FCC Shelbyville | March 2nd, 2014 Sermon

March 2, 2014 Having A Heart Like Jesus - An Abundant Life

John 10:7-18

This morning we conclude our series of messages Having A Heart Like Jesus, as we study what it means to have An Abundant Life.

Our Scripture reading is John 10:7-18 —

7 Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep.

8 All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them.

9 I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.  They will come in and go out, and find pasture.

10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it more abundantly.

11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

12 The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it.

13 The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.

14 “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me—

15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep.

16 I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.

17 The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again.

18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”

Listen to verse 10 again –

10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it more abundantly.

      What does it mean to have an abundant life?

In the 80s and 90s, Robin Leach became famous with his TV show Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.  Each episode took us into the lives of the fabulously wealthy.  Admittedly, it was hard not to be a bit envious, watching Leach stroll the sprawling grounds of mansions and riding in luxury cars.  His signature line at sign-off, champagne wishes and caviar dreams, was a final reminder of what constituted an abundant life.  Surely, if one wanted an example of abundance, that was it.

The desire of Jesus, as we find in this week’s Scripture reading, is that his followers live an abundant life.  But to Jesus, abundance has a far different meaning from that presented by Robin Leach.

In Luke 12:15 Jesus reminds us that one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.  An abundant life, to Jesus, means more than what we can accumulate as we move through life.

The Greek language has two words for life.

One is bios, which is the root of our word biology.  This definition of life is obvious – it is our physical lives and its attendant needs for things such as food, water, and shelter – the biological type of life.  This word, interestingly, is used only sparingly in the New Testament.  As much as the New Testament speaks of life, it rarely is speaking about the biological life. 

The Greek word that is most often used in the New Testament is zoe, which is the kind of life that relates to our spiritual selves; it is life that relates to the heart and soul, and not just the physical aspects of life.

When Jesus speaks of life, and having an abundant life, he is not speaking of bios life, but zoe life.  This is a life that is about quality, not quantity.  It’s not about how much a person can accumulate.  It is a life that has to do with fulfillment, but not the kind of fulfillment that comes from large houses and big bank accounts.

C. S. Lewis, described the difference between these two types of life as being similar to the difference between a statue and a man.  A man who changed from having bios to zoe would have gone through as big a change as a statue which changed from being a carved statue to being a real man.  That’s a very dramatic difference.

The two types of life are, indeed, very different from one another, and we live in a culture that seems obsessed with the bios kind of life more than it is the zoe kind of life.  If you put the two kinds of life on a scale the bios – the physical life – would often outweigh the zoe – the spiritual life.  We do, though, see some glimmers of the recognition of the spiritual side of life.  In the midst of all the emphasis on the physical needs of life and the accumulations of life we become aware of the spiritual side of life when we recognize the call to love other people and when we see expressions of love.  We recognize the spiritual side of life when we are in the midst of a moment that causes us to say this is what life is really all about.  Though our hearts often pull us in the direction of accumulations and an emphasis on the physical side of life, our heart will often remind us there is much more to life and will begin to pull us back to the spiritual.

The audience to whom Jesus spoke of an abundant life could not comprehend of an abundant life such as the type found in our materialistic, consumer culture.  His audience was filled with people who struggled to eke out their daily existence.  They certainly saw a few people who had great wealth, but they had no hope of attaining such a lifestyle.  Jesus was not giving them a vision for how they could attain a better standard of living.  Jesus was not selling a first-century version of the American Dream.  He was not promising a life that would be rich in money and wealth, and his listeners did not hear him as doing so.  They knew instinctively that Jesus was speaking of something far deeper.  Jesus was offering a life that provided fulfillment, meaning, purpose, and love regardless of one’s economic or social standing.  It was a message that reminded his listeners, who were under the iron-fisted rule of Rome, that they could live in freedom regardless of their political circumstances.  It was a message that promised that regardless of how tenuous and fragile life might be, life could be full and meaningful, and life would continue after one drew their last breath of bios life.

It is harder, I believe, to get that message through in our culture.  Living as we do, in a time of great prosperity (yes, in spite of all the economic challenges there is still a great deal of prosperity, certainly in comparison to the time of Jesus) there are millions of people who continue to chase the dream of having more and more.  They strive to earn more, to possess more, and in the process neglect their spiritual selves.  In the midst of material wealth we are mired in spiritual poverty. 

The message of Jesus was one of running counter to the cultural pull of seeking after only a biological life, the bios life – seeking only the comforts of life, the possessions of life, the attainments of life, and moving to the spiritual life, which is willing to let go of those measures of life as what matters most.

This is why Jesus uses the image of himself as the shepherd and his people as his sheep.  It is the presentation of a way of life that runs counter to a kind of life that, in the end, turns out to not only be an illusion, but can also be a destructive way of life.

If, for instance, we work only for the attainments in life, what does that do to our relationships?  How many marriages have suffered because so much time has gone into work and so little into the relationship?  How many parent/child relationships have suffered because of neglect born from too much time spent on things that do not nurture that relationship?  And what does all that striving do to our souls?  Jesus is trying to bring to us a perspective that will make us think about this contrast of two different ways of living.  It is not a rejection of earning a living and caring for our families and ourselves but is, rather, a reminder of the very real danger of losing our souls in the search for attainment and accumulation.  It is not withdrawing from life but embracing life at its most important.

Sometimes, we need a readjustment of our perspectives, a reminder that there is more to life than just biological life.  Over the course of ministry I’ve spent a lot of time in hospitals, nursing homes, and funeral homes.  I’ve spent time with individuals and families and in the face of suffering and that is always a reminder that there is more to life than what we can accumulate and accomplish.  If you want an adjustment to life go visit in a nursing home or a funeral home.  But I’ve also learned how quickly we can forget those lessons.  I’ve stood in those places and thought to myself I cannot forget what matters most in life, and not long after I get in my car and start down the road those stark reminders are already slipping away from me.

We have enough of the bios kind of abundance; we have, very often, a superabundance.  We have all the stuff we need.  Drive around a neighborhood in the spring – if spring ever gets here – when people have their garage doors open and look at the amount of stuff that’s piled up. 

But in spite of all of the abundance what is it that is so often missing?  It is a sense of security, a sense of purpose, a sense of hope – things that are intangible and spiritual.  Those are the elements of the zoe kind of life, the abundant life of which Jesus speaks.

February 23, 2014 Having A Heart Like Jesus - A Life of Generosity

Luke 20:45-21:4

This morning, we continue our series Having A Heart Like Jesus, and as we do we come to A Life of Generosity.  Our Scripture reading comes from Luke 20:45 – 21:4 –

45 While all the people were listening, Jesus said to his disciples,

46 “Beware of the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets.

47 They devour widows’ houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. These men will be punished most severely.”

1 As Jesus looked up, he saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury.

2 He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins.

3 “Truly I tell you,” he said, “this poor widow has put in more than all the others.

4 All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.”

When I was in college one of my closest friends kept telling about a guy who played in a local band.  The band was called Zion and they had a keyboard player who was really talented.  We would follow them around to some of the local churches to hear them play, and Rich, the keyboard player was a really interesting guy.  I had never met anyone quite like him before.  He lived such a simple lifestyle and had almost no interest in possessions or money.  During the summer of 1977 he was the Youth Minister at First Christian Church in Kingsport, Tennessee.  One day a couple of us, not doing much of anything, decided let’s go see Rich.  First Christian in Kingsport, at that time, was a very traditional, formal church.  We were sitting in the sanctuary, waiting on Rich to come out from his office, when he walks in carrying his guitar, with no shoes, long hair, a worn-out tank top, and several days growth of a beard.  Even though we all looked kind of like that – it was the 70s, after all – I wondered, how does this go over at this church?  Rich’s talent was obvious, though, and he was a great songwriter.  He had written a song called Sing Your Praise to the Lord, which Amy grant recorded several years later.  Rich went on to write and record a number of albums, and one of his songs – Awesome God we’ve sung here at church on a number of occasions.  What most impressed me about Rich – even more than his musical ability – was his generosity.  I’m sure Rich generated a lot of money with his songs, but he gave away much of it.  He set up an organization to funnel his money into ministry projects and he was paid an annual salary of $25,000, when he could have kept the money and lived a very affluent lifestyle.  He was killed in an auto accident in 1997 sadly, and at the time of his death was living in a tiny cabin on an Indian reservation, teaching music to kids.  That’s a generous life.

We live in a day and age of big numbers.  I had never heard of WhatsApp and read the other morning the company sold for $16 billion dollars.  $16 billion dollars!  Someone won the lottery drawing this week that was worth $400 million dollars.  That’s not quite $16 billion, but imagine how drastically that kind of money would change life.  There are some Olympic athletes who, now that they have medals, will find a lot of money will be coming their way.

Compare those really large numbers with this – this is a mite, a small copper coin found in our Scripture text.  The woman in the story placed two of these in the offering.  It is worth only a fraction of one of these – a penny, but would you bother stopping, stooping down, and picking it up?

This is one of the most famous scenes in the gospels, a scene that teaches us about generosity.  Jesus is in the Temple and observes people placing their gifts into the Temple’s treasury.  In the midst of rich people offering their gifts, a poor widow comes along and puts in two very small copper coins.  Jesus singles her out as being a generous, faithful giver, because all these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.

Of the many interesting elements of this scene, one is that giving was observable in the Temple; giving was something done in full view of other people.  Within the Temple there were trumpet-shaped receptacles where people could place their offerings (this could be the origin of our saying don’t toot your own horn).  Some people, evidently, made quite a show of their giving.  Imagine if people watched while you gave your offering and responded according to the size of your gift.  The big gifts would get applause and cheers and the smaller ones would elicit little more than some whispers or indifference.

This poor woman, who probably stepped forward with some amount of trepidation because of being watched, had to compete with large gifts that were far beyond anything she could imagine.  By way of comparison, imagine standing in life between Bill Gates and Warren Buffett.

Why would Jesus single out a gift, especially one that was so small, at least in terms of the monetary value of the gift?  How could it be, as Jesus says, more than all the others (verse 3)? 

It wasn’t the amount of the gift, but the size of the gift.  In the math of God’s kingdom, amount and size are two different things.  The rich were giving large amounts, but they were not very sizeable, because they gave out of their surplus.  As large as the gifts were, they could have been even larger in terms of the amount.  The woman’s gift was tiny in terms of amount, but very substantial in terms of size, because it represented all she had to live on.  So generosity, in terms of our resources, is based upon our willingness to give something that is sizeable in relation to what we have. 

It was also a significant gift because of what Jesus says in the first part of our Scripture text, which comes from the previous chapter.  Remember this about the Bible – the chapter and verse divisions were not a part of the original writings; they came centuries later.  The first verses of our text are an important context.  In those verses Jesus talks about those who devour widows’ houses.  This poor woman represents just those people to whom Jesus referred.  She was the type of person who was continually victimized by those who were able to take advantage of those who were poor and lacking in power or influence.  And yet here she was, in the Temple, offering what she had.

It’s really an amazing example that the poor woman, a woman who was subject to the powers of the day, the powers that determined her economics and were without hesitation to make her difficult life even more difficult, would be willing to come into the Temple and offer all that she had.  It was a tremendous act not only of generosity but also of defiance and faith.  She was saying, in essence, nothing is going to stop me from giving of what I have, however meager my resources might have.  It was really an indictment of those who were giving larger gifts in terms of monetary amount, because she took such a risk in her giving.  I don’t know what those two coins would buy in her day, but it wouldn’t have been much; but it would have been something, and when you have very little, something is better than nothing.

Something moved this woman to give what she had.  I imagine she thought pretty hard about giving this gift.  For the rich givers that day, it was a different calculation, but for this woman, it was a decision to spend what could have purchased her food for the day, or paid for some other pressing need.  Why would someone give away what little she possessed?  There was no guarantee that it would not cause her difficulty to give that gift.  Some people, no doubt, would have thought it complete foolishness.

It was her generous spirit, I believe. 

Jesus always made things personal, and in this passage, he makes generosity very personal.  He put a face on generosity, as he sought to demonstrate generosity to his disciples.

The other evening we were sitting in a restaurant in Indianapolis for dinner.  A man approached our table with a flyer.  It was one of the fund-raising deals where you present a flyer and the restaurant will donate a percentage of the profits to a particular cause.  Often, it’s for bands, or sports teams, or a group raising money to take a trip.  This was for his 11-year-old grandson, who is suffering from cancer.  I asked how his grandson is doing and the grandfather said he had been through one round of treatments, had gone into remission, but the cancer has returned.  He said it didn’t look very good for his grandson.  One of his grandson’s knee joints has been replaced because of the cancer.  So here was a grandfather, approaching strangers in a restaurant, handing out flyers in the hopes of it doing something to help his 11-year-old grandson.  We just happened to be there at the particular moment that grandfather was there, and now I’m going to be wondering about that young boy, and what happens to him, and how that grandfather and the rest of the family are doing.  This grandfather put a face on a need, and that really sticks with us.

I like to think that the disciples and those present that day with Jesus thought about that poor widow for a long time.  Jesus put a face on generosity, so that when he said she put in all she had to live on (verse 4) it was just an academic statement.  All she had to live on.  I wonder what happened to her.  If it was all she had to live on there was nothing left for her rent, or her mortgage, or food, or anything else.  I wonder if those words – she put in all she had to live on – moved anyone to look after her, to be generous to her in her time of need.

It’s hard to be generous in this day and age, because we all feel the financial pressures of such an expensive age.  But remember that generosity is not measured in how much money is in our gift, but how much heart is in our gift.

FCC Shelbyville | February 16th, 2014 Sermon

February 16, 2014 - Having A Heart Like Jesus: The Importance of Reconciliation

Luke 15:11-32

We have been studying the theme of Having A Heart Like Jesus, and this morning we come to The Importance of Reconciliation.  Our text is one of the most well-known passages of all Scripture – the parable of the prodigal son.

11 Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons.

12 The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.

13 “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living.

14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need.

15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs.

16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.

17 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death!

18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.

19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’

20 So he got up and went to his father.

“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

21 “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.

23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate.

24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.

25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing.

26 So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on.

27 ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’

28 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him.

29 But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’

31 “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.

32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”

Before talking about reconciliation, I thought it would be helpful to define the difference between forgiveness and reconciliation.  This passage certainly contains forgiveness and reconciliation, so what is the difference? 

Forgiveness is more of an internal act.  As one writer put it, to forgive is to set a prisoner free, and discover the prisoner was you.  Forgiveness is an act of the will, where we make the decision to let go of a grudge, to let go of a hurt, to set aside the pain of something that someone has done to us.  We can forgive anyone who has hurt us, even someone who is no longer alive.  Forgiveness does not require the participation of anyone but ourselves.  While forgiveness can be solitary, reconciliation requires at least two people.  Reconciliation requires that we deal with another person, as we seek to repair a relationship.

Time does not allow me to answer every question that is raised by the issue of reconciliation.  Our will be a rather cursory view of what it means to be reconciled. 

Have you had the experience of being told by your parents you needed to apologize to someone?  Have you approached someone to apologize to them?  That is, without a doubt, one of the most difficult things we can do.  Have you ever been surprised when someone has approached you to be reconciled?

It’s very easy to speak of the importance of faith, all the while overlooking one of its core principles – reconciliation.

Broken relationships are not only all around us, but they leak a bitterness that poisons families, churches, communities, and our own souls.

The parable of the prodigal son introduces us to a young man who needed reconciliation in several ways. 

First, he needed to be reconciled to himself. 

That may sound a bit strange, but at some point in life we are all in need of self-reconciliation.  Over the years, as I have listened to people talk about their lives, one of the most common themes is the need for reconciliation, and very often it is the need to be reconciled to one’s self – to make peace with something that has happened, making peace with one’s self.

This young man would fall into the category of a phrase some of us have heard before – you were raised better than that.  Have you heard that before?  I sure did.  It’s a way of reminding us where we come from and of the values we’ve been taught.

This young man, at the beginning of the parable, is not very likeable, is he?  He’s arrogant, indifferent to the feelings of others, rude, self-centered, and self-absorbed.  Considering the actions of his father, it’s hard to imagine this young man was raised to act in the way in which he did.  His father certainly demonstrates some beautiful qualities – love, grace, acceptance, generosity, and many others.  Sometimes we say the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, but in the case of the younger son, the apple fell from the tree, rolled down the hill, off a cliff, and ended up a long way from the tree and its good roots.

Unfortunately, we can become so separated from the values of the faith taught to us that we are in need of reconciliation with ourselves.  This young man had forsaken all the bedrock, foundational principles taught to him by his father, and his life fell apart because he had.

Second, he needed to be reconciled with others, especially his family.

Take just a cursory glance at our world and what do we see?  The wreckage of human relationships and the damage that comes when people cannot – or will not – be reconciled one to the other.

You don’t have to leave home to be a prodigal.  Some of the most fractured relationships are not ones separated by distance; some of them live under the same roof, or the same steeple.

Words seldom convict people to seek out reconciliation.  It takes something that moves the heart in a very profound way.  This is one of the lessons of the prodigal son.  He came to his senses.  You can’t ever give up on a person.

Reconciliation is very difficult; we cannot kid ourselves that it is anything but difficult.  But it is not impossible.  Reconciliation can take place when we are willing to reach out our hand to another person and to let go of the bitterness that can destroy us.

Reconciliation does not mean that a relationship will be restored.  The father was blessed that his son returned home and their relationship was renewed, but reconciliation does not always guarantee this will happen.  Sometimes, the hurt between people is so deep that a relationship can never again be restored to what it was previously.  But what reconciliation does, even when a relationship is not restored, is to remove the bitterness and anger than can destroy a person.  It is tragic enough when a relationship has been destroyed; it is doubly tragic when the people involved destroy themselves by hanging onto anger, hurt, and bitterness.

Third, he needed to be reconciled to God.

The father sees the younger son as more than a rebel, more than a prodigal, more than a failure – he sees him as a person and, more importantly, as his son.  How often do we allow labels to prevent us from seeing someone for who they truly are?  If God has a label for us, it is child.  It is not failure, rebel, or prodigal.

It is, sometimes, the people who have suffered judgment and rejection who have the greatest sense of the need for reconciliation and the greatest willingness to seek it.

The son in this parable knew he could return home.  He was fortunate to return home to a father who would welcome him, not one who would hold a grudge or be bitter towards him.  The father is the hero in this parable, not the prodigal.  It is the father who continues to watch for his son until the day he sees him while he was still a long way off (verse 20).  The father, undoubtedly, represents God and the importance of reconciliation with him.

When we think about reconciliation, one of our questions is what prompts people to seek reconciliation?  Why do some people seek reconciliation, while others will never, ever seek it?

In the story of the prodigal, it was, evidently, an empty stomach.  After blowing through all of his money, the prodigal finds his friends are gone and he realizes he is in very bad circumstances.  Hunger finally brings him to his senses.  As Frank Schaeffer, in his book Patience With God, writes – the returned Prodigal finds his father’s forgiveness and love heavenly, whereas his stay-at-home “good” brother resents the lavish welcome his father is giving to his wayward, undeserving brother, who has all the wrong and bad ideas and who has screwed up his life.  The older brother’s focus is on himself and his good standing with his father.  The good son finds his father’s non-judgmental forgiveness of his fallen brothers hellish.  The wayward son didn’t even have good motives for coming home!  He was just hungry!  He wasn’t even repenting in some spiritual way!  He just wanted lunch! (Patience With God, Frank Schaeffer, pp. 222-223).

Schaeffer is probably correct in what he writes about the older son – the prodigal came home only because he was hungry.  But so what?  The hunger brought him home, and that is what really matters.  Coming home, where he knew he would find food, also brought about reconciliation with his father.  Though the prodigal didn’t come home with reconciliation on his mind, it’s what he received – along with a hot meal – and someone, after all, has to be the first to reach out and offer reconciliation.  In this case, it was the father.  It is a beautiful image painted by Jesus in verse 20 – so he got up and went to his father.  But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.  It would be easy to say the father, in response to the actions of his son, should have wrapped his arms around the young man’s neck.  But he didn’t.  He was full of compassion, grace, and love.  He wanted to be reconciled with his son.   

The older brother, angry that his father would welcome his brother with open arms – and without anger or judgment – allowed himself to become bitter towards, and distant from, his father.  The father was fortunate that one son returned to him, but he found that the other was just as much of a prodigal, though he never left home.

The parable does not go on to tell us whether or not the older son attended the celebration in honor of his brother’s return.  He may well have remained outside of the celebration, allowing his bitterness to keep him from being grateful that his brother had returned and was once again a part of their family.  If he did not attend, it was his loss.  A lack of attendance would certainly be an effort to express his disapproval, but the celebration would not be canceled.  It is sad to think that the older brother could only look upon the joy of others, refusing to participate in that joy, but that is what happens when a person cannot accept, or offer, reconciliation.

God always offers reconciliation.  Always.