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 8th 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.
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