The Great Physician

This week's topic is perhaps one of the more popular miracles performed by Jesus – healing. We're going to explore God's nature as “The Great Physician” and really look at just how powerful a thing it is for God to heal people of their diseases. This comes off of our discussion last week about God's power and turns the Creator into something more. Unlike other views of God or other gods in other religions, our God is personal. Our God is present. Our God doesn't just sit back and watch the world spin. He's here, and one of the ways we can see His presence is to witness what He does in our midst. And that would include healing the sick.

The Scripture passage for today comes from the Gospel of Mark – the “short and sweet” version of the Gospel, as I like to call it. Mark gets right to the point and focuses most of his Gospel on Jesus' ministry. In it, Jesus heals a man of leprosy. Now, many scholars are quick to point out that the disease called “leprosy” in this passage may or may not actually be the disease of leprosy and could be a lot of different conditions. However, I tend to be more of a literalist on such things, so I'm going to go with leprosy.

Does anyone here know what leprosy is and what it does? I know we've got a couple of nurses and pharmacists here, so I'm curious if you've ever run across it professionally. I did some research on the disease, and found out a few things. Leprosy is caused by a bacterial infection and affects peripheral nerves and the upper respiratory tract. Left untreated, leprosy can be progressive, causing permanent damage to the skin, nerves, limbs and eyes. Contrary to popular belief, leprosy does not actually cause body parts to simply fall off. It is now commonly believed that many of the people who were segregated into [leper colonies] were presumed to have leprosy, when they actually had syphilis. Leprosy is not highly infectious, as approximately 95% of people are immune and sufferers are no longer infectious after only a couple of days on treatment. They would not have spread leprosy through a community, whereas syphilis, which has similar symptoms, is more contagious.¹

So, basically, leprosy is a skin disease that greatly affects the nervous system of our bodies, almost specifically in our limbs. The body becomes discolored, sores develop, and it's just a really nasty bacterial infection. The bad news is that this disease still exists today. The good news is that it's very treatable and manageable through the use of multi-drug combinations and early detection.

Now, this disease was considered very serious in Jesus' day, and the people who suffered from it were cut-off from the rest of society until they were able to go before the priest in the Temple and show themselves to be clean. They usually had to go through a purification ritual outlined in the book of Leviticus, and then were reinstated back into society. Most Jewish people would have absolutely nothing to do with a leper because then they, themselves, would be considered unclean and would have to go and ritualistically wash themselves before they could worship at the Temple.

What Jesus did in our passage was drastic and dramatic. Jesus not only stood in the presence of a leper, but He allowed the leper to touch Him, and He physically reached out and touched the man to heal him. Now, did Jesus have to do that? Nope. We can find plenty of other places in the Gospels where Jesus merely spoke and healings took place. As God incarnate, He could do that. What makes this situation different?

I think that Jesus was making a point about God. And that point is that God is not afraid to go to the places where we are afraid to go into. God is not afraid to go and heal the sick, feed the hungry, or clothe the naked of the world. He's not afraid to make an impact in the lives of saints and sinners alike. God is not afraid to be God – and that gives Him a wonderful bedside manner. Part of God's being the Great Physician is His ability to heal things that otherwise would seem incurable. But part of being the Great Physician is having the right bedside manner and the compassion that encourages the healing process.

Almost every age has had its social outcasts, people barred from normal society whether through physical illness or national origin. One person who stepped across these barriers in India was pioneer missionary Mary Reed. Already working in India, Mary visited a leper colony and was deeply moved by the people's plight. Later Mary contracted leprosy herself and went to work with the lepers, eager to tell them that she knew firsthand their pain and trauma. She became head of the leper colony she had visited, and in the years following many were saved and a church built. Mary retired at the age of eighty-four after many years of faithful service to these social outcasts.²

Any patient will tell you that a good bedside manner is crucial to the rate of healing that a patient experiences. Jesus pity and compassion upon the leper moved Him to act and to heal the sick man. With one touch, Jesus was able to do what no one had ever been able to do before, or since without the aid of medicine. It is proof for believers that God is active and present and that He is able to mend the bodies that He created for us. He can mend the broken and provide healing.

Many have and can provide witness and testimony to this fact. We know of people from this church who have been healed miraculously. I know a teenager who was diagnosed with a very tough form of bone cancer that most doctors and researchers would say is tough to defeat – especially on a permanent basis. She was diagnosed and remained positive through the surgery and chemo treatments that she had. Discussing her journey with a friend of mine who recently got his Ph.D. in Neuroscience specializing in cancer research, I found out a lot of nasty things about this type of cancer.

Within 4 months from her initial diagnosis, the oncologist and his team had run this girl through extensive chemotherapy, as well as used surgery to remove the tumor. And within 4 months, they were amazed. When they went to see how much the remaining cancer cells had shrunk, there was nothing there. The doctors didn't know what to think or say. My friend didn't know what to think or say. He – a believer in Christ – had never heard of someone just simply having no more cancer like that in their body – especially after only 4 months of treatment. But that girl's faith that God would heal her – the same faith that brought the leper to Jesus – resulted in a cure.

God is the Great Physician in our lives. Whatever the ailment, He can provide the cure. Whether His intervention is as direct and miraculous as the teenage girl healed of cancer, the leper, or many others throughout time, or His intervention comes through the men and women that He has called into service in the medical field, it is still His intervention. He can heal any ailment – be they physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual. All we have to do is believe. This is the power of God with a personal impact, and it is greater than anything that we could ever imagine.

NOTES

1Wikipedia contributors, "Leprosy," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Leprosy&oldid=270696743 (accessed February 15, 2009).

2Today in the Word, January, 1990, p. 24.

Unlimited Power

There is nothing more frightening nor more fascinating than the awesome power of God. God has the power to create, and the power to destroy. His power is unlimited, which is what makes it inspiring and scary at the same time. It's hard for anyone to not appreciate God for this aspect of who He is. Think of the mighty storms that rage throughout the world affecting nature. Think of the new discoveries being made every day about the intricacies of the human body or the vastness of space. All of these things are evidences of God's power and presence within our world and our lives.

Want evidence as to just how powerful God is?

A hurricane lifts sixty million, or more, tons of water and generates more power every ten seconds than all the electrical power used in the United States in a year.

The hurricane that struck Bangladesh in 1970 produced a tidal wave which killed at least 500,000 people. In 1900 at Galveston, Texas, a hurricane created storm tides that swept 6000 people to their deaths. Another 1000 people were drowned in 1954, when a large ferryboat was sunk by a hurricane in Hakodate Bay, in Japan’s north island.¹

And then, in more recent note, we have Hurricane Katrina and all of the devastation that it caused. When we truly begin to look at these things, it becomes hard to deny the existence of God nor the extent of His power. God's power sometimes leaves us with good impressions of our Creator, and sometimes not-so-good ones. God's power is something that all of us need to fear and respect – because we should fear and respect God Himself.

Our Scripture passage for today comes from the Old Testament Book of Isaiah – a book riddled with prophetic visions and utterances written down to preserve the word of God spoken to His people. Often times this book is used extensively in talking about the coming of Christ – perhaps the greatest display of God's power the world has ever seen or known. In Jesus' coming, the world was privileged to see miracles performed unlike any before. The blind could see, the deaf could hear, the lame walked, and the dead were given life again.

This particular passage outlines God's power in less destructive ways and heavily emphasizes His role as our Creator and the Ruler of the universe. And as Christians, I don't think we do enough to honor and to recognize God in this role. Yes, God's power can and has brought destruction to different places of the world. The Bible tells us that. But, it also shows us that God's power – unlimited power – is beyond even our wildest imagination. It's a power that most of us crave – at least on some level – but none of us would know what to do with if we had it.

Did anyone here ever see the movie Bruce Almighty starring Jim Carrey and Morgan Freeman? The movie is about a man, down on his luck, who thinks that he can do a better job at being God than God does. So, God grants his wish and allows him to be God – to have all of God's power. By the end of the movie, the man discovers that being God and having His power is a lot more difficult than any of us think. You see, God gave this man the power to do everything, and he did. He brought the moon closer to the earth, which affected the tides and the water of the planet. He even gets angry at the end and starts smiting people and things with lightning. He had more power than he could handle.

The good news is that God is bigger than the power He wields. And, furthermore, the even better news is that we serve an all-knowing, all-powerful God who loves us, cares for us, and shows us mercy. God is our Divine Parent – and even when He exudes His might in ways that may frighten us, His will is always best.

The Resurrection of Christ was the greatest display of God's power on the earth. In this one act, God showed His power over even the darkest of natural forces – Death, itself. And this should give us peace of mind to know that God's power is still far greater than anything else we could imagine. When we have accepted Christ as our Savior and we live to serve Him above all, we find ourselves in a place that can know little fear because the power of our God is greater than anything life could ever through at us.

God's power is unlimited. And so is His mercy. No matter what anyone else may tell us, we know these two things to be true. As Christians, our fear of God should be out of reverence to Him, but it shouldn't be crippling. God doesn't abuse His power, and only does what needs to be done when it needs to be done. Want to see more of His power? Witness the birth of a child, see the life of a new Christian be transformed, or bear witness to the miraculous healings that He still performs even in our midst today.

And, above all, remember: With God, all things are possible.

NOTES

1 Paul Lee Tan, Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations : A Treasury of Illustrations, Anecdotes, Facts and Quotations for Pastors, Teachers and Christian Workers (Garland TX: Bible Communications, 1996, c1979).

Prophetic Authority

The image of the prophet is perhaps one of the most intriguing that the Bible has to offer. Many of the men and women chosen to be “the voice of God” come out of almost obscurity to be God's messenger. When they speak, things happen. People have changes of mind and heart and God's wonders and miracles occur through the words and actions that His faithful followers carry out. But sometimes prophets can be scary individuals because they possess an authority that oftentimes goes misunderstood – even to the prophet him/herself.

I'm going to be talking about prophetic authority today in an attempt to help people understand this unique gift and calling. When most people think of prophecy, they imagine someone who foretells future events. After all, look at how many of the Old Testament prophets spoke of Jesus' first coming, and how many in the New Testament – including Jesus Himself – talk about His second coming! Being a prophet of God certainly was a tough job, and it continues to be. I believe that God still calls people to serve as His prophet(ess) in communities around the world even today.

Now, I say this with a word of caution because there are a lot of people out there claiming to be prophets of God who are, in fact, anything but. Again, several places in Scripture warn us of such people, and Jesus specifically does in Matthew 7:15-23 when He says “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.”

But, there are individuals who are called by God to speak His truth into the world. Often times the messages, while unpopular, are meant to serve as warnings of impending punishment and wrath from God if behaviors are not changed. And, yes, this is a rather grim thing to think about. But the voice of the prophet is meant to be grim, and authoritative. After all, God is speaking and is intervening to change lives, to cause the hearers to truly think about what they're doing and where they're heading because of it. And they have, after all, been gifted and called by God to do just what they're doing.

The Scripture passage for today comes from the New Testament Gospel of Mark, and is, itself, a very controversial passage. It features a scene where Jesus is speaking and teaching with authority – and then a man possessed by an “unclean spirit” (what most of us would call a demon) starts to spout off at Him. Jesus, with great authority, tells the demon not to speak and to come out of the man. This passage is controversial for people because of personal belief or disbelief in demons.

Some look at this passage and others like it and say that the instances of demonic possession are really an instance of mental illness being portrayed in the Bible. That creates a problem, then, for Jesus' power and authority as the Son of God. While God is the Great Physician, and I do believe that He – in any form – is capable of healing instances of mental illness, we are fools to downplay the power and authority of Christ to be able to drive out the dark forces that plagued this man. I'm sorry, friends, but demons are real just as the Devil is real, and all of those forces can do scary, scary things.

Now, all of this may seem a very strange thing to link with prophetic authority. After all, if a prophet is merely someone who brings a message from God, why would this passage be the one chosen to talk about prophetic authority. First, let me remind you that a prophet, in Christian terms is “one inspired by God through the Holy Spirit to deliver a message for a specific purpose. It is often associated with predicting future events, but in Biblical terms it is wider and can include those given the power to preach repentance to those who do not want to hear the message and to warn of God's wrath for disobedience. God's calling as a prophet is not considered to elevate an individual for their glory, but for the glory of God and to turn people to him.”¹

Jesus, according to this passage, was teaching with great authority – probably similar to accounts found in the Gospels of John the Baptist's teachings, and other teachings of Jesus. He commanded great authority, as well He should being the Son of God. But He also did this to fulfill the words given to Moses as recorded in Deuteronomy in our Call to Worship this morning. Jesus fulfilled the role of The Prophet for the Jews – the One who would come and would speak God's truth among them just as Moses had done.

Did you know that both mainline Judaism and the Islamic religion both consider Jesus to be a great prophet – perhaps God's greatest prophet – even to this day? They recognize Him as a man of power and divine authority, but they don't recognize His divinity. Still, the recognition is that Jesus had great authority of one kind or another from God – hence the reaction from the crowd when they see what Jesus does in this situation.

Jesus' authority as the Son of God gave Him the power to drive away the evil forces at work in this man. Many in more charismatic movements believe that God still gives Jesus' disciples and followers this same authority even today. Some Christians believe that Jesus was it – after Him, there have been no others gifted with the authority that comes from being God's prophet to the people. Regardless of whether you agree with that statement or not, you must recognize that God has called people to deliver his message to the people. We are called to stand up, stand firm, and proudly proclaim that Jesus is Lord and that we need to repent of our sins.

There is power in the blood of Jesus – and it is a power that trumps any and all authority on this earth. It has the power to overcome any evil – any sin or dark force that the Devil sees fit to throw at us. All we have to do is bow before His glory and claim Him as our Lord. And with authority, He can look into us and tell those evils to come out. And with that one phrase, just as in the passage for the day, it will be so.

NOTES

1Wikipedia contributors, "Prophet," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Prophet&oldid=267519291 (accessed February 1, 2009).

The Benefits of Repentance

Sorry gang...I've been a bit busy. This post and the ones to follow are catch-ups of my sermons. I hope you enjoy. Feel free to comment!

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Repentance. Never has a word carried so much weight upon it. As Christians we are very familiar with the word and with its meaning for our lives and our faith. To repent is to turn away from the actions and behaviors that condemn us and to turn to God. It's a message that at its very core is counter-cultural, and has been even since the days of the Old Testament. No culture in any time period likes to be told that they're wrong, and no individual truly likes being called into an act of penance and repentance.

Governor Neff, of Texas, visited the penitentiary of that state and spoke to the assembled convicts. When he had finished he said that he would remain behind, and that if any man wanted to speak with him, he would gladly listen. He further announced that he would listen in confidence, and that nothing a man might say would be used against him.

When the meeting was over a large group of men remained, many of them life-termers. One by one they passed by, each telling the governor that there had been a frame-up, an injustice, and judicial blunder, and each asking that he be freed. Finally one man came up and said, “Mr. Governor, I just want to say that I am guilty. I did what they sent me here for. But I believe I have paid for it, and if I were granted the right to go out, I would do everything I could to be a good citizen and prove myself worthy of your mercy.”

This, of course, was the man whom the governor pardoned.¹

While repentance is a tough thing to do, it does give benefits of grace and mercy. In our Scripture passage for today, we see God's mercy in sparing the city of Nineveh. Nineveh was the capital city of the ancient Assyrian empire² – the very empire that took Israel captive as God's punishment upon the people for being unfaithful. We're all familiar with the story of Jonah as he was called to go and bring God's message to the people. The message from God was that the people of Nineveh had to repent or risk being destroyed. Jonah tried to run from God, and wound-up being swallowed by a big fish. After repenting of his sin, he was spit-up on the shore and then commanded, again, to go to Nineveh. That leads us to the Scripture passage for today – Jonah doing God's will and bringing the message to Nineveh.

The message of potential destruction was enough to change the minds and hearts of the people, so they turned away from their destructive habits and turned back to God. And, as verse 10 tells us, God saw their change of heart, and spared them. They received a benefit from their decision to repent, and that benefit was to be spared from destruction and God's wrath.

So what are the benefits of making repentance an active part of your life and an active word in your vocabulary? I mean, after all, if I'm going to title a sermon “The Benefits of Repentance,” I'd better come up with something tangible, don't you think? Well, as I see it, there are several benefits to repentance, and they span all aspects of our being: spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical. Let me take just a moment to explore each of these with you.

In the spiritual sense, the benefits of repentance are the mercy and grace that are extended to us through faith in Christ to restore us. We are spared, as Nineveh was spared, from the wrath of God being poured out upon us because of the sin in our lives. And so we begin the long journey of repentance and faith. The two go hand-in-hand with one another, because to have faith in Christ is by nature to be repentant. Repentance brings out God's loving nature – the very love that created us now redeems us through the saving grace of His Son's ultimate sacrifice upon the cross.

As our spiritual life is brought into God's grace and mercy, our mind and our emotions are given respite. We come to understand what it means to have God's perfect peace – the peace that passes all understanding. We feel loved as we are forgiven and accepted as one of God's children. Suddenly we find ourselves with a purpose in life as we focus on the Lord and His calling upon our lives to serve, worship, and obey.

With our minds and hearts coming into the loving embrace of God in our repentance, our physical bodies can begin to benefit as well. Now, at this point, I'm sure many of you are sitting there thinking that I'm off my rocker. But it really is true. Peace of heart, peace of spirit, and peace of mind bring peace to the body. As you begin to feel God's peace that comes from His love, mercy, and grace, you begin to relax and de-stress. Perhaps for the first time in a long time you're able to get some sleep. Your eating habits change. Slowly, your health improves – and all because you're submitting to the will of God in repentance.

Like I said, it seems far-fetched. Believe it or not, there have been studies on different aspects of this. Theologians and psychologists have looked at the impact of repentance on the mind and the heart. There are numerous studies existing that relate the mind and the body – the better your mental state, the better your overall health. Logically, it stands to reason that we can connect the two and thus come to the conclusion that repentance – the inward act of consciously choosing Christ over continual sin – leads to benefits of the soul, mind, heart, and body.

This shouldn't seem strange to us – the Scriptures are filled with references to giving ourselves wholly over to God in such a way. We have read passages like Romans 12:1-2 which says that we are to give ourselves as holy sacrifices unto the Lord. We just don't look at repentance as something that takes this kind of precedence. But repentance has benefits for us today just as it did for the people of Nineveh in Jonah's day.

God can and will spare us, too, if we choose to repent from our sin and turn to Christ. God has offered us the gift, but it is up to us to decide what we're going to do with it. Do we accept God's offer, repent, and receive the benefits of salvation and a relationship with the Father? Do we sit back on our laurels and ignore God's wishes for us, choosing instead to go our own way? One may reap a benefit now and then in this world, but the other will allow God's benefits to pour out upon you even past this lifetime. Are the benefits worth the repentance? Only you can decide...

NOTES

1 Paul Lee Tan, Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations : A Treasury of Illustrations, Anecdotes, Facts and Quotations for

Pastors, Teachers and Christian Workers (Garland TX: Bible Communications, 1996, c1979).

2Wikipedia contributors, "Nineveh," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nineveh&oldid=263548154 (accessed January 25, 2009).

Known By God

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I actually haven't preached in a while due to special programs at church and such. Anyway, here is my latest...
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I want you all to take a moment and think of someone who you feel really knows you. Perhaps it's a parent, or a sibling, or even your spouse. This is someone who just seems to get where you're coming from...you don't need to explain yourself to him or her. This person accepts you for who you are without any need from you put up a false image of yourself. A lot of us do that whether we realize it or not. We create images of ourselves that we want other people to see and know – hiding the truth deep within us.

Have you thought of that person? Perhaps there's more than one. Now, I ask you, what is it about this person that is so unique? Why does this one person, or do these couple of people, get to see a side of you that no one else does? Usually, the reason we have that close knit group of people that surround us is because of the way these individuals interact with us and treat us. A kind word or gesture goes a long way, and a few kind words over time can lead to deep and lasting relationships with friends and family that provide opportunities to be loved and to be real.

How many people here have seen the movie Powder? Released in 1995, the movie stars Sean Patrick Flanery, Jeff Goldblum, and Mary Steenburgen and is about “a boy named Jeremy who is nicknamed Powder because of his pale skin. The boy has been kept in seclusion in his grandfather's basement because of his unusual appearance and mysterious powers: the ability to move objects just by thinking about them and the ability to read people's minds and feelings. Once he is released from isolation, he is treated as an outcast. People are troubled by this young man and his ability to see into their hearts.”¹

A woman named Missy befriends Jeremy, and he begins to trust her and to share with her who he really is – who God had created him to be. It's really a very touching story that explores what it means to know others and be known in an intimate way. As you sit and watch the movie, you can't help but feel some of the pain that this young many feels at the hands of his tormentors. And all because he is different.

You know one of the things that we can celebrate as Christians is that God creates all of us to be unique individuals. Even identical twins are unique from one another in their personalities and even their fingerprints.² We are all unique from one another in some way, shape, or form. And the interesting thing is, that we are all known by God.

Our Scripture passage for today comes from the New Testament Gospel of John, written by John the Evangelist – the man who was Jesus' beloved disciple and trusted friend. It is unique as far as the Gospels go in that the message it brings is full of powerful imagery that relate Jesus and God in very powerful ways – even establishing Jesus' status as the Christ by pre-dating Him to even the creation of the earth. The passage for today is a part of the book that outlines Jesus' calling of the disciples into study and ministry with Him. This passage outlines the calling of Nathanael.

Imagine for a moment that you are Nathanael. You've just had a friend of yours come and talk to you and persuade you to go out and meet a man named Jesus. You've heard the rumors, but now someone you know is inviting you to meet Him in person. So you get up and go. Now, bear in mind that you've never actually met this man. And you see Him in the distance as you come down the road, and He starts shouting to you. Waving even. As you approach, He says of you “Here is an honest man.” You're stunned. How could He know that about you – know you well enough to say such things – on a first encounter? Is He flattering you? Joking perhaps? No. That's not the tone of voice. He's serious. And something seems odd about Him – almost like He can see deeper into your life and your soul than anyone else ever could. Something about Him excites and yet frightens you. So you ask how He knows you, and He gives you an answer you can't believe! He saw you under a fig tree – but it could have been anyone. How did He know it was you? Your friend, Philip was right! This man is unique!

Falling down, you praise Him. And His response fills you with wonder: you will see even greater things if you stay with this Jesus and pay attention to His teaching...

Truly this was an amazing moment for Nathanael. And Jesus' prophecy would be fulfilled soon enough. But the important thing here is Nathanael's question: “How do you know me?” It's a matter of relationship. Today, we can look back and say that Jesus knew Nathanael because He is the Son of God and was present when God created Nathanael. Jesus, being God, would know Nathanael better than any of his friends would. He knew everything about Nathanael – and He knows all about us, too.

The passage from the Psalms that Kelly talked about this morning says that God knew us even before we were born on this earth. He knew everything about us – our struggles, our pain, and all of the things that make us unique. And He accepts us for who we are. All of us have the freedom to come to Him and to have a relationship with Him. God knows us. And that is a comforting thought. He knew what He was doing when He created us, and He made us who we are for a reason.

Elizabeth Elliot, in her book Let Me Be a Woman, records the story of Gladys Aylward unable to accept the looks God had given her. Ms. Aylward told how when she was a child she had two great sorrows. One, that while all her friends had beautiful golden hair, hers was black. The other, that while her friends were still growing, she had stopped. She was about four feet ten inches tall. But when at last she reached the country to which God had called her to be a missionary, she stood on the wharf in Shanghai and looked around at the people to whom He had called her. "Every single one of them" she said, "had black hair. And every one of them had stopped growing when I did." She was able to look to God and exclaim, "Lord God, You know what You're doing!"³

Being known by God has a two-fold meaning. First, it means that there is no part of us that God doesn't already know about. He knows us better than we can even know ourselves. And He loves us including all of our faults. That's unconditional love. That's the love that sent Jesus to die on a cross so that we could spend eternity in the presence of God. It's a deeper, more intimate knowledge than even our own families have of us. It should give us a sense of peace and joy to know that God knows us that deeply and loves us in such a powerful way. And it is because God knows us this well that we should be encouraged to understand the second meaning of the phrase “being known by God.”

And that is this: Scripture tells us that our names must be written in the Book of Life in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. I would propose to you that the second meaning of the phrase would be to have our names written in that book. Have ourselves placed on God's Roll Call in heaven. Be known by the Father through our desire to develop and maintain a close, personal relationship with Him. We must be willing to stand up and make ourselves known by God as His servant and His people. And that means working and doing His will at His direction and in His way.

We all have at least one Person who knows us better than anyone else – and that Person is God.



NOTES

1Doug Fields & Eddie James, “Powder,” Videos That Teach, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1999), 126.

2Pamela Prindle Fierro, “Twins and Fingerprints: Do Identical Twins Have Identical Fingerprints?,” Available Online: http://multiples.about.com/cs/funfacts/a/twinfingerprint.htm. Accessed 17 January 2009.

3Elizabeth Elliot, Let Me Be a Woman. Available Online: http://www.higherpraise.com/illustrations/self_acceptance.htm

A Grand Celebration

Who here cannot think of a reason to celebrate at Christmas? It's a time of family and friends, of good cheer and joy. Christmas is a time when we can truly see the hope, peace, joy, and love that God intends for all of us be manifested in the birth of Jesus Christ. It is at this time of year when people give more and generally have a freer, more generous attitude toward others. People are more helpful, and we just all get a sense of gratitude that comes from good tidings being spread through the community.

But why all the celebration? We celebrate Christmas because of something that happened over 2,000 years ago – the birth of Jesus Christ. His birth was foretold by prophets over 800 years before it happened, and they were celebrating even then. Isaiah was one of these, and it is his words that we hear from today. Jesus' birth was a special event – and Christians recognize this because it would later be His death that would give life to the rest of us. And life, above all else, is an amazing gift from God.

We often like to talk about presents when we gather around our trees and in our homes to celebrate. But slowly, the “spirit of Christmas” that existed and that celebrated the greatest gift ever given to the world is being replaced by a “spirit of Christmas” that celebrates the newest fads and the hottest items to be bought in stores. And all of us are guilty of following and remembering the more “modern” traditions and forgetting some of the focal points that we should be celebrating at Christmas.

God gave the world a chance at eternity – eternal life with Him – through belief in this little baby who would grow up to become the Savior of the world. And it's a gift that many of us forget about and still others take for granted. But let's consider the gift of life for a moment to help us understand why there was such a grand celebration in Heaven and the skies above Bethlehem so many years ago...

In 1910, a terrible plague swept through eastern Czechoslovakia during the Christmas season. It was diphtheria, and it devastated the little Czech village of Velky Slavhov. Nearly half the village contracted the infectious disease, and many of the victims were less than ten years of age. Whenever a member of a family would show symptoms, a large black “X” would be swabbed on the doorpost of the house as a warning that it had been quarantined.

There was an “X” painted on the doorpost of the home of Jano and Suzanna Boratkova. In little less than a week, the young couple, parents of three, found themselves childless. Their oldest child, a five-year-old daughter, had been the first to go. And even as Jano was working in the woodshed, pounding together a coffin for her, his two sons were dying.

As the two young boys breathed their last, Suzanna broke into agonizing sobs. She cleaned and wrapped the two boys for a final time and carefully laid them in handmade pine caskets. She and Jano lifted the coffins onto the wagon and started the slow journey through the biting December cold and the foot-high snow toward the graveyard. They passed by house after house marked with an “X”, but they didn't have the strength to offer sympathy or encouragement. They were too wrapped up in their own grief.

The young couple laid their children in freshly-dug graves and struggled through the Lord's Prayer. Then they trudged back to the wagon and returned home. No one was there to meet them. It was too dangerous, for the house was quarantined. It was a frightening, dark little tomb. Little high-heeled brown leather shoes were still lined up against the wood stove, as they usually were when the children were tenderly in bed. But now the beds were empty, the house was cold, the shadows deep and cold.

Jano himself was sick. “I won't see another Christmas,” he said, wheezing and coughing. “I don't think I'll see the New Year in, either.” He pushed away the soup and bread, for it was too hard for him to swallow. The diphtheria had tied a noose around his neck, allowing neither food nor sufficient air to sustain him. Suzanna gathered some kindling and lit a fire for the night, sure that her husband was about to die. The snow was starting to fall again, and she paused to gaze through the window. Her mind went to a verse of Scripture – Psalm 121:1: I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord who made heaven and earth.

Suddenly, she saw someone approaching, a peasant woman tramping through the snow, a red and purple plaid shawl draped over her hunched shoulders. A kerchief was wrapped around her head, and her long skirt was a bright display of cotton and linen patchwork. In one hand, she held a jar of clear liquid. She approached the house and knocked on the door.

Suzanna cautiously opened the door. “We have the plague in our home,” she said, “and my husband is in a fever right now.” The old woman nodded and asked if she could step inside. She held out her little jar. “Take a clean, white linen and wrap it around your finger,” she said. “Dip your finger into this pure kerosene oil and swab out your husband's throat, and then have him swallow a tablespoon of the oil. This should cause him to vomit the deadly mucous. Otherwise, he will surely suffocate. I will pray for you and your family.”

Then, having left her folk remedy against diphtheria, she turned and left. Suzanna followed the woman's instructions, and early Christmas morning, Jano retched up the deadly phlegm. His fever broke, and Suzanna entertained a flicker of hope. There were no presents under the tree that year, but an old woman with her jar of oil was a gift of life. Jano recovered, in time the Lord gave the couple more children. In the 1920s, Jano and Suzanna emigrated to America – with eight children, which included a set of triplets and two sets of twins.

It's a story that has been handed down through the generations of that family, the little peasant woman who came on Christmas Eve bearing the gift of life. Jesus, too, came on Christmas bearing the gift of life for hopeless, grieving, dying people. He came for Jew and Gentile. He came for you and me.¹

Our grand celebration this Christmas should be for that gift of life that was given so long ago. There has been a grand celebration at the coming of the Messiah, and it has lasted for over two millennia. As we celebrate with our families and friends this Christmas, let us remember the greatest gift of all – God's gift of eternal life – that came to earth as a tiny child so long ago in Bethlehem.


NOTES

1Kathleen R. Ruckman, “A Christmas Miracle,” Focus on the Family Magazine, (December, 1988), 12-13.

The "Grinch-y" Spirit

How many of you have NOT seen the classic How the Grinch Stole Christmas cartoon made in 1966? Starring Boris Karloff, the children's classic has captivated children for over forty years, and still brings a classic message of Christmas to all who listen and watch the beloved favorite. Now, can anyone guess perhaps when the book that inspired the cartoon classic was written? Dr. Seuss published How the Grinch Stole Christmas back on October 12, 1957 – which means that the tale itself is fifty-one years old.

Now, it may seem odd to you all to hear about the Grinch when the topic at hand is Christmas. After all, the Grinch seems to be the antithesis of the Christmas spirit, and he certainly wasn't present at the manger over two thousand years ago in Bethlehem. But, still, he is an image that has a very popular place among multiple generations of people. Many of us not only may have watched it ourselves as children, but we have shown it to our children, and they, in turn, continue to do the same in each generation that follows. So, I find it fitting to talk a little bit about the Grinch – after all, he is a rather popular Christmas character – ranking up there with Frosty the Snowman, Charlie Brown, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Jack Frost, and the big guy in the red suit himself, Santa Claus.

So I'd like to give you a few things to consider this morning as we look at the Grinch and talk about Christmas. And to help me, I've brought along some excerpts from a wonderful little book I have called The Gospel According to Dr. Seuss, by James W. Kemp. The book uses the story of Zacchaeus and relates this man's character to the character of the Grinch in the legendary tale. And that's all well and good. But this is Christmas, so I don't think it's appropriate. The Grinch story, however, has a lot to teach us about ourselves – especially at Christmas time. So let me give you a few thoughts to consider about who we are and the way we interact with one another around the holidays.

“The most obvious and basic lesson of Dr. Seuss's How the Grinch Stole Christmas! Speaks to the issue of the priorities in our lives...Simply put, we live in a materialistic culture, defined in terms of 'busyness,' a society that is much more interested in material things than spiritual things.”¹

Now before anyone here jumps the gun and gets really offended by that statement, I want you all to consider something. I'd like to submit an article from the New York Times dated November 29, 2008. The headline reads “Wal-Mart Employee Trampled to Death.”

The throng of Wal-Mart shoppers had been building all night, filling sidewalks and stretching across a vast parking lot at the Green Acres Mall in Valley Stream, N.Y. At 3:30 a.m., the Nassau County police had to be called in for crowd control, and an officer with a bullhorn pleaded for order.

Tension grew as the 5 a.m. opening neared. Someone taped up a crude poster: “Blitz Line Starts Here.”

By 4:55, with no police officers in sight, the crowd of more than 2,000 had become a rabble, and could be held back no longer. Fists banged and shoulders pressed on the sliding-glass double doors, which bowed in with the weight of the assault. Six to 10 workers inside tried to push back, but it was hopeless.

Suddenly, witnesses and the police said, the doors shattered, and the shrieking mob surged through in a blind rush for holiday bargains. One worker, Jdimytai Damour, 34, was thrown back onto the black linoleum tiles and trampled in the stampede that streamed over and around him. Others who had stood alongside Mr. Damour trying to hold the doors were also hurled back and run over, witnesses said.

Some workers who saw what was happening fought their way through the surge to get to Mr. Damour, but he had been fatally injured, the police said. Emergency workers tried to revive Mr. Damour, a temporary worker hired for the holiday season, at the scene, but he was pronounced dead an hour later at Franklin Hospital Medical Center in Valley Stream.

Four other people, including a 28-year-old woman who was described as eight months pregnant, were treated at the hospital for minor injuries.

Detective Lt. Michael Fleming, who is in charge of the investigation for the Nassau police, said the store lacked adequate security. He called the scene “utter chaos” and said the “crowd was out of control.” As for those who had run over the victim, criminal charges were possible, the lieutenant said. “I’ve heard other people call this an accident, but it is not,” he said. “Certainly it was a foreseeable act.”

But even with videos from the store’s surveillance cameras and the accounts of witnesses, Lieutenant Fleming and other officials acknowledged that it would be difficult to identify those responsible, let alone to prove culpability.

Some shoppers who had seen the stampede said they were shocked. One of them, Kimberly Cribbs of Queens, said the crowd had acted like “savages.” Shoppers behaved badly even as the store was being cleared, she recalled.

“When they were saying they had to leave, that an employee got killed, people were yelling, ‘I’ve been on line since yesterday morning,’ ” Ms. Cribbs told The Associated Press. “They kept shopping.”

Wal-Mart security officials and the police cleared the store, swept up the shattered glass and locked the doors until 1 p.m., when it reopened to a steady stream of calmer shoppers who passed through the missing doors and battered door jambs, apparently unaware that anything had happened.

Ugly shopping scenes, a few involving injuries, have become commonplace during the bargain-hunting ritual known as Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. The nation’s largest retail group, the National Retail Federation, said it had never heard of a worker being killed on Black Friday.

Wal-Mart declined to provide details of the stampede, but said in a statement that it had tried to prepare by adding staff members. Still, it was unclear how many security workers it had at the Valley Stream store for the opening on Friday. The Green Acres Mall provides its own security to supplement the staffs of some large stores, but it did not appear that Wal-Mart was one of them.

A Wal-Mart spokesman, Dan Folgleman, called it a “tragic situation,” and said the victim had been hired from a temporary staffing agency and assigned to maintenance work. Wal-Mart, in a statement issued at its headquarters in Bentonville, Ark., said: “The safety and security of our customers and associates is our top priority. Our thoughts and prayers are with them and their families at this tragic time.”

Wal-Mart has successfully resisted unionization of its employees. New York State’s largest grocery union, Local 1500 of the United Food and Commercial Workers, called the death of Mr. Damour “avoidable” and demanded investigations.

“Where were the safety barriers?” said Bruce Both, the union president. “Where was security? How did store management not see dangerous numbers of customers barreling down on the store in such an unsafe manner? This is not just tragic; it rises to a level of blatant irresponsibility by Wal-Mart.”

While other Wal-Mart stores dot the suburbs around the city, the outlet at Valley Stream, less than two miles from New York City’s southeastern border, draws customers from Queens, Brooklyn and the densely populated suburbs of Nassau County. And it was not the only store in the Green Acres Mall that attracted large crowds.

Witnesses said the crowd outside Wal-Mart began gathering at 9 p.m. on Thursday. The night was not bitterly cold, and the early mood was relaxed. By the early morning hours, the throngs had grown, and officers of the Fifth Precinct of the Nassau County Police Department, who patrol Valley Stream, were out in force, checking on crowds at the mall.

Mr. Damour, who lived in Queens, went into the store sometime during the night to stock shelves and perform maintenance work.

On Friday night, Mr. Damour’s father, Ogera Charles, 67, said his son had spent Thursday evening having Thanksgiving dinner at a half sister’s house in Queens before going directly to work. Mr. Charles said his son, known as Jimmy, was raised in Queens by his mother and worked at various stores in the area after graduating from high school.

Mr. Charles said he had not seen his son in three months, and heard about his death about 7 a.m. Friday, when a friend of Mr. Damour’s called him at home. He arrived at Franklin Hospital Medical Center an hour later to identify the body. Mr. Charles said he was angry that no one from Wal-Mart had contacted him or had explained how his son had died. Maria Damour, Mr. Damour’s mother, was in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, but was on her way back to the United States, Mr. Charles said.

About the time that Mr. Damour was killed, a shopper at a Wal-Mart in Farmingdale, 15 miles east of Valley Stream, said she was trampled by a crowd of overeager customers, the Suffolk County police reported. The woman sustained a cut on her leg, but finished her shopping before filing the police report, an officer said.²

Here we have a horrific example of the desire for material things. The priority of these people to get the “hot bargain” of the day even got in the way of their value for human life or their attention to the thought that something wasn't right beneath them. I think all of us can honestly say that this was truly a dark day in the recent history of Day After Thanksgiving fiascoes. Why do we act like this? It is our greed that drives us to ensure that we and our families have the best, and the newest. So we do whatever we have to do to make things happen – even at the blatant disregard of others. And this causes us to behave like the Grinch. “We have mistakenly equated the acquisition of possessions with happiness and fulfillment...As we have accumulated more and more things, we, as a culture, have become more and more independent and ostensibly self-sufficient.”³

Obviously, we have entered ourselves into a trap. The “Christmas spirit,” so-to-speak, for all intents and purposes has changed into the spirit of consumerism. The spirit of love, hope, peace, and joy that was intended with the birth of Jesus Christ is slowly becoming a back-story to the Grinch-y behavior that we see all around us. But, change is possible, and we can begin that process of change even today.

“The Grinch is captive to one of the seven deadly sins: envy. He is jealous. Because he is not happy, he can't stand other people being happy either.”⁴ I'm sure if we all sat and thought about it, we can think of at least one person who fits this description. But we don't have to be like that, and we don't have to put up with others acting like this in our midst either. Yet another lesson from the Grinch: “...we can't pull ourselves up by dragging other people down – and we shouldn't allow others to do so.”⁵

Oddly enough, “it is not the Grinch bu the Whos down in Who-ville who provide the most fundamental lesson of this story,”⁶ It is they who truly demonstrate what I believe is the real spirit of Christmas. Their celebration of the holiday transcends the “gimmie, gimmie, gimmie” attitude that plagues us. Instead, they see the true meaning as being something much simpler: faith, friends, and family. Even without all of the other trappings of Christmas, they still had one another, and that was reason enough to celebrate.

Simplicity and self-control are disciplines that all of us perhaps need to practice a little more of in life, and they can be especially helpful in guiding us towards the true Christmas spirit. “We need to listen to the words of the many people who testify that they feel they had more back in the days when they had less – more happiness, that is, even when there was less money and fewer things.”⁷

In the end of the story, the Grinch realizes (thanks to the Whos singing in Who-ville without any of their things) that there is something more to Christmas than all of the shopping, and the toys, and the food, and the noise. Christmas was about people – bringing people happiness, and giving us all hope. The Grinch has a change of heart and his faith is restored in people because they understand something that he didn't: Christmas is all in the heart.

We can change the way society approaches Christmas. But it must start with each of us as individuals. Our actions, our thoughts, our feelings – all are able to be changed if we are willing to embrace the Christmas spirit – a spirit of Hope, Peace, Joy, and above all, Love. “Let us never be held captive to the idea that people cannot change. In the end, even the Grinch knew better.”⁸

So, to close, here's a thought and a challenge to yourselves: What is your attitude this Christmas? Are you a Who, or are you the Grinch?


NOTES

1James W. Kemp, The Gospel According to Dr. Seuss, (Valley Forge, PA: Judson Press, 2004), 77-78.

2Robert D. McFadden, Angela Macropoulos, & Anahad O'Connor, “Wal-Mart Employee Trampled to Death,” The New York Times, November 29, 2008. Available Online: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/29/business/29walmart.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print

3James W. Kemp, The Gospel According to Dr. Seuss, (Valley Forge, PA: Judson Press, 2004), 78-79.

4Ibid., 37.

5Ibid., 38.

6Ibid., 36.

7Ibid., 78.

8Ibid., 41.