tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52184106608524623712024-02-08T07:00:53.659-08:00MusingsKen Sipleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05618147995505225257noreply@blogger.comBlogger421125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5218410660852462371.post-17048609841379527722021-02-21T14:03:00.001-08:002021-02-21T14:03:06.389-08:00The Pause That Refreshes<p> </p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The
Pause that Refreshes<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Genesis
31:49<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Dear Readers,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In 2008 (as best I can remember) I began writing a column
for the Tunica Times, a weekly newspaper published in Tunica, Mississippi.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the time I was serving a church in that
town as interim pastor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I continued
writing the column until I moved to my current church, Graceland Christian (Disciples
of Christ) in Southaven, Mississippi.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
didn’t feel comfortable writing for a newspaper located in a town I no longer
had a direct connection with, so I switched to blogging.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve been doing this ever since, writing
every week unless we were out of town on vacation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For a while I even wrote then, until I figured
out that vacations were supposed to be a rest period from ordinary activities.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I’ve referred to this blog as my <i>therapy</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Writing is good for me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It helps me organize my thinking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve worked out a lot of my own theology by
sitting down each week at the computer and wrestling with a topic or a passage
of scripture to try to decide what I believe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I’m not sure I understand God any better than when I started writing,
but I feel more confident in many of my beliefs.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Recently this writing has become more of a chore than a
pleasure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s time for me to step away
for a while.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Some of you may remember the product for which the title
of this piece was once a slogan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I will
not mention that product in case using its name might involve copyright
infringement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This phrase represents my
thinking and feeling at this moment.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>How long will this pause last?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m not sure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It may be a week, or a month, or longer, even much longer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The simple answer is, I guess, until I feel
refreshed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This is not an easy decision, nor one quickly arrived
at.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve been considering this for a
while now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I will spend this week as I
do every week.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I write my first draft on
Monday or Tuesday, then review it each day for the rest of the week, making
changes, and, I hope, improving my work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Lately I’ve found myself putting off writing until Wednesday, a sign, I
think, that I need a rest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I’m writing this on Tuesday.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ll review it throughout the week.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If by Sunday I still believe this is the
right decision, I’ll publish it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If not,
I’ll make some excuse for not writing this week and begin again next Monday.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think that’s the fairest I can be to
myself.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This may come across as self-serving, and perhaps it
is.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But perhaps that’s all right.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One thing I’ve learned over the past year is
how wonderful retirement can be when I let go of things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think the lesson I’m learning is that
sometimes it’s okay to be self-serving, to let go of things and enjoy a slower
pace of life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At least that’s where my
thinking is right now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And so I press the <i>pause</i> button.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To you who have been with me on this journey,
thank you for your companionship and your attention.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i>May the Lord watch between thee and me while we are
absent from one another</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Ken Sipleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05618147995505225257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5218410660852462371.post-36523582794003198772021-02-14T13:47:00.003-08:002021-02-14T13:47:36.537-08:00The Unchanging Christ<p> </p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The
Unchanging Christ<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Hebrews
13:8<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“We are not the same persons this year as last; nor are
those we love.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a happy choice if
we, changing, continue to love a changed person.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(William Somerset Maugham)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This past year has brought about huge changes in
situations, in people, and, inevitably, in relationships.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We know that enforced—and necessary—isolation
has changed most of us in some way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some
of us have discovered skills and interests we never knew we had.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Others have found that being cut off from
friends and family has been disturbing, even depressing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some couples have found they had little in
common, or really didn’t like each other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Others have found their love for their partner becoming deeper and more
rewarding.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>My wife and I are fortunate to be in this last
category.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Time alone together—no escape
from each other—has brought us closer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We laugh more, enjoy each other’s company more, and generally get along
with each other better than ever.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are
grateful for the increased time we’ve spent together.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Maugham, writing more than half a century ago, could not
have anticipated how well his words applied to the challenges of this last
twelve months.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As correct as his
statement is for any place and any time, it is considerably more apt now than
when he wrote it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have proved the
correctness of his view of humanity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
any given year, under more or less <i>normal</i> circumstances, people
change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are not stagnant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Human growth and development is physical,
psychological, and emotional.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In a
situation of world-wide trauma, the changes deepen and widen. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>One of the humorous statements that has been making the
rounds is that getting dressed up these days means putting on clean sweatpants
and sweatshirts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our church’s clothes
closet, which freely gives donated clothing to anyone in need, has seen far
fewer clients in the past twelve months.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We’ve discussed this, and feel it is due both to people’s fear of being
around those they don’t know and a reduced need for new clothing.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In this season of increased change what a joy it is to
know that our God is unchanging.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
writer of Hebrews states it succinctly: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday,
and today and forever.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the church
where I grew up we sang a chorus that contained the line, <i>We may change but
Jesus never, glory to His name</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>As we read through the Bible we find the same loving,
caring, gracious, merciful God over, and over, and over again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have proven in our lives that even when we
fail God, God will never fail us.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Some changes that occur in us are for the better, but not
all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are times when we fall short
of the mark God has called us to.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When
this happens we can be sure that the God who created us, and who loves us,
understands and forgives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We will never
exhaust God’s grace.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>We know that the pandemic which has attacked humankind so
thoroughly and so cruelly has not yet reached its end.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We know there are days, and weeks, and
months—perhaps even years ahead of us before we can conquer this virus and
bring it under control.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We know that
long after that point is reached changes will continue to happen in us
physically, psychologically, and emotionally.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Some of our families have been changed forever because loved ones have
been lost.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Praise God that in the midst of all these changes, past
present and future, we serve a God who will not change, a God who will remain
faithful, merciful, and <i>grace-full</i> in the years ahead.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our God—our Savior—is the same yesterday, and
today and forever.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Glory to His name.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Ken Sipleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05618147995505225257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5218410660852462371.post-39465677602887565572021-02-07T13:53:00.002-08:002021-02-07T13:53:21.766-08:00Open Hearts, Open Hands<p> </p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Open
Hearts, Open Hands<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Leviticus
15:7-11<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“The test of a democracy is not the magnificence of
buildings or the speed of automobiles, or the efficiency of air transportation,
but rather the care given to the welfare of all the people.” (Helen Adams Keller)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>During Jesus’ final visit to Jerusalem, when he would be
tried and executed, he affirmed the lack of importance of buildings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Israel was not a democracy, and Jesus said
nothing about automobiles or airplanes, but he had plenty to say about buildings.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jesus was leaving the temple at the end of the day when
his disciples commented on the beauty and seeming permanence of the
buildings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s good to remember that
the temple grounds covered about thirty-five acres and contained multiple
buildings.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In answer, Jesus said, “You see all of these, do you
not?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Truly I tell you, there will not be
left one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.” (Matthew 24:1-2)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In A.D. 70 Jesus’ words came true when Rome crushed a Jewish
rebellion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As part of the retribution,
the temple was completely destroyed and has never been rebuilt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jerusalem itself was decimated, and the
remaining revolutionaries were massacred.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>A government does not consist of buildings anymore than a
family consists of a house.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Buildings
are important for carrying on the work of a government, but they are not essential.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nor are the latest technological advances so
important that they cannot be done without.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>What is important in any government is people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Without people, no government—no nation.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Democracies are not the most efficient forms of
government.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Dictatorships are much
better at getting work done.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
dictator issues the orders, and the workers carry them out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Democracies, on the other hand, are supposed to be
compassionate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this country we have
just seen what happens when a less-than-compassionate pseudo-dictator is in
charge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The people who suffer the most
are those who can least afford to suffer—the poor, the underclass, the ones who
have the most difficult time finding justice and equality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Keller’s words remind us that these are the people who
most need protection, encouragement, and assistance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Only as the welfare of those on the lowest rungs
of society is respected and achieved can all people secure the rights of life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Our Pledge of Allegiance ends with the words, “With liberty and justice
for all.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Keller reminds us how
important these words are, especially the final two:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i>for all</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>God understood the need to care for all people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the wilderness God made sure the poor
would receive liberty and justice as the nation of Israel was being
formed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God wanted to assure that there
would be no systemic poverty; so we have the words of Leviticus 15:7-11.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>If a person became poor, his neighbors were not to ignore
his condition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead, his <i>brothers</i>—those
who resided in the same town, not just members of his family—were to open their
hearts and their hands to help.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The mechanism
for this help was the Sabbatical Year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Every seven years all debts were cancelled.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Debtors had the chance to begin over with a
clean slate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If someone needed help to
get back on his feet again, his neighbors were to willingly provide.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The troubles of one generation were not to be
visited upon the next generation.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Can we observe this law as stated in Leviticus?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With the complexity of our economy, probably
not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Should we find a way to enact the
principle and so do away with generational poverty?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Absolutely!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>God has spoken, and we must obey.<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></p>Ken Sipleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05618147995505225257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5218410660852462371.post-62078172214372844622021-01-31T14:02:00.003-08:002021-01-31T14:02:34.563-08:00America's Caste System<p> </p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">America’s
Caste System<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Luke
22:24-27<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In her book <i>Caste:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The Origins of Our Discontent</i>,<i> </i>Isabel Wilkerson tells of a
1959 visit to India by Coretta and Martin Luther King, Jr.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The visit occurred shortly after the
Montgomery bus boycott.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Reverend King
had long dreamed of visiting the land where Mohandas Gandhi had led the
nonviolent protest that brought India its freedom from British rule.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>King was an admirer of Gandhi and his
methods.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The Kings were welcomed with open arms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru invited them
to stay for a full month, during which they were able to see much of the
country.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>King was especially interested
in seeing the Dalits—the Untouchables, who occupied the lowest level in the
Indian caste system.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In the city of Trivandrum the Kings visited a high school
where the students were from the Untouchable caste.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The principal introduced Reverend King by
saying, “Young people, I would like to present to you a fellow untouchable from
the United States of America.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>King was surprised.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He had never thought of himself as an untouchable, and was disturbed by
the introduction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He did not see a
connection between himself and the Indian caste system.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He said, “I was a bit shocked and peeved that
I would be referred to as an untouchable.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Then he thought of the lives of the people he was
fighting for, those he wanted to see raised from the lowest rank in American
society.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He realized, “Yes, I am an
untouchable, and every Negro in the United States of America is an untouchable.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He realized that America had imposed its own
caste system on its people, that he was living under that system, and had been
his whole life.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>How easy it is for us to fall into the trap of caste, to
consign people to a level of society based on the color of their skin, their
income, the work they do, their religion, or other factors that should not determine
their place in society.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There’s a
wonderful line from the musical <i>My Fair Lady</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Professor Henry Higgins sings:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">An Englishman’s
way of speaking absolutely classifies him,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The moment he talks he makes some
other Englishman despise him. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Whether it’s speech, or dress, or walk, or the music one
listens to, or some other characteristic, we label people, categorize them, and
dismiss them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Job done.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That one’s taken care of.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We know precisely where to place her in the
pecking order—what <i>caste</i> she fits into.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jesus had a different idea of caste.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First, like his Father, he believed in
complete equality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No one person was
greater than any other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In Matthew
(11:11) Jesus says, “Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has
arisen no one greater than John the Baptist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That creates a completely level playing
field.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In Luke (22:24-27) Jesus goes further.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His disciples argue over who will be greatest
in the kingdom of God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus tells them
that the greatest will be the one who serves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Since there was no difference in the first century between servants and
slaves, he is telling his followers that to succeed they must become
slaves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus points to himself as the
example.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He did not, as he says
elsewhere, come to be served but to serve.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Perhaps we in America need to study this concept
further.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps we should redefine our
caste system.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps there should be no
untouchables, because the ground is level at the foot of the cross, and through
that cross God has touched us all.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Ken Sipleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05618147995505225257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5218410660852462371.post-17497320173844710472021-01-24T13:43:00.002-08:002021-01-24T13:43:22.327-08:00We Need a New Myth<p> </p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We
Need a New Myth<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Acts
10:1-48<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In his book, <i>The Cry for Myth</i>, psychologist Rollo
May argues for the necessity of myth for the well-being of society.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In essence, he says we are only as good as
our myths.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Myths tell us who we are—who
we <i>ought </i>to be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If our myths are
positive, our society will have positive goals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If our myths are negative—or, worse, if we have lost our myths—society
is in for troubled times.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>For the past several years, America’s myths have been
troubled.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are myths of
divisiveness, of separation, of one group or class of people attempting to be
superior to other groups.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a result we
have, among other problems, protest groups turning to violence, resulting in
death and destruction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In words of one
kind or another we hear voices warning us that our society—our nation—will
disintegrate if we cannot find ways to overcome these divisions, ways of coming
together to achieve the <i>more perfect union</i> for which this nation was
founded.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>We cannot even find unity within the Christian
Church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In his prayer at the Last Supper
Jesus petitions his Father, “that they may all be one even as we are one;”
(John 17:21) that unity among Christ’s followers might mirror the unity he
shares with God the Father and the Holy Spirit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We are confronted daily with proof that we fall far short of that unity.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>John Donne, the seventeenth century English poet wrote:
“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent,
a part of the main;…any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in
mankind…”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Humanity is all of a piece.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have scientific proof.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Geneticists have shown that my chromosomal
makeup is essentially the same as every other person’s—over ninety percent the
same.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like the Christians who argue
vehemently—sometimes to the death—over tiny bits of dogma, so the human race
argues—sometimes to the death—over less than ten percent of our genetic makeup.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Peter had been raised to believe that every non-Jew in
the world was inferior—unclean.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He lived
his life accordingly, shunning all contact with Gentiles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus sent both a vision and a Roman
centurion to teach him otherwise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
words written in red in my Bible, Jesus says to Peter, “What God has made clean
do not call common.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Peter learned his
lesson, and as a result, Cornelius and his family became followers of Jesus
Christ.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>We need to reactivate the myth we created in 1776 when
Thomas Jefferson wrote, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men
are <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>created equal, that they are
endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life,
Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This myth says all of us are entitled to the same rights as each of us—no
exceptions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Peter, with the vision still
fresh in his mind, with Christ’s words still in his ears, stands before
Cornelius’ household and says, “Truly I understand that God shows no
partiality…”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Peter was referring to
God’s call to all people to become followers of Christ; but we know these words
apply to all areas of life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God shows no
partiality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are all God’s children,
all created by God, and all entitled to the same rights.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In the final chapter of his book, May writes about the
astronauts of Apollo 7, who saw the earth from a different angle than any human
had ever been able to experience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From
that distance, as they circled the earth, they could see no national
boundaries, no lines of division between countries or people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The earth, to them, was one unified
whole.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>May says that is the myth we need to adopt as our guiding
principle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are all one people,
connected by our humanity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>From God’s viewpoint all divisions disappear.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Ken Sipleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05618147995505225257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5218410660852462371.post-71522973751167341392021-01-17T13:02:00.003-08:002021-01-17T13:02:58.929-08:00A Winning Strategy<p> </p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">A
Winning Strategy<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Acts
26:1-29<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Today’s reading is much longer than those typically
chosen for a devotional.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Remember, no
time spent in Bible reading is ever wasted. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>First, a little background on this Scripture
passage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Paul has been arrested in Jerusalem after being accused (falsely)
of bringing Gentiles into restricted areas of the Temple.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The arresting officer has placed him in
protective custody for fear of what the incited Jews might do to him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Although he would have most likely been
released once tempers had cooled, he was accused by the Jewish leaders of
causing riots.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Paul was held to appear before Felix, the Roman
governor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Felix heard Paul speak several
times.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He did not release Paul, but kept
him imprisoned for two years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At that
time a new governor, Festus, was appointed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Paul appealed his case to Caesar, which was his right as a Roman
citizen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This meant further imprisonment
and further delays.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Finally, Paul appeared before the king, Agrippa, and made
his defense.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That defense is the subject
of today s reading.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Two responses to Paul’s appearances before Roman
officials are worth noting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The first
(Acts 24:25) is by Felix, who, on the occasion of their first meeting said to
Paul, “Go away for the present.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I
get an opportunity, I will summon you.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The second response is from Agrippa, who, after hearing
Paul’s defense says, “In a short time would you persuade me to be a Christian?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So says the translation in the English
Standard Version.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The King James Version
gives us a different slant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here Agrippa
says, “Paul, almost you persuade me to be a Christian.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>One day, Satan called all his minions together.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He said, “We’re losing the battle for human
souls.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s clear our present strategy
isn’t working.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We need fresh ideas.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>One devil spoke up: “We could tell them that this
Christianity business is all nonsense.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Satan said, “We’ve tried that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It doesn’t work.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Another devil said, “We could point out what a good time
they will have on earth if they follow us.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Satan said, “That hasn’t worked either.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Many suggestions were offered, and one by one Satan
discarded them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Finally, an old,
experienced devil said, “We could tell them just to wait awhile.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No hurry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They can enjoy life now and make a decision later.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Satan said, “That’s it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That’s the strategy that will work.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>We hear the same message when someone proposes sensible
gun control laws after a mass killing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>“This is not the time for knee-jerk responses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let people mourn awhile, then we can talk
about gun legislation.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But that time
never comes.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>We hear the same argument when many want to hold our
political leaders responsible for criminal actions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Now’s not the time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It will only inflame the country and lead to
more violence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let’s let things settle
down; Then we’ll study it.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But that
time never comes.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Felix says, “I’ll call you when I have more time.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Agrippa says, “You almost persuade me to be a Christian.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Too many people say, “Wait awhile.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No need to rush to judgment.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Satan says, “That’s the strategy that will help us win.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>Ken Sipleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05618147995505225257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5218410660852462371.post-48204323025181586512021-01-10T13:50:00.003-08:002021-01-10T13:50:44.050-08:00New and Improved<p> </p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">New
and Improved<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Isaiah43:15-21<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>There are certain Scripture passages I find myself
returning to often.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is one of
them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Every time I find myself back on
familiar ground I discover something new, something I haven’t seen before.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here I am again at Isaiah 43.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The words are the same, but like v. 19, I’m
finding a new thing.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The backstory for this passage is familiar.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Israel hasn’t kept covenant with God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God has allowed Assyria to invade the
northern kingdom and destroy it completely.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The southern kingdom—tiny Judea—didn’t learn from the experience, so
once again God allowed a nation to invade and conquer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This time it was Babylon, who destroyed
Jerusalem and the Temple, took Judea’s leaders captive, and caused many of the
people to scatter.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>God’s prophets, in some cases the same ones who foretold
doom and punishment, are now telling those in captivity that God will not be
angry forever.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is still a price to
be paid, a time of sorrow to be endured, but eventually, when the debt has been
satisfied, the people will return to their land.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The most encouraging of these prophets is Isaiah.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Things will get better, he says.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Conditions will improve.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Wait for it; it will happen.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Isaiah, speaking God’s words, reminds the people who God
is.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I am the Lord,” God says, “your
Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your king.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>God is the Holy One of Israel, the One to whom the people owe
thanksgiving for all their blessings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>God is their Creator, the One to whom they owe their very existence. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God is their King, the one to whom they owe
not merely obedience, but obeisance. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Then God promises them release from captivity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Forget about all that happened before,” God
says.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I’m going to do a new
thing—something you haven’t seen before.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>If God went no further than this we would have
encouraging words with which to begin the new year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This would be true of any year, but even more
so of the one just past.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Over the last
twelve months we have experienced a major health crisis as well as unprecedented
political upheaval, and increased racial tension.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How wonderful to hear from God, “Forget all
that, I’m doing something new.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How
welcome those words are!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>But God promises more.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>God tells the people that not only will they be going home, but the way
will be easy, unlike the Exodus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Israel had never forgotten their escape from Egypt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Throughout their history this was their
touchstone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God had led them out of
captivity—slavery—and taken them to the Promised Land.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the journey had been long, difficult,
exhausting, and had cost the lives of everyone who had been an adult when they
left Egypt.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Now God says, “Forget that journey.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Remember it as part of your history, of
course; but this time the trip will be much easier.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes, you must go through the wilderness, but
it won’t take you forty years, and you won’t have to eat manna and drink water
from a rock.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There will be streams in
the desert, running water for you to drink.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>You will have straight roads and enough food.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s beginning—do you see it?”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>New and improved.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>How often have we heard those words applied to a product that
manufacturers have tweaked a little—or not at all; perhaps just added a new ad
campaign.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But with God it’s really
true.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Things will be new—and improved.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God is doing a new thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God is always doing a new thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do you see it?<o:p></o:p></span></p>Ken Sipleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05618147995505225257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5218410660852462371.post-58112394606568921542020-12-27T12:42:00.002-08:002020-12-27T12:42:14.731-08:00How do we love?<p> </p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">How
Do We Love?<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">1
John 4:13-21<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Translating from one language to another is never
easy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are shades of meaning in one
language that might not occur in another.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Some languages have more than the one word available in others for an
idea or concept.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Local customs, cultural
norms—even weather—affect how language develops to meet the needs of the people
using it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This is true of the English word <i>love</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have only one word for that emotion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What kind of love, who or what the word
applies to, the breadth and/or depth of love must all be expressed through
context and modifying words.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But there’s
quite a difference, for example, between “I love apples,” and “I love my wife.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It may be difficult—in English—to express
that difference well.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Not true in Greek.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Greek has four words for love.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
kind of love, and, in most cases, the object of love becomes evident through
the word which is used.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i>Storge</i> is familial love such as a parent for a
child.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i>Philia</i> is love for a sibling, a cousin, or an extremely
close friend.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i>Eros</i> is romantic love—love for a spouse or
partner.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i>Agape</i> is the love originating from God for
humankind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It refers to the covenant of
love God has instituted with humans, and the reciprocal love of humans for God.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It is <i>agape</i> that I wish to focus on today.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The apostle John must have had a deep, loving
relationship with Jesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No other New
Testament writer speaks of love as much as he does.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We sense this in his gospel, which seems to
come from a different place and present a different Jesus than the other
three.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it is in his first letter
that love takes center stage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Almost from the opening verse of this letter we are aware
of the love he feels for those to whom he is writing: “My little children” he
calls them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The word <i>love</i> appears
so often it is almost a refrain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Love is
the focus of this letter.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>But what kind of love?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>“My little children” indicates <i>storge</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When John says (3:1) “See what kind of love
the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God, and so we
are,” <i>storge </i>fits perfectly—but not for the whole letter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His love for his fellow apostles might
indicate <i>philia, </i>but that doesn’t fit for the entire letter either.<i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i>Surely he cannot mean <i>eros</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>That leaves <i>agape</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In today’s reading (4:16b) John says, “God is love, and whoever abides
in love abides in God, and God abides in him.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><i>Agape</i> makes sense here, as it does in John 3:16: “For God so
loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should
not perish but have everlasting life.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i>Agape</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Self-giving love.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God gives of
himself for the good of humankind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We give
of ourselves to God to return his <i>agape</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We extend <i>agape</i> to those we encounter in our daily lives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We can use the phrase <i>love for neighbor</i>,
but only if we accept Jesus’ definition of neighbor as he illustrates it in the
parable of the Good Samaritan.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>When we share <i>agape </i>with God we become part of the
kingdom of God here and now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God’s realm
is alive and well right now, right here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It’s not in some far-off place, in some futuristic time, but here on
earth, in the present tense.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>See what <i>agape</i> God has given us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now we give <i>agape </i>to God, and to God’s
children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is how we must love.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Ken Sipleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05618147995505225257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5218410660852462371.post-14116497776644073222020-12-20T14:03:00.003-08:002020-12-20T14:03:14.790-08:00In the Beginning...the Word<p> </p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In
the Beginning…the Word<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">John1:1-14<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Much has been written about the beginning of John’s
gospel—the <i>prologue</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s a
stirring passage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have the good
fortune to read it every Christmas Eve in our service of lessons and
carols.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Traditionally, it is the final
reading in this service, and as pastor I have the privilege of sharing it with
our congregation.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This is John’s version of the birth story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He doesn’t go into detail as do Matthew and
Luke.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He doesn’t ignore it completely as
does Mark.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead, as John does with
other passages in his gospel, he reveals the concept behind the details.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Matthew tells the birth story from Joseph’s
perspective; Luke from Mary’s point of view.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>John tells it from the perspective of the results, the effects on those
who experienced the man Jesus Christ.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In John’s words we hear the echo of Proverbs 8, the beautiful
description of wisdom and wisdom’s part in creation.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills I
was brought forth, before he had made the earth with its fields, or the first
of the dust of the world.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Proverbs
8:25)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“He was in the beginning with God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All things were made through him, and without
him was not anything made that was made.” (John 1:2-3)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Christians look at John’s prologue and at Proverbs 8 and
say, “Well, of course the writer of Proverbs was talking about Jesus Christ!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That our Jewish brothers and sisters read it
differently demonstrates how open the Bible is for interpretation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It doesn’t necessarily mean one of us is
right and the other wrong.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It just means
we see this passage from different points of view.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>John wants us to see Jesus as Paul describes him in his
letter to the Philippians: “…who, though he was in the form of God, did not
count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking
the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.” (Philippians 2:6-7)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>John wants us to see the eternal Jesus, who existed
before creation—before the beginning of time, the Jesus Christ who is coequal
with God the Father.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is this Jesus,
the <i>Word</i> of God, who John describes so beautifully and poetically in
these verses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“In the beginning was the
Word, and the word was with God and the word <i>was</i> God.” (italics mine)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>John sees the Creator in Jesus Christ.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“All things were made through him…”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When God spoke, the Word was there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Let there be light,” God said.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>John says, “The true light, which enlightens
everyone, was coming into the world.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Matthew speaks briefly about the birth: “Now after Jesus
was born…”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Luke says, “And [Mary] gave
birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in
a manger…”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>John gives us the reason for
the birth: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us…”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Matthew and Luke give us a baby, the infant Jesus, wrapped
in bands of cloth and lying in a feeding trough.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We know this little babe will grow to be the
Savior of the world, but right now, at the beginning, Jesus is a tiny, helpless
child.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>John gives us a <i>fait accompli</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Word of God was made human flesh and
dwelt among us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The One who helped
create this world and all that is in it walked with humans, talked with humans,
taught humans, healed humans, and died for humans.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And we beheld his glory.<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>
<o:p></o:p></span></p>Ken Sipleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05618147995505225257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5218410660852462371.post-32282913222915591482020-12-13T14:15:00.002-08:002020-12-13T14:15:15.730-08:00Jesus, Alpha Male<p> </p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Jesus,
Alpha Male<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Luke
2:39-40<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In a selection* from the book <i>Mama’s Last Hug</i> by
Franz de Waal, the author discusses the essence of a true alpha male.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“In animal research, the alpha male is simply the
top-ranking male of a group…In political parlance, however, it has come to
denote a certain type of personality…emphasizing self-confidence, swagger, and
purpose.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Alphas are not just
winners…they beat…everyone around them and remind them every day who won.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A true alpha goes it alone and crushes the
competition, like a lion among sheep.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Many authors have tried to categorize Jesus Christ by
pinning one label or another on him:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>CEO, coach, revolutionary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These
and other labels seek to define Christ by putting him in a box—not a box we
find in the gospels, but a box designed from some human viewpoint.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s as if they say, “Here!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We’ve figured out who Jesus is.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Accept our definition of him and you’ll
understand him perfectly.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">All these labels are
wrong.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus defies all categories
because he is unique.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What else would
you expect from the Son of God?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>We might be tempted to label Jesus Christ the ultimate
alpha male, and in some ways he fits the description.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He certainly had self-confidence. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was never at a loss for words.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No matter what company he was in he was at
ease, always in control of himself and the situation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was equally at home with Roman leaders,
the religious elite of his own faith, the rich, the powerful; and sinners, tax
collectors, prostitutes, beggars, common working folk. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus spent time with them all, had a message
for each, offered life-changing opportunities to everyone he encountered.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jesus had purpose.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Once he began his ministry his focus was on purpose and nothing
else.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His purpose was to give his life
for the world; he achieved it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His
purpose was to offer salvation to those he met; he achieved that also.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His purpose was to do God’s will, and make
God visible to the people with whom he came in contact; he fulfilled that as
well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Swagger?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was no swagger to him, no ego, no need
to be on top.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead Jesus was humble,
self-effacing, always pointing beyond himself to his Father, trying to get
people to follow God as completely as he did.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>A winner?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not by
the world’s standards.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He didn’t “crush
the competition;” he didn’t “go it alone.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He didn’t remind everyone every day of how good, how important, how
tough he was.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead he reached out to
people, surrounded himself with them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Touched them, healed them—loved them.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I believe de Wall would argue that Jesus was closer to
the definition of an alpha male in the animal kingdom than to the distortion we
apply to overly aggressive, highly successful males.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Among primates the alpha male almost always achieves his
position with the cooperation of others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He may not even be the biggest, strongest, meanest male in the
group.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once he has achieved leadership
he “protects the underdog, keeps the peace, and reassures those who are
distressed.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While females generally
console others more than males, the alpha “acts as a healer-in-chief,
comforting others in agony more than anyone else in the community.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Sound like Jesus?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It does to me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the Jesus
we meet in the gospels, the one whose strength is so great he doesn’t have to
brag about it, whose victory is achieved through love and compassion rather
than through overpowering those around him.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">*This excerpt appeared in
the website Delancyplace.com. <o:p></o:p></span></p>Ken Sipleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05618147995505225257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5218410660852462371.post-4760722776446832462020-12-06T14:06:00.004-08:002020-12-06T14:06:44.338-08:00The Christmas Backstory<p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The
Christmas Backstory<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Philippians
2:5-8<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This year my church received in the mail a short booklet
of Advent devotions titled <i>The Peace and Promise of Christmas</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It consists of ten Christmas reflections from
the publication <i>Our Daily Bread</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I want to share the introduction with you. The author is Bill Crowder.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It
seems to me that we enter the Christmas story too late.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We celebrate Jesus’ arrival on earth, but we
forget He had to leave where he was so that He could come to where we are.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We’re so thrilled by the Baby in the manger,
the angels, the shepherds, and the wise men that we don’t pause to remember
that Baby’s humble beginnings.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Stop
for a moment to think about it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
eternal Son of God left His Father’s presence, which He had known and enjoyed
since before time began, in order to become that Baby in that manger.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This
should take our breath away!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Contrast
the glory Jesus left with the darkness He stepped into.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ponder the perfect relationship He enjoyed in
the Father’s presence that He exchanged in order to embrace the brokenness
we’ve inflicted upon His creation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Consider the privilege and position He set aside so He could come to
serve His creatures, when in reality He deserved to be served by us.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This
is the backstory of the Christmas story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>While the Bible doesn’t give us volumes of insight behind the scenes of
Christmas, neither is it silent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We can
read enough to marvel at the sacrifices Christ made to come to earth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And He did it all so that He could become our
sacrificial lamb—the One who rescued us from death and brought us His peace.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This
is why what led up to the Christmas story is so important.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By unveiling Jesus’ true identity, we learn
the eternal value of the coming of Christ to earth.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Galatians 4:4 says, “When the set time had fully come,
God, sent his Son, born of a woman…”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>What does Paul mean, “when the set time had fully
come?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i>What</i> time?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i>Who’s </i>time?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Who decided that the time was right for Jesus
to be born?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>God decided, of course.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In the fulness of God’s time Jesus was born.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Why did God decide that time was the right time?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Was that time somehow worse than all other
times?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Were world conditions so evil, so
corrupt that God decided it was the <i>must</i> time?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Was it the Roman Empire? The corruption of
the Jewish religious/political leadership?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The paganism of the world outside Judea that made God decide the fulness
of time had come?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I read a sermon recently by Barbara Brown Taylor titled <i>The
End Is Near</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was based on Mark
13:14-23.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In it she makes the point that
the times have always been difficult.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Talking
about the end of time she says: “If you think about it, the world has been
ending for someone, somewhere for as long as anyone can remember…”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We can paraphrase her and say that the world
has always been in the worst of times for someone, somewhere.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Adam and Eve being thrown out of Eden.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Egypt enslaving the Israelites.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Babylonian Empire. The Roman Empire. The
Middle Ages. The church before the Reformation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Absolute monarchies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Civil
War. World Wars I and II. Covid-19.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When
<i>hasn’t</i> it been the worst of times?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Yet for whatever reasons, God chose that time and that place
to send God’s Son to rescue the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And so the Son left his Father’s presence to come to earth and become
our Savior.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We can’t imagine the glories
he left behind to come here, the full wonder of God’s realm, the company of
angels.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In his letter to the Philippians Paul briefly sketches
that transition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus was “in the form
of God.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He “made himself nothing,” took
“the form of a servant.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He “humbled
himself” to “the point of death”—the worst death Rome could think of.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>How do we repay a debt like that?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How do we thank God that in the fulness of
time Jesus came to give us the fulness of eternity?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>We give him our hearts.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>We give him our love.<o:p></o:p></span></p><br /><p></p>Ken Sipleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05618147995505225257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5218410660852462371.post-44324392499051544292020-11-29T12:36:00.002-08:002020-11-29T12:36:18.477-08:00Keep Your Feet Moving<p> </p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Keep
Your Feet Moving<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Matthew
10:16-23<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Network television is pretty much lost on us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We rarely watch anything on the major
networks except the news from 5:00-6:00 each night.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We keep up with some of the British and Australian
mystery series on PBS.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We don’t stream
anything.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have a bunch of movie and
PBS DVD’s we keep saying we’ll watch, but we never seem to get around to it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>What we watch mostly is sports.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I count myself fortunate to have married a
woman who not only enjoys sports as much as I do, but also enjoys watching them
the same way I do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We even root for—and
against—the same teams—mostly.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>After supper—sometimes during supper—we turn on a
football, basketball, or baseball game and let it run as background
entertainment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My wife enjoys doing
puzzles and I usually keep two or more books going at the same time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We keep the sound turned down low on the TV
so we can keep track of the game without it demanding our constant attention.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If the announcer gets excited we know to look
up because something important is happening.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Thank goodness for instant replay.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This combination of activities keeps us entertained for hours.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When one game ends, we turn to another
one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When the last game is over (or the
last one we want to watch) we turn off the TV and continue with our reading and
puzzles.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I know we’re unusual, but that’s how we enjoy an evening
at home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s not that we ignore the
games; it’s that they rarely are so interesting as to claim our complete
attention.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We can do this for an entire
evening, rarely even speaking to each other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We’re not ignoring each other, we’re just comfortable enough in each
other’s presence that we don’t have to talk much.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>One thing I have learned from football:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the guy with the ball is most successful when
he keeps his feet moving.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes a
runner will seem to be stopped by one or more tacklers, but he keeps his feet
moving, keeps his legs pumping, and gains a few more yards.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Recently we saw a runner score a touchdown
while hopping on one leg.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The other leg
was being held parallel to the ground by an opponent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pretty determined running.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jesus was teaching his disciples the same lesson in
today’s Scripture passage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He warned
them they would face difficult times.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>“Behold,” he tells them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I am
sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They will be hauled into court, beaten,
jailed, perhaps even killed for the sake of the gospel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They may be given over to the authorities by
their own family members.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jesus paints a bleak picture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Think what it would be like if someone tried
to recruit us to work for a company and said, “We’d love to have you work for
us, but you should know up front it won’t be easy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is a very good possibility that you
will wind up in court.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You could be
beaten and jailed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You can’t rule out
the possibility of torture and death.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Your
own family may turn against you.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not
much of a sales pitch, is it?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>But Jesus’ sales pitch doesn’t end there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He promises that the retirement benefits will
be the best part of the package.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He
says, “But the one who endures to the end will be saved.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jesus has one more warning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The work will not be completed in your
lifetime.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When your time here on earth is
over, there will be work left for the next generation, and the next one, and
the one after that—on and on until Jesus says, “That’s all!”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Above all, keep your feet moving.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Keep your legs pumping.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Keep pushing that pile of obstructions
forward, keep moving the ball farther down the field.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You may not reach the goal line, but get as
close as you can.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Someone else will pick
up the ball and continue the game.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Endure to the end.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The next set
of players will take it from there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Your
job is to keep moving those feet.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Ken Sipleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05618147995505225257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5218410660852462371.post-65484307664191397812020-11-22T10:00:00.003-08:002020-11-22T10:00:28.434-08:00"Cruelty Is Surely More Evil than Lust"<p> </p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“Cruelty
Is Surely More Evil than Lust”<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Matthew
5:2-11<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>As a teenager C.S. Lewis became an atheist, a position he
held until he could no longer ignore what he saw as evidence for the existence
of God and the divinity of Jesus Christ.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He became an apologist for Christianity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Among his best-known writings are the <i>Narnia </i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>series, <i>The Screwtape Letters</i>, and <i>Plain
Christianity</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Lewis’ writings are easy to read, but sometimes not easy
to accept.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He wasn’t afraid to call
traditional Christian beliefs on his carpet if he felt they were not the truth
as he understood it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For him, following Christ
meant total commitment, no half-way measures.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>His intellect did not permit him to accept easy answers or half-truths.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Lewis said, “Cruelty is surely more evil than lust.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was aware that most Christians keep their
own lists of unacceptable sins and acceptable sins.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our private lists divide themselves into the
sins of others (unacceptable) and the sins we hold dear (acceptable).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have the disturbing habit of making
excuses for our sins while holding others accountable for theirs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It’s a great game we play:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>picking and choosing what we consider sin
based on the things we enjoy and the things we see others doing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To make matters worse, we often judge others
for sins they commit while we engage in other versions of the same ones,
recognizing sin in others which we are more than willing to overlook in
ourselves.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jesus would have none of it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was very clear about sin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you read carefully through the Sermon on
the Mount (Matthew 5-7) you begin to understand the nature of sin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The Sermon on the Mount begins with the Beatitudes—the <i>blessings</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus doesn’t begin by condemning people for
what they do wrong.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He begins by
praising—blessing—people for attitudes and patterns of behavior which he
approves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps we should do the same.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rather than focusing on sin, perhaps we
should establish the blessed behaviors in ourselves and look for them in
others.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>When we read the Beatitudes we find the opposite of
cruelty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are about kindness,
humility, peacemaking, mercy—habits of mind and action which are the opposite
of cruelty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We can’t be cruel to people and treat them
with kindness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We can’t be cruel to
people and show them mercy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Humility
does not permit cruel behavior, nor does peacemaking.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Look as closely as you will, there nothing in the
Beatitudes about lust.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Does this mean
that lust is acceptable?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Definitely
not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If we read a little further
(5:27-28) we find that Jesus sees no difference between adultery and lustful
thoughts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To think lustfully about
someone is the same as committing adultery in Jesus’ eyes.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jesus is not alone in his condemnation of lust.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is prohibited in the Ten
Commandments.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Exodus 20:17 says, “Do not
covet.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Surely covetousness and lust are
synonymous.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To lust after something or
someone is to covet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Paul creates lists of sins.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We find one in Ephesians (4:30-32) and
another in Galatians (5:19-23).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Actually,
each list has two parts:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>characteristics
we should avoid and those we should cultivate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Yes, we will find lust there, if not the word then actions which derive
from lust.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But we will also find anger,
bitterness, wrath, evil speaking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All these
lead to cruel behavior.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>We can’t pick and choose.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We can’t say “My cruelty is acceptable but your lust is not.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Paul says “No!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus says, “No!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God says, “No!”<o:p></o:p></span></p>Ken Sipleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05618147995505225257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5218410660852462371.post-45644779719846680742020-11-15T13:52:00.002-08:002020-11-15T13:52:10.071-08:00Living with a Thorn in the Flesh<p> </p><p align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Living with a
Thorn in the Flesh<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Or<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Sufficient Grace<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">2 Corinthians
12:7-9<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It’s interesting how many sayings from Scripture have
become part of our vocabulary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A dear
friend uses one frequently.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When someone
asks her to do something she doesn’t feel she’d be good at she says, “That’s
not my spiritual gift.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I haven’t
learned that lesson yet.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>One such expression is “a thorn in the flesh.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My mother used this occasionally, along with
several other biblical expressions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s
interesting:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>my father was much more of
a biblical scholar, but my mother used far more of these expressions.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In verses leading up to this phrase Paul has been <i>boasting</i>
about his suffering as an apostle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I use
the word “boasting” in italics because no one is his right mind would boast
about suffering.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Paul doesn’t boast
either; he just wants the Corinthians to know he <i>could</i> boast since he
has suffered so much on his missionary journeys.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A reading of these travels in the Book of
Acts makes clear that Paul endured much hardship for the sake of the
gospel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He did so willingly because he
knew the results would be worth it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>We don’t know what Paul’s thorn was.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He doesn’t identify it past saying that it
was troublesome.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Over the centuries
there has been much speculation, but we have no way of knowing what it
was.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Considering all he suffered in his
missionary career we can conclude it must have been very difficult to deal
with.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Paul identifies this thorn as “a
messenger of Satan.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It must have been
serious indeed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Paul took the path most of us would take.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He asked God to remove it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Quite likely he believed his service to God
would be far more effective if whatever was troubling him so severely was taken
away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He wouldn’t have to worry about it
any longer, so he would be better able to concentrate on proclaiming the
gospel.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>God’s answer was a resounding, “No!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God said, “My grace is sufficient for you,
for my power is made perfect in weakness.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Paul had to learn to live with whatever he felt was handicapping him
because that’s the way God wanted it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Many of us are troubled by something we feel inhibits our
full and free service to God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It may be
something simple or something complex.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It may be something physical, or emotional, or something that lies
outside of ourselves but still, we believe, prevents us from giving complete,
perfect service to God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We may have even
prayed as Paul did, asking God to remove what we perceive as a <i>thorn</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If so, we may have received an answer similar
to the one God gave to Paul.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Don’t
worry about what you see as a thorn in the flesh.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ll work around it—perhaps even work through
it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My power will work in you to make
your service more than acceptable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You
don’t need to be perfectly strong.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ll
be strong for you—and in you, and through you.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Earlier in this letter (4:7), Paul says, “But we have
this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God
and not to us.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We cannot effectively
serve God in our own strength.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We must
rely on God’s power to achieve even the limited results of which we are
capable. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But we must not
worry about the results of our service.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>God doesn’t call us to be successful, only to be faithful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Paul’s faithfulness, coupled with God’s power
produced results that helped change Christianity from a small Jewish sect to a
worldwide religious movement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our jars
of clay are vessels enough in God’s hands, and God’s grace is sufficient to
overcome any thorn.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Ken Sipleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05618147995505225257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5218410660852462371.post-68611134324027670192020-11-08T14:17:00.003-08:002020-11-08T14:17:47.096-08:00"All of Me, Why Not Take All of Me"<p> </p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“All
of Me, Why Not Take All of Me”<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Luke
9:57-62<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Harsh words from Jesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>To the first person Jesus says, “If you follow me don’t
expect an easy life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You’ll always be on
the go.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Little time to rest, no settled
home, never sure where your next meal is coming from, where you’ll spend the
night, and definitely no medical insurance.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>To the second person Jesus says, “Your commitment to me
comes before any other commitment you can imagine—commitments to family, to
whatever career you were pursuing, to friends.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Nothing matters except your service to me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And that service begins now.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>To the third person Jesus says, “If you intend to follow
me you can’t look at what you’ve left behind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>You can’t look back at your former life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>You can’t think about your family, or the friends you might have been
close to, or any circumstances of your past.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Don’t look back; start serving me now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If you turn around you won’t plow a straight furrow of service.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The disciples we read about did just that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They gave up their homes, their settled
lifestyles—everything they had ever known for a life on the move.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First they traveled around Galilee.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then they spent time in Jerusalem.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Finally they were dispersed to the ends of
their world, many to live and die in strange places, unaccompanied by family.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>We know Peter was married because Jesus healed his
mother-in-law of a fever.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We know James
and John had a father who would have become dependent on them in his old age,
and a mother who traveled, at least sometimes, with Jesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We don’t know much about the family
situations of the rest of the twelve.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What
we do know is that when Jesus called, they went with him immediately, leaving
behind all they had known, all other commitments.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>We know that, for the most part, once these disciples
committed their lives to Jesus they never looked back.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Following the crucifixion they put their
service on pause while they figured out what they should do next.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Without a leader they did not know where they
were supposed to go.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once they were given
the Holy Spirit, they had direction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>From that moment they couldn’t be stopped.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We use the phrase <i>human dynamo</i> rather
loosely, but the world has never seen people more dynamic than they
became.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes, John tells us that during
this pause, Peter and a couple of others went fishing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That didn’t last long.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One foray out on the Galilee and Jesus called
them back to work.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>All of this is good to remember when God asks us to give
up some little thing so we can better serve.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Too often we give our service grudgingly, half-heartedly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And we’re awfully good at complaining.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I wish I could go with you this weekend, but
I have this church meeting I just <i>have</i> to attend Saturday
afternoon.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“No one, putting his hand to the plow, and looking back
is fit for the kingdom of God.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Where does that leave us?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>How many times do we stay comfortably at home when Jesus says,
“Go?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How many times do we place other,
lesser commitments before our commitment to the one who says, “Follow me?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How many times do we say, “Here I am, Lord,”
but look wistfully at the ordered, leisurely life we’ve left behind?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Some of you may be old enough to remember the song whose
first line provides the title of this piece.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The next line is “Can’t you see I’m no good without you?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Without Jesus our lives are greatly
diminished. We may be comfortable, but we won’t be fulfilled.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jesus wants to hear us say, “Take all of me.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>Ken Sipleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05618147995505225257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5218410660852462371.post-86026047191489592662020-11-01T13:49:00.004-08:002020-11-01T13:49:45.939-08:00Telling the World What's What<p> </p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Telling
the World What’s What<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">John
15:18-19/Romans 12:1-2<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I’ve said it often before, but just
to remind you, I love the newspaper comics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We will go to any lengths to make sure we have a paper each day just so
we can read the comics—<i>and</i> so my wife can do the puzzles.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>One I really enjoy is <i>Pearls
Before Swine</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The central characters
are Goat, Rat, and Pig, with enough “bit players” to keep things
interesting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Recently, Pig was writing a
letter to the world: “Dear world,” he said.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>“You’ve done lots to try and bring me down this year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I’m still standing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>IN YOUR FACE, WORLD.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pig turns to Rat and says, “Sometimes you
gotta let the world know who’s boss.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Sometimes you gotta let the world
know who’s boss.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Amen to that!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I believe that’s the concept behind
both of today’s Scripture passages:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>letting the world know who’s boss—letting the world know what’s
what.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus and Paul speak frequently
about the world, and seldom in a positive sense.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For them the world is the antithesis of the
kingdom of God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God and God’s kingdom
stand on one side of the balance, and the world stands on the other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We can’t hold a position in the middle of the
seesaw; we’ve got to choose one side or the other to come down on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Speaking to his disciples on the
last occasion he will be with them, Jesus tells them that the world hates
them—and that’s OK.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The world hated him
first.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If they are going to follow
Jesus, they should expect enmity from the world—not only expect it, but welcome
it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“If you were of the world,” Jesus
says, “the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the
world, therefore the world hates you.”<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>There’s the choice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Love the world and the world will love you
back.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Love Jesus and the world will hate
you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No middle ground.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As Pete Seeger asked, “Which side are you
on?”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>If choosing sides were the end of
it, life would be great.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unfortunately,
even though the world hates us for standing with Christ, it won’t leave us
alone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s part of Jesus’ message to his
disciples.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The world doesn’t hate us as
much as it hates what we stand for.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
wants to break our relationship with Jesus and get us back on its side.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>We see this in the words of an old
hymn by William R. Featherstone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">My Jesus, I love
Thee, I know Thou art mine,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>For Thee all the follies
of sin I resign.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In the church where I grew up we sang, “For Thee all the <i>pleasures</i>
of sin I resign.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We admitted that sin
can be enjoyable—at least at first.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most
of us have realized that over time sin becomes less and less enjoyable as we
become more and more trapped by it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Making a decision for Christ is the first step in a long
journey.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our salvation isn’t complete—we’re
not safe from the call of the world—until we’re over the Jordan and into the
Promised Land.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Until then, we continue
to choose between the world and Christ every day.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Paul wanted his readers (and that includes us) to realize
the necessity for coming down on Jesus’ side of the balance and staying there.
He tells us, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the
renewing of your mind…”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We often speak
about having Jesus in our hearts, but it is the mind where temptation begins.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We must be transformed—changed—away from the
world and to Jesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And we must keep
following wherever he leads.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The world behind me, the cross before me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No turning back”<o:p></o:p></span></p>Ken Sipleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05618147995505225257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5218410660852462371.post-117971084463040632020-10-25T13:22:00.002-07:002020-10-25T13:22:31.309-07:00A Consequence We Can Be Sure of<p> </p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">A
Consequence We Can Be Sure of<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Numbers
32:20-23<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I confess.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have
become more and more convinced that many of the stories in the Bible—especially
those in the Hebrew Scriptures—are quite likely not true, at least not in a
factual, historical sense.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know this
will be viewed by some as heresy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How
could these stories not be true?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Isn’t
this God’s word?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is God a liar?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>There are those who believe every word in the Bible is
absolutely true.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you begin to pull on
one thread or another the whole Bible will fall apart.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For these people it’s all or nothing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t agree.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>For me, the truth of the Bible—and I believe in the
Bible’s absolute truth—lies in the fact that it is the best record we have of God’s
interaction with humankind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God created the
universe and populated it with all kinds of creatures, many—<i>most</i>—of
which exist far from us, in other solar systems and galaxies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some day we will be able to reach out to
these other worlds and communicate; but we’re not ready yet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First we must set our own house in order,
beginning with our country then proceeding to our entire world.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>There are many experts who doubt that Israel’s sojourn in
Egypt ever happened, and therefore, the exodus and wilderness experience never
happened.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However. it remains part of
the defining story of the Jewish people, a large part of what makes them who
they are.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The story is full of
theological truth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The lesson we can
take away from this story?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God cares for
God’s people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes it’s not easy to
see that in a world full of pain and evil, but God is always present.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The story of Israel’s conquest of Palestine also rings
untrue to me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have a difficult time
believing that God told the Israelites to destroy every person in the land they
were to inherit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It sounds like history
written by the winners—you know: “Of course we killed everyone!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ethnic cleansing?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No way!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It’s what God told us to do.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>There is another group of stories I find it difficult to
accept as historical truth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many times
in the Hebrew Scriptures we read that God punished Israel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s not that I don’t believe God <i>can</i>
do it; it’s that I believe they were victims of their own stupidity and wickedness
rather than of God’s displeasure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>A good example is the Babylonian captivity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Israel was a tiny nation lying in the way of
anyone going from north to south—or south to north—intent on expanding their
territory.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is no way this minor
people on this small piece of land could stand for long against the might of
Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Greece or Rome.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They were bound to fall.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What
made it easier for them to be defeated was their belief that they were
invincible, that nothing or no one could conquer them.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Like nations before and after them, they believed they
could live fat and lazy lives and still survive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Imagine their surprise when they found out it
didn’t work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It didn’t work for Assyria,
or Babylon, or even Rome either.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When
prophets warned the Israelite leaders that they were headed for trouble, they
were laughed at—until the enemy was at the gates.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They would have done well to remember Moses’
words to the tribes who chose to settle on the other side of the Jordan: “Be
sure your sins will find you out.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That’s a consequence we can be sure of.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Live without concern for all your citizens and soon your
culture begins to rot from within.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When
that happens, God doesn’t have to do much if anything to topple you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You’ll take care of that yourselves.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>America would do well to remember.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Ken Sipleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05618147995505225257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5218410660852462371.post-89445354566160653822020-10-11T14:28:00.002-07:002020-10-11T14:28:19.484-07:00Bloom Where You Are Planted<p> </p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Bloom
Where You Are Planted<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Matthew
25:31-40<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I find myself returning to this passage frequently.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Partly it’s because I’m afraid of the second half,
vv. 41-46.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In these verses Jesus
describes what will happen to those who don’t help their brothers and
sisters—the “least of these.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s this
that worries me—and I’m not alone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>When he was near death, Fred Rogers, the man behind <i>Mister
Rogers’ Neighborhood</i>, asked his wife, “Do you think I’m a sheep?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If, after all he had done for generations of
kids, he was worried about making the cut, shouldn’t I be at least a little
fearful?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It seems to me with all the time Christians spend talking
about “getting saved,” and being “born again,” at least a little time should be
spent making sure we’re doing what we can to help Jesus’ brothers and sisters—<i>our</i>
brothers and sisters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is so much
suffering, so much injustice, so much poverty, so much hatred.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Shouldn’t we make sure Christ’s love is
extended to those who are the victims of poverty, injustice, and hatred?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>All too often we try to ease our consciences by throwing
a dollar in the Salvation Army kettle, or giving a few canned goods to the
local food pantry, or, in the case of our church, donating to and helping run
our clothes closet, which makes clothing available to those who need it without
cost.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>As worthwhile as these pursuits may be, they are band
aids on deep wounds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They may help
relieve the suffering for a moment, but they are not permanent solutions to the
long-standing problems so many face day after day.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>As I read these two passages I come to believe that
Jesus’ lists are not prescriptive but suggestive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The lists were valid for the time in which
they were spoken, and have some validity today, but they are not extensive
enough for our more complex society.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Yes, we should clothe the naked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Yes, we should give food and drink to those who are hungry and thirsty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes, we should provide hospital chaplaincy
and prison ministry for those who need them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>These ministries are needed today—sorely needed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But we should we also be fighting for <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Internet access for those where there is little or none.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Grocery stores in food deserts.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Meaningful education for inner city and rural populations<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Adequate healthcare, housing, and jobs for the working
and non-working poor.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">If we do not address
these problems a drink of water, a food card to MacDonald’s, some clothing, or
an occasional visit to a hospital or prison won’t mean much.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The deep wounds will continue to bleed
because no amount of band aids are enough.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>We may not be able to fight injustice like Martin Luther
King, Jr. or Senator John Lewis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We may
not be able to stir the hearts of our fellow Christians like our outstanding
preachers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We may not be able to fund
huge projects for change like Bill Gates.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But we can bloom where we are planted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We can work for and vote for candidates for public office who promise to
do something about those who are caught in generational poverty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We can volunteer our time in schools to help
give our children and young people a sense of self-worth that will keep them
from making bad decisions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We can
support legislation that makes health care available to every citizen, no
matter how poor or ill they may be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This is what God calls us to do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From the books of the Torah through Jesus’
words and actions in the gospels we see that our calling is to be sheep, and to
be the best sheep we can be.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Ken Sipleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05618147995505225257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5218410660852462371.post-8335900587767509642020-10-04T13:35:00.003-07:002020-10-04T13:35:43.876-07:00The Earth Is the Lord's<p> </p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The
Earth Is the Lord’s<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Psalm
24:1-2<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I have been reading <i>Ministry:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>International Journal for Pastors</i>
again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the September issue there is
an article by Skip Bell titled “Stewards of this Gift.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He begins with the story of his proposal of
marriage to the woman who became his wife.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>When he opened the box which contained the diamond-studded watch he was
giving her as an engagement present, he asked, “Do you like it?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She responded, “Like it?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I love it!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Bell asked in return, “You love it?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>“Yes! Wow!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I love it!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A good way to begin a relationship.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He then imagines the Creator showing the first
man and woman the newly-created world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>“Do you like it?” God asks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Like
it!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We love it!” they answer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God responds, “You love it?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Yes!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Wow! We love it!” is their reply.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>A good way to begin a relationship.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This was God’s intent:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>that humans should enjoy the beautiful world
that had been created for their pleasure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>What a home they had been given!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Trees, flowers, animals, fish, birds, mountains, valleys, forests, rivers,
lakes, oceans—all for their enjoyment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And under the surface, resources untold to help them in their
stewardship of the earth.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Bell bemoans the horrible way in
which we have used all the good things God has given us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Eradicating species of animals, birds and
fish.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Leveling mountains to get at the
resources hidden within them—not the only way to reach these resources, but the
quickest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Polluting rivers, lakes and
oceans with chemical waste, plastic waste—any waste we want to get rid of in a
hurry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Denuding forests and not replanting,
so that good, productive soil runs away and is lost, making the land arid and
unfit for growing things.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Psalm 24 begins: “The earth is the
Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those that dwell therein.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An important reminder:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>this is God’s earth, not ours.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One way or another the world is going to be
what God wants it to be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We can lead, we
can follow, or we’d better get out of the way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We don’t dare oppose God or God’s plans for the earth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To do so will only bring agony and sorrow,
whether by some God-sent punishment or the natural outcomes of our own
foolishness and wastefulness.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Bell makes three points.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First, facts don’t cease to be facts just
because we want them not to be facts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The earth’s temperature is rising.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Species are becoming extinct.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Natural resources are being squandered.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>These are facts whether we like them or not.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Second, we can observe the effects
of human wastefulness with our own eyes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If we fail to see what is going wrong with the world it’s because we
don’t want to see.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our blindness to
what’s happening will not stop it from happening.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Third, we confirm the importance (to
us) of stewardship in our daily lives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>What we do with—and to—the world around us reflects whether or not we
are good stewards.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It doesn’t matter how
we talk the talk, it’s how we walk the walk that counts.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Bell suggests four things we can do.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">1)
Confirm that the earth is a precious gift from God.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>2) Connect to the land, water and air.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>3) Confess and repent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We’ve been bad stewards.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I remind
you that repentance means to turn around and go in a different direction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Confession alone won’t help.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We must also change our ways.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>4) Act!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do what
you can to become good stewards of God’s gift to us.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>We don’t have time to waste.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i>Now</i> is the accepted time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i>Today</i> is the day of salvation—for us,
and for God’s world.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Ken Sipleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05618147995505225257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5218410660852462371.post-58625152595935432142020-09-27T15:21:00.003-07:002020-09-27T15:21:50.542-07:00"Thy Will Be Done"<p> </p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“Thy
Will Be Done”<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Matthew
26:36-44<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jan Karon invented a town in North Carolina.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She named it Mitford and wrote fourteen
novels about it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The central character
is Father Tim, Mitford’s Episcopal priest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He’s a very human priest, the kind of guy you’d like to have coffee with
in the local restaurant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We watch him as
he deals with the townspeople (some of whom attend his church some of whom do
not), discovers new things about himself (he <i>can</i> fall in love, he
becomes a diabetic), gets married to the woman who lives next door.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We see him inherit a young boy who is lost
and almost deserted, and through him becomes involved with the boy’s whole
family.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes the relationship is
positive, and sometimes not, but Father Tim perseveres, watching this boy grow
to manhood and become a force for good in the community.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Father Tim and his wife Cynthia speak of “the prayer that
never fails.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Those of us who have
prayed for things that do not happen, or that do not turn out the way we want,
may have trouble believing there is such a prayer, but there is: “Thy will be
done.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Not what you expected?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Me either.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I first read the
phrase, “the prayer that never fails,” I couldn’t imagine what might come
next.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I read, “Thy will be done,”
it made perfect sense—but it raised more questions than it answered, and more
concerns than I could handle all at once.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“<i>Thy will be done</i>.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Simple, isn’t it?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Four short words.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Straightforward.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No subtlety.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Easy to say, but oh so difficult to mean.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We who go to God with a shopping list of
wants and wishes and desires longer than a ten-year-old’s Christmas list are
used to asking God to do <i>our </i>will.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We don’t often think of God’s will, or asking what God wants from
us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And yet we know how central this
prayer is to our relationship with God.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jesus understood its importance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He included these words in the prayer he
taught his disciples: “<i>Thy will be done</i> on earth as it is in heaven.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>If we stop to consider what we ask when we repeat these
words we may get a little—or a <i>lot</i>—frightened.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do we really want God’s will to be done on
earth the same way it is in heaven? <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>John
Milton, in <i>Sonnet 12:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On His
Blindness</i> reminds us that in heaven thousands of beings dash to and fro
doing the will of God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since there are
no heavenly beings on earth (at least not that we can see on a regular basis)
if anyone is going to be rushing around doing God’s bidding it will be us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If God’s will is to be done on earth, and it
is to be the priority it is in heaven, we’ll have to rearrange <i>our</i>
priorities and our schedules.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are we
ready for that?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>We remember Jesus saying these words in Gethsemane.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He finished celebrating Passover with his
disciples; then he asked them to accompany him to the garden.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once there, he left them and went off to
pray.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Poor disciples!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The Passover meal includes several glasses of wine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They kept their eyes open only long enough to
hear Jesus say to his Father, “Thy will be done.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even though Jesus had tried to prepare them
for what lay ahead, they couldn’t imagine what God had in store for their Lord
and Master—or for them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God’s will <i>was</i>
done, in Jesus’ execution, and in his resurrection, and eventually in the lives
of those who shared the meal with him.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Are we ready to pray that prayer—the prayer that never
fails—and mean it?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Can we say with the
surety that we know Jesus felt that night, “Thy will be done,” and commit
ourselves totally to whatever that entails?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Be careful what you pray for:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>you might just get it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Ken Sipleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05618147995505225257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5218410660852462371.post-28656409207540102792020-09-20T15:06:00.002-07:002020-09-20T15:06:12.499-07:00Wisdom and Beauty<p> </p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Wisdom
and Beauty<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Proverbs
31:10-31<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">As I write this, it is the day after
we celebrated my oldest friend’s eightieth birthday.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We partied on Zoom, both because of the
current health situation and because we are scattered from coast to coast and
from Canada to Mississippi.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ken’s
daughter organized the party.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m sure
we all learned things about him we didn’t know as we played trivia games with
Ken at the center.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Interspersed with the game questions were pictures Ken’s
daughter had gotten hold of, pictures of Ken and his family going back to when
he was practically a babe in arms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
some of those pictures I recognized my friend as the child I had known when we
were both in late elementary and junior high school.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I’m not going to share any of the stupid things we did
together at my house on Friday nights when my parents went to a church
meeting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was—still is—two years older
than me, and I’m sure my folks thought his age would somehow imbue the
situation with a bit of maturity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It didn’t.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Suffice to say we didn’t do any <i>irreparable</i> harm
to the house and its contents, and we both obviously survived.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here we are today, an octogenarian and one so
near that age I can almost see it from here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>When I had a chance to extend my good wishes yesterday I told him what
I’ve said so many times before.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is
the closest thing I have to a brother.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I’m an only child, so having someone I can say that about means a lot to
me.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Ken has a lot going for him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was—is—an excellent musician.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is the most natural athlete I’ve ever
known.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If an activity involved physical
coordination it came easily to him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He
is bright enough to have had a wide choice of career fields.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He chose sociology, and the field is richer
because he is part of it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>What struck me most yesterday were pictures of Ken’s
mother.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was beautiful!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I didn’t pay any attention at the time; she
was my best friend’s mother, and I hadn’t yet reached the age where I found
females attractive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But looking at those
pictures I could see how beautiful Mom Davis was.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I call her <i>Mom</i> because one summer she became a
second mother to me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was fourteen, had
just finished my freshman year of high school, and was finally old enough to
work at our denomination’s summer camp.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Mom Davis was the cook.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was her
kitchen slave.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I washed the pots she
dirtied cooking three meals a day for a couple hundred campers and staff
members.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was an exacting taskmaster,
and in my first real work experience, the best boss I could have had.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most of what I know about work ethic I
learned that summer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many lessons
weren’t fun, but I learned.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>For many years Ken and I moved in different circles in
different cities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our lives touched
peripherally; even more so my life with that of Mom Davis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was able to keep track of her through my
parents, who had continued their friendship long after Ken and I were grown and
gone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Several years ago, Ken and I
reconnected.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One outgrowth of that
renewed connection was that I was able to spend time with Mom Davis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She’s gone now, but what she taught me that
summer has stayed with me.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>What didn’t come through in those pictures was her inner
beauty and inner strength.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Left a widow,
she raised three sons to manhood, sons of whom any mother would be proud.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As is often true of Scripture, not every word
of these verses from the last chapter of Proverbs is true about this woman who
meant so much to my life, but enough is true that they stand as a lasting
tribute to a woman of beauty—inside and out.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Ken Sipleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05618147995505225257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5218410660852462371.post-44345527287398685602020-09-13T13:42:00.003-07:002020-09-13T13:42:35.086-07:00Whose Slave Are You?<p> </p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Whose
Slave Are You?<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Romans
6:15-18<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“In a consumer society there are inevitably two kinds of
slaves:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the prisoners of addiction and
the prisoners of envy.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>So said Ivan Illich.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Sounds like a name out of a Dostoyevsky novel, especially when you learn
he was a philosopher and a priest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He
was Russian, definitely, but not one of Dostoyevsky’s characters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>You might wonder what a Russian who lived from 1926-2002 would
know about a consumer society, but he obviously had an understanding of consumerism
and its effect on people.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Two kinds of slaves:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>prisoners of addiction and prisoners of envy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We understand prisoners of addiction, and we are
aware that they exist in a consumer society.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We are familiar with addiction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Anyone who reads newspapers, magazines, novels, will soon come face to
face with addiction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The addict may be
hooked on drugs, or alcohol, or something else, but we’ve read enough to understand
that people become so addicted to one thing or another that it’s not
far-fetched to say they are enslaved.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I’ve just finished reading a Harlan Coben novel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For those of you not familiar with Coben’s
writing, he is a master of the plot twist, even planting one final turn in the
last few pages of many of his books.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
say frequently that writers of fiction begin with a “what if…?” turn of
mind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Coben’s <i>what ifs</i> happen to
be more intriguing than most.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In this novel, <i>Play Dead</i>, one character is
addicted to gambling and also to scams, which is where he gets the money to
gamble with.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unfortunately, he doesn’t
come close to shaking his addiction until it’s too late.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just as he is on the edge of breaking his
bonds of slavery he is murdered.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We
might say he was sacrificed to the novel’s plot twists, but we know this also happens
in real life.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Slavery to envy might not be as evident as slavery to
addiction, but we know it exists, and far too frequently.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You have something I want.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If I want it too much, I become a slave to
that desire.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Isn’t that how advertising
works?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ads create a desire to have what
we don’t possess.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If that desire becomes
overwhelming, I will do almost anything to obtain what I don’t have but wish I
did.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I believe Paul understood these kinds of slavery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He must have seen examples of both addiction
and envy as he moved through the Mediterranean world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Paul drew no distinction between the
two.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He lumped them together under the
category of slavery to sin. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For him,
whether you were addicted to alcohol, or sex, or anger, or judgmentalism made
no difference.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Slavery to one was no
better, no worse than slavery to another.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He also knew the Torah, and<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the
commandment, “You shall not covet…” (Exodus 20:17).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For Paul, sin was sin, and those who pursued
a life of sin were slaves to sin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Paul knew another kind of slavery:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>slavery to righteousness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His training taught him both the evils of sin
and the virtues of righteousness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His
conversion changed his understanding of righteousness, but not its
importance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He understood, as Jesus
taught, that we are never completely free.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We have a choice:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>we can be
slaves of sin or slaves of God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It is interesting as well as paradoxical that being God’s
slave is really the path to freedom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If
I am God’s slave I am free from both addiction and envy, free to be righteous
in God’s sight, and free to pursue a life without slavery.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Ken Sipleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05618147995505225257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5218410660852462371.post-20626543154780694002020-09-06T14:14:00.004-07:002020-09-06T14:14:56.157-07:00Which Side Are You On?<p> </p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Which
Side Are You On?<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Luke
21:1-4<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Richard Hofstadter said, “One of the primary tests of a
society at any given time is whether its comfortable people tend to identify,
psychologically, with the power and achievements of the very successful or with
the needs and sufferings of the underprivileged.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This is an apt saying for our time, since, as at least
one candidate for president says, we are in a battle for the soul of
America.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s also a good question for
us to ask ourselves:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Which side are you
on?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The question has been asked many times in our past:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Which side are you on in the battle between the royalists
and those fighting for freedom from the British?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Which side are you on in the battle between the union and
the seceding states?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Which side are you on in the fight over women’s right to
vote?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Which side are you on in the civil rights movement of the
1960’s?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">In each case people were
forced to decide which group they identified with:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>those who held all the marbles or those who
wanted to join the game.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Now we fight that battle again, and once more we must
decide between the group on the inside and those who want not just to get into
the room, but also to take a seat at the table.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This passage has been used by many preachers on
stewardship Sunday, the day set aside to <i>encourage</i> the congregation to
give more to the church in the upcoming year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I have steadfastly refused to use these verses in this context for two
reasons.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First, because the ones most
likely to take this story to heart are often those who can afford to give the
least.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are the ones who are apt to
feel shame at what they give.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Using this
story to extort more money from a congregation is blackmail by guilt.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The other reason I won’t use this passage in a stewardship
sermon is based on something I learned in seminary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Dr. Mitzi Minor used this story one day in
class.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her interpretation was different
from any I’d heard before, and I’ve listened to a lot of preachers in a lot of
churches over a lot of years.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Dr. Minor said this widow should not have been
contributing to the temple treasury at all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Funds given to the temple were to be used for the relief of widows and
orphans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead of giving, she should
have been receiving.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus was calling
attention to the role reversal that made a giver out of someone who should have
been a receiver.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Clearly, the
comfortable people of Jesus’ time identified with the very successful rather
than with the needs and sufferings of the underprivileged.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This is the question we must each ask ourselves over the
next two months:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Will we, who are
comfortable with our circumstances the way they are, who find the idea of
significant change unsettling—will we identify with the successful ones in our
society, or will we stand with the underprivileged, the disenfranchised, the
downtrodden?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus made it clear which
side he was on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The novelist Louis de Bernieres said it well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“The real index of civilization is when
people are kinder than they need to be.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>We know which side Jesus was on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Will we follow his example, or will we shirk
our responsibility to those he has called us to help?<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>Ken Sipleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05618147995505225257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5218410660852462371.post-50306760086900424062020-08-30T14:18:00.001-07:002020-08-30T14:18:10.650-07:00To Set the Captives Free<p> </p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">To
Set the Captives Free<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Luke
4:16-30<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>For many reasons racial equality has been on my mind
recently.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The unwarranted killing of
black men and women by police is part of it, certainly, but not all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My oldest friend, who is black, has taken a
stand within his denomination, a stand not likely to win him many friends.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m reading a book I’ve inherited from a
recently retired pastor friend titled <i>The Black Christ</i>, by Kelly Brown
Douglas. Over my fifty-plus years of teaching I witnessed firsthand how many
students of color suffered from systemic racism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All these have influenced my thinking.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I’ve decided it’s time for me to take a stand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s time we end this scourge on our
country’s—and on Christianity’s—history.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Jesus didn’t support racism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Paul
didn’t support racism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Neither should
we.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Recently I preached about racism. .After worship, one of
the elders in my church sent me an excerpt from the PBS program <i>Fresh Air</i>,
the August 4 broadcast.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s an exchange
between Terry Gross, the host, and author Isabel Wilkerson.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-color-alt: windowtext;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">GROSS: I know a lot of people say, I'm not responsible for
racism in America. My family was immigrants, or I always lived in the North.
I've never owned slaves. I'm not a racist myself. What do you say to that?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">WILKERSON:
I say that when you buy a house, you are not responsible for how it was built
unless you had it built yourself. But if you buy an old house, you are not
responsible for how it was built. You did not build the beams and the posts and
the pillars and the joints that may be now askew. But it's your responsibility
once it's in your possession to know what it is that you now occupy. And it's
your responsibility to fix it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">No one
had anything to do with the creation of the caste system that we've inherited.
But now that we are in it and we recognize it and we are here however we got
here, whether we were brought over and - where we came over in ships either of
our own choice or not, whether we have recently arrived, we are now in the
structure in the old house that now belongs to us. And it's our responsibility
now to deal with whatever is within it. Whatever's wrong with it is now our
responsibility, those of us alive here today.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 200%; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Wilkerson’s
book, as this excerpt indicates, is about the caste system in America.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We might not believe we have a caste system.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We proclaim loudly that in our country
everyone is equal—and we may believe it’s true; but it isn’t.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 200%; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Equal before
the law?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The richer you are the better
lawyers you can afford.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My wife and I
recently observed firsthand how little success poor and nonwhite citizens have
in navigating our legal system.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 200%; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Equal access to
quality health care?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our black,
brown—yes, and Asian—brothers and sisters are suffering and dying in
disproportionate numbers from Covid-19.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 200%; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Equal access to
a good education?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Inner-city schools plod
along with inadequate resources, dated textbooks, and in too many cases,
second-rate teachers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even the good
teachers find the pressures make it almost impossible for them to do their job
effectively.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 200%; tab-stops: .5in 84.75pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Our most serious inadequacies are the results of systemic
racism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>More than a century after
slavery was abolished our black citizens still have not achieved equality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As much as I feel the pain caused by the mistreatment
of our brothers and sisters of color, I fear it’s not the root of the
problem.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As Kris Kristofferson says in
his song <i>Jesus Was a Capricorn</i>, “Everybody’s got to have somebody to
look down on.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 200%; tab-stops: .5in 84.75pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The late George Aiken put it this way: “If we were to
wake up some morning and find that everyone was the same race, creed, and color,
we would find some other cause for prejudice by noon.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 200%; tab-stops: .5in 84.75pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In the Nazareth synagogue Jesus said he had come to
proclaim good news to the poor and to set the captives free.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This was not some “pie in the sky bye and bye”
freedom, but freedom here and now; not just spiritual freedom, but physical,
psychological, emotional and social freedom.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 200%; tab-stops: .5in 84.75pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Two thousand years later it’s time for us to fulfill
Jesus’ promise.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Ken Sipleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05618147995505225257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5218410660852462371.post-48817158343957178602020-08-23T11:39:00.002-07:002020-08-23T11:39:19.267-07:00The Gift of the Spirit<p> </p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The
Gift of the Spirit<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Numbers
11:16-30<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Christians celebrate Pentecost as the birthday of the
church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some denominations make a bigger
celebration than others, but all recognize this as the day the Holy Spirit was
given to the disciples.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From this point
on the New Testament refers to them as <i>apostles</i>—messengers—rather than
disciples.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This is not the only place in the Bible where God’s
Spirit is given to God’s people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of
the most interesting occurrences happens during the wilderness wanderings of
the Israelites.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They have left Egypt and
crossed the Red Sea.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Egyptian army
has been destroyed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God has given Israel
a set of laws to live by, and instructions for building a place to worship (the
tabernacle).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Construction is complete,
Aaron has been consecrated high priest, and the Levites have been set aside as
the priestly class.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their calling is to
serve in the tabernacle and assist Aaron in his duties.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Early in the wilderness story Moses’ father-in-law comes
to visit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He sees that Moses is
overburdened with caring for the people, and suggests a solution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Men of outstanding ability should be
appointed to help solve the easy problems, so that only the thorniest issues
will be brought to Moses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The system is
put in place, it works beautifully, and Moses is no longer overwhelmed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In the fourth book of the Torah, Numbers, God tells Moses
to choose seventy worthy elders to further help him bear the burden of the
people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Moses does so, and takes them to
the tabernacle, where God takes some of the Spirit that has been given to Moses
and gives it to the seventy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Immediately
they begin to prophesy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Back in the camp, two men who were supposed to be with
the elders but somehow got left behind also begin to prophesy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You can imagine what a stir that caused.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Place yourself in the camp and imagine what
your reaction might have been.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you see
yourself alarmed and puzzled, you are probably reacting just as the Israelites
must have done.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>One young man had the presence of mind to run to the
tabernacle and tell Moses what was happening.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Joshua, Moses’ chief assistant, wanted to stop them, but Moses
refused.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead, he said, “Would that
all the Lord’s people were prophets, that the Lord would put his Spirit on
them!.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Amen!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This is what Joel prophesies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God will pour out God’s Spirit on all of
God’s people, and they will prophesy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Peter quotes Joel in his Pentecost sermon.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>One problem we might have with this story is a
misinterpretation of prophecy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We tend
to think of prophecy as telling the future, and that is a part of it; but
prophetic utterances may also be ecstatic praises to God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I believe this is what happened that day at
the tabernacle and in the Israelite camp, and what Joel meant.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Moses understood what a difference the gift of prophecy
would make if given to all God’s people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It is a gift we should desire for ourselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To be so attuned to God that words of
ecstatic praise come from our mouths would, I believe, have a profound effect
on the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>True, it would take some
getting used to, and people might doubt our sanity or our truthfulness, but
what a way to proclaim the power of God!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>May God grant each of us—<i>all</i> of us—the gift of the
Spirit, that we might praise God with all our being and with all our words.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Ken Sipleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05618147995505225257noreply@blogger.com0