Sermon for North Hill Adventist Fellowship
Sabbath, June 30, 2012
Lolo Jones is training for the Olympics
this summer. Her events are the 60- and 100-meter hurdles. She dreams
of running a perfect race. In pursuit of that goal she is making use
of highly sophisticated technology—monitors on her body, super high
speed video.
What the technology told her was that
her left side was not quite as strong as her right side. So she and
her trainers worked specifically to strengthen that side of her body.
They discovered that sometimes she
landed with her center of mass slightly behind her lead foot, which
would cause the loss of the tiniest fraction of a second.
The unaided eye could not have detected
these things. Even ordinary video could have have picked it up. But
using high tech monitors on her body and super high speed video, Ms.
Jones was able to identify the problems and begin modifying her
performance. (See Wired Magazine, July, 2012, pp. 114-122.)
One key to excellence in athletics is
training. Practice, practice, practice. A second key is coaching,
smart guidance. If you are going to perform at the highest possible
level, you'll need input from outside yourself. You can't watch
yourself run or dive or swim.
The same holds true in spiritual life.
If we are interested in spiritual excellence, we will seek input from
a wise coach.
Note these words from Psalm 1. (From
the KJV just because I memorized it ages ago and like the way it
sounds.)
Blessed is the man
that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly,
nor standeth in
the way of sinners,
nor sitteth in the
seat of the scornful.
But his delight is
in the law of the LORD;
and in his law
doth he meditate day and night.
And he shall be
like a tree planted by the rivers of water,
that bringeth
forth his fruit in his season;
his leaf also
shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
The person who stays away from the
influence of the ungodly and gives attention to the law of God will
be like a fruitful tree.
A couple of years ago, Karin gave me a
fig tree. It survived the first winter, but the next season produced
only two or three years. So sometime in the middle of the summer,
Karin put a lot of fertilizer on it. Within weeks it was starting to
bud out new figs. I was astonished. I don't that I've ever seen such
dramatic almost immediate response to fertilizer.
So now, we try to fertilize early in
the spring and throughout the early part of the season. It's one of
the rules for producing figs at our house.
How do we fertilize our lives so we
produce fruit? What can we do to cultivate spiritual life, to enhance
the quality of our relationships with God and other people? What can
we do to build a better world?
According to these first verses of the
first Psalm one key to enjoying a blessed life is to be picky about
what holds our attention.
Do not walk in the
counsel of the ungodly,
Do not stand in
the way of sinners,
Don't sit in the
seat of the scornful.
That's King James language. Here's the
same list from a modern translation (The New Living Translation.)
Do not follow the
advice of the wicked
Do not stand
around with sinners.
Don't join in with
mockers.
That's the negative statement. Here's
the corresponding positive statement:
Take delight in
the law of the LORD;
Meditate in his
law day and night.
If you want a blessed life, a fruitful
life, an optimal life . . . Take delight in the law of the Lord.
Meditate in his law day and night. How do you do that? What does this
look like?
The phrase, “the law of God,”
refers to the entire body of instruction God has given through the
prophets, poets, and priests in the Bible. This includes the Ten
Commandments, and the Two Commandments, of course, and much more.
For us “the Bible” is roughly
equivalent to what the Psalmist meant in his day.
David urges us to “Take delight in
the law of the Lord. Meditate in his law day and night.” This is
one of the keys to receiving coaching from God.
A while back I was doing one of my
favorite things: I was visiting with a couple of young ministers.
They are smart people, devoted to God and the church. They are
scholars. I love talking big ideas with them. At our last visit, near
the end of our time together, I asked them, “What have you guys
done this week to cultivate your lives as saints? You are obviously
cultivating your minds. That's good. What are you doing to cultivate
your souls? “
There was a long silence. Then a bit of
confused conversation. It's not a common topic in our conversation.
Most of us have opinions on all sorts of issues—issues in the
church, in theology, politics, health care, environmental practice,
investment strategy. We are ready for debates.
Psalm One calls us to something
different. “Take delight in the law of the Lord. Meditate in his
law. “
“Taking delight,” and “meditating”
is not the same thing as studying. Study cultivates the mind. It is
important. Meditation cultivates the soul (or heart or character).
When we meditate on God's law, when we delight ourselves in God's
words, God's sweetness permeates our being. We enjoy God and are
transformed in the process.
A couple of interesting conversations
from campmeeting last week.
The first conversation: A friend of
mine talked about the challenges of continuing to give care to a
profoundly needy person. He's been at it for a decade. It taxes him
to his limit and sometimes beyond. I am continually astonished at his
generosity, his faithfulness, his heroic service. The other thing he
almost always talks about when we are together is his quiet times out
in the woods and mountains. He gets out into the beauty and quietness
and meditates and finds refreshment for his soul. Meditation does
not make his life easy. It does make his continued service possible.
The second conversation: A
self-important Adventist bureaucrat told me about a new battle in
Adventist prophecy-preaching circles. The “scholars” are fighting
over the identity of the king of the north and the king of the south
in Daniel 11. The bureaucrat cheerfully talked about his work to
advance the “correct view.” In talking with this man, I heard a
lot about study. I heard nothing about meditation.
Study may make us smarter regarding
things that don't matter. Meditation makes us sweeter. And that does
matter.
Study of obscure prophecies may enable
us to articulate sophisticated-sounding speculations about the
future. (This is not too far removed from fantasy.) Meditation will
enable us to act wisely and effectively here in the real world, right
now.
Psalm One urges us: Delight yourself in
God's law. Meditate on it day and night.
Meditation allows the sweetness of God
to permeate our minds and hearts. The world needs more people who are
filled with the sweetness of God. Meditation allows God's wisdom to
shape us. The world needs people who act out the wisdom of God.
Spiritual practices shape our souls. We
come to church and sing songs over and over. With time these songs
become deeply rooted in our minds. They sing themselves to us
spontaneously for no apparent reason. This past week, snatches of
three different songs kept running through my mind.
Lord have mercy
Christ have mercy
Lord, have mercy
on me.
Hallelujah, grace
like rain falls down on me
Hallelujah all my
sins are washed away.
Everlasting, Your
light will shine when all else fades
Never ending, Your
glory goes beyond all fame
The songs are confident, bright, full
of grace and hope. And when they were running through my mind, my
thoughts are confident, bright, full of grace and hope.
For most of us listening to sermons for
is a spiritual practice. The preacher is not giving us new
information. He or she is helping us immerse ourselves in truth we
already know. When we listen to sermons we are soaking in ordinary,
common truth.
(Is it really new information that we
are supposed to tell the truth, be kind and forgiving, keep the
Sabbath and not kill? When I preach that God is love, is that new
information? No. Rather we come to church for the purpose of basking
in the old truths. We come to celebrate, to affirm, to savor the law
of God, the instruction God has given through the Bible.)
Attending church is a vital spiritual
practice. Psalm One urges us to build on it, to go farther. Delight
yourself in God's law, meditate on God's law daily—all the time, in
fact.
In actual practice people have found it
very helpful to devote some time daily to savoring God's good words.
Every morning before you head off to work, or every evening before
you go off to sleep or every noon before you eat lunch—devote some
regular time to contemplating God's law.
If you are like the church bureaucrat I
mentioned earlier and you find prophecy interesting, be careful.
Studying prophecy is not the same as meditating on God's law.
Prophecy in Christian circles is usually focused on figuring out who
the bad guy is. So whether you think the bad guy symbolized in a
particular passage is the Pope or Muslims or the Russians or Chinese
or communists or President Obama or Candidate Romney or Lutherans or
the Illumenati—spiritually it's all the same. You will come away
from your study congratulating yourself that you are not the bad guy
and perhaps poisoned by renewed hatred for the people you think are
identified as opposing God.
Make sure you balance your study of
prophecy with ample, languorous meditation on the law of God—the
law perfectly epitomized in the single affirmation—God loves—and
the twin commands—Love God and love your neighbor.
There are many ways to “do”
meditation. Here is one approach: Take a short passage of Scripture,
for instance, Matthew 7:11. “If you sinful people know how to give
good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father
give good gifts to those who ask him.” Read it, then use your
imagination to amplify it, to roll it around in your mind.
If you had a million dollars what gift
would you give your children? If your kid or grand kid needed
something, what would you be willing to go without so they could have
what they needed? How many nights did you forgo sleep to be presence
with your sick child? How many nights would you be willing to be
miserably awake if your kid needed you to?
Your own regard for your children is a
window into God's regard for you. God is at least as nice, as
generous, as forgiving, as merciful toward you as you could imagine
being toward your children.
If you—plain, ordinary, unremarkable
you—would be willing to lavish education, medicine, discipline,
hours helping with homework, trips to Disneyland, or the hassle of
dealing with a puppy . . . if you would be willing to this and more
for your children, how much more will your Father in heaven do for
you.
Spend time imaging what you would do
for your children, then turn it around and imagine it as God's
generosity toward you.
Then, after spending some time
imagining this as God's affection toward you, bring to mind others in
your life—family, friends, neighbors, co-workers. Not the whole
world, but specific people that come to your mind as you are doing
this practice of meditation. Imagine God's affection toward these
others. Request that God show them his affection, give them the
capacity to understand the richness of heaven's love. Ask God to
demonstrate his love in their lives by providing for them concrete
tangible blessings.
Once you have learned to pray this way
for people you naturally love, then try it for the people you
naturally loathe. Pray for politicians. Not for all of them
generically, but for the ones you most despise. This will move you
away from the company of the mockers.
A serious threat to the health of our
nation right now is the way Christians are ignoring the counsel of
Psalm One when we step into the political realm. We are nice at
church. We are generous to our neighbors, then, when we step in the
realm of politics we succumb to the temptation to join in with
mockers and repeat their words via email and facebook. The most
astonishing example of this was a ninety-year old elder who forwarded
to his large email list a picture of a nude woman. The reason he
forwarded it was because supposedly it was a picture of President
Obama's mother, and the good elder was so eager to mock the president
he couldn't help himself. So instead of hitting delete when he
received it, he hit forward.
We all know—or should know—the
Bible's stern condemnation of gossip. But somehow when it comes to
politics we freely pass on every rumor, every juicy bit of slander,
no matter how unrelated to actual policy. God expects better of us.
Psalm One warns against standing with
sinners or hanging out with mockers.
Let me be very explicit: This passage
warns against Rush Limbaugh. He is a superb mocker. His personal life
is a case study in venal wickedness. He has a foul mouth. We may
love it when he skewers politicians we disagree with, but that love
rises from an unhealthy place in our souls. God calls us to higher,
nobler forms of political discourse.
Blessed is the person who does NOT walk
in the counsel of the ungodly or join in with mockers. I pick on
Limbaugh because he is the most famous. There are plenty of other
people on both sides of the political divide that are skillful at
mockery. They are not our models. The Bible warns us away from them
and their methods.
Let's circulate ideas about legislation
we would like to see passed. Let's argue about the optimal way to
structure government so that it protects without stifling, so that it
brings us together as a genuine community without hindering private
initiative and individual freedom. There is plenty of room for
vigorous debate over optimal forms of government. There is no room
for mockery, no place for character assassination. Obviously, we
can't control the world's delight in mucking around. We can choose a
better way for ourselves.
Let's delight ourselves in the law of
God—that is the principles of life outlined in the Bible. This
begins with refusing to join in with mockers and sinners as they heap
scorn and abuse on everyone who disagrees with them.
Now let me turn from politics to
something every trickier: home.
Parents, never mock your children. Do
not mock them for being slow or stupid or noisy or careless or
thoughtless or rebellious. Never, ever mock your children. There are
times, of course, when you must correct them. You may need to
pronounce stern words of condemnation on particular behaviors: “That
is not right!” “That is unacceptable!” But never mock your
children. And hopefully they will absorb the culture of respect you
establish and refrain from mocking you when they are changing your
diapers or answering for the hundredth time the same question you've
been asking all day.
When we delight in and meditate on
God's law we will be like fertilized fig trees, like well-coached
Olympic athletes. Or in the words of Psalm One, we will be like trees
planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in season and
whose leaves never wither. Whatever we do will prosper.
On the other hand, if we keep company
with the ungodly, Psalm One predicts we will be like chaff—dry bits
of grass—blown away by the wind.
God is watching the Psalmist declares.
So the wicked will lose out in the judgment. And the righteous will
enjoy the eternal favor of God. They will be and are already blessed.
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