Bones

Delivered May 27, 2012   Video

Ezekiel 37:1-14

The title of my message comes from the television show on the Fox network, which has been running for almost 12 years now.  It is a murder mystery – or crime drama, as they call them today - based on forensic anthropology and forensic archaeology. Cases are solved by examining the bones of possible murder victims. Each episode focuses on human remains brought by FBI Agent Seeley Booth to the forensic anthropologist Dr. Temperance "Bones" Brennan. In addition to the murder cases in each episode, the series explores the backgrounds and relationships of the regular characters. An ongoing dynamic between the two main characters is their disagreement about science and faith. Brennan argues for science and atheism. Booth argues for faith and God.

Our OT scripture passage for today involves a valley full of unburied human remains. The prophet Ezekiel is brought by the Lord to a valley that is full of bones. The first two verses of our story say: “The hand of the Lord came upon me and brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley; and it was full of bones. ² Then He caused me to pass by them all around, and behold, there were very many in the open valley; and indeed they were very dry.” There was another TV crime drama called Cold Case which investigates old murders. This passage in Ezekiel would definitely qualify as a cold case, for it says that these bones were very dry. They had been lying out in the hot sun of the Middle East for years. Just picturing this in your mind’s eye is disturbing. Years ago I visited the Mar Saba monastery in the Judean desert in Israel. The monastery is over 1500 years old. One of the monks took us on a tour of the grounds and brought us into the burial chambers. They were caves filled with thousands of bones. One cave was stacked with human skulls. I have seen dead bodies before but I have never anything like this!

The sight that Ezekiel saw was even more dramatic. This was a battlefield, and the dead had been left to lie where they fell. This was not an unheard of thing to happen in ancient times. It was a final insult to one’s enemy to leave their dead unburied. If the battlefield was far from the homeland of the defeated army, then there would be no one from their own nation to bury them. From the identification made later in the chapter this appears to be a battlefield where the army of the Hebrews fought one of their enemies, probably the Babylonians, and lost. Ezekiel was brought (in a vision apparently) to this battlefield and beheld the bones of his countrymen bleaching in the sun. This is certainly a timely passage to read in worship on this Memorial Day weekend when we as a nation honor those who have died in battle. We treat our war dead respectfully and decorate their graves.

I. The first question this morning is the meaning and significance of this scene of bones. I have already alluded to the primary meaning. This is Israel. Verse 11 says: “Then He said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel.” But there is more to it than a simple identification of the fallen soldiers. This verse goes on to say. “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel.” They indeed say, ‘Our bones are dry, our hope is lost, and we ourselves are cut off!’ These bones represent the whole people of Israel at that time – living and dead. Those who survived the war and had been brought into captivity in Babylon felt like they were as dead as their comrades on the battlefield. This passage is talking not just about physical death but national death. The Jewish captives felt hopeless and cut off.

What else can these bones mean? Preachers for centuries have proclaimed that these bones represent spiritual dryness and spiritual death.  This can be applied to churches and even denominations. The most recent figures have just come out and show that the two fastest growing religions in the United States are Mormons and Muslims. The latest U.S. Religion Census, just released on May 1, 2012, shows that the fastest growing religion in America is Islam. From the year 2000 to the year 2010, the census found that the number of Muslims living inside the United States increased from 1 million to 2.6 million. That is an astounding growth rate, and we better take notice. Mormons were in second place. The rest were left in the dust. Evangelical Protestants grew only 1.7%. Catholics decreased by 5.0%. Mainline Protestants continued their ongoing decline, going down 12.8%. It is a fair question to ask of these declining groups: “Can these bones live?” In our text the Lord asks Ezekiel “Son of man, can these bones live?” So I answered, “O Lord God, You know.” The spiritual health of many Christian groups in America is not good. Only God knows what the future holds for the churches and the denominations that most of us grew up with.

These bones can also represent individual Christians. “Our bones are dry, our hope is lost, and we ourselves are cut off!” Individuals can feel spiritually dry. Perhaps you feel this way. What is your spiritual life like? What is your relationship to God like? What is your prayer life like? What is your spiritual reading program like – both scripture and other spiritual books? What is the condition of your soul? Do you feel connected to the Spirit of God or not? These are all good questions to ask when contemplating this passage this morning on this Pentecost Sunday.

Today is Pentecost. It is the day in the Christian calendar when we celebrate the day that the Holy Spirit came in power upon the early church as they were gathered in Jerusalem. The scripture passage in the Book of Acts speaks about a mighty wind blowing through the place where they were gathered. Tongues of fire spread out and alighted on each of the people there, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit. This is the beginning of the Christian Church. From that experience of God, the church grew and the gospel spread. It was a vital movement that spread throughout the Roman Empire and outlasted the Caesars and the mighty Roman army. This Holy Spirit is the God we worship, the God incarnated in Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit is God indwelling and filling his people.

II. Let me move on now to the second question to be asked of this passage. It is the same question asked of Ezekiel by the Lord. I have already referred to it: Can these bones live? The answer is Yes! It is yes at all the levels that I just addressed. The original context of this passage was the ancient people of Israel. Could that defeated, conquered, exiled people survive? History gives us the answer. Yes. Israel is still alive even 2600 years after this question was asked of Ezekiel. The Jews came back to the land from their exile in Babylon. They survived later occupations by Persia, Greece, Rome and even the Ottoman Empire.

The history of the Jews is a harsh and difficult one. The Final Solution of the Nazis tried to do what the Babylonians could not do – completely destroy this people. Yet out of that holocaust came the modern state of Israel. I recently finished reading a book entitled “Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time” by Michael Shermer. One of the many movements he investigates is the Holocaust deniers – those who say that there was no systematic extermination of Jews by the Nazis in Europe in the 1940’s.  I had heard about them but had never read anything in depth about them or their reasoning before; it was very eye-opening – and very weird! The Jews have survived not only the Holocaust but attempts to deny the Holocaust ever happened.

People are talking these days about the eventual extinction of mainline Protestantism. But I believe that mainline denominations can not only survive but thrive. But it all depends on whether we follow the model for renewed put forth here in Ezekiel 37. How did these dry bones in this story live?

1. First, they came to life again by the preaching of the Word of God. Verse 4 “Again He said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, ‘O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord!” Spiritual life begins when God speaks to his people. The apostle Paul says that “faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.”  When prophets prophesy and preachers preach then life happens. That is the meaning of the Creation story of Genesis 1. It says that God brought light and light into a dark dead universe by simply speaking. God said, “Let there be… and there was.” Life happens by the Word of God – physical life and spiritual life.

The command of God to Ezekiel was, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, ‘O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord!” This is a call for preachers to return to the ancient words of Scripture. The words of Scripture have been around a long time. There is a reason for that. The reason is that people have found meaning and purpose in them. They find life in the ancient writings. They hear God speaking through the words. Of course they were written by human beings! But we also intuitively sense that there is a divine inspiration behind the human words. We confess that the Holy Spirit led these writers to utter these words. We confess that these words are special. They transcend the ages. They speak not only to Jews living in Babylon 2600 years ago, but they transverse the millennia and have meaning and power for us.

Ezekiel was told to preach, and he did as he was told. He preached to a valley full of dead bones. Can you imagine what he was thinking while he was giving that sermon?. He probably thought to himself, “What am I doing preaching a sermon to a bunch of skeletons!” Are they really going to hear and respond? But the strange thing is they did. Verse 7 “So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and suddenly a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to bone. ⁸ Indeed, as I looked, the sinews and the flesh came upon them, and the skin covered them over; but there was no breath in them.”

2. Now Ezekiel had a congregation of flesh and blood bodies to preach to, but they were still dead, because – as it says – there was no breath in them. The Hebrew word for breath and spirit are the same word “ruach.” So this can just as well be translated that there was no spirit in them. It probably should be read in both senses – having a double meaning – which is easy to do in Hebrew but difficult in English. Then God spoke to Ezekiel again in verse 9. “Also He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.”’” ¹⁰ So I prophesied as He commanded me, and breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great army.”

The point being made here is that these bones could live only if the Spirit came into them. The physical structure was there – the bones and flesh and sinews and skin – but there was no life because there was no Spirit. It is the same with individuals, churches, and denominations. A church can have structure – buildings, bylaws, boards, and even a calendar full of activities – but it is not alive if the Spirit is not in them. The same with denominations. They can have national conventions and officers and make proclamations, but if the Spirit is not present, there is no life. If the Holy Spirit is not present, a denomination will die; that may be what is happening with many mainline denominations today.

That is what is happening with many churches. Did you know that an average of 75 churches close their doors every week in our country. Between 3500 and 4000 churches close their doors each year according to the Barna Group. Why? Because the Spirit is not there. Just like the breath leaves a person when his body dies, so does a church die when the Spirit leaves. Fortunately in recent years there has been a trend in some denominations to plant new churches. You don’t hear about this so much but the fact is that now more churches are being planted each year than are closing – about 500 more. But most are not planted by the mainline denominations. But still it is a good sign. Where I ministered in western Pennsylvania the number of Baptist churches in the association more than doubled while I was there. The Spirit is alive and still brings life.

And this is true of us as individuals. A church and a denomination are composed of individuals. There is no church and no Christianity without you and I. That is what Pentecost is about. In Acts 2 the Holy Spirit filled a group of believers, and at that moment they were transformed from discouraged, disillusioned, frightened individuals into people so spiritually alive that they turned the world upside down. And the lesson of this passage is that this can happen again. The same Holy Spirit is present, and can do a vibrant work in our lives, our church, and in this nation. Come, Holy Spirit! 

An UnCommencement Address

Delivered May 20, 2012  Video

Psalm 1  

The radio in my car is tuned to one station only – NHPR. I listen to National Public Radio when I am driving in my car. Even when we took a day trip a couple of weeks ago and lost the NH station I switched to Main Public Radio. Earlier this month NPR interviewed Charles Whelan, a former correspondent for The Economist and now a lecturer in public policy at the University of Chicago. The interview was about an essay he had written in the Wall Street Journal  entitled “10 Things Your Commencement Speaker Won't Tell You” which was adapted from his book  "10½ Things No Commencement Speaker Has Ever Said," published May 7. The interview and the article were interesting. Let me share his points.

1. Your time in fraternity basements was well spent. He said when he said that in a commencement address the president of the university suddenly got very nervous! By that he means the friendships one makes in college are as valuable as what you learn in class.

2. Some of your worst days lie ahead.  He was giving graduates a dose of realism concerning the hard knocks that life gives you.

3. Don't make the world worse. He goes on “I know that I'm supposed to tell you to aspire to great things. But I'm going to lower the bar here: Just don't use your prodigious talents to mess things up. Too many smart people are doing that already.”

4. Marry someone smarter than you are. (That advice speaks for itself.)

5. Help stop the Little League arms race. “Kids' sports are becoming ridiculously structured and competitive.” Along that same line I read how this year many communities canceled their Easter Egg hunts because the parents made it too competitive. He says to let your kids be kids and have fun and just play.

6. Read obituaries. They remind us that interesting, successful people rarely lead orderly, linear lives.

7. Your parents don't want what is best for you.  He goes on to explain: “They want what is good for you, which isn't always the same thing.” 

8. Don't model your life after a circus animal. Performing animals do tricks because their trainers throw them peanuts or small fish for doing so. You should aspire to do better.

9. It's all borrowed time. You shouldn't take anything for granted, not even tomorrow. I offer you the "hit by a bus" rule. Would I regret spending my life this way if I were to get hit by a bus next week or next year? And the important corollary: Does this path lead to a life I will be happy with and proud of in 10 or 20 years if I don't get hit by a bus.

10. Don't try to be great. Being great involves luck and other circumstances beyond your control. The less you think about being great, the more likely it is to happen. And if it doesn't, there is absolutely nothing wrong with being solid.

Those ten points would probably be enough of a sermon just in itself, but I know you expect me to preach something from the Bible, so I am going to give you my variation on Whelan’s theme giving my own “Three things you won’t hear in a commencement speech.” I am using Psalm 1 as my text. This psalm is much like a commencement address. Biblical scholars call it a wisdom psalm; it is wisdom literature, like the book of proverbs. The whole book of Proverbs and some of the psalms are designed to give advice to young people. So it fits right in with the commencement address theme. This psalm stands at the very beginning of the book and gives some advice to its readers about living. It tells us three things.

I. The first point is: Pursue Happiness. That doesn’t sound very serious or profound, does it? Sounds like Bobby McFerrin’s old song “Don’t worry, be happy.” Happy is the first word in the psalm and the theme of the psalm. The King James Version and my New King James uses the word blessed, but many modern translations use the word happy as the first word of the Book of Psalms. The Hebrew word actually means happy. This psalmist’s advice in life is to be happy and he goes on to describe how to achieve this happiness.

Happiness is next to godliness, to paraphrase an old maxim. He says, in effect, that if you want to be happy, be godly. He compares the godly and the ungodly in this psalm, and says that the godly are happier. In 2008, Arthur Brooks, president of the American Enterprise Institute, wrote a book entitled "Gross National Happiness." He summarizes scores of academic studies demonstrating that “religious people of all faiths are, on average, markedly happier than secularists, and this is true even when wealth, age and education are taken into account. In one major survey, 23 percent of secularists reported being "very happy" with their lives, versus 43 percent of religious respondents. Believers are a third more likely to express optimism about the future. Unbelievers are almost twice as likely as the religious to say, "I'm inclined to feel I'm a failure." (Religious people are happier, studies show” By Daniel Peterson, For the Deseret News Published: Thursday, March 8 2012 ) So it seems like there is a scientific basis for the psalmist’s advice that happiness is next to godliness. That doesn’t mean that any particular religion is true or that all religions are equally valid. There is also the saying that “ignorance is bliss.” But it does seem to indicate that there is a correlation between happiness and religiousness.

Another interesting thing about the Hebrew word for happy or blessed in the Old Testament is that it is always found in the plural form. In other words you can’t be happy by yourself. Your happiness is dependent on your connection to other people. Community is one of the big strengths of religion. We humans are social animals by nature; we are a tribal species. We need each other to physically survive, and we are happiest when we are connected to people and when we make others happy. People sometimes remark that you don’t have to go to church to be religious, and that may be true. But it will probably make you happier. Happiness is found in community. It is found in family – biological family or spiritual family. It is found by serving others. We don’t achieve happiness by trying to gain it as if it were a possession. We are happiest when we are not thinking of ourselves but are trying to make others happy. That is what church is about.

II. The second point in this psalm is: Do no Harm. What you don’t do is as important as what you do. This point has to do with sin. Whelan made this point in his article when he told his hypothetical graduates “Don’t make the world worse.” In the radio interview he talked about all the very intelligent and educated people who graduated from the best schools, attained positions of power, and made a lot of money, but they did things that harmed people and society and the environment. So he encouraged graduates at the very least to do no evil. Don’t leave the world a worse place for you having been in it. It is a variation on the Hippocratic Oath to “above all do no harm.”

 The psalmist starts off the psalm by telling the reader what not to do. It says, “Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,  Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful.”  Don’t walk in the counsel of the ungodly. Don’t stand in the path of sinner. Don’t sit in the seat of the scornful. With these three pieces of advice, he describes the slippery slope which leads to ungodliness and unhappiness. I don’t think people set out on life with the goal to become an unhappy and bad person. Perhaps sociopaths do, but most just want to be happy and live a normal life. But something happens that gets them off the right track. This verse describes how that happens.

First people “walk in the counsel of the ungodly.” The path to unhappiness starts off by listening to the wrong counsel. You tend to go in the direction of the folks you listen to and the crowd you hang around with. When I was growing up my parents always talked about kids who were a bad influence. This is what the psalmist is talking about. You start talking the talk and then you start walking the walk. “Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly.”

Then he moves on to “stands in the path of sinners.”  The hypothetical person in the psalm has gone from talking to walking to standing.  Walking might mean that you are just passing through the neighborhood. But when you are standing on the corner that means you live in the area. You see people standing around in front of the post office, and you know they are probably not tourists passing through. Chances are they live here. “Blessed is the man who does not … stand in the path of sinners.

The psalm goes from talking and walking to standing to sitting: “Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful.”  If you are sitting down you have taken up residence. Look where he has taken up residence: in the seat of the scornful. He has become one of the scornful. He has gone from simply listening to the counsel of the ungodly to giving it. He has gone from standing in the path of sinners to building his home on the path.

There is a progression described here. The way of the spiritual life is not static. Our live are always changing. There is movement one way or the other. If we aren’t moving ahead in the spiritual life, we are probably moving in another direction. Okay, so you probably aren’t going to be a super-saint. That is alright. Just don’t leave the world worse than you found it. It would be great if the world were a better place for us having lived here. It would be great if this town were a better place for us having lived here. But above all, let’s not make it worse. Don’t let people say at your funeral, “I’m glad he’s gone” or “she’s gone.”

III. The third piece of advice that the psalmist gives is to live like a tree. Verses 2-3 say: “But his delight is in the law of the Lord, And in His law he meditates day and night.³ He shall be like a tree Planted by the rivers of water, That brings forth its fruit in its season, Whose leaf also shall not wither; And whatever he does shall prosper.”

To live like a tree means to be planted by rivers of water. Keep near the Source of Life and nourishment. That source is God and those waters are the words of God. All we really have to do to grow in the spiritual life is plant ourselves down near the River of Life. If you are putting in a garden this year, you know you need water, and you need sunlight and some good soil. Unfortunately in my little plot of land on Grove Street, I have rocky ledge and no sun. If you plant in a well-watered, well-drained, sunny spot that is 90% of the battle; the same with the spiritual life. Our nourishment is God. All we really have to do is set ourselves down near God in prayer, meditation, worship, scripture – and God will do the rest. Thinking deeply about spiritual matter is like putting down deep roots. The problem with many churches is that the member’s roots don’t go deep because the soil is shallow and not watered.

If you are planted by the rivers of water then you will bring forth fruit. The apostle Paul speaks about spiritual fruit as being qualities like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. You can tell a healthy tree or plant by its fruit. You can tell a healthy Christian by whether these qualities are present in his/her life. If a plant or tree is producing fruit then it will also have nice rich foliage. That is why he says here “Whose leaf also shall not wither; And whatever he does shall prosper.” He contrasts the way of the fruitful spiritual life with the unspiritual life. “The ungodly are not so, But are like the chaff which the wind drives away. ⁵ Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. ⁶ For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, But the way of the ungodly shall perish.”  The spiritual life is like a tree that stands in the storms of life. It is rooted in God near the rivers of life. It bears foliage that gives shade and fruit which gives nourishment to others, whereas the unrooted life is like a barren tree or chaff blowing in the wind.

The psalmist gives us some very simple advice. It is not too difficult for any of us. First, pursue happiness. It is the American way right? Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The Bible calls it blessing, but it is the same thing. God has built into us the desire to be happy. Pursue this God-given right, but do it wisely. Watch the company you keep; whom we associate with will determine to a great extent the path we take in life and whether it will result in happiness or sorrow.  Watch your step, and above all do no harm. Finally plant yourself firmly in God. Spend a lot of time in the presence of God, meditating on God, worshiping God, thinking about God. Go deep in your thinking, reading and praying. Our psalm says of the spiritual person, “his delight is in the law of the Lord, And in His law he meditates day and night.” Sink your roots deep into Godly soil. Make spiritual matters the most important part of your life and not just a peripheral activity. Then your life will be blessed. 

Spirit on a Hot Tile Roof

Delivered May 13, 2012  Video

Acts 10:44-48

Today we are going to look at a story about a man named Cornelius. That is a name you don’t hear much these days. Biblical names seem to be coming back into style. All three of my kids named their children with OT names: Noah, Jonah, Elijah. But there are not too many Corneliuses in hospital nurseries. I had a pastor friend in Pennsylvania named Cornelius.  I was the pastor of the First Baptist Church in town, and he was the pastor of the Second Baptist Church. He was an African American pastoring an African American congregation. We used to do pulpit exchanges - preach in each other’s churches. There is nothing like preaching in a black church. Lively music and lively preaching. The congregation talks back to you during the sermon and before you know it, you lose your place in your sermon notes and the congregation is taking you places you never intended to go. White worship services are much more predictable.

Today we are going to look at another man named Cornelius. He was a Roman centurion, part of the Italian regiment stationed in Caesarea, which was the Roman capital of Palestine. Our scripture reading only gives us the end of the story of Cornelius, but I am going to retell the whole story for you. I will tell you the story under three headings.

I. First, God orchestrates spiritual encounters between people. It is sometimes said that there are no coincidences - that coincidence is really God-incidence. In his book The World as I See It, Albert Einstein said, “Coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous.”  This is the Christian doctrine of providence. God is in control. God is working behind the scenes of history. We certainly see this in the story of Peter and Cornelius. God has a plan to bring these two people together. Chapter 10 of Acts starts off with two separate individual encounters with God.

The first encounter was in the form of a vision given to Cornelius. The chapter describes the Roman soldier Cornelius as “a devout man and one who feared God with all his household, who gave alms generously to the people, and prayed to God always.” One day at 3:00pm, the afternoon hour of prayer, while he as praying at his home in Caesarea, he had a vision of an angel who told him to send some of his men to Joppa to the home of a tanner named Simon who had a home by the sea, they would be told want God wanted him to do.  That was it, and Cornelius did as he was instructed.

The other spiritual experience happened to the apostle Peter who was in Joppa staying at this house of Simon the tanner. Joppa is near present day Tel Aviv on the Mediterranean just down the coast from ancient Caesarea.  Peter was devoting himself to a day of prayer and fasting. He went up on the rooftop to have some privacy. (Hence my title: Spirit on a Hot Tile Roof.) Only part of the roof was tiled. The other part was a flat roof like what we might call a Widow’s Walk here in New England, a place where you could catch the breeze coming off the ocean on a hot day. People put an awning or tent up there on the roof, and it was a very comfortable place. Peter was up on the hot roof praying, and he got light-headed from the heat and fasting and fell into a trance. He had a vision of a huge sheet being lowered down from heaven to earth.

Verse 12-16 describes the vision: “In it [the sheet] were all kinds of four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, creeping things, and birds of the air. ¹³ And a voice came to him, “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.”¹⁴ But Peter said, “Not so, Lord! For I have never eaten anything common or unclean.”¹⁵ And a voice spoke to him again the second time, “What God has cleansed you must not call common.” ¹⁶ This was done three times. And the object was taken up into heaven again.” Then the Spirit told Peter that there were three men downstairs at that very moment seeking him, and that he was to go with them for God had sent them.

God orchestrates human encounters, not only in the Bible but in our lives. They are probably not as dramatic as the Biblical stories, but when they happen they seem to be a lot more than just a chance coincidence. I believe that they are God incidences – incidences of God working his purpose out in our lives. We are here for a reason, and the reason is the people around us.

II. The second point in this chapter is that God breaks down barriers. That really is the main point of this chapter. Peter is a Jew who all his life had carefully followed the OT dietary laws about ritually clean and unclean foods and contact with unclean substances and people. Jews and Gentiles did not relate to each other back then. This attitude continued in the earliest Christian church, which was composed exclusively of Jews. But through this vision, God was telling Peter that those barriers were coming down. The vision that Peter had on the rooftop was not just about foods, it was about people, which becomes obvious later in the story.

Peter comes down off the roof and meets the men that the Roman centurion Cornelius had sent. He invites them to spend the night, and the next day he went with them to Caesarea to meet Cornelius. Cornelius had gathered all his relatives and friends together to hear what Peter had to say. It must have been quite a shock when Peter entered that door. He was going into a Roman centurion’s house filled with Gentiles. Jews did not go into Gentiles’ houses. Peter explained this to Cornelius in verse 28 “You know how unlawful it is for a Jewish man to keep company with or go to one of another nation. But God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean. Therefore I came without objection as soon as I was sent for.”  As soon as Peter entered the house of this Roman officer, the soldier fell down on his knees before Peter. Things like that just don’t happen either. God was working in both Peter and Cornelius to break down barriers between people.

This is still the case today, or at least it should be. There are lots of barriers in society these days. There are racial barriers. Whenever we think that we have made some progress on racial matters then something like the Trayvon Martin killing happens, and we know that we have not made as much progress as we thought. The immigration issue is another area that is exposing the ethnic divides that exist in our nation. Another area is that of sexual orientation, a topic that has caused much division in mainline Christian churches and denominations. The Occupy Wall Street movement has highlighted the increasing division between the wealthy and the poor in our nation.

People take sides on these and other issues and fall into another division – that between political and social liberals and conservatives. That is one of the biggest and most contentious divisions these days. The incivility surrounding political discourse and elections these days is distressing. What is a Christian to do? What is a church to do? There are different answers to these questions. A lot of Christians and churches choose to get right into the fray, taking a stand in the culture wars. But too often taking a stand just erects more barriers that you are taking a stand behind. A line is drawn in the sand and that becomes a barrier.

I am no Solomon and I don’t have great wisdom when it comes to the divisions and hostilities that we face as a society and as a world. And I do not judge those who choose to fight it out in the legal and political arenas. But as a pastor I try to transcend the differences as a way to breach the barriers. Some of my colleagues see that as a cop out – a way to avoid the hard choices.  I hope that is not true. I have taken enough stands in my life and ministry, and I have paid the price personally and professionally. Now I see that the most good is done on the individual level rather than the level of mass movements, political parties, religious denominations, and countries. If we as individuals can build relationships across these barriers that divide people, then we have done a great work. If we relate to people as persons and not representatives of some group – whether racial, ethnic, political, economic, or religious – then a barrier has come down and we are closer to the Kingdom of God.

God broke down barriers when he got Peter and Cornelius together. God broke down the barrier between Roman and Jew, the occupier and the occupied. God broke down cultural and religious barriers that day. Most importantly he broke down a spiritual barrier. Peter understood what was happening and said in verse 34, “In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality. ³⁵ But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him.”

III. That brings me to the third point. It has to do with the Holy Spirit, which is the topic of that small portion of Acts 10 that I read for you. God embraces people by filling them with his Holy Spirit. Peter preached the gospel of Jesus Christ to those who had gathered in Cornelius’ house, and then the Scripture says, “⁴⁴ While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word.⁴⁵ And those of the circumcision who believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also. ⁴⁶ For they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God.”

We are approaching Pentecost in the church calendar. It happens in two weeks. This passage is often described as the Gentile Pentecost, the day that the Holy Spirit fell upon and filled Gentiles like he did with Jews on the Day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit is not well understood in mainline Protestant or even evangelical circles. I don’t think the Holy Spirit is well understood even in Pentecostal churches, which emphasize the work of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God at work in us. The Holy Spirit is God indwelling us and empowering us. The Holy Spirit is the experiential aspect of God, the most practical part of Christian theology.

This segment of scripture tells us some important things about the Holy Spirit. First it tells us that the Holy Spirit is a gift. Verse 45 says, “⁴⁵ And those of the circumcision who believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also.” The Holy Spirit is a gift. A gift is something that you do not deserve. You don’t earn gifts. Gifts are an expression of love from the gift-giver. The Gift of the Holy Spirit is special insofar as this gift is never something we possess. This gift is God giving himself to us. We in no way can say that we possess God. God possesses us.

This scripture also tells us who received the gift. Verse 44 “the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word.”  It is accurate to talk about the Spirit working in the world and in all people. But this passage is talking about something more specific than the general work of the Spirit. It tells us that the Holy Spirit came upon and empowered those who heard and believed the Word of God. Faith in God and in Christ opens us to a new and different level of God’s work in our lives. This is an experience of God. People want to experience God. People want more than a set of beliefs or a community of people to connect to. They want and need an experiential connection to the divine. That is what the Holy Spirit provides. The Holy Spirit is God in us connecting to God outside of us. The Holy Spirit is God working in us and through us. We experience the reality of God through the Holy Spirit.

This passage also talks about these members of Cornelius’ household speaking in tongues. That is another very controversial issue. I am not getting anywhere near that controversy today! I don’t really want to get into the position of judging whether my Pentecostal brothers and sisters have got it right or not - whether what they experience is the same as what the Book of Acts describes.  But I need to address what it means in our text. It means that the gospel was breaking the language barrier. God does not just speak Hebrew or Greek or Latin, but he speaks to all peoples in their own language.

Then is the baptism in our story. Everyone could see what was happening, and Peter declared, ⁴⁷ “Can anyone forbid water, that these should not be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” ⁴⁸ And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord.” The church confirmed by baptism what God had already done in these persons’ lives. God gives himself to us in the person and the power of the Holy Spirit. Theology is made real in experience. It is the church’s role to affirm what God is doing and confirm it through its rituals. That is what Peter did here, and it opened up a whole new chapter of church history. Suddenly the church was not just a small Jewish religious movement. Suddenly it became a movement open to all people. Barriers were broken down and the gospel began to spread throughout the Roman Empire and beyond. The Spirit knows no boundaries, nor race nor language. For God is the Lord of all the earth, and he gives himself unreservedly to all who will acknowledge him.  

The Road to Gaza

Delivered May 6, 2012 Video

Acts 8:26-40

The life of faith is a spiritual journey. This is a very well-known analogy; it is found in Dante’s Divine Comedy to Bunyan’s The Pilgrims Progress. I just finished reading an excellent book by a Franciscan named Richard Rohr entitled, “Falling Upwards: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life.” He talks about how spirituality in one’s later years is very different than one’s younger years. Throughout the book he refers to Homer’s Odyssey, using the journey of Odysseus as a metaphor for the spiritual life. It is making me want to go back and read the Odyssey again! The Bible is filled with journeys – physical journeys and spiritual journeys - Abraham’s journey to the Promised Land, and Jacob’s journeys eventually to Egypt, and Israel’s forty years of wandering toward the Land of Canaan. Last week in my sermon I interpreted the 23^rd psalm as a spiritual journey; I entitled my message “The Shepherd’s Journey.”  The Gospel account of Jesus’ life is told in the context of traveling around Galilee and Judea with the turning point being when Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem. Paul’s famous conversion on a trip to Syria on the Damascus Road was the start of a life of journeying.

Today we are going to look at a trip on the Road to Gaza in the Book of Acts. Gaza is in the news regularly because of the ongoing conflict between the Palestinians and Israelis. Gaza is an area in southwestern Palestine on the Mediterranean Sea. I visited the area year ago, including Gaza City, and saw a lot of the old Philistine sites. Gaza today appears to me to be one big refugee camp – overcrowded and steeped in poverty. It is no surprise to me that it has become the breeding ground for Islamic radicalism.  Today Gaza is a dead end – a large open air prison - penned in by the ocean and Egypt and the state of Israel. But in the first century it was a beautiful seaside area on the main road known as the Via Maris (the Way of the Sea), an ancient trade route that linked Mesopotamia with Africa. There were two major roads that went through the Holy Land. One was the Via Maris. The other was known as the King’s Highway which went from Mesopotamia through Jerusalem to the Red Sea.

The two men in our story were not on either of the main roads. They were on a side road. The opening verse of our passage says (in NRSV), “Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, "Get up and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza." This is a wilderness road.” It was not a paved Roman road like the Via Maris. We would call it a dirt road, but not like one of our well maintained dirt roads. This was a wilderness road. Think of it as the Sandwich Notch Road on a bad day.

We all have our Sandwich Notch Road stories. Personally the first time I saw Sandwich was in 1981. We were on vacation from Illinois visiting  my parents in Wolfeboro. We had spent the day in the mountains and were taking what looked like a shortcut on the map from Campton to Sandwich on the way back to Wolfeboro. Jude and I am the boys were crowded into an old Oldsmobile station wagon, which scraped on the rocks as we slowly bounced along. It was getting late and half way through the notch we did not know if we were going to get out of the woods alive. That is a wilderness road. Our two men in our story were on a wilderness road.  The spiritual journey often travels wilderness roads. If you want a nice smooth superhighway, then I suggest you take the well-trampled paths of consumer style religion, which you can get on TV and in the megachurches and in the Christian bestsellers. But if you prefer the rustic and scenic routes, then the wilderness road is the way for you. These two men took the road less traveled.

I. One of the two men on that road was Philip. This is not the apostle Philip, but one of the seven men mentioned a couple of chapters earlier in the Book of Acts, who were chosen by the apostles as ministers to serve the church in Jerusalem. They are traditionally called the first deacons, but the word deacon simply means servant. Their first job in Acts 6 was to serve tables for the widows who did not have families to provide for them. They did hands-on serving of people’s physical needs. That is who Philip was. His road was a road of service. And it should be for us as well. American Christianity is too much of a consumer religion with churches marketing a spiritual product and vying with each other for market share. That is not what Christianity is about. The spiritual life is about service to people in the name of Christ. It is a road of service.

The spiritual journey may also be a road of persecution. That was certainly true in the days of Philip. Shortly after these seven men were chosen by the apostles as servant-ministers, a great persecution broke out in Jerusalem. The first martyr of the Christian church was Stephen, one of these seven men. The spiritual road can be dangerous. This is something that the present day American church does not know about, but it is the norm in much of the world. The TV Show 60 Minutes recently had segment on Christians in the Holy Land. It was so controversial that the Israeli ambassador called CBS to protest airing it. It short it said that Christians are persecuted in the Holy Land, and as a result are leaving in droves. They are persecuted not only by Muslims in Gaza and the West Bank, but also in Israel. They are being squeezed out of the Holy Land by adherents of the two majority religions – Islam and Judaism. If the present rate of Christian exodus from Israel and Palestine continues, there will be a day when there are no Christians in the land where Christianity was born. And the Christians in the Holy Land have it easy compared to other Middle Eastern countries. Decision Magazine’s April issue was on Radical Islam’s Global War on Christians. The lead story was entitled “Arab Spring, Christian Winter,” reporting how the changes in government in many Arab countries in 2010-11 have been disastrous for the Christian communities in those lands. We are seeing severe increased persecution of the church in Arab lands.

It was hard for the earliest Christians in Jerusalem. But you know what they did? They turned it into an opportunity. They had to flee Jerusalem because of the persecution, but they used it as an opportunity to spread the gospel to other places. Acts 8:4 says that in response to the Great Persecution, “Therefore those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the word.” Philip was one of those who went. It is a wonderful example of how we are to approach hardships in life. When bad things happen, we can whine and complain, get depressed and act like victims and feel sorry for ourselves, or we can see it was an opportunity. Philip saw persecution as an opportunity. He went first to Samaria (we are told in chapter 8), and then God called him to take a trip to Gaza.

Our story says that an angel told Philip to take the wilderness road to Gaza. That was it; no other explanation. Philip responded with obedience. The spiritual path is a road of obedience. That is another thing Americans do not like. We don’t like to be told what to do. Kids don’t like it when their parents tell them what to do. We do not like it when the government tells us what to do. These days even employees don’t like it when an employer tells them what to do. This attitude carries over into our spirituality. We chaff under authority – even God’s authority. We are a rebellious people. We always have been, as illustrated in the story of Adam and Eve. They did not like God telling them they could not eat of that one tree. All the other trees in Eden they could eat from, but not that one. Therefore that was the one they wanted. That is our problem. But when God told Philip to go to Gaza, he obeyed. He didn’t know why he was going to Gaza, but our text says simply, “He arose and went.”

There on the Road to Gaza his path intersected with another man’s path. Our story says, “ ‘And behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace the queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasury, and had come to Jerusalem to worship, ²⁸ was returning. And sitting in his chariot, he was reading Isaiah the prophet. ²⁹ Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go near and overtake this chariot.” Philip’s path intersected with that of the Ethiopian.  That the nature of the spiritual life. Our path intersects with others paths, and that is where ministry takes place. A lot of people think that churches are about programs. That we have to have this program or that program, spend money and hire people, and buy materials. And that is fine to do, but the most important ministry happens when our everyday lives intersect with other people’s lives. And we minister spontaneously in those settings. Philip was on a trip to Gaza and ran into an Ethiopian on the same road and they entered into a conversation.

II. Let’s look at the Ethiopian now, the other man on this Road to Gaza. Who was he? Scripture tells us here that he was “a eunuch of great authority under Candace the queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasury, and had come to Jerusalem to worship, [and] was returning.” Many Bible commentators describe him as a Gentile, and his conversion here is the beginning of Christianity spreading to non-Jews. My NKJV Study Bible that I use takes this approach; that is why you can’t always believe the notes in your study Bibles.

This man was probably an Ethiopian Jew. There is a long history of Jews in Ethiopia. The black Jewish community in Ethiopia today traces its roots back thousands of years to King Solomon. Their tradition says that when the Queen of Sheba (the ancient name for Ethiopia) visited King Solomon in Jerusalem that he seduced her, and that she was expecting a child when she returned to her homeland. Her son Menelik I became the first emperor of Ethiopia.  Ethiopian Jews even say that when Jerusalem was endangered that the ark of the covenant was brought to Ethiopia and is still in one of their temples. Ethiopian Jews were in the news in the 1980’s and 1990’s when large groups tried to immigrate to Israel under the Israeli right of return, which guarantees Jews the right of Israeli citizenship. There was controversy about whether these Africans were really Jews. It was decided they were, and the Israeli government organized mass airlifts to bring them to Israel. That controversy is in the news again now as more Ethiopian Jews want to come to Israeli to escape Islamic persecution.

I think this Ethiopian in our story is a Jew. It says that he was making a pilgrimage to Jerusalem to worship. A few Gentiles worshipped the God of Israel, but it was mostly Jews. But this man could not have participated fully in temple worship because eunuchs were not allowed into the Court of Israel, so he was marginalized by his religion. Furthermore it says that he was reading the book of Isaiah in his chariot. This scroll was written in Hebrew, but only Jews could have read. That is why I think this man was an Ethiopian Jew. He was rich and powerful. We know he was rich because he had a copy of a scroll of the prophet Isaiah, which at the time was so expensive that only synagogues owned scrolls, not private citizens. He probably had purchased this scroll while in Jerusalem, perhaps even for his Jewish community back home. He was powerful because he was the Secretary of the Treasury of Ethiopia. He was a high-ranking government official in charge of all the Queen’s money.

And here comes Philip who runs up to the chariot and engages him in conversation. Verse 30 “ So Philip ran to him, and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?” We should picture the chariot as stopped. Philips was not trying to catch up to a running horse pulling a chariot. We know that because the Ethiopian  was reading. He could not have read a scroll while on a chariot riding on a wilderness road. Even if he could Philip could not have overheard what he was saying. This man is taking a break at a rest area under a tree, and he got out his new scroll of Isaiah which he just purchased and was reading it out loud, the way books were always read back then. Philip heard him reading and recognized it as the Book of Isaiah – another clear indication that he was reading in Hebrew. Philip asked the man if he understood what he was reading. Verse 31 says, “And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he asked Philip to come up and sit with him.” Then Phillip explained the scripture he was reading, that it was a prophecy about Jesus the Messiah.  Actually it says (NRSV), “³⁵ Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture, he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus.”

 This scene tells us about the importance of scripture. It also tells us that it is not easy to understand scripture, and that it helps to have someone to guide us in interpreting and understanding the Bible. I think that is part of the pastor’s role as preacher and teacher. But it is important for each of us to know enough about Scripture  so if we find ourselves in the same situation as Philip someday, and someone asks us a question about the Bible, we don’t have to say, “Wait a minute. I don’t know enough. Let me get the preacher to answer your questions.”  What if Philip had said to the Ethiopian, “Sorry, I am only a deacon. Let me get the apostle Peter to answer your questions.” That won’t cut it. It is important for us to have read enough of scripture, so that if a conversation turns to spiritual matters that we can say something knowledgeable. We don’t have to be expert Biblical scholars with all the answers. Philip was not a rabbi, a scribe, a priest, or an apostle; but he had obviously read the Scriptures enough to talk intelligently about the prophet Isaiah and other relevant passages that pointed to Jesus.

Their conversation obviously went on for some time. They began traveling again as they talked – the Ethiopian giving Philip a lift to Gaza. Eventually the Ethiopian decided he wanted to be baptized. “ ³⁶ Now as they went down the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, “See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?” ³⁷ Then Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” And he answered and said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”  Philip immediately baptized him right that at that roadside rest stop. No membership classes, no meeting with the deacons. They just stopped at an oasis in the wilderness with a river or brook, and Philip baptized him. “³⁸ So he commanded the chariot to stand still. And both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him.”  And then they parted ways never to see each other again “the eunuch saw him no more.” They were strangers taking the same road to Gaza. For the Ethiopian it was the beginning of another journey, a spiritual journey. It says “and he went on his way rejoicing.” The ancient church historian Eusebius says that this man spread the gospel in his own country and founded the Ethiopian church. All because two paths crossed one day on the Road to Gaza. May our paths likewise cross those who are on a spiritual search, and when it happens may we have something to say.

The Shepherd’s Journey

Delivered April 29, 2012

Psalm 23

This is indisputably the most beloved chapter in the Bible. When people are asked their favorite Bible passage, most people will say the 23^rd psalm. There was a poll done in 2009. People were asked their favorite Bible passage. 34% said Psalm 23. 29% said John 3:16. Those two passages account for 63% of respondents. Then it dropped off suddenly after that; the next highest only had 5%. This psalm, known as the Shepherd Psalm, is frequently requested at funeral services. It is recited in times of crisis. It even has its own Facebook page! There is something about these verses that touch people like none other. It is attributed to King David, who lived 3000 years ago. Psalms are songs sung to stringed instruments, this one traditionally considered composed and sung by King David. I would love to know what the original tune was that David sang these words to! What can a preacher say about this passage that has not already been said? I have no illusions of coming up with something new and different here, but I will do my best to do justice to this beautiful psalm.

As I look over this psalm, what comes to my attention immediately is all the verbs. This is an action psalm. Listen to the verbs: want, lie down, leads (2x), restores, walk, fear, comfort, prepare, anoint, overflow, follow, dwell. There are only six verses in this psalm and there are 13 action verbs, not even counting the verb “to be”, as in “The Lord is my shepherd.” As I look at this some more, it seems to me that this psalm can be pictured as a journey, so that is how I am going to be expounding it this morning. The shepherd (who is the Lord God) is leading the psalmist David on a journey. David ought to know something about this, because he was a shepherd before he was a warrior and then a king. In our case as Christians, we can read this Shepherd as Jesus, whom our Gospel lesson for today calls the Good Shepherd. We are the sheep. As another psalm, Psalm 100 says, “We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.” The shepherd leads us on a journey through this psalm. There are three stages to this shepherd’s journey.

I. First, the journey begins in green pastures. “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. ² He makes me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the still waters.³ He restores my soul.” The luxuriousness of this scene is striking because in Israel green pastures are rare. Palestine is an arid land. It is mostly rocks and sand. Green pastures would be considered truly wonderful. Muslims picture heavenly paradise as a well-watered garden. In our Bible the Garden of Eden was a garden watered by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. This type of setting is where the Shepherd’s journey begins. His sheep are lying down in beautiful green, well-watered pastures, with abundant food available to the sheep. They do not want for anything. “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” The sheep have food. They have water. They are resting in the green pastures. They are refreshed. “He restores my soul.”

This is why people like this psalm so much. It starts off as a picture of an earthly paradise. You may have heard that the well-known painter Thomas Kinkade died on Good Friday this year. He was only 54 years old. They say that he is the most popular artist in American history. Art critics didn’t like him but the people loved him. It is said that his paintings hang in 10 million homes. He himself named Walt Disney and Norman Rockwell as his inspirations, so you see where he is coming from. He wanted to reach ordinary people. He is known as the “painter of light,” because of the soft light that emanates from this works. He was a devout Christian who tried to communicate through light a sense of spirituality in his paintings.  Often his scenes are rural country settings with homes, cabins, or churches bright with warm yellow light shining from the windows. The reason that his paintings are so popular is that it communicates the same type of thing that the 23^rd psalm communicates – a safe, warm, secure, comfortable spirituality. They communicate an earthly spiritual ideal – a peaceable kingdom, an Americanized version of the Garden of Eden.

That is what people yearn for. We yearn for heaven, or at least a heaven on earth, where nature shines with the glory of God and the warmth of family and friendship shines out of the windows of homes. I think that is what the 23^rd psalm communicates. It is a pastoral scene of peace and security. It is the picture of the idealized home. It is the driving force behind much of the spiritual journey. The world can be a cold, lonely and difficult place. People long for what this psalm presents – a God who is our shepherd and who takes care of us and provides for our needs. The 23^rd Psalm hooks us with this dream at the very beginning.

II. But it doesn’t stay there. In the psalm, the shepherd rounds up the sheep and heads out. Not for greener pastures. It leaves the green pasture behind and heads out into the real world. That is the second stage of the journey, which is through the Dark Valley.  “He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake.⁴ Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.” The “valley of the shadow of death” is the traditional language, but other translations will use phrases like “through the darkest valley.” This also resonates with our experience. We know that life is not just good, safe, secure times. It also includes deep dark valley experiences. When serious illness like cancer strikes, we are walking through the deep dark valley. When death strikes someone close to us we are walking through the valley of the shadow of death. When depression consumes us, it is as if darkness descends onto every part of our lives. When death threatens our own lives, we are walking that valley. We can’t live life without walking through the valley that the psalmist describes.

In fact the psalm says that the Shepherd leads us into these valleys and through these valleys. Apparently there is no way around such valleys. There is no high road where it is always sunny, light and warm. We have to travel through deep canyons that are dark and cold. Indeed the psalm says these are the “paths of righteousness.” “He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake.” The path of righteousness goes through the valley of the shadow of death. We tend to think that if things are dark and difficult then something must be wrong, that we have taken a wrong turn somewhere, or that God has abandoned us. This psalm teaches us just the opposite. It tells us that the valley road is the right path and that God is with us in this darkness. Indeed that there is a purpose for the dark times – that we travel these for his name’s sake.

To shed some NT light on this, this path is the Way of Christ. The way of Jesus is not easy. It is the way of the cross, which is the valley of the shadow of death if there ever was one! The cross casts a shadow, and that shadow is the shadow of death. Some people come to religion seeking escape from the dark parts of life. They think that if they follow Jesus then he will keep the darkness away – that there will be no illness or trouble or death. When they find out that is not true – that faith does not protect us from troubles in life - some people then get upset and reject religion and God. But Jesus never promised us only a garden - a life of green pastures and still waters. Christianity does not take us on a bypass around the dark valleys. It is not an escape route from life’s difficulties. It takes you right through them. Lots of Christians in much of the world have more troubles because they are Christians rather than less, especially in places of religious persecution like strict Islamic and communist countries. I am sorry, but there is no way around the valley of the shadow of death. But there are different ways through it. The Good Shepherd takes us through the valley by the right path – the path of righteousness - and most importantly he travels with us and leads us through the darkness.

The promise of the psalm is that when the Lord leads us through dark valleys, we do not have to fear because the Lord is with us. His rod and his staff, they comfort us. The shepherd’s rod is a weapon. In the Bible David relates how in his youth he had killed both a lion and a bear with his rod while protecting his sheep. That is what the Lord does; he fights to protect us. The staff mentioned here is the shepherd’s crook – with the hook on the top - used to rescue sheep when they get themselves into tight places. That is what the Lord does for us when we get ourselves into tight places – when we are not looking where we are going and we fal into a crevasse. He is with us to protect us from the evil that lurks in the dark valleys. Psalm 12 says that the Lord will protect us from all evil, that he will preserve our soul. He comforts us and strengthens us. He is our light in the darkness.

Once again I will mention Thomas Kinkade. In a 2002 interview he was asked about his personal mission and purpose in painting. He said, “I'm a warrior for light,” (a reference to the medieval practice of using light to symbolize the divine.) "With whatever talent and resources I have, I'm trying to bring light to penetrate the darkness many people feel." That is what this psalm promises. Though the deep valleys are dark, God can see in the dark, for he is Light, and he guides us in the right way through those valleys.

          III. The third leg of the Shepherd’s journey is on the other side of the darkest valley. The psalm takes us through the valley of the shadow of death, and then it comes out into a safe place. We come to the Shepherd’s house. Here the imagery of the psalm changes. Up to this point it has been the shepherd leading sheep, but here at the journey’s end the shepherd is not feeding sheep in green pastures any longer. Here he is entertaining guests in his home. It says, “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over.” Sheep don’t sit at tables, nor have their heads anointed with oil nor drink out of cups. The reader is no longer placed in the role of a sheep, but an human honored guest.

          We are sitting at a table with the Lord. To many Christians this scene conjures up images of the Lord’s Supper and the Wedding Supper of the Lamb mentioned in the Book of Revelation. But before we jump to those NT ideas, we need to first take it simply for what it is in that ancient Hebrew setting. This is the ancient Near-Eastern picture of hospitality. Hospitality was a solemn obligation in that culture. When one was invited into the tent or the house of a person, you were treated as royalty. You were under the protection of the householder. The Householder would literally lay down his life to protect you – which looks ahead to the NT idea of Jesus laying down his life on the cross for us. But primarily this ending of the psalm is a picture of safety.

But there is more here that is often missed or misunderstood when studying this psalm. It says “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.” The presence of one’s enemies has confused many people. People picture a person eating while his enemies are nearby waiting to pounce. Or a person eating while his enemies go hungry. Or a picnic in the middle of a battlefield. That is not what is pictured here.  Let me explain. In that culture one did not eat in the presence of enemies. One shared table fellowship only with friends. So if the enemies are present it means that the enemies have been transformed into friends. This is a table of peace, a meal celebrating the end of hostilities.

          Abraham Lincoln said that the best way to destroy an enemy was to make him a friend. That is exactly what is happening here. To sit at a table with one’s enemies means that they are no longer your enemies. This is a picture of reconciliation, forgiveness, and peace. This is especially significant because the only enemy mentioned in this psalm is death, as in “the valley of the shadow of death.” This is talking about making peace with what the Bible calls the last enemy that shall be destroyed. And death is destroyed by making it your friend.

We are all going to die. The older you get the more conscious you become of that inevitability. When you are young you don’t think about death. It is what happens to somebody else. We act as if we are immortal. That is why the death of a young person makes such an impression on young people. It is assumed that death is something that happens to old people. But when a young person dies, all of a sudden reality hits his/her friends in the face.  As we get older we get hit more and more often in the face as more and more people we know die. We end up going to more funerals than weddings and we know something has changed. When people our age die, we know that our end is closer.  A couple of weeks Arthur George died here in Sandwich. He was a friend of mine and uncomfortably close to my age. His wife is one of my wife’s closest friends. Death felt close at his funeral as I said some words and prayed for his kids.

          At some point we each need to make our peace with the last enemy. We need to sit down and have a meal with death in the presence of the Lord. Talk some things over, laugh about our lives, and embrace mortality as a friend. When we are no longer afraid to die, then we can live. I hope everyone here is at that place. We need not fear death any more than we are afraid to fall asleep at night. We need not fear death any more than we were afraid to be born. We come from God and we return to God. “The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” And in the meantime, when we have made our peace with death then “ Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the Lord Forever.”

          Forever is the final word of this psalm. The hope of the believer is that there is a house of the Lord after death. What eternal life is exactly, who knows? There are pictures and images in the Bible but they are metaphors and symbols. The only thing we know now is space and time, but eternal life is beyond space and time. Eternity is not endless time; it is outside of time. Heaven is not a place; it is a spiritual reality outside of space. Therefore we cannot imagine what is in store for us after we die. I use Biblical images to describe life beyond death, but I know I don’t really know. But I know that God is there; the House of the Lord is there. The Good Shepherd is there. And in some way who I really am in God and in Christ – my soul, my spirit, my true self - will also be there, and in some way I am already there. I have that life now. We have that life now in Christ. That is the Forever that ends the psalm. That is the destination of the Shepherd’s journey and our spiritual journey.