10-23-2011 Sermon by The Rev. Dr. Brian K. Jensen

THE SEVEN COVENANTS OF A DISCIPLE OF JESUS CHRIST: PART V

    As Christians, we often times say that God calls us to a particular occupation, or God calls us to do a particular thing. Well, what exactly is a call from God?  Frederick Buechner, in his book Wishful Thinking, defines it this way: “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger…meet.” Personally, I’ve always believed that a call from God is accompanied by an inner urgency.  In other words – try as we might – a call from God is something we feel deep inside that we cannot explain…and that we cannot dismiss.

    Each and every minister has his or her own sense of call from God.  Mine occurred when I was but 16 years of age.  I was a junior in high school and was actually employed by the First Presbyterian Church in Sioux City, Iowa, as a custodian.  There were a couple of us teenagers who worked as custodians at the church. We basically babysat doors while the choir practiced, mowed the lawn, and shoveled snow.  It wasn’t a terribly taxing occupation.  It was just a high school job.  I think I made a whopping $1.40 an hour.

    One Sunday morning after worship, I was walking up the aisle of the sanctuary and the minister, the Rev. William F. Skinner, was walking down the aisle after greeting the congregation.  He said to me, “Brian, have you thought about what you’re going to do with your life after you graduate from high school?”  I thought to myself, “That’s all I’ve been thinking about!”  I said to him, “Well, I’ll probably go to Iowa State and become an engineer like my dad.”  I couldn’t think of anything else.  He said to me, “Have you ever thought about becoming a minister?”  I quickly replied, “Me?  A minister?”  I was a skinny, quiet, shy kid in high school.  It was something that I truly hadn’t considered…but I told him that I would.

    That’s how the seed got planted.  I wrestled with the idea – and in my late teens I literally ran from the idea – but I felt an inner urgency that I just could not explain…that I simply could not dismiss.  Then Bill Skinner said something to me, that his father had said to him, that really cemented the issue in my mind.  He said – and please pardon the sexist language – he said, “Use your talents in the best way that you know how to help better mankind.”  I thought that writing and speaking were the things that I did best.  What better way to utilize those talents than in the ministry?  And the rest, as they say, is history.

    That’s how I was called into the ministry.  Like I said, each and every minister has his or her own sense of call from God.  In the Christian church in general – and in the Presbyterian Church in particular – we say that ministers are called by God to serve.  Perhaps the question now is: Does God call people to other occupations as well?  Does God call doctors to practice medicine, lawyers to practice law, homemakers to make homes, and engineers to drive trains?  That’s what an engineer does, right? Does God call people to occupations other than the ministry?  Keep that thought in mind as we move on.

    Several weeks ago we began a sermon series entitled, The Seven Covenants of a Disciple of Jesus Christ. I began the first sermon by making the case that Christ’s Great Commission, as recorded in the gospel of Matthew, is the reason for the church’s existence in the first place.  The church is called to make disciples.  Yet if the church is going to make disciples, then the people who habituate the church must first become disciples themselves.  That’s what the seven covenants of a disciple of Jesus Christ are all about.

    The seven covenants of a disciple of Jesus Christ are as follows: worship regularly; pray daily; study diligently; live faithfully; serve joyously; give generously; and witness boldly. Five weeks ago, we delved a little more deeply into the first covenant: worship regularly. We said in essence that it was Jesus’ custom to worship, and it should be ours, as well.  Yet we should come to worship expecting God to speak, to move, and to act.   That’s what keeps our faith from being a mile wide and an inch deep. 

    Four weeks ago, we examined the second covenant: pray daily.  There we saw that we are called to share our hurts, our sorrows and our joys with God.  God listens to us in compassion and love much like we do when our children come to us. And when we do that…what we discover is that by praying, we learn how to pray.

    Two weeks ago, we examined the third covenant: study diligently.  We learned that God is responsible for the Scriptures in a revelatory way, and not just in an informational way.  The Bible is how God reveals himself to us.  It’s something we absolutely, positively, never could have come up with on our own.  What’s more, you’ve got to read the textbook if you’re going to take the course.

    Last week we examined the fourth covenant of a disciple: live faithfully.  We learned about orthopraxis, or, right practice.  People pass judgment on Christianity by the way Christians live their lives.  It is absolutely imperative that we set a good example. 

    Today we examine the fifth covenant of a disciple of Jesus Christ: serve joyously.  Each of us is called to ministry.  We seek the field of ministry most closely aligned with the call of God on our lives that hauntingly stirs our deepest passion. We begin by engaging in some form of ministry with others.  We aspire to create ministries in which we engage others as partners in ministry with us.

    The first – and perhaps the most important – statement in the fifth covenant is this: “Each of us is called to ministry.”  It’s not just ministers who are called.  Each of us is called to ministry.  That wasn’t always the belief that Christians held.  As Os Guinness wrote in his book The Call, “For most Christians in medieval times, the term call was reserved for priests, monks, and nuns.  Everyone else just had work.”

    Reformation theologian John Calvin helped to change all that.  In 1559, he addressed the notion of vocation or calling in his epic work Institutes of the Christian Religion. He wrote, “Wherefore no man can doubt that this vocation is, in the sight of God, not only sacred and lawful…but the most sacred – and by far the most honorable – of all stations in mortal life.”  What is that most sacred and honorable station in life?  Is it the ministry?  No.  Calvin went on to say, and I quote:

With regard to the function of magistrates, the Lord has not only declared that he approves and is pleased with it, but moreover, has strongly recommended it to us by the very honorable titles which he has conferred upon it. When those who bear the office of magistrate are called gods, let no one suppose there is little weight in that appellation.   It is therefore intimated that they have a commission from God, that they are invested with divine authority, and in fact represent the person of God, as whose substitutes they in a manner act. Wherefore no man can doubt that civil authority is – in the sight of God, not only sacred and lawful – but the most sacred, and by far the most honorable, of all stations in mortal life.

    What is the most sacred and honorable station in mortal life?  It’s not the ministry. According to John Calvin, the most sacred and honorable station in mortal life is that of the politician.  We need to remember, of course, that Calvin is not speaking of the person holding that office.  He is speaking of the office or the calling itself. Regardless of whether the person holding that office is wise or is a fool, it is the office itself that is worthy of honor.

    All I’m trying to say is that it’s not just ministers who are called by God.  Doctors, lawyers, homemakers and engineers can all be called by God as well.  Consider the passage I read from the book of Genesis.  God said to Abraham, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.”  Was Abraham blessed that he might hoard those blessings unto himself?  No, he was blessed that he might become a blessing to others.  The same is true of us.  We are blessed…to be a blessing.

    Perhaps our dalliance into the arena of calling should take both mental aptitude and spiritual giftedness into consideration.  Ideally, these factors should be wedded to a strong sense of mission, such that our blessedness might be a blessing to others.  Questions that come to mind now are these:

1.      What has God called YOU to do in partnership with the community of Christ?

2.      How can you fulfill your mission for Christ in the world…based upon what you feel you have the mental aptitude and the spiritual gifts to do?

    For Theresa, the defining moment came one night with an unexpected knock at the door.  At   the time, she was a teacher in a private girls’ school.  But when she opened the door that night, she found a dying woman, crumpled up on her doorstep.  Theresa took the dying woman from one hospital to another looking for help…but none of the hospitals would accept the woman as a patient.  Finally, it was too late.  The woman died in her arms.

    It was a defining moment.  It touched something deep inside her; a well of deep love and deep anger.  From that moment on, Theresa was not the same.  Her life would be dedicated to making sure that the poor people in her city died with dignity, knowing that they were loved. By the way, that woman named Theresa came to be known as Mother Theresa. She sensed what God was calling her to do, in partnership with the community of Christ.  And she fulfilled her mission based upon what she felt she was gifted to do. She felt that she was called by God to make a difference in Jesus’ name, and she dedicated her life to fulfilling that calling.

    It’s good to pay attention to such unexpected moments in our lives – moments that I think each of us have now and then – moments that reach deep down into our souls. They can sometimes become the foundation for our own unique ministries.  They can sometimes become the foundation to our own call to serve joyously.  A call from God does not refer exclusively to an occupation.  Sometimes it’s more like a task that needs to be done…a task God thinks you are uniquely qualified to do. As someone once said, “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger…meet.”

    Does that seem a little out of reach to you?  Are Mother Theresa’s aspirations perhaps a bit too lofty?  Listen, people in this very church have felt called by God to take action in our community as well, and they have done so. That’s how the Fairview/Fairmont low-income housing development got started. That’s how the Meadville Area Free Clinic got started as well.  People from this very community of faith felt called by God to accomplish something in Jesus’ name in their own community…and they did so.

    I think of a woman from this church who was appalled by the fact that the Meadville high school no longer held baccalaureate services for graduating seniors.  So she involved her husband, who is a teacher, she involved the student council, and she involved the Meadville Area Ministerial Association.   We’ve been holding baccalaureate services in Meadville for 8 years now and attendance has grown each and every year. That’s what it means to be called by God.  That’s what it means to make a difference in Jesus’ name.

    I think of another woman from this church who finds it disturbing that so many young people who were raised in the church…do not involve their own children in the life of the church. This kind of thing upsets grandparents to no end.  She recently formed a group that’s bit of a spinoff of a group called, Moms in Touch, and calls it, Grandmas in Touch.  A group of grandmothers now gets together to pray for their grandchildren.  I suspect God listens to “grandma” prayers.  That’s what it means to be called by God.  That’s what it means to make a difference in Jesus’ name.

    Yet one more thing needs to be said.  The fifth discipline of a disciple of Jesus Christ is not just to serve.  It is, rather: Serve Joyously!  That’s why I had Nancy read the story of Cain and Abel a little while ago.  Attitude is everything.

    As the story goes, Cain and Abel were the sons of Adam and Eve.  Cain was a tiller of the ground while Abel was a keeper of sheep.  One day they each made an offering to God.  Abel brought the best he had to offer – the firstlings of his flock.  Cain…Cain pretty much brought what he had left over.  God was pleased with Abel’s offering, but he had no regard for Cain’s.  Cain was angry about that…and in the end, he slew his brother, Abel.   Why was God pleased with Abel’s offering and displeased with that of Cain? I think it comes down to attitude.  Abel recognized that God was the source of all that he had and all that he was. Therefore, he offered up to God the best he had to give. Cain thought more of himself and his own efforts than he did of God. Giving – to him – was an afterthought…a burden.  Attitude is everything. We are called not just to serve, but to serve joyously.

    The fifth covenant of a disciple of Jesus Christ is: Serve Joyously!  Each of us is called to ministry.  We seek the field of ministry most closely aligned with the call of God on our lives, that hauntingly stirs our deepest passion. We begin by engaging in some form of ministry with others. We aspire to create ministries in which we engage others as partners in ministry with us.  Just don’t forget that how you serve is just as important as who you serve.  As the Apostle Paul once put it in the second book of Corinthians, “The Lord loves a cheerful giver.”  Attitude…is everything.  Amen.

 

10-16-2011 Sermon by The Rev. Dr. Brian K. Jensen

THE SEVEN COVENANTS OF A DISCIPLE OF JESUS CHRIST: PART IV

    Are all of you familiar with the story of Samuel and Eli?  Samuel’s mother, Hanna, had long desired to have a child.  She prayed and prayed and prayed to God…and finally her prayer was answered.  She had a son, and she named him Samuel.  Then in gratitude to God for answering her prayer, she gave her son to God.   After he was weaned, he was raised in the temple by Eli, the priest.

    One night, God called to Samuel, saying, “Samuel, Samuel!”  Samuel thought it was Eli who was calling him, so he ran to the sleeping Eli’s side, awakened him and said, “Here I am, for you called me.”  After this happened about three times, Eli perceived that it was God who was calling the boy.  He instructed Samuel to say, “Speak, Lord, for thy servant hears.”  And the rest, as they say, is history.

    Of this story, theologian Jack Hayford once said, “The younger generation needs the older generation to help them identify the voice of God, just as Samuel needed Eli to help him know that God was calling him.” Then he added, “Yet the older generation must also realize that God is speaking to the younger generation as well.”  Keep that thought in mind as we move on.      

    You’ve heard me mention the name of David Kinnaman in the past.  He and a man named Gabe Lyons were coauthors of a book called unChristian.  The basic premise of that book is that Christians these days are characterized more by what they stand against than they are by what they stand for, and that’s not a good thing.  Kinnaman’s latest book is entitled You Lost Me: Why Young Christians Are Leaving the Church and Rethinking Faith.   In it, I believe he raises some rather profound concerns for the modern day church.

    David Kinnaman is currently the president of the Barna Group, which is a private, nonpartisan research and resource company. Though Kinnaman is only 37 years old, in his sixteen years with the Barna Group he has supervised more than 350,000 interviews with people on matters of faith, politics and social dynamics.  In other words, he knows that of which he speaks.

    Let me begin our discussion today by laying out the definitions of a few basic terms that Kinnaman refers to on a regular basis.  People born prior to 1946 are often called America’s Greatest Generation, or Baby Boosters.  Kinnaman refers to these people as Elders.  People born between 1946 and 1964 are called Baby Boomers.  Kinnaman just calls them Boomers.  People born between 1965 and 1983 are often referred to as Generation X.  Kinnaman calls them Busters.  People born between 1984 and 2002 are often times called Generation Y, or, Millennials. Kinnaman calls this group of people Mosaics.  A mosaic, of course, is a unique piece of decorative art.  Now for those of you listening in who were born after the year 2002, I offer my sincere apology. You have not yet been categorized. Rest assured, however, in the knowledge that one day…you will be.

    Okay, so we have Elders, Boomers, Busters and Mosaics. Bob Buford, in a book called Half Time, says that each generation uses about five words or phrases to describe itself.  Elders use words like: World War II and the Great Depression, smarter, honest, work ethic and respectful.  Boomers use words like: work ethic, respectful, values, morals, and smarter. Busters use words like: technology use, work ethic, conservative/traditional, smarter, and respectful.  Mosaics use words like: technology use, music and pop culture, liberal/tolerant, smarter, and clothes.

    For those of you keeping score at home, you will note that each generation refers to itself as being smarter than the previous generation. Yet when it comes to Mosaics, Buford points out, “Where has the word respectful gone? And what happened to the term work ethic?” Those are terms not chosen by Mosaics.  Perhaps this is indicative of the fact that we are dealing with a different kind of generation here.  David Kinnaman calls them discontinuously different.   In other words, there’s never been anything quite like them before, so patterns of behavior from previous generations simply do not apply.

    This is a group that, generally speaking, is missing from the pews of the church today.  Often times Mosaics were raised in the church. In fact, many of them were quite active in the church as teenagers. Yet by the time they reach their early twenties, more often than not, they are no longer active in the institutional church.  The reasons these young people drop out are very real and very personal to those who experience them. Yet the Barna Group, through a diligent research project, has uncovered a pattern to the church dropout problem.  There are three basic ways that Mosaics are lost, when it comes to the church.  David Kinnaman refers to these people as Nomads, Prodigals and Exiles.

    Nomads walk away from church involvement, but still consider themselves to be Christian.  Prodigals, on the other hand, lose their faith…and no longer describe themselves as Christian.  Exiles are still invested in their Christian faith, but they feel stuck or lost between culture and the church.

    Kelly is an example of a Nomad.  She grew up in a Protestant church.  Her father worked for Christian organizations during Kelly’s entire life and regularly teaches Sunday school.  Both of her parents are committed churchgoers. Yet Kelly describes struggling with an anxiety disorder and feeling that she never fit in at church.  As Kelly herself puts it, “The first strike against the church was the youth group where I didn’t fit in and no effort was made to help me.  The second strike was in college when the campus ministry I attended started talking about quotas for getting people saved.  The third strike was the judgments my parents received from their church friends about me. They actually told my parents that they must have done a poor job of raising me.” Yet Kelly fits the profile of a nomad because she claims she prays...and she reads her Bible regularly.  As Kelly herself puts it, “I never lost faith in Christ, but I have lost faith in the church.”  That’s a Nomad.

    Mike fits the profile of a Prodigal.  He grew up in the Catholic Church, but his love for science and razor-sharp wit – which was sometimes perceived as disrespect – often times put him at odds with parish leaders.  After a period of searching and wrestling with his faith, Mike says, “I just stopped believing in all those Christian stories.”  Time will tell if Mike will return to faith later in life, but the mindset of a Prodigal typically rejects that kind of outcome.  In my mind, we need to pray for Prodigals, not argue with them.  They believe what they believe for a reason.

    Nathan fits the profile of an Exile.  Nathan’s parents – like Kelly’s – were fixtures in the church during his childhood years. Then his parents split up.  As Nathan puts it, “I was really volatile toward church and faith for a long time…but way more so toward church than faith.”  In an interview with Relevant magazine he described his enormous cynicism toward all things having to do with institutional Christianity.  He and his friends say they are embarrassed by a lot of the Christian subculture from which they came, but not necessarily embarrassed by their beliefs.  They claim to be searching for something more from their faith.   In other words, they want their faith to make a difference.  Such is the profile of an Exile.

    There you have it: Nomads, Prodigals and Exiles.  Truth be told, I think there are Nomads, Prodigals and Exiles in more generations that just the Mosaics.  That aside, the question thus becomes: What can we do about it?  What can the church do about the questions and the cynicism that young people seem to have about the church today?

    David Kinnaman believes that the dropout problem – at its core – is a faith-development problem.  Kinnaman says, and I quote, “The church is not adequately preparing the next generation to follow Christ faithfully in a rapidly changing culture.” Then he adds, “To use religious language, we have a disciple-making problem.”  We have a disciple-making problem?  Now you know why I utilized Kinnaman’s work so extensively.

    Several weeks ago we began a sermon series entitled, “The Seven Covenants of a Disciple of Jesus Christ.”   I began the first sermon by making the case that Christ’s Great Commission, as recorded in the gospel of Matthew, is the reason for the church’s existence in the first place. The church is called to make disciples.  Yet if the church is going to make disciples, then the people who habituate the church must first become disciples themselves.  That’s what the seven covenants of a disciple of Jesus Christ are all about.

    The seven covenants of a disciple of Jesus Christ are as follows: worship regularly; pray daily; study diligently; live faithfully; serve joyously; give generously; and witness boldly. Four weeks ago, we delved a little more deeply into the first covenant: worship regularly. We said in essence that it was Jesus’ custom to worship, and it should be ours as well.  Yet we should come to worship expecting God to speak, to move, and to act.   That’s what keeps our faith from being a mile wide and an inch deep.

    Three weeks ago we examined the second covenant: pray daily.  There we saw that we are called to share our hurts, our sorrows, and our joys with God.  God listens to us in compassion and love, much like we do when our children come to us.  And when we do that…what we discover is that by praying, we learn how to pray.

    Last week we examined the third covenant: study diligently.  We learned that God is responsible for the Scriptures in a revelatory way, not just in an informational way.  The Bible is how God reveals himself to us.  It’s something we never could have come up with on our own.  What’s more, you’ve got to read the textbook…if you’re going to take the class.

    Today we examine the fourth covenant of a disciple of Jesus Christ: live faithfully. Our lives should be lived with integrity and holiness.  We strive to live in harmony with the will of God.  We begin by taking to heart that which we read in Scripture, comprehend in worship and sense in prayer.   We aspire to live lives reflecting the faith we profess…looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.

    I know the Presbyterian Church failed my generation, in a manner of speaking.  In Sunday school, in the early years, we were taught the basic Bible stories.  Then by the time we reached junior and senior high school – at a time when we could finally begin to comprehend the meaning behind those stories – we were taught how to apply our faith. Do you see what I’m trying to say?  In other words, our junior and senior high school Sunday school teachers were trying to build a house without laying a firm foundation.  We were taught what to do, but we were never taught why.

    In the passage we read from the gospel according to Matthew, Jesus tells a parable about just such a thing.  He says, “Everyone who hears these words of mine – and acts upon them – will be like the wise man who built his house upon a rock.  The rains fell, and the floods came, and beat upon that house, but it did not fall because it had been founded on rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act upon them, will be like the foolish man who built his house upon the sand.  The rains fell and the floods came and beat upon that house and it fell…and great was the fall of it.”

    We need a firm foundation.  Jesus Christ provides that firm foundation.  That foundation is built just like we said in the fourth covenant of a disciple of Jesus Christ.  We take to heart that which we read in Scripture, comprehend in worship and sense in prayer. In other words, we live what we believe.  It’s a little thing theologians like to call orthopraxis. If orthodoxy means right belief, then orthopraxis means right practice.  Easier said than done though, don’t you think?

    I think the secret to living faithfully is revealed in something a wise man from this church recently said to me.  He said, “When my wife and I got married, we both agreed to follow the rule of sixty/forty.” I said, “What’s the rule of sixty/forty?” He replied, “We agreed to give sixty and expect forty in return.  Most people think marriage is fifty/fifty.  It’s not.  We agreed to the rule of sixty/forty.”  Then with a glint in his eye he leaned forward and said, “Sometimes it’s seventy/ thirty.”  The rule of sixty/forty must work…because Chuck and Janet Koller have now been married for more than 60 years.  

    You know, the people who leave the church generally don’t do so because of the church itself.  They do so because they’ve been upset by people in the church.  They sense an incongruity between the faith people profess and the way they live their lives. We need to learn orthopraxis. We need to learn to live the life of faith we say we believe. 

    I think the rule of sixty/forty just might apply to the discipleship practice of living faithfully as well.  If we think that all of our relationships are going to be fifty/fifty, we’re going to be sorely disappointed and we’re going to feel as if we’ve been mistreated a great deal of the time.  But if we approach our relationships with the attitude of sixty/forty – and are sometimes even willing to give seventy/thirty – then we will likely find ourselves living a whole lot more faithfully than we have in the past.  And we’ll be well on the way…to living out the fourth covenant of a disciple of Jesus Christ.  Amen.

 

10-9-2011 Sermon by The Rev. Dr. Brian K. Jensen

THE SEVEN COVENANTS OF A DISCIPLE OF JESUS CHRIST: PART III

    One of my all-time favorite quotes comes from a book that was written by a man named James Allen in 1902.  The title of the book is As a Man Thinketh. That title comes from the King James Version’s rendition of Proverbs 23:7 where it says, “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.”  In any case, here’s the quote:

And you, too, youthful reader will realize the Vision (not the idle wish) of your heart – be it base or beautiful, or a mixture of both – for you will always gravitate toward that which you, secretly, most love. Into your hands will be placed the exact results of your own thoughts.  You will receive that which you earn; no more, no less.  Whatever your present environment may be, you will fall, remain, or rise with your thoughts, your Vision, your Ideal.  You will become as small as your controlling desire; as great as your dominant aspiration…The Vision that you glorify in your mind – the Ideal that you enthrone in your heart – this you will build your life by; this you will become.

    That, my friends, is indicative of the power of the mind.  “The Vision that you glorify in your mind – the Ideal that you enthrone in your heart – this you will build your life by…this you will become.”  The problem today is that a lot of advertisers are now well aware of that fact, as well. 

Some of them have even begun to play upon our subconscious minds in an effort to get us to buy more of their products.  Martin Lindstrom is the author of a new book called, Brandwashed.  He begins his book with these words:

Have you ever been primed?   I mean, has anyone ever deliberately influenced your subconscious mind and altered your perception of reality without your knowing it?  Whole Foods Market, and others, are doing it to you right now.

    For example, let’s pay a visit to Whole Foods’ Columbus Circle store in New York City.  As you descend the escalator, you enter a realm of freshly cut flowers.  These are what advertisers call symbolics or unconscious suggestions.  In this particular case, they let us know that what is before us is bursting with freshness. Flowers, as everyone knows, are among the freshest, most perishable objects on earth. That’s why flowers are placed right up front; to prime us into thinking of freshness from the moment we enter the store. Then the prices for all the fruits and vegetables are scrawled in chalk on little blackboards.  This is meant to suggest that the prices are subject to change daily, just as they might at a roadside farm stand.  The truth of the matter is, most of the produce was flown in days ago, and the price was set at the home office in Austin, Texas.  Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve just been primed.

    I don’t know about you, but there are few things in this world that offend me more than being referred to as a consumer. To me that suggests that human beings are nothing more than automatons who blow their hard-earned cash on producers’ products rather than precious creatures created in the image of God.  Yet advertisers are well aware of the power of suggestion…well aware of the influence of the mind.  As James Allen put it so well, “The Vision that you glorify in your mind – the Ideal that you enthrone in your heart – this you will build your life by…this you will become.”  I think of the words in that old United Negro College Fund commercial: “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.”   Perhaps the question now is, “Are wasting ours?”  Keep that thought in mind as we move on.

    Several weeks ago, we began a sermon series entitled, “The Seven Covenants of a Disciple of Jesus Christ.”  I began the first sermon by making the case that Christ’s Great Commission, as recorded in the gospel according to Matthew, is the reason for the church’s existence in the first place. The church is called to make disciples. Yet if the church is going to make disciples, then the people who habituate the church must first become disciples themselves.  That’s what the seven covenants of a disciple of Jesus Christ are all about.

    The seven covenants of a disciple of Jesus Christ are as follows: worship regularly; pray daily; study diligently; live faithfully; serve joyously; give generously; and witness boldly.  Three weeks ago, we delved a little more deeply into the first covenant: worship regularly.  We said in essence that it was Jesus’ custom to worship and it should be ours as well.  Yet we should come to worship expecting God to speak, to move and to act.  That’s what keeps our faith from being a mile wide and an inch deep. 

    Two weeks ago, we examined the second covenant: pray daily.  There we saw that we are called to share our hurts, our sorrows and our joys with God.  God listens to us in compassion and love, just like we do when our children come to us.  And when we do that…what we discover is that by praying, we learn how to pray.

    Today we examine the third covenant of a disciple of Jesus Christ: study diligently.  We study Scripture in an attempt to shape our minds to become more attuned to the will of God. We begin by setting aside a small block of time each day to read the Bible, and participating in at least one group learning experience each week.  We aspire to spend a significant amount of time in Christian study every day, and take part in two or three learning experiences each week.

    Theologian Eugene Peterson would seem to be in agreement with that.  In fact, the Silent Reflection in your bulletins this week is taken from a book by Dr. Peterson entitled, Eat This Book.  Peterson writes:

The challenge – never negligible – regarding the Christian Scriptures is getting them read, but read on their own terms, as God’s revelation.  In this business of living the Christian life, ranking high among the most neglected aspects is one having to do with the reading of the Christian Scriptures. It’s not that Christians don’t own and read their Bibles.  And it’s not that Christians don’t believe that their Bibles are the word of God.  What is neglected, however, is the reading of Scriptures formatively; that is, reading in order to live.

    The question thus becomes: “How do we read in order to live?”  Many people are fascinated by the intellectual challenges of the Bible. Our Seminaries are full of students – and professors – who study their Bibles diligently and dig out some absolutely incredible truths…but they never apply those truths to their own daily lives.  To them, the Bible is nothing more than intellectual fodder.  Some come to the Bible with more practical concerns. They want to live well, and they want their children and neighbors to live well.   The problem here…is that the issue seems to be more about us than it is about God.  Still others come to the Bible for inspiration. In other words, they want their Bibles to make them feel better.  As H. Richard Niebuhr once put it, “Too often we want a God without wrath, who brought men without sin, into a kingdom without judgment, through the minstrations of a Christ without a cross.” Truth be told, reading the Bible formatively is far more likely to keep us up at night wringing our hands in holy horror…than it is to bring us peace and relaxation.

    C. S. Lewis, in the last book he ever wrote, talked about two different kinds of reading.  One is reading in which we use a book for our own purposes, kind of like a self-help book.  The other is reading in which we use a book for the author’s own purposes.  Ladies and gentlemen, there is a significant difference.  C.S. Lewis describes that difference this way:

When we receive it, we exert our senses and imagination and various other powers according to a pattern invented by the artist.  When we use it, we treat it as assistance for our own activities…Using is inferior to reception because art – if used rather than received – merely facilitates, brightens, relieves or palliates our life and does not add to it.

    In other words, when it comes to reading Scripture, we must learn to receive it rather than use it.  We must learn to seek out the author’s purposes, and not merely use it for our own.  And that just might take a little more effort.  Perhaps the Scriptures themselves can show us how.

    In the passage from Ezekiel that Henry read, and in the passage that I read from the book of Revelation, God said to his prophets, “Take this scroll and eat it.” Or, more succinctly put, God was not merely saying to them, “Read your Bible.”  God was actually saying to them, “Eat this book!”  As the one and only Eugene Peterson puts it, “Christians feed on Scripture.  Holy Scripture nourishes the Christian community in the same way that food nourishes the human body.”

    The act of eating a book is not merely looking at the words and trying to ascertain their meaning.  The problem is that we’ve been trained these days to read books with a cool objectivity that attempts to preserve their scientific or theological truths by eliminating any kind of personal participation that could contaminate the true meaning. Yet in order to seek out an author’s purpose – in order to truly “eat this book,” that is exactly the opposite of what we must do.  We must learn to personally participate in what we read in the Bible if we’re ever going to comprehend its deeper meaning…if we’re ever going to be even remotely impacted by what we read.  We should stop and ask ourselves at multiple junctures, “What is God trying to say to me in this passage?”  And if we see the finger of God constantly pointing at someone else, then we’re not reading the book as it was meant to be read.  We’re not receiving it; we’re using it.

    Listen: however we think that the words of the Bible got written down on paper, the Christian Church has always believed that God is somehow responsible. Yet the Church has also always believed that God is responsible in a revelatory way, and not just in an informational way.  The Bible is revelation, personally revealed to us by God. It’s something we could never have come up with on our own.  In other words, God is actually letting us in on something – telling us person to person – what it means to live our lives as men and women created in the image of God.

Eugene Peterson describes it this way:

This may be the single most important thing to know as we come to read and study and  believe the Holy Scriptures: this rich, alive, personally revealing God we experience as Father, Son and Holy Spirit…is personally addressing us in whatever circumstances we find ourselves – at whatever age we are – and in whatever state we are.

    Yet in my mind, there are two great themes that typify our culture and keep us at arm’s length from God.  The first theme is the Burger King mantra: “Have it your way.”  The second theme is what anyone who was ever in the retail business had drilled into their heads.  And that theme is: “The customer is always right.”  Thus, if culture does a thorough job on us – and it turns out to be awfully effective on most of us – we enter adulthood with the assumption that whatever we want, whatever we feel or whatever we need…has come to form the divine control center of our lives.  And the Holy Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are reduced to a personal trinity of My Wants, My Feelings, and My Needs.  Could we go so far as to say that consumption and acquisition have become the new fruits of the Spirit?

    Yet the fact of the matter is – in spite of all our sophistication, knowledge and self-indulgence – we don’t know how to run our own lives.  The sorry state of affairs in many people’s lives is a tribute to the path of self-reliance. The sorry state of affairs in this country is a tribute to the path of self-reliance.  Where do you suppose we could find the God who loves us – the God who created us in his own image – revealing a better way? 

    Before I end this sermon, however, I’ve got one more thing to tell you.  A man in this church – a man who wishes to remain anonymous – was asked to deliver the eulogy at his brother-in-law’s funeral.  His brother-in-law’s name was Fred.  What follows is a part of what he said.  Listen closely.

Fred was a dedicated Christian with a strong faith.  I remember talking with him on the phone a couple of months ago and telling him about a Bible study class that I was taking at church. I said that I really didn’t know the Bible as well as I should.  He replied, “You have to read the textbook if you’re going to take the course.”

    You have to read the textbook if you’re going to take the course. My friend’s eulogy went on to say, “While living with them on 8^th Street, he encouraged me to join their church – Gloria Dei Lutheran.  I remained a Lutheran, until I married that cute pharmacy student…different denomination, same textbook.”

    The third covenant of a disciple of Jesus Christ is Study Diligently!  We study Scripture in an attempt to shape our minds to become more attuned to the will of God. We begin by setting aside a small block of time each day to read the Bible…and participating in at least one group learning experience each week.   We aspire to spend a significant amount of time in Christian study every day and take part in two or three learning experiences each week.  Ladies and gentlemen, you have to read the textbook…if you’re going to take the course.  Amen.