When You Have a Friend in Need

When You Have a Friend in Need

Pastor Leslie Tipton

January 30, 2011

Mark 2:1-12

1 A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. 2 So many gathered that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. 3 Some men came, bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them. 4 Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on. 5When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven." 6 Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, 7 "Why does this fellow talk like that? He's blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?" 8 Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, "Why are you thinking these things? 9 Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up, take your mat and walk'? 10 But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins . . ." He said to the paralytic, 11 "I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home." 12 He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, "We have never seen anything like this!"

Mark 12:28-31
28 One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?" 29"The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' 31 The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these."

We’ve been listening to sermons here for sometime now about God’s greatest commandment, To love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, and mind. We’ve been told that we cannot love our neighbor correctly if we don’t do the first. That’s true, so true. And today we are going to look at a story about four friends who knew the truth, and knew that the Truth would set their friend free.

Some friends, very devoted friends, take matters into their own hands when they see that they have a friend in need. As the story goes, Jesus returned to Capernaum, and he is found in this particular story teaching in a home. It is obvious that his teaching had become quite popular, because, as the Bible intimates with us, “So many had gathered there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them.” There are many things that we do not know about these friends. We don’t know their names, we don’t know their nation of origin, we don’t know their skin color, we don’t know how long their paralyzed friend has known them.

However, even though we don’t know these things about his friends, there are a few things we do know. And that’s what we are going to talk about today.

The first thing we know is that they knew where to take their friend. They didn’t take him to a doctor, they took him to THE GREAT PHYSICIAN. They didn’t take him for a prescription, they took him for the WORD. Instead of giving up on him, thinking that they wouldn’t be able to help him because he couldn’t walk, they CARRIED him to the ONE, the ONLY ONE who could help him.

Mark 2:3 indicates to us that there were several friends that came with their friend, but only four of them carried him. These men were on a mission, and they were SURE of where their friend needed to be.

In our calling to fulfill the second greatest command, to love our neighbor as ourselves, we have got to know where to take our friends, and even just acquaintances, when they need help. It is a must! There is no better place to take them than to Jesus.

Hebrews 10:24 says “Think of ways to encourage one another to outbursts of love and good deeds.”

This man, this paralyzed man, needed someone to care enough to take him to Jesus. That’s us, folks. God has placed people around us, in our lives, for us to take to Jesus. Our coworkers, our relatives, our neighbors, our friends....WE have the opportunity to take them to Jesus. Even when it negatively impacts our schedules, even when it is inconvenient, when it is something we don’t feel like doing, when it is with someone we aren’t particularly fond of.....we are called to take them to Jesus.

The soldier's first article of faith is summed up nowhere more eloquently than in an 1865 letter from William Tecumseh Sherman to U.S. Grant: "I knew wherever I was that you thought of me, and if I got in a tight place you would come--if alive."

I don’t think I’m stretching it by saying everyone of us in here is alive. We MUST be there for our friends, our neighbors.


2. The second thing we know about our friend’s friends is that they didn’t let the obstacle stop them from their goal. There was a huge crowd, so much so that they were unable to get him in through the front door. They couldn’t get him close to Jesus, where they knew he needed to be. But they didn’t let that stop them. They didn’t just lay him down at the door hoping that someone else would pick him up and take him into the house eventually.

The word says that when they saw that the house was too crowded for them to get in the front door, they went up on the roof. Houses in this particular era and area were made with stairs that led up to the roof. So when the four of a kind found a full house, they beat the odds and went up the stairs. Up they go, onto the roof. We don’t know if one had the idea and the others followed suit, but we do know they made their way to the roof.

We, too, are called to beat the odds and not let the obstacles get us down. Obstacles tend to frustrate me, how about you? Anybody else frustrated by obstacles? Sure we get frustrated, because we had an expectation that something was going to go a certain way, and when it didn’t, we got frustrated. That’s what makes us stop and give up. Obstacles are just opportunities for us to grow stronger in the Lord, amen? If we would just take a moment and pray when we hit an obstacle, ask for God’s guidance, we would get so much more done for Him.

What kinds of obstacles do we run into when we are helping others? Maybe we don’t know a certain Scripture that might help them, or perhaps we don’t make the time to be with them. Sometimes we simply just don’t know what to do. But none of those things should be able to stop us in our mission to follow God’s command to help and love our neighbor. We just give up too easily. Sometimes it’s easier to give up. I tried, I really did. They were too many people there, we couldn’t get you in......sorry dude.


3. The third thing we know about his friends is that they were innovative in obtaining their goal. Again, did one suggest and the others follow? I don’t know, but to think of this is brilliant. The house itself was made of stone, with a roof made of mud and straw. They dug a hole in the roof and lowered him down, mat and all, right in front of Jesus. Wow! Now that’s thinking!

Can you even imagine being the owner of that home. Here you are, Jesus is teaching the crowd in your home, and the ceiling starts to crumble. Then a hole develops, and you realize that someone or something is digging through your roof. I wonder if his goals were blocked?

Innovation is defined as something new or different that is introduced. I’d say digging through the roof to get to Jesus is innovative. But they knew they had to get their friend to him. They were so close, they knew they couldn’t give up, so they went another route.

Sometimes we have to go another route to help our neighbors and friends, eh?

We should consider thinking outside of the box a bit more. Who can tell me in this place that some folks outside that door DON’T NEED US to help them dig through some things in their lives so that they can get to Jesus. Just like the paralyzed man’s friends, we are there to help dig through that barrier in new and different ways, and get them right in front of Jesus. And sometimes all that means is doing something practical, being a servant, meeting a need in a new or thoughtful way.

Sandra and I have a new friend. She lives down the street from us. We’ve been saying hi for months as she passed by walking her dog or after a run. Last Wednesday, I was leaving for work, and she was coming in from a run. A conversation began, we met officially, exchanged names, got to know a bit about each other, and parted ways. The next day, two police officers were killed in the line of duty in Miami Dade....one of the officers was our new friend’s life partner. We had no idea until the funeral on Monday. They lived a very private life together.

What can we do for our new friend? We don’t know her very well. We’re really just getting to know her. But we can be innovative in meeting needs and showing God’s love. A cup of coffee yesterday, a hug here and there, taking Bella (the lab) for a ride in the jeep. There are many, many ways to show our friends the love of God, and they don’t all have to be text book strategies.

These friends knew where to take their friend, they didn’t let any obstacles stop them, and they were innovative in their thinking.

But that’s not the end of the story. That’s right, they had another friend there. He knew where to take his friend, for he came to show us the way to God. He didn’t let any obstacles deter him from doing what he came here to do. And lastly, he WAS INNOVATIVE in accomplishing his mission while here on earth....very innovative. He was born of a virgin, conceived by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit, lived a sinless life. He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one goes to the Father except THROUGH ME.” He is the WORD made flesh. And his name is Jesus.

 

The Proff of Wisfom

“The Proof of Wisdom”

Pastor Tom Millner

Matthew 11:16-19; James 3:13-18

January 23, 2010

 

You’ve heard “the proof is in the pudding”? How about “I’ll believe it when I see it”? Some say the longer you live, the greater skeptic you become. One of the more common things I hear from folks who visit churches is that they are waiting to see if the folks in the church “walk the talk.” I did the same thing when I first came to visit COHSS. I felt the warmth, the welcoming spirit, and I wanted to witness love in action. What I saw was encouraging, but it didn’t allay my skepticism about “these people.” Although I had been around and sometimes involved in churches most of my adulthood, in the years just prior to COHSS I had experienced three extremes. The “damnation if you don’t change who you are” church; the “everything is beautiful, I am the Spirit of God” church; and the “I’m so gay this must be the way” church. None of those spoke to me about the God of grace and mercy that calls us to place Him first in our lives. All of the others seemed to be about justifying self, (change self to be acceptable, try to equate one’ self to the goodness of God, or push the contrived world view of orientation as the central theme of God’s love) rendering the effort itself as the god being sought. My decision to stop judging the folks around me (as harshly as I was judging myself) and to enter into a relationship with Him, one-on-one, in the fellowship of other likeminded folks, was the first step I took toward membership in this Body. I stand before you today a work in progress, not perfected, but perfectly at peace with Christ as my leader. What I was looking for was the evidence of wisdom that was patterned after what I knew to be from God. I had witnessed other forms of wisdom and found them to be lacking in substance to nurture my soul. There are three things I’ve learned about wisdom that I’d like to share with you today

 

1.      Wisdom comes alive in action! We make the mistake of thinking that wisdom is something abstract that is captured in a body of literature or knowledge that is passed down generation to generation. If wisdom sits on the shelf of self-knowledge and is never exercised, it is of no value and turns out not to be wisdom at all. James reminds us that wisdom is action that is full of mercy and good fruit. He said: “Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.” He means that the execution of wisdom is to be done in the absence of self-interest. That lack of self-interest is called humility. The humility that calls attention to itself is always false. James further states: “But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.” The good fruit that James talks about is not unlike the fruit that Paul asserts in Galatians 5:22-23 as being “…the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” These are all action oriented words! The action has a consequence – a deeper relationship with God, the giver of all wisdom.

2.      True wisdom is divine! The smart thing we think we’re doing sometimes isn’t the wise thing. Create a system and someone is always smart enough to create a way to beat it. The human network of actions, interaction, and reactions is centered on structure, hierarchy and power. It’s a smart system to keep things in order. It isn’t a system built on God’s wisdom! You see God’s wisdom draws us to Him. He isn’t interested in our power systems or hierarchy. He doesn’t need such things. He’s interested in relationship with us. The exercise of true wisdom takes us deeper in relationship with Him. As we grow deeper in our relationship with Him, we grow broader in our relationships with each other. Action that takes us deeper into Him is wise action indeed. Action that undermines or diminishes our relationship with Him is foolish. We believe that living out His great commandment will lead to the fulfillment of His great commission. His great commandment is to love Him with all our heart, soul, and mind, and likewise love each other as we love ourselves. I’ve heard many say “I can’t love another until I’ve learned how to love myself.” That’s a way of saying “don’t bother me with your stuff because I’ve got my own plate full!” That’s an excuse for continued self-indulgence, not a scriptural prescription to heal a broken heart! We already love ourselves to death. Why else would we create any false god that we believe will be safe for us to worship? We truly don’t believe that God has our best interest at heart – otherwise, we would be knocking down walls of self-denial, and self-interest to get to the heart of God and co-union with Him. God calls us to relationship with Him so we can love ourselves to life – in, through, and because of Him. We create a foolish box of rules, stipulations, conditions, laws and damnation and try desperately to stuff God into it. God and His wisdom cannot be contained in our stupid box of rocks! True wisdom seeks the real God! So the exercise of true wisdom is indeed divine.

3.      The object of wisdom is love! Proverbs is a part of what is called the wisdom literature of the Old Testament. It is chocked full of little tidbits for fruitful living. In the prologue to the book, Solomon states: (Proverbs 1:7) “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge but fools despise wisdom and instruction.” Now the fear that is talked about here is not the fear that we would experience when faced head on by an out of control cement truck with no place to turn. It’s the kind of fear that is better translated in our language as “awe” or wonder. The kind of awe and wonder that arises when we contemplate that the creator and crafter of all the universe, who is with us now on a sub-atomic, quantum level that is beyond even the greatest mind’s conception, is the God that is so much in love with us that rather than see a single one of us self-destruct, would actually take on our human form and be destroyed Himself. That’s a God of awe, a God of wonder. And, that’s a God of love whose wisdom points the way to a deeper relationship with Him. So called wisdom that leads to fear so great that we run from the presence of it is not the wisdom of God. The wisdom of God will always lead us back to Him because that’s the reason we were created. Wisdom has a purpose – to lead us to God. God desires to love the hell out of us, not beat it out of us, damn us to it or make us burn in it.

 

So, wisdom comes alive in action. Not just any action, but that action that is from God. True wisdom is divine! It come from and points back to Him. The object of wisdom is love - not only the object, but the purpose! Been wrestling with an unloving version of God? Got Him wrapped up neatly on a shelf in a box of your self-creation where you can safely pull him out when the going gets tough? In the words of a great unknown philosopher; “that dog don’t hunt.” The “hound of heaven,” however, hunts us down at every turn, waiting to rescue us from our own wisdom and secure us soundly in the arms of His love. He’s calling you today. Can you hear His loving howl echoing over your soul; come home…you who are weary, come home?

This is wisdom (from Matthew 11:28-30) “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

 

 

What Are You Worth?

“What Are You Worth?”

Pastor Tom Millner

Luke 9:57-62; Mark 8:34-38

January 16, 2011

 

We’ve been inundated this week by the news around the tragedy in Arizona. Six people killed by what some have labeled a “loose cannon lunatic.” Fingers were pointed at opposing ideological views. Political pundits postulate profusely about the power of the opposition to change the tone of the rhetoric pouring forth. We ask; when will this stuff end? When will there be a world where there is peace and tolerance, acceptance, mutual support and caring for each other?  We remember the Christmas song “Let There Be Peace on Earth” by Jill and Sy Miller in 1955.

 

Let there be peace on earth,
And let it begin with me.
Let there be peace on earth
The peace that was meant to be.
With God as our father
We are family.
Let us walk with each other
In perfect harmony.

Let peace begin with me
Let this be the moment now.
With every step I take
Let this be my solemn vow.
To take each moment
And live each moment
With peace eternally.
Let there be peace on earth,
And let it begin with me.

 

The words in the last stanza are words we need to heed today and every day; “let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me.” Some Christians cry out for Christ to come and then all the carnage will cease. We believe that’s true, but He already has given us ample example of living out His Kingdom now! Some argue for better gun control while others argue for more access to arms for protection. Guns are only as good as the one who does or does not pull the trigger. It’s what’s behind the finger that creates the carnage, not the finger itself. As we’ve said before, the value of a quarter inch drill is not the drill but in the whole you get!

So, what’s a human life worth? We’re told that there are rather basic ingredients that make up the bulk of the human body. According to Answers.com; “The human body's basic ingredients are water, fat, protein, vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, ions, salt, bases, acids, carbon-dioxide, and hydrogen peroxide. The human body is made up of 2/3's of water and has enough iron to make a 3 inch nail. The human body's total amount of water can fill a 10 gallon tank. The human body has three basic elements: Oxygen (61% or 43kg), carbon (23% or 16kg), and hydrogen (10% or 7kg). The human body contains 8 pints of blood. If you were to somehow remove the entire DNA from a single sell and lay it all down by the ends, it would be 6 feet in length.” All together, the estimated cost of these ingredients would be well under $100.00. So, it looks like there’s about $1,000 sitting in here this morning. Some folks paid more than that for their pet! My health insurance costs more than that each month.  The birth of our Granddaughter cost about twenty times that amount. Isn’t it odd that it should cost so much to deliver so little net value? But wait a minute; my Granddaughter is priceless! There must be something more in the value of the individual than the sum of the ingredients!

The impoverished quake survivor in Haiti who lives from scrap to scrap, who lives without hope of gainful employment or means to acquire more, values self to a degree greater than the sum of his elemental parts. Humans living in proximity of one another will vie for rank, status, and a higher level of perceived worth. Some are comfortable letting others hold rank. Others are not satisfied until a higher rank is achieved. If all the elemental parts of any person adds up to only a nominal amount, what accounts for the true value of a human? Is one more valuable than another? Does the value have to do with what the person does with that bundle of elements sorted out in the process of gestation? Our human way of thinking tells us that it is what we do with what we have that brings the value to us. Does the short life of young Christina Greene who was killed in Arizona this week have more intrinsic value than the 88 year old Hazel Poteat who passed away in rural NC? How do you calculate your value? The answer lies not in looking at others or around you, but rather with looking up to see what is within you!

1.      God thinks you are worth dying for! How worthy does one need to be in order to be valued so much that the God of the universe would actually give Himself as a sacrifice to human death and suffering, just to demonstrate His love? John 3 mentions the “whosoever” that believes and the “whosoever” that doesn’t. John does not state that the value of the one is greater than the other. He only references the consequences of the act of belief. We Bible thumping Christians sometimes look with disdain at the “non-believers” as those pesky losers who have just missed the boat. Some of us have experienced the condemnation from the “broader” church for being who we are in spite of “Who” we believe!  In His death, Christ calls us into relationship with Him in a way that was not possible before His death. We have the freedom to choose to engage that relationship or not. Simply muttering the words “I believe” followed by acts that shout “I need to receive” is not the “believe” for the “whosoever” that John writes about. You see, Jesus believes you are worth enough to have laid down His life for you. His life was the greatest price He could pay; rendering the one for whom He died to be of highest value. I believe that on that great judgment day we’ll hear echoed the words of the great prophet, Ricky Ricardo shouted; “Lucy, you got some e’splainin to do.”  Paul reminds us in his letter to the church at Ephesus that “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- not by works, so that no one can boast.”

2.      Our worth is not measured by our system of accounting! We strive to gain by what we get. Power, influence, knowledge, possessions or holdings are measures we use to determine one’s worth. It seems we’ll go to any length to have others affirm our value. Some go to extreme lengths to protect their self-value by taking their lives (and death) into their own hands.  We saw in today’s Gospel readings that human nature (as compared to God’s nature) hasn’t changed much in over 2000 years. We make declarations to follow Him, yet are deterred by this that, or the other that somehow distracts us from the path of relationship with Him. There just doesn’t seem to be enough time in the day to fit Him in. Bills to pay, people to see, places to go, and a to-do list to complete consume our space and time. At the end of the day, we so often long for more. He says “here I am knocking...” “Right, God; let me finish this, let me do that; then I will be with you." In Luke’s Gospel, Chapter 9 that we read today; “Jesus replied, ‘No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.’” Notice it doesn’t say “worthy” of the Kingdom; it say’s “fit.” When we don’t serve our role in relationship with Him, it doesn’t mean we aren’t any longer worthy of His love and mercy, it means we aren’t fit (competent) to serve in His kingdom. Worth has been established by virtue of God’s act of love at the cross. God calls us to be fit in His service! We’ve heard it said that this life is the kindergarten for eternity. So many of us are holding ourselves back in preschool! Relationship opportunities surround us, but we are too busy shining the walls of self-perception to engage relationship with others. We cry “fill ME” Lord, “inspire ME” Lord, “grant ME” Lord… “Have my will be done” Lord.  If God believes you are worth dying for don’t you think He’s worth living for? He’s given us everything we need…He’s assessed our net worth as priceless. He’s asked us to share the wealth he’s assessed. You see, that person next to you has a priceless value. The dude that ticked you off the last time also has a priceless value. The guy who pulled the trigger this week and mercilessly killed six priceless recipients of God’s love is himself priceless before God. When will we learn that what God desires for us is not pretentious piety, but pure and unadulterated surrender of self in relationship? How do we have that with him? Matthew 25:45 states “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.” When we know we’re in relationship with Him is when we see the evidence in relation to others. That’s priceless!

3.      The fullness of your worth expresses itself one act at a time! When Jesus prayed in the garden before His arrest, He prayed not for a crown of glory but for the will of His Father to be done. The value of that act is available to every human who has and will ever live since then. Without the act, the value would not have been realized. Abraham’s act of hospitality to three strangers spawned a bond with God that produced a people of faith. The act of perseverance by Moses led to the exodus of the Jews from their slavery in Egypt. The bull’s eye aim of the young David spawned the dawn of a great kingdom. The surrender of the family fishing business to follow an itinerant preacher spawned the Rock upon which a great church was built. The act of nailing the tenants of faith to a church in Germany led to a mighty reformation. The belief that God values the quality of one’s character over the color of one’s skin led to steps away from open bigotry. What are these lives worth? Their worth is immeasurable! The value of each lives on through the impact on all.

 

In case you haven’t noticed, God’s call to us is not to just an exclusive with Him. It’s a bond with you, Him, and me. You can’t have one without the other. When you marry that partner, you get the family as well! The command He gives is a love response from Him: to love Him above all else (including self) and to love one another as if the other were as valuable as self. Mark 8:34-38 “Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: ‘If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.  What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?  Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?”

 

Want to know what you’re worth?

 

Three nails + one cross + surrender ÷ mankind = priceless!