My Final Home

“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” (John 14:1-7 ESV).

Well, we are getting closer each day to finishing our house in Texas! We’re doing work on the inside and out. This week we should see the electrical finished up and the painting done on the inside; and, brick goes up in the next few days. While building a home can often be frustrating and difficult, we have been very fortunate that there have been very few problems. We are actually a little ahead of schedule! To say we are excited about getting moved in is certainly an understatement. However, if I have learned anything through all of our years of moving from one place to another in ministry, it is that this home too is temporary. The home the Lord is building for me is my permanent residence. That is the incredible message of our reading today. The disciples were shaken and unsure of the future. They had left everything they knew or had in order to follow Jesus. Now they were looking at what they believed to be the end of their grand adventure. As far as they knew nothing had been accomplished and their efforts were all for nothing. They had done some good in some individual situations. They had fed thousands, healed many, and brought peace to people who knew no peace. However, that was all going to end with the death of their leader. To their fears and uncertainty Jesus simply says, “Let not your hearts be troubled.” He wanted his followers and friends to understand his death signaled the beginning not the end. He was going to die in order to give them a real home, one that would last forever. And, he wanted them to know he would be the one to lead us all the way back to our perfectly prepared home. Never again will we face the elements, the enemies that harass, or the fears that intimidate. We shall forevermore be treated by our great God and Father as his sons and daughters. When our faith gives way to sight, the trust that lies at the heart of faith will be complete. Don’t lose sight of that great day. We are only struggling momentarily here and now; we will forever be free then and there. That’s some good news!

Jittery Sheep

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever. (Psalm 23:1-6 ESV).

Texas is not a state known for its sheep. We are cattle and horse country for the most part. However, I have known some folks who raise sheep. They are jittery little critters! They look calm and relaxed grazing or laying in the pasture until some sound or movement out of the ordinary awakens their suspicious nature. Up they get and off they trot, bleating as they go. It’s their natural protective response of fear. No amount of coaxing seems to persuade them otherwise. But then, I’m not their shepherd. The relationship between the shepherd and his sheep is what’s crucial. He knows them and they recognize his voice. His very presence challenges their many fears: tension within the flock, the “bully boy” sheep, irritating flies and insects, not to mention plain old hunger. In the company of the shepherd, sheep can do what they find so difficult: they can relax and lie down, and do so in the luscious pastures to which he’s led them. David knew this relationship first hand. It is no wonder that he uses it in our reading today. We are much like the sheep. We claim to be fine even though inside we may be anything but that. Someone has suggested that “FINE” is really just an acronym for “Freaked out, Insecure, Neurotic and Emotional.” Perhaps there is more truth to that than we might want to admit. Yesterday we talked a bit about never wanting for anything. David does say in our reading that “The Lord is our shepherd; I shall not want.” Unfortunately, that has led to some misunderstanding among the prosperity theology of our day. There are those who would say that there is nothing outside of our grasp if we just believe. Further, they would say that if you are living the kind of life God wants for you, you will never suffer anything. Well, we know that’s not true. The Apostle Paul was just one of the many faithful who suffered much; yet, he would be the first to say that he was fully satisfied and lacked nothing (cf. Philippians 4:10-13). David understands that real satisfaction means the absence of fear in the face of all circumstances. Let’s commit our every fear to our shepherd, whether big or small. He delights to calm our frantic natures and to feed us on his promises. When you think you have reached the end of your resources and have nowhere to turn, remember you have not been left defenseless. Your Shepherd is watching over you. He will never fail you!

Chasing the Dream

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever. (Psalm 23:1-6 ESV).

The question around birthdays or other gift-giving occasions is usually, “What do you want?” My typical response is that “I don’t need anything.” As I thought about that it occurred to me that I have never really “needed” anything. I’ve often wanted things, but never needed them. There are many people in America who cannot say that. The official poverty rate in our country is 14.5%; that means that 45.3 million people in the US live in poverty; an additional 97.3 million (33%) of people living in the United States are low-income, defined as incomes below twice the federal poverty line. Taken together, this means that 48% of our country is poor or low income. I also found out through my research measuring "economic insecurity" that 4 out of 5 (79%) of people in the US live in danger of poverty or unemployment at some point in their lifetime (defined as a year or more of periodic joblessness, reliance on government aid such as food stamps or income below 150 percent of the poverty line). Only 48% of people could handle a $400 emergency expense without selling something or borrowing money. I am aware that real want comes in many shapes and sizes. Yesterday’s luxuries have become today’s necessities, such that the subsistence existence of many in poorer parts of the world is alien to us. However, for many of us our walk by faith has turned into a trot by sight. That brings me to our reading today. Whether writing as a king or as a king-in-the-making, David knew want first-hand. He experienced want financially as a poor shepherd boy, emotionally and spiritually when fighting wild animals, and physically when taking on Goliath. His claim he’d lack for nothing had been forged by experience and was penned in hope. Doubtless he also remembered Moses’ assurance to Israel that in the Promised Land God’s people would not want. If the Lord is our shepherd we too may have this confidence. He will not only supply our every last need, but provide the desires of our hearts. Given this, we can sing with David of the Lord’s providence. Insurance policies, investment accounts, family, friends, and church have their place, but the Lord wants us to lean our full weight ultimately on him. His grace is sufficient, even if it’s made perfect in our weakness. We’re going to look further at this truth tomorrow.

Everyman

As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man's eyes with the mud and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing. The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” Some said, “It is he.” Others said, “No, but he is like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.” So they said to him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed and received my sight.” They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.” (John 9:1-12 ESV). Few of the people in our present series of readings are dealt with at such length as the man who was born blind. Nearly two chapters, 89 verses, center on him. Yet he is never named. Perhaps it’s because he represents “Everyman.” He is the Everyman to whom Christ comes as “the light of the world.” The disciples’ question is universal too. “Why this man’s affliction?” opens up the whole problem of evil. Do you notice that whereas they asked the cause of the man’s blindness, Jesus redirected their thinking with an answer about the purpose of it? Your suffering may be your own fault, or your parents’, or your enemy’s, or your neighbor’s, or your ancestors’, or, in the last analysis, the effect of what Milton called “Man’s First Disobedience” in the Garden of Eden. But questions about the “why of cause“ are always academic and not very helpful. Think rather of the “why of purpose.” Jesus said the man had been born blind so that in due course “God’s works might be revealed in him.” That purpose would still include things hard to bear; he was later thrown out of the fellowship of the synagogue. But that was more than compensated by his having found his sight, and his Savior. I have mentioned before the differences between generations that I have noticed as I have grown older. We have now seen the millennials take their place as they reach adulthood in much of our culture; soon we shall see the dawning of what is now being called Generation Z rise to that status. What surprises me most is the high levels of anxiety in both of these groups. The endless choices millennials face have also proven paralyzing. They’re the constantly-swiping-right generation. It’s always on to the next thing. Carol Beaton, in Psychology Today, says an abundance of choices is stressing young people out. Perhaps this is the reason why it is so difficult to simply trust in the goodness of God, especially in the face of what seems to be so bad. For every generation the answer is in the purpose of those bad things. The victory requires trusting in the grace of God. That is the challenge for all of us regardless of age. I can say, as I have gotten older that trust has gotten easier. My prayer and hope for you is that you will trust more and ask why less! Life becomes much more fun that way.

An Uncommon Experience

They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes. And when Jesus had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit. He lived among the tombs. And no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain, for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart, and he broke the shackles in pieces. No one had the strength to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones. And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell down before him. And crying out with a loud voice, he said, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.” For he was saying to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!” And Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” He replied, “My name is Legion, for we are many.” And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. Now a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, and they begged him, saying, “Send us to the pigs; let us enter them.” So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the sea. (Mark 5:1-13 ESV). Just as everybody in Capernaum knew the centurion, so everybody in Gerasa, facing Capernaum on the other side of the Sea of Galilee, knew the demon-possessed man. For the opposite reason, of course: the soldier inspired admiration, the maniac inspired terror. The gospel writers have not named either of these two men for us. But of all our gallery of anonymous people, today’s character is the one who most nearly wasn’t anonymous at all. Jesus actually asked his name, and perhaps, in a lucid interval, he was beginning to answer, “My name is…” when the demons in his mind took over, shouting “Legion! There are crowds of us!” As Christian converts from other religions have often adopted Christian names in place of their old pagan names, we are also seeing an increase in the number of people converting to Islam and abandoning their English “Christian names” for Muslim ones. For better or worse, what people call themselves sometimes speaks volumes about what they truly are. “Legion,” once he was healed, presumably reverted to whatever his parents had named him. It might have been a very common name for the day. The key was not in the common nature of his name but the uncommon experience he had with Jesus. Everyone in the town must have known of him. After all, he was chained to a tree in the cemetery just on the edge of town. You couldn’t get in or out of town without seeing and hearing him. His wailing must have haunted the townspeople day and night. Yet, when Jesus had finished his conversation with him, he was completely changed. The people had to have wondered who had such power. Thankfully the man had the courage to tell them. In many ways we are just like that man. I hope we have that same courage! We have had that same uncommon experience!

He Will Raise You Up

After he had finished all his sayings in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum. Now a centurion had a servant who was sick and at the point of death, who was highly valued by him. When the centurion heard about Jesus, he sent to him elders of the Jews, asking him to come and heal his servant. And when they came to Jesus, they pleaded with him earnestly, saying, “He is worthy to have you do this for him, for he loves our nation, and he is the one who built us our synagogue.” And Jesus went with them. When he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends, saying to him, “Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof. Therefore I did not presume to come to you. But say the word, and let my servant be healed. For I too am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me: and I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” When Jesus heard these things, he marveled at him, and turning to the crowd that followed him, said, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.” And when those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the servant well. (Luke 7:1-10 ESV). I love this story. It is such a contrast to our modern culture and the present generation who questions everything with an all-encompassing and challenging “why?” The centurion almost sounds like a dictator in the way he gives orders and had them obeyed immediately. But that was not how he came across. On the contrary, he is portrayed as a thoroughly nice man. We may not know his name, but everyone in Capernaum would have. A Roman officer, true; to the locals, though, this man was much more than just a representative of a hated foreign army of occupation. He was a respected and generous member of the community, very sympathetic to the Jewish religion and way of life. What Jesus saw in him was something even more laudable. To the centurion the whole command-structure of the military was second nature. Experience told him that when he gave orders, things happened, because the whole authority of Rome stood behind him. But faith told him that Jesus too must have behind him just such an authority, indeed, an even greater one. He simply believed that Jesus’ authority was unquestionably supreme. There couldn’t be another any higher or greater. Jesus had proven his authority even more so that Rome. What many Jews found hard to grasp was obvious to this gentile. Since Jesus was repeatedly doing miracles of healing, he clearly had behind him the full weight of the “Supreme Command.” That was why he could even forgive sins in the name of God. I have so many people who simply failed to make the connection that this soldier made. We find ourselves in the midst of a crisis and question whether God’s good will could possibly be done. Our first inclination is to question why such a calamity should befall us instead of simply trusting the almighty sovereign Creator and Savior. Take a few minutes and listen to this song (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rT0rhVhXnNA) by the Celtic Women at Shane Castle. He will raise you up!

The Paralytic

And when he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. And many were gathered together, so that there was no more room, not even at the door. And he was preaching the word to them. And they came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, “Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” And immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they thus questioned within themselves, said to them, “Why do you question these things in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, take up your bed and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the paralytic—“I say to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go home.” And he rose and immediately picked up his bed and went out before them all, so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this!” (Mark 2:1-12 ESV). Did you catch that last sentence? Mark says, “They were all amazed.” They had never seen anything like that before. But surely they had. It was by no means the first miracle of healing that Jesus had done in Capernaum. Agreed, it was probably the first, and so far as we know the only time that a roof was broken through to get a sufferer to him; but though that may have been rather surprising, you could scarcely say it was amazing. I think the thing they had not seen before was Jesus dealing with sin as well as suffering. The response of the hard-hearted was, “He says the man’s forgiven, but how do we know, and how does he know, and what right has he to say so?” A more positive response would be, “Since he has the power to heal, he must also have the power to forgive.” Though everybody had seen the man walk away, nobody had actually seen his sins disappear, had they? What they had seen was one who could do nothing, a mere man, completely restored by one who seemingly could do anything, one claiming to be the Son of Man, True Man, the Man with divine power and authority. That was what amazed everyone. It was Jesus’ claim to be able to do what only God could do. You remember that yesterday I quoted Jesus as saying to the woman at the well, “I who speak to you am he.” There is so much assurance in those words. It is the foundation of Jesus’ miraculous work in our reading today. There were many prophets who had healed the infirmities of people before Jesus; however, no one had ever claimed to forgive a man of his sins. And, isn’t that the real healing we need today? I think I’ll be fine if I get into heaven with my infirmities. However, if I don’t get there, I won’t be fine at all. The great miracle of Jesus is that through his work of grace we are forgiven. Perhaps we should focus on that truth today. Go ahead, rise, pick up your bed of affliction, and walk!