October 16th

Back to Basics

Hebrews 4:12-16


Most of you who know me already know that I am not really what you would call a “techno guru.” Now, I can build a decent Excel spreadsheet, and I definitely know my way around Word software. Hey! I even learned how to blog this year! But much beyond those applications, I am pretty useless when it comes to being a computer pro.

But e-mail? Hey! I am all over e-mail! Can I get an “amen” from the Board of Directors and our bookkeeper? In fact, I am usually so on top of my e-mail that it has become a source of, well, let’s say “discussion” in the Lofstrand-Spears household. See, Richard checks his e-mail maybe once every week or so. I check my e-mail at least daily, unless we are on vacation.

What makes my obsession with keeping my e-mails up to date so strange, though, is that 10 years ago I hated using e-mail. When my company installed e-mail on our computers and made using it mandatory, I was one of those folks who complained that we would lose that “personal touch” so valued by our customers. I joined the chorus of those shouting, “We need to get back to basics!” Never mind that I worked for a hazardous waste removal company. Oh, yeah! A lot of personal touch required in that industry! Truth be told, I was probably a closet technophobe.

But as wonderful as e-mail can be, it also has a dark side. For example, have you ever been upset about an issue, typed out a flaming e-mail, and as soon as you clicked on the “Send” icon, said, “Oh….golly gosh darn it all (or words to that effect)? Um hmm. Thought so. So have I.

My worst e-mail moments normally happen when my intention is to be professional, firm, clear, and direct. I click on the “Send” icon, confident that I have presented my position well. But sometimes the replies I receive to these well-intentioned e-mails have singed the hair on my eyebrows! E-mail has truly become today’s two-edged sword. But as we learn from our passage in Hebrews today, there was something long before the invention of e-mail--and something that will outlast e-mail--that is even sharper—the word of God. But exactly what is the word of God?

Well, today, when we speak of the “word of God,” most Christians think of the Bible; and that is certainly one way of looking at this term. But, I want to challenge us this morning to go beyond this more traditional view of the “word of God” to a view that may be a little less concrete, but also a view that may be more personal to us, as well. To do that, we need to know a little more about the context, or setting, for the book of Hebrews.

Remember last week when I said Job is one of those books many pastors avoid when it comes to preaching? Well, Hebrews is another one of those books. A big reason for this avoidance is that Hebrews is full of symbolic language and imagery that make a lot of the passages from this book difficult to apply to everyday faith and living.

Take the term “word of God,” for example. As I said earlier, when we hear that term today, most of us here think of the Bible. But that is not what the “word of God” means in Hebrews. Early on in this book, we read that, “long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets.” You see, our ancestors did not have a handy dandy, Old Testament or New Testament they could download from a multitude of various websites, or maybe even actually pick up and read in paper form! No, while these writings did eventually come along at a much later time, in the beginning, we had the basics—the word of God through the prophets.

This word of God is the living, breathing word that spoke the universe into existence. This word of God is the word that came through leaders and prophets like Moses, Ezekiel, Elijah, Elisha, Hosea, and Jeremiah. This word of God is the word that came through the actions of wise women like Deborah, Rahab, and Naomi. This word of God is a personal, loving word that provided protection and guidance to our ancestors.

This same word of God is still around today, too. But to be honest with you, I think we’ve lost a lot of that “personal touch” that comes with experiencing the word of God outside of the Bible. Don’t get me wrong; I think the Bible is great. When we really—and I mean, really—read and study the scriptures, I am convinced that God speaks to us through them. The Bible provides us with guidance, direction, and hope. Some of us use daily devotionals that include biblical passages. These devotionals are great ways to make the Bible even more accessible to people who may be a little lost on how to start reading the Bible. There are also Bibles that have the scriptures arranged by the day of the week so you can read through the Bible in just one year! These are wonderful study tools!

But as valuable as Bible study is, there is just something about the word of God coming through another person or event that seems to make a far more lasting impression than the written word alone. For example, it is one thing to read about God’s love in the Bible. It is a different thing altogether to experience God’s love in deep and personal ways in a community of faith, as we pray together, hug one another, and share one another’s joys and sorrows.

But there is also another side to God’s word—a side we don’t like to talk about too much. You see, folks, judgment also comes through God’s word. Leaders and prophets in the Old Testament, and apostles in the New Testament called people on their stuff as God spoke through these leaders, prophets, and apostles. The book of Hebrews recalls how some of the children of Israel died in the wilderness as a result of their disobedience.

In our passage today we read how the word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword. We read how the word of God is able to separate soul from spirit, joints from marrow. Not only that, the word of God is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. The word of God cuts through all the fluff. The word of God cuts through all the garbage. The word of God exposes us completely—and we don’t like that kind of exposure one little bit, do we?

It has been said that, “the word of God is not merely a collection of words from God, a vehicle for collecting ideas. The word of God is living, life changing, and dynamic as it works in us. With the precision of a surgeon’s knife, the word of God reveals who we are and who we are not. The word of God penetrates the core of our moral and spiritual life. It discerns what is in us—both the good and the evil. The demands of the word of God require decisions. We must not only listen to the word of God, we must also let it shape our lives.”

It is one thing for me to stand up here and talk to you about living honestly and with integrity, as well as avoiding excesses in all areas of our lives. You expect that from me. You expect to read about issues like that in the Bible, too. So, as a result, some people tend to avoid churches that preach about responsible living. And while these folks may own a bunch of Bibles, chances are they avoid the passages they don’t like—if they read their Bibles at all. So, if we avoid the nagging preacher and don’t really read the Bible, we have an excuse for our actions, right?

Think again. Remember, the word of God is living and active. The word of God is not limited to the writings of the Bible, or the scriptures of any other faith tradition, either! And do you know what else? The word of God can come through some pretty strange sources too, sometimes! You see, I think the word of God can come through friends and family who may not even claim to be Christians! Folks, I’ve had non-Christian friends call me on some of my stuff in ways that were far more effective than any sermon or Bible study! Think about it. If the Bible challenges us about an issue in our lives, the preacher challenges us about this issue, and even loving, open and affirming, non-Christians call us on it, chances are we should be paying attention! Amen?

So here we are—spiritually sliced open, exposed, naked, bare before God. And it ain’t a pretty sight, either. How can we even pretend to be able to stand under such judgment?

The good news is we don’t have to pretend. Jesus Christ, who experienced the full range of human mortality, this same Jesus Christ intercedes for us before God. Whenever we are at our most vulnerable, our most exposed, whenever we are at our lowest and think we have no where to go, scripture tells us that we can approach God’s throne of grace with boldness so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in our time of need.

My sisters and brothers, as we look around at our world today, I think it is time we got back to basics. So whether it is written, electronic, spoken, or experienced through events in our lives, let’s get back to the word of God. For it is through the living, active, sharp word of God that we discover the way to God’s throne of grace.

And couldn’t we all use a little more grace in our lives?

God bless you and amen

October 10th

When Bad Things Happen to Good People

Job 1:1; 2:1-10


In the past 10 days, a schoolgirl has been killed in Colorado, a principal has been killed in Wisconsin, and five Amish schoolgirls have been killed execution style in Pennsylvania. And on top of that, Fred Phelps and his bunch of so-called Christian followers were planning on protesting at the Amish funerals! The only reason they didn’t was some ultra conservative radio host offered Phelps an hour of airtime if they would call off the protest! Can you believe that?

But do you know what I think is really insane? There will be far more air time and media attention given to the Mark Foley scandal and how it may or may not affect the Republicans in the November elections than these senseless tragedies. Is anybody else here asking the question: “God, what is going on here?”

If you have been coming to church here for any length of time, you know that normally I try to ease into the topic of the day. I love using humor and making fun of myself and family members, as well as poking fun at situations to which most of us can relate. But there are just some passages of scripture and some topics that just do not lend themselves to humor—like our passage from the book of Job today, and all the senseless violence and just flat out stupidity of Fred Phelps and his followers that I mentioned in my opening words.

Human suffering is part of life, and do you know what? It stinks! The subject of human suffering takes up the vast majority of the book of Job, and for that reason, the book is disturbing to a lot of people—myself included. But why does the book of Job bother so many people? Why do a lot of preachers shy away from preaching on passages from the book of Job? Maybe this book disturbs a lot of folks because humanity tends to be cause and effect oriented. That is, you do “A”; “B” is the logical result.

Well, the book of Job throws all that nonsense out of the window. In biblical times, people explained everything as a result of God’s pleasure or displeasure with humanity. If it rained and your crops grew, you had God’s favor. Droughts meant that God was unhappy with you. What we would consider normal skin allergies would be considered punishment from God by some of our biblical ancestors.

But wait a minute! Job is described as “upright” and “blameless.” Some of the Hebrew words describing Job indicate he was “whole,” or “complete.” In other words, while Job wasn’t perfect, he was pretty darned close to it. So the authors of the book of Job—being the cause and effect people they were—seem to describe the reason for Job’s suffering as the result of some contest between Hasatan—also known as “Satan” or “The Accuser” and God.

But notice something here: The Accuser does not have a problem with Job as much as he has a problem with God. Satan is challenging the whole premise of why people have faith in God. “Well of course Job loves you! Look at the way you bless him! Of course he reveres and worships you! But take all that away, and Job will curse you to your face.” What Satan is basically saying is that people will love God only during the good times; but let the storms of life come our way, and we will jump ship in a heartbeat.

I hate to admit it; but Satan has a point. It is really easy for us to love, trust, and worship God during the good times, isn’t it? When we have health, a job, maybe a partner, and a roof over our heads, it is pretty easy to be thankful—especially when we look around and see others who don’t appear to be as fortunate as we are.

But then it happens. The partner leaves, we are downsized at our job, we get a very bad report from our doctor—you name it, it happens to us. Sometimes these things seem to happen all at the same time, too! To be honest, sometimes we are our own worst enemies. By that comment, I mean there are times when we have a hand in our own misfortune. We don’t take care of our bodies, we miss too much work, we drink and drive, we cheat on our partners, and we suffer the consequences of our choices. Can’t really pin those things on God, now can we?

But there are those times when it seems the world has just gone to hell in a hand basket, and we have absolutely no clue why. For example, we don’t know why Charles Carl Roberts IV killed those innocent Amish girls. Syndicated religion columnist Terry Mattingly tells us that witnesses said the killer was angry with God, angry with himself, haunted by guilt, fed up with life and driven by a hellish grudge.

We don’t know why some children are horribly abused, why so many people are homeless, emotionally disturbed, or physically challenged. We don’t know why sometimes our own lives just seem like one never-ending soap opera. When these things happen, we begin to ask God, “Why?” Why does God allow these things to happen? Why do bad things happen to good people? Do you really want to know?

So do I, folks. So do I.

The not-so-simple truth of the matter is that not all human suffering is deserved—period. Jesus knew this fact when he said that “God sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” You see, folks, not even God in the person of Jesus Christ gave us the reason for unjust human suffering.

So what do we do in the face of unjust human suffering? Some people point to the example of Job and suggest we just have to learn to be patient in the face of unjust adversity. Let me clue you in on something, folks. That whole “patience of Job” business? Not true. Nope, Job was not---repeat not—patient. In fact, the word for “patient” or “patience” is not even found in the book of Job!

The whole third chapter of Job is a lament—and it starts with Job cursing the day of his birth! From chapter 10, verse 1: “I loathe my life; I will give free utterance to my complaint; I will speak of the bitterness of my soul.” From chapter 17, verse 1, Job screams, “My spirit is broken, my days are extinct, the grave is ready for me!” In chapter 23, verses 16 and 17, Job moans, “God has made my heart faint; the Almighty has terrified me; if only I could vanish in darkness, and thick darkness would cover my face!” Job was ticked off, folks! And do you know what? He had every reason to be upset!

OK. So if patience is not the lesson from Job, what is the lesson? I think there are at least a few things we can learn from Job. First, life is a mixture of both the good and the bad. All our confessions, all our prayers, and all our good works do not exempt us from experiencing life’s sorrows. Job drives this point home nicely when he asks, “Shall we receive the good at the hand of God and not receive the bad?” It was this understanding of life that put Job far ahead of his friends who tried to come up with nice and tidy explanations for Job’s troubles. Sometimes these explanations simply do not exist.

A second lesson we can learn from Job is that it is perfectly OK—in fact, I think it is even healthy sometimes—to faithfully and honestly question God. Job never turned his back on God; but Job was honest in offering his passionate complaints. So, when we are going through times of unjust suffering, I believe it is completely appropriate to question God! Check out some of the Psalms and the book of Lamentations. Being upset with God is nothing new, folks.

Yet another lesson we can learn from Job is to be persistent in seeking an answer from God. Job kept talking to God until he got an answer. It wasn’t necessarily the answer Job wanted; but he did eventually hear from God. You see, Job did not get a nice neat explanation from God about the nature of human suffering. Job did not get a catchy little saying he could write down and put somewhere to remind him the next time life began to stink.

But what Job did get was a sense of peace in his relationship with God. Job said, “I know you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.” See, Job didn’t know why, but Job knew who. Job knew who was ultimately in control, and it was that knowledge that gave him peace.

So I think maybe rather than focusing on the patience of Job—something that didn’t exist anyway—maybe we should focus on the faith of Job. It was a faith that was severely tried, but a faith that chose to trust God anyway. Even though he couldn’t explain the loss of his wealth, his children, and his health, Job chose to trust that when all is said and done, God will make all things clear.

The good news today is that same peace is available to all of us. Like Job, our challenge is not to make sense of all the bad and good things that happen in life. But at the same time, like Job, to honestly question those things we don’t understand. We won’t get all the answers, of course—at least not in this life. But the most important point is that we are to remain in close contact with God throughout it all; because it is that intimate relationship with God that will ultimately save us, and put us in a position to discover true serenity and peace.

May it be so for you, for me, and for our world.

God bless you and amen.

October 3rd

Tattletale!

Esther 7:1-6, 9-10, 9:20-22


“Tattletale! Tattletale!” Remember using that line growing up? We usually reserved it for that annoying goody two shoes who was always getting us into trouble by telling our parents, teachers, or other care givers about some of our more, well, creative endeavors. For example, like the time I tossed my sister’s Barbie clothes down the chute of my Mamaw Polly’s outhouse. I thought it was a rather clever stunt—that is, until I had to retrieve the clothes and wash them by hand!

Probably the cleverest tattletale in my life growing up was my older sister, Beth. You see, Beth did not always just run and tell on me—she timed her revelations to suit her purposes. The best example of her ingenuity came when she overheard a friend and I using 4-letter words in a conversation. She told my friend’s sister, who told her parents within a couple of days, and the parents promptly punished my friend.

Not Beth, though. Nooooooo! She held what I considered to be this potentially life-threatening information over my head for months! I did her bidding day and night, which was particularly humiliating for an 11 year-old little brother. Finally, in a fit of exasperation, and fearful for my life, I confessed my horrible secret to my father—as well as why I was doing so. Dad—from whom I had learned most of those 4-letter words, by the way—shook his head, smiled, and told me to never let it happen again. I am sure that he got a big kick out of the story; he just couldn’t let me know that he did!

But as annoying as the whole concept of “tattling” can be for children as well as adults, there is actually a time and a place for it. Since the 1970’s, tattling in the adult world has become known as “whistle blowing.” You see, sometimes there are products, policies, or procedures within an organization that can cause harm to customers, stockholders, or employees; but that information is being kept from the public. Whistle blowers are the folks who make this potentially harmful information public.

Now we might think that people would be grateful for receiving this information, and sometimes they are—Sherron Watkins, the whistle blower in the infamous Enron scandal—is a case in point. But most of the time, whistleblowers are despised—sometimes even by the people who benefit from their actions! Many whistle blowers face harassment and lawsuits. Sometimes investigators dog whistleblowers for months and even years. With all this stress, it is easy to see why many whistle blowers wind up emotionally distressed. So, to put it mildly, whistle blowing ain’t for sissies.
But while the term “whistle blowing” has been around only since the 70’s, the practice has been around since at least Old Testament times, and Esther is a prime example of a biblical whistleblower. Let’s take a look at her story.

Esther was a beautiful young Jewish woman who lived in Persia after the end of the Babylonian exile. She became queen after Queen Vashti was banished for refusing to appear in the Persian royal court at the king’s command. However, neither the king nor anyone in the Persian court realized that Esther was Jewish. So while Esther becomes queen, Mordecai, who was Esther’s guardian and cousin, was making a name for himself in the Persian court. He even discovered a plot to assassinate the king, told Esther, who told the king, and the plot was foiled. So far, everything was looking pretty good for Mordecai and Esther.

But things started changing for the worse when Haman was appointed second in command. You see, Haman was a leader who was full of himself, and became enraged when Mordecai would not bow to him, which was a way of acknowledging Haman as divine. But since Mordecai worshipped only the one true God, Yahweh, he would have none of that bowing to humans business.

So Haman decided to run and tattle to the king. But there was a twist to Haman’s tattling. He knew that the king liked Mordecai, so Haman had to disguise his plot by making his accusation generic. So, Haman runs to the king and says, “Oh your majesty! Your majesty! There is a group of people in your kingdom who are different than everybody else! They don’t even keep your rules! Personally, I wouldn’t put up with it. If I were you, I would annihilate them! Oh, and by the way, if you do, there is a nice contribution in it for the King’s Treasury.”

So the king—not one for details—issues the edict, not knowing that he has placed his own queen in danger. Mordecai, however, learns of the edict, and tells Esther. Now we might think that the next logical step would be for Esther to run and tell the king what the real deal is. But there was just one small problem. Even though she was queen, Persian court protocol dictated that Esther could not approach the king without being summoned by him. If she did so, Esther was risking her own life. And here is where we get to the point of our lesson today: the differences between “tattling” and whistle blowing.

Tattling is usually selfish in nature. Children tattle because they have been offended somehow by another child—you know, “He’s looking at me; make him stop! Tattlers also usually make the situation look worse than it really is. For example, “She took my blue crayon!”---even though there are about a dozen blue crayons all over the place.

Of course, children are not the only tattlers. Haman was a tattler. He was personally offended by Mordecai’s refusal to bow to him, and rather than at least trying to work through the situation with Mordecai, he ran to the king. And on top of that, out of his hatred for one person, Haman blew the whole situation out of proportion to where a whole race of people was put at risk!

We have examples of adult tattling in modern history, too. Sexist men and women were—and still are--offended by “uppity women” who have the nerve to demand equal pay for equal work; racists were—and still are--offended by African Americans who have the nerve to demand equal rights; homophobes were—and still are—offended by gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people who have the nerve to demand equal rights. These people, like Haman, are offended because we do not bow to them as morally superior to us, so they run to our elected officials with promises of contributions to their election campaigns, if only they will issue edicts preventing equality for the people they don’t like. Then, on top of that, these folks bolster their claims by telling these elected officials how such equality is a threat to the moral fabric of society! In other words, “These people don’t follow our rules, your Majesties.”

Whistle blowing on the other hand is usually done for the common good of the community. Corporate fraud, unsafe health care practices, hostile takeovers, and terrorist plots are good examples where whistle blowing is not only the right thing to do—it is the only thing to do!

Children become whistle blowers when they report abuse of various kinds by family members, friends, or other caregivers. This type of reporting is so crucial not only for the safety of the children being abused now, but to hopefully prevent the abuse of future generations by these abusers. But again, children are not the only whistleblowers. Esther was a whistleblower. In her case, the issue was genocide. Failure to report Haman’s plot to the king would result not only in Esther’s death, but also the death of her people. She had to risk her life in order to expose this plot; but Esther—unlike Haman—was able to look beyond her own needs, and risked her life for the common good of her people.

Finally, whistle blowing that is rooted in goodness, is whistle blowing that is rooted in God. Haman did not consult even his own pagan gods for direction. But Esther asked her fellow Jews to join her in a three-day fast, which was a means of seeking God’s help and blessing.

When Esther took a calculated risk by “coming out,” so to speak, and that risk was rooted in God and for the common good of her community, she who risked her life saved it—as well as the lives of her people. And Haman, who sought to save his life, defined here as his position and reputation, lost it all—including his life.

Folks, effective, positive, long-lasting change does not come from always playing it safe. But neither does it come from a yearly parade, occasional protests, and pointing fingers at one another—regardless of the group whom is seeking the change.

Let’s take a lesson from Esther this morning. If we really want to see positive change in our world, let’s be willing to take calculated risks—risks that are courageous, but are also based on planning and common sense. And may those risks be rooted in God’s goodness, bathed in prayer, and for the common good of our communities.

Otherwise, our communities might just end up like our tattletale friend Haman—just swinging in the breeze.

God bless you and amen.