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Be a Good Sport

8/26/2018

1 Kings 8: 22-30, 41-43; Ephesians 6:10-20; John 6:56-69
August 26, 2018

Jacob Wetterling loved sports. He was a goalie in hockey. He wanted to be a football player when he grew up. And his Dad coached him in soccer. His uniform number was no. 11 and that is the inspiration for Jacob's 11, the list of traits we are basing the current sermon series on. Jacob's 11 is a way to honor the memory of Jacob and his family's way of promoting a culture of compassion and kindness.
And so today's topic hits pretty close to home, for the inspiration of this memorial to Jacob, and to me, and those of you like me who are interested in sports. Like I did last week, I will divide the sermon into two parts; this idea of good sportsmanship but then look at today's Ephesians reading and compare the armor of God with the equipment we use in sports.

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Be Understanding

8/18/2018

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1 Kings 2: 10-12; 3:3-14; Ephesians 5: 15-20; John 5: 51-58
August 19, 2018

Our reading from Kings tells of Solomon, David's son, succeeding David as king of Israel. It was not a totally peaceable transition of power. At least two sons claimed the throne. Adonijah was the fourth son of David. After the death of his elder brothers, Amnon and Absalom-whose efforts to take the throne resulted in his death-we read that last week, Adonijah became heir-apparent to the throne. Solomon was the son of King David and Bathsheba and David had promised Bathsheba that Solomon would be the next king. So Adonijah was exiled. Later, he made another attempt to gain the throne, but was seized and put to death. David's sons wanted to succeed him on the throne. It seems it was the lure of power that drew them in. Solomon seems different; sometimes it is simply a son seeking to fill his father's shoes.

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Be Honest

8/12/2018

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2 Samuel 18:5-9, 15, 31-33; Ephesians 4:25-5:2; John 6:35, 41-51
August 12, 2018

We are in week 5 of our series on Jacob Wetterling's 12 attributes to live by. Today's is Be Honest. When I started this series, I had to match up the traits with the scripture readings. Today's was pretty easy, look at how our passage from Ephesians begins: “Putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth.” Be honest.
A month ago, we took our annual boat ride/fishing trip to Green Lake. I caught the most fish rather handily. Dwight and I got into a bit of a discussion as to whether the number of fish I was hauling in was luck or skill. I tried to convince him it was skill, but in light of today's topic, I guess I should admit it was more luck than skill.

Fishermen are notorious for their dishonesty. Ruth showed me a wonderful little trick for this. I want to describe for you one of the fish I caught, and I want to be honest. (Hold hands out wide) I caught this fish this far from the boat.... Honest but impressive both.
I am pretty sure that most of us here consider ourselves pretty honest. And that is good. Honesty is important to the Christian's faith journey. You have probably heard the excuse some people use to not attend church; too many hypocrites. They say one thing on Sunday and live another way the rest of the week. Dishonesty reflects poorly on you as an individual, but it reflects poorly on the on your claim to follow Jesus Christ. The way we interact with people in our community reflects negatively or positively on Jesus, and on us here at First Presbyterian.
So is dishonesty really a problem? I intrinsically trust most people I come into contact with. But that doesn't always work out the best. There are people who lie, cheat and steal. Most are not big-time dis-honest. I read about a study conducted on college campuses testing who lies and cheats, why they do and to what level. Dan Ariely conducted the study and his team went to college campuses and offered to pay students for every math puzzle they could solve in five minutes. At the end of the five minutes, the students were asked to grade their own papers and put their papers through a shredder. They received money for every right answer they reported, remember, they graded their own papers. But the students didn't know that the shredder didn't actually shred their papers. The team checked their work to see how honest they were. Ariely found that, on average, students reported solving six problems. When the team checked the answers, they discovered on average they solved only four.
After testing 30,000 people, Ariely found only 12 “big cheaters,” compared to 18,000 “small cheaters.” The big cheaters stole a total of $150, while the small cheaters stole around $36,000 – just a couple of dollars at a time. This research project was tried all over the world and the results were always roughly the same. (Adapted from Tim Suttle, Shrink, Zondervan, 2014, pp. 114-115; www.PreachingToday.com)
Most of the losses and thefts and dishonest tax returns are not career criminals. Most are small little indiscretions by basically honest people. Most of the problems we see are not big cheaters. It is the people who consider themselves honest, churchgoing, upright people who cut a corner here and there that make the biggest impact.
So where do we fit in? I consider myself above average on the honesty scale. But I don't have to think too long and hard to come up with examples of my own little lies. It is much tougher deciding if I want to share any examples.
The one that came to mind first is not about stealing, but saving face. We had gotten new scanners at the Post Office. Mine was missing one day and I asked the Postmaster where he'd put it. He didn't know...I evidently had not returned it the day before. Well, if I don't find it, it is hundreds of dollars out of my pocket to replace it. I went and looked in my car, all around my desk, on the loading dock. Nothing. Then I thought about how the previous day had ended, and I remembered dumping a tub of paper into the trash bin. I went digging and sure enough there it was. When Steve asked where I found it, I was too embarrassed to admit I'd thrown it away so said I'd found it in my car.
Now I know that you are probably thinking, “that's pretty minor.” And it is. But it is one of those little lies that, while not profiting me financially, allowed me to save face. And it is a bad habit to get into. Little lies can grow. But telling the truth can be a wonderful testimony. “Putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another.” That is an interesting turn of a phrase, “we are members of one another.” This letter is written specifically to members of the Christian church. Paul was reminding his readers of the basics of living together as brothers and sisters in Christ. Don't lie was his first exhortation, followed by other basic rules of behavior. In his commentary on Ephesians, Earnest Best points out that, “there has never been a period in the church when simple 'exhortations' have not been necessary.'” And so in many of the epistles, simple rules for living are laid out for us. Here, in the fourth chapter of Ephesians, we get such a list. We begin with what not to do: Don't lie. Do not sin in your anger. Thieves must give up stealing. Speak no evil. Don't be bitter or wrathful, don't slander, don't wrangle or argue with one another, and avoid slandering a fellow believer. Basic rules of living in harmony.
You may have noticed that I skipped one item, “do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God.” That one is not so clearly understood. Commentators don't agree on just what this saying meant, but I don't think we go too far wrong if we look to Jesus for an example. In Mark's gospel, Mark told of a time when Jesus was grieved. Jesus had asked the Jewish leaders whether it was lawful to heal on the Sabbath. They didn't care about helping the man with the withered hand, they wanted to trap Jesus. So when they refused to answer him, Mark writes that Jesus was, “Looking around at them with anger, deeply grieved at their unyielding hearts.” So it seems that Jesus and hence the Holy Spirit is grieved when we fail to yield our hearts in love to others. We grieve God's Spirit when we fail to show love, compassion, care for others with whom we come in contact.
Another side note, Mark wrote there that Jesus was angry. Our passage today is not demanding that we never get angry. But what we are told is that we shouldn't sin in our anger; we don't take our own revenge upon people. We can be honest with our anger. We can even be angry at God. But we are not to live as angry people...we all know people who live that way. Again from Earnest Best, “Anger easily leads to the loss of a sense of judgment and so to sin...and can appear in different ways, from the passionate outburst to the sullen bearing of grudges.” Sometimes the passionate outburst is better than bearing a grudge. In “These Day's” devotional, Melanie Oommen wrote this week that anger can even be an act of faith. She wrote, “truth is more important than comfort (and) anger can be born of conscience. God planted within us compasses of conscience.” Anger can be the correct way to respond to injustice. But not anger for the sake of anger, and Paul is clear, we are not to let the sun go down on our anger. Find a way to resolve the differences you are having.
Back to our passage, Paul goes on to list positive ways we are to express our fellowship in Christ. “be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love.” Good advice, wonderful traits to live with; but not always easy to carry out. I believe we need time with God to grow and nourish these positive traits. Bible reading, prayer, meditation, a steady, conscious awareness of God allows us to do better living out these traits. We won't be perfect, but we can do better.
So there is a lot more in this passage than the admonition to be honest. But at the heart of it is living honestly. But honestly alone doesn't guarantee that our life will be in right relationship with God and each other. James Dobson tells a story about an honest man:
“Some time ago, I heard about a fellow in Long Beach who went into a fried chicken franchise to get some chicken for himself and the young lady with him. She waited in the car while he went in to pick up the chicken. Inadvertently, the manager of the store handed the guy the box in which he had placed the financial proceeds of the day instead of the box of chicken. You see, he was going to make a deposit and had camouflaged it by putting the money in a fried chicken box. The fellow took his box, went back to the car, and the two of them drove away. When they got to the park and opened the box, they discovered they had a box full of money. He realized there must have been a mistake, so he got back in his car and returned to the place and gave the money back to the manager. Well, the manager was elated! He was so pleased that he told the young man, “Stick around, I want to call the newspaper and have them take your picture. You’re the most honest guy in town.” “Oh, no, don’t do that!” said the fellow. “Why not?” asked the manager. “Well,” he said, “You see, I’m married, and the woman I’m with right now is not my wife.”
Living the Christian life is more than honesty. When we read or study a list of how we ought to live, we don't pick one and make that our all in all. The list gives us guidelines to how we ought to order our whole life. The way we interact with others is the true test of our Christian walk. Honesty is important, but not the all in all. And none of us will be able to perfectly follow the items on Paul's list all the time. So Paul concludes this passage, “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” Imitate God as revealed in Jesus; good advice, not always easy to do. The very best imitation of God is to love one another. And that we can do; treat them with honesty and integrity, “ be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another”... work hard, build up one another, avoid bitterness and wrath, and slander...control your anger. Paul's list of how we best imitate Jesus' love. But in and through it all is the knowledge that God loves us, that Jesus died for us as a sacrifice in our place. It is in thanksgiving for God's marvelous grace that we seek to live out God's love.
Seek to imitate Jesus...and to do that we need to keep our eyes upon him. Our hymn reminds us that when we look to Jesus, the things of this earth grow dim; less important, we don't need to build up ourselves with lies and half-truths. Living with and for Jesus is all the blessing we need. And so we follow the vision of the love Jesus lived. He gives us grace to live in love; his glory gives us inspiration to live out the traits Paul taught us: be honest, be kind, tenderhearted, forgiving, hardworking, encouraging, positive, and... control your anger. A tall order, one we can all work on. Amen.
Hymn: Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus 252 HLC

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Be Fair

8/5/2018

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2 Samuel 11:26-12:13a; Ephesians 4:1-16; John 6:24-35
August 5, 2018
In last month's newsletter, on the prayer page, Julie's article that adjoined the list was titled “Praise His Grace.” But when I read it, I really felt it dealt with fairness. She told of parents dealing with strong-willed children and how when they grow up and deal with their own strong-willed children, that seems, she wrote “just” but I'd say that seems more like fair. She used Matthew as her example, but I think Stephen makes a better example. Stephen was not strong-willed, he was very compliant. At least on the surface. Underneath...he liked to stir things up. Kind of like his Dad. And sometimes I would confide in him some smart remark I'd like to make about his mother... but was too wise to say it out loud. But he made it his mission to inform his mother anything I did or said that he thought might get me in trouble. And now his daughter Allie does it to him and I call that fair.
Our Old Testament lesson has a story about fairness.

We need a little background to understand, as last week we left the lectionary and missed what happened in King David's life. It is a well known part of his life, so quickly; he saw Bathsheba bathing, lusted after her, sent for her, had his way with her, sent her home. She got pregnant so David called her husband home from war thinking that if he slept with his wife, his sin would not be discovered. The husband, Uriah, was too honorable to enjoy what his fellow soldiers were denied. When his plan didn't work, David sent Uriah back to battle with secret orders to have him sent to the heart of the battle and have the troops move back so he'd be killed. And that's what happened and that's where we join the story. “When the wife of Uriah heard that her husband was dead, she made lamentation for him. When the mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife, and bore him a son.”

But that's not the passage that points out fairness. See, David did all this without remorse or guilt. He was the king; the king could get by with anything. The king was above the rules of fairness. That seemed to be his thinking. So the current prophet in Israel, Nathan came, not declaring the king's guilt, but simply telling a story so that the shepherd David was might see the unfairness of his actions:
A poor man had one little ewe lamb...and not just a lamb but a family pet. Nathan says the lamb was like a daughter to him. He's making clear that this was more than just a lamb raised for slaughter, this was a beloved pet. And I know many of you can relate—not to the lamb but to a beloved puppy or kitten that you have for years; a part of the family. That was this ewe.
But there was this rich neighbor with many lambs. And when a friend came to spend the night. As a good host, he wanted to feed him. But he was a little too selfish, too self-centered to take one of his own lambs. He was rich, he was powerful, he could do what he wanted and so he stole that family pet and prepared lamb for his guest. Not nice. But this was a situation David related too. And the writer says, “Then David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man.”
It's interesting, isn't it. David could have a soldier killed so he could get what he wanted. But that human life did not get his attention; the story of the death of a lamb did. It reminded me, Julie and I were watching TV and one of those ads for donations came on; it was for St. Jude Hospital—which we support in the interest of transparency. The next commercial was very similar, but it was the SPCA, Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. I remember Julie noting this contrast and saying something like, “I hope people will give to the children first”. But the story of the pet being killed is what got David's attention, and his anger.
David's judgment against the man who did this to the neighbor's pet was to restore fourfold what was taken...but in fairness, the man should die. Strong words. But David's sense of fairness and justice were awakened by that story.
And now it was up to Nathan to connect this story to David's own sin, “You are the man!” Nathan declared. He went on to list the blessings David had received at the hand of God. So, he asked David, “Why have you despised the word of the Lord, to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites.” David got so angry at the man killing the neighbor's lamb; but now he was challenged to make the connection to what he did. In selfishness and self-centeredness and greed and lust and power, he had taken what wasn't his, he had murdered, he had unfairly sentenced a man to death. And David came to his senses and confessed, “I have sinned against the Lord.” As you know, David wrote many of the Psalms in the bible. He wrote one shortly after this confrontation, Psalm 51 begins like this,
“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight.”
David confessed his sin. He pleaded for mercy, and God forgave him. But that wasn't the end of it. David and Bathsheba were married but the baby died a week after birth. Nathan brought God's word that David would suffer due to this sin, and David’s household experienced further hardship in later years. In total, four of David’s sons suffered untimely deaths—the “four times over” judgment David had pronounced upon himself.
So we see that sometimes life treats us fairly...David's sin found him out and he was judged for it, he suffered loss because of it. Sometimes life treats us unfairly... consider Uriah and the circumstances surrounding his death.

In the Epistle that Julie read, we read of God giving gifts, talents, to various people in the church. We could say that the distribution of those gifts given by God might be called unfair. “The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers.” Not everyone has the gift they may desire. We have some gifted people in our congregation using the gifts God gave them. But is the distribution of talents fair? My gift isn't as an evangelist, but wouldn't it be nice if it were. Maybe the church would be growing by leaps and bounds. It isn't fair that my gift isn't evangelizing. Or is it?
Good things happen to bad people, bad things happen to good people.... That brings up the question, “Is God fair?” It isn't hard to find examples of things in life that just don't look fair. The innocent suffer, the evil prosper. We all know examples of undeserved suffering; the very term undeserved shows it is unfair. What do we do when life isn't fair? Thomas G. Long addresses this in his book What Shall We Say? “For people of faith the presence of undeserved suffering in the world is more than a pragmatic and ethical dilemma; it raises questions about the motives of God and the goodness of God.” Is God motivated to play fair? And of course we'd say, yes. God is just, God is fair. But by what measure; by who's measure? That is a very big question that we each have to come to grips with. And we all have to some extent or you probably wouldn't be here. Nowhere does Jesus promise that life will be fair. Arlyce introduced me to the term “the luck of the womb.” We have no say over where, when or to whom we are born. I was born in a wonderful, loving, stable family. Not everyone is. It is not fair. But there is also a degree of self responsibility we have. Our attitude counts in how we perceive life. Its a bit like Snoopy sitting by the road watching the kids walk to school. He says...”I wonder why it is that some were born people and some were born dogs. It just isn't fair.” And then in the last frame he concludes, “Why was I one of the lucky ones?” We can bemoan our troubles, our birthright, our gifts, or we can consider our blessings.
Life isn't always fair...and we gather on Sunday mornings to celebrate that fact. Yes, I said celebrate. From your Sunday School or confirmation lessons: what are the wages of sin? Death. How many have sinned? All have sinned. What do we deserve? Death. And yet what are we promised? Eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord! That's not fair. Fair would be if we could work for our reward. Fair would be that if our good deeds outweighed our bad, we'd get to heaven. Fair would be judgment for the evil and salvation for the righteous. But God isn't fair. God has offered the great gift of salvation to everyone, free and clear. We can't earn it...not fair. We don't deserve it...not fair. But sometimes it works in our favor when things aren't fair.
I'm reminded of when the kids were young. We had pie for dessert and Matthew noticed that I always got the biggest piece. He didn't think that was fair, and asked why it was. Well, I didn't have a good answer, but I told him that when he is a Dad, he'd probably get the biggest piece too. I have never asked him if he does.
The picture on the front of our bulletins today give a picture of what may come to mind we we say “be fair”. Kids have an innate sense of what is fair and what isn't. “It's not fair” is a common plea. But as we discover when we grow up, and as you undoubtedly heard from you parents, life isn't fair. As Christians, we can work at treating others with fairness and love; remember the Golden Rule. Being fair is one of Jacob's 11 we are studying. But we can also give thanks that life isn't fair because if it were, where would our hope be? Our hope would hinge on being good enough, doing enough to earn our eternal reward despite our sin and trespasses. “ But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved).” SanDawna last week talked about her love for the book of Ephesians. For me, this verse from Ephesians is the heart of the gospel. And the truth is that God doesn't treat us fairly, God treats us with grace. And that is good news. Amen.
Hymn: Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise 263 PH

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Be a Good Sport

Be Understanding

Be Honest

Be Fair

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