Galatians 6:1-10 Making Disciples: Actions and Words Go Together

Someone once told me that followers of Jesus are caught, not taught, the point being that people are more attracted to people who are trying to make a difference through the things they do as they talk about Jesus than people who only talk about Jesus. When people see what following Jesus looks like, they become more open to hearing about who Jesus is. James, Jesus’ brother gets this. He writes, “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds.”

There are 2 parts to following Jesus, becoming deeper and more intentional disciples and making disciples. Today, making more disciples most often happens as the people we are trying to reach see us actually living out our faith in the community. This is where Paul’s words come in. Paul is talking about what freedom in Jesus and following Jesus looks like. Larry Richards writes, “in all of life’s adventures, we can live in total honesty with ourselves and with God. We will never deceive ourselves into believing that Christian freedom is a license to sin. We can always commit ourselves to doing good, sure that “at the proper time we will reap a harvest of joy.” Richards connects our faith with doing good, and in the doing good, the Holy Spirit reaps a harvest of souls for Jesus.

Paul starts off by calling us to restore those who are caught in sin and to do it gently. This is more than just forgiving someone, it’s about working with the person to get their relationship with Jesus and the church healthy and right again. James 5:19–20 says, “My brothers and sisters, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring that person back, remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins.” Sin is a serious business to God, it cost Jesus his life, sacrificed on the cross, because we’re sinners unable to save ourselves. God is a God of justice as well as of love. The reality is that we still sin, even after the cross, this is why followers of Jesus are called to restore instead of condemn those who mess up. This takes love and effort to reach out, gently confronting and having those hard conversations because the relationship is too important to give up on. Our example is Jesus who died but was raised up from the dead to show us that our relationship with our heavenly Father is restored again. We’re called to make our relationships of chief importance out of gratitude to Jesus. This is a powerful witness to our community.

Following Jesus isn’t always going to be easy, it isn’t going to revolve around us, but rather on how we follow him. When we do good works, we’ll still often face rejection and even persecution, but we’re called to carry on anyway because it’s all about Jesus. This takes humility and a sacrificial spirit shaped by the Holy Spirit. We can accept that we need to carry our own burdens, but Paul calls us to also help others with the burdens they carry. There will be times when it gets tiring, especially if we’re doing it out of a sense of obligation instead of gratitude to Jesus. We can get bitter, feeling that others aren’t doing their fair share, this is why we’re warned about not comparing ourselves to others. Faith can easily become a Sunday only thing that creates a lack of love or compassion. This is emotional and spiritual burnout stuff, when our hearts, souls, minds and bodies get tired and we wonder if the good we’re doing makes a difference.

Keeping our eyes on Jesus and his grace to us helps to keep us going when we get tired. We’re reminded Jesus sacrificed himself out of his deep love for us. Jesus knows we’ll have times when we get tired, this is why he calls us to “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Jesus tells us to come to him when we get tired in doing good, when we find it hard to keep up our compassion. He renews our strength, hope, and love.

“True spirituality arises out of a grace-based relationship with God,” according to Daniel Bush and Noel Due. Our relationship with Jesus is a constant reminder of why we do good, why we focus on blessing and helping others. Many people who don’t follow Jesus also do good in the world, the difference is that they take care of people and forget their souls because they don’t believe in souls. They fight poverty, abuse, trafficking, and for mental health and so many other really good things and we need to join with them, it's important that we are working alongside those in our communities are blessing others. But we also get to offer Jesus; we get to offer unconditional love, spiritual strength and endurance for those times when their situations don’t change, we offer the life transformation of hope that lies in eternity where Jesus’ justice and rightness waits, the very things we are working for right now. We offer freedom from fear and bitterness, from anger and hopelessness because we offer Jesus. We offer freedom to dream again, freedom to hope again, freedom to love again. More people are caught into the faith through goodness than are taught into the faith.

A lot of the good that needs doing has nothing to do with physical doing. What does doing good look like when physically you’re unable to actually do anything, when you’ve worked hard your whole life and now have come to a place where physically you’re unable to do good like you have in the past? Doing good also looks like offering encouragement and praying for those who can do the physical work. It looks like financially supporting groups and ministries that are doing good, because they’re unable to do good without generous people supporting them with material and prayer support and words of encouragement.

I’ve often been blessed in conversations with you as you make it a point to encourage me, and it helps me to not grow tired. You’ve been part of Jesus’ rest for my soul. This is an important act of good that blesses so many people. I’m no longer amazed at how many people I meet who are discouraged, tired, not sure how to move forward. A word of encouragement is a powerful act of good today, whether it’s for someone in your family, the church family or perhaps the grocery clerk, the person you meet in the condo hallway, or even in McDonalds. Remember, people are more often caught by kindness into following Jesus than taught.

Jesus often uses the image of farming and Paul picks up on that by encouraging us that there is a harvest waiting. “A person reaps what they sow.” According to Jesus in Mark 4, what we sow is the Word of God and it’s going to fall in different places, but there’s a harvest and it will be a great harvest; 30, 60 and even a 100 fold. It’s a harvest that’s all about hope and new life and eternity with Jesus. Julian the Apostate, the last pagan emperor of Rome, understood the power of Christians when he wrote, “These impious Galileans (Christians) not only feed their own, but ours also; welcoming them with their agape (Christian love), they attract them, as children are attracted with cakes… Whilst the pagan priests neglect the poor, the hated Galileans devote themselves to works of charity, and by a display of false compassion have established and given effect to their pernicious errors. Such practice is common among them and causes contempt for our gods (Epistle to Pagan High Priests).”

Michael Craven writes, “Emperor Julian clearly saw the writing on the wall. The Roman Empire would not succumb to political upheaval or force but to love, the love of Christ. Julian's dying words in AD 363 were "vicisti Galilaee" (You Galileans [Christians] have conquered!).” Jesus wins because his followers love people into the church.

Genesis 27:1-40 Jacob: Liar

Earlier this year we took a look at this same story and at that time we focused on the importance of blessings, especially blessing others. But like every story in the Bible, there is so much more to learn about who we are and who Jesus is and how Jesus changes life and brings the kingdom of heaven closer. So, this morning we’ll take a look at Jacob and his tendency to lie and deceive the people around him. This is a character issue for Jacob, one of the flaws and cracks in his jar of clay. Though it is really hard to see how the light of Jesus can shine through Jacob’s cracks.

Deceit or lying is one of those character traits that can sneak up on you and change you before you even realise it. It usually starts off small, using the express lane in the grocery store when you have 17 items in your cart, telling your hostess that you love her food while at the same time you’re trying to figure out how to slip it to the dog, telling the boss you’ve sent the email, or maybe it’s the old tried and true school lie, the dog ate my homework. The great thing is that you get away with it for a while and it makes life seem to go along more smoothly and slowly deceit and lying becomes a part of who you are and how you move through life. The sad thing is that so many people today believe that deceit and lying isn’t a big deal and will find lots of situations where lying saved a person’s life like during war or in a domestic abuse situation. Yet how often do these situations really happen, most of the deceit and lying we do or experience is about more day to day common things and we do it to make life simple and easy for us, not for the other person.

The problem is that deceit is always personal, directed towards someone; it’s not a victimless action because there is always someone affected, often that person is you yourself and who you are becoming as a person. If deceit and lying is becoming too normal in your life, no matter how large or small, you need to deal with it. I like how Carey Nieuwhof puts it, “Sin is like a weed: It grows fast and you never have to water it. The best way to tackle sin is to pull it out by its root before it creeps into other areas of your life.”

Jacob is encouraged by his mother to deceive his father to get the family blessing. Jacob goes along with his mom and lies and deceives his father into thinking that he is really his brother Esau, and as you heard, Jacob and Rebekah are successful and they get what they want. It’s not just a simply lie that Jacob and Rebekah tell, it’s a whole elaborate set-up to deceive Isaac. Rebekah takes Esau’s clothes for Jacob, they cover Jacob with goatskins so he feels like his brother, they take a goat from their herd instead of hunting for game and cook it up just the way Isaac likes so he focuses on how good it tastes, and then there is the direct lie when Isaac asks Jacob straight out, “Are you really my son Esau,” and Jacob replies, “I am.”

Practical wisdom tells us that lies and deceit will always catch up with you at some point. Growing up, I remember being told that if I planned on lying at home, church or school to keep it simple and close to the truth because otherwise the lie just grow and grow until it falls apart because it’s based on a weak and shifting foundation. We see this in Jacob’s life. Because of what Jacob and Rebekah did, Jacob has to leave home. He ends up with relatives Haran where he ends up marrying sisters but deceit and lying mark Jacob’s life. Jacob deceives his father and brother, he ends up deceiving and manipulating his father-in-law Laban, he gets deceived by his father-in-law, by his wives and later on his own children. All these lies and deceits bring great pain and brokenness in Jacob’s life and the life of his family.

When you look at a guy like Jacob, with a family as messed up as his family is, I sometimes wonder why God even bothers with them. It is through Jacob’s family that Jesus comes to earth, but I still sometimes wonder why Jesus didn’t come from a healthier family, why are there so many broken and cracked jars of clay in his family line? Then I look at myself, at my family and the family I come from and realise that I am who I am because they are all a part of who I am because they’ve all been part of making me who I am. It’s the same with Jesus, his family line shapes him. He knows the brokenness that deceit creates because it’s part of his family heritage, he knows the importance of truth because he is truth, “I am the way, the truth, and the life,” is how Jesus puts is. Deceit guides us away from Jesus, it twists truth and takes away from the full life Jesus intends for us.

Jesus teaches about how destructive lying is, calling Satan the Father of Lies, referring back to Genesis 2 and 3 where Satan twists God’s words to say something God didn’t, leading Eve and Adam to choose Satan’s lies over God. When you think about it, we’re not a whole lot different, we keep choosing all kinds of things over Jesus to make ourselves feel good whether it’s our work, our play, our toys, power, influence or whatever. We create our own truth based on what makes us feel good instead of accepting Jesus as the truth and making him the first priority in our life; who shapes who we are, our values and focus. Even in church, we focus on what we want to believe and will explain away the teachings of God and Jesus that we don’t like and create our own truths.

Jesus leads us into the truth, the truth that we are sinners in need to forgiveness and grace, in need of a transformation of our hearts, minds and souls. This is why Jesus calls his message the gospel of the grace of God the truth in John 8 and he goes on to say that it’s truth that sets us free, free from the power of Satan in our lives. The truth of the gospel of grace is that it’s Jesus who comes to take our sin, our lies and deceit to the cross to bring his transformation and change in us and into the world through us because we can’t save ourselves from our own sin. Jesus comes to show us what the kingdom of heaven is all about, a place where humility and grace, where forgiveness and serving others, where people are encouraged to develop the potential God has placed in each of us, where genuine love for others shapes our community, where Jesus comes to bring full lives that offer hope to those searching for healing, meaning and a new start in life. Jesus comes to train us to bring the kingdom of heaven close, to help others to come to know him.

Jesus comes from the family of Jacob, the man known as a deceiver, a man whose name is changed to Israel, one who struggles with God. Jacob is now daily reminded of his weakness and with his new name, he is reminded of God’s power and blessing. He’s learned the truth about who God is, and about who he really is. Jacob needed to put aside the lie that he was the most important person in the world and everything was alright if it benefited him. Jacob slowly learned to trust in God Almighty who is truth and trustworthy and shows his deep commitment to his people by sending his beloved son Jesus to die so that we can experience new life in him.  

Jacob’s story provides hope for us. Jesus reveals the truth, he is the truth. If we want to know how the world is supposed to be, the truth of who we are and are called to be, we only need to look to Jesus. If you’re looking for peace and joy, for acceptance, forgiveness, maybe even a new life, Jacob’s story shows the truth about God who keeps reaching out to us and can transform your life in amazing ways. This is especially shown through Jesus and the cross. Billy Graham said about Jesus and truth, “Jesus is the only one who can bring peace and joy and the total satisfaction you are looking for.”

Peter: Cowardly and Afraid

This is an uncomfortable story for many reasons because we wonder how Peter, who is so brave and heroic just earlier in the evening, telling Jesus that he is even willing to die for him, how Peter could so quickly turn around and allow fear to cause him to deny even knowing Jesus. This story is uncomfortable because many of us have experienced those times when we’re been real quiet about being a follower of Jesus because we didn’t really want the people we were with know we are Christians. There are a lot of reasons, sometimes it’s fear, sometimes we’re uncomfortable because of what we might be doing or where we might be, or perhaps it’s because of who we are with.

It’s easy to be brave about following Jesus when we know there will be no push back, it’s a little more challenging if we think we might get some push back about being Christian. Personally, my most uncomfortable times are when people are criticizing Christians for being close-minded, bigoted, angry, and even hate-filled because no matter what I say, I know I will be unlikely to change their minds. It’s takes time to show them that I work hard at trying to shape my life around Jesus’ command to love God with everything I am and have and to love everyone deeply.

We want to be strong and brave, to be heroes, at least most guys do, that’s why so many people love the Avenger movies, Batman and other superhero movies. I want to make a difference wherever God puts me and make our community a better healthier place to live. This is why our kids love the Bible stories of David and Goliath, of Daniel in the lion’s den, or of Daniel’s three friends thrown into the fiery furnace because they’re going to be faithful to God no matter what. But the reality is that, like Peter, we often allow fear to keep us from standing for Jesus all the time and everywhere.

Peter’s not even challenged hard about his relationship with Jesus. A servant girl comes up to him and says, “You also were with Jesus of Galilee.” There’s no threat here, no challenge, just a statement of fact. A second servant girl mentions to others around a fire that Peter was with Jesus and both times Peter denies it. A little later some others mentioned that Peter must be one of the followers of Jesus because of his accent, and in fear Peter denies this a third time. You know the story; a rooster crows and Peter remembers that Jesus had said that’s exactly what he would do. These are people with little influence and still Peter reacts out of fear.   

Fear is still one of the ways Satan keeps us from being a powerful life changing presence in our communities. Fear keeps us from dreaming for Jesus, keeps us focusing on what we don’t have instead of remembering that everything in this universe belongs to God. I’ve been asked, “What does a healthy vibrant church look like?” Over the years I’ve come to see that a healthy vibrant church is one that dreams big dreams for Jesus, has a vision for being a strong life changing presence in the community because Jesus loves them. A church with people who dream of Jesus doing powerful things in the world are dangerous to Satan so he tries to take away the dreams and visions by getting us to focus on reality and keep things safe. Satan uses fear to keep God’s kingdom from growing; fear of change, fear of failure, fear of the world around us, fear of the unknown.

Fear leads to doubting Jesus when he says that we will do even more than he did in John 14, “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.” The entire time Jesus was here in earth, Jesus is inviting people to repent and believe because the kingdom of heaven is near, and then shows how through his teaching, life and miracles. As part of doing even greater things, Jesus tells his followers that their mission in life is to go and make disciples, a mission shaped by love for God and our neighbours. When we live in Jesus’ love for our community, people react to us with surprise and they wonder why, especially in a time when so many people no longer have a relationship with Jesus.

This is why Peter, the very Peter who was afraid and denied Jesus, later tells followers of Jesus in the area we now call Turkey, “Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear their threats; do not be frightened.” But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.” Peter points us to Jesus and he’s honest when he says that there will be times when we’ll suffer for what is right, for standing up as followers of Jesus, for sharing our faith and making inviting others to follow Jesus a normal part of our life. But Peter reminds us to keep on worshiping Jesus as our Lord, keep trusting Jesus and to make sure we’re able to tell people why we are followers of Jesus, why we willing face suffering, ridicule, and still focus on blessing our community.

We keep trusting Jesus because we know how much he loves us. We’re sinners. We don’t keep Jesus’ command to love God with everything we have and are and we don’t love our neighbours as ourselves. We don’t measure up to who God has created us to be. Because God is perfect and just, he can’t accept us the way we are, but he loves us too much to let us go, so Jesus comes to take our sin to the cross and the grave to make us right with God. Jesus is able to do this because he is completely God and completely human. But Jesus comes to bring healing and hope to the world, to establish the church to be his presence, to bring renewal in our lives and communities that point us to the kingdom of heaven. Our lives reflect the character of Jesus, the love and compassion of Jesus, the power of Jesus to stand against the brokenness and wrong in the world and still live out of love.

Jesus’ love is perfect and his love is what gives us the courage we need to stand up as his disciples no matter what’s going on around us. John reminds us, ^“This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.” When you love someone, if they’re in a dangerous situation, you don’t even think about getting hurt yourself, you jump in to help. I remember coming across a car accident and how the father, in spite of the flames, was wrestling with the car door to get his son out of the back seat where he was trapped. The father never even considered standing back because of the danger of the flames, he rushed to save his son because of his love for him, there was no fear because of his love.

Trusting in Jesus’ love and choosing love as our approach to others drives out the fear that Satan wants us to focus on and nurture in our hearts. Jesus’ love gives courage and energy to create a better world where everyone knows Jesus and understands Jesus can change their life if they accept him as their Lord. Satan has always underestimated the power of Jesus’ love and how it can change the world. Churches need work at creating ways to bless our communities and it will involve change, creating new opportunities, and imagining new ways of being in our communities. Dreams need to be encouraged and shared, visions need to be cast of making a deep difference in our communities, conversations need to happen, and opportunities will raise their heads for followers of Jesus to make a difference because of their commitment to Jesus and who Jesus is calling us to be.

Jesus always provides exciting ways of moving forward, but it comes with a need for a deep commitment to making more disciples, to doing the hard work needed surrounded and supported by much prayer. When fear and anxiety creep in, Peter encourages you to “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”

Exodus 4 Moses Uncertain and Unwilling

It’s important to stop and reflect on your relationship with Jesus regularly. Are you still trying to figure out who Jesus is, or maybe you believe in Jesus but you’re still trying to figure out what that means in your life. Have you come to the place where your faith is growing but you still like having control in your life, so it’s like Jesus is the passenger in your car while you drive or hopefully your relationship with Jesus is like in the Carrie Underwood song where Jesus has the wheel and you’re trusting him completely on where he’s leading you and who he’s calling you to be as his follower.  Ask yourself, “Is there anything I would tell Jesus ‘No’ to?” This can give you some insight into where you’re at with Jesus.
I remember when I was 18 that Pastor Nutma suggested to me that I should consider going into ministry and I laughed. How can God use a high school dropout, a navy vagabond, a pretty rough and coarse guy as a pastor. No way. I didn’t qualify and I didn’t want to, I’d seen how some people treated some of our pastors, so why would I want to experience the same thing. Deep down it was about trusting Jesus. I’d seen a lot of hurt, a lot of rotten things happen, plenty of unfairness and I often couldn’t see or understand where Jesus was or why he would allow unfair stuff to keep on happening.
Moses is kind of in that spot. Moses ran away from Egypt because he had tried to protect on of his people from a brutal slave master, but God hears the groans of the people and their cries for help and is concerned for them. God has just met Moses by grabbing his attention through a burning bush that was burning up. He introduces himself to Moses as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God has been rather quiet the past 400 plus years, but now shows up to tell Moses to go to Pharaoh and tell Pharaoh to let the Jewish people go free and leave. This will not make Pharaoh happy; the Jewish people are his slaves and workforce for all the work the Egyptians didn’t want to do.
Moses isn’t so sure he wants to do this. Look at Moses’ life: he’s put in a small boat in the Nile shortly after birth, taken by an Egyptian princess, raised in the Egyptian palace by Pharaoh’s daughter and yet still feels a connection to his people and probably subtle racism by the Egyptian court, but when he goes to defend a Hebrew slave and kills a guard in order to protect him, the Hebrews want nothing to do with him, so Moses ends up taking care of sheep for 40 years and now God tells him to go back to Pharaoh, probably his former uncle and tell him to let the Hebrews go. Then to top it off, God tells Moses, “I’m going to harden Pharaoh’s heart so he’ll say no but go and tell him anyway to let my people go.” An impossible task from a God who has been really quiet for over 400 years and where was God while all this other stuff was going on in Moses’ life.
Moses comes up with a bunch of excuses for not accepting this call from God, “What if they don’t listen to me or believe me, what if they say that you never really came to me and think I’m crazy?” Why all the excuses? I think because Moses isn’t sure he really trusts God, he’s not convinced that God is going to show up when things get tough, and Moses has no real desire to put himself in danger for people who probably aren’t going to believe him anyway. God gives Moses 3 signs, turning Moses’ staff into a snake and back into a staff again, tells Moses to put his hand in his cloak and the skin turns leprous and God restores it again, and finally God tells Moses that should the people not believe, to pour water on the ground and God will turn it into blood. But Moses isn’t convinced, “I’ve never been eloquent, I’m slow of speech.” It doesn’t matter if Moses actually has speech issues, it’s basically just an excuse to not do what God is telling him to do.
There are so many people who are crying out in the night, not sure of how they are going to get through the next while. They don’t even know if there is anyone out there who sees or hears them as their chains wrap around them tighter and tighter. Perhaps their families are hurting, or they’re slaves to their desires and addictions, or poverty or illness, or maybe it’s hopelessness that’s filled their lives. God hears their cries, he sees their situations and he calls us to help them find freedom from the chains that hold them, he calls us to go to help them find the freedom that can be found in following Jesus.
What are some of the excuses you’ve used for not paying attention to Jesus’ call to go make disciples? You’ve heard some of mine, I was a high school drop out, navy vagabond. When the call into ministry came back in my early 30s, my excuses changed, “I can’t afford it because I have a family now, my wife married a baker, not a pastor, it will take 8 years of schooling.” But there were also the memories of stressed out pastors leaving, of having roast pastor for Sunday lunch, and my parents would be unhappy because I would be taking away Joyce and the grandkids. But even before being called into ministry, I remember being challenged by Pastor Gerrit to share my faith in Jesus with people in my life and show them what it means to follow Jesus and I came up with excuses like, “I don’t know what to say, what if they have questions I can’t answer, I’m afraid, you never taught me what to say, I don’t want to, it’s not worth the hassle.”
Pastor Gerrit was gentle but firm, he told me I didn’t trust Jesus enough, I was too concerned about myself and not enough about the people Jesus cares for. He told me Jesus will give me what I need to share my faith. The trust comes because of Jesus’ great love for me and the people around me, love that leads him to the cross to make things new, to bring new life into my life and into the lives of the people around me by offering forgiveness and grace and the gift of eternal life with Jesus. Jesus has chosen us to share this great love with the world, and through living out this love, changing our communities into little kingdoms of heaven that keep growing and spreading. Moses was chosen to bring new life for his people, to bring hope by letting the Jews know God hears them and is starting a new work in the world through them, just like Jesus uses us today.
Jesus doesn’t send us without any help. After his resurrection, Jesus returned to heaven to send his Spirit who reminds us of Jesus’ teaching, gives us the words to say, guides us and helps us recognize what Jesus is already doing so we can join him in his work of renewing this world; partnering with us in making new disciples and deeper disciples. We can trust Jesus to give us what we need to continue his work here. When Stephen in Acts 7 testifies before the religious leaders about what God is doing he talks about Moses, “At that time Moses was born, and he was no ordinary child. For three months he was cared for by his family. When he was placed outside, Pharaoh’s daughter took him and brought him up as her own son. Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action.” Moses had a hard time trusting, but God comes through, just as Jesus comes through for us. It doesn’t mean everything will go the way we want it to, it doesn’t mean life is always easy when we trust his way for us; it does mean that Jesus can and will do amazing things through us to save and bless others when we trust him completely and place him in the driver’s seat of our lives.

2 Corinthians 4 Jars of Clay

There are many people in the Bible with many moral and faith issues whom God uses to accomplish his plans in order to save his people. These are ordinary people who struggle with sin, depression, doubt, fear, lack of faith and more and yet because of who they are, God used them to bring his son Jesus into the world so that Jesus could take our sin and punishment to the cross because we’re unable to make ourselves acceptable to God, no matter how hard we try. Jesus loves us and offers us forgiveness and eternal life with himself and calls us to follow him and trust in him alone, to obey his call on our lives. The amazing thing is that Jesus knows that we will mess up again and again, and still he chooses us to build the kingdom of heaven here on earth.

Paul’s writing to the church in Corinth, an economic and political center in Jesus’ time. Just before this passage, Paul calls them “a letter from Jesus written by the Holy Spirit in their lives for the people of Corinth,” just like we’re letters from Jesus written to the people here. Who they are, who we are, is important because it’s through who we are as ordinary people that Jesus shines light and hope into the world. The thing that always blows my mind is that Jesus uses plain ordinary people like us to carry out his plans and build his kingdom here. Paul now moves to a different image to describe who we are, the image of people as clay jars where God is the potter who creates and shapes us.

Paul talks about not losing heart. Jesus is the treasure, the glory of God’s glory that lives us through his Spirit. Yet this doesn’t mean that life’s always easy. Allowing Jesus to shape our lives, to be his light to the world often comes at a cost. Paul is up-front about the cost of following Jesus, “For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.”

Paul uses the image of jars of clay to describe us. Jars of clay are common, ordinary and yet extremely useful for storing almost anything, including treasure, though there are some which are beautiful pieces of art. Just like life, when you’re working with pottery, things don’t always turn out as expected, but even these can be used to create beauty when they’re broken up and then used in creating mosaic tiles or art pieces. Even the pieces that are left over and seem useless can be broken up and placed in the bottom of planting pots to help with drainage or placed on pathways to create variety.

Clay jars, while they are durable, are also vulnerable to cracking and being broken. That means many of us/most of us are likely to be cracked pots in one way or another. There are many things in life that can crack us. Paul acknowledges that we can feel hard pressed, perplexed, persecuted and even struck down at times, creating cracks, sometimes painful cracks in our lives. Paul wants us to understand that Jesus gives us strength in life and that whatever we accomplish comes from him and not ourselves. When the times come when we wonder how we can go on because of loss, hurt, struggle, betrayal, and sin, we can be assured that because of Jesus, we’re not crushed, not consumed or in complete despair because he never abandons us nor allows us to be destroyed.

The picture of God shaping his people as a potter shapes clay is common in the Bible. One of the clearest image comes from Jeremiah 18, “This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.” So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him. Then the word of the Lord came to me. He said, “Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel.” God is the creator, an artist and he takes pots that are mishapen and reworks them into new jars to be used to store his treasure of grace, the treasure of Jesus’ Spirit and the glory of the kingdom of heaven. Paul reminds us of this in Ephesians 2:10, “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

The events of our lives shape us, and when they create too much brokenness in us, Jesus comes offering healing and hope; the potter reforming the clay again, echoing Isaiah 64:8 “Yet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.” One of the big cracks in my jar is anger and depression. my wife Joyce can tell you that she has seldom seen me express really deep anger because God has led people into my life who offered hope, who helped my see the importance of controlling my anger by focusing on Jesus and how he is able to give me the ability to change my perspective on things so that my anger is more manageable. They taught me to recognize and focus on the blessings all around me and to live out of a spirit of gratitude. My cracks have been filled in, though they are still there, just not as prominent anymore thanks to Jesus and the people he has placed in my life.

The struggles in life shape us so that not one of us is like the person next to you because our life experiences are different. Because each of us is different, just like each clay jar is unique, Jesus is able to use these differences to be a blessing to different people around us. Our cracks can actually be how Jesus uses us to reach others to provide hope and guide them into a relationship with Jesus. As Paul writes at the beginning of his letter, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. And our hope for you is firm because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.”

My sister died in a car accident at 18, after the funeral one of the women in the church came up to mom and simply hugged her. She was the mother of a classmate of mine who had died in a car accident with a train when we were 18 years old. She understood the suffering my mom was going through and could comfort her in a way that no one else could. As Paul says, our nicks and cracks help us comfort others with similar cracks because we’ve experienced Jesus’ comfort during our suffering and can now offer Jesus’ comfort to others. It’s like someone who has gone through a divorce can walk alongside someone going through a divorce in a way that I could not. But I can walk alongside someone whose child has cut or attempted suicide because Joyce and I walked that pain with a couple of our children and we understand the fear, guilt, and horror of getting the call from the police to get to the hospital as quickly as possible.

We’re all cracked pots in one way or another and Jesus uses our cracks to bless others by allowing him to shine through us, to bring healing by using us as his hands, voice and arms if we allow him to do so. You can be how God reshapes someone else’s soul and heart if you open your life to allowing Jesus to use you. You can change another person’s life, you can change a community; you have that power because of Jesus. We all carry the life of Jesus in us because of the resurrection, this is the hope we offer, of new life, of a changed reality because of Jesus’ love. “Therefore, we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.”

2 Samuel 11 David: Lust and the Murderer

My #MeToo story. I had a really good husband and he was close friends with our King David, we even lived next door to the palace. Uriah, my husband was in the military and one spring he went off to lead his men against some of our enemies, but the king, his friend stayed home for this campaign. Usually the king would lead his men, this is why they admired him so much, but this time King David didn’t. No one thought much of it, but one afternoon I went to bath on the roof of our home because it was warm out and I had just finished my time of the month. An hour later a messenger came from the king to come to the palace. Then I discovered that he had watched me bath. I felt violated that he had disrespected me this way.

Then it became much worse, it took me into his private chambers and told me to undress so he could see me unclothed again. I began to cry, but he insisted and after I was undressed he took me to his bed and began touching me all over, and then he slept with me. I felt so ashamed and dirty because the only man who had ever touched me before was my husband, and now the man that me husband admired and considered a close friend had just violated me. But this isn’t the end of the story, I became pregnant because of what the king had done to me and I’m not sure about everything that happened next, but the story ends with my dear husband Uriah dead and the king claiming me as another one of his wives after the official time of mourning was over. What makes some men look at us as just things to use?

David and Bathsheba, a story of sex and power, of deep betrayal and callous disregard of other’s feelings and rights. This is a story of the abuse of power and betrayal of the most intimate kind, a story of David being a king just like the kings of the nations around him, focusing on his wants and desires instead of his people and who God calls him to be. David creates huge amounts of hurt and damage to Bathsheba and Uriah, but also severely damages his position as king and in his relationship to God. We focus on Bathsheba, because we’ve turned this story into some kind of a twisted love story because Bathsheba becomes the mother of future King Solomon, because Jesus comes from the line of David and Bathsheba, but it’s no love story, it’s a story about a king with deep flaws, with large cracks in who he is. It’s about abusing trust, something that is way too common, even today. Some people believe that they are so special that they can do whatever they want to anyone they want and it’s alright because it’s all about them.

Jewish rabbis teach that this is a story that contrasts the immoral and flawed King David with the moral and upright man of strong character Uriah. David has slept with Bathsheba, Uriah’s wife and now she is pregnant and David is faced with a decision: what do I do now? David decides to try to hide what he’s done and calls Uriah home from the battlefield. David hopes to get Uriah to sleep with Bathsheba so that everything can be hidden. Now Uriah is no simple soldier, he is one of David’s 30 mighty warriors, heroes who stuck with David even during his time of exile and persecution by King Saul. These are the warriors who were willing to risk their own lives so David could become king. Uriah is such a trusted warrior and friend that his home is next to the king’s palace, a place of honour and respect.

This is where the contrast comes: David betrayed Uriah and now tries to hide his sin. He calls Uriah home to get a report on the men and how the war is going, and then encourages Uriah to spend the night with his wife. The expression, “wash your feet” meant sleeping with his wife, but Uriah sleeps with the servants because of his loyalty to his men in the field. When David asks him why he didn’t spend time with Bathsheba, Uriah says to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in tents, and my commander Joab and my lord’s men are camped in the open country. How could I go to my house to eat and drink and make love to my wife? As surely as you live, I will not do such a thing!” David then gets Uriah drunk to weaken his loyalty to his men, but Uriah drunk still has more principles and a better character than David and in the evening Uriah sleeps again on his mat among the servants; he doesn’t go home. Now David arranges with Joab, his field commander, to make sure that Uriah gets killed in one of the battles because Uriah’s faithfulness to his men is too strong. This is in contrast to David’s lack of loyalty to him. David’s response when Joab lets him know that Uriah died in battle is basically, “Ah well, these things happen.” A callous cruel response. The problem is that these things don’t just happen, David planned it all out.

This is one of those stories that echoes forward to Jesus and one of the echoes is how he too was betrayed by someone close to him, one of his twelve disciples Judas who also deliberately planned out a betrayal of Jesus because Jesus wasn’t acting how Judas wanted him to, to claim the throne of David in Jerusalem. This leads Jesus to the cross, where Jesus claims kingship over all creation as he defeats death itself in order to bring healing and wholeness into creation again. Jesus' kingship is one of justice and hope, of healing and faithfulness rather than betrayal and hurt. The cross brings forgiveness, even for betrayals such as David’s and Judas’. But it’s not a cheap or easy forgiveness where we just say, “Oops, sorry, won’t do that again.”

God sends the prophet Nathan to confront David with what he’s done and who he’s becoming. It’s not just the extreme wrong that David has done, it’s about how what he did shows who David has become: a king in the image of other earthly kings instead of becoming like the king of heaven and earth who has called his followers to love him above everything else, and to love his neighbour as himself, and to show mercy, fight for justice and to walk humbly with God. When David’s confronted with who he’s become and how he’s destroyed the lives of people he’s called to protect, David is changed, he confesses, and more importantly, he repents, he changes and begins working on becoming who God has called him to be.

The cross calls us to confession and repentance, to a searching of our souls and hearts to see how we might have also betrayed others, hurt others because we want to be gods of our own lives, focusing on our own wants and desires instead of Jesus’ call to follow him and partner with him so that God’s will is done on earth as it is in heaven. The cross confronts us and calls us to focus on our character, on who we are and whether we allow what we say we believe about Jesus to actually shape who we are as his followers. The cross also brings forgiveness and grace for the sinner and healing to the one sinned against. 

Psalm 51 is David’s confession and reveals his repentant heart. “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight; you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge… you desired faithfulness even in the womb; taught me wisdom in that secret place…  Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me… Then I will teach transgressors your ways, so that sinners will turn back to you… My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.”

Faith is about our beliefs about Jesus actually being lived out. Faith is not just knowledge, it’s about how our knowledge of Jesus and the relationship we have with Jesus shapes our character and our relationships; ultimately it comes down to obedience in becoming who Jesus calls us to be as his followers: people shaped by grace, mercy, forgiveness, desiring justice, fighting against oppression within our cultures, creating communities of health where people are able to flourish; all summed up in Jesus’ command to love God above everything and to love our neighbour as ourselves. It's about humility and working towards reconciliation with those we've hurt, admitting our fault and asking for forgiveness. It may not come, depending on how much you have hurt, but the effort needs to be made and the person hurt is the one who sets the boundaries then. 

It’s about loving our neighbours so much we want them to have a relationship with Jesus too because we believe that they will be better off knowing Jesus, that they can find healing and hope from Jesus. Jesus went to the cross so that one day when he returns there will be no need for such a movement, but he has placed us here to begin to create that place right now, right here where he has placed us as his church, his bride.

Genesis 38 Tamar: All Honour Sacrificed

Life can be messy and chaotic. You might wonder why God would be bothered to get involved in the mess our lives can sometimes be. Often the messiness comes because we walk our own journey without really including God in it. Yet God works in our messiness for his own plans. I’ve been blessed to see lives here impacted by hearing of God’s love and acceptance and Jesus’ invitation to follow him.   

Judah walks his own path separate from his family and God. He definitely has many cracks in his life. He marries a pagan woman, walking apart from God. He’s sold his brother into slavery and deceived his father Jacob, letting Jacob believe Joseph is dead. Still God blesses Judah and he has three sons; Er, Onan and Shelah. The problem is that Judah’s sons do the same thing Judah’s done; walking their own paths without paying attention to God. Judah finds his oldest son Er a wife named Tamar. When God kills Er because of his wickedness, Judah tells his second son Onan to have a child with Tamar to keep his brother’s name alive. But Onan uses Tamar like a prostitute, using her for sex while making sure she never gets pregnant. Onan dishonours Tamar; shaming her. So God kills Onan.

Judah’s family life is messy and chaotic, even worse than his father Jacob’s family. Judah’s afraid and wants to protect his youngest son from Tamar who seems to be attracting God’s anger. Judah sends Tamar back to her father until Shelah is old enough to marry; Judah has no intentions to let his last son marry her. Tamar goes home in disgrace, a shamed woman rejected by her husband’s family. Judah neglects his daughter-in-law’s needs as a helpless widow, needs he should be providing for. Rather than turning to God to make sense of what’s happening, Judah continues to walk his own path apart from God.

Judah never stops believing in God, he simply stops letting God guide his life. Judah takes control of his life into his own hands, depending on himself to make decisions on how to live. Judah loses touch with God. This is an echo of our fall into sin, we figure we know better than God on how we should live. We want to be god of our own lives. This is why Jesus comes, to bring order and healing into our chaos and hurt. Jesus comes to bring the kingdom of heaven near again. The cross is Jesus’ way of establishing the kingdom of heaven here, pouring out the Holy Spirit into the world to help us recognize our need to Jesus and to help us become part of bringing healing and hope back into the world. In our story today, a number of years pass and, “Judah’s wife, the daughter of Shua dies.”

Reflecting on this story this week, I came across an article stating that most churches today in North America depend on their own wisdom and skill instead of God’s guidance. It’s not that they don’t believe in God, it’s that they depend on their own wisdom and desires to guide and shape their lives rather than God’s. This has led to churches that are no longer certain of their identity because they are so closely identified with our culture and society.

It’s not that churches in North America don’t believe in God, it’s that they try to tell God what to do instead of allowing themselves to be led and shaped by God. Too often we no longer have regular contact with God. Many don’t talk with him on a daily basis; the idea of praying constantly is completely foreign to most Christians today in our culture. Charles Sheldon's 1896 book, In His Steps is about a church that tries to live by the principle, “What would Jesus do?” Surprisingly, many Christians don’t like this saying. They believe we can’t know what Jesus will really do in different situations, yet if we let the values of love, mercy, grace and forgiveness guide us through prayer and Bible reading, I believe we can know what Jesus would do.

One of the church’s traditions teaches us to pray this prayer all day long, “Lord Jesus, have mercy on me, a sinner.” By doing this, you gain a sense of God’s presence all day long reminding you about grace and mercy; great values to guide you through the day. This is why our church leadership is embracing prayer and worship as we look to determine where God is leading us and who he’s shaping us to be as disciples of Jesus. It comes from a desire to be more in tune with God and his will for us as a church.

Tamar’s actions struck me. When Tamar hears that Judah is going to be nearby and recognizes that Judah has no plan to give her as a wife to his youngest son to carry on the family name of Er, she crafts a plan to honour her husband by dishonouring herself. Tamar disguises herself as a prostitute in order to give her dead husband a child and carry on his family name by tempting Judah. Judah, just like Onan his second son, uses Tamar, he gives her a pledge for payment of his personal seal and staff. Tamar recognises she can’t trust Judah. You know the story, God blesses Tamar and she becomes pregnant; Judah condemns her, but she reveals that he is the father of her unborn children by presenting his seal and staff and proof. Judah recognises a truth, “She is more righteous than I,” he says, “Since I wouldn’t give her to my son Shelah.” The theme to seeing, or recognizing truth stands out in this story, as the crossroads where Judah and Tamar meet is called, “opening of the eyes.”  Both Tamar and Judah’s eyes were opened in different ways.

A former mentor said, “this sordid story where Judah impregnates his daughter-in-law does not thwart God’s plans to bless the world through Abraham.” Rather, this story gives us an expression of God’s grace when Judah and Tamar’s illegitimate son finds a place in Jesus’ genealogy as Tamar gives birth to twins; Perez and Zerah. Perez, ancestor of Jesus, becomes a term of blessing by the time of the Judges as the elders bless Ruth and Boaz, “We are witnesses. May the LORD make the woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the family of Israel. May you have standing in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem. Through the offspring the LORD gives you by this young woman, may your family be like that of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah.” Ruth and Boaz have a son so that Ruth’s first husband’s line doesn’t end in his death, the same as with Tamar and Judah. Ruth’s son is Obed, grandfather of King David, ancestor of Jesus Christ. Judah goes back to his family and leads them to Egypt, a place of food and safety where they can grow as a family. Perez leads the family into a position of power and authority among the tribes of Israel. God works in and through the messes we create when we walk our own paths first, to move his plan forward. God always works to draw you back to him.

Tamar sacrifices her honour and dignity out of faithfulness to her husband. Paul reminds us in his letter to the Philippians that Jesus also sacrifices his honour and “made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant... and became obedient to death---even death on a cross.” This was a shameful death, there was no dignity in such a death, yet Jesus willingly walks that path out of his faithfulness to God. Jesus comes into the messiness of life and experiences it all; from the love of parents, to the loss of a parent in Joseph, rejection, betrayal, the grace and hurt of friendship, and more. Jesus offers you a path to God to help you work and see through the messiness, and when the messiness is so chaotic and you can’t make sense of it, you still find hope and peace in knowing that God is in control.

We need a revival to rediscover the wonder of Jesus’ way into our hearts. We need our hearts to be impacted and transformed by the gospel message and a high expectation of what Jesus can do and is doing right now. Jesus doesn’t forget you or walk away from you when you don’t pay him much attention; rather he continues to work in and through your messy lives to carry out his plan to restore and redeem all creation. The Holy Spirit’s constantly at work in your hearts, looking to stir a greater desire to know Jesus and experience his presence, guiding, and blessing you through the gift of his word and relationships to bless our community. Listen to the Spirit inside you, calling you to embrace Jesus as your Lord; the one who can lead you through the messiness of your life so you can lead others to Jesus, their Lord.