COURAGE

After seeing the movie "Lincoln" a few weeks ago, and seeing a portrait of Abraham Lincoln at the White House yesterday, I'm convinced that he was a man of conviction and great courage.

GUN VIOLENCE

Violence anywhere is a threat to peace and safety everywhere. And so, as the National Rifle Association (NRA) proposed today, every school in America would to be assigned an armed police officer as a solution to gun violence. I wonder how does this address gun violence in workplaces, places of worship, movie theatres, shopping malls, athletic fields, homes, on college campuses...? My point is not to blame the NRA for the horrific violence that occurred in Newtown, Portland, Aurora, Chicago, Baltimore or anywhere else. I do believe the statement made today by Wayne LaPierre of the NRA that “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun" is irresponsible and shallow, bordering on arrogant and insensitve, given the complexity of the problem of gun violence in our society. My question is simply, where does the NRA'a proposal to place armed police officers in every school lead us in addressing the root causes of gun violence - whether it occurs in cities, suburbs or rural areas? It does not seem to me that arming more people in more places is the answer to moving us toward becoming less violent and ultimately toward becoming a nonviolent society, but does seem to move us closer to becoming a police state under marshall law. I wonder if the writers of the Second Amendment had this in mind.

BEARING FRUIT - PART 9 - GENTLENESS (WHY GENTLENESS?)

(This sermon was preached at Epworth Chapel, Baltimore on 12/16/12, and is the 9th in a ten-part series on the Fruit of the Spirit)

“…the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”

Over the past several weeks, we have been considering the fruit that the Holy Spirit produces in our lives as we endeavor to walk with Christ. We have looked at seven fruit thus far, those being love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity and faithfulness. Today, we want to look at gentleness. The apostle Paul said that one of the fruit of Spirit is gentleness.

We are perpetually reminded that these are troubling times in which we live. These are times when it seems that aggression has overtaken us in many respects. We talk aggressively, act aggressively and even think aggressive thoughts. One of the most common themes of this day is “No Fear.”

“No Fear.” I believe that this in some way is a sounding cry in response to the violent nature of the world. Many people are actually afraid for their well-being, their security and safety, and thus we cry out “No Fear.” No Fear – as a response to the mean-spirited nature of our world.

Indeed, this is a world where it is not uncommon to hear about violence in our schools, violence on our streets, violence in the malls, violence in places of worship, and even violence in our homes. We live in a perpetual state of fear and terror – awaiting the next senseless and random act of violence against God’s people.

And thus the question for church – for you and me – is “How are we as Christians supposed to respond to this spirit of meanness that so permeates our reality today?"

Paul said that “the fruit of the Spirit is gentleness.” If we are walking in the Spirit of Christ, we are walking in gentleness. The context of the text here is Paul’s concern about what was going on the church in Galatia. Paul was concerned about how Christians in the Galatian church were treating each other. It’s clear that they were having problems being gentle with one another. We get the sense that they were struggling on a relational level with how they were to walk in the Spirit, and at the same time walk with each other.

This would lead Paul later in his Galatian letter to elaborate on the matter of reaping and sowing, and remind the people that you indeed will reap that which you sow. In other words if they were to continue sowing seeds of dissension, division, meanness, vengefulness and anger, they should expect to reap the same in their lives.

But if they were to sow seeds of love, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, and yes gentleness – they could only expect the reap the blessings of God in their lives.

There’s the story of the woman who would always go to a branch post office in her town because the postal employees there were friendly. She went there to buy stamps just before Christmas one year and the lines were particularly long. Someone pointed out that there was no need to wait in line because there was a stamp machine in the lobby. "I know," the woman said, “but the machine won't ask me about my arthritis."

There’s a saying that gentleness makes a person attractive. If you would win the world, melt it, do not hammer it.

Indeed, it is our task as the church, as Christians – in the midst of the meanness of the world, to search for ways that we might live with compassion and humility and gentleness toward one another.

Yes, it is always tempting for us to conform to the world’s standards of how we are to treat each other – to submit to the ways of those around us who may not know the Lord. But it is our divinely ordained task – as the church – to somehow discover ways to live out compassion and humility and gentleness.

Paul said that he fruit of the Spirit is gentleness. The Greek term that Paul uses for gentleness here is “prautes” (pra-u-tes). This term embodies a number of qualities including meekness, humility, kindness, and even the peace and patience that Paul speaks of as other fruits of the Spirit.

The measure of gentleness is thus taken from our everyday acts – the way we treat each other – the way we treat family, co-workers, church members, and even strangers on the street.

And certainly, there are some people who think that gentleness indicates weakness - that meekness is weakness. They say that only weak people are gentle, and that gentle people are bound to be taken advantage of.

Now gentleness does not mean that we weak. Gentleness does not mean that we are unwilling, or afraid or unable to confront evil in our midst. Gentleness does not mean that we should sit idly and silently, and passively watching and accepting evil as it is perpetuated and perpetrated in our midst. It just means that we are going to find ways to confront evil in gentleness.

Notice Paul’s words in Galatians chapter 6, verse 1:
“My friends, if anyone is detected in a transgression, you who have received the Spirit, should restore such one in a spirit of gentleness.”

In other words it is our divine responsibility as the church to confront evil and transgression in our midst. We are called by God to confront wrongdoing and sin and brokenness, and we are to do it, not in judgment of one another, but in gentleness. We are to speak truth to power, but we are to do it in gentleness. We are to do our part to turn a broken and sin-sick world upside down and right-side up – and for Christ’s sake we are to speak the truth in love – and do all that we do, and say all that we say, in gentleness.

Why gentleness, you ask? First, if we are going to walk in the image – the likeness of Jesus, we are going to walk as Jesus walked. And Jesus walked gently even in the midst of his strength. The Lord was gentle even in the midst of the adversity that swirled around his life.

I picture the Lord, as he encountered the Samaritan woman at the well. While there were others among the Jews who would have nothing to do with Samaritans, because their culture – their ethnicity was different, here was Jesus gently taking time to offer this unnamed, unknown Samaritan woman, in the midst of her loneliness and brokenness, in the midst of her being ostracized and criticized by others, some water and a word of hope. Jesus was gentle.

Why gentleness? Gentleness affirms our life and our humanity. Gentleness affirms that we understand that God’s grace is present and evident in our lives. It says that we know that there have been times when we didn’t deserve it, but that God has been gentle with us. Paul reminded Titus (Tit. 3:2), “to be gentle, and show courtesy to everyone… for we ourselves were once foolish.”

Why gentleness? Gentleness has some fruit bearing qualities. We need to be gentle because our gentleness just might be contagious enough to rub off on somebody else. The gentleness that you convey as a child of God just might be catchy enough to lead somebody else into a closer relationship with Jesus.

I’m glad that Jesus showed gentleness toward us. He did not have to do it, but while we were yet sinners, the Lord died for you and me. While the world was sinking deep in sin, God sent Jesus to love us and rescue us. The Lord is gentle.

That’s why we can sing….
Pass me not
O gentle savior
Hear my humble cry.
While on other thou are calling,
Do not pass me by.
Savior… savior
Hear my humble cry…
While on other’s thou art calling…
Do not pass me by…

BEARING FRUIT- PART 8 - "FAITHFULNESS"

(This sermon was preached at Epworth Chapel, Baltimore on 12/9/12, and is the 8th in a ten-part series on "Bearing Fruit")

“…the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” (Galatians 5:22-23)


In the Apostle Paul’s writings to the church at Galatia, and in other letters that he wrote to the churches throughout Asia Minor, it is evident that a disease had pervaded the land, and infected many of God’s people. The disease that Paul wrote about, and one that continues to exist in many respects today, was more powerful than all of the most deadly diseases of his day, and of this present day. It was more deadly than the leprosy of Paul’s day, and more deadly than cancer… and heart disease… and even AIDS today.

The disease that Paul wrote about would not – today - be recorded at the Centers of Disease Control, or at the National Institutes of Health. It could not have been treated at Northwest or Sinai Hospitals, or at Johns Hopkins. No, the disease that Paul alluded to was a spiritual disease.

It was the disease of faithlessness.

Indeed, as in the days of the Apostle Paul, faithlessness had crept into to the church, and in many ways had crippled the church’s mission and paralyzed its ministry. This disease of faithlessness is one that continues to persist in many circles today. The disease of faithlessness has, in many ways and in many places, placed the church on life-support at best, and in many instances taken the very life out of the church.

This is the dilemma that Mike Regelle wrote about in his book, “The Death of the Church” several years ago, where Regelle said that in every age, the church will inevitably die. The question for the church then is will we die to die (a permanent/terminal death), or will we die to live (a resurrected life in Christ)?

It is clear in Scripture that the very purpose of Jesus and his coming into the world was to point you and me – and all of humanity toward a clearer understanding of who God is, and to help us to draw closer in our relationship with God. God desires that each of us has an intimate relationship with Jesus that comes through our belief in God and in Christ as the savior of the world. Such belief is the very nature of faith.

What is faith? The writer of the book of Hebrews offers perhaps the most definitive description of faith when he writes that “faith is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not yet seen.” And so, faith means that we believe in God and believe God even when we cannot see the Lord.

St. Augustine, perhaps the greatest theologian in the history of Christianity, helped us to understand the nature of faith when he wrote: “Understanding is the reward of faith. Therefore seek not to understand that thou mayest believe, but believe that thou mayest understand.” Augustine shared further about faith in this way: “Faith is to believe what we do not see, and the reward of faith is to see what we believe.”
This is a challenge to a world today where so often we need to “see it to believe it” - where as the saying goes – “the proof is always in the pudding.”

But, faith comes before understanding and seeing. Faith begins by believing in God, and believing God to be the source of life and truth for our lives.
This is the challenge for the faithful and the reason why we are here. We are beckoned to search out ways to live faithfully amidst that which would sap the energy and life out of the church and God’s people and render us faithless.

Paul in his letter to the Galatian church offers a remedy – an antidote - for the faithlessness of his day, and for us today, when he writes that the “fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” Paul declares that one of the fruit of the Spirit is faithfulness.

In other words, when we are walking in the Spirit of Christ; we will be walking in faithfulness.

What was Paul trying to help us with here? What was he really trying to get at when he talked about faithfulness?

Our faithfulness is first and foremost rooted and grounded in the faithfulness of God toward us. If you know like I know, we worship and serve a God who is faithful toward you and me in all places and at all times. There has not been a time in human history when God has not been faithful toward us.

This – the faithfulness of God - is what would lead the prophet Jeremiah to declare in Lamentations 3, that “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, thus we are not consumed. The mercies of the Lord are new every morning; God’s faithfulness endures not for a season, but forever.”

The great Methodist evangelist, E. Stanley Jones, talked about God’s faithfulness in this way: “Faith is not merely your holding on to God--it is God holding on to you. He will not let you go!” God has been, continues to be, and will be faithful toward us.

There’s a story of a man who fell off a cliff one day, but managed to grab a tree limb on the way down. The man looked up and the following conversation ensued:

"Is anyone up there?"
"I am here. I am the Lord. Do you believe me?"
"Yes, Lord, I believe. I really believe, but I can't hang on much longer."
"That's all right; if you really believe you have nothing to worry about. I will save you. Just let go of the branch."
There was a moment of pause, and then the man responded: "Is anyone else up there?"

It’s Good News to know that God is faithful toward us. God will not let you go! With whatever you might go through, and however long troubles might last, we can be assured that that Lord is faithful.

Second, our response to the faithfulness of God is that we are to be faithful toward God. And I’ve come to realize that once you know that a faithful God has saved you and raised you, and continues to see about you, it’s not hard to be faithful to God. It’s not difficult to worship the Lord, and serve the Lord when we realize that God has been faithful toward us.

God is faithful. Lest you need any more evidence of God’s faithfulness, and why we need to respond in faithfulness, think about what God did that leads us into Advent. God looked down over the world over 42 generations, and God said that I’m so faithful (I love the world so much) that I need to send a Son and a Savior into the world. So God sent Jesus… born in a manger… meek and lowly… wonderful counselor… the prince of peace… almighty God… king of kings… Lord of Lords… He’s faithful!

That’s why our mothers and fathers in days past could sing with assurance – as an affirmation of their faith – that:

We’ve come this far by faith
Leaning on the Lord
Trusting in his holy word
He’s never failed me yet
Oh-Oh-Oh
Can’t turn around
We’ve come this far by faith!

BEARING FRUIT - PART 7 - "SPREAD KINDNESS"

(This sermon was preached at Epworth Chapel, Baltimore on 12/2/12 and is the seventh in a 10-part series on the the fruit of the Spirit.)

“… the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23)

The image for me this week was striking, amazing and awesome. Moving it was. Here was a young New York City police officer kneeling down in front of a homeless man in Times Square. On first view, it might appear that the NYPD officer might have been there to encourage the homeless man to get up from where he had obviously parked himself for the night, and move on to someplace where he would be less visibly homeless.

But this was not the case at all. The young police officer was there out of concern for the homeless man – concern that the man had no shoes on his feet as he lay in the freezing New York night. And so the policeman went and found a shoe store, and out of his compassion and kindness, he bought the homeless man a new pair of shoes to wear.

The image of the officer’s act of kindness went viral on the Internet this week, and people all over the nation and the world are talking about this officer’s kind gesture – his errand of goodwill. Maybe it’s not so surprising that people have become so fixated with this story, given the images that are often conjured when we think about police officers and their treatment of so-called street people.

Indeed, we hear in the news of far too many stories of racial profiling and police brutality. The images of Rodney King being beaten in Los Angeles (1991) and Amadou Diallo (1999) being subjected to police brutality in this very same New York City are etched in our collective conscious. But this young New York City police officer, on this one cold night, demonstrated none of this.

And then maybe, there’s such a fixation with this image of the police officer and the shoeless, homeless man because it causes so many of us to pause, and think about what we would do if we encountered such a shoeless man on the street. Would we stop to buy him a pair of shoes, or would we pass him by, and go on our way? In Baltimore, there are over 4000 homeless people, and over 500 are children. What would we do if we encountered one of them? It causes us to pause and wonder doesn’t it?

The apostle Paul writes to the Galatian church and says that “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” Notice here that the fifth fruit, mark, indication that we are Christian is that we are kind. One of the fruit of the Spirit is kindness.

Here Paul seems to make a distinction between performing an act of kindness, and being kind. It seems that Paul’s ultimate concern here is that Christians would be kind, and that as an outgrowth of our being kind, we would engage in acts of kindness with those who we know and even those we might not know. In other words, if we are walking in the Spirit, we are walking in kindness.

And we are reminded that the antithesis of kindness is being mean and acting in mean-spirited ways toward others. I’m reminded of the Whoopi Goldberg movie from a few years ago, “Kingdom Come,” where one of the characters, Bud Slocumb died. On his headstone, the family had placed three words that described the way that Bud had lived his life as a husband and father, “Mean and Surly.” Many people – even some Christians – live their lives like Bud Slocomb – “mean and surly.” They don’t have a kind thing to say about anybody, and can’t do a kind thing for anybody.

And so it is that Paul also wrote to the church at Corinth about how we are to conduct ourselves in kindness as Christians – even in the midst of hardships:

“ Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses… in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love.” (2 Cor.6:1-6)

When we walk in the Spirit, we are going to be kind and act with kindness in all circumstances.

A few years ago, one of the bumper-stickers that captured my attention and imagination was one that shared the encouraging words that we are to engage in practicing random acts of kindness.

And so what do random acts of kindness look like for you and me?
• At Epworth Chapel, random acts of kindness look like our kind acts of sending over $2700 last month to the victims of Superstorm Sandy in the aftermath of the devastation experienced by our sisters and brothers in the mid-Atlantic.
• Random acts of kindness look like some of our members who went to Manna House in east Baltimore on yesterday to serve the homeless and the hungry.
• Random acts of kindness indeed looks like the young New York City police officer who bought an unknown, unnamed homeless man a pair of shoes.

And so then what is the true essence of the kindness that Paul writes of here in his letters to the Galatian and Corinthian churches?

Our kindness is rooted first and foremost in God’s kindness toward us. John says that, “God so loved the world that God sent his only begotten son so that we who believe in him would not perish, but have eternal life.” God has been kind toward us. And Paul wrote to remind the Roman church that “God demonstrated God’s love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for you and me.” God has been kind toward us (despite us).

And furthermore, the essence of the kindness that Paul speaks of is evident in that God has not been kind to us just to be kind to us, or just for us to hold on to the kindness that we’ve received. The psalmist spoke to this matter when he wrote to God in a prayer, “Lord because your loving-kindness is better than life, yet will I praise you.”

So the response that we are to have to the kindness of God is first and foremost that we are to praise God. “Lord, because your loving-kindness is better than life, yet will I praise you.”

And then we are to spread the kindness of God out to others. God has not been kind to us just to be kind, but in order that we might be kind to somebody else. We’ve been blessed with kindness in order that we might spread kindness.

Just as we are to spread the other fruit – we are to spread love… spread joy… spread peace… and spread generosity… we are to spread kindness. Spread kindness!

O that we would spread kindness. O that our kindness would become a contagion so much so that people will know that we are Christians by our kindness.

KEEP DREAMING

BEARING FRUIT - PART 6 - PATIENCE

(This sermon was preached at Epworth Chapel, Baltimore on 11/25 and is the sixth in a 10-part series on the fruit of the Spirit)


Galatians 5:22-23; Isaiah 40:28-31

“… the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”

Of all the spiritual fruit – the spiritual virtues - that we can aspire to in life, I believe that patience is one of the most difficult to achieve. If there is one thing that I admire the most about my parents (both my mother and my father) – now that I am grown - it is their patience. If I could emulate one thing about them (reproduce it in my own life), it would be their patience.

Certainly, a parent’s patience is the epitome of the kind of patience that we would want to develop in our own lives, and exhibit toward each other. In many respects, patience is the lynch-pen and the benchmark of spiritual maturity. The grown-up Christian is the one who demonstrates patience in the most hurried of situations in life. Mature is the person who can tarry, and wait for God’s change to come in her or his life.

Now, indeed learning to be patient is not easy – it’s difficult – even for the Christian. We are living in a world that is becoming more and more hurried. The hustle and bustle of life perpetually threatens to consume us. People everywhere are in a hurry.

Look at what goes on around us on a daily basis. Rush hour seems to be a perpetual reality of our age. Bumper-to-bumper traffic seems to be everywhere, with everybody is in a hurry to get to their destination. The dinner rush seems constant at most restaurants, where everybody is in a hurry to receive their meal, and if the waiter or waitress doesn’t bring our food in a hurry, we complain and hold back on the tip. Deadlines on the job seem to never go away, the work never stops, and the report was always due yesterday.

We are in a hurry. We microwave our food. We consume much too much fast food as a way of life. We drive through the bank… use the one-our dry cleaner, and too often shop at the convenience store.

We’re in a hurry. We want all of life, and we want it now. .. the house… the new car… the latest phone and computer… we are in a hurry.

Ours is similar to the societal context in which the apostle Paul writes to the Galatian church, and shares with them that one of the fruit of the Spirit is patience. We recall that Paul’s overall concern in this part of his letter to the Galatian church is to share some of the specific characteristics – some of the fruit - that would become evident in their lives as they walked in the Spirit of Christ.

Paul said that the “fruit the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” And here, we are reminded that the fourth of the fruit of the Spirit is patience.

Patience. Now mind you, Paul was talking about patience within the context of some people who had heard about some other people who had been patient in the past:
*They had heard about Sarah, Abraham’s wife – who was ninety years old and barren, as she had not yet bore the child that God had promised. As Sarah waited on the Lord, God blessed her with a son named Isaac in her old age.

* They had heard about the three Hebrew boys – Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego who were placed in the midst of a fiery furnace one day. They could have run, and given in to their troubles. But the three Hebrew boys decided to hang in there and wait on God. And the Lord showed up and delivered them from the fiery furnace.

* They had heard about Jesus who bore a cup in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus asked God, his father, to take the cup – the burden from him. But in the midst of his burden, the Lord waited and prayed.

And the questions for us are so how might we attain to such patience in our lives? And once we have attained it, how do we continue to live it out on a daily basis? I want to suggest that each of us might look at three dimensions of patience as we seek to become more patient in our own lives.

First, patience manifests itself through persistent prayer. The psalmist wrote in Psalm 40:1 that I waited patiently for the Lord, and he inclined to me and heard my cry.”

It is apparent here that the psalmist was not just waiting, but he was waiting and praying. Jesus told his disciples in Mark 14:38 to “watch and pray, that you may not enter into temptation.”

Too many people are pretty good at watching, but they have not learned how to pray while they watch. We may pretty good at waiting, but in order for our waiting to really start to become effective in our lives we must also pray.

Wise is the person who learns how to watch and pray… pray while you wait on the Lord to bless your life. Pray trusting and believing that your change is about to come. Pray even when it doesn’t seem that God is listening, trusting even as difficult as the wait for us might be, that God is always an on-time God. Pray while you wait.

Second, patience manifests itself through us being content with where we are. We need to be content with where God has us in life right now. The apostle Paul wrote to the Philippian church (4:11), “I have learned to be content with whatever I have. I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty.”

In other words, Paul was saying, ‘Whatever state I am in, I have learned to be content.” I won’t complain. I’ve learned to make the best of whatever the situation it is in which I find myself - whether it be good or bad – whether I am up or down. I’ve learned how to wait on the Lord, and make the best of whatever situation I am now in, for I know that God is the God of the more – and that as good or bad as things might be right now, the better and the best is yet to come. So I’m going to be content while I wait on the Lord.

Third, patience ultimately manifests itself in expecting God to do something great in your life. I am reminded of Job, who many consider the most patient person in the history of the world. Job had it all… but one day he lost everything he had. Job lost his family, he lost his possessions, and he lost his friends. His relationship with God was even broken and tattered.

Job found himself in the midst of trouble. What did he do? Job was a faithful man, so he did not sit around having a pity party while he waited for a change to come in his life. The word says that Job went searching after God – expecting God to bless his life.

Job said, “O that I might find God, O that I might come into the presence of the Lord.” Job looked to the east, and he looked to the west, but he could not find God. But Job kept expecting God to bless his life. And as Job waited and kept searching for God, the Lord blessed him.

Wait and be patient expecting God to bless.

This is what Isaiah was trying to help us with when he wrote in Isaiah the 49th chapter in verses 29-31:

“God gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless.
Even youths will faint and grow weary,
And even the young will fall exhausted;
But they that wait on the Lord (those who are patient)
Shall renew their strength,
They shall mount on with wings as eagles,
They shall run, and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.

The fruit of the Spirit is patience. The word today is to be patient, trusting God. Be patient – praying while you wait, and being content where you are, and expecting that God will show up and do great things in your life.

BEARING FRUIT - PART 5 "BLESSED TO BE A BLESSING" (GENEROSITY/GOODNESS)

(This sermon was preached at Epworth Chapel, Baltimore on 11/18/12 and is the 5th in a ten-part series on the fruit of the Spirit.)

“…the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” (Galatians 5:22-23)

In his outline of the fruit of the Spirit, the apostle Paul says that one of the fruit of the Spirit is generosity. Paul here in Galatians uses the terms generosity and goodness interchangeably (virtually synonymously). We know that the generous person is one who gives of oneself, the one who seeks to do good with one’s life and to share one’s possessions. And so Paul says that “the fruit of the Spirit is generosity.”

The context of Paul’s word to the Galatian church about generosity is not unlike the world in which we live. If you know like I know, all of us are searching for some goodness in our lives. You see, there is a struggle within us to discover and understand goodness in our present day and time. Just as in the days of Adam and Eve – goodness is often overshadowed by evil. It is hard to see goodness in our world. Just as at the tower of Babel, and at Sodom and Gomorrah, goodness seems for us too often to have been swallowed up in evil in this present day.

Robert Louis Stevenson’s story of the good Dr. Jekyll and the bad Mr. Hyde brilliantly shows the potential for both good and evil in all of us. It seems that just when we have risen to great heights, that is when evil bears its ugly teeth in our souls, and we seem to fall back into our old evil ways. Paul put it this way in writing to the Roman Christians: “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For, I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do – this I keep doing.”

Have you ever been where Paul was? “I want to do right…but as hard as I try, I keep messing up. I want to be a Christian in my heart…but as hard as I try, I keep slipping and falling down.”

Indeed, at the core of our being, we want to be good... we want to do good… we want to feel good about ourselves. We all desire and seek after goodness.

And yet, ours is a world wrought with self-interest and self-centeredness. We seem to seek more and more after those things in life, and do those things that will meet our personal needs. Thus, the mantra for us too often becomes, not “what’s in it for others,” but “what’s in it for me.” How will my actions and behaviors serve my needs? If I decide to give this, or participate in that, how will it help my life, my career, my reputation?

And so Paul says that the fruit of the Spirit is generosity. The simple fact is that living a life of generosity and pure goodness is not easy. True goodness requires spiritual stamina – a spiritual maturity and persistence that exceeds just a determination to be good and do good. It requires that the Spirit of God – the Holy Spirit - be at work in our lives.

The fruit of the Spirit is generosity/goodness. There are three things about generosity that I want to remind us of today that I believe can help us on our journey.

First, generosity and goodness derive from our relationship with the Lord. Paul said in another place, that “It’s not I, but the Christ that lives in me.” We need to be reminded today that a relationship with the Lord helps us to do good, even when we want to do bad. Jesus can help you do right, even when you want to do wrong.

Paul’s point to the Galatian church is that we are to walk in the Spirit, and when we walk in the Spirit, we don’t walk alone. When we walk in the Spirit, and not in the flesh, the Good News is that God walks with us, and Good helps us to do good and begin to live a life of generosity.

Second, goodness and generosity first manifests itself in our personal character, and not in our outward walk. Philosophers would suggest to us today, that there is virtue imbedded in each of us. There is some good imbedded in each of us. Paul wanted us to know that what a relationship with Christ and the working of the Holy Spirit does for us is that the good that’s already in us begins to be touched by the presence of God.

God’s character is good – God is omnibenevolent (God is good all the time). And so God – whose character is good, begins to work on us from the inside out, and as the saints of old would often say, “something on the inside, shows up on the outside.”

Good is already within us, and what a relationship with the Lord does – what walking in the Spirit does – is it begins to bring out the good (the God) that is already present within us.

That’s what the song-writer meant when it was written:

"What a change in my life has been wrought,
Since Jesus came into my heart,
I have light in my soul for which long I have sought,
Since Jesus came into my heart. Since Jesus came into my heart.
Floods of joy over my soul, like sea billows roll,
Since Jesus came into my heart."

God’s goodness can change your life and change your personal character.

Third and finally, the goodness in us ultimately manifests itself through our outward generosity. And we are reminded more than anything that we are blessed to be a blessing.

What does generosity really look like? Generosity responds to others with compassion and gracious behavior. Generosity beckons us to reach beyond ourselves in responding to the needs of our neighbors. Generosity is closely connected to another of the fruit of the Spirit – kindness – and is really rooted in our knowing that we’ve been blessed by God, and as a response to God blessing us– we seek to be a blessing to others. We’re blessed to be a blessing.

And so when we are generous – we are responding with thanksgiving and praising to how good God had been to us. And our lives become a doxology. And our heart’s song becomes –
"Praise God from whom all blessings flow
Praise him all creatures here below
Praise him above the heavenly host
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!"

BEARING FRUIT (PART 4)- THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT IS PEACE

(This sermon was preached a Epworth Chapel, Baltimore on 11/4/12, and is the fourth in a ten-part sermon series on the fruit of the Spirit)

"… the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” (Galatians 5;22-23)

As we consider the world in which we live, and reflect upon our lives, we realize that we all live in the midst of trouble. Some of us may choose to deny that trouble exists, or we may even feel unaffected by its presence, but trouble is all around us.

And because of tumult and turmoil, we are a world – a people - in constant need of, and constantly searching for peace. The problem, when it comes to seeking peace, is that if the truth is really told, we do not really know what we are looking for.

Many of us think of peace like the schoolboy who was given an assignment to write a paper on the Quakers. The little boy handed in his report, which was very short. He wrote, “Quakers are very peaceful people. They never argue. My father is a Quaker, and my mother is not.”

Many of us, like the boy who wrote this essay have a very narrow view of what peace is.

I recently had a discussion with a man (of some faith) who shared with me that he had carried a gun for more than fifty years. Just about everywhere he went, he carried a gun with him. He said that he had even carried a gun into church on several occasions. Now in his seventies, the man shared with me, that one day he was convicted as though the Lord had personally spoken directly to him and said, “You don’t need the gun anymore… I will take care of you.”

So the man shared that he took the gun that he had been carrying around, unloaded it and put it away. He shared that a peace had come over him, that he realized God had really protected him all these years anyway, and that God would watch over him and take care of him in the days ahead.

Many of us have different views of what peace is. When we think of peace, all kinds of thoughts come to mind. We see bumper-stickers that say “Visualize World Peace,” of “Teach Peace,” of “Think Peace.”

And so the question for us today is how do we go about attaining peace in our lives? In the context of the rat-race and back-biting world in which we live, how can you and I find peace today? What is it about our faith – our Christian life – that helps us find peace today?

This is one of the matters that he apostle Paul was addressing here in his letter to the church at Galatia. Paul encouraged those in Galatia to walk in the Spirit. And when you walk in the Spirit, you are going to be walking in peace. He said that the fruit of the spirit is …peace….

What was Paul saying to the church? When you walk in the Spirit – the turmoil that once existed in your life won’t manifest itself in the same ways. You’ll have some peace. People will recognize that there has been a change that has come over your life. You’ll have peace. You won’t walk the same… or talk the same… or act the same. You’ll have some peace.

You’ll have a different disposition and attitude about the problems that confront you. When there is trouble all around, you’ll be able to look at your situation, and look up to God, with the assurance that God will grant you some peace – some serenity – to deal with your predicament. You see, when you walk in the Spirit, you walk with God, and whenever you walk with God, you walk in peace. The fruit of the Spirit is peace.

Let us look a bit closer at this matter of peace, and what it means. A biblical understanding of peace is rooted in the Hebrew concept “shalom.” Shalom is an amazingly comprehensive term, and includes salvation, wholeness, integrity, healing and harmony. Healthy relationships – interpersonal, cultural, economic, social, and environmental – are implied in shalom.

This is what Isaiah meant when he wrote in the midst of the trouble and turmoil that Israel was going through that “God will keep you in perfect peace, those whose eyes are stayed on him.”(Isaiah 26:3) Isaiah was talking about shalom. And Paul encouraged and exhorted the Philippian church to “rejoice in the Lord always. For the peace of God that passes all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 4-7)

The kind of peace that Isaiah and Paul were talking about is the kind of peace that the world needs today. It is a peace that is married with justice. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said that “true peace is not merely the absence of tension; true peace is the presence of justice.”

Paul said that the fruit of the Spirit is peace. There is the story in Mark chapter 4 of Jesus one day finding himself on a boat with his disciples. He was tired and worn out from ministering to the multitudes. As the Lord found a place to lie down and rest – the winds began to blow and the seas began to rage, and the boat that they were on began to rock.

During this time of tumult and trial, the disciples went looking for Jesus. As Jesus got up from his rest, he spoke to the raging seas and said ‘peace be still.”

And the winds stopped, and there was peace in the midst of their storm. The Good News is that Jesus will do the same thing for you and me. In the midst of the storms that will rage – from time to time – in our lives, Jesus will step in and calm the raging seas. He is our peace in the midst of the storms of life.

The song-writer said it best:

I heard the voice of Jesus say,
Come unto me and rest,
Lie down, thy weary one lie down,
Thy head upon my breast.
I came to Jesus as I was,
I was weary, worn and sad,
And I found in him a resting place,
And he has made me glad!

BEARING FRUIT (Part 3) - "...GOT JOY" (THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT IS JOY)

(This sermon was preached at Epworth Chapel, Baltimore on 11/14, and is the third in a 10-part sermon series on Bearing Fruit)


“… the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”

As we seek to mature in Christ, and become fruit-bearing Christians, it is important that we develop some sense of perspective on what it is that brings us true joy. This is critical because it is true that all of us will go through seasons of disappointment in life. Things will not always go as planned. Even when we have tried our best – given the very best that we have – things will not always work out for us.

This past week, we experienced a storm that came through our region and affected almost all of us in no small way. What is being referred to as Super-storm Sandy wreaked havoc and changed lives all along the east coast – and was particularly devastating to our sisters and brothers in New Jersey and New York. If the truth is told, super-storms, hurricanes, tornadoes and tsunamis are an inevitable part of life, and not just from a meteorological perspective. Storms appear in our lives and wreak havoc on us in any number of ways.

Dr. Leonard Sweet wrote about the existential storms of life in his book entitled Soul Tsunami. Indeed soul tsunamis enter into all of our lives from time to time wreaking havoc on our health, on our finances, on our relationships, on our peace of mind, and on our very souls.

Indeed, in the midst of all of our good intentions in life, we live in a world that is dark with despair, awash with angst, deluged with disappointment, and gauged with grief. Daily we hear of, and even experience bad news all around us. Death and pain, evil and distress are a part of our reality. The soul tsunamis of life are very real.

With all that is going on and swirling around us, it is also the case that every human heart hungers for joy. Humankind constantly seeks after that which will bring delight to our lives. We yearn for that which will lead to our joy.

But in our quest, it seems that many people tend to look for contentment n all the wrong places. Many people seek happiness through acquiring more money, by buying expensive things, and by seeking fun and pleasure in people, places or positions.

This coming Tuesday, our nation will vote to elect our next president. Depending on which candidate you supported, when the election is over, you will either be cheering and celebrating on Tuesday night, or you will be jeering and mourning, and calling for a recount. About half of the nation will be happy and the other half unhappy.

In the midst of our roller-coaster of emotions, what we all are really in search of is not simply happiness, but real, authentic joy. It is against this backdrop that the apostle Paul in his letter to the Galatian church said that the “fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”

Notice that Paul does not speak here about happiness, but he talks about joy. He says that the second fruit of the Spirit is joy. It is important for us as Christians to understand the difference between being happy and having true joy in Jesus. There is a difference. Happiness comes and goes. Happiness may disappear with the next telephone call or text message. Happiness might dissipate when your loved one dies… your x-ray shows bad news… your car needs serious repair… your relationship does not work out. There goes your happiness.

But what we as Christians can experience in life is not only happiness as the world understands it, but we can experience true joy in a spiritual and biblical sense. This is the same joy that Nehemiah – discouraged about the challenges of rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem… frustrated by the waywardness of the people of Israel.. fed up with the doubting and complaining and bickering of he people of God – was led to talk about in the Old Testament when he declared that “the joy of the Lord is our strength.” (Neh. 8:10)

What Nehemiah was saying to the people of Israel and to us today is that we should stop looking for joy in anything but the Lord. Stop looking for joy in how well things may or may not be going for you. Stop looking for joy in what you achieve. Stop looking for joy in what people may or may not think or say about you. Let the joy of the Lord be your strength.

Paul reminds us that the fruit of the Spirit is joy. This is the same joy that Jesus talked about with his disciples when he said to them, “I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.” The apostle James came along a few years later and talked about this very same joy, when he encouraged the church at Jerusalem, to “Count it all joy.” James says consider it joy, whenever you face trials of many kinds. Consider it joy.

And so as people of faith, it is incumbent on you and me to consider it joy all joy, whatever comes our way. And I’m here to share that I’ve got joy.

If you know like I know, you know that the good news is that when we have true joy, we cannot be deterred or knocked off course by the various vicissitudes of life. When we’ve got true joy, we can’t be turned back or turned around because of disappointment.

When we’ve got joy, we can confront the times of need and want, and know that Jesus might always come when we want him to come, but he’s an on-time God!

When we’ve got joy, we can declare as an act of faith as David declared that, God is well able to turn our mourning, our sadness and our pain – into dancing. And further, that “weeping may endure for a night, but joy come in the morning!”

BEARING FRUIT (PART 2) - "THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT IS LOVE - IT'S A LOVE THING"

(This sermon was preached at Epworth Chapel UMC, Baltimore on 10/14/12 and is the second of a ten-part series on "Bearing Fruit.")

“… the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness faithfulness, generosity and self-control.” (galatians 5:22-23)

Perhaps the most persistent, perennial question among Christians in this present day centers on how we grow in Christ. How do we know that we are growing in Christ? How do we know that our relationship with the Lord is making a difference in our life? What are the signs – what’s the evidence, the proof – that our lives are is being changed though our relationship with God?

The apostle Paul addresses these matters in his letter to the Galatian church, where in the 5th chapter Paul outlines for them and for us today, the fruit the Spirit. “The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, generosity and self-control.”

Jesus said in Matthew 7:16 that “you will know a true believer by their fruit. Every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit.” We can know the effect that faith is having upon our lives and the lives of others by the fruit we are bearing.

What we must know first and foremost is that God desires and requires that we grow and change in our faith. God desires that we demonstrate signs of maturity in Christ. And God had given us signs and symbols of such growth and change. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, generosity and self-control.

Perhaps it is not coincidental that Paul places at the top of his spiritual fruit list - the fruit of love. Paul knew that if we could get love right – if Christians could really learn to love one another – then some other things would fall into place in our walk with God and with each other.

In other words, love is the first-fruit of the Spirit. Love is primary – it has primacy and is basic to the Christian and our walk with the Lord. If we are to walk in the spirit, we will be walking in love. Paul says first that the fruit of the Spirit is love.

We remember that Paul spoke of the importance of love in his comments to the church at Corinth, where he said in First Corinthians 13 (what has come to be known as the Love Chapter) that:

"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, if I don’t have love, I have really said nothing… If I give away all that I have, and don’t have love, I have nothing. Love is patient, love is kind, love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude… It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. And now as for faith, hope and love, the greatest of these is love.”

In other words, as the popular soul group of the 70’s and 80’s said in a song, ‘It’s a Love Thing.” Our journey as Christians really is rooted and grounded in love. For you and me, it’s a love thing.

At the Vice Presidential Debate this past Thursday night – both candidates who are professing Roman Catholics, we asked by the moderator at one point in the debate to share with the audience and the nation what difference their faith as a Catholic(as a Christian) would make in how they might help to lead the nation. Neither candidate seemed to have an adequate answer to the question. It left me to wonder, what if one or both had said something like “my faith – my relationship with the Lord – will help me love people more as I serve the nation.

What if all of us practiced love more at home… with our neighbors… on our jobs… at church? What if republicans and democrats could learn to really love each other, and model love for the rest of the nation and the world? What if we really learned to love each other – even when our thoughts and beliefs differ from those around us?

It’s a love thing.
Paul lets us know that the first fruit of the Spirit is love. In the writings of the Prophet Micah, we find that the people were dealing with some of he same issues we’re dealing with today. And the question was, “How were they to live out their faith, what did the Lord require of them?” Micah shared with the people the great requirement of the Lord- ‘you know that the Lord requires of you- to love kindness, do justice, and walk humbly with God.

Love kindness… It’s a love thing… Love is the first fruit of the Spirit.

And why do we really love? What is the impetus for the love that we are to share? We really love, because God first loved and we know that the love of God that God offers us, and that we share with each other does in fact cover a multitude of fault. The Good News is that God demonstrated God’s love for you and me, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ dies for us.

It’s a love thing. The song-writer put it this way.

"I was sinking deep in sin – far from the peaceful shore
Very deeply stained within – sinking to rise no more
But the master of the sea – heard my despairing cry
From the waters lifted me – now safe am I
Love lifted me – love lifted me
When nothing else would help – love lifted me!"

BEARING FRUIT (PART 1)

(This sermon was preached at Epworth Chapel UMC, Baltimore on Sunday, 10/7, and is the first in a ten-part series on the Bearing Fruit/The Fruit of the Spirit)

Matthew 21:33-46; Galatians 5:22-23

"...the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, genetleness, and self-control."

It was a beautiful tree. It was an evergreen, and Lisa had bought it for a special occasion in my life. We planted the tree in the backyard and anticipated observing it year after year as it grew and matured.

The tree seemed to be doing fine for about a year, and then the signs of trouble became evident. The tree was no longer as green as it was when we planted it. It was beginning to brown. Our evergreen became browner and browner over the months, until we became more and more convinced that there was something seriously wrong with our beloved evergreen tree.

Still we held out hope that the tree would somehow regain its vitality and come back to life… that it would once again be its beautiful green self. We even called in a tree specialist to examine the tree and the soil in which it had been planted. But the writing was on the wall, the tree was dying a slow death, and it was just a matter of time.

And finally, we became convinced that there was no real hope that the tree would survive. Rain and sun – and even more time - would not help our tree. Our concerns and even our prayers for the tree – God’s creation – would not even help this tree live with the vitality and vibrancy that it once had.

Fall is the time of year when we can all take a moment to reflect on the fruit that has been born in the summer-time of our lives. As the leaves are beginning to fall from trees once fruitful, we must ask ourselves the question, how have we been fruitful in our lives? What fruit have be born? What harvest is ready to be brought forth out of our witness?

It is obvious that this matter of fruitfulness was an issue in the days Jesus. Jesus was so concerned about this that he would be led to remind the people that “the harvest is plenteous, but the laborers are few.” Indeed, he was concerned about the fruitfulness of the people of his day. For it seems that many were devout in their temple worship, but often there was no evidence of bruit being born outside of their religious experience.

Jesus was concerned – for he had been sent by God to usher in a harvest, but the requisite for experiencing this harvest was that persons would work and bear fruit in their lives. Jesus was concerned about the spiritual growth, the fruit-bearing of those who witnessed to the saving power of the God of Israel.

It is against this backdrop that Jesus offers a parable in Matthew chapter 21. In this text, Jesus quotes the chief priests and the elders from Psalm 118, describing how a stone that the builders rejected becomes the Lord’s cornerstone. Jesus uses this verse to signify his own tragic rejection, and to foretell the coming of God’s kingdom (kin-dom).

This is a warning for them and for us – for the kingdom of God will be taken away and given to a people who bear fruit. But not just any fruit. We must be careful about the kind of fruit that we bear.

Some of those in the parable that Jesus tells here were bearing bad fruit because of their mistreatment of the Lord – the very one who had come to offer them salvation and new life The word for you and me today is that we must be careful to become bearers of good fruit in our Christian living. We must be careful that each day is lived in a way that we can stand before God and declare that our lives have born some good fruit. We need to be fruitful.

What does it mean to be fruitful? What does it look like for you and me to be fruitful? We find that in the apostle Paul's letter to the church at Galatia it was his concern to answer this question by decribing exactly what it looks like for Christians to bear fruit. Paul said that "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control."

As God works in our lives, we need to be reminded that there are some things that we can do to bear such fruit and increase the harvest in our lives and in the world. We are reminded that good fruit is a by-product of a healthy plant. Likewise, good fruit for the Christina is a by-product of right living through God’s grace. As we are in relationship with God, God will work in us so that we will produce good fruit in our lives. Our souls – our very lives - are like a garden that God desires to work in in order that good fruit will be born.

The things that we can do to help God bear fruit in our lives are these. We need to seed the garden; we need to weed the garden; and we need to feed the garden.

1. Seeding the garden. Before a plan can grow and produce fruit a seed must be planted. This planting of seed refers not only to the beginning one’s faith journey with Christ, but it refers to the fact that God desires that the seeds of faith be planted in our lives continually, and that we seed to continue to grow that seed of faith that we have planted. Seeds will only grow as they have been planted. Our lives can only grow in the areas where seeds of faith have been planted.

2. Weeding the garden. A garden needs to be weeded if seeds are to grow and bear fruit. Every good and effective gardener spends some time weeding his or her garden. In our lives we need to mindful that the weeds of bad habits, destructive behaviors, dissention and discord can sprout and quickly creep up the proverbial walls of our lives. Weeds, although they may often look like the actual plant, in fact have a tendency to cut off the possibility of good and fruitful growth. And so in order that we can become fruitful and reach our full potential in Christ, we must be mindful of the need – like a good gardener – to weed out some things from our lives from time to time.

3. Feeding the garden. Finally, it is important that we feed the garden. We all need to spend time with God in devotion, prayer, worship, study, fellowship with God’s people, and service to the community and the world, so that our lives will continue to grow, and so that fruit will be born and seen in and through our lives.

This is God’s desire for you and me. God desires that each of us bears good fruit. And the good news is that we don’t have to worry about trying to grow and bear fruit on our own. God in Christ is well able to work in our lives. And as God works, God can and God will do great things in our lives. He that has begun a good work in you will bring it to pass. Thanks be to God, for the possibilities and power that we share to bear good fruit!

The Presidential Election: The Day After and Holding onto Hope

On the day before the election, I saw a photo of President Barack Obama hanging in effigy outside a voting site and gas station in Raleigh, N.C. With that image in my mind and the nation's conscience, I wrote that with whomever would win this year's presidential election, it has become very clear over the past several months that we are a nation that remains significantly divided along racial lines. We are far from being a post-racial/post-racist society. And my prayer was (and continues to be) that God would grant us all the courage to speak out and act out to address such division.

And last night at the re-election of President Obama as the 44th president of the United States, if anything the president's re-election says to the world that the invisible, poor, 47% do indeed have a voice. Now, it is also my prayer that God will anoint the president's leadership, and that the healing of the land will begin. (2 Chronicles 7:14)

Now the real work for all of us begins. On the president's agenda for the next for years must be jobs, health care for everybody, helping the poor, children and the elderly, gender justice in the workplace, and bringing our men and women home from the war in Afghanistan (and bringing true honor and meaning to his Nobel Peace Prize). And for those of us who voted for him (and for all Americans) on our agenda must be supporting our president and all of our leaders, doing our part to move our communities forward, and praying for our president and not preying on him.

FAITH IN ACTION - WORDS TO THE WISE

(This sermon was preached at Epworth Chapel, Baltimore on 9/30/12 and is the 7th part of a series on the Book of James)

Ps. 53:12; James 3:13-18

As we have looked at the epistle (letter) of James to the Christians in Jerusalem, we have seen that James has addressed numerous practical matters that would help the people live more fully into being Christians – to move them more fully toward maturity in the faith, and become more perfect in their walk with the Lord.

Here at the conclusion of chapter 3, James addresses the matter of wisdom and what true wisdom looks like and acts like. As he had begun this 3rd chapter by addressing the use of the tongue, James is now directing his thoughts especially toward those who desire to be and aspire toward being teachers and leaders in the body of Christ.

It is interesting how Eugene Peterson begins his translation of this passage in the Message version of the Bible: “Do you want to be counted as wise, to build a reputation for wisdom? Here’s what you do: Live well, live wisely, live humbly. It’s the way you live, not the way you talk, that counts. Mean-spirited ambition isn’t wisdom. Boasting that you are wise isn’t wisdom. Twisting the truth to make yourself sound wise isn’t wisdom…”

James essentially points to two kinds of wisdom – that which is from heaven and that which is not from heaven – wisdom that builds up and wisdom that tears down. The words of James should be viewed against the backdrop of what was beginning to occur among Christians in his day, what is occurring in our world today, and how distorted notions of truth and wisdom in the church and society actually serve to lead people to move farther away from God.

It is apparent that in the times that James wrote, there were distorted and disturbing understandings of what wisdom was, who really was wise among them, and how wisdom was to be used for the up-building of the kingdom of God, and not for the tearing down and demeaning of others.

We can imagine that in the days of James, there were all manner of persons who claimed to be wise – and wanted people to know that they were wise – and who used their self-professed wisdom as a tool or weapon to control, and manipulate others in the church – and get their way.

This is the sort of knowledge – or so-called wisdom – that can be dangerous and can serve more to tear people down than to build them up.

If you know like I know – the admonition of James against the misuse of wisdom, and falsely defining it – is as dangerous today, as it was 2000 years ago. There are people – even today who will let you know how smart and wise they are – where they went to school – what academic degrees they have on the wall – and with whom they have studied.

And not that there’s anything necessarily wrong with any of this – but the attainment of knowledge and wisdom – within the scheme of God’s divine intent for our lives - is to be used for the up-building of the kingdom of God – for the up-building of the body of Christ, the glorification of God, and not simply to further our own selfish ambitions and build ourselves up. James has some word to the wise today.

There’s the story of a minister, a Boy Scout, and a computer expert who were the only passengers on a small plane. The pilot came back to the cabin and said that the plane was going down but there were only three parachutes and four people. The pilot added, “I should have one of the parachutes because I have a wife and three small children.” So he took one and jumped.

The computer whiz said, “I should have one of the parachutes because I am the smartest man in the world and everyone needs me.” So he took one and jumped.

The minister turned to the Boy Scout and with a sad smile said, “You are young and I have lived a rich life, so you take the remaining parachute, and I’ll go down with the plane.”

The Boy Scout said, “Relax, Reverend, the smartest man in the world just picked up my knapsack and jumped out!"

Intelligence is not the same as wisdom.

It appears that James was dealing with some people in Jerusalem who had been living in a state of misguided understanding of wisdom, and as a result, many in the church were beginning to turn their lives away from God, and had begun to place their trust in other people and other things.

And if we look around us, we realize that the world today really hasn’t changed very much from the days of James. Today, we find that too many people have placed their trust in too many people and things other than God, and have turned away from the Lord.

And so the questions for us is in what do we place our trust and belief today? How do we keep trusting and believing in God amidst all the misguided wisdom around us? Where might we find wisdom and truth for the living of these days?

I believe Psalms 53:1-2 can help us, where, we find more words to the wise. Here psalmist declares that only a “fool does not trust and believe God. But the wise trust in the Lord.”

The psalmist says – “the wise trust in the Lord.” Those of us who would be truly wise today – those of us who would be filled with wisdom – would learn to place our trust and faith in God, first and foremost.

To trust and believe in God is to know that beyond the realm of our humanity, God is the God of all wisdom, and it is at the point where our minds meet with the mind of Christ that we really become wise. It is at the point where our minds connect with the one – Jesus – who had the mind to humble himself – even unto death on the cross, that we become truly wise in this world.

That is why it is written that “fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” (Psalm 111:10) The writer of Proverbs goes even further by saying that “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. But fools despise wisdom and instruction.” (Proverbs 1:7)

Now we can see why those of generations past seemed to have a wisdom that so many people today don’t possess - because they trusted in the Lord. In days past, there was no Internet, no information age, but they trusted in the Lord. The world was not at their finger-tips - there were no cell phones, no cable television, no PDA’s and laptop computers, no I-pads or I-phones, but they trusted in the Lord.

Often their ministers were not well educated, many did not have the benefit of college or even a high school education, but they were wise and they trusted in the Lord.

Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. O that we would learn- in the living of these days - to put our trust in the Lord.

Jesus, the Invisible and the 47%

In his seminal book "Jesus and the Disinherited" (1949), theologian Howard Thurman addressed the profound matter of "what the teachings and life of Jesus of Nazareth have to say to those who stand, at a moment in human history, with their backs against the wall" - the poor, the disinherited, the dispossessed. Jesus said, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners, and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free." (Luke 4:18) It's clear that Jesus, in his words and actions, was concerned for and about the very poor among us, and all of the "47%", many of whom have been bruised, victimized, disinherited, and dispossessed - the poor, the 'invisible', the elderly, persons of all races, creeds and persuasions.

FAITH IN ACTION - TAMING THE TONGUE

This sermon is part six of a series, and was preached at Epworth Chapel, Baltimore on 9/23/12.

James 3:1-12

The apostle James takes the opportunity in the first two chapters of his epistle to address very practical matters of faith and life with believers. We recall that James deals with matters like how to attain to real joy in life, how to confront and overcome testing and trials, how to live out faith in an active way, how faith without works is really no faith at all – it’s dead, and the power of prayer among believers.

In the third chapter of his letter to Christian believers in Jerusalem, James turns to yet another very important matter among Christians of his day - and certainly among us today. That regards the use of the tongue, and how Christians are to speak to and about each other, and how we are to use words and language in our daily lives.

Clearly, this is a very important matter for us today - as it was for James. There seems to be a societal epidemic of the vitriolic, poisonous use of language as a tool to destroy and hurt people in today’s society. We can measure this by the way people tend to talk to one another and about each other – and the way that some people tell lies on others, spread rumors and engage in gossip. We witness it in the use of words on the Internet, on Twitter, on Facebook, in text messaging and even in the way that many persons use emails today. The lack of civility in the way we communicate with each other seems to be pervasive.

This lack of civility – this lack of kindness and respect – as exemplified in our speech - has certainly slipped into political discourse, where today there appears to be nothing that political opponents can say about each other that is nice, or redeeming. We see it in the prevalence of so-called “attack ads” that permeate the airwaves. It matters little what level the political race is on – whether it is national or local – and it does not really matter the political affiliation of the candidate – Republican, Democratic or Independent - there just seems to be nothing that any one candidate can say that is nice or kind about her or his opponent.

We hear it in the proclivity of politicians today toward telling half-truths and little lies, as though as long as one is not telling an outright and big, bold-faced untruth, it is somehow permissible. And thus the need for what seems to be an ongoing cycle of “fact-checking” in the political realm.

I’m reminded of the story of a man who got sick and had to go to the hospital one day. He was there with his wife. And the wife was just going off on her husband, about everything he had done to deserve to be in the situation he was in, and that he had not done anything right for years. She didn’t realize it, but she was going on and on. Finally, the husband garnered the energy to stop his wife, and he said, “Honey, I certainly haven’t been perfect during our many years of marriage, but even a broken clock is right twice a day.”

Maybe, that’s the mindset of politicians today – that as long as they are right and truthful some of the time - and a portion of what they are saying is factual - then they pass muster and deserve the public’s trust.

I am one who believes that the destructive use of words is directly related to the proliferation of bullying, and the violence that we see among our youth in schools and on college campuses today. We hear it in much of contemporary music, with misogynistic words used to demean and diminish women, and in the “beefing” and “posturing” displayed by many hip-hop artists today.

Maybe this vitriolic, mean-spirited use of words and language today is not too much unlike what existed during the times of the apostle James. Maybe people in the days of James, those in Jerusalem, instead of using the cell phone or email to tell somebody off, they simply used a scroll to write a nasty, mean note to somebody they did not like, or somebody who had done them wrong.

In any event, James takes time here to address the matter of the use of the tongue, and how people in his day needed to develop the capacity to tame their tongue, and control what they were saying to each other, and how they were saying it.

James admonishes the people of his day to tame their tongues. James points out that the tongue is one of the smallest organs in the body, but there is more power in the tongue than perhaps anywhere else in our being. He compares the tongue to a little fire placed among a great deal of combustible matter, which soon raises a flame and consumes all before it. It stains the whole body. He teaches how difficult it is to tame and control the tongue: “For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, can be tamed, and has been tamed, of mankind. But no can tame the tongue.” And finally, the tongue, James points out, has great potential for both blessings and curse (good and evil).

And so what are a few of the lessons that we glean from the teachings of James?

First, the use of words has the potential to be sinful. If sin is defined as those acts that separate us from God (and by extension one another), then our inappropriate use of words and language has the potential to be sinful. That is why God took time to speak to Moses on Mt. Sinai, and to share with Moses in one of the Ten Commandments that we should not bear false witness (we should not lie and tell untruths). It not only shows a lack of integrity, but is an act of sinfulness to lie on someone, or about something.

That’s why it’s helpful to pause and think about what we are about to say before we say it. It is like the wise man who once said, that “the fish would not have gotten caught if he hadn’t opened his mouth.”

Second, our words can do real harm to our neighbor. The reality is that our words can really hurt others. That is why it is important to be careful what we say to each other and how we say it. Harmful words can indeed scar the soul, and have an impact on those we hurt long after we utter harmful words. That’s why I like the words of the song by Hezekiah Walker – “I need you to survive.” One of the verses says, “I won’t harm you with words from my mouth… I love you... I need you to survive...”

Third, the Good News is that there’s healing, redemptive power, and blessing in speaking well of one another. As people of God, we need to know that it is God’s intent for us is to speak well of each other – to speak life and possibility into existence. The biblical record indicates to us in the book of Genesis that God in God’s love for creation, spoke all of creation into existence.

In other words, God used God’s divine words – God spoke – to create all that is good. God spoke to create the birds in the air… God spoke to create the fish in the sea… God spoke to create the sun and the moon… God spoke to create animals... God spoke light into existence. God spoke to create you and me. And every time God spoke, and created something, God stopped and declare that it was good.

This lets us know that it is God’s divine intent – based on who God is - that we speak well of those around us, speak possibility and hope to our children, speak possibility and hope to our neighbors, and even if we can’t say anything positive to and about our enemy, we are called then to say nothing at all.

And in this day and age as Christians, it causes us to pause and wonder what Jesus would say to us today. Maybe Jesus would say that “I came that you might have life and have it more abundantly.” “I came that you might learn to love your neighbors (and talk to your neighbors) as yourself.” Thanks be to God for the possibilities we have to speak hope and possibility and blessing into one another.

Invisible Man

In light of Mr. Clint Eastwood's sad, sorry, foolish conversation with an "invisible" President Barack Obama and a chair last week, and that fact that many at the RNC found this to be funny, I am reminded that for many persons in America who have historically found thmselves on the margins of society (slaves, women, immigrants, the disabled, gays/lesbians, the poor...), invisibility is no laughing matter. So serious is the matter of invisibility that Ralph Ellison wrote these words in his 1952 novel "Invisible Man" - "I am an invisible man. I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids - and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me."

Faith in Action: The Power of Prayer

(This is an abridged version of part-5 of my summer sermon series on the Book of James, preached at Epworth Chapel, Baltimore on 9/2/12.)

James 5:12-18

"The fervent, effectual prayers of the righteous person availeth much." (v. 16)

In moving through the Book of James, we have seen that James seeks to address his congregation – the church in Jerusalem – on any number of very practical life- matters that the people there are facing. As their pastor, James has taken time here to write to the people about specific ways that they are to live out their Christian faith. This a proverbial “How-to” manual for Christian living.

We recall that James begins his letter with words of encouragement - that the people were to “count it all joy” – with whatever trials they may encounter. He continues by writing to them more specifically about trials and temptations – the testing - that confront even Christians, and again he encourages them to continue to stand fast and firm in the faith even when they confront such trials. James goes on to write about how the people of faith are to live their faith in ways where they are not only hearers of the word of God, but in ways that they become doers of the word, as well. James encourages believers to not only talk about God, but to live in ways where they put their faith to work. He reminds the church at Jerusalem, and reminds you and me today, that faith without works is really not faith at all – he says, “Faith without works is indeed dead.”

In the meantime, James at various points in his letter to the church takes time to write and instruct them about how to deal with anger, how to treat the poor, how to deal with division and partiality in the body of Christ, and how to control (bridle/tame) the tongue. He warns against judging others, and talks about how to have patience in suffering.

And perhaps it is not ironic that James concludes his letter to his congregation in Jerusalem by talking about prayer, and what happens when believers pray. Here in chapter 5, James essentially lifts up for us a call to prayer, and talks to you and me about the power of prayer.

What I want to suggest today, is that for the church to really be the church, all that we do must be undergirded by prayer. And to place prayer into its proper context, we must see prayer both as an individual discipline and a corporate discipline. This is to say that we should develop the habit of being in conversation with God - praying individually for ourselves, and we must also see some value in praying in the church, and coming together to pray for one another - for the church, for the community, for the nation, for the world, for those who are suffering and hurting wherever they are, and whoever they are.

It is the church’s job – it’s a part of our vocation, our mission - to engage in what the apostle Paul said is praying without ceasing.

Indeed, we are to pray unceasingly. We are to pray for ourselves, pray for our families, and pray for our homes. And we are to pray not only at church on Sundays, but pray during the week. We are to pray not only publicly, but pray privately. Paul said pray without ceasing.

But the matter before you and me today is not only that we should pray without ceasing, but what we need to know is what happens when we pray, what is the real power that can be found in our prayers?

James particularizes Paul’s concern about prayer, and makes plain for you and me what such prayer looks and what really happens when we pray. In James 5:16, James says that “the fervent, effectual prayers of the righteous person availeth much.” (KJV) The NRSV translates this text by saying, “The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective.” And Eugene Peterson in The Message translates this text in this way, “The prayer of the person living right with God is something powerful and to be reckoned with.”

And so what is it that James is trying to tell us about prayer? There are three dimensions of prayer that James lifts up for us in James 5:16 when he writes that "The fervent, effectual prayers of the righteous person availeth much.”

First, James talks the righteous person having the ability to pray. In other word, James is pointing out to us, the subject the prayer. The subject of prayer is the righteous person – the person who is right relationship with God - the one who is walking upright with the Lord. What we need to know is that when we are in right relationship with God – we are righteous – and therefore we have direct access to God. The righteous person has the ability to pray to God for herself/himself, believing by faith that God will hear our prayers and see about our needs. James said that the prayers of the righteous person avail much.

Second, James takes time to describe the type of prayer that the righteous is to engage in. James describes such prayer by using words such as fervent and effectual. We are not simply to pray, but to pray fervently. Again, as Paul said, we are to pray without ceasing. When it seems that we are not getting an answer to prayer, we are to keep praying. We are to pray fervently, expecting an answer and anticipating a breakthrough.

Thirdly, James says that such fervent prayers of the righteous person availeth much. In other words great things happen when we pray (and keep praying). Well, I know that there were those in the days of James who are like some people today. I know someone is sitting and saying, I hear what you’re saying, but you don’t know like I know. I’ve been through some things, and I’ve tried to pray my way through, and God doesn’t seem intent on answering my prayers. I’ve waited and waited, and God hasn’t shown up as I expect that the Lord would. I’ve even had other people praying for me, but I still haven’t gotten a breakthrough.

I’ve prayed and prayed, and nothing has happened. Sickness continues, death has come, disappointment is still on my doorstep. What would James have to say to this? “Keep praying.” “The fervent, effectual prayers of the righteous availeth much.” Keep praying.

Who have you prayed for lately? What have you prayed for lately? Where have you experienced answered prayer in your life lately? We are encouraged today that “the fervent prayers of the righteous availeth much.”

A number of years ago, Rev. Jessie Jackson led an organization that was called Operation PUSH. Based in Chicago – Operation PUSH – which stood for People United to Save Humanity - had as its mission to serve and advocate for the disinherited and oppressed across our nation and our world; to seek justice across our nation and the world.

I simply want to suggest to us this morning that we as Christians are to be engaged in another form of “Operation PUSH.” What I’ve come to share is that we should Pray Until Something Happens. PUSH.

Pray Until Something Happens! PUSH until there’s a change in your life. PUSH until there is a change in your family. PUSH until there is a change on your job. PUSH until there is a change in your community. PUSH until there is a change in the world. PUSH until there’s healing. PUSH until there’s a breakthrough. PUSH until God shows up (and shows out). There’s power in prayer.

And prayer is ultimately trusting God who is able to answer all our prayers, and do exceedingly abundantly above that which we can ask or think. So I’ve come to encourage you to heed the wise words of the writer of Proverbs. When you pray -”trust in the Lord with all your heart, mind and soul… lean not on your own understanding… in all your ways acknowledge God, and God will direct your path.” PUSH – because something good is bound to happen in your life!