JAN192 A GREAT AND WONDERFUL NEW YEAR Ephesians 1:3-6, 15-18 At the beginning of a new year, a high school principal decided to post his teachers' new year's resolutions on the bulletin board. As the teachers gathered around the bulletin board, a great commotion started. One of the teachers was complaining. "Why weren't my resolutions posted?" She was throwing such a temper tantrum that the principal hurried to his office to see if he had overlooked her resolutions. Sure enough, he had mislaid them on his desk. As he read her resolutions he was astounded. This teacher's first resolution was not to let little things upset her in the new year. (1) I don't know how you are doing on your new year's resolutions. I do know something that is more important than resolutions, though. How do you see this new year? Is it one that you approach with anxiety or anticipation? Michael Bausch tells a great story about archaeologist Howard Carter. In 1922 Carter was completing nearly fifteen years of digging in the famous Valley of the Kings in Egypt. He was hoping to find the royal tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamen. Having found nothing, his days of digging were coming to an end. Money was running out. Then workers discovered sixteen stairs leading into the earth. Thousands of baskets filled with rocks and sand had to be carried away, but eventually a door was found at the end of a long passageway. Carter drilled a small hole in the door and stuck an iron-testing rod into a dark, blank space. He then inserted a candle into the hole and peered in. As his eyes grew accustomed to the light, details emerged into his view, and he saw strange animals, statues, and everywhere the glint of gold. He wrote of that moment, "For the moment, I was struck dumb with amazement." A partner asked, "Can you see anything?" And Carter's reply was, "Yes, wonderful things." (2) St. Paul gives us some reasons you and I can look into this New Year and see wonderful things. He gives us reasons why we can look forward with anticipation instead of anxiety. FIRST OF ALL, HE SAYS WE ARE BLESSED. He writes, "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ...." Is there anyone in this room who does not feel blessed? A certain king had two servants. To the first he said, "I want you to travel for six months through my kingdom and bring back a sample of every weed you can find." To the second servant the king said, "I want you to travel through my kingdom for six months and bring back a sample of every flower you can find." Six months later, both servants stood before the king. To the first, the king asked, "Have you carried out my command?" The first servant answered, I have, and I was amazed to find there were so many weeds in the kingdom. In fact, there is nothing but weeds in this kingdom!" To the king's question the second servant also answered, "I have, and I am amazed how many beautiful flowers there are in the kingdom. In fact, there is nothing but beautiful flowers in this kingdom!" These two servants each found what they were looking for. So do we. Are there no blessings in your life? Do you have no one who loves you, no beauty outside your window, no strength left in your body, no mind to guide you to new pleasures and opportunities, no faith to bear you up when circumstance weighs you down? Are you really without any resources for making 1992 a wonderful year? Count your blessings, says the old hymn. In LEADERSHIP magazine Mark Tidd tells about an old man who came to the back door of a house some college kids were renting. The old man's eyes were glassy and his furrowed face glistened with silver stubble. He clutched a wicker basket holding a few unappealing vegetables. He bid the students a good morning and offered his produce for sale. They were uneasy. They made a quick purchase to alleviate both their pity and their fear. To their chagrin, he returned the next week, introducing himself as Mr. Roth, the man who lived in the shack down the road. As their fears subsided, they got close enough to realize it wasn't alcohol but cataracts that marbleized his eyes. On subsequent visits, he would shuffle in, wearing two mismatched right shoes, and pull out a harmonica. With glazed eyes set on a future glory, he'd puff out old gospel tunes between conversations about vegetables and religion. On one visit, he exclaimed, "The Lord is so good! I came out of my shack this morning and found a bag full of shoes and clothing on my porch." "That's wonderful, Mr. Roth!" the students said, "We're happy for you." "You know what's even more wonderful?" he asked. "Just yesterday I met some people that could use them." Count your blessings. We are blessed. Paul also says, WE ARE CHOSEN. "For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight." You and I have been chosen. Can you get your mind around an idea so powerful? You have been chosen. What a beautiful word that is--chosen. Can you remember the agony of not being chosen? Is there anybody in the room who was ever the last to be chosen for kickball? Anyone who did not make the cheerleading squad? Anyone ever sit on the bench while someone else got the glory? Well, this time you and I are not left out. We have been chosen. Several years ago, a California aerospace company hired a motivational consultant to examine and stimulate its work force. The consultant interviewed one of the senior vice presidents who told him about a particular section where production and performance were extremely high. Turnover and absenteeism in this department were the lowest in the company. Morale was very high. What seemed to puzzle the executive was that the work done there was mechanical and repetitive. This group of employees maintained the pipes in the plant. Their job was checking temperatures and pressures. The delicacy of the equipment meant that the pipes had to work within strict tolerances or there would be expensive damage. But why was morale so high? The consultant visited the department and the foreman took him on a tour. The consultant noticed that all the workers wore green surgical smocks. He asked the foreman about it. The foreman explained that he got them from his son, a cardiovascular surgeon. The consultant said, "Ah, so you wear them for comfort." "No, no!" the foreman said, "It's because we are surgeons. Just like my son. He takes care of the pipes of the body. We take care of the pipes of the plant! The plant isn't going to have any breakdowns as long as we're working on its arteries. We take care of these pipes exactly the way a doctor takes care of your heart." The consultant even noticed the stencils on their locker doors said, "Dr." and then the worker's name. (3) What was happening here? The workers in that maintenance department believed their work was important--just like a doctor's work is important. They felt privileged doing what they were doing. They felt chosen. It makes a difference in anybody's life if they feel chosen. This is why a parent should never, even in jest, give a child the idea that he or she was an "accident." Every child deserves to feel wanted, prized, chosen. Dr. Ruth Barbee, a well-known family-relations expert, once said that about 90 percent of so-called "naughtiness" in small children is simply their way of getting "noticed." When they cannot get the attention they want any other way, they do something guaranteed to drive their parents up the wall. Jean Green, in CATHOLIC DIGEST, tells of putting her young son to bed for the umpteenth time. Her patience was worn thin. When she heard him cry "Mama" again, she yelled to him, "If you call `Mama' one more time, I'll spank you!" After that there was quiet. Then, just as she sat down, she heard a wee whisper, "Mrs. Green, may I have a drink?" Was it really water her son was calling for or was it her attention? Every parent knows the answer. Criminologists say that many crimes, especially sensational ones, are performed by people who never had satisfied their craving for being noticed. The criminal goes out and does something spectacular which will make front- page headlines and says to himself, "Now, I guess the world will sit up and take notice of me." (4) Every now and then someone takes a poll of husbands and wives to see what are the most common complaints that spouses have against each other. Invariably, "not being noticed," in one form or another, heads the list. Many women particularly have had it with being taken for granted in the home and in the office and, perhaps, even in the church. Everyone in this world has a need to feel like he or she counts. Thus it is with great joy that we hear the words from the Scripture, "we are chosen!" FINALLY, ST. PAUL SAYS WE ARE PREDESTINED. "...He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will." We could trip all over that word "predestined." One pastor described the difference between Methodists and Presbyterians like this: "The Presbyterian church is Calvinistic. It believes in predestination, i.e., that everything which is going to happen was planned by the Almighty at the beginning of time, and that mankind cannot alter the divine plan. The Methodist church, on the contrary...rejects predestination. By this I mean the Methodists believe that when anything happens, the Almighty is just as surprised as anybody else." (5) I like that. Maybe we do surprise God sometimes. D. L. Moody tried to resolve the conflict between Paul's writings on predestination and human freedom like this: "I come to the door of salvation and see written over it `Whosoever will may come.' I enter the door, and look above it, and it says, `Chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.'" I have no magical answer to the question of predestination, but I have no question about God's ultimate will for us all and that is that we shall recognize ourselves to be members of His own family. And when we realize that we are predestined from the beginning of time to be members of that family we come to see ourselves as we really are--sons and daughters of the Divine. As Abraham Lincoln pointed out, "It is difficult to make a man miserable while he feels he is worthy of himself and claims kindred to the great God who made him." As we look into this New Year, why shouldn't we see great and wonderful things? We have been blessed, we have been chosen, we have been predestined to be children of the most high God. ---------------------------- 1. Dr. John W. Keith, Oak Ridge, TN 2. Jim & Doris Morentz, MINISTER'S ANNUAL PREACHING IN 1989 (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1988). 3. LAUGH CONNECTIONS, Vol. No. 3 Summer, 1991, P.4 4. Les Giblin, CONFIDENCE AND POWER (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1956). 5. Joseph B. Clower, Jr. Cited in Sam J. Ervin, Jr., HUMOR OF A COUNTRY LAWYER, (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1983). TOP> JAN292 A NEW LOOK FOR A NEW YEAR Isaiah 61:1-4 We all know that appearances matter. When officials at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachussets, wanted to advertise their college to high school students a couple years back, they found that they had a problem. It had been a snowless winter in Williamstown. However, the officials felt that snow would make their college look more inviting to prospective students. Hence, they imported 60 tons of manufactured snow and posed student models beside the "snowdrifts." A defensive director of admissions explained, "We're not faking anything. We are just hoping to get some good winter shots." It was, after all, real snow off real trucks. (1) Playwright Gore Vidal says that when his play THE BEST MAN was being cast back in 1959, Ronald Reagan was proposed for the lead role of the distinguished front-running Presidential candidate. He was rejected. It was decided that he lacked the "Presidential look." Appearances matter. I like the story of the woman who was out in the yard working when a moving van pulled up next door. She walked over to welcome the newcomers to the neighborhood wearing her dirty work clothes. The following week, the new neighbors invited her and her husband to a housewarming party. The woman wanted to make a better impression this time. She colored her hair, struggled into a girdle, painted her lips, applied eye shadow and false eyelashes, painted her fingernails, and popped in her contact lenses. She admired herself in the mirror and said to her husband, "Well, tonight they are going to see the real me!" Appearances matter. And God wants to give us all a new look for this new year. Turn with me if you will to chapter 61 of Isaiah. Jesus used the first part of this chapter to announce his ministry, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor..." Beautiful words, powerful words. But note the less familiar words that follow because they refer to our new look, "...and (to) provide for those who grieve in Zion--to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor." Isaiah is writing about those who are grieving over a fallen Israel. He is writing about folks who are feeling defeated, disappointed, down-hearted, and he is telling them that someday they will be called "oaks of righteousness...." That's quite a change of appearance--from defeated, disappointed, down- hearted to sturdy, erect and proud--like oaks. How would you like to have a new look for this new year? Well, here's the good news for the morning. It matters not how defeated we may be feeling, how down on ourselves or our world we may be. Christ offers us the opportunity to stand tall and proud and victorious. How does it happen? Isaiah tells us about the changes God would make in our appearance. FIRST OF ALL, HE SAYS THAT GOD WILL PROVIDE US WITH "A CROWN OF BEAUTY INSTEAD OF ASHES. " Ashes are the symbol of grieving, mourning, despair. During Lent people put ashes on their foreheads as a sign of contrition and repentance. There is a time for ashes, but according to Isaiah, God's yearning is to replace our ashes with a crown of beauty. One translation says a garland of beauty. The crown and the garland are symbols of victory not defeat. They say to the world, "Here is a winner." Can you imagine the change that would take place in our lives if you and I had that sense of confidence, poise, and self- worth--of knowing that we are winners? Imagine yourself right now wearing a crown or a garland of beauty. I was reading recently about former college and pro football star Pat Haden. When Pat played football in the pros, he was small by today's standards--only 5' 10-1/2". He was also light--only 173 pounds. Still, he had a gift--and I am not referring to his athletic ability. The gift was a voice inside his head that said, "Pat, you can do it." "You can do it, Pat," his two older brothers used to tell him when he was a little boy. "You can do it, Pat," they told him when his wobbly passes dropped to the ground. "You can do it, Pat," they told him when he was stuck on a school project. And they would encourage him to work harder. "You can do it, Pat. You can do it." "I ended up knowing that I could do anything I wanted to do," Pat remembered years later. And time after time Pat Haden beat the odds and proved the confidence of his older brothers to be correct, "You can do it, Pat." (2) Don't you wish you had an older brother like those two older brothers? The good news is you do. So do I. Christ came into this world to tell us that we can do it. We can be more than conquerors through him who loves us. If we have the faith even of a mustard seed, we can move mountains. All things are possible to those who believe. We can do it. Christ didn't come into our world that we might wear the ashes of defeat. He came into the world that we might wear the beautiful garland of victory. God has for each of us a crown of beauty. IN THE SECOND PLACE, GOD HAS FOR US "THE OIL OF GLADNESS INSTEAD OF MOURNING...." When Christ comes into our lives we receive an attitude adjustment--from sad to glad. Some followers of Jesus could use that kind of adjustment. Some saints must be a pain even for God to endure. It's like three women who arrived at the Pearly Gates at the same time. St. Peter came but said he had some pressing business and would they please wait. He was gone for a long time, but finally he came back and called one of the women in and asked her if she minded waiting. "No," she said, "I've looked forward to this for so long. I love God and can't wait to meet Jesus. I don't mind at all." St. Peter then said, "Well I have one more question. How do you spell `God?'" She said, "Capital-G-o-d." St. Peter said, "Go right on in." He went out and got one of the other women, told her to come on inside, and said, "Did you mind waiting?" She said, "Oh, no. I have been a Christian for fifty years, and I'll spend eternity here. I didn't mind at all." So St. Peter said, "Just one more thing. How do you spell `God?'" She said, "G-o-d. No, I mean capital-G." St. Peter said that was good and sent her on in to Heaven. He went back out and invited the third woman in and asked her if she minded waiting. "Yes, I did," she said huffily. "I've had to stand in line all my life--at the supermarket, when I went to school, when I registered my children for school, when I went to the movies--everywhere--and I resent having to wait in line for Heaven!" St. Peter said, "Well that's all right for you to feel that way. It won't be held against you, but there is just one more question. How do you spell `Czechoslovakia?'" (3) G. K. Chesterton once said, "Joy is the gigantic secret of the Christian." Not every Christian believes that. There are some Christians who believe if you are truly pious, you wear a perpetual frown. One of the greatest preachers the Christian faith ever produced was one of those who promoted a sour-faced faith. His name was Chrysostrom. Preaching at the end of the fourth century, he saw jollity as pagan. He declared that Christians must weep for their sins. He contended that God doesn't want his children to play. Chrysostrom believed if the devil can get people engaged in frivolity, he's won the day. What foolishness. Isaiah tells us that God will give us "the oil of gladness..." Chesterton is right. Joy is the gigantic secret of the Christian. It's like the old story of a man strolling through a social club. He is surprised to see three men and a dog playing cards. Pausing to watch, he asks, "Can that dog really play cards?" "You bet," answers one of the members. "That's incredible!" the man says. "Not really," another member shrugs. "He's really not that good. Whenever he gets a good hand, he wags his tail." Friends, you and I are holding a good hand. We are God's own elect. How can we help but show our happiness? He gives us a crown of beauty. He gives us the oil of gladness. FINALLY, ACCORDING TO ISAIAH, HE GIVES US A GARMENT OF PRAISE INSTEAD OF A SPIRIT OF DESPAIR. That's how He finishes our wardrobe. A crown of beauty, then oil of gladness, and finally, a robe of praise. I love to be around someone who is robed in a garment of praise, don't you? C. Ward Crampton, a noted gerontologist, lists five qualities of living which are necessary for healthy aging. One of these is praising God. There is something about praising God that is healthy for soul, mind and body. Of course, like any great gift of God, even praise can be abused. According to PARADE magazine, William Linkhaw, a North Carolina man, was convicted in 1873 of disrupting church services with his singing. His Methodist brethren said they had put up with him for years. Even when everyone else had stopped singing Linkhaw kept on. When Linkhaw was asked to be quiet, he refused, saying that singing was part of his duty to God. But the courts found him guilty of a misdemeanor and ordered him to keep quiet. However, when he appealed the conviction to the state supreme court it was overturned. (4) I don't know if brother Linkhaw had a garment of praise or simply was a show-off. I do remember George Buttrick telling about the head man in a village in Pakistan. He asked the members of a little Christian church in the village to move to the edge of town from next door to his house. He offered to work out an exchange of properties if they would do it. He was concerned his Muslim wives, hearing the joyful singing of the Christians, would be influenced. They might even become Christians. He had good cause to be threatened. If we truly came into this place of worship each week with a spirit of praise, the world would be trying to break down the walls to join us. And we would profit from the experience as well. Praise is to nourishment to our souls. It lifts us to higher ground. This then is the new look God would give us for this new year. We who once floundered in defeat and darkness can stand tall, proud and steadfast as "oaks of righteousness." He gives us "a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair." -------------------------------------------------- 1. "College Out to `Snow' Students," The Knoxville News-Sentinel (Feb. 22, 1989), Section A, p. 7. 2. Contributed--source unknown. 3. The Rev. Patrick Napier in HOMETOWN HUMOR, U.S.A., Loyal Jones and Billy Edd Wheeler, eds, (Little Rock: August House Publishers, 1991). 4. J. B. Fowler, Jr., ILLUSTRATED SERMONS FOR SPECIAL OCCASIONS, (Nashville, Tennessee: Broadman Press, 1988). TOP> JAN392 ABOUT MIRACLES John 2:1-11 There is a time-honored story about a skeptic who was continually harassing the local pastor. His one delight in life seemed to be making the pastor appear inadequate intellectually. The pastor bore these challenges to his theology and faith with great restraint. One day the skeptic was heckling the pastor about his views on miracles. "Give me one concrete example of a miracle," the skeptic taunted. "One concrete example." Whereupon the pastor hauled off and kicked the skeptic furiously on the shin. The skeptic couldn't believe it! The pastor asked, "Did you feel that?" "Yes," the man said as he nursed his sore leg. "If you had not," said the pastor, "it would have been a miracle!" Jesus and his mother were attending a wedding feast in Cana when the wine ran out. Mary turned to her son. "They have no wine," she said. There was something in her voice that told Jesus she expected him to do something. Jesus' response in the original Aramaic is not nearly as abrupt or disrespectful as it may sound. It is evident, though, that he had something else on his mind. "Dear woman, why do you involve me?" Jesus replied. "My time has not yet come." Still, Jesus' heart went out to his hosts. He felt their embarrassment. He cared about their predicament. He wanted to do something to help. That is the first lesson we learn from this story. PEOPLE MATTER. G. A. Studdert-Kennedy was an English chaplain in World War I. He believed life's basic question is, "What is God like?" He visited a wounded soldier in a hospital. "What I want to know," said the officer, "is what is God like? I never thought about it much before the war," he continued. "I took it for granted. But now it is different. When I'm transferred into a new battalion, I want to know what the Colonel is like. He bosses the show, and it makes a lot of difference to me what sort of chap he is. Now I'm in the battalion of humanity. I want to know what the Colonel of this world is like." Jesus settled for us once and for all the question, what is God like. God is like a loving Parent. People matter to God. In COME SHARE THE BEING, Bob Benson writes of sending a son off to college. "Nearly a year ago Peg and I had a very hard week," Benson writes. "Sunday night we were home and (our son Mike) was 700 miles away...Now we have been through this before. Bob, Jr. had gone away to college and we had gathered ourselves together until we had gotten over it...So we thought we knew how to handle separation pretty well, but we came away lonely and blue. "Oh, our hearts were filled with pride at a fine young man and our minds were filled with memories from tricycles to commencements, but deep down inside somewhere we just ached with loneliness and pain. "Somebody said you still have three at home--three fine kids and there is still plenty of noise, plenty of ball games to go to, plenty of responsibilities, plenty of laughter, plenty of everything...EXCEPT MIKE. And in parental math five minus one just doesn't equal plenty." Then Bob Benson turns to the reader: "And I was thinking about God. He sure has plenty of children--plenty of artists, plenty of singers, and carpenters, and candlestick makers, and preachers, plenty of everybody ...EXCEPT YOU and all of them together can never take your place. "And there will always be an empty spot in His heart--and a vacant chair at His table when you're not home. And if once in a while it seems He's crowding you a bit--try to forgive Him. It may be one of those nights when He misses you so much He can hardly stand it." * People matter. You matter. I matter. The people at this wedding feast in Cana of Galilee mattered. Jesus cared that his hosts were in this predicament. Thus he went into action. You know the story. Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, "Fill the jars with water to the brim." Then he told them, "Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet." They did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. Then he called the bridegroom aside. "Everyone brings out the choice wine first," he said. "Then they bring out the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now." This, John tells us, was the first of Jesus' miracles. Why did he perform it? Because people matter. This brings us to the second lesson from this story. MIRACLES HAPPEN. There's been a tendency over the last century or so to make miracles acceptable to the modern scientific mind and in doing so to soften them a bit. For example, the Children of Israel didn't go through the Red Sea according to this approach. They went through the Sea of Reeds, a shallow swamp-like area. It was no big deal, then, when the wind came and parted the waters. Jesus didn't feed the 5000 by some mysterious divine activity. He simply encouraged a young boy to share his fishes and loaves. The crowd was so inspired by this boy's example that everybody shared what they had brought with them. Like a covered dish supper, there was more than enough to feed them all. You've probably heard such explanations before. These attempts to explain the miracles scientifically are not a conspiracy to undermine our faith, as some may believe. They are merely an effort on the part of scholars to accommodate the Word to the mindset of our time. There are some of us, though, who have no difficulty with miracles. We see miraculous things all the time. And we conclude if a small wind could part the waters of the Sea of Reeds, why couldn't a funnel cloud come down and part the waters of the Red Sea? Stranger things have happened in this world. Besides, when you understand that the New Testament is founded upon the most awesome miracle of all, the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the grave, then it becomes very, very difficult to dismiss the other miracles. Miracles happen. Now I'm not talking about frivolous miracles. A man was dressing to teach a Sunday School class. He was tying his shoestrings and one of them broke. This greatly disturbed him. He said to his wife, "I'll be standing up there in front of that class with one shoe without a string in it." His wife said, "Well, at least try looking in your top drawer." "I haven't bought shoe strings in years," he said. "It'll be a miracle if there are any shoe strings in that drawer." Lo and behold, there was a set of brown shoe strings in the top drawer. "It's a miracle!" he says. A pastor in Tennessee tells about a lady in his small church with a wonderful sense of humor and a marvelous perspective on life. One day, this lady called on the telephone. In a high-pitched voice she said, "Preacher! This is Amy." He answered, "Well, Amy! How are you?" She says, "Well, Preacher, I'm at Baptist Hospital." He said, "Amy, what are you doing at Baptist Hospital?" She said, "Well, I went out to my mailbox this morning and there was a letter from Oral Roberts. I opened that letter and I was reading it as I walked back up to the house. When I got to the part where it said, `Something good is going to happen to you,' I tripped over a log and broke my leg." There is a tendency to trivialize miracles. A little boy was telling his Sunday School class about Lot's wife. He said Lot's wife looked back and was turned into a pillar of salt, by day, and a ball of fire by night. There is also a tendency to look for miracles everywhere as a validation of our faith. A little boy sent this letter to his pastor: "Dear Pastor, I know God loves me, but I wish he would give me an A on my history test so I can be sure." Miracles are also a way of manipulating God. In one incident in the movie PATTON, the general was planning an attack on a German stronghold and he needed air support, which required good weather. He commanded his officer, "Get me the chaplain!" We tease about the minister being in charge of the weather at the church picnic, but we are kidding. In a world of devastating droughts and floods, I hope God has something better to do than to hear our prayers for good weather for our golf game. We have a tendency to trivialize miracles, to look to them to validate our faith, to seek to use them to manipulate God. And we miss the real significance of miracles. Miracles are rare acts of God for His glorification and our edification. Because they are rare and because we do not know all the laws of nature or the mind of God, we must be very careful about labeling anything that happens as a miracle. People have built their lives on events that they believed were miraculous. Example? A man prays that if God wants him to quit his job and move to a new town, God will provide him with an unmistakable sign. Almost immediately, something quite remarkable happens. A tornado roars through town. His garage is ripped away. His car is left without a scratch. The man takes this as a sign. He quits his job and moves to a new town. The fact that several people might have lost their homes--or even their lives--in that same tornado does not faze the man. God has given him a sign. Jesus warned against looking for signs and miracles. We cannot avoid the responsibility for making hard decisions by constantly looking to God for divine intervention. Besides, we do not live by knowledge. We live by faith. God does not give us absolute, infallible proof of His existence or His plan. In this world we see through a glass darkly. We can only say two things for certain. People matter. Miracles happen. And one more--JESUS CAN BE TRUSTED. By the same power by which he turned water into wine, Jesus can turn our lives--no matter how disappointing, sordid or desperate--into something beautiful and good. During the early hours of the Battle of Gettysburg, Abraham Lincoln was pacing up and down, lonely and troubled. Battle reports were coming in. The fate of the Union was in the balance. Later on, he told friends how he went into his room, locked the door, knelt, and prayed. "I told God that I had done all that I could and that now the result was in His hands," Lincoln told his friends. "If this country was to be saved it was because He so willed it!" Then Lincoln added, "The burden rolled off my shoulders. My intense anxiety was relieved, and in its place came a great trustfulness." That is a trustfulness you and I can have as well. William Barclay once put it like this: "Jesus never met a sick man who asked, but what He performed a miracle and made him well. He never met a yielded sinner, but what He offered Him redeeming grace for his salvation. He never met a funeral, but what He broke it up by raising the dead one to life." We might add, he never went to a wedding feast that had an insufficient supply of wine that he did not solve the hosts' embarrassment by providing more than enough. People matter. Miracles Happen. Jesus can be trusted--with your needs and concerns, and with mine. -------------------------------------------------------- * from a sermon by Norm Lawson TOP> JAN492 JESUS AND THE LAKE WOBEGON EFFECT Luke 4: 14-21 A scandal is brewing in the hallowed halls of Academe. It has to do with test scores given to our young people. A West Virginia doctor noticed sometime back that all 50 states claim that their students score above average on standardized test scores. That, of course, is impossible--for everyone to be above average. Someone has even given this scandal a thoughtful name--the Lake Wobegon effect. Lake Wobegon is author Garrison Keillor's mythical town where "All the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average." Obviously, by definition it is impossible for everyone to be "above average." Average is what most people are. Nobody, though, wants to admit it. In a General Electric survey some years ago, the average person surveyed placed themselves in the 77th percentile. That is, their view was that their performance on the job exceeded that of 76 percent of their associates. In fact, only 2 percent of the respondents placed themselves as below average. Everybody is in the top half of the class. Everyone is a star. What has Jesus got to do with the Lake Wobegon effect? Just this. How can I look across this congregation--we who have so much, who are so well-fed, so well-clothed, so surrounded by the good things of life--how can I look across this congregation and tell you that Jesus came to save the poor, the captives, the blind and the oppressed? That's not us! We are winners. We are stars. We're all above average. This is one text we can skip over. It's for someone else. Still, it's there. Maybe we ought to listen. "The Spirit of the Lord is on me," says Christ, "because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." What, if anything, is Christ saying to you and me? MAYBE WE ARE POORER THAN WE THINK. Someone is silently saying, "You can say that again." One poor fellow said he's so heavily in debt that he's known as the "Leaning Tower of Visa." A secretary lunching in a local restaurant noticed a friend at a nearby table. Her friend was nibbling at a cottage cheese salad. "Trying to lose weight?" she asked. "No," the friend said, "I'm on a low salary diet." Some of us know about low salary diets. But we're not poor. Or are we? Mother Teresa thinks so. There was a beautiful article about her in TIME magazine. She was asked about the materialism of the West. She said, "The more you have, the more you are occupied," she contends. "But the less you have the more free you are. Poverty for us is a freedom. It is a joyful freedom. There is no television here, no this, no that. This is the only fan in the whole house...and it is for the guests. But we are happy. "I find the rich poorer," she continues. "Sometimes they are more lonely inside...The hunger for love is much more difficult to fill than the hunger for bread...The real poor know what is joy." When asked about her plans for the future, she replied, "I just take one day. Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not come. We have only today to love Jesus." Is there anyone in this room as rich as Mother Teresa? A lay leader of a large suburban church stood to give her testimony. "My husband and I had it all," she said, "all the good things that our society values. Good jobs, a nice home, vacations in the Bahamas. I now realize, though, how shallow and inadequate our faith was. I can remember when I picked out a church for us because it had beautiful chandeliers. Then it happened. Both of us lost our jobs. For over a year we struggled. It was during this time that we both came to know the goodness of God." Did you catch that? In the midst of their struggle they discovered the goodness of God? Surely, God's hand was more apparent during the times of plenty. That's not how it works, is it? That is why Jesus warned us of the dangers of wealth. Wealth deludes us into thinking that our strength is sufficient. At such times we are like General Custer at Little Bighorn. One of Custer's scouts warned him they were in for a fight. He estimated there were enough Sioux to keep them busy for 2 or 3 days. General Custer replied rather smugly, "I guess we'll get through with them in one day." He even declined help from the 7th Calvary or the aid of Gatling guns. Well, Custer was right about one thing. One day was all it took. So it is with us when we think that our resources can carry us through. We are poorer than we think. AND MAYBE WE ARE NOT AS FREE AS WE THINK. Bob Bartlett, an arctic explorer, tells about a summer expedition where he and his party gathered a selection of native birds. These birds were kept caged but well cared for during the long voyage across the ocean. One day a particularly restless bird escaped from its cage and took off in flight over the ocean. "Well, that bird is lost," thought the crew. But before the end of the day, much to their surprise, they saw that same bird flying back towards the ship at a rapid pace. Looking spent and breathless, the little bird dropped upon the deck of the ship and surrendered itself. It no longer saw the ship as a prison, but as a refuge. The ship was the only way to get across the deep wide ocean. (1) Freedom is a paradox. There comes that time in life when we want to throw off the chains that have so long bound us--chains of parental supervision, chains of religious instruction and guidance, chains of conventional moral behavior. We want to be free! That's part of the maturing process. Later, however, we notice a profound hunger for things that are lasting, things that are good, things that build us up rather than tear us down. And we exercise our greatest act of freedom--the freedom to go home. This is the story of the radicals of the sixties and seventies, but to a lesser extent, it is the story of us all. This is not to say that even at home there are not new boundaries to cross. There are. An ambitious forty-year-old executive from Nashville, Tennessee, sat in a seminar in Charlotte, North Carolina. The participants in the seminar were challenged to view life from a higher plain--to explore new ideas and to expand their horizons. The man was becoming increasingly agitated. He had come to learn some specific how-to's--not some abstract philosophy. By the end of the second day, he was ready to pack it in and chalk up the whole experience on the minus side of the ledger. But he didn't go. He went out for a jog instead. He felt he needed some exercise and some time away, to work out the tension. He chose a back road near the motel where he was staying. As he trotted along the back road, he suddenly heard a tremendous growl and barking. The hair on his neck stood on end! There, growling behind a thin wire fence about three feet high, was a huge, young, and hyper Doberman Pinscher, eyes blazing and teeth bared! The dog was about as high as the fence, and with hardly any effort at all, could have jumped the fence. The man knew he was in trouble and stood still for a moment to see how he could get away safely. Then, an amazing thing happened. The dog barked and barked, jumped up and down and growled, ran back and forth, but did not jump over the skimpy fence. In a flash of insight, the man realized that the dog had been conditioned to stay within the boundaries of the fence. Despite his capacity to run and jump for freedom, the dog stayed just where he was, gnashing his teeth and running back and forth in angry circles. The next day, the man raised his hand in the seminar and asked to say a few words. He told his story quietly and elegantly. "In that moment," he reported, "I knew I was just like that dog." The man from Nashville had come to see that each of us live behind self-imposed fences. He could not be free until he acknowledged that he was a captive. (2) Neither can we. We may be poorer than we think. We may not be as free as we think. AND MAYBE WE ARE BLIND AS WELL. Marcel Proust once said, "The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes." There was once a celebrated French writer named Colette. Colette attributed her success as a writer to two words, "Look, look!" Those were the words her mother constantly repeated to her as she did her farm chores. With those two words echoing in her ears, she developed her powers of observation. In 1954 Colette died in Paris during one of the worst thunderstorms the city had seen in a long while. As she lay on her deathbed, she pointed toward the window through which she could see the flashing lightning and torrential rain and said, "Look, look!" Jesus asked his disciples, "Having eyes, do you not see, and having ears do you not hear?" (Mark 8:18) The rich man did not see Lazarus at his gate. The Pharisees did not see that their attention to keeping the Law was separating them from the rest of God's children. Even Jesus' disciples did not see that the kingdom was not about power but about service. And there are many of us who do not see. Husbands and wives who do not see the needs of their spouses, parents who do not see the loneliness of their children, successful people who do not see that their success has been won at the cost of their values. Blind people everyone. Until that day when Christ comes into our lives and helps us see. We may be poorer than we think. We may not be as free as we think. Maybe we are blind as well. CERTAINLY, WE ARE OPPRESSED. We are oppressed by our inability to free ourselves from the burden of sin. Anyone who's ever struggled with a habit that resisted breaking, anyone who has left good resolutions unkept, anyone who's been cruel when they would have been kind, lazy when they would have been industrious, short-tempered when they should have been patient, knows the oppressive power of sin. And there is only one remedy for such oppression. And it is to accept the free gift of God's grace. "Come, every soul by sin oppressed," wrote the hymn writer, "there's mercy with the Lord..." You see, Christ's message is for us--for in a very real sense we are the poor, the captive, the blind and the oppressed. We are those for whom Christ gave his life. Deep in our hearts some of us have imagined that he must have died for someone else--the scum of the earth, perhaps, but not us. What do we need of a Savior? We're all in the upper half of the class. We're all above average. Maybe so, but it would be good for us to heed his message once more: "The Spirit of the Lord is on me," says Christ, "because He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed...." Friends, that's us. And, thank God, he has come. ----------------------- 1. J. Wallace Hamilton, HORNS AND HALOS, (Fleming H. Revell, 1954). 2. Kenneth Wydro, THINK ON YOUR FEET, (New York: Prentice-Hall Press). TOP> JAN592 WHY CHANGE IS POSSIBLE  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  JFB Alt.  SRB Luke 19:1-10; Romans 12:1-3; Exodus 2:1-10 I want to think with you for a few moments on the idea of "Why Change is Possible." I want to think about the new beginnings and fresh commitments that these Bible lessons make possible. The new year can and should be a time when we grow spiritually by allowing the power of God to be fully operative in our lives to change those attitudes and actions in our lives that prevent our work and witness from having a greater impact for the kingdom of God. That brings up a significant question, perhaps one that I hear as a pastor more than any other. "Pastor, can things really be changed? Can people be changed? Can human nature really be transformed and made new?" We often talk and act as if change is not possible. So often I hear someone say, "He/she is just made that way. They are not going to change, so why should I waste my time and energy on a hopeless situation?" I am very careful of people who echo the words that change is not possible by saying, "After all, a leopard can't change his spots!" Well, a leopard may not be able to change his/her spots, but there is a BIG DIFFERENCE between a leopard and a human soul! A major component of the Gospel, which is the Good News, is that change is not only possible, but is the evidence that we have accepted faith in Jesus Christ as the only authentic possibility for human life before God. A famous preacher once said, "When people tell me that human nature cannot be changed, I am moved to reply that in light of my experience, human nature may well be the only thing that CAN BE CHANGED!" We cannot change the course of the moon or the sun. We cannot change the laws of the physical world. We cannot change the movement and flow of the ocean. We cannot change the stars in the skies and the course they move in. However, the Bible pulsates with pages of testimonies of the lives, purposes, events, and habits which have been changed and can be changed. In my opinion, that is what "new birth" and "new life in Christ" is all about. It means that: 1. evil things can be changed into good actions 2. bad habits can be replaced with good habits 3. painful defeats can be turned into joyous victories 4. weak and fainthearted persons can be transformed into persons of strength and courage to do God's bidding 5. destructive attitudes can be converted into healthy, positive and life-giving attitudes, that build the quality of life into something simply marvelous. A noted physician once said to his wife's pastor, "If you will explain to me the spiritual birth, I will change from a pagan and become a Christian." The pastor replied, "If you will explain to me all the mysteries of the natural birth process, then I will explain the spiritual birth to you." Both agreed: NEITHER WAS POSSIBLE. In both cases, we can observe and cooperate with certain processes, but we cannot explain the "why" apart from the sovereign power of God. I believe the same can be said of processes leading to change in our lives. Most of the time the element needed most to change is to simply admit you need to change and ask directions of the ONE who has the power to change you. A motorist was recently driving through the state of Pennsylvania and lost her way. She asked a certain gentleman how far it was to Phillipsburg, New Jersey. The gentleman replied, "Well, the way you are going it is 24,995 miles. However, if you will turn around and get back on Route 22 going East, it is about 5 miles." I want to share four insights for your further reflection today as you seek God's power to change attitudes, actions, and assumptions in your journey. WE ARE RESISTANT TO CHANGE. Human nature has always resisted change. Leith Anderson, in his book, DYING FOR CHANGE, shares the following letter written by Martin Van Buren, then the governor of New York to President Jackson, concerning an evil new business enterprise threatening our nation. It goes as follows: January 31, 1829 To President Jackson, The canal system of this country is being threatened by the spread of a new form of transportation known as "railroads". The federal government must preserve the canals for the following reasons: One. If canal boats are supplanted by "railroads", serious unemployment will result. Captains, cooks, drivers, hostlers, repairmen and lock tenders will be left without means of livelihood, not to mention the numerous farmers now employed in growing hay for the horses. Two. Boat builders would suffer, and towline, whip and harness makers would be left destitute. Three. Canal boats are absolutely essential to the defense of the United States. In the event of the expected trouble with England, the Erie Canal would be the only means by which we could ever move the supplies so vital to waging modern war. As you may well know, Mr. President, "railroad" carriages are pulled at the enormous speed of fifteen miles per hour by "engines" which, in addition to endangering life and limb of passengers, roar and snort their way through the countryside, setting fire to crops, scaring the livestock and frightening women and children. The Almighty certainly never intended that people should travel at such breakneck speed. Martin Van Buren Governor of New York Mark 8:8-9 (1) Recently, we took our children to the Hugh Moore Canal Park in Easton, Pa. In a space of a few minutes, the following things could be seen while resting on one of the park benches. 1. The Josiah White Canal Boat went past with a group of tourists on it, depicting life conditions of an era gone by. 2. Right across from the canal are the railroad tracks. An engine went past pulling about 25 cars, then the caboose. Years ago this would have happened four times a day; now only once a week. 3. Right across the railroad is Route 611. Just then two big tractor trailer trucks went rushing by, followed by cars who wanted to go even faster. 4. Then shortly after that, we heard a noise above our heads, and it was an airplane already beginning its descent for Newark Airport. Each one of these enterprises is or was in the transportation business. This business cannot be limited to the means by which it is accomplished at the moment. The Christian church is in the enterprise of leading men and women-- boys and girls--to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. However, we can't be relevant in ministry using as our launching pad something built 75 years ago before the automobile, working mothers, and oil costing $1.25 cents a gallon. We need to modernize, not our theology, but our methods for reaching people for Christ. Today, we admire and applaud the work of such men as John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist faith. However, I am afraid that he would fare no better with our denomination in 1991 than with the established church in 1741. Remember, the fields are white until harvest--but, oh, the need for laborers to gather the harvest! There are few United Methodists that welcome the changes he would bring to our institutions. The first stop to change is to admit how hard it is to do without God's power. GOD STILL WORKS IN HISTORY. In our Old Testament reading from Exodus 2:1-10, we see a mother who would not give in to the Egyptian order that all youngsters were to be killed. In order to control the population of Jewish babies, the midwives had been commanded to slaughter all babies soon after birth. The midwives resisted, so eventually professional soldiers had to be sent to perform this cruel, ugly deed. However, there was one determined mother, Jochebed, who did her best to be sure this wouldn't happen. She used all her creative, sly, deceptive methods to prevent the baby from being discovered. However, this task grew increasingly more difficult each day. Finally, in her last act of defiance, she began weaving a basket from materials around the village, that would not sink in the waters of the Nile. In a way, it functioned much like Noah's ark. Today, we know that child to be Moses, whose personhood loomed large over the landscape of the Old Testament. God was working in the midst of the tragic events to bring forth deliverance and victory for his people. Events can be redeemed. God often has a long-term plan for short-term actions we make in faith. GOD CHANGES INDIVIDUALS.  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  JFB Alt.  SRB A colleague in Portland, Oregon, recently shared in a sermon an excellent example of this activity of God. The story is about a gentleman named Bruce Kennedy. Bruce Kennedy was the CEO of a major corporation known as The Alaskan Air Group. At the tender age of 52, he is stepping down from the position. It was not because he was stepping down that my colleague noticed the story--it as the reason why. Bruce Kennedy shared "I am leaving my post so that my wife and I can devote more time to Christian service." My colleague said many will think: This is quite un-American to climb off the corporate ladder for the sake of Christian service. However, it is quite biblical. (2) The New Testament lesson from Luke 19:1-10 is the account of a greedy, guilty, money-grabbing tax collector who is transformed into a sharing, sensitive, saint of God by the forgiving power of Jesus Christ. Can and will you add your name to that list today? Do you remember the story of Bob Ingersol? He was a famous and learned unbeliever of the last century. He was riding on a train by the side of General Lew Wallace, who was the governor of New Mexico and who was also not a Christian. Ingersol said to Wallace, "Why do you not write a book that sets forth the truth about this deceiver, Jesus Christ?" Wallace said, "I had not thought of such a thing, but I believe I will." So he studied the life of our Lord, and became a great and devout Christian, and wrote one of the noblest books of faith of all time. It is called BEN HUR. Do you remember the subtitle? It is: BEN HUR (A Story of the Christ). CHANGE IS EVIDENCE OF THE PRESENCE OF GOD. According to the New Testament, when we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior our physical bodies actually become the temple of the Holy Spirit. This is always the foundation for us moving from selfish, sinful creatures to spirit-filled children of God who graciously share all that God has first shared with us. There is a story told about a beloved old physician who was retiring in a little French village. He had labored among them for decades in their humble village, birthing and blessing them. It was a poor village, so the mayor proposed that the folks set up a keg in the village square and everyone bring a pitcher of wine from their own cellar to pour into the keg. Then they would present the keg to the doctor as an expression of their love for all he had shared with them. On the appointed day, there was a steady stream of folks bringing a pitcher of wine to pour into the keg. That evening a presentation was made to the good doctor and the keg was taken home. The next evening as he sat around his fireplace, he decided to have a glass of wine. He drew himself a glass from the keg and took a sip. He couldn't believe it; he drew another glass. The same awful taste--water! He returned the keg back to the townspeople. The mayor was angry and he called for a town meeting to see what was wrong. Much to his disgust and the town's embarrassment, it was discovered that every family and person had brought water to pour into the keg thinking it would never be noticed, since everyone else was bringing wine. (3) When our lives are changed and are changing to reflect all the fullness of God that was revealed in Christ Jesus and our lives become a reflection of His--then others will see the power that is operative in our lives about the PRIORITIES we have selected for our life's journey. We belong to the Lord. Amen and amen. ---------------------------------------------------- 1. NET RESULTS Magazine, March l99l, Herb Miller, Editor, Lubbock, Texas. 2. Thanks to Laron Hall of Portland, Oregon, for this story. 3. Thanks to Earl C. Davis, First Baptist Pulpit, February 3, l99l, Memphis, Tennessee. TOP> FEB192 THREE DEADLY WORDS Jeremiah 1:4-10 I'd like to tell you the story of two children. The parents of the first child were somewhat mismatched. His father was unemployed with no formal schooling. His mother was a teacher. This child, born in Port Huron, Michigan, was estimated to have an IQ of 81. He was withdrawn from school after three months--and was considered backward by school officials. The child enrolled in school two years late due to scarlet fever and respiratory infections. And he was going deaf. His emotional health was poor. He was stubborn, aloof, and showed very little emotion. He liked mechanics. He also liked to play with fire and burned down his father's barn. He showed some manual dexterity, but used very poor grammar. But he did want to be a scientist or a railroad mechanic. The second child showed not much more promise either. This child was born of an alcoholic father. As a child she was sickly, bedridden, and often hospitalized. She was considered erratic and withdrawn. She would bite her nails and had numerous phobias. She wore a backbrace from a spinal defect and would constantly seek attention. She was a daydreamer with no vocational goals, although she expressed a desire to help the elderly and the poor. Who were these two children? The boy from Port Huron became one of the world's greatest inventors- -Thomas A. Edison. And the awkward and sickly young girl became a champion of the oppressed--Eleanor Roosevelt. (1) Would you have voted either one of these children, "most likely to succeed?" Probably not. Geologists tell us that only 3 percent of the earth's fresh water is on the surface in the form of rivers and lakes. The other 97 percent remains as a huge subterranean reservoir down below. The potentials of human personality are much the same--only 3 percent on the surface and 97 percent below. (2) How do we tap the infinite reservoir unseen? How do we bring to the surface the powers and possibilities the Creator has placed within each of us? One thing we can do is to rid our vocabularies of three deadly words. They were the words spoken by a young man long ago by the name of Jeremiah. God came to Jeremiah and said to him, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations." "But, LORD," Jeremiah said, "I do not know how to speak." Then Jeremiah spoke those three deadly words, "I AM ONLY...." In Jeremiah's case, he said, "I am only a youth." Jeremiah would become one of the greatest prophets that God called, but first of all God had to deal with those three deadly words, "I am only..." MANY OF US ARE LIMITED BY THOSE THREE WORDS AS WELL. If God came to some people in this room today, someone would say, "But Lord, I'm only a senior citizen. I'm too old to be of much use to the kingdom." There was a story in the WALL STREET JOURNAL about Harry Lipsig. Lipsig, at age eighty-eight, decided to leave the New York law firm he had spent most of sixty years building up. He decided to open a new firm. So at an age when many people have given up on life, Mr. Lipsig decided to try his first case in some time. Here was the situation. A lady was suing the city of New York because a drunken police officer had struck and killed her seventy-one-year-old husband with his patrol car. She argued that the city had deprived her of her husband's future earnings potential. The city argued that at age 71, he had little earnings potential. They thought they had a pretty clever defense until they realized that this lady's argument about her husband's future earning power was being advanced by a vigorous eight-eight-year-old attorney. The city settled the case for $1.25 million. What if Harry Lipsig had said, "I'm only a senior citizen?" Someone else might answer, "But Lord, I'm only a woman." You may have heard the story about three men walking down a beach who came across a lamp buried in the sand. They picked it up and began wiping it off. A genie popped out and told them, "I'll grant each of you one wish." The first man rubbed the lamp and whispered, "I wish I were ten times smarter." "You are now ten times smarter," announced the genie. The second guy took the lamp and rubbed it and murmured, "I wish I were a hundred times smarter." "You are now a hundred times smarter," the genie mandated. The third man rubbed the lamp and said, "I wish I were a thousand times smarter." The genie pointed at him and declared, "You are now a woman." I hope there is no one in this church who still believes that women cannot compete with men. The two highest IQs ever recorded (on a standard test) both belonged to women. It is not intelligence or ability or competence that have held women back. It is these three deadly words, "I am only..." One little girl prayed earnestly: "Dear God, are little boys really better than little girls?" After a brief pause, as if waiting for an answer, she added, "I know you are one, but please be fair." In a hundred different ways we have told our little girls they are not as capable as little boys. And that is wrong! Of course, we are making progress. We know that by contrasting the status of American women with women world wide. For example, when they first started showing the television show, "Laverne and Shirley" in Thailand, there was a stark conflict of cultures. The idea of independent, unmarried young women living apart from their families goes against Thai culture. For that reason, the government television network preceded each episode with a slide informing the public that the series was about two women who had escaped from a lunatic asylum. We've got a long way to go, but progress is being made. You may have heard about a man and a woman who were chatting. "Yes," she said. "I'm the kind of woman who spends a lot of time talking to my plants. Let's see--there's my computer plant in Chicago, my textile plant in North Carolina...." Every child is this world--male or female, black or white, yellow or brown--should grow up believing two things about themselves: they are loved and they are capable. Let's get rid of the "I am only's..." I am only the child of a coal miner, I am only a person with a handicapping condition, I am only a member of a minority group. You and I can be anything God calls us to be. And God is calling everyone of us just as he called Jeremiah. God came to Jeremiah and said to him, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations." "But, LORD," Jeremiah said, "I do not know how to speak. I am only a youth." See what God does next. He says to Jeremiah, "Do not say, `I am only a youth.' You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you," declares the LORD. Then the LORD reaches out His hand and touches Jeremiah's mouth and says to him, "Now, I have put my words in your mouth. See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant." God had great plans for Jeremiah, but first of all He had to get those three deadly words off of Jeremiah's lips, "I am only..." And, my friends, God has great plans for your life and my life as well. Norman Vincent Peale tells about a young man named Mike. Mike's school attendance and grades were worsening, and he was developing a surly disposition....He was exhorted, lectured, and punished, but to no avail. Finally, he landed in the superintendent's office with the teacher's recommendation that he be expelled from school as unreachable and therefore unteachable. The superintendent talked to Mike but was obviously getting nowhere. To Mike's surprise the superintendent said, "Mike, hold out your hands....Mike, you've got wonderful hands, long and slender but strong, which is surprising for your stocky build. Boy, you've got the hands of a surgeon. Maybe that's what you are intended to be. Get going, Mike, and good luck." He said nothing about punishment, let alone expulsion. It was genuine motivation, esteem, admiration. Mike became, in the words of the superintendent, "one of the best surgeons" in the land. (3) All Mike needed was someone to offer a word of encouragement--to tell him what he might be. Many of us need that same kind of encouragement. We need a friend who will say to us, "Don't say, `I'm only this' or `I'm only that.' I've got great plans for you." We have such a friend in God. He sees possibilities within us we never dreamed possible. If we believe in Him and if we believe in His dream for our lives, we can accomplish more than we ever dreamed possible. In art class some children were working with plasticine, a clay-like substance that can be used over and over because it does not harden. A girl had made a very nice model of a creature with wings. She held it up and said to everyone, "See the angel!" There were exclamations of delight from the class and teacher. Then the girl quickly molded the angel back into a ball and asked everyone, "Okay, now. What's this?" Nobody could answer--except to say, "a ball?" "Nope," said the girl, "it's a hiding angel." The next day when the children came into art class, they were accompanied by a visitor. Another child pointed at the ball of plasticine and said to the visitor, "You know what that is? It's a hiding angel." (4) Some of us have within us hiding angels just waiting to be released. And they can be released when, like Jeremiah, we discover that rather than only a youth, or only a senior citizen, or only a woman, or only a child of poverty, we can say, "I am a child of God. Before I was formed in the womb God knew me. Before I was born I was set apart for something good and beautiful and noble." To believe that about ourselves is to unleash a host of powers and possibilities. Like Thomas Edison and Eleanor Roosevelt, those two young people for whom no one would have predicted extraordinary success--our lives can become something beautiful and good. Let God touch your lips this day and take off from them those words that hold you back. Say rather, "I am a child of God." ------------------------------------------ 1. Vital Speeches 2. Frederick G. Harmon and Garry Jacobs, THE VITAL DIFFERENCE (New York: AMACOM, 1985). 3. THIS INCREDIBLE CENTURY, pp. 208-209. 4. Eric W. Johnson, A TREASURY OF HUMOR (New York: Ivy Books, 1989). TOP> FEB292 HOW DO YOU ACT IN THE PRESENCE OF THE QUEEN?  â€¢ OU Top â € ¢ AC  JFB  JFB Alt.  SRB Isaiah 6:1-8; Luke 5:1-11 Associated Press, Dateline, Washington, D.C.: A woman in our nation's capitol welcomed Queen Elizabeth II into her home in a warm and beautiful way. She gave her a hug. This simple act made headlines around the world because British protocol forbids commoners from touching a monarch. The queen, accompanied by first lady Barbara Bush and Washington Mayor Sharon Pratt Dixon, visited 67-year-old retiree Alice Frazier's home in an area formerly plagued by drugs and crime but now rehabilitated. It was on this occasion that Frazier shocked British sensibilities with her effusive hospitality. Frazier was simply showing her happiness at being visited by royalty. No one had explained to her that you don't hug a queen. I was reminded of this incident when I came to our Old Testament and Gospel texts for the day. In Isaiah, we read about one of the most notable confrontations with God in recorded history. Isaiah writes: "In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: `Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.' At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. `Woe to me!' I cried. `I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.'" (NIV) In our lesson from the Gospels Jesus is speaking to Simon Peter, "Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch." Simon answered, "Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets." They did let down the nets and caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. They signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. Soon both boats were so full that they began to sink. And it began to dawn on Simon Peter that this carpenter from Nazareth was more than just a man. He fell at Jesus' knees and said, "Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!" How you act in the presence of a queen is one thing. How you act in the presence of God is quite another. Suppose God appeared to us in this hour in this place. How would you react? SOME FOLKS PROBABLY WOULDN'T KNOW HOW TO BEHAVE IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD. They haven't had that much experience. King Duncan, editor of DYNAMIC PREACHING, had an experience that brought this truth home to him in a memorable way. Let him tell it in his own words: "I was getting dressed one Sunday morning to speak at old First Church--a high-steeple church with a rich history. The radio was on. The early morning service from a fast growing Pentecostal church was being broadcast. I knew the pastor. He is not a great preacher--a little too emotional for my liking. But he knows how to reach people no one else can reach. "As I straightened my tie, I heard him say, `Before we begin this morning, I want to say a couple of things to you. First of all, I want to say that there is far too much moving around in the service while I am preaching. It's distracting.' I thought that was a rather amusing thing for him to say on radio. Then he added, `And another thing. I would appreciate it if you would wait till after the service is over to go out to the restroom.' I thought to myself, `Is he really saying this on radio?' Then to make matters worse he added, `I have to wait till the service is over to go to the restroom and so can you!' I let out a hearty laugh. That's not the sort of thing most of us would broadcast as part of a worship service. Smugly I finished tying my tie and laughed inwardly about this unsophisticated messenger of the Gospel. "Then the voice of God spoke to my heart. `King,' God said, `the reason that pastor has to tell his people how to behave in church is that a year ago many of them were not in a church. Some of them were having serious problems with alcohol and drugs. Some of them were going through painful divorces. A few were even in jail. That's why they don't know how to act in church. They haven't been in church very long.' Then God said, `Don't worry, King, you won't have that difficulty at old First Church.'" And I thought to myself, `God help us, we won't. Everybody at old First church will know how to behave in church.' And I couldn't help thinking that might be the most tragic thing that can be said about any congregation.'" Some people may not know how to behave in the presence of God because they have not had much experience with God. BUT THERE IS ANOTHER REASON WHY SOME OF US MAY NOT MAINTAIN A PROPER DECORUM IN GOD'S PRESENCE. IT HAS TO DO WITH THE PICTURE JESUS GAVE US OF GOD. Once there was a church in Holland which felt strictly bound to obey God's commandment to keep the Sabbath holy. On a certain Sunday the area was threatened by wind and waves. If the dikes were not strengthened, the people would not survive. The police notified the pastor of the danger. He was faced with the decision of whether to call off the services and urge his people to work on the dikes. Unable to make the decision, he called a meeting of his church council. They concluded that God, being omnipotent, can always perform a miracle with the wind and waves. Their duty was to keep the commandment not to work on the Sabbath. The pastor tried one last argument: Did not Jesus himself break the commandment and declare that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath? Then an old man stood up and said, "I have always been troubled, Pastor, by something I have never ventured to say publicly. Now I must say it. I have always had the feeling that our Lord Jesus was just a bit of a liberal." Jesus was a bit of a liberal--particularly when it comes to how we approach God. How can we maintain a proper distance from God--how can we maintain the stern, cold, stained-glass demeanor often associated with worship when Jesus teaches us to address God as "Daddy?" A young boy burst into the great throne chambers of a medieval king. The boy was skipping and singing as children do. He was completely oblivious to the regal sobriety of his surroundings. Suddenly, he was intercepted by an armored solider. "Have you no respect, lad?" hissed the soldier. "Don't you know that the man on the throne is your king?" The boy wriggled out of the soldier's grasp. Dancing away, he laughed and said, "He is your king but he is my father!" And the boy bounced up to the throne and leaped into the king's lap. Some people could never approach God with such freedom. They feel that religion must be painful if it is authentic. When anesthesia was first used to diminish the pains of childbirth in the late 1840s, churchmen (all males) objected. After all Eve was told, "in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children," as one of the punishments for eating the forbidden fruit. In 1853, however, Queen Victoria allowed herself to be chloroformed while giving birth to her seventh child, and all criticism stopped. None of the churchmen had the nerve to criticize the Queen. Some Christians have that attitude toward worship. They do not have the freedom of Jesus. Indeed, they see him as a bit of a liberal in how he approached God. He was also a bit of a liberal in the kind of people he brought into God's presence. Suppose Jesus filled the front row of our church this morning. Suppose he were the pew captain in a fill-the-pew campaign. Can't you just see what we might be in for? There next to the aisle sits a man with a serene expression on his face. Rumor has it that just a few months ago he was running naked among the stones at the town cemetery, cutting himself with rocks and screaming at passersby. Next to him sits a man named Bartimaeus. He's a nice enough fellow, but I wish he wouldn't get quite so carried away with the hymns. Particularly when we're singing "Amazing Grace" and he comes to that part about "I once was blind, but now I see..." Really, that kind of emotional expression is out of place here. Next to Bartimaeus sits a woman. Her clothes are a little too gaudy. She could use some lessons in good taste. I don't mean to gossip, but I understand that sometime back she was caught in the very act of adultery. Jesus had to protect her from a mob. Really, she should know better than to show up here. And so the story goes. Some people don't know how to act in the presence of God. Jesus may be partly responsible for that. He was a bit liberal, you see. But there's one thing more to be said. MAYBE NONE OF US KNOW EXACTLY HOW TO ACT IN GOD'S PRESENCE. Maybe that's why worship does not affect us more. Imagine if we came into this room with the feeling that God really is in this place. There would be no yawns as we made our way through the service--no bored, glassy-eyed stares. Instead, we would react just like Isaiah and Simon Peter. FIRST, WE WOULD BE CONSCIOUS OF OUR SINFULNESS. Isaiah said, "Woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips." Peter said, "Depart from me Lord, for I am a sinful man." Such a consciousness of our inadequacy is necessary for any real change to take place in our lives. Lillian Roth was a superb entertainer who drowned her career in a sea of booze. Her struggle with alcohol was told in a motion picture starring Susan Hayward titled I'LL CRY TOMORROW. Lillian Roth confessed that she was absolutely powerless in trying to overcome her problem with alcohol until she was finally able to utter three little words: "I need help!" In the presence of the Divine, Isaiah and Peter suddenly realized they were sinners and needed help. Such an acknowledgement is necessary if we are to be all God means for us to be. They also discovered something else. THEY DISCOVERED THEY HAD A MISSION. Isaiah heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And Isaiah said, "Here am I. Send me!" Peter heard Jesus say, "Don't be afraid; from now on you will catch men." If we truly felt ourselves in the presence of God this morning, we too would realize we have a mission. That mission would be to go out from this place to live the Jesus life--to reach out in love not only to those who are "our kind of people," but also to take Christ's love to folks who wouldn't know how to behave in our church. And now, the good news for the day. God is here. He is seeking to make Himself known to each of us. Do you not sense His presence? Are you not aware of your own inadequacy? Do you not feel a call to His service? In 1922 Max Flack of the Chicago Cubs and Cliff Heathcote of the St. Louis Cardinals were traded for each other. This is not unusual except that they were traded after the first game of a double-header between the two teams. During the second game both men played in different uniforms. I am asking you this morning, if you really sense God's presence in this place, to accept a change of uniforms. How do you act in the presence of a queen? Protocol says you do not hug her. How do you act in the presence of God? First, don't be afraid. He's your Daddy. Secondly, confess your need. Finally, heed His call. ---------------------------------------------- 1. Kasemannin, JESUS MEANS FREEDOM 2. Ron Lee Davis, COURAGE TO BEGIN AGAIN (Oregon: Harvest House Publishers, 1988). TOP> FEB392 WHAT ARE YOU SITTING ON? Jeremiah 17:5-10 Robert Fulghum tells about meeting a young American traveler in the airport in Hong Kong. She was tensely occupying a chair next to his. Her backpack bore the scars and dirt of some hard traveling. It bulged with mysterious souvenirs of seeing the world. When the tears began to drip from her chin, he imagined some lost love or the sorrow of giving up adventure for college classes. But then she began to sob--a veritable flood of tears. She was not quite ready to go home, she said. She had run out of money. She had spent two days waiting in the airport standby with little to eat and too much pride to beg. Her plane was about to go and she had lost her ticket. "She had been sitting in this one spot for three hours, sinking into the cold sea of despair like some torpedoed freighter." Fulghum and a nice older couple from Chicago, dried her tears. They offered to take her to lunch and to talk to the powers that be at the airlines about some remedy. She stood up to go with them, turned around to pick up her belongings. And SCREAMED. They thought something terrible had happened to her but no...it was her ticket. She found her ticket. She had been sitting on it for three hours. "Like a sinner saved from the very jaws of hell," writes Fulghum, "she laughed and cried and hugged us all and was suddenly gone. Off to catch a plane for home and what next. Leaving most of the passenger lounge deliriously limp from being part of her drama." (1) She had been sitting on her ticket the whole time. The story is told of a farmer and his wife in the dusty panhandle of Texas. They had eked out a meager living for 30 years. One day an impeccably dressed man driving a fancy car came to their door. He told the farmer that he had good reason to believe there was a reservoir of oil underneath his property. If the farmer would allow the gentleman the right to drill, perhaps the farmer would become a wealthy man. The farmer stated emphatically he didn't want anyone messing up his property and asked the gentleman to leave. The next year about the same time the gentleman returned with his nice clothes and another fancy car. The oilman pleaded with the farmer, and again the farmer said no. This same experience went on for the next eight years. During those eight years the farmer and his wife struggled to make ends meet. Nine years after the first visit from the oilman, the farmer came down with a disease that put him in the hospital. When the gentleman arrived to plead his case for oil, he spoke to the farmer's wife. Reluctantly, she gave permission to drill. Within a week huge oil rigs were beginning the process of drilling for oil. The first day nothing happened. The second day brought only disappointment and dust. But on the third day, right about noon, black bubbly liquid began to squirt up in the air. The oilman had found "black gold," and the farmer and his wife were instantly millionaires. They had been sitting on a reservoir of wealth while they struggled to make a living. (2) A century and a half ago there was a poor man out of work living in Hingham, Massachusetts. He lounged around the house until one day his wife told him to get out and work. He sat down on the shore of the bay, and whittled a soaked shingle into a wooden chain. His children that evening quarreled over it. He whittled a second one to keep peace. While he was whittling the second one a neighbor came in and said, "Why don't you whittle toys and sell them? You could make money at that." "Oh," he said, "I would not know what to make." "Why don't you ask your own children what to make?" He acted upon the hint, and the next morning when Mary came down the stairway, he asked, "What do you want for a toy?" She began to tell him she would like a doll's bed, a doll's washstand, a doll's carriage, and she went on with a list of things that would take him a lifetime to supply. So, consulting his own children, he took the firewood, for he had no money to buy lumber, and whittled. Soon those strong, unpainted Hingham toys became known all over the world. (3) I guess we could say this man had been sitting on his hands, for his hands were where his fortune lay. What is it you are sitting on? In this grand world of opportunity, do you have possibilities and potentials which are lying unused? Let's begin here. GOD'S WILL FOR HIS CHILDREN IS TO BE SUCCESSFUL. Now, someone is silently saying, "Hold on, pastor. Is this that prosperity Gospel I've been hearing so much about--where if you believe the right things and do the right things God is going to make you rich?" Not at all. Let's approach the question from the other side. Do you believe it is God's will for His children to live in squalor and poverty, ignorance and fear? Do you believe it is God's will for His children to live cold, bitter lives of defeat? None of us believe that. If that were true, why would Jeremiah have written, "Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord...."? Blessed means happy. It means contented, at peace with yourself. That is God's will for your life and mine. If we are not at peace with ourselves right now, it may be because we are sitting on some gift, some opportunity, some potential blessing to ourself and to the world. Admittedly, each of us would have our own definition of success. Some would say, if I raise my children to be responsible citizens, I will be a success. Others say, if I can write a piece of music, paint a picture, write a book, I will be a success. Others say, if I can just hold on till retirement, that's all the success I'll need. Each of us has our own dreams, our own definition of success. Unfortunately, statistics show that only 10 percent of us actually "succeed" at what we set out to accomplish. Another 10 percent accept defeat and turn to alcohol, drugs, and even suicide to deal with our despair. The other 80 percent simply "endure." It is not God's will that we should endure "lives of quiet desperation" as the poet expressed it. God's will is for life abundant. God's will is that we have dreams and that we achieve those dreams. This is not to say that sometimes our dreams do not have to be adjusted. They do. Ex-president Jimmy Carter dared to dream he could become president of the United States. He achieved that dream, but world events turned against him. Carter had to repair his dreams, and he did. He dedicated his time to helping the poor through Habitat for Humanity, building low-cost housing. He and Rosalyn teach Sunday School, and they have written six books since 1981. Rosalyn wrote, "If we have not achieved our early dreams, we must either find new ones or see what we can salvage from the old...There is clearly much left to be done, and whatever else we are going to do, we had better get on with it." (4) This brings us to the second thing to be said, GOD HAS PROVIDED US MEANS BY WHICH OUR DREAMS CAN BE ACHIEVED. God did not create us to wallow in despair and self-pity. I am always amazed at how many bright, talented, energetic people thwart their dreams by self-defeating attitudes. They are doomed not by forces on the outside but forces within. They see only their limitations, not their possibilities. Let me tell you about a couple who do not have many of the opportunities that many of us have. Intellectually they would probably be considered borderline retarded. Both are from less fortunate families financially. All they had in the world when they married was their love for each other and their faith in God. What kind of opportunities were available to such a couple? Would they become wards of the state? Not on your life. They heard about a church that was looking for a part-time janitor. The church paid $100.00 per week. They discovered that working hard and working together, they could do all the church required in one day. The pastor was most pleased with their work. They were dependable and had a great attitude. He was happy to write them a letter of recommendation. Soon they had four other small churches that they also cleaned one day a week. They now had an annual income of over $20,000, which at the time was quite a respectable sum of money. They were essentially their own bosses, they enjoyed one another's company and they took pride in doing their work to the best of their ability. They took the skills they had and applied them to the opportunities at hand. God has so constructed His world that there is a niche for everyone of us. That is why each of us has our own respective talents and abilities. But many of us are sitting on our opportunities. And this brings us to the last thing to be said. THE SECRET IS TRUST IN GOD. "Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord," writes Jeremiah, "whose confidence is in him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream...." The crucial ingredient in achieving our dreams is confidence. Some people keep their dreams bottled up inside. They would make a difference. They would right wrongs, create beauty, make the world a better place to live. But something holds them back. That something is fear. As Erma Bombeck once wrote in one of her columns, "It takes a lot of courage to show your dream to someone else. They might laugh. They might not understand. Worse, they might take it out of the box and drop it and where would you get another one? Dreams are fragile, you know. Some people in desperation give up on dreams... "I understand the fears and apprehensions of the closet dreamers, but, oh, how I admire the Mother Teresas...the Samantha Smiths, the Christa McAuliffes, the Helen Kellers and, yes, the Sarahs who write poetry on the kitchen table at night. "Are they winners? Winning is not what they're all about...What is special about them is they're dreamers who put it on the line. They had the courage to admit that what they wanted was just beyond their reach, but if they wanted it badly enough...anything was