"Absolute Foolishness"
1 Corinthians 1:18-31
I was disappointed with my seminary experience. I'm not sure what I was expecting seminary would be like, looking back at that time in my life. Because, as I said in another sermon, I felt the call to go into the ministry when I was in 7th grade, I never entertained any other possibility for my future. I was going to be a Pastor. That was that. Which meant I had to finish college, then go on to seminary.
I watched what the three pastors of my home church in Seattle did. The senior pastor seemed to sit in his office during the week and preach on Sunday. The Christian Education minister was in charge of a huge Sunday School program. And the Youth Minister, who I got to know best of the three, was like an energizer bunny building the youth groups from just a handful to over 50 every week.
But I was getting to know them so I could see what a minister did, not what their seminary training was all about. I felt the calling, so I kept the three men under observation, so I could see what I was getting myself into. I knew they had gone to seminary—that I was going to have to go to seminary. I had no idea what happened there.
All I could picture were a bunch of monks sitting at their desks, with the stub of a burning candle shining a spare light, copying ancient texts by hand. Chanting the Psalms, while unrolling dusty scrolls from ancient shelves in some archive room of the seminary. Which is what seminary was, way back in the good old days of the 1600's. I wondered if, at seminary, they still made you shave the crown of your head into a round bald spot.
But I think that's what I pictured when I thought of seminary: a contemplative retreat where students walked the idyllic grounds talking about the wonders of scripture. And praying together for long hours at a time.
But it wasn't like that at all. It's one of the hardest Master's Degree programs you can attend. The academics are rigorous. It's a three year degree program, that usually takes four if you include an internship—which is what I did. We also, in addition to our studies, had to work in a church in the community 20 hours a week. No other Master's Degree program takes that long and is that demanding.
We had a prayer room off the chapel, but it was the least used room on campus, so they turned it into a janitor closet. So much for spending long hours in prayer. One of the first worship services I attended at seminary, lead by a student, closed with the song, "The Ants Go Marching Two-By-Two," and we all recessed out of the church together. It was the mid-1970's and the church was really struggling with being relevant. In seminary, being relevant was taken to the extreme, to the detriment of worship.
So, to say I was disappointed with my seminary experience is a serious understatement. Half of our entering class quit some time during our first year. I was almost one of them, but my sense of calling kept me going.
What was hardest was that seminary was just like any other Master's program of study, only harder. Seminary trained us to be theologians, not Pastors. We were trained in the wisdom of the world—psychology and philosophy—not the wisdom of God. And what seminaries don't get is that congregations don't give a rats whisker for us being intellectual theologians. Congregations want to know if we as Pastor's love them and if we love the Lord.
I've only had one guy in one congregation who wanted to do some intellectual, theological sparring with me. He read theology as a hobby. He probably knew more than I did about theology. But he didn't know about prayer, or God, or relationship, or worship, which is what it's all about.
Needless to say, I was very confused when I got out of seminary. I wasn't sure what I had to preach. What they actually did to us in seminary was rip us apart with this philosophical theology, and never really put us back together again. We were a bunch of Humpty Dumpty's who had had a great fall, and all the kings men and all the king's horses couldn't put us back together again. But we were supposed to be leading a church!
I had to throw myself on the mercy of God. And figure out, with the help of a couple of great mentors, what it really meant to be a Pastor.
You'd think, at seminary, they'd get the message of the Gospel and the Cross, right. Looking at all that Paul was upset about concerning the Corinthian Church, in terms of the "wisdom of the world" vs. "the message of the Cross" were the same things I was upset about in seminary. Paul wrote the message of the Cross doesn't make sense to lost people, so what did that say about most of my seminary professors? Paul wrote that God saves only those who believe in this "foolish" message of the Cross, so what does that say about most of my seminary professors who didn't? Paul wrote that we can't learn about God through the wisdom of the world, so why did most of my seminary professors teach the wisdom of the world rather than the message of the Cross? Paul wrote that God will turn the wisdom of the world into confusion. It sure happened to me. Why did confusion have to be the result of my going to seminary? You'd think it would be the opposite.
(I'm just making these comments about the seminary I attended. Not all seminaries are like that. Just wanted to make that clear.)
I think there are a lot of people who are confused about the message of the Cross. That message makes no sense to maybe most people.
Like college students. It just seems to be a normal occurrence that you get away from home for the first time and you get to decide a lot of things away from parental control and guidance. You enter the realm of a totally different "group think." You get "alternate facts" and "fake news" thrown at you from day one, and your faith and beliefs about the gospel are the first things to go into the blender of your confusion.
Or suburbanites, who I think are the toughest mission field. Missionaries go to central Africa or rural China and find people are ready to embrace the message of the Cross. But suburbia is throwing the message of the Cross, and church in general, out with the baptismal water. Has been, for decades. They are more concerned about what's causing the erosion of the American Dream than they are about holding on to the Gospel Dream.
Or large corporate headquarters. See if you can get your way into a board room of a multinational company and tell them about the message of the Cross. See how long it takes for you to be ushered, unceremoniously, out the front door. The bottom line, and the welfare of stockholders is way more important than the message of the Cross.
Or politics. A fatal misreading of the Constitutional amendment about the freedom of religion has killed the informing of politics by religion. Instead we have the oft quoted line, "Religion and politics… (don't mix)." Some of the best prayers I have read are in a collection by Peter Marshall, the Presbyterian Pastor who was Chaplain of the Senate in the late 1940's. He would open up each session of the Senate with a prayer, and those prayers were incisive, and prophetic, and sermonic. But not anymore. Now, because of political correctness, you will never hear a prayer about the message of the Cross on the floor of the U.S. Senate. You may not even hear a prayer anymore.
Our country has gone the way of the Corinthians.
So, what are we supposed to do when we are faced with a world that doesn't care about one of our most fundamental beliefs: "Christ, the Crucified?" How are we supposed to find our place in a culture, even our religious culture, that is attempting to cut the legs out from under our "way of salvation"? How will our faith survive when our cherished "Christ on the Cross seems like sheer silliness" to most people? Even in the training ground of novice pastors.
One of the questions that seems to be driving Paul, in the opening of this letter to the Corinthians is, What really proves the power of your personal beliefs? Then Paul writes about three different answers to that question, based on three different belief sets.
The first belief set is that of the Jews. Paul wrote that the power of Jewish faith is their "clamor for miraculous demonstrations." Remember one of the questions the Jews kept asking Jesus: "Show us a sign. Show us a miracle to prove who you are."
The flavor of the Jewish hunger for the miraculous was caught in a humorous way in the musical, "Jesus Christ, Superstar." Jesus has been arrested and is being questioned by Herod. In the song Herod sings to Jesus, one of the verses is:
So if you are the Christ
You're the great Jesus Christ
Prove to me that You're no fool
Walk across my swimming pool.
If You do that for me
Then I'll let you go free.
C'mon, King of the Jews!
The whole song is a daring of Jesus to do the miraculous. To prove his power by doing something flashy.
Think of all the miracles associated with the major salvation story in the history of the Jews—the Exodus. I've been creating my children's stories, of late, out of this freedom story of the Hebrew slaves. Stories of miraculous plagues, and a miraculous walking stick, and the miracle man, Moses, who is backed by a miracle God. It is the miraculous that drives the power of Jewish spirituality, says Paul. It's the way of most of the Old Testament stories. Christ, the Crucified doesn't seem very miraculous. It seemed to them to be absolute foolishness.
For the Greeks, it's altogether something different. Paul calls it, "philosophical wisdom." Something that sounds wise. Something that's intellectually stimulating. Some new idea. Something that struggles with the big questions of, What is life? What is the good? Why are we human's here? What is truth? Christ, the Crucified doesn't seem to be an adequate answer to any of these so-called great philosophical questions. Instead it seemed to the Greeks to be absolute foolishness.
But, for we Christians, Christ, the Crucified is the message of God's power and wisdom. Notice, I said the Cross is the message of God's power. My original question was, What really proves the power of your personal beliefs? What really gives you the power of your personal beliefs isn't you—it is God. It isn't your wisdom. It isn't your ability to pull of a Moses-like miracle. It is God, and God only.
The main problem with the Corinthian church, and with today's church, is that people make the assumption that God must think like we do. That some of our best thinkers must be at least close to what God thinks. That our definition of miracle is the same as it is with God. Or that the answers to the big, philosophical, life questions we come up with will match right up, word-for-word with God's.
Not so, writes Paul. God's wisdom is based on that which is so different from ours, most don't get it. God's action of the miraculous is so much broader than ours, we miss most of what God is doing right under our noses every day. Especially in terms of those Cross-shaped experiences of life and death that we face every day, that most people refuse to see or understand.
Sunday, January 29, 2017
Monday, January 23, 2017
The Difference Being Different Makes
"The Difference Being Different Makes"
1 Corinthians 1:1-9
Paul sat at a tiny desk in the home of Priscilla. She and her husband, Aquila, were there in the room with him, trying to offer their support. Paul was clearly frustrated. While in Ephesus, preaching and teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, establishing a church with the help of women like Priscilla and men like Aquila, he had heard news. It wasn't good news. It was news about the church he had started in Corinth a couple of years earlier.
Paul was trying to compose himself and write a letter to the people in the church at Corinth. But every time he started to write, his blood would make his face flush with heat and his nostrils flare. He would slam the quill down and launch out of his chair. "You write; I'll dictate," he'd demand of Priscilla, pointing to the scroll. "I've ruined too much papyrus already." Priscilla would sit in the chair, and then Paul would demand, "No, get up; I'll write!" Up and down, they traded positions, not getting a word written, until finally, Paul with his back against the stonewall of the room, slowly slid to the floor and buried his face in his hands.
The church at Corinth had become Paul's problem child among all his church children. They were irreverent. They were selfish and self-centered. They were personality worshippers. They ruled by their emotionalism, rather than patient reflection. They were gluttons. They were sexually promiscuous. They were insensitive to each other's needs. They had one foot in the old ways of Corinthian society, the other foot lightly touched down upon their new faith in Christ. They weren't sure on which of those feet they really wanted to put their full weight. In a word, they were a mess.
The one question Paul felt he had to answer for them was, "Does the Gospel of Jesus Christ have the power to change lives or not?" Can the power of Christ overpower and subdue the power Corinthian society was exerting on the new church? Once the people in the church had made a decision for Christ, the sabotage and allurement of the Corinthian way of life was ever in their face.
Paul began to remember the first day he had come to Corinth. He was on the third leg of his second journey to take the gospel to the Gentile world. He had just sailed down the Greek coastland from Athens. Paul had heard stories about Corinth, but none of them prepared him for what he saw. Landing at the narrow neck of land upon which Corinth was built, Paul remembered standing at one of the grand gates of the city. His mouth was gaping as ships went by in both directions, being rolled on logs so they wouldn't have to sail around the treacherous southern cape of Greece.
Corinth's position made it the main city on the north-south, and east-west trade routes. It had become one of the most important cities in the Roman empire, second only to Rome itself. Paul walked up and down the well-kept avenues that led to the main buildings of the city, mostly built by various Roman emperors. There was the Agora, a huge central marketplace with shops selling anything (and I mean anything) you would want from all over the world.
Paul gawked at the Baths of Eurykles; the Peirene Fountain; the Basilica honoring Emperor Julian; the theatre, unlike any theatre in the empire; the starting blocks for the races of Olympic games; the impressive temple of the Greek god Apollo, with 38 Doric columns, each 24 feet high.
And there was the temple of Aphrodite, goddess of love, which employed nearly a thousand temple prostitutes who would work their profession in the streets of Corinth, all in the name of their religion. Along with prostitution, Paul had no problem recognizing the signs of moral depravity. Gross immorality seemed to be the acceptable way of life in Corinth. There was a reason there was a saying, "Live like a Corinthian," and the reason wasn't a good one.
Paul remembered standing on the roof of the Julian Basilica, looking down upon the press of people in the marketplace below, and suddenly having a great deal of sympathy for the prophet Jonah. Jumping on one of those ships rolling by, and sailing in the opposite direction from that city was becoming and entertaining option.
But as he looked down upon the din of activity, he also remembered who he was: an apostle. He was a messenger. He was called by the will of God to bring the message to whomever, wherever, whenever. And he also knew, as he looked over all the faces in the crowd, that those were people whom God loved, people whom God wanted to be believers, people Christ wanted in his family. Done watching, Paul climbed down from the roof and got to work.
Now, it was a couple of years later. The Christian church at Corinth was being eroded away around the edges as Corinthian ways exerted their influence. Instead of trying to stay distinct from Corinthian society, the believers in the church were finding creative ways to be both Corinthian and Christian. Instead of giving up either, they were, in dangerous ways, blending the two. The blend was creating a watered down gospel, robbing it of its power to effect the people's lives on a deep and sustaining level.
If you think the ways of Corinth are dead, just look around at American culture. All the powers of nationalistic bravado, consumerism, capitalism, counterfeit sexuality, the media, and unbelievably out-of-whack priorities—all that is mixed up in the pot with the thick broth of denial, blame, and depression. It's served up over ice, and people drink from it on a daily basis. Christians in America are constantly trying to do the same thing the Corinthian Christians did: mix their faith with a strong dose of the cultural elixir, thinking it won't do any harm.
So Paul sat down to write a fiery letter to the church at Corinth, and by so doing banked it off Corinth for a knock on the American church a couple of thousand years later. If you are going to be a Christian, it means you have to be different from those around you, Paul wrote. Those differences have to be shown in two distinct areas of your lives. First, in the way you speak; and, secondly, in the way you understand things.
In terms of speaking, Paul uses a word that means, basically, "When you talk, use pregnant words, as opposed to empty words." Use words that give birth, that produce life, not just a bunch of emptiness or gossip strung together as mindless chatter.
Consider this. The Lord's Prayer contains 56 words. The Ten Commandments have 296 words. The Gettysburg Address has 266 words. And a recent U.S. Government order setting the price of cabbage has 26,911 words.
Our American culture, indeed our world, is full of words. We have probably not seen a time in the history of humanity where we have been awash in so many words. But so much of society's words have so little to say. For the Christian, Paul is demanding that we not add to the emptiness of our culture with so much verbiage with so little power of God in it.
We don't want to be like the preacher who was rushed to the hospital after collapsing in the middle of his sermon. The nurse, fresh out of nursing school, accidentally put a barometer in his mouth instead of a thermometer. When she went to check for a reading it said, "Dry and windy."
For Christians, our words must be pregnant words, gospel words, which carry in them the power of the Cross, the wonder of the Resurrection, the attractiveness of Grace, the influence of Life, and the punch of truth. Paul is telling us, via the Corinthians, the importance and difference Godly speaking can and should make.
Secondly, along with gospel-filled words, Paul told the Corinthian Christians that the way they understand things must be distinct from the culture around them.
John Naisbitt, author of the popular book, Megatrends, wrote that, "We are drowning in information, but starved for knowledge." I think that is part of what Paul may have been trying to say. Just like words, we are awash in information, but who is doing the serious reflection about all that information? Who is doing the thinking and pondering and praying over all that information, helping us find our way through it, deciding what is important for our knowledge, and what is just plain trash? Paul is saying to the Corinthians (and we need to pay attention) that Christians are supposed to be the kinds of people who are doing that serious reflection and guiding people toward useful, life-filled knowledge.
In the Peanuts cartoon, Lucy is pointing to a bug on the sidewalk and telling her brother Linus, "Look at this tiny, little bug. It's appalling how little he knows. He's not like us. He doesn't know anything about voting or disease or earthquakes or love or Monday mornings!!"
Linus looked at her and insightfully asked, "Who's better off?"
Those are the kinds of questions Christians need to be offering up to the world as we are getting buried under an internet full of so-called information. If you know this or that tidbit of information, are you really better off? If you've watched this or that YouTube video, are you any cooler? And if not, then what is it you really need to know?
For Paul, as he writes to the Corinthian church, what you really need to know is the message about Christ. All that will matter in the end is that one thing. If you know the message of Christ, you will not fail to receive a single blessing from God, says Paul. If you want to know how to live in this life, and if you want assurance for the afterlife, then the gospel of Christ is all you need to know, take into yourself, and live out all your days.
Mark Twain once described a man he had met by saying, "He knows so little and he knows it so fluently." That statement, though funny in its bite, can be taken a couple of ways. Certainly it can be taken as Twain meant it, that the man he was talking about was ignorant about just about everything, but spoke as if he knew it all.
But in another way, it could be a statement that aptly describes a Christian. We may not know a lot of things, but as believers we know the most important thing—the gospel of Jesus Christ—and we better know it fluently. That's what sets us apart from the crowd and from our culture.
In the next few weeks I will continue looking at Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, getting a sense of what kind of difference being a Christian makes.
1 Corinthians 1:1-9
Paul sat at a tiny desk in the home of Priscilla. She and her husband, Aquila, were there in the room with him, trying to offer their support. Paul was clearly frustrated. While in Ephesus, preaching and teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, establishing a church with the help of women like Priscilla and men like Aquila, he had heard news. It wasn't good news. It was news about the church he had started in Corinth a couple of years earlier.
Paul was trying to compose himself and write a letter to the people in the church at Corinth. But every time he started to write, his blood would make his face flush with heat and his nostrils flare. He would slam the quill down and launch out of his chair. "You write; I'll dictate," he'd demand of Priscilla, pointing to the scroll. "I've ruined too much papyrus already." Priscilla would sit in the chair, and then Paul would demand, "No, get up; I'll write!" Up and down, they traded positions, not getting a word written, until finally, Paul with his back against the stonewall of the room, slowly slid to the floor and buried his face in his hands.
The church at Corinth had become Paul's problem child among all his church children. They were irreverent. They were selfish and self-centered. They were personality worshippers. They ruled by their emotionalism, rather than patient reflection. They were gluttons. They were sexually promiscuous. They were insensitive to each other's needs. They had one foot in the old ways of Corinthian society, the other foot lightly touched down upon their new faith in Christ. They weren't sure on which of those feet they really wanted to put their full weight. In a word, they were a mess.
The one question Paul felt he had to answer for them was, "Does the Gospel of Jesus Christ have the power to change lives or not?" Can the power of Christ overpower and subdue the power Corinthian society was exerting on the new church? Once the people in the church had made a decision for Christ, the sabotage and allurement of the Corinthian way of life was ever in their face.
Paul began to remember the first day he had come to Corinth. He was on the third leg of his second journey to take the gospel to the Gentile world. He had just sailed down the Greek coastland from Athens. Paul had heard stories about Corinth, but none of them prepared him for what he saw. Landing at the narrow neck of land upon which Corinth was built, Paul remembered standing at one of the grand gates of the city. His mouth was gaping as ships went by in both directions, being rolled on logs so they wouldn't have to sail around the treacherous southern cape of Greece.
Corinth's position made it the main city on the north-south, and east-west trade routes. It had become one of the most important cities in the Roman empire, second only to Rome itself. Paul walked up and down the well-kept avenues that led to the main buildings of the city, mostly built by various Roman emperors. There was the Agora, a huge central marketplace with shops selling anything (and I mean anything) you would want from all over the world.
Paul gawked at the Baths of Eurykles; the Peirene Fountain; the Basilica honoring Emperor Julian; the theatre, unlike any theatre in the empire; the starting blocks for the races of Olympic games; the impressive temple of the Greek god Apollo, with 38 Doric columns, each 24 feet high.
And there was the temple of Aphrodite, goddess of love, which employed nearly a thousand temple prostitutes who would work their profession in the streets of Corinth, all in the name of their religion. Along with prostitution, Paul had no problem recognizing the signs of moral depravity. Gross immorality seemed to be the acceptable way of life in Corinth. There was a reason there was a saying, "Live like a Corinthian," and the reason wasn't a good one.
Paul remembered standing on the roof of the Julian Basilica, looking down upon the press of people in the marketplace below, and suddenly having a great deal of sympathy for the prophet Jonah. Jumping on one of those ships rolling by, and sailing in the opposite direction from that city was becoming and entertaining option.
But as he looked down upon the din of activity, he also remembered who he was: an apostle. He was a messenger. He was called by the will of God to bring the message to whomever, wherever, whenever. And he also knew, as he looked over all the faces in the crowd, that those were people whom God loved, people whom God wanted to be believers, people Christ wanted in his family. Done watching, Paul climbed down from the roof and got to work.
Now, it was a couple of years later. The Christian church at Corinth was being eroded away around the edges as Corinthian ways exerted their influence. Instead of trying to stay distinct from Corinthian society, the believers in the church were finding creative ways to be both Corinthian and Christian. Instead of giving up either, they were, in dangerous ways, blending the two. The blend was creating a watered down gospel, robbing it of its power to effect the people's lives on a deep and sustaining level.
If you think the ways of Corinth are dead, just look around at American culture. All the powers of nationalistic bravado, consumerism, capitalism, counterfeit sexuality, the media, and unbelievably out-of-whack priorities—all that is mixed up in the pot with the thick broth of denial, blame, and depression. It's served up over ice, and people drink from it on a daily basis. Christians in America are constantly trying to do the same thing the Corinthian Christians did: mix their faith with a strong dose of the cultural elixir, thinking it won't do any harm.
So Paul sat down to write a fiery letter to the church at Corinth, and by so doing banked it off Corinth for a knock on the American church a couple of thousand years later. If you are going to be a Christian, it means you have to be different from those around you, Paul wrote. Those differences have to be shown in two distinct areas of your lives. First, in the way you speak; and, secondly, in the way you understand things.
In terms of speaking, Paul uses a word that means, basically, "When you talk, use pregnant words, as opposed to empty words." Use words that give birth, that produce life, not just a bunch of emptiness or gossip strung together as mindless chatter.
Consider this. The Lord's Prayer contains 56 words. The Ten Commandments have 296 words. The Gettysburg Address has 266 words. And a recent U.S. Government order setting the price of cabbage has 26,911 words.
Our American culture, indeed our world, is full of words. We have probably not seen a time in the history of humanity where we have been awash in so many words. But so much of society's words have so little to say. For the Christian, Paul is demanding that we not add to the emptiness of our culture with so much verbiage with so little power of God in it.
We don't want to be like the preacher who was rushed to the hospital after collapsing in the middle of his sermon. The nurse, fresh out of nursing school, accidentally put a barometer in his mouth instead of a thermometer. When she went to check for a reading it said, "Dry and windy."
For Christians, our words must be pregnant words, gospel words, which carry in them the power of the Cross, the wonder of the Resurrection, the attractiveness of Grace, the influence of Life, and the punch of truth. Paul is telling us, via the Corinthians, the importance and difference Godly speaking can and should make.
Secondly, along with gospel-filled words, Paul told the Corinthian Christians that the way they understand things must be distinct from the culture around them.
John Naisbitt, author of the popular book, Megatrends, wrote that, "We are drowning in information, but starved for knowledge." I think that is part of what Paul may have been trying to say. Just like words, we are awash in information, but who is doing the serious reflection about all that information? Who is doing the thinking and pondering and praying over all that information, helping us find our way through it, deciding what is important for our knowledge, and what is just plain trash? Paul is saying to the Corinthians (and we need to pay attention) that Christians are supposed to be the kinds of people who are doing that serious reflection and guiding people toward useful, life-filled knowledge.
In the Peanuts cartoon, Lucy is pointing to a bug on the sidewalk and telling her brother Linus, "Look at this tiny, little bug. It's appalling how little he knows. He's not like us. He doesn't know anything about voting or disease or earthquakes or love or Monday mornings!!"
Linus looked at her and insightfully asked, "Who's better off?"
Those are the kinds of questions Christians need to be offering up to the world as we are getting buried under an internet full of so-called information. If you know this or that tidbit of information, are you really better off? If you've watched this or that YouTube video, are you any cooler? And if not, then what is it you really need to know?
For Paul, as he writes to the Corinthian church, what you really need to know is the message about Christ. All that will matter in the end is that one thing. If you know the message of Christ, you will not fail to receive a single blessing from God, says Paul. If you want to know how to live in this life, and if you want assurance for the afterlife, then the gospel of Christ is all you need to know, take into yourself, and live out all your days.
Mark Twain once described a man he had met by saying, "He knows so little and he knows it so fluently." That statement, though funny in its bite, can be taken a couple of ways. Certainly it can be taken as Twain meant it, that the man he was talking about was ignorant about just about everything, but spoke as if he knew it all.
But in another way, it could be a statement that aptly describes a Christian. We may not know a lot of things, but as believers we know the most important thing—the gospel of Jesus Christ—and we better know it fluently. That's what sets us apart from the crowd and from our culture.
In the next few weeks I will continue looking at Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, getting a sense of what kind of difference being a Christian makes.
Sunday, January 8, 2017
An Ant, A Bee, And Man
"An Ant, A Bee, And Man"
Isaiah 42:1-9
A fellow minister stood up in his pulpit one Sunday and started his sermon by saying,
One of the unquenchable truths about our world is that we are all going to die. It just so happens that some of you may already be dead. It's just that we won't get around to burying you for 20 years or more.
The point he was making in his sermon was that there is a lot more to being alive than just walking around in an upright position, or breathing, or being able to keep your eyes open at the appropriate times. There has to be something else. Something not in the way of physical activity, although that's important. But something intangible, yet very real.
I think the best word I can think of that can act like a peg on which I'll hang everything else I have to say this morning—that word is "purpose." Purpose. That intangible reality, that strategic ingredient that must be in the recipe of everyone's life in order for there to be life, must be purpose.
The problem is, so few know their purpose. So few have a purpose. Too many live life without purpose. One motivational speaker once said, "You've removed most of the roadblocks to success when you've learned the difference between motion and direction." So many go through the motions of life, but have no idea what direction their lives should be taking. "Life," whatever that is, is making the decisions for them about their direction. This happens not just for young people, but to all of us at different stages of life, such as when parents get to the "empty nest," or at the time of retirement. At those times you have to define, again, your direction and purpose, not just be in motion.
The most basic questions about individual purpose are attempted to being answered in flurries of activity and motion. You go no where and in the end accomplish little. Or, more importantly, such busy, busy, busy-ness doesn't give a person a sense of accomplishment in life. That kind of busy activity doesn't allow a person to look back on their lives in any measure of time and feel a sense of fulfillment about the purpose they served.
Dr. Will Menninger of the Menninger Clinic in Topeka once wrote,
It is so easy just to drift along. Some people go through school as if they thought they were doing their families a favor. On a job, they work a long in a humdrum way, interested only in their paycheck. They don't have (purpose). When anyone crosses them up, they take their marbles and walk out. The people who go places and do things make the most of every situation. They are ready for the next thing that comes along on the road to fulfilling their purpose. They know what they want and are willing to go an extra mile.
At our "Grow the Church" team meeting this past week, I asked the team to watch a You Tube video that was a talk about millennials—that generation of people born after 1985. In the "Vivid Vision" the team wrote at the start of our process, we decided we wanted to grow our congregation with a percentage of millennials. So we better know who we're talking about.
In the talk, the speaker said most millennials want to have a purpose, they want to make a difference, they want to have an impact on their world. But the reality is, this generation has the least joy of any generation. I would define joy as the fulfillment of having made an impact, of making a difference. Instead of joy, when asked how their lives are going, millennials simply say, "Fine." But it's different than when most of us reply, "fine." It's more like the millennial generation is fine with fine. Even though they want to make a difference, if they aren't, that's "fine."
Somehow, we in the church need to help the millennial generation realize fine is not fine. That we are ready to stand by them and work with them to have the kind of impact on the world they dream about. To fulfill a purpose that makes life good, and joy-full.
The trouble is, that as humans, unlike the animals, we have choices as to purpose. The ant knows its purpose. It is instinctually born into it. Build the anthill. Gather food. Protect the queen and her eggs. The same is true for bees. Build a hive. Collect pollen. Protect the queen.
Ants, bees and all other animals don't have to bother with the big existential problems of purpose and meaning we humans face. Only people are confused about his or her purpose. We all live under the same sky, but as humans we don't all have the same horizon. Therein lies the trouble. There are so many purposes in life we could choose. (Vanessa wanting to be a doctor, but what kind of doctor?) But we get so easily overwhelmed with the enormity of choices we could make, and thereby make no choice at all. We settle with, "fine."
When Jesus rose up out of the waters of baptism, he had a purpose. He knew what it was. He saw the Spirit of God descending, he heard the Voice and everything was clear. The same statement that is spoken to Jesus is also spoken by God in Isaiah read from chapter 42 earlier.
Most people expect that their purpose in life will be communicated to them in some way. That they won't find it within themselves, but that it will come from outside themselves—hopefully from God.
The Biblical story is consistent in presenting God as the one who speaks, and Israel or the Church as a people who listen. But how can you hear if you're not paying attention? If you're not listening? If you haven't for a long time?
It's important to realize if you are feeling purposeless, and if you are waiting for God's Voice to speak, those who hear God's Voice have taken the time to develop a real and intimate relationship with God. What they hear comes out of that relationship, not out of the blue.
What can you expect to hear, in terms of your purpose from God? Specifically, I can't really say. Generally, based on my experience and that of others with whom I have talked, I think there are a couple of things you can expect.
First, you will hear that you will have to make choices and concentrate yourself and your efforts. Discovering purpose means coming to terms with the fact that you can't divide yourself amongst many purposes. Divided concentration will never bring one to a sense of accomplishment as does a single-minded purpose.
In Isaiah 42, God says of the special Servant:
…he will make sure
that justice is done.
He won't quit or give up
until he brings justice
everywhere on earth. (vs. 3-4)
Notice the single-minded mission that creates the purpose in the Servant's life. "Bringing justice" is that single minded mission. Because the Servant is single-minded in that mission, he will be able to have a global impact. Things will happen.
In the Peanuts comic strip, Lucy demanded that Linus change TV channels, threatening him if he didn't.
"What makes you think you can walk right in here and take over?" asks Linus.
"These five fingers," says Lucy. "Individually they're nothing. But when I curl them together like this into a single unit, they form a weapon that is terrible to behold."
"Which channel do you want?" Linus stuttered.
Turning away, he looks at his fingers and says, "Why can't you guys get organized like that?"
Purpose can be an effective power in life if there is a sense of cohesive singularity about it. Purpose is hard to find when there are a lot of little purposes all clamoring for attention, or going in several different directions. Dwight L. Moody once said, "I'd rather have a man who says, 'This one thing I do', rather than, 'These hundred things I dabble with.'"
But there is a grief process involved here. Some purposes, around which we would like to build our lives, which may be noble in their own right, must be let go of in order to pursue a singular purpose. There is grief in coming to terms with the fact that we can't do all the things we wish we could. (Back to Vanessa and her future choices.)
I was talking with Benton about this over Skype last month, when we were having one of our deep discussions. If you choose this purpose to give your life to, then that means you can't choose something else. By choosing this, you have excluded that. By grasping this as a noble purpose, you have to let go of your grasp of that as a noble purpose. There's where the grief process comes in. You end up grieving the loss of a choice you can no longer make. But you have to do that if you are going to concentrate on one, singular, noble purpose for you life. As the Lord's Servant chose: bringing justice everywhere on earth.
And the other thing I think you will hear from God about your purpose is that it will be action, outward, other oriented. God's purposes for people are not primarily for their own self-fulfillment.
At one point in this message to the Servant, God said, "…and I sent you to bring light and my promise of hope to the nations." Do you hear anything in there about the Servant finding his own self-fulfillment? The Servant is to be outward oriented to the nations (which is a code word for the other heathen, non-God believing people). Not only is God asking the Servant to be other oriented, but those others are people who have nothing to do with God. Doesn't sound very personally fulfilling, does it?
At another point in this message of God in Isaiah 42,
You will give sight to the blind;
you will set prisoners free
who sit in darkness.
One of the first times Jesus preached in a synagogue, he opened the scroll of Isaiah and read these very words. He told the people, "This is my purpose. I am that Servant whom God spoke about. This is the purpose to which I call all of you who want to follow me. To extend yourselves beyond yourself to meet the needs of others. To help people really see, and to set people free from their own self-imposed darkness." In other words, a self-centered purpose does not qualify as a noble purpose. Nor a Godly purpose.
What God promises is that you (yes, you) have the power to effect other people's lives in an eye opening, freeing, and releasing sort of way. The poet, Swinburne, had a line in one of his poems:
…sealed as the voice
of a frost bound stream.
It's a wonderful image. Image a running stream, but in winter time, the water is frozen over on the top so you can't hear the chattering of the water as it flows over the rocks, underneath that layer of ice. The "voice" of the stream is still there, but can't be heard because of the ice on the surface.
Just like this stream, so are many people's lives. Some kind of coldness covers the voice of their purpose. They need someone like you to start chipping away at the ice, so they and their greater purpose can be released and heard. You can free them from their frost-bound stream and help them move towards their singular, Godly purpose. Your purpose, given by God, will not be for yourself, but for others.
Isaiah 42:1-9
A fellow minister stood up in his pulpit one Sunday and started his sermon by saying,
One of the unquenchable truths about our world is that we are all going to die. It just so happens that some of you may already be dead. It's just that we won't get around to burying you for 20 years or more.
The point he was making in his sermon was that there is a lot more to being alive than just walking around in an upright position, or breathing, or being able to keep your eyes open at the appropriate times. There has to be something else. Something not in the way of physical activity, although that's important. But something intangible, yet very real.
I think the best word I can think of that can act like a peg on which I'll hang everything else I have to say this morning—that word is "purpose." Purpose. That intangible reality, that strategic ingredient that must be in the recipe of everyone's life in order for there to be life, must be purpose.
The problem is, so few know their purpose. So few have a purpose. Too many live life without purpose. One motivational speaker once said, "You've removed most of the roadblocks to success when you've learned the difference between motion and direction." So many go through the motions of life, but have no idea what direction their lives should be taking. "Life," whatever that is, is making the decisions for them about their direction. This happens not just for young people, but to all of us at different stages of life, such as when parents get to the "empty nest," or at the time of retirement. At those times you have to define, again, your direction and purpose, not just be in motion.
The most basic questions about individual purpose are attempted to being answered in flurries of activity and motion. You go no where and in the end accomplish little. Or, more importantly, such busy, busy, busy-ness doesn't give a person a sense of accomplishment in life. That kind of busy activity doesn't allow a person to look back on their lives in any measure of time and feel a sense of fulfillment about the purpose they served.
Dr. Will Menninger of the Menninger Clinic in Topeka once wrote,
It is so easy just to drift along. Some people go through school as if they thought they were doing their families a favor. On a job, they work a long in a humdrum way, interested only in their paycheck. They don't have (purpose). When anyone crosses them up, they take their marbles and walk out. The people who go places and do things make the most of every situation. They are ready for the next thing that comes along on the road to fulfilling their purpose. They know what they want and are willing to go an extra mile.
At our "Grow the Church" team meeting this past week, I asked the team to watch a You Tube video that was a talk about millennials—that generation of people born after 1985. In the "Vivid Vision" the team wrote at the start of our process, we decided we wanted to grow our congregation with a percentage of millennials. So we better know who we're talking about.
In the talk, the speaker said most millennials want to have a purpose, they want to make a difference, they want to have an impact on their world. But the reality is, this generation has the least joy of any generation. I would define joy as the fulfillment of having made an impact, of making a difference. Instead of joy, when asked how their lives are going, millennials simply say, "Fine." But it's different than when most of us reply, "fine." It's more like the millennial generation is fine with fine. Even though they want to make a difference, if they aren't, that's "fine."
Somehow, we in the church need to help the millennial generation realize fine is not fine. That we are ready to stand by them and work with them to have the kind of impact on the world they dream about. To fulfill a purpose that makes life good, and joy-full.
The trouble is, that as humans, unlike the animals, we have choices as to purpose. The ant knows its purpose. It is instinctually born into it. Build the anthill. Gather food. Protect the queen and her eggs. The same is true for bees. Build a hive. Collect pollen. Protect the queen.
Ants, bees and all other animals don't have to bother with the big existential problems of purpose and meaning we humans face. Only people are confused about his or her purpose. We all live under the same sky, but as humans we don't all have the same horizon. Therein lies the trouble. There are so many purposes in life we could choose. (Vanessa wanting to be a doctor, but what kind of doctor?) But we get so easily overwhelmed with the enormity of choices we could make, and thereby make no choice at all. We settle with, "fine."
When Jesus rose up out of the waters of baptism, he had a purpose. He knew what it was. He saw the Spirit of God descending, he heard the Voice and everything was clear. The same statement that is spoken to Jesus is also spoken by God in Isaiah read from chapter 42 earlier.
Most people expect that their purpose in life will be communicated to them in some way. That they won't find it within themselves, but that it will come from outside themselves—hopefully from God.
The Biblical story is consistent in presenting God as the one who speaks, and Israel or the Church as a people who listen. But how can you hear if you're not paying attention? If you're not listening? If you haven't for a long time?
It's important to realize if you are feeling purposeless, and if you are waiting for God's Voice to speak, those who hear God's Voice have taken the time to develop a real and intimate relationship with God. What they hear comes out of that relationship, not out of the blue.
What can you expect to hear, in terms of your purpose from God? Specifically, I can't really say. Generally, based on my experience and that of others with whom I have talked, I think there are a couple of things you can expect.
First, you will hear that you will have to make choices and concentrate yourself and your efforts. Discovering purpose means coming to terms with the fact that you can't divide yourself amongst many purposes. Divided concentration will never bring one to a sense of accomplishment as does a single-minded purpose.
In Isaiah 42, God says of the special Servant:
…he will make sure
that justice is done.
He won't quit or give up
until he brings justice
everywhere on earth. (vs. 3-4)
Notice the single-minded mission that creates the purpose in the Servant's life. "Bringing justice" is that single minded mission. Because the Servant is single-minded in that mission, he will be able to have a global impact. Things will happen.
In the Peanuts comic strip, Lucy demanded that Linus change TV channels, threatening him if he didn't.
"What makes you think you can walk right in here and take over?" asks Linus.
"These five fingers," says Lucy. "Individually they're nothing. But when I curl them together like this into a single unit, they form a weapon that is terrible to behold."
"Which channel do you want?" Linus stuttered.
Turning away, he looks at his fingers and says, "Why can't you guys get organized like that?"
Purpose can be an effective power in life if there is a sense of cohesive singularity about it. Purpose is hard to find when there are a lot of little purposes all clamoring for attention, or going in several different directions. Dwight L. Moody once said, "I'd rather have a man who says, 'This one thing I do', rather than, 'These hundred things I dabble with.'"
But there is a grief process involved here. Some purposes, around which we would like to build our lives, which may be noble in their own right, must be let go of in order to pursue a singular purpose. There is grief in coming to terms with the fact that we can't do all the things we wish we could. (Back to Vanessa and her future choices.)
I was talking with Benton about this over Skype last month, when we were having one of our deep discussions. If you choose this purpose to give your life to, then that means you can't choose something else. By choosing this, you have excluded that. By grasping this as a noble purpose, you have to let go of your grasp of that as a noble purpose. There's where the grief process comes in. You end up grieving the loss of a choice you can no longer make. But you have to do that if you are going to concentrate on one, singular, noble purpose for you life. As the Lord's Servant chose: bringing justice everywhere on earth.
And the other thing I think you will hear from God about your purpose is that it will be action, outward, other oriented. God's purposes for people are not primarily for their own self-fulfillment.
At one point in this message to the Servant, God said, "…and I sent you to bring light and my promise of hope to the nations." Do you hear anything in there about the Servant finding his own self-fulfillment? The Servant is to be outward oriented to the nations (which is a code word for the other heathen, non-God believing people). Not only is God asking the Servant to be other oriented, but those others are people who have nothing to do with God. Doesn't sound very personally fulfilling, does it?
At another point in this message of God in Isaiah 42,
You will give sight to the blind;
you will set prisoners free
who sit in darkness.
One of the first times Jesus preached in a synagogue, he opened the scroll of Isaiah and read these very words. He told the people, "This is my purpose. I am that Servant whom God spoke about. This is the purpose to which I call all of you who want to follow me. To extend yourselves beyond yourself to meet the needs of others. To help people really see, and to set people free from their own self-imposed darkness." In other words, a self-centered purpose does not qualify as a noble purpose. Nor a Godly purpose.
What God promises is that you (yes, you) have the power to effect other people's lives in an eye opening, freeing, and releasing sort of way. The poet, Swinburne, had a line in one of his poems:
…sealed as the voice
of a frost bound stream.
It's a wonderful image. Image a running stream, but in winter time, the water is frozen over on the top so you can't hear the chattering of the water as it flows over the rocks, underneath that layer of ice. The "voice" of the stream is still there, but can't be heard because of the ice on the surface.
Just like this stream, so are many people's lives. Some kind of coldness covers the voice of their purpose. They need someone like you to start chipping away at the ice, so they and their greater purpose can be released and heard. You can free them from their frost-bound stream and help them move towards their singular, Godly purpose. Your purpose, given by God, will not be for yourself, but for others.
Tuesday, January 3, 2017
Your Time Is Now
"Your Time Is Now"
(by Jennifer Barten)
Esther 4:14; Job 8:7
During Miss Kansas week, I had the opportunity to meet the CEO of the Miss America Organization and hear him speak twice. At each speaking event he said something that stuck with me.
During one speaking event, he met with Miss Kansas contestants and board members. At that time he told us to make two list. One with everything we like about ourselves and a second list with things we would like to improve about ourselves. He said to be brutally honest because no one would ever see this list but us. He then told us to pick one thing to work on improving from the side where we want to improve and once we feel that we have accomplished that starts on another item and that eventually we would become the person we want to be.
The other speaking event was on Thursday evening, which was just two days after my interview for this job. The one thing that stuck with me during his time speaking was when he spoke about how he became the CEO of the Miss America Organization. When he was asked, he was going to turn it down until his wife quoted the book of Ester asking him ‘what if you are here for such a time as this?’
As I said at the time I was two days past my interview for my current position here. I was obsessing over each question asked, how I answered the question and what I should have said.
The question I was just sure I screwed up the worst was someone had asked what part of the job I thought I would have the most issues with. I don't even remember what I said but after I answered Alan then said 'so you won't have issues preaching on Sunday if Steve is ever gone?' When Alan said that I said something about well I'm sure I can but I have nothing to say the congregation doesn't already know. You always do a great job Alan. Alan then talked about ANTS, which is an acronym for Automatic Negative Thoughts. Him giving me that talk during my interview, convinced me later that I said the exact wrong thing and that I wouldn't get the job.
Going into the interview, even though I was nervous and a little scared about it, I was pretty sure it was where God wanted me. I was sure enough that I had turned down another job just days before that I was more qualified for and was in my field.
After the interview though, as I said I let the negative thoughts work through me and the longer I waited for an answer, the more nervous I got.
On Thursday night though, hearing the CEO talk and him quoting Esters uncle, I knew if offered the job, my time was now.
Since that Thursday night in the Dennis Lesh Sports Arena, I have heard the verse said many times, in many different situations and I have realized God is telling me my time wasn't just then to take the job but that my time is NOW. Daily. As is yours. It is our time to be a better friend or family member, to be a volunteer, to step out of our comfort zone and do whatever it is God is calling us to do now.
For those of you who don't know the story of Esther, it is unknown who wrote it though, many believe Esther’s uncle, Mordici wrote it around 470 B.C.
Ester became queen to Xerxes of Persia in 464 B.C. after Xerxes has his first wife banished. Missing his wife, it is decided that a beauty contest, of sorts, will take place.
Esther, who was raised by her uncle had to go.
When they come to take her to the palace, Mordechai, a Jewish leader, insightfully instructs her not to reveal that she is a Jew or who her family is and after a lengthy process Esther is deemed the fairest of them all.
While Mordechai does not reveal his relationship to the new queen, he frequents the palace gates to hear news of Esther’s well being. One day he overhears two men plotting to murder the king and he quickly sends word to Esther, who reveals the plot to the king in the name of Mordechai. The plotters are caught and executed, and Mordechai ‘s name and deed are written in the king’s Book of Chronicles.
In the meantime, Xerxes appoints Haman as Prime Minister, who issues a decree that all should bow to him. Mordechai refuses to bow down before Haman.
Mordechai’s refusal infuriates Haman and so he goes to the King and asks for permission to destroy the Jews.
Mordechai quickly sends word to Esther that she must go to the king and stop this horrible decree from becoming reality. Esther, however, is afraid to approach the king. It is known that anyone who approaches the king without being summoned faces the chance of death. But Mordechai sees the bigger picture and tells Esther that maybe this is why she was put in this position and that her time is now.
Summoning all of her courage, Esther agrees to go to the king but she first asks Mordechai to request all the Jews to fast for three days and repent for their own sins while praying for the decree against them to be reversed.
After being granted to see the King she request dinner and eventually ask that the decree be lifted, which not only does the King agree to lift the decree but after reading the Book of Chronicles makes Mordechai the Prime Minister and hangs Haman.
There is so much more to this story and if you don’t know it, I suggest you read the Book of Esther. It is a quick read.
The story has many different lessons but in my opinion the heart of the story lies in these echoing words “Perhaps you have come to this place, to this moment, to these people, to this challenge, for just such a time as this.”
Since these words were said by Mordecai, many people have said words similar to help motivate people. Martin Luther King Jr. wanting equality, Susan B. Anthony when she was helping women gain the right to vote and so many more.
While you may never be a name everyone knows or fighting a law or discrimination, we can all be a change in the world.
When Mordechai first goes to Esther she doesn’t think she is has enough power to change the decree, even though she is queen she doesn’t have right to go to talk to her husband, unless she is called upon. It takes her gaining courage and strength to decide to stick up for what she knows is right, even though she knows she could die for doing it.
We’ve all had that moments like this. Where we know God is calling us to do something but we are afraid for some reason or another. The question is how did we respond? Did we respond with an open heart saying ‘Yes God! I am ready to serve’ or did we tentatively say ‘ok God if this isn’t too hard, I can help you.’ I know I’ve been both those people at some point.
We are all told to serve God and let him work in our lives. Allowing him to use the gifts and talents he has given us but sometimes that is more difficult than it sounds.
Along with it taking her courage, it also took her asking for help. She asked the people to pray and fast before she went to the King. We often think we can do things on our own and forget that we have many people in our lives willing to help. God put them in our lives for a reason. All we have to do is ask and they will tell us if their time to step up and help us is now.
Job knew better than most about his time being now, even though he didn't know what the situation was besides that he had lost everything. He had no idea that God told the devil, take everything from him and that Job will still worship and praise God.
After losing everything, Job did just that. He turned to God with an open heart and mind and said he was ready for a new beginning because he knew God would provide for him. And that is where we are at, a new beginning with the new year so open your heart and mind and ask God what you can do to walk like Job and Esther.
Maybe God won't say it's your time to face a king or prove to the devil that you will turn to God in all situations but will say that you should read the bible more or connect with an old friend or spend more time on you.
No matter what he says this new year remember that each of us has a purpose and that your time is now. Daily.
(by Jennifer Barten)
Esther 4:14; Job 8:7
During Miss Kansas week, I had the opportunity to meet the CEO of the Miss America Organization and hear him speak twice. At each speaking event he said something that stuck with me.
During one speaking event, he met with Miss Kansas contestants and board members. At that time he told us to make two list. One with everything we like about ourselves and a second list with things we would like to improve about ourselves. He said to be brutally honest because no one would ever see this list but us. He then told us to pick one thing to work on improving from the side where we want to improve and once we feel that we have accomplished that starts on another item and that eventually we would become the person we want to be.
The other speaking event was on Thursday evening, which was just two days after my interview for this job. The one thing that stuck with me during his time speaking was when he spoke about how he became the CEO of the Miss America Organization. When he was asked, he was going to turn it down until his wife quoted the book of Ester asking him ‘what if you are here for such a time as this?’
As I said at the time I was two days past my interview for my current position here. I was obsessing over each question asked, how I answered the question and what I should have said.
The question I was just sure I screwed up the worst was someone had asked what part of the job I thought I would have the most issues with. I don't even remember what I said but after I answered Alan then said 'so you won't have issues preaching on Sunday if Steve is ever gone?' When Alan said that I said something about well I'm sure I can but I have nothing to say the congregation doesn't already know. You always do a great job Alan. Alan then talked about ANTS, which is an acronym for Automatic Negative Thoughts. Him giving me that talk during my interview, convinced me later that I said the exact wrong thing and that I wouldn't get the job.
Going into the interview, even though I was nervous and a little scared about it, I was pretty sure it was where God wanted me. I was sure enough that I had turned down another job just days before that I was more qualified for and was in my field.
After the interview though, as I said I let the negative thoughts work through me and the longer I waited for an answer, the more nervous I got.
On Thursday night though, hearing the CEO talk and him quoting Esters uncle, I knew if offered the job, my time was now.
Since that Thursday night in the Dennis Lesh Sports Arena, I have heard the verse said many times, in many different situations and I have realized God is telling me my time wasn't just then to take the job but that my time is NOW. Daily. As is yours. It is our time to be a better friend or family member, to be a volunteer, to step out of our comfort zone and do whatever it is God is calling us to do now.
For those of you who don't know the story of Esther, it is unknown who wrote it though, many believe Esther’s uncle, Mordici wrote it around 470 B.C.
Ester became queen to Xerxes of Persia in 464 B.C. after Xerxes has his first wife banished. Missing his wife, it is decided that a beauty contest, of sorts, will take place.
Esther, who was raised by her uncle had to go.
When they come to take her to the palace, Mordechai, a Jewish leader, insightfully instructs her not to reveal that she is a Jew or who her family is and after a lengthy process Esther is deemed the fairest of them all.
While Mordechai does not reveal his relationship to the new queen, he frequents the palace gates to hear news of Esther’s well being. One day he overhears two men plotting to murder the king and he quickly sends word to Esther, who reveals the plot to the king in the name of Mordechai. The plotters are caught and executed, and Mordechai ‘s name and deed are written in the king’s Book of Chronicles.
In the meantime, Xerxes appoints Haman as Prime Minister, who issues a decree that all should bow to him. Mordechai refuses to bow down before Haman.
Mordechai’s refusal infuriates Haman and so he goes to the King and asks for permission to destroy the Jews.
Mordechai quickly sends word to Esther that she must go to the king and stop this horrible decree from becoming reality. Esther, however, is afraid to approach the king. It is known that anyone who approaches the king without being summoned faces the chance of death. But Mordechai sees the bigger picture and tells Esther that maybe this is why she was put in this position and that her time is now.
Summoning all of her courage, Esther agrees to go to the king but she first asks Mordechai to request all the Jews to fast for three days and repent for their own sins while praying for the decree against them to be reversed.
After being granted to see the King she request dinner and eventually ask that the decree be lifted, which not only does the King agree to lift the decree but after reading the Book of Chronicles makes Mordechai the Prime Minister and hangs Haman.
There is so much more to this story and if you don’t know it, I suggest you read the Book of Esther. It is a quick read.
The story has many different lessons but in my opinion the heart of the story lies in these echoing words “Perhaps you have come to this place, to this moment, to these people, to this challenge, for just such a time as this.”
Since these words were said by Mordecai, many people have said words similar to help motivate people. Martin Luther King Jr. wanting equality, Susan B. Anthony when she was helping women gain the right to vote and so many more.
While you may never be a name everyone knows or fighting a law or discrimination, we can all be a change in the world.
When Mordechai first goes to Esther she doesn’t think she is has enough power to change the decree, even though she is queen she doesn’t have right to go to talk to her husband, unless she is called upon. It takes her gaining courage and strength to decide to stick up for what she knows is right, even though she knows she could die for doing it.
We’ve all had that moments like this. Where we know God is calling us to do something but we are afraid for some reason or another. The question is how did we respond? Did we respond with an open heart saying ‘Yes God! I am ready to serve’ or did we tentatively say ‘ok God if this isn’t too hard, I can help you.’ I know I’ve been both those people at some point.
We are all told to serve God and let him work in our lives. Allowing him to use the gifts and talents he has given us but sometimes that is more difficult than it sounds.
Along with it taking her courage, it also took her asking for help. She asked the people to pray and fast before she went to the King. We often think we can do things on our own and forget that we have many people in our lives willing to help. God put them in our lives for a reason. All we have to do is ask and they will tell us if their time to step up and help us is now.
Job knew better than most about his time being now, even though he didn't know what the situation was besides that he had lost everything. He had no idea that God told the devil, take everything from him and that Job will still worship and praise God.
After losing everything, Job did just that. He turned to God with an open heart and mind and said he was ready for a new beginning because he knew God would provide for him. And that is where we are at, a new beginning with the new year so open your heart and mind and ask God what you can do to walk like Job and Esther.
Maybe God won't say it's your time to face a king or prove to the devil that you will turn to God in all situations but will say that you should read the bible more or connect with an old friend or spend more time on you.
No matter what he says this new year remember that each of us has a purpose and that your time is now. Daily.
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