Unsinkable

So Allie and I are planning our vacation this summer. Our vacations usually involve camping. It’s a fun and economical way to see the world; and the kids love it. That may be because they don’t have to bathe for days at a time. I know that there are a few of you who really love to take cruises for your vacations. That’s always sounded very glamorous and exciting to me. But tell me something - aren’t you afraid you’ll wake up in the middle of the night and find out water coming under your cabin door because you’ve hit a coral reef or an iceberg or something? No? Why not? “Those big ships can’t possibly sink!” Yeah, do you remember the last ship that was billed as ‘unsinkable’? Go on to Google and type the word “unsinkable.” Do you know what the first few entries will be about? That’s right, the RMS Titanic. While it is a myth that the Titanic was advertised as being unsinkable, the Irish Times newspaper and Shipbuilder magazine both described her as “practically unsinkable” and that was the perception in the mind of the public. Until of course it sank with the loss of 1800 people. Would you like to hear the story of the only truly unsinkable ship? Listen now to the Word of God as it is found in Luke 8: 22-25. (Read passage)

There’s a story about a truly unsinkable ship. And we could talk about a number of aspects of the story but let me ask you a question: Why does Jesus correct the disciples? What exactly did they do wrong? They’re in a small boat. There is a violent storm. At least some of them are fishermen who have made their living out on the water in small boats. They know a truly dangerous storm from normal weather. This translation of the Bible even makes that clear saying, “. . . they were in real danger” (v. 23). But when they wake up the Lord who is sleeping in the boat, he gives them a rebuke: “Where is your faith?” (v. 25). What exactly did they do wrong? Now, it’s not that they should have remained quiet and stoic in the middle of their danger. It’s not that Jesus is annoyed at being awoken: “Why are you bothering me?!” If you have kids, have they ever woken you up for some dumb reason while you were desperately trying to catch up on your rest? “Daddy, can I watch a movie?” Aargh! Some people don’t pray to God because they don’t want to bother him with the trivial details of their lives – as if they were afraid of waking God up from his nap. “I really don’t want to bother God with that.” But that’s not why Jesus gets upset with the disciples. One of my favorite verses, which I quote with some regularity, says, “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5: 7). We are clearly told that the Lord wants us to bring him our doubts and fears. He delights when his children bring him their worries. So it can’t be the case that Jesus is upset with them because they need him. He is not chastising them because they voiced their concerns. They were in danger. It was appropriate for them to go to him.

So why does he find fault with them? Well, what exactly does he say? “Where is your faith?” (v. 25). There is something about the way they are bringing their concerns to him that is not faithful. We already know it can’t be that they were coming to him with their fear of the storm because we’re told that the Lord cares about our fears and asks us to bring them to him. The thing about faith is that it has expectations. Psalm 55 gives the age old prayer: “But I will call on God, and the LORD will rescue me.” There’s an expectation there. I call on the Lord because I think he can save me. When the disciples go to Jesus, they don’t have faith that he can actually do anything about their situation. How do we know? Because when Jesus shows he can help, they are, the Bible says, “terrified and amazed” (v. 25). They had no expectation that Jesus was going to be any use at all to them in that boat.

What do we mean when we say we have faith in God? For too many people it simply means that we believe the right things so that they can go to the right place when we die. Now, it is a good thing that we have the expectation that God can help us with our little death problem. But is God limited to what happens after life? How involved is God? That’s a question that usually gets answered one of two ways. And they are very very old ways. When the message about Jesus Christ was first proclaimed in the Roman Empire 2000 years ago there were two main options for how the citizens of the Empire viewed God. One was the philosophy of the Stoics. This philosophy held that everything was God. The universe is God. I’m god. You’re god. Sometimes this kind of thinking is called pantheism, which comes from two words -pan which means all and theos which means God. Pan thesim – God is all. It sounds good at first but the problem with Stoicism and all forms of pantheism is that if everything is god, then even the bad things are god. If god is everything – then sickness is god. Crime is god. War is god. Death is god. It’s all god. So as a Stoic, your job is to just kind learn to accept everything. It’s not going to change. It’s all a part of God.

The other option for how to perceive God in the ancient Roman Empire was something called Epicureanism. Epicureans were kind of the opposite of the Stoics in how they viewed God. Instead of seeing God in everything, the Epicureans said that we can’t know anything about god or the Gods. He or they may exist. But they’re out there and we’re down here. Instead of seeing God in everything – being pantheists – they saw God in nothing. God is completely removed from our lives. So the Epicureans said our best shot at happiness is just to do our best to enjoy life. Make the best of it. Don’t hope for too much. Try to maximize your pleasure and minimize your pain. Being an Epicurean really wasn’t any more hopeful than being a Stoic. If the Stoics believed all our problems were just a part of God, the Epicureans saw God as too remote and so uninvolved that he couldn’t help us with our problems. Either way you had to just deal with it.

The first Christian missionaries came out of Jerusalem with a different message – the message about a Creator God who made the world and was yet was distinct from it. And these first Christian missionaries could say to the Stoics, “Yes, you’re right that God is very present and very involved in the world but he’s not the same as the Creation. He’s not contained by it. Just like you can tell something about the artist by looking at his painting, but the artist is more than his painting. And the first Christians could say to the Epicureans, “Yes, you’re right that God is distinct from the world but he’s not remote and uninvolved. He loves this world and is very involved in it. Yes it often seems like we are separated from God. But Go has a plan to change that – and this plan was brought to fullness through his Son Jesus Christ who has defeated death and human selfishness which separation from God.

All this was very good news because people for the first time could have expectations that God actually could do something for them. The Christian message about God is distinct from the world and yet not disconnected from it. God has the power and God has the love to save you and to make a real difference in your life.

And I know some of you must be thinking, why are we talking about 2000 year old philosophies? Because our situation today is very close to the one that existed way back in the Roman Empire two millennia ago. Up until a few hundred years ago most people believed in the Biblical idea that God is distinct from the world and yet intimately involved in it. But then a shift occurred. Science, which is a wonderful tool for understanding the world and at least partially shaping it, began to make great strides in explaining how things worked. And the more people understood about the processes of how the universe worked, the less they began to talk about God being involved in the world. For instance, do you remember that beautiful passage from the Psalms that Greg read to us last Sunday? Psalm 147 says of God, “He sends his orders to the world – how swiftly his word flies! He sends the snow like white wool; he scatters frost upon the ground like ashes. He hurls the hail like stones. Who can stand against his freezing cold? Then, at his command, it all melts. He sends his winds, and the ice thaws” (Psalm 147: 15-18). There we have a picture of the Biblical worldview. God is not the same as creation. He is distinct from it. But he’s closely and intimately involved in it. But if you turn on the Weather Channel is the meteorologist going to look into the camera and say, “All right folks, this weekend God is going to send a big icy blast across the Midwest , while in the Northeast, he’ll be hurling down some hail on New York City. And, on the West coast, he will send orders for things to be dry and warm”? No, they use very different language, don’t they? It’s not that they shouldn’t talk about the jet stream and barometric pressure. It’s not that understanding the processes of how the world works is wrong. But because we understand more of the processes for how things work, it is assumed that we don’t need the concept of God to explain things. And soon we push God a bit farther outside the normal realm of things. The first step in pushing out God is we relegate his activities to miracles. By miracles we mean rare and extraordinary events in which God interacts with the world. And then the next step is that many of us say we really don’t believe in miracles. And we push God’s activity all the way out of the world. And today so many people today say they believe there is a God but they don’t really know too much about him. He may exist, but he really doesn’t have much to do with our lives. And who do they sound like? Exactly! Just like the ancient Epicureans. And just like the ancient Epicureans these new Epicureans tend to think that we can’t really hope for too much in this life. And so we try to minimize the pain and maximize our pleasure, whatever our pleasure might look like. But ultimately it’s a very hopeless way to live because the world in its current shape is a mess. No matter how well things go on for a while, ultimately there is pain and suffering and ugliness. And if we don’t believe that God is really involved, if he either doesn’t exist or he’s so remote that he doesn’t care, then there’s no hope for this world or us personally. We have no expectations of God to have any real part in this world. We have no faith.

A world completely separated from the divine is a cold and sterile place. And so many people in the last few years have trying to put God back into the world. The New Age movements in all its forms says that everything is God. Everything is a miracle. I’m god. You’re god. We’re all a part of the divine. And trying to put the wonder and magic back into the universe, they sound like who? The ancient Stoics! They are pantheists who believe that God is in everything. And it sounds much more appealing and hopeful but really just like the ancient stoics, the modern pantheists can’t have much hope either. Because if God is everything, then everything, even the bad stuff, is God. And who is going to save you from the bad stuff if God is the bad stuff? And so most New Age teachings don’t hold out much hope for things to get much better either. Expectations are low. There is no faith.

When the storms of life and death and tragedy come upon us most people are either Stoics or Epicureans. And they don’t have a very great expectation that God can be of any use. And in the end, they don’t have much hope. It’s much better to be in the boat with Jesus. The God of the Bible is distinct from this world; he is the Creator who transcends the world. And yet he is also this world’s Redeemer; He is intimately involved in the world’s destiny and in yours’.

Listen to what the Bible says: "And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn of many brothers and sisters.” (Romans 8: 28-29). And for that reason you can have some expectations for him. You can put your faith in him. You can call on him and know there is no situation, there is no problem, there is no aspect of life that he does not have power to help and sustain you. God is working through all things to bring about his purpose of shaping you into something wonderful – of shaping this world into something wonderful. Put your faith in Jesus Christ. Go to him with your expectations in every situation.

And just like the disciples in that boat on the stormy Sea of Galilee you will learn something: You are unsinkable.

Amen

Rude Animals

No, there is no underlying reason, point, or didactic purpose to this post.

A Prayer Request

I have a prayer request for you.

Lifepath Church has an idea for a vision to be an Inside-Out church, which God will use to help transform our community. It's an exciting idea - but without a concrete measurable plan, we'll drift along as we are.

So this Saturday the elders, deacons, and staff of lifepath are gathering to discern the next steps. Please pray that God will show us the following things:

1. What does God want lifepath to look like in three year's time?

2. What are the five or six ministry objectives that God wishes us to begin to work on to reach this vision?

3. What are the next steps to reaching these goals?

4. Pray for unity around God's vision.

5. Pray that we in the leadership provide clear ways for the congregation to participate in this vision.

Thanks for your prayers!

What Happens When We Die?

Bishop N. T. Wright gives a Biblical answer in 90 seconds.

Happy 200th

In honor of Lincoln's birthday, I'll post one of the great speeches in the English language. It's so short that it took him about two minutes to give it. Here it is in its entirety:

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Tithing Rap - Word up.

Rest in Peace, Tom

"The idea that Keith Richards could survive me in death is so ironic.......humor me with this one - it's really funny."

- from the journal of Tom Lawrence, read at his funeral this morning.

"The Contest"

I like the show “Lost.” It’s creatively written. It’s got lots of surprises. And most of all, it’s just a good story. There’s really nothing better than a good story. Today’s Word from God is a story. But the thing about stories is we can only tell a little portion of them at a time. And if you come into the middle of a good story you’re going to have a hard time figuring out exactly what’s going on. If you try to watch the show Lost without going back and watching some previous episodes you’re going to be, well, completely lost. So before I read you the story for this morning, let’s do a little background.

At the moment our story opens a struggle for the soul of Israel is taking place. You remember that the Israelites first became a nation when the Lord God rescued them from slavery in Egypt. The Lord brought this motley bunch of slaves out from under Pharaoh’s thumb and into the Wilderness. There the Lord made a covenant, an agreement with them. They would be his people and worship only him. The Lord then led this new people into Canaan, the Promised Land, where they settled down and lived.

But they didn’t live happily ever after. You see, there were already people living there and these people worshipped different gods. Now we, as good and open minded Americans, might not think that this would be a problem. We live in a society where people worship all kinds of things and we agree to live and let live. But the people who lived in Canaan worshiped a god called Baal. They worshiped him by celebrating, um, “fertility rites” with priestesses in his temple and by giving him their firstborn children to be burned to death. And from the moment the Israelites first entered the land they had trouble refraining from worshiping Baal and turning their backs on the Lord who had done so much for them.

As we read the stories we might be tempted to say to ourselves, “How could they have been so unfaithful to God? Look at all the things the Lord had done for them! I would never have done what those Israelites did.” But that’s easy to say. When everyone else lives and thinks in a certain way, is it easy for you to be the only one who is different? When you went to that new school and everybody believed that you could not be cool unless you were sleeping with your girlfriend, was it easy for you to be different? When you transferred to that new company was it easy for you to criticize management policies you felt to be wrong? It’s easier to do what everyone else is doing, isn’t it? Well, Baal was the god you worshipped if you wanted to be a farmer in Canaan. If you wanted rain on your crops and your livestock to multiply you “worshipped” with the priestesses in the fertility temple. If you wanted lots of children to help you on the farm and to ensure you were taken care of when you were old, you gave the first one back to Baal to show you trusted him to give you lots more. It’s just what everyone did.

To make matters worse, the Israelites were not getting good leadership. Good King David, who had worshipped only the Lord, was long since dead. Semi-good King Solomon who had built the Temple in Jerusalem was dead. The later kings began to worship Baal. In our story the present king is a man named Ahab and he’s not worth much. His wife is named Jezebel and she is a devout Baal worshipper. The prophets of Baal are her favorite subjects. They eat at her table which is a mark of privilege. In fact, Jezebel is so devoted to Baal that she has begun killing off the people who worship the Lord. She has murdered most of the Lord’s prophets. The only one left of any consequence is a man named Elijah.

King Ahab and Queen Jezebel are not very happy with Elijah as our story opens because for the past three years there has been no rain in Israel. Through Elijah, the Lord has said there would be a drought. God’s thinking was that a drought should prove to people that it’s not Baal who gives the rain that provides their food – it’s the Lord. But after three years it hasn’t worked. The people continue to worship Baal and King Ahab is put out with Elijah who he thinks is a rabble-rouser and an all around pain in the neck. Now, as our story begins God tells Elijah to meet with Ahab and tell him that even though nothing has changed, the Lord is going to send rain. But Elijah is less patient than God and decides to make King Ahab and the Israelites choose once and for all between Baal and the Lord. Listen now to the Word of God.

(Read 1 Kings 18: 17-40)

My favorite part of that story is when the prophets of Baal are jumping around the altar, trying to get Baal to light the fire and Elijah is making fun of them. “Woo! Shout a little louder, guys! I don’t think Baal can hear you! Maybe he fell asleep or maybe he had to go to the bathroom! Maybe he wandered off and got lost! I hear that happens to him sometimes! Ha ha!” I guess Elijah could be a little obnoxious from time to time but the taunting reminds us of something very important. This is not a contest between Elijah and the 450 prophets of Baal. It is a contest between Baal and the Lord God of Israel. Which god sends the rain? Which god controls this world? Which god really has the power to help and protect us? Which god has the right to our loyalty and our worship? The contest, Elijah thought, would settle things once and for all.

Now you might say that while this has been a very interesting lesson in ancient history, what does it have to do with you? Obviously, you are not going to start worshipping an ancient Canaanite god, right? Well, actually very little has changed. It would be a difficult thing to prove by looking around us that the Lord won that contest. There is still a struggle going on for the souls of God’s people and the Baals of our world often seem to have the upper hand. The ancient god Baal was a prosperity god that demanded his followers demean themselves if they wanted to survive and get ahead. We are constantly pressured to demean ourselves and others – to see ourselves as less than what we were created to be: You are a productive worker to be used and discarded when you are no longer needed. Ever felt like that? You are a consumer to be manipulated and squeezed dry. How about that one? And what about other people? If you want to get ahead and survive, how are we pressured to treat other people? They are competitors, markets, labor pools. What god do we worship?

Baal was a god who demanded the deaths of his worshippers’ children. The average child in this nation sees something like 100,000 acts of murder on television before she is eight years old. Girls are conditioned to value themselves only if they fit a certain scrawny hollow-cheeked beauty. Who cares about their souls, their spirits, their hearts? Which god do we worship?
And just like in ancient Israel, our leaders are not much good. I’m not even going to talk about our politicians. They often seem to belong to whoever gives them the most money. What about television executives? What about the people who are responsible for the fact that children’s shows average more acts of violence in any given half-hour than any other kind of program? When questioned about the content of the shows and asked if they thought it had an effect on kids, television executives regularly say that watching things on television does not affect people’s behavior. Who really believes that? Then why do advertisers spend billions of dollars every year in commercials which are designed to do one thing – change your behavior. Buy my product. The leaders in our society seem to worship the great Baal of I’ve-got-mine-who-cares-how-many-children-I’ve-got-to-throw-on-the-fire-to-get-it. Who won that contest on Mount Carmel 3000 years ago? It’s hard to tell.

We can go on and on about how this culture does not worship the God of Scripture but let’s get down to brass tacks. Worshipping Baal meant people no longer gave their full allegiance to the Lord. Their loyalty was divided. Elijah said that the people hobbled between two different opinions. What keeps you from fully committing yourself to the Lord, wholly and fully? Whatever it is, that is your Baal. Each and every day there is a struggle for your soul. Who is God of your life?

What does it take for God to finally prove himself to us so that we will full accept and commit ourselves to him? “Well,” we say, “it would be nice if God would do what he did for Elijah and work some nice obvious miracles on demand. If God would make fire fall from the sky or just appear and speak in plain English to us rather than make us operate on faith, then we could accept him and do whatever he wanted. Give us a clear proof – a miracle captured on camera – then we would believe.” Well, maybe. But then again maybe not. God worked a miracle in this story in front of King Ahab and all the people of Israel. Did that work? Did Ahab suddenly become a good king and follow the Lord? Nope. The people of Israel, having seen once and for all that the Lord had the power to save them and Baal did not, did they stop worshipping Baal. Nope. As the story continues, Ahab goes right on being a rat most of the time and the people go back to their idols. The miracle didn’t bring faith.

Have you ever noticed that in the New Testament Jesus always refuses to show forth the power of God for those who have no faith? Those he heals and helps always believe in him first. It’s as if Jesus is saying, “if you don’t believe, no supernatural sound and light show is going to change things.” If you were healed after someone prayed for you, you would say it was coincidence. If you asked God to avert a great tragedy, later you would say it probably wouldn’t have happened anyway. If you don’t want to believe then it probably wouldn’t matter if Jesus in all his glory were to meet with you face to face and tell you all the secrets of the universe. You could just say you had hallucinated the whole thing.

Elijah tried to force people to believe and worship by getting God to prove himself to them. It didn’t work and Elijah should have known better. The people should have needed any proof. The great long story of their lives and all their history was full of God’s loving care – as they were rescued from Egypt, as they were brought to the Promised Land, as again and again they were rescued and taken care of and led. They should have known who to give their hearts to. No further proof should have been necessary for them. Or for us. God has loved us and provided for each of us since before we were born, shown us forgiveness and love through his Son Jesus.

It really was no contest at all, that duel on Mount Carmel. We are not called to choose between Elijah and the prophets of Baal. It wasn’t even a choice between the Lord God of Israel and the god Baal. Baal wasn’t a real god. Neither are all the little Baals in our hearts. The choice for us is between worshipping the Lord God and emptiness in this life. Choose the God who loves you.

Amen