Preaching Point: The Bible instructs us not in serving ourselves, but in serving God and others.
* * *
The Old Egyptian
by David O. Bales
Jeremiah 2:4-13
On a clear morning in the first oasis east of Tahpanhes, the old Egyptian gathered the group of children. He waved away three sheep and spread his rug in the shade of a palm tree — careful to miss the sheep manure. Each child or two also brought a small rug to sit on. “Your clan rescued me in the desert and I will earn my keep as your teacher.” He spoke while getting comfortable on his rug. “That’s what you need to know about me and why you’re here today.” As their parents had instructed them, the fifteen children sat looking attentively at the oldest man they’d ever seen. Once seated he scooted himself nearer to the oasis’s spring whose water was trickling into a trough. He spoke Hebrew with a decided Egyptian accent. The children, having heard both Hebrews and Egyptians all their lives, understood him well. They often translated the Egyptians’ language for their older relatives. “I will be here with your tribe to tell you what’s worth knowing for you to live well. You already can herd sheep, cook meals, and pack, unpack and pitch your tents. I will tell you day by day about life itself, life with one another and with God.” No child moved.
“First, you need to know that your people haven’t always been here,” the old Egyptian spoke in a quiet growl. “Of course, some of your relatives were in Egypt 1,500 years ago. But your immediate families only arrived two generations ago, fleeing from Judah which is northeast of here, a month’s walk for you children.”
Each child peered at the old man. They were as intrigued by the shaggy appearance of the ancient human heap in front of them as by the words that rumbled from his mouth. At the end of the day they must return to their family tents and repeat what he told them and they’d be punished if they couldn’t give a good accounting of the old teacher’s stories.
“Your great-grandparents arrived here when I was a child. They’d abandoned their homeland, hopeless that they could live peacefully, being occupied by the Babylonians who kept conquering them. You know what that means?” he said, pointing to the largest boy, perhaps ten or eleven years old. The boy was startled and answered, “Uhh.”
“It means the Babylonian armies had thrashed the armies of your nation Judah and its allies. It means your great-grandparents were a beaten people. That’s who you are: You remain in Egypt as a defeated people. Did you know that?” he asked, pointing to a little girl. No matter what she knew, she had the presence of mind to nod yes and look confident.
He coughed heavily, turning his head down and away from the children. “Because I don’t know how long I’ll be worth your tribe’s providing for me, it’s important to tell you about two men your great-grandparents dragged around with them. They brought a prophet along with his helper: Jeremiah and Baruch. The two didn’t want to join your great-grandparents escaping from Judah, but once here they continued to serve your one God, the Lord Yahweh.
“Although you live on the edge of Egypt with its array of gods, this one God whom you Hebrews worship always summons you — points to you personally, no matter what group you’re sitting in — to be faithful to his way of life, meaning treating others justly and kindly, as Yahweh does with you. And if you don’t first live justly and kindly with others, you won’t live with Yahweh. That was Jeremiah’s message and his entire life. He started serving Yahweh when he was your age.” He pointed to a boy on his rug. “And he served until he was as old as I am,” which brought a gasp from a couple children.
The old Egyptian paused as a small swirl of wind sent a sprinkling of sand onto his rug. He looked at the newly deposited sand and said, “Jeremiah talked about a kind of life that doesn’t blow away with the sand. He told your people — I heard him — he told them about being faithful to Yahweh-God. You’re supposed to love Yahweh’s kind of mercy, which means caring for the most vulnerable and needy people and not trying to get every good thing just for yourself. When you live Yahweh’s life it becomes satisfying to care for others. His life becomes who you are.”
He paused and took a slow breath, wagging his head slowly side to side. The children wondered if he’d be able to keep speaking. “Jeremiah proclaimed that Yahweh’s people must know what’s important in life, what’s truly worthwhile, what will last. Our human lives won’t last long. I know that as I see the rope of my life burning ever closer to the end.
“He constantly taught how useless idols are. You’ve bumped into them in the villages and tents of others, those little statues you’d think were dolls to play with. People paint then, clothe them, bow to them, kiss them, and pretend to feed them. You’ve seen that?” He pointed to the back of the group. The boy must have been listening carefully, for he answered, “Yes, sir. Father says they think that’s worship.”
“And I’m here to tell you, show you if I can, where that kind of worship leads. I’ve seen it, watched it here in Egypt and Jeremiah convinced me — even if he wasn’t always able to teach your ancestors — that your one God, not a group or a family of gods, deserves our complete attention, constant worship, and the devotion of our lives. There’s no comparison between those worthless idols and your God Yahweh.”
He turned to the spring beside him. “Yahweh and the life he offers is like this cool, flowing water. You look forward to coming to this oasis for the water don’t you?” They all nodded. “Then think of it this way. Yahweh offers a life to his people like this water. And those who turn away from Yahweh are like those trying to store water in cracked cisterns. They’re as pitiful as those who’d direct this clear spring into a channel that just empties into the sand.” The children looked appalled. “Don’t want that to happen, do you?”
“No,” they all spoke together, shaking their heads.
While the old Egyptian had taught, the shadow of the tree had moved so that now he squinted and tipped his head to the side in stay out of the sun without moving his whole body. He seemed to use all his strength to conclude, “I don’t want you children to become worthless and wasteful with an idolatrous life. To begin life within your one God, obey Yahweh as you do your parents and trust his love for you as much as you trust your parents’ love. You’ll learn more about life for Yahweh, but that’s a beginning.” Without another word he swished a hand back and forth to send them away.
When the children were gone, he took a long time struggling to his feet. He shuffled toward his host’s tent, dragging his rug, and listening to the bleating of the sheep. He seemed almost like Jeremiah, wondering how long these ex-patriot Judeans would keep carrying around someone whose only value was to tell them about Yahweh.
Preaching Point: Will a new generation listen to Jeremiah’s message?
**************
StoryShare, September 1, 2019, issue.
Copyright 2019 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Hwy., Lima, Ohio 45807.
