The Search for God and Guinness - Stephen Mansfield

I don't like beer. I really don't like beer. I don't like the taste of it, I don't like the smell of it, I don't like its ever present advertising and, most of all, I loathe what the abuse of beer has regularly offered up to me...

Beer is a barracks hallway full of vomit on a Saturday morning at Ft. Bragg. Beer is a room too scary or smelly to come home to at night. Beer is bloody noses and broken teeth on a woman who just keeps on putting up with it, over and over again. Beer is the idiot at that Vikings playoff game against the Cowboys years ago who hit a referee in the head with a beer bottle and utterly destroyed our moral high ground after the ref's screwed up a pass interference call. Beer is my dad's old coworker Larry leaving his wife to deal with a leukemic son alone. Beer is a Moose Lake convict whose life first began to go off track at a beer kegger as a young man. Beer is a drunk driver and dead boys in Montevideo who will never, ever gloriously scream Maynard Ferguson tunes on the trumpet again. Beer is a bleary-eyed, filthy man repeatedly coming to the church for "bus fare." Beer is many, many, many a ruined life. I hate beer. I really hate beer. My reaction to beer and, increasingly, any alcohol consumption whatsoever, is almost visceral.

I know I can't make much of a biblical case for these reactions. I know it is not beer, but its abuse that colors my views. I know the Bible does not teetotal - quite the contrary. I know some studies say a little beer each day might actually be good for you, although to hear Mansfield quoting studies from the University of Wisconsin on this issue does cause me a cynical chuckle! But aside from some very legitimate and important "stumbling block" considerations, like almost everything used in moderation, beer really shouldn't be an issue for believers. I know these things. I've taught these things to others. I believe these things to be true.

But I just don't feel these things. Not even a little bit. I've lived a very different beer experience. And since now it seems my "dry" perspectives on beer and alcohol are very distinctly uncool and out of fashion even in the church, I decided to read and review Stephen Mansfield's book about the Guinness family in Ireland - a biography of the beer that changed the world.

On the one hand, the book is fascinating. The history is very important. It is important for guys like me to be reminded beer was originally considered something of a health drink. With water wildly impure and other forms of alcohol abuse very destructively out of control, beer was a healthy choice encouraged and enjoyed by Christians. And the Guinness people certainly made good beer and used much of their resulting income well. The virtuous stories of this fascinating family make for very interesting reading. Their social responsibility, careful stewardship and profound faith is truly a model for all of us to consider. I suspect many of the virtuous attitudes modeled in the book may well be one of the reasons God allowed this family to rise to the summit of a very competitive industry.

But as a guy with serious beer biases, as a guy repeatedly asked to clean up alcohol damage of one sort or another, I wish there would have been at least grudging admission, somewhere in the book, that the abuse of beer has been a significant problem all over the world. I wish there would have been some sort of responsible consideration of the Apostle Paul's Romans 14:21 admonition, "It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother to fall."(NIV) As Christians, we are constantly in the business of graciously making these "stumbling block" adjustments in our lives for the good of others around us - why in the world should beer now be an exception? Yet Mansfield is so very intent on his beer agenda, these things are never once thoughtfully discussed. I found that very disappointing - a disturbing mark on an otherwise fascinating and worthwhile story.

This book is a good read for beer bigots like me who need to be reminded not to judge unfairly and ungraciously. But I would never, ever recommend it for anyone with even the slightest family history of alcohol abuse. This book tosses stumbling block concerns completely to the wind and opens wide the doors to destruction. Why give such blatant promotion to something so very many people have such a terribly difficult time handling responsibly? I will not.

The God Who Smokes - Timothy Stoner

This was a fascinating read! After initially chuckling at a book about a smoking God by an author named Stoner, I found myself nodding in agreement throughout.

This book is a challenging analysis of much of the current wisdom making the rounds in the American church today. It is direct and blunt at times, and perhaps incorrect, but the thoughts are definitely worth engaging.

Tim Stoner has real, substantive problems with open theism and more than a few contemporary post-modern thinkers. Rob Bell and Brian McClaren are particular points of discussion. While there is much to argue in this book, I believe Stoner raises some excellent observations. While I do resonate much of post-modernism's concern for an authentic Christian faith in a freakishly changing world, like Stoner, I too bristle deeply at many of post-modernisms attempts to define it. Perhaps in our rush to repaint our Velvet Elvis portraits of Jesus, we are trashing more than a few DaVinci's.

Out of all chapters in the book, the one I recommend most highly is chapter four, entitled, "God Is An Earthquake." Some really rambunctious writing! God does not need spin doctors or marketing gurus - God is not in the business of allowing us to control Him. Perhaps we would all do well to remember that - Stoner does a good job helping us.

Godless Like Esau (Genesis 25:27-34)

How did we get where we are right now? I have a theory about that. I believe most of us are where we are largely because of how we’ve decided to play the pricing game – how we prioritize and value life. Our entire lives revolve around the daily decisions we’re constantly making about our priorities in life. Something we truly valuable is pursued and protected; something less valuable is ignored or rejected. And the degree to which we value, pursue and protect the right and most godly pursuits, our lives have meaning, joy, hope and satisfaction. But if we’ve spent a lifetime playing the game badly, ignoring God and His Word, switching the price tags and trading away the valuable for the temporary – we find ourselves empty, joyless, hopeless and unsatisfied. The world becomes very dark and plastic…

Once there were two brothers named Jacob and Esau. They were very different people playing the pricing game in very different ways. Listen to one very early snippet of their story…

The boys grew up, and Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the open country, while Jacob was a quiet man, staying among the tents. Isaac, who had a taste for wild game, loved Esau, but Rebekah loved Jacob. Once when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the open country, famished. He said to Jacob, "Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I'm famished!" (That is why he was also called Edom.) Jacob replied, "First sell me your birthright."
"Look, I am about to die," Esau said. "What good is the birthright to me?" But Jacob said, “Swear to me first.” So he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew. He ate and drank, and then got up and left. So Esau despised his birthright.

I know it is difficult for us to understand, but Esau committed perhaps one of the worst evils a person could commit. He treated as worthless the most precious, valuable gift anyone of that day could ever receive. He treated as worthless what God considered precious.

His birthright was a double portion inheritance of all the father’s worldly goods. And in Esau and Jacob’s case, as the only two legitimate inheritors of Isaac, this meant a two-third vs. one-third inheritance. This birthright probably represented an enormous amount of money and property. And Esau valued it less than a bowl of lentils. But we aren’t talking just cash either…

The birthright represented the sum total of all their father had worked for. It wasn’t just about money, property and stuff. The birthright was the lion’s share of all their father valued and counted precious in life. The birthright represented the life’s work of the father placed into the hands of the most blessed and trusted eldest son. To pass along this birthright was to pass along control of what the father cared most about in the world. To pass along the birthright was to pass along the heritage and honor of the family itself. Esau almost unspeakably insulted his father Isaac by devaluing his birthright in the way he did. He didn’t just disregard money; he disregarded and devalued his father.

The birthright also had a huge spiritual dimension, especially in this particular family’s case. This family was spiritually special in the ancient world and these boys both knew it. And so accepting the birthright meant accepting overall spiritual leadership and responsibility for the household. Since family wealth was seen as God’s blessing for righteous covenant faithfulness, accepting or rejecting the wealth and responsibilities of the birthright meant acceptance or rejection of the covenant that brought about that birthright blessing. This was a spiritual thing.

And beyond any of that, this birthright was Esau’s destiny and dream. It was his future. It was God’s precious gift to him. It was the greatest possible honor any son could ever hope for. The birthright was the very pearl of greatest price in Esau’s field. And instead of selling all he had to purchase and protect it, instead of jealously guarding, cherishing and embracing that birthright, godless Esau traded the whole thing in for a meaningless bowl of lentil soup! There could be no greater insult, no greater disregard, and certainly no greater godlessness anyone could ever possibly express than this. The money and the property were the least of it…

Esau exaggerated his temporal needs. He sold his future for his present. He wasn’t starving and he wasn’t going to die. He embraced a completely false sense of urgency. He valued something incorrectly. And as a result, he switched tags and lost something precious.

I wonder how many of us regularly do exactly that? I wonder how many of us, just like old Esau, trade away our birthright as if it were worthless? We take the delicately handcrafted gifts our Heavenly Father gave us and we sell them for a bowl of worthless soup.

Instead of valuing our marriages, our children, our jobs, our health, our church, our time, talents and treasure, our Holy Bibles and time alone with God, we trade them all away for temporary trinkets. Almighty God gives us everything we could possibly need and more in life, Almighty God gives us all the instructions we need for knowing how to live this life and we trade it away for something that doesn’t satisfy for more than just a few shallow moments.

A married businessman wakes up with a hangover in a motel room next to a woman who is not his wife; next to a woman who seemed so important and valuable the night before and yet suddenly somehow he now grimly realizes he has traded away his marriage for lentils.

A young person goes to a party with a noisy, unruly pack of very cool friends. It seemed such an enormous, valuable privilege to be included in the right group. Maybe he gets drunk, maybe he uses drugs or does some other risky or foolish thing he knows for a fact his parents would never like or maybe something else entirely happens…but suddenly somehow he realizes he has just traded his parents trust, he has traded his reputation at the school, he has traded a chunk of his future and maybe even a bit of his brain away for nothing but lentils.

A lonely, insecure girl goes to school dressed provocatively hoping somebody, some where will finally notice her and give her the attention she craves. She longs for some guy to value her in a way she doesn’t realize or believe she is already valued. But inevitably, sooner or later, she will sickeningly realize she has sold her dignity, she has sold her honor, she has sold her beauty and intelligence, perhaps maybe even her virginity for bread and lentils.

A businessman drags himself exhausted across the threshold of his beautiful, expensive, wonderfully furnished home after the wife and children have long since gone to sleep. It has been yet another long day at the office. As he drops his briefcase on the floor, his cell phone into the charger, flips on the computer to check his email and the television to check the news, he realizes it has been weeks since he spent any meaningful time with wife or family. He has no idea what is going on in the life of his church since Sunday hasn’t been Sabbath for him for many, many years now. It has been years since his faith life has been anything but purely plastic. Eventually, inevitably – sitting at his son’s high school graduation or his daughter’s wedding – it dawns on him he has traded away his birthright for lentils. He realizes his life is filled with expensive, pretty lentils that don’t mean anything to him anymore, if they ever did.

How did you get where you are right now? How does life become plastic?

The writer to the Hebrews takes all these ramblings and brings them clearly into focus.

Make every effort to live in peace with all people and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. He could bring about no change of mind, though he sought the blessing with tears.
You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm; to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them, because they could not bear what was commanded: "If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned." The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, "I am trembling with fear."
But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven? At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, "Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens." The words "once more" indicate the removing of what can be shaken--that is, created things--so that what cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our "God is a consuming fire."

Out of all possible losers and potentially scummy people in the Bible to single out for godlessness, the writer to the Hebrews chooses Esau! Do you see his point? Priorities, man!

Folks, we have not come to a stony Mt. Moriah of rage, fear and fire. We have come to Mt. Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. We have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, the church of the firstborn. We have now been given access to God Himself, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant – to a consuming fire!

What sort of price tag are you putting on this precious birthright you have recieved?

How precious to you is the love of God? How valuable to you is the sacrifice of Jesus? To what lengths will you go to more fully experience the presence and power of the Holy Spirit? How precious and valuable to you is your honor, purity, integrity and holiness? How deeply are you digging into your Bible? How important and precious is the Body of Christ? What is truly the pearl of greatest price in your life? What price are you putting on the Living God? Is your relationship with Almighty God the driving, joyous and sustaining force of your life or are you settling for a plastic, religious, weekly Jesus? A piece of bread and a bowl of lentils?

For the last few weeks, I’ve been driving my father’s old pickup. I borrowed it to bring a standup freezer from our storage garage in Willmar here to the church. I thought it would be useful to have some extra freezer space here at the church.

I like my dad’s old pickup; someday I’m hoping to buy it from him. For a sixteen year old truck, it has low mileage and is in reasonably good shape. And it’s handy to have a little pickup around when you need it. But that is only partially why I’m interested in it.

But mostly, I want it because it is my father’s. I want it for the same reason I jealously guard the simple, little wooden truck on my desk he made for me. I want it for the same reason I carefully protect all the other wonderful things he has made and given me over the years – a coffee table for my car collection, a plant stand for my office, a lovely, rocking cradle for my infant daughters. I love my father. I love what my father has made. I love what my father has given me. These things are precious to me. These are tiny pieces of my earthly birthright. I will never trade these things away cheaply. I will never trade away all the finely crafted wood in my life for the utterly plastic, temporary junk this world constantly offers.

Do we feel in these sorts of ways about our heavenly birthright?

Folks, we have come to the mountain! We have come to thousands and thousands of angels singing a much better song! Jesus has given His life for us!

Don’t trade your pearls away for plastic. Don’t waste your life on what is trivial! Spend time with your Heavenly Father. Read and study His word. Get outdoors and revel in His creation. Make up your mind to stop dating His body, the church and get really involved – be the bride of Christ you have been called to be. Start storing up treasures for yourselves in heaven, instead of obsessing about what’s possibly going to happen down here on earth.

Don’t trade away pearls for plastic. Don’t refuse the One who speaks to you today.

May Almighty God give us eyes to see what He is offering us! May you see the mountain and hear the angel songs!

Amen.

Thankful Thinking

“…whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.”
~ Philippians 4:8

We had an almost perfectly miserable family getaway last weekend. I hurt my knee the weekend before we left, making all our walking plans difficult. Our AirTran flight out of Milwaukee was delayed, resulting in a 3AM nightmare at the rental car place. The national customer service people at Budget weren’t communicating with the local office and our reservation got messed up. And the woman at the counter was stunningly disinterested, rude and unhelpful. We ended up leaving the counter with no car; taking a $60 taxi to our cheap motel. My Maria got an excruciating sinus headache on the airplane, which left her sleepless and hurting the next day. It rained every single day of the weekend, so most of our outdoor plans got scrapped. And then my pricey iPod died inexplicably on the way home. While it was great to see Tesia and be together as a family for a few days, this will not go down in the annals as a favorite vacation.

On Monday afternoon, just before we returned to Logan Airport, as I was leaning on my crabby cane outside a pizza place in Cambridge waiting yet again for my pack of girls to finish in the bathroom, I saw a beggar huddling just down the street. As is customary for all the beggars dotting Harvard Square, he had a tin can with coins in it that he would shake at passers by. There are many such beggars around Boston. But what distinguished this man from all the others was his manner. He would voice loud and profane opinions of people as they walked by him. He would curse them for ignoring him. He would curse them for stinginess. He would mumble curses for reasons only he understood…

Not a very good marketing plan, if you ask me.

Yet there is a good lesson to be found in this crabby, discouraging fellow. When things go wrong, when we find ourselves in disappointing or awful situations, when all the customer service people don’t seem very interested in good customer service, when we honestly want to get away from our getaway or, sadly, when we find ourselves clutching tin cans on the sidewalk, wondering how it all came down to this – cursing the darkness just isn’t very helpful.

In the month of November, we set aside intentional time for gratitude. We intentionally set aside all the darkness and difficulty and choose instead to focus on the good things God has done for us. We give thanks.

We need to do this. We need to give thanks. We desperately need to think about what is true, noble, right, pure, lovely and admirable. We need to be reminded of the excellence and praiseworthiness of God and His dealings with us. We need to think about such things and we need more than just one day a year to do so.

But one day is a good start.

Don’t let Thanksgiving this year get consumed by football, family and turkey. As truly wonderful as all those are, we need more than that. We need to wallow around in God’s good stuff – His really good stuff. So take Paul’s words to the Philippians and use it as an outline for your thinking this month. Ask God to remind you of what is true, noble, right, pure, lovely and admirable. Ask Him to help you see what is excellent and praiseworthy. And then thank Him for it all.

My weekend getaway was a bummer in many ways, but there is another perspective to be had. My wife and daughters make me laugh and give me life and love. It makes us wildly proud to see the cool, challenging place our daughter gets to live and study. And it is utterly amazing God has blessed us with the time and resources to even have the possibility of a weekend getaway such as we just had. We are not shaking tin cans at passers by – we live in almost embarrassing luxury. This weekend was no exception. We had some delicious Asian food, wonderful Italian pastries from Mike’s Pastries in Boston’s North End and a nice drive up Cape Cod’s route 6A to artsy Provincetown. Our motels were cheap, clean and nice. There are all sorts of ways to think gratefully about even life’s disappointing moments. There is truly excellence, blessing and wonder to be found everywhere if you take the time to honestly look for it.

May God help us look for it this month! May we find healing and happiness in our gratitude!

Amen.

Gleaning From Greatness (David)

Today we enter the Valley of Elah, the Valley of the Terebinth. On one side of this valley are the Philistines, the terrifying, war-like, pagan sea people scourge of Israel and her neighbors. On the other side of that valley are the Israelites, ready to fight, yet again, for their survival. But before the battle was engaged, an enormous, battle-hardened, blood soaked, battle-scarred giant steps forward from the Philistine lines to challenge the Israelites to a battle of champions. In order to spare enormous bloodshed, some ancient armies would commit their fate to the outcome of one champion against another. But the Philistine champion was a freak of nature – almost ten feet tall, 125 pounds of armor – just the tip of his spear was fifteen pounds! And because this freakish giant was so terrifying, the Israelites, including their great king Saul, cowered meekly in fear. They should have rushed forth their own champion, perhaps even their tall, great king, but they didn’t. For over a month, they cowered in fear as, morning and evening, massive Goliath taunted them and their weak, powerless God.

But then an old man named Jesse sent his youngest son David to carry food supplies to the battle front and bring home war news. The young, sweet-faced, shepherd boy David had already secretly been anointed as King Saul’s replacement, but it was this moment God used to launch David into national prominence. We pick up the story in 1 Samuel 17:20-50.

Early in the morning David left the flock with a shepherd, loaded up and set out, as Jesse had directed. He reached the camp as the army was going out to its battle positions, shouting the war cry. Israel and the Philistines were drawing up their lines facing each other. David left his things with the keeper of supplies, ran to the battle lines and greeted his brothers. As he was talking with them, Goliath, the Philistine champion from Gath, stepped out from his lines and shouted his usual defiance, and David heard it. When the Israelites saw the man, they all ran from him in great fear.

Now the Israelites had been saying, "Do you see how this man keeps coming out? He comes out to defy Israel. The king will give great wealth to the man who kills him. He will also give him his daughter in marriage and will exempt his father's family from taxes in Israel." David asked the men standing near him, "What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?" They repeated to him what they had been saying and told him, "This is what will be done for the man who kills him."

When Eliab, David's oldest brother, heard him speaking with the men, he burned with anger at him and asked, "Why have you come down here? And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the desert? I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is; you came down only to watch the battle." "Now what have I done?" said David. "Can't I even speak?" He then turned away to someone else and brought up the same matter, and the men answered him as before.

What David said was overheard and reported to Saul, and Saul sent for him. David said to Saul, "Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him." Saul replied, "You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a boy, and he has been a fighting man from his youth." But David said to Saul, "Your servant has been keeping his father's sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine." Saul said to David, "Go, and the Lord be with you." Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic. He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head. David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around, because he was not used to them. "I cannot go in these," he said to Saul, "because I am not used to them." So he took them off. Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd's bag and, with his sling in his hand, approached the Philistine.

Meanwhile, the Philistine, with his shield bearer in front of him, kept coming closer to David. He looked David over and saw that he was only a boy, ruddy and handsome, and he despised him. He said to David, "Am I a dog, that you come at me with sticks?" And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. "Come here," he said, "and I'll give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field!"

David said to the Philistine, "You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will hand you over to me, and I'll strike you down and cut off your head. Today I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord's, and he will give all of you into our hands." As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him. Reaching into his bag and taking out a stone, he slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell facedown on the ground. So David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone; without a sword in his hand he struck down the Philistine and killed him.

We all know this story. This is probably one of the first Bible stories we ever learned as children. Along with Jonah and the Whale and Noah’s big Ark, this was one of those wonderful stories that got made into a cartoon for us to watch and learn life lessons from. Remember the little Lutheran boy Davey and Goliath? “I don’t know, Davey – what did the teacher say about telling lies to your mother?” Like so many other Bible stories, somehow the terrifying, gory, identity shaping story of young David and this vile, Philistine pig named Goliath got neutered.

But this is not a children’s story. This is a movie my young children would not have been allowed to watch. The language, themes and violence here would have given this story at least an “R” rating. This is a story about taking what is God’s away from the devil. This is a grown up story about taking names and taking charge. As we glean from the true greatness of young David this morning, as we stand in our own Valley of Elah this morning, staring across at the hulking, evil champions yelling vile profanity and pagan challenges at us, there are three lessons David has to teach us. Young David takes three things into his hands we must learn to take into ours. If we have any hope of victory here in our valley, we must do as David does.

David Took Offense

The first is offense. David took offense at Goliath and the entire situation. “Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?” This is not the way things are supposed to be! Why is no one striking down this vile, pagan warrior? Why is no one responding to his blasphemy? Why are the mighty armies of the LORD cowering in fear?

We must take proper offense at what is not right and godly in the world. And I’m not just talking about the easy targets for offense – those sins we Christians feel comfortable attacking in others because we don’t struggle with them ourselves so much any more. I’m talking about all types of sin, evil and injustice. The Apostle Paul told us, in Galatians 5:19-21, that “the acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.” These things must be offensive to us.

We must take offense at the idea of anyone going to hell; it must break our hearts. We must take offense at people going hungry and homeless. We must take offense at racial and ethnic hatred and division. We must take offense at powerful people bullying weaker people. We must take offense at all injustice, ignorance and superficiality. We must take offense at greed and selfishness and all ungodliness. All these nasty Goliaths must be offensive to us!

And related to all this, allow me to say we must also be prepared for people not to like us for taking offense. David’s own brothers got angry at him, but that didn’t stop him – he just kept poking at people with his offensive questions. Goliath and his festering Philistine buddies certainly didn’t like the way David took offense. We aren’t trying to win a silly, polite, political popularity contest – we are faithfully, obediently embracing an offensive Cross. We are attacking the gates of hell and they will not prevail against us. All warriors (even godly, loving, gracious ones) collect enemies – get over it! David took offense. Everything young David does in this story is driven by the offensiveness of the situation he encountered. We are on offense!

David Took Responsibility

But David also took responsibility. David took stunning responsibility.

David stood in front of the great King Saul and took responsibility for the situation. “All the rest of you pansy people can cower meekly and fearfully on the hillside as long as you want, but I’m going across this valley and gettin’ me some giant!” I’m not just going to sit here in church and fume with my friends about the awful condition of the world around us; I’m going to go do something about it. I’m not just going to write some polite little check to some polite little charity; I’m going to get out there on the battlefield. As God encouraged Gideon years ago, I’m going to “go in the power I’ve been given and save my people.” I’m not just going to endlessly and religiously talk, study, write position papers, vision statements and motivational theories – I’m going to take responsibility for this offensive situation. Here am I, send me!

David Took Confidence

And the only reason David can take this kind of stunningly personal responsibility for this offensive situation is because of the confidence he took in God. David took confidence in God.

But please notice the double-sided nature of David’s confidence. David not only trusted God wanted him to take responsibility and that God would deliver him from the evil Philistines, but David also had complete confidence Almighty God had properly and thoroughly prepared him for the job. When the cowering King Saul fearfully proclaimed David too young, pretty and inexperienced to beat Goliath, David simply trotted out his resume. “Sir, I have killed both lion and bear whenever necessary to protect my father’s sheep. I have taken a lion by the beard, this bearded giant doesn’t scare me one bit. You may see a scary, threatening Philistine giant, but all I see is just another sheep-stealing vermin in need of killing. Sir, I am ready for this.”

Would it surprise you to learn scholars now say ancient “slingers,” such as young David apparently was, could fling rocks as big as baseballs over 100 yards with hair-splitting accuracy? And more importantly for our story today, did you know that, at shorter distances, these rocks could sometimes travel at speeds up to 100 miles per hour? David had reason for confidence.

Most of the time, Almighty God is not calling us to take some flying, wild and crazy leap of faith onto a battlefield for which we are utterly unprepared and unqualified. No! Most of the time, our dear LORD simply longs for us to trust in His powerful ability to use the gifts, skills, interests, passions and abilities He has already given us. God is not asking us to put on Saul’s armor or goofy stuff that doesn’t fit us. God is not asking us to carry swords we don’t know how to use. Think about it – is Marlys Wallin probably a candidate for the big leagues? Is it remotely possible Vernon Gholston might turn out to be a good Jets linebacker? Our God is calling us to take confidence in His ability to use whatever He has already given us to use.

One of the interesting, sidelight details I discovered in my studies this week was the true nature of the shepherd’s pouch into which David put the five stones for his battle with Goliath. Do you know what that little pouch was? It was David’s lunchbox. I just love that! What a picture! The battle-hardened giant Goliath with 125 pounds of blood-stained armor, keeping an entire army quivering in fear for over a month and now here comes a fresh-faced kid with a stick and his lunchbox?! What in the world is this? Hang on, Goliath, I’m about to show you!

David is not some cocky, naïve kid trying to make a name for himself by taking crazy risks. He is simply a young man utterly confident in God’s ability to use him. David is just a young guy confidently showing up for work with some stones in his lunchbox. I love that.

We can do that! This young shepherd boy David took great, godly and entirely proper offense at the evil he encountered. He took responsibility to personally do something about it. He took glorious confidence in Almighty God’s ability to use him and, because he did all these things, this kid David took home the victory. While all the other soldiers stood off cowering in the distance, David stood strong and victorious in the battle. May God help us do likewise!

Amen.

The Noticer - Andy Andrews

After I finished my sermon work and all the other end of the week stuff required of any pastor, I read a strange little book called The Noticer by Andy Andrews. It was the perfect book to read on a rainy, fall day with a couple hours to spare.

It is a book about perspective.

I'm not exactly sure what I think of the book. On the one hand, it is a book filled with formula and cliche. It is part Dickensian Christmas Carol, part Shack and part Dr. Phil; it is not usually the type of book I make much time for. The story is very familiar - a mysterious, old guy keeps showing up in the lives of people going through life difficulties with pithy advice and wise perspective. Much of the advice and perspective is stuff anyone who reads much will have heard many times before. Some of the stories are so obviously borrowed you feel a little guilty even trying to pretend they are original.

But on the other hand, there is still something nice about this book. Even though there is much that is not new, there is much that is still important. Just because something is familiar doesn't mean we shouldn't pay attention. I've heard the story about the seagull deciding to fly away, but the lesson about actually flying away is still a good reminder to a guy like me making all sorts of well-intended resolutions. I've heard the "fork in the coffin - the best is yet to come" story more times than I can count but, heaven help me, it was good to hear it again today. And all the stuff about becoming the kind of person people want to be around is as old as the hills, but I really think I still ought to pay more attention to it.

This is not new material, but it is worthy material. If you have a rainy afternoon available, give it a moment. A little perspective never hurt anyone.

Thanks Andy.

Gleaning From Greatness (Elijah)

Eight hundred years or so before the birth of Jesus, there was a man named Elijah sent by God to Ahab and Jezebel, the evil king and queen of Israel. King Ahab and the nasty Queen Jezebel led their entire nation into worshipping the Baals; false, pagan, Canaanite gods of rain, fire and fertility. As punishment for this and other evils, God sent the great prophet Elijah to tell them there would be no more dew or rain until God said otherwise. Let Baal provide rain!

Finally, after three years of drought and terrible suffering, the LORD decided the time had come to confront things and turn on the water sprinklers again. So, with the help of his friend Obadiah, Elijah set up a meeting with Ahab. We pick up the story in 1 Kings 18:17-40.

When he [Ahab] saw Elijah, he said to him, "Is that you, you troubler of Israel?" "I have not made trouble for Israel," Elijah replied. "But you and your father's family have. You have abandoned the Lord's commands and have followed the Baals. Now summon the people from all over Israel to meet me on Mount Carmel. And bring the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel's table." So Ahab sent word throughout all Israel and assembled the prophets on Mount Carmel. Elijah went before the people and said, "How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him." But the people said nothing.
Then Elijah said to them, "I am the only one of the Lord's prophets left, but Baal has four hundred and fifty prophets. Get two bulls for us. Let them choose one for themselves, and let them cut it into pieces and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. I will prepare the other bull and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. Then you call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the Lord. The god who answers by fire--he is God." Then all the people said, "What you say is good."
Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, "Choose one of the bulls and prepare it first, since there are so many of you. Call on the name of your god, but do not light the fire." So they took the bull given them and prepared it. Then they called on the name of Baal from morning till noon. "O Baal, answer us!" they shouted. But there was no response; no one answered. And they danced around the altar they had made.
At noon Elijah began to taunt them. "Shout louder!" he said. "Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy [in the bathroom], or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened." So they shouted louder and slashed themselves with swords and spears, as was their custom, until their blood flowed. Midday passed, and they continued their frantic prophesying until the time for the evening sacrifice. But there was no response, no one answered, no one paid attention.
Then Elijah said to all the people, "Come here to me." They came to him, and he repaired the altar of the Lord, which was in ruins. Elijah took twelve stones, one for each of the tribes descended from Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord had come, saying, "Your name shall be Israel." With the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord, and he dug a trench around it large enough to hold two seahs of seed. He arranged the wood, cut the bull into pieces and laid it on the wood. Then he said to them, "Fill four large jars with water and pour it on the offering and on the wood." "Do it again," he said, and they did it again. "Do it a third time," he ordered, and they did it the third time. The water ran down around the altar and even filled the trench.
At the time of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed: "O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. Answer me, O Lord, answer me, so these people will know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again." Then the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench.
When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, "The Lord--he is God! The Lord--he is God!" Then Elijah commanded them, "Seize the prophets of Baal. Don't let anyone get away!" They seized them, and Elijah had them brought down to the Kishon Valley and slaughtered there.

What a cool story! And what a great action hero from which to glean greatness here at Elim Church today! This great man Elijah spoke and the rain just stopped for three years. God sent Elijah into the wilderness to be fed by ravens and it happened. Elijah went to live with a poor widow and her son and Almighty God miraculously provided for all of them. The boy died and Elijah raised him from the dead. In our story today, Elijah set up a showdown with all his pagan enemies, stacked the odds ridiculously against himself, laughed as he did so and then singlehandedly called down fire from heaven and death on his enemies. Elijah wanted to cross a river and so he rolled up his cloak and struck the water and it parted. When the time finally came for this guy to go home to glory, God sent a fiery chariot just to escort him. What a guy!

Elijah. Elijah the Tishbite – that’s Tishbe in Gilead for those of you who ain’t familiar! Tishbite with a capital "T"

And yet Elijah didn’t seem impressed with all the flash and fireworks. This Elijah wasn’t driven by some sort of maniacal, action movie hero desire to conquer the world and have his own way. This man wasn’t chasing some superhero status; he was driven by something ever so much deeper. Elijah wanted one thing more than anything else in the world. And no where is Elijah’s deepest desire in life more evident than in our Scripture text today. There was one thing Elijah wanted so bad he could taste it. But Elijah understood a little staging and advance preparation were also necessary. He needs to prepare the people first…

Elijah captured attention. Elijah set the stage and then, in verse 30, the text is very careful to record that Elijah called the people to come near to him. Come close to me and see what I’m doing here. Come make sure I’m not doing anything tricky or deceitful. Come check me out and see for yourself all I’m doing. Come and see for yourself. Come near to me.

Elijah repaired the altar. Verses 30-31, Elijah took the time, as all the people were gathered around and watching, to rebuild the altar upon which the sacrifice would be made. As all the people watched his every move, Elijah reminded them what this whole confrontation was about. He reminded them of their great altar calling as a covenant people – how God had once chosen them, out of all the world, to serve as a beacon of life and hope to the world.

Elijah stepped out in faith. Verses 32-36 tell us Elijah dug a ditch around that altar and then doused the whole thing in a ludicrous amount of water. And in a time of drought, high up on a mountain, it must have been difficult to even locate this much water. Elijah faithfully created a situation from which only God could extricate him. This is a dramatic display of faith. Elijah is so certain of God’s intentions, he goes to almost comical lengths to make a point.

Elijah very dramatically, very intentionally set the stage. In many ways, Elijah did what we do every Sunday here in worship. We capture the attention of the people, we do our best to repair the altar by remembering the individual stones of our calling and then we prayerfully step out in faith waiting for the dramatic fire to fall from heaven – the answers of God to our prayers, the fiery Word of God speaking clearly and powerfully into our pagan foolishness.

And just exactly like Elijah, we too must want only one thing. The “one thing” point of the whole story boils down to Elijah’s simple prayer in verses 36-37: "O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. Answer me, O Lord, answer me, so these people will know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again."

Let God be known! Let it be known today that you are God in Minneapolis. Let it be known that you alone are God in our country and in our world. Let it be known that we are just servants doing whatever we’re told to do. Let the entire world know there is nothing special or superhuman about us. Let the fire falling on our impossibly wet sacrifice and dripping altars reveal to the world that there is only one God and that this one God still wants His people back!

What sort of disinterested, disconnected Baal’s are you worshipping? In what gods do you truly trust? Are you trusting in the one True God, or do you trust in economics, politics, science, military might, family, friends, or some amalgamated, completely subjective collection of all of them? Does the Almighty, Triune God of the Bible, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel stand powerfully singular and all important in your life or is He just one of many gods?

Are we seeing the fire of God fall gloriously on our lives or are we limping goofy, bloody dances around a cold, dry altar, feverishly praying and cutting ourselves religiously, yet still getting “no response, no one answering, no one paying attention?” Is the fire of God licking up even the trench water in our lives or is our Baal just too busy in the biffy to bother with us?

What god is your life truly making known? What god does your life advertise most loudly? When was the last time you found yourself standing in front of a soaking wet altar, all the curious crowds of pagan, Baal worshipping people gathered around to watch, knowing only Almighty God could light that enormous, dripping, impossibly soggy looking thing on fire? What God is your life truly making known in the world around you?

Let God be known!

If God were more fully known in and through your life, if Almighty God showed up in some dramatic, inescapable way today, if the fire fell, how might things change for you? What would happen? How would things be different? Let God be known! Let God stand alone! Let the fire fall! Let the sacrifice and all the foolish prophets be once and for all consumed!

Thomas Aquinas, a medieval theologian, created what many argue is one of the greatest intellectual achievements of Western civilization in his Summa Theologica. It's a massive work: thirty-eight treatises, three thousand articles, ten thousand objections. Thomas tried to gather into one coherent whole all of known truth. What a great undertaking: anthropology, science, ethics, psychology, political theory and theology, all under God. Yet on December 6, 1273, Thomas Aquinas abruptly stopped his work. While celebrating Mass in the chapel of St. Thomas, he reportedly caught some sort of glimpse of God or clearer vision of eternity, and suddenly he knew all his great efforts to describe God fell so far short he decided never to write ever again. When his secretary, Reginald, tried to encourage him to do more writing, he said, “Reginald, I can do no more. Such things have been revealed to me that all I have written seems as so much straw.” Firm in his resolve, he wrote not another word and died a year later.

When the fire falls, all the second rate stuff in our lives just gets consumed. When God is clearly known among us, when we truly catch a glimpse of eternity, all the other gods and goodies we’ve made for ourselves just disappear. Even our latest and greatest thinking seems shallow…even our Summa Theologica isn’t so “summa” anymore! All other gods get consumed.

May the one true God be known among us! May the one true God powerfully stand alone among us! May we get to see what only God can do in the world! May the fire of God fall constantly here at Elim Church for all the world to see! May all our pagan foolishness be consumed and God alone be glorified!

Amen.