A Slave or a servant to the Gospel

February 8, 2015 1 Corinthians 9:16-23 Free to Serve Year B 5th Sunday after Epiphany Slavery has had a huge effect on the psyche of African America were slaves, but it is an experience where the psychological effects on both white people and black people have been prevalent. As a matter of fact, I think that the slavery of today, is much more pervasive, careless, and cruel than anything that we have read about in ur history books. As a matter of fact, in the 1600 and 1700’s a household would have both slaves and servants. There were people in Europe who could not afford to come to America. So they would sell themselves to a family for a period of time so that they could pay for their expenses of coming to America. And they were treated no better them slaves. It was sort of like to treatment that you give to a car that you own, and a car that you rented and are about to return. You take care of the car that you own, where you could care less about a car that you are about to return. It wasn’t until slaves had been in the society for some time that slave owners became cruel and careless. They defined slaves as less than people to make sure that they did not have to basic rights as other people in society. There was such negative feelings around the concept of slavery, that it even affected the way the bible was written. There are two words for slave or servant in the greek language. Doulos means slave – a slave is owned and controlled my their master. And there is diakonos – which is considered a servant, with no concept of ownership. If you read an English bible, you will always see the word servant unless the sentence is a direct reference to a particular person. There are 22 references to servants in the new testament. The reality is that most of those references use the greek word doulous- a slave owned by his master. When Jesus talks about the word slave – his uses the word doulous. Paul also talks about being a slave – in our scripture in 1 Corinthians. Paul starts out by talking about his right to get paid for his work. He works as a tentmaker in order to earn his way. But he sort of shifts his conversation on being a slave – a slave to God and a slave to spreading the gospel. He says that he is obligated by Christ to spread the gospel. He has no choice. And that he is so obligated, that he has to give people the good news no matter what. In order to spread the gospel, he has to get into their world, not his. Ramon Lull, the great Spanish saint and mystic, tells us how he became a missionary of Christ. He had been living a careless and pleasure-loving life. Then one day, when he was alone, Christ came carrying his Cross and saying to him, “Carry this for me.” But he refused. Again, when he was in the silence of a great cathedral, Christ came and asked him to carry his Cross; and again he refused. In a lonely moment Christ came a third time, and this time, said Ramon Lull, “He took his Cross and with a look he left it lying in my hands. What could I do but take it up and carry it on?” Paul would have said, “What can I do but tell men the good news of Christ?” Jesus calls for all of us to be a slave to the gospel. Not a servant of the gospel, but a slave. Let God take complete control of your mind, body and spirit. Put God first in the midst of all of your priorities. Know that God has complete control of our actions. The bad news that a slave is considered property, you are owned by your master. Jesus Christ paid a high price for you. He bought you with his blood. The good news is that if God is your master, that is the only way to truly be free. Jesus bought you, so that you would be free. Slavery in the 1700’s and 1800’s may have been really cruel. But I think that slavery today is even crueler. People are no longer seen as tools to be used, they are commodities. The people who are running the world don’t care about people anymore. They don’t care about how people are being affected, they don’t care about the mess that they make. Today there are people who are slaves to debt, slaves to what others think, slaves to violence, slaves to drugs, even slaves to the economy. There are many broken people in the world. There are many more who think that is how life is supposed to be. They don’t know that God created them to be free to all influences of the world. Paul says that we have an obligation to let them know that they are not slave to the world, but they are heirs of the beauty of God. William Barclay is a scholar who explains scripture. Usually I don’t use his commentary when I am trying to explain scripture. He wrote early in the 1900’s, so his understanding does not always make sense for today. But today I think he got it right as he explains Paul’s motives for speaking to us in 1 Corinthians. He says that to be a slave to the gospel is a priviledge. If we love God,then we should have joy in doing his bidding. When we tell others about God and what God has done for us, we have joy and peace. But it is also a duty. If we don’t tell others the good news, then how do they know. God has no other voice but ours. It is a great reward – When people actually listen to us, and their lives are changed. We can take pride that not only have we received a gift fromGod, but we were able to pass that word on. And how do we do that? Spreading God’s word is all about getting to know people, speaking to them about things that they are interested in, and finding what you have in common with them. I was able to preach twice while I was in Thailand. I actually wrote two different sermons while I was away. I preached to students in seminary about the importance of marches around the world. They enjoyed that I taught them the words to we are Marching in the light of God. And to a congregation _I preached the comfort of Romans 8 nothing separates us from the love of God. I was a little nervous, I don’t know anything about Thai culture, I don’t know even speak the language. Someone had to translate for me, so I am assuming they were able to repeat what I said. But I realized that what we had in common was the love of Christ. If I just stuck to the bible, and told the good news that has been told to me, then I would be okay. Both groups got the message. A man tells the story about a special friend he made while just a boy. When quite young, Paul’s father had one of the first telephones in their neighbourhood. Paul was too little to reach the telephone, but used to listen with fascination when his mother talked to it. Then Paul discovered that somewhere inside the wonderful device lived an amazing person – her name was “Information, Please” and there was nothing she did not know. “Information, Please” could supply anybody’s number and the correct time. Paul’s first personal experience with this genie-in the-bottle came one day while his mother was visiting a neighbour. Amusing himself at the tool bench in the basement, Paul hacked his finger with a hammer. The pain was terrible, but there didn’t seem to be any reason in crying because there was no one home to give sympathy. He walked around the house sucking his throbbing finger, finally arriving at the stairway. The telephone! Quickly, Paul ran for the foot stool in the parlour and dragged it to the landing. Climbing up, he unhooked the receiver in the parlour and held it to his ear. “Information, Please,” he said into the mouthpiece just above his head. A click or two and a small clear voice spoke into Paul’s ear. “Information.” “I hurt my finger,” Paul wailed into the phone. “Isn’t your mother home?” came the question. “Nobody’s home but me” Paul blubbered. “Are you bleeding?” the voice asked. “No,” he replied. “I hit my finger with the hammer and it hurts.” “Can you open your icebox?” she asked. He said he could. “Then chip off a little piece of ice and hold it to your finger,” said the voice. After that, Paul called “Information, Please” for everything. He asked her for help with his geography and she told me where Philadelphia was. She helped him with his maths. She told Paul that his pet chipmunk, which he had caught in the park just the day before, would eat fruit and nuts. Then, there was the time Petey, the pet canary died. Paul called and told her the sad story. She listened, then said the usual things grown-ups say to soothe a child, but Paul was inconsolable. He asked her, “Why is it that birds should sing so beautifully and bring joy to all families, only to end up as a heap of feathers on the bottom of a cage?” She must have sensed his deep concern, for she said quietly, “Paul, always remember that there are other worlds to sing in.” Somehow he felt better. . When Paul was nine years old, his family moved across the country to Boston. Paul missed his friend very much. “Information, Please” belonged in that old wooden box back home, and he somehow never thought of trying the tall, shiny new phone that sat on the table in the hall. As he grew into my teens, the memories of those childhood conversations never really left him. Often, in moments of doubt and perplexity Paul would recall the serene sense of security he had then. He appreciated now how patient, understanding, and kind she was to have spent her time on a little boy. A few years later, on his way west to college, Paul’s plane put down in Seattle. He had about half an hour or so between planes. He spent 15 minutes on the phone with my sister, who lived there now. Then without thinking what he was doing, Paul dialled his hometown operator and said, “Information, Please.” Source: Unknown. So what does that story have to do with being a slave to Christ? What does it have to do with spreading the good news of salvation to the world? In this story an operator was able to become information please to a young boy in need. She knew how to listen to what he needed, and to relate to him in a way that was helpful. Sometimes we are so confused about spreading the gospel. We don’t want to be JehovahWitnesses, knocking on strangers doors telling them that they are going to hell if they don’t change their lives and come to church. Spreading the gospel is about developing relationships with people and accepting them for who they are, where they are. It is about making friends, and once you are friends, you introduce them to your friend. Your master. It is being information please, to a young boy who needs someone to talk to.it is listening, caring, sharing. We are slaves to the gospel, If we believe what it says. It sets us free from all of the traps of life. Trust that if God did it foryou, he will do it for others. Amen. Commentary "Servant" in our English New Testament usually represents the Greek doulos (bondslave). Sometimes it means diakonos (deacon or minister); this is strictly accurate, for doulos and diakonos are synonyms. Both words denote a man who is not at his own disposal, but is his master's purchased property. Bought to serve his master's needs, to be at his beck and call every moment, the slave's sole business is to do as he is told. Christian service therefore means, first and foremost, living out a slave relationship to one's Savior (1 Corinthians. 6:19-20). What work does Christ set his servants to do? The way that they serve him, he tells them, is by becoming the slaves of their fellow-servants and being willing to do literally anything, however costly, irksome, or undignified, in order to help them. This is what love means, as he himself showed at the Last supper when he played the slave's part and washed the disciples' feet. When the New Testament speaks of ministering to the saints, it means not primarily preaching to them but devoting time, trouble, and substance to giving them all the practical help possible. The essence of Christian service is loyalty to the king expressing itself in care for his servants (Matthew 25: 31-46). Only the Holy Spirit can create in us the kind of love toward our Savior that will overflow in imaginative sympathy and practical helpfulness towards his people. Unless the spirit is training us in love, we are not fit persons to go to college or a training class to learn the know-how or particular branches of Christian work. Gifted leaders who are self-centered and loveless are a blight to the church rather than a blessing. James Packer, Your Father Loves You, Harold Shaw Publishers, 1986. In ancient times the slave was seen as a tool much like a hammer or shovel, and there were three kinds of tools. Mute, like a shovel; it can't talk or communicate in any way. Inarticulate, like a donkey; it can make a noise but has limited communicative ability. And articulate, like a human being; it can talk. So if you hit your finger with a hammer and got angry you had a perfect right to smash that hammer to pieces. If your donkey didn't move when you wanted it to, you had every right to whip it. And if you didn't like the way your slave looked at you, you had every right to beat him or do whatever you liked to him. Children’s Sermon… JESUS SHARES HIS VICTORY Passage: 1 Corinthians 9:1-27 • Lectionary: Epiphany 5 Item 8 of 8 | Back to Results I Corinthians 9:24 "Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we are unperishable." Object: Blue ribbons (a ribbon for each child) Good morning WINNERS!!! Did you hear that? I called you WINNERS. How many of you feel as though you had won something? Do you know what you have won? Before I tell you what you have won I must give you something. When a man wins a race or a woman wins first prize at a flower show or you are first in a school art show, what do you get? (Let them guess - some will say a trophy, others money, but someone will say a ribbon). A Blue Ribbon. That's right. How many people can win a race or any contest? Most of the time only one person wins, but today all of you are winners. (Pass out the ribbons). Not one of you has lost. At least I don't think so. Do you know what you have won? I'm going to tell you. You have all received eternal life. Isn't that great? How many of you love and trust Jesus even better than your best friend? You do? That's great. Well, if you do, God says that you are on his team and that since his team has won, you are all winners. That's right. Jesus died on the Cross to make all believers winners. Now you know why you have the Blue Ribbon and while you didn't win any race all by yourself, Jesus did win it and he wants to share his win with you. That is, if you believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. And we all do, don't we? 0-89536-041-1

A look into your future

February 1, 2015 Deuteronomy 18:15-20 Year B Fourth Sunday of Epiphany We seem to have an obsession to be able to predict the future we need to know the outcome of everything. I noticed that there have been more predictions about who is going to win the superbowl than I have ever seen. I have seen all kinds of stories about how dogs, tigers, and crocodiles have been given a choice between the patriots and the seahawks. And that the animal made some choice. What Amazes me about these stories, is not so much that they were able to make a choice, but people start to brag about the record of these arbitrary events. This particular tiger has predicted the winner of the superbowl for the last 4 years…really? A tiger being able to predict the future? Tomorrow is ground hog day, where we watch to see if the ground hog will see his shadow. This arbitrary ground hog has the power to tell us what the next six weeks will be like? Really? Desperate and lonely for female company, a frog telephoned a psychic telephone service to find out what his future held. The person on the other end of the line said, "You will meet a beautiful young woman who will find you very interesting and want to know all about you." Excited and amazed, the frog asked excitedly, "That's wonderful! Where will I meet her? At work? At a party?" "No," said the psychic. "In a biology class." We are not frogs, we are children of God. So why would we leave something so sacred as our future up to tigers, and ground hogs, and arbitrary guesses of other people. Personally, I can appreciate John Wesley’s belief on the future. What we will become, or what happens to us has not been determined yet. We learned last week, that God knows our future, God knows what will become of us. But even God can change God’s mind. Prayer, faithfulness, and repentance can change things. Who I will be, and what will become with me, is not stored up for me in a book. My ultimate future is contained in my relationship with God. The bible says that eternity starts today. It starts with my ability to have a relationship with God. Our obsession with trying to predict the future stands in the way of us understanding what a prophet is and what a prophet does. When we think of prophecy, we think of it as a word about our future. It is about what is going to happen to us in the future. Deuteronomy 18 says that one way to test whether a prophet is true, is to see if what they have to say comes true or not. But Deuteronomy is not talking about the future, it is talking about today. In Hebrew belief, all there is is the here and now. Life is not so much about what it going to happen tomorrow, it is about today. All that we have any control of is what we are doing today. That is why it is called the present. We cant do anything about what happen yesterday, we cant do anything about what will happen tomorrow. All that we have is the present. A prophet is not someone who can predict the future, a prophet is someone who speaks for God about the conditions of today. In Deutoronomy, God says that he will send someone who can speak God’s word in the present situation. A prophet is someone who is able to listen to God. To have a relationship with God. And who is able to speak God’s word to the people. Deutoronomy says that the mark of a prophet is someone who God chooses, they don’t choose themselves. Someone who is a mediater between God and thepeople, and who speaks god’s words and not what comes to his own mind. Moses was the ultimate model of what a prophet should be and what a prophet should do. If we look at Numbers 12- Moses says that God speaks clearly to him face to face, and not in riddles. Moses was one of the few people who had a relationship with God, as if he was talking to a person. Moses has a relationship with god that was so intimate, that he was able to talk to God in a conversation, and to get answers, not just for his life, but for the lives of all of his people. As a matter of fact, in the story of numbers, Moses brother and sister criticize him for being so close to God. God gets mad at Miriam, and punishes her. Moses prays to God to be merciful to Miriam and she recovers. But it is her own encounter with God that changes her. She repents of her ways, and is allowed to be restored, so that she can begin a new relationship with God, with a new understanding, and a new respect. How many of us have had those encounters with God, that have challenged you, and caused you to have a new respect for the power of God in your life. I have those encounters each and everyday. The meaning of prophecy changes with each revelation of God. Moses is known as the founder of the jewish religion. Moses was known as the redeemer of his people. He was known as the one who had such a close relationship with God that he was able to bring the law of God to the people. But since then, we have a clearer example of one who has a relationship with God. We have someone who God chose, who god mediates with us, and who says and lives the words that God gave him. That person is Jesus Christ. And today, we cannot have a relationship with God without having a relationship with Christ, and a relationship with God’s word. Just as Moses sat on the mountain and had a lively conversation with God. We have to sit with our bible everyday and have a lively conversation with God’s word. How do we know what will become of our future, how well do we know that bible? How well do we do the will of Christ? How well do we live in the situations of today- according to the life of Christ? When we went to Malaysia in 2002, my son and I bought an electric shaver each. One of the good things about the shaver is that it has a rechargeable battery, meaning you can use it unplugged. But when you do, it gives off a low buzz. But if I plug it in it immediately steps up the revs and emits a high buzz. Unplugged it does a passable job. But plugged in it does a very good job - it works the way it was meant to. If you don't know Jesus, you can get along in everyday life without ever acknowledging Him. You can be an atheist, and get along fairly well. Before I knew Jesus Christ, I thought I was fine - but that's because I didn't know any better. I was like the unplugged shaver. I could never really do what I had been designed to do, fulfil my full potential, the plan of God for my life. There are lots of people who are getting by, but they don't realise they're not plugged into the power source. To plug into the power source, you have to be connected to God Himself through Jesus Christ. To be connected to Jesus, you have to be connected to the word of God, for today. Your today determines your tomorrow. Amen. Children’s Sermon: The Glue of God's Love by Thomas A. Pilgrim Passage: Mark 1:21-28 • Lectionary: Epiphany 4 Item 7 of 15 | Back to Results Object: A bottle of glue Lesson: Good morning boys and girls. I am glad you are here. Today in the Scripture lesson we will be reading about Jesus going to a town called Capernaum. Today I want you to look at this bottle of glue. They call this "School Glue." This is the same kind you use in school. As you already know this is really good glue because you can stick anything together with this glue. You can glue paper, plastic, wood, cloth, and just about anything else you can think of and it will stay together. Another good thing about it is that you cannot glue yourself to the floor. I was using some really strong glue one time and I actually glued myself to the floor. But you will not do that with this glue. Also, this glue will wash off your hands and clothes. So it will not make a mess you cannot clean up. Your mother does not have to worry when you use this glue. Now, let me ask you this question. Have you ever heard the expression, "I'm stuck on you?" Do you know what that means? It means, "I love you." It is something one of you boys might someday say to one of these girls. There is a glue in life that joins us together in the church. It helps us stick with our friends and our family members. Who knows what that is? It is God's love. God's love is like glue. It will hold you together when nothing else will. Jesus said to his disciples one time, "Children, love one another." He loved each one of them. And he wanted them to love each other. Everywhere Jesus went he called people to come follow him. And in doing that he was teaching them to have the same love and concern for other people that he had. Still today he wants us to be people who love him, love God, love each other and love other people, who more than anything, just need someone to love them. I am glad you came here today. May we pray: O God, help us to love each other and to love you. Help us to share your love with others. Amen. Extra Illustrations…….. There's a Spanish story of a father and son who had become estranged. The son ran away, and the father set off to find him. He searched for months to no avail. Finally, in a last desperate effort to find him, the father put an ad in a Madrid newspaper. The ad read: Dear Paco, meet me in front of this newspaper office at noon on Saturday. All is forgiven. I love you. Your Father. On Saturday 800 Pacos showed up, looking for forgiveness and love from their fathers. Bits & Pieces, October 15, 1992, p. 13. Asking for Help The early church asked for the Spirit. They acknowledged His power and His way. Sensitive souls have always turned to the Spirit for help. The Spirit does not add qualities of life we do not possess. Those qualities are not something poured into us from the outside. They are inside humans and respond to the Spirit, developing every potential to its fullest. John Milton asked the Spirit to aid him as he began his epic poem, Paradise Lost. But it would have been of little help had he not possessed the genius of a poet. John Wesley declared that the success of his work was due to the Spirit, but we must remember that Wesley was a born leader. The Spirit used him. There was something in Wesley that responded to the Spirit. A legend is told of how Moses once heard a shepherd praying, “O God, show me where you are that I may become your servant. I will clean your shoes, and comb your hair, and sew your clothes, and bring you food.” Moses rebuked him with the words: “God is Spirit and needs not such ministrations.” Thereupon the shepherd rent his clothes in dismay and fled to the desert. Then Moses was rebuked by God, saying: “You have driven away my servant … I regard not the words that are spoken but the heart that offers them.” —Eugene A. Hessel Dealing With Difficult People Earl Nightingale told how on one National Secretaries Day he gave his secretary some flowers. She remarked how beautiful they were, but wondered why they didn't have any scent. He informed her that the flowers came from a hothouse and explained that because these flowers were raised in an isolated environment, they didn't attract insects (bugs) to pollinate them. As a result, they lost their scent. In the same way, fruit raised in a hothouse, because it doesn't need to attract insects to scatter its seeds, doesn't taste as good as fruit grown in its natural environment. (Weekend Encounter, Oct. 28, 2010). When we withdraw and isolate ourselves from people who "bug" us, it might make us feel safe from harm, but it affects us in other ways. We lose a part of what God created us to be, like a rose loses its fragrance and fruit loses its taste. God uses those people who bug us to bring out the best in us. Rather than running away from those people, let Jesus live His life through you, and the fragrance will come out. (Kent Crockett, www.kentcrockett.com)