Imitator

This Sunday I am preaching at a local country church and here is my sermon for anyone who is interested We always give thanks to God for all of you and mention you in our prayers, constantly remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. For we know brothers and sisters beloved by God that he has chosen you because our message of the Gospel came to you not in word only but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full convictions; just as you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for in spite of persecution you ow what kind of persons we proved to be among you for your sake. And you became imitators of us and of the Lord for in spite of persecution you received the word with joy inspired by the Holy Spirit so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. For the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia but in every place y our faith in God has become known so that we have no need to speak about it 1 Thessalonians 1:2-8 One of my favorite movies of all time is the Shawshank Redemption, primarily because it has two quotes that have stuck with me. The first one is more of a gut punch and it is “get busy living or get busy dying.” My other favorite quote is from thecharacter Andy Dufresne is that “Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things and not good thing ever dies.” The Apostle Paul talks about hope, along with faith and love quite often. The most famous place where these themes can be found is 1 Corinthians 13. This chapter is often dubbed as the loved chapter and has been recited at more weddings than we can count. In this passage Paul tells the three things that will remain are faith, hope and love. Paul doesn’t disagree that hope is a good thing, but Paul makes the argument that the greatest of the three is love. An outpouring of Godly/holy love is the basis for how God operates and we should follow in the same suite, So my question is, how does faith, hope and love play into being an imitator of Christ. So lets lay a little bit of ground work on what it means to be an imitator. One definition of being an imitator is that we copy someone elses behavior or actions of someone else. How often does a younger sibling copy the actions or words of an older sibling? Or, how often do we by the same products or use the same products or have the same stances of social issues that our favorite athletes, actors, athletes have or use. I remember one time I saw my dad and brother standing off in the distance with their back to me and I had a hard time telling who was who. They are about the same height, similar body build and the same walk. I could argue that my brother is a clone of my dad. The crux of being a clone or an imitator is that we become so like the other person that we don’t know where one ends and the other begins. I know I will give us this warning, we imitate or become the people we wither spend the most time with or who has the biggest and loudest voice in our life. So we should be careful of who we let into our lives and gives us advice. So what does faith have to do with being an imitator? The most basic truth is that we have to believe in who we are imitating to be true and that what they have is worthy to be doing or imitating. Faith is believing that there is someone or something out there that is either better or cooler that we are or are becoming and we want it that said characteristic in our life. Whether it is a characteristic like peace, or joy, to a talent like photography or computer skills, we put faith into those people who have the characteristics/talents we want and we imitate them for better or worse. How many people who want to become a better writer, read the author they respect or idolize and find every video or article they talk about writing, and then they put it into practice. Eventually we become their disciple because we write in their style. It would be like if were a big CS Lewis fan and I read all of his work and started to write in some of his themes and styles, that would make me his disciple. Faith is realizing that something is true and should be imitated, or it at least looks like fun and we want to give it a try and see where it takes us. Hope is more than just wishing something will come true. I can hope that the Vikings can go and win the Super Bowl, but it is something that I am not going to hold my breath over. True or Biblical hope is knowing something will come true because of past performance. Biblical hope is rooted in experience and it is also rooted in trust. It is trusting God providing on His promises because He has come through on His promises before. If God does not come through on His promises, that would make Hm a liar, and if He is a liar, that would not make Him God. As I am wrestling how hope and being an imitator come together, I have come to this conclusion. Hope differentiates between being an imitation and an imitator is that an imitation is something that is fake and is based on smoke and mirrors. Being an imitator is being the real deal. When I think of this, especially the smoke and mirrors part, I think of imitation crab. It is different fish meat stuck together and we pretend it is crab and we use it for salads and other food dishes. Imitation may taste like crab, but its not crab. Its kind of like saying something taste like chicken. Even though it tase like chicken, it is still not chicken. It is false imitator. Real hope separates what is fake and wont last, and then focuses on what is real and will last. Hope is imitating what is good, holy and Godly. This kind of hope gives life to us and those round us along with joy and encouragement. False hope or imitation, destroys life, is destructive to us and everything around us and it kills joy. How love and imitation go together is we imitate out of a sense of wanting to and not because we have to. I know there are times where doing dishes or loving that neighbor or family member can be more of a chore and it feels like a have to. I get it, not all of life is roses and that we only get to do the things that are easy or that we want to do. This is where the Holy Spirit comes in. The Holy Spirit is not only an encourager, but also a convicter, and at times gives us that push in the back. We can not imitate God or become Godly on our own. This is where the Holy Spirit comes along side us and pushes us, walks with us and even leads us to have our image restored. The Apostle John tells us that God is love, and if we are to imitate God, we are to love like He loves. This means that we are to grow up, have standards, and follow the two greatest commandments, which are to love God with all we have and to love our neighbor as ourselves. The reason we should be obedient to God is two fold. The first one is that that He elected us to Him so that we can a relationship with Him. We can have a conversation about election all day, but the way I see it, God elected a way for us to have a restored relationship with Him and that is through Jesus and His work on the cross and His resurrection from the dead. We just have to take that free gift. God gave us the opportunity for a new life filled with riches that we can not even imagine and a restored relationship with Him. We just need to accept that free gift and live it out. The second part is that we are obedient to God not because we have to, but because we want to. Love is doing something without obligation or fear, but out of a wanting to do it and with complete sincerity. It means that there is a relationship, and the Apostle John tells us that God is love and everything He does is because He loves us. We should reciprocate that love back to God and to others. I will mention this again, we can not do this on our own, but its something that God has to come in and change us through the work of the work of the Holy Spirit So where does the rubber meet the road and what are we suppose to be imitating. A good place to start is found in Galatians 5, where Paul tells us what the Fruit of the Spirit is. It is such things as love, joy, peace, patience, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. If we are to take a look at this list, it is a realization that these traits fly in the face of human nature. When we imitate these things and we allow God to work through us. When we imitate these things, it changes our character and our outlook on life. When we imitate these things, its not so that we can be noticed or to get a good job, but it is to make God known. To close out, Paul gives us two things to ponder. The first one is that when we become imitators of God, we will face persecution. When we imitate God, we are stating that the world does not have all the answers and what it has to offer is down right crappy and there is a better way. It is not always the easiest way, but the end results are better. Our outlook on life will change, and joy will come easier in difficult situations because we know that God will take care of us and protect us. We might not know what the future holds, but we know who holds the future. Finally, when we follow the example of Christ, it makes the work of the people before us not in vain. We are responsible to those who came before us by taking what is true and living it out. Being an imitator is taking our life and sharing it with all those who we come in contact with so that they may know what is true and that they can have the same joy that we have. Being imitators is doing or saying nothing spectacular, but it is being obedient to Gods calling and living our life of love so the world may know that there is a better way

Abram

Now the Lord said to Abram Go from your country and our kindred and your fathers house to the land that I will show you. And 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. I will bless those who bless you and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed So Abram went as the Lord had told him and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy five years old when he departed Haran. And Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother’s son and all their possessions that they had gathered and the people that they had acquired in Haran and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem to the oak of Morch. AT THE TIME THE Canaanites were in the land. The Lord appeared to Abram and sad to your offspring I will give this land. So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pithed his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord. And Abram journeyed on still going towards Negeb Genesis 12:1-9 There are several things that have caught me off guard with Abram in this story. The first one is that he was a heathen or non believer and had no connection with God. Abram may have had connections or worshiped one or multiple gods or deities because of the polytheistic culture that he was in, but worshipping the Creator of the Universe may not have been on that list. Living in a polytheistic culture is like shopping the hair care aisle at Target or Wal Mart. You have multiple shampoos and conditioners for every hair style, color and scent to keep one cross eyed for a while. So for a random god to break through to and give the promise that God did, was probably just as weird if a bottle of shampoo spoke to us in the aisle of Wal Mart The other thing that has caught my eye about Abram is that he wasn’t a spring chicken anymore. According to our story, when he picked up and left to follow God, he was 75 years old and according to the Bible, he was a wealthy person with a lot of flocks of animals and servants to care for those animals along with his wife. I wonder if Abram ever thought of telling God that he was too old and to wealthy to be moving everything that he has to someplace he has never been, no matter how great Gods promises were. I wonder if Abram wanted to tell God no because he had money in the bank, his bills were paid and he was comfortable where he was at. To bring it a little closer to home and in this century, do we tell God no because we are striving to live in the comfort of the American dream. Its owning our own home, having a good job with some sort of retirement plan and a group of friends that we can go out and do things with. In this lifestyle, we wont get dirty for the wrong reason, getting uncomfortable is a sin and everyone we surround ourselves with either looks, thinks or acts likes us, or some combination of the three. So how do we be like Abram and say yes to God when He calls out of our comfort zone to a someplace new. My first thought is that when God calls us to some place new, we might not be making the move half was across town, the country or the world, but we get to stay where we are. Now, God does call people to move location for various reasons, and we need to be open to the leading of His Spirit, but before we change location, how often does our character our outlook on life need to change first. What if it is God calling us to develop one of the Fruits of the Spirit that is found in Galatians 5:22-23. These fruits are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness and self control. The beauty of this fruits is that there are no laws or rules against these and all of these fruits are suppose to be present in a believers life. Is God calling us to develop these fruits so they are more present in our lives. Here is an example, I can be rather snarky and most of the time I mean in fun, but I have come to realize that snark can not only rob the joy out of others, it can rob my joy also. So if I want more joy in my life and stop stealing the joy out of other peoples lives, I either need to limit or to get rid of my snark. God also might be asking us to change our approach to something. The definition of insanity is that we keep doing the same things the same way and expecting different results. What would it look like for us to change our approach to a difficult situation or relationship. How about in a relationship that is strained, seeing things from their perspective? Ot how about stop being so defensive or offensive and just listening? When we are in a tough situation, we have to know if it is a hill worth dying on or if we have to pack up and walk away. Sometimes winning the battle will cost us the war. My second observation is that when God gives us a promise, we need to respond in trust and obedience. Trusting someone is sometimes us giving up our rights to be right and to be in control. How often do we or control over to God and yet we try and take it back when we don’t like the way things are going or we want to do our own thing? Trust and obedience comes down to being a living sacrifice. In Romans 12, the Apostle Paul commands us to be a living sacrifice and to be holy and acceptable to God and that we are not suppose to be conformed or to take after this world. In essence, being a living sacrifice, or obedient and trusting is a form of worship. This form of worship is something that happens day in and day out and not just Sunday mornings or during a Bible Study. Obedience is not only a daily thing, but more often than not, it is moment by moment thing. Here is an uncomfortable, yet freeing truth, when we are a living sacrifice, this means that we are not our own anymore and that we belong to God. When we become fully Gods, our nature starts to change and we become more like what God created us to be, which is holy and blameless. Call it maturity, sanctification or being filled with the Spirit. The goal is that our nature reflects God in everything we say and do. Here is the problem with being a living sacrifice, is that the sacrifice lights to get off of the altar and do its own thing. How often do want to get off of the altar so that we can live a life that we deem a little more comfortable or not be ridiculed as much for holding to and sharing Godly principles on todays issues. Do we get off of the altar because it is to hard, or to uncomfortable. Being on the altar as a living sacrifice means that God has the keys to all the rooms in our life and we can hide things from Him. How often do we hide things from God or others because of shame and at times we enjoy keeping things a secret or two. Throughout Scripture, sin and secrets often are related to night time and darkness and the truth is often referred to as light. To be honest, the secrets we hold, will come out eventually and we often cant control when they come out or how they come out and even the damage they cause. So or best bet is that we become and stay a living sacrifice so that we may point other people to the truth and grace of Jesus Christ. My third observation is that when God wants to move and do things, is often either way to late or way to early in our book. We are either settled into our routine and don’t want to be pulled from our current lives, or that we are ready for God to move and He is rather silent. God has the big picture in mind and He sees and knows things that we possibly can not even dream of. This is what can make trust and obedience so difficult, but it is also remembering that if God can create the universe, He can handle our lives as well. A part of this waiting scenario really plays into the Abram story. Within the framework of the Old Testament, ones family and lineage is important. How one passed on their name, legacy and wealth is through their offspring, especially their oldest son. At the time of this story, Abram and his wife were still childless and they were not getting any younger. So Gods promise to make Abram a great nation had to of caught his attention, because that means he would have a son to further his legacy. I think there are several things that we can learn about Gods promises to Abram and about God, The first one is that even though He did create everything, after the fall and when Adam and Eve were kicked out of the Garden of Eden, God did not have a group of people to make His name known to or for the people to reflect His glory to the world. With God providing Abram and Sarai a son, that God will have a people and a people will have their God The second idea is this idea of blessing and curses. Whoever blesses Abram, will be treated well by God, and who ever treats Abram poorly will be cursed. My initial thought is that you don’t mess with Gods people, or there will be trouble to pay. I don’t think its our job to exact Gods vengeance for Him because He is big enough to do it himself. I think how we treat others is a reflection of how we see God and what our relationship with Him is. The more we seek and experience Gods grace and truth, the more likely we are going to share it with the people around us. To wrap this up, I think that there are some similarities between Abram and this church. God is calling us out of our comfort zone and to move to reach out to our neighbors and friends. Sometimes moving is not so much about location as it is as mindset. The question is that do we get uncomfortable enough to move and to grow, or are we comfortable being where we are and wither becoming smelly and stagnet, or worse yet, regressing and becoming immature. I will close with this. I was in my first week of seminary and I was feeling that I was in over my head and that I was drowning. I had a friend tell me that I could do it and that God was there guiding me there and that He would get me through it. God did and I was reminded of the famous John 1 passage where the Word was God and the Word became flesh. This means that Jesus came to earth and but on skin and bones and he dwelt among His creation, showing us that there is a God and that He loves us and there is a better way.

Truth

Truth: that which is true or in accordance with fact or reality

 Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” ³⁸ Pilate said to him, “What is truth?”

                                                              John 18:37-38 ESV

When I hear the term truth, the famous dialogue from the movie A Few Good Men comes to mind.  It is where the Tom Cruise character demands the Jack Nicholson character for the truth and the response from Jack is the famous line of “you can’t handle the truth.” Truth tends to be a popular topic, ranging from promoting ones truth, to calling out a political party and how they don’t know what truth is, even if it came and slapped them along side of the head. I just finished up the HBO historical drama Chernobyl which is about the 1986 nuclear plant explosion and aftermath in Russia.  At the end of the last episode, one of the main characters gives the speech that when truth is forgotten or altered, it gives us a distorted sense of reality and eventually we no longer know what to believe or who we are.  The final punch line in the movie is that when truth is forgotten or manipulated, it creates a debt, and that debt will need to be settled.  It often is not pretty and has dire consequences for forsaking it and not living by the universal truths that God has laid out before us. Here are some observation I have made about truth that I think will be helpful. 

   The first observation is that truth is that there is no such thing as my truth and your truth, because not only does it lead to a moral relativism with no concrete standards of right or wrong, but it also leads to divisiveness.  One just has to take a look at our political climate since last November with the Presidential Election.  Both sides are digging in to their foxholes with their agendas and launching ammunition of distrust, name calling and finger pointing to the other side.  This divisiveness often grows larger as time goes on and we eventually will cut off all relationships with people who disagree with us, or we participate in the civil war that is going on in social media along with where we work, worship and at the dinner table.  I will leave you with this thought on my truth.  It could make us think that it is our Constitutional Right that we are not wrong and that we can never be wrong, no matter how faulty our reasoning or information is/  My truth often sees things one way and only gains information from sources they agree with, supports their cause and comforts them.  

   The second observation about truth, especially Gods Truth, doesn’t care about feelings.  If you know anything of or follow the conservative author and media personality Ben Shapiro, you know one of his famous lines is that “facts don’t care about feelings,” and the same can be said for truth.  Or if you think in song titles, the group Boston, song More Than a Feeling  because Gods truth is objective and not subjective.  Generally speaking, people turn to things that make them happy or somehow lets them escape reality.  This why I think so many of us struggle with some sort of addiction issues, is because we want to be happy, or not face the reality that the truth is pointing out.  Truth is that big spotlight that shines on areas in our life that need to change, or improvement, or an action that we either need to stop doing or start doing.  Truth helps things us see things as they really are and what they could be, and not what we want them to be.  So here is my question, if truth was about comfort, would we ever change?

   My third observation about Gods truth is that it is absolute.  It doesn’t care about culture, time period, or your gender.  It applies to everyone.  As much as we try to get out of it, it is impossible to run from, because it will eventually come and catch up with us and the longer we avoid it, the worse the consequences are.  Absolute truth is like gravity, cause no matter what we do, it still brings us back to earth.  Eventually that airplane is going to come out of the sky and land, due to a lack of fuel or some sort of mechanical issue.  When God created the earth, He set up some universal guidelines for it to operate and from collapsing into utter chaos.  Absolute truths is the blue print that God has given us on how the world should work and how we should live and interact with each other.  When we don’t read or fail to abide by this blueprint, things are sent into chaos, and we become so calloused that we start doing things that are right in our own eyes and not God’s design. 

My fourth observation is that cultures change and people don’t.  Ever since Adam and Eve ate from that apple and were banished from Eden, the struggle has been real.  We are constantly wanting to do things as we see fit, because we think we know as much as God and we can do as good of a job if not better than what He is doing right now.  No matter how often rules are changed, or added, or social programs are out there to combat the ills of society, we still make stupid decisions.  The ways may have changed, but how often do we try and diminish or take down others, so that we can elevate ourselves, or find ways to escape reality.  I could be wrong, but when we lose Absolute Truth, not only do we break off our relationship with the Creator, but we damage our relationship with other people.  When there are no absolutes, people lose value and often become a pawn in a game.  How often do these pawns become forgotten or disposed of to either meet some sort of need or to cover up some sort of pain or inconvenience. 

   My fifth observation is that when we deny absolute truth, or push it down the line, when it comes back, the consequences are messy, ugly, and often deadly.  According to the movie Chernobyl the reason why the reactor exploded was because of a neglect of rules and because of a known design flaw that people new about but did nothing about.  It could be something as simple as unpaid child support leads to jail time or the loss of certain privileges.  When we start denying or avoiding God’s absolutes, there will be consequences. They could range from relational issues, jail time, to financial to health issues.  Eventually our poor choices will have eternal consequences.  The one thing that I am starting to realize is that God’s absolutes have more than just eternal consequences, but they have eternal hope.  God’s absolutes bring peace, understanding and it builds solid relationships.  God’s truths are designed to bring things together.  God is about order, peace, trust, and being in communion with others and Him.  Our truth promotes chaos, war, bitterness, and a lack of trust and understanding.

  I know it’s a long time coming, but lets finally hit that Bible passage that I started with.  The story comes from the Gospel of Johns account of the Passion.  I encourage all of you to read Johns version of the Passion of the Christ starting in chapter 14.  Quick history on this passage, which is that the Passion of the Christ takes place over the Jewish holiday called the Passover, where they remember their Exodus from Egypt.  The Jewish leaders got tired of Jesus healing and challenging their authority.  Jesus also claimed to be one with God and King.   Within Jewish ,tradition, that is blasphemy punishable by death.  Since they were under Roman rule, they could not execute anyone, so they had to spend some political coin to the Romans to show that Jesus was a heretic and deserved to die.  This is what lead to the famous meeting between Jesus and Pilate.  With Pilates famous phrase of “what is truth” he was washing his hands of the situation, and condemned Jesus to death so the Jewish people could live their truth and have a criminal released from death row.  When truth becomes subjective, chaos becomes the law of the land, responsibility is optional and there is no such thing as maturity, value and dignity of the creation goes out the window and it becomes a free for all.

Anger

Anger-a strong feeling of annoyance, displeasure, or hostility

²¹  “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable ⁾to judgment.’ ²² But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother^[c] will be liable ⁾to judgment; whoever insults^] his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire. ²³ So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, ²⁴ leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.

Matthew 5:21-24 ESV

   This section of Scripture comes from Jesus teaching from the section of Scripture known as The Sermon on the Mount.  This section is found in Matthew 5-7 and has two distinct things that I find cool.  The first one is that this sermon is very applicable.  Jesus is explaining how one lives out their faith on a day-to-day basis and covers all the essential topics, such as anger, divorce, lust and many other things.  Jesus uses the phrase “you have heard it was said,” to refute the understanding of the day of the common practices.  Instead, Jesus explains how where are treasure is buried is important, or the meaning of taking oaths and how our word is important.  The second cool thing I found is that this sermon was not for the masses, but it was a teaching moment for His disciples.  Jesus had become a big deal and people were following Him around to see what He was going to do and say next.  In essence, Jesus was giving an in-person TED Talk to His disciples and the crowd was just eves dropping and finding out what His message is?

   Anger can be a ticking time bomb, especially for those of us who like to cram it down and not admit to it, and then it comes out and bad times or takes forms in unhealthy addictions.  I will be up front, I think there is Godly anger and things should make us mad like human sex slaves, domestic violence, child abuse and a host of other things, but this is not where I am going.  I am going down the trail that anger can be self-destructive and ruin our relationships with God and others.  I think there is a reason why Jesus made the connection between anger and murder and here is some observations on this.

    My first observation is that we think our anger some how will change other people’s actions, intentions or speech.  If we get angry enough and we throw things and shout really loud, people will change.  In the last year, in Minnesota, we have had two police officers charged in the deaths of unarmed Black men.  Following these deaths, there have been protest, marches along with looting and destruction.  Both sides have drawn a line in the sand and are yelling at the other side to change their ways and there is a lot of words of anger and pain thrown at both sides by both sides. I think the crux of this anger comes down to two major points.   One, is that both sides feel that they are not being heard, which only intensifies the yelling and hatred.   This anger tries and change intentions of ones actions, speech and how one sees the world. We are trying to murder their intentions so they can be change to think and look like us.  How often are we angry with other people’s intentions and biases and we forget to check our own?

   My second observation is that we often fail to see that other people have value and are created in the image of God.  How often does our anger belittle people or treat them as second class citizens? Our anger often gives us a sense of arrogance and that we are better than another person or group of people.  We think our way is better and we try and beat other people into seeing things are way or that people somehow are to serve us.  This anger often leads to us belittle them, taking every chance to destroy or kill their self-worth, honor and character.  We tend to manipulate the message to make them look like the bad person and that we are always right and our intentions are always pure, or at least purer than other peoples. 

  My third observation is that anger tends to leads to alienation.  How often does our anger cause us to either shut down and be non-responsive.  Instead of attacking, we pull back and we break off all relationship with that person.  We don’t discuss what is the matter.  We would rather kill the relationship take care of the problem.  Is there that one family member that when the two of you are together it gets rather quiet and the temperature in the room drops about twenty degrees.  Someone has let the hate and anger build up so much, that whatever was the issue is, has gotten bigger and often out of out of control to the point that the original story is no where to be found and we have manipulated our hate and anger based on lies, and half truths that we told ourselves or have listened to.  If we let it fester, it will only get worse, and the truth gets more watered down until it vanishes.

   How often in our anger do we have conversations and we forget to invite the other person we are angry with into the conversation.  It could be a running conversation in our head or we are venting to someone else about our said anger towards a particular person or group of people.  Here is something that I have noticed in my own life when I do this in my head, my victory is always great and that the other person does not stand a chance and my justifications are always right and theirs are always wrong.  When we vent to another person, we tend to do it to people who see things are way, or we try and manipulate them into seeing things our way.  So when we do this, it often leads to two results.  The first one is that our anger is some surface level feeling that is covering up something deeper, such as guilt, shame or even remorse.  The second one is that we are killing any chance of fixing what the issues that are leading to anger because we will not confront the issues or anger in a healthy way

   My fourth observation is that how often to we try and pay God off.  We can not be in right relationship with God and hate our brothers and sisters.  God commands that if we are going to be in right relationship with Him, we have to take care of our anger and hate issues with the people we interact with on a daily basis. When we have offended someone, or mistreated them, it is our responsibility to go and seek forgiveness and start the reconciliation process. I think we need to seek peace, peace and understanding in our relationship with others.  In essence we need to listen to understand and not listening to respond.  When we listen to respond, we are about portraying a certain message or look and it is often not the message that is needed or wanted. Seeking reconciliation takes courage, guts and it wont happen overnight. 

   I don’t know if any of this makes sense, but I hope so.  I will leave you all with some closing thoughts.  The first one, there is a difference between Godly anger and human anger and we need to know the difference.  The second one is that God is the only one that can change hearts and attitudes no matter how much of a keyboard warrior we are.  We have our responsibility in the process, but God is the lead person that can make it happen.  My final thought is this and it is a paraphrase of a quote from the movie by Denzel Washington’s character in Remembering the Titans which is

We might not all like each other, but we will respect each other

If I could change this quote up a bit, I would change out the word respect with love.  Like and love are two different things, and God calls us to love each other with His love and the only way that is possible is through His grace and a changed heart.  If we were left to love on our own, our love becomes conditional or contractual and that is not love, it is obligation.  The difference is that love is doing something because we want to and obligation is a sense of have to or being forced to.

Questions to Ponder

  How much of our anger issues come from a lack of trust?

  Is there a particular person you need to have a personal conversation with instead of carrying

     One on in your head with them?

   Why do we make hate more tolerable than murder?

Fickle

Fickle- changing frequently, especially as regards one's loyalties, interests, or affection.

¹² The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. ¹³ So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” ¹⁴ And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written,

¹⁵ “Fear not, daughter of Zion;
behold, your king is coming,
    sitting on a donkey's colt!”

John 12:12-15 ESV

  I remember being in a New Testament class in college and we were going over this passage and it struck me that the nation of Israel was singing Jesus praise on Sunday and by Thursday night, they were chanting crucify Him.  I remember asking the professor why the such quick turnaround by the people, and his response was because people are fickle.  That comment has always stuck with me and the years since, I have noticed how people can be fickle, myself included.  So here are my few observations on what it means to be fickle. 

   My first observation is that fickleness is often a result of not having a backbone.  People who tend not to have a backbone tend to change their opinion like the weather.  Some people are so bad, that if you don’t like what they are spouting or standing for, talk to them after they are online for twenty minutes researching any hot button topic.  Not having a back bone could mean one of two things.  The first one is ones reasoning and logic skills are so underdeveloped that they jump from one reason to another.  This source of reasoning comes down more to flash and what is appealing or popular rather than truth or fact.  The second reason is, is that people care more about what other people think.  In essence they want to be liked by a particular group of people, so they adhere to the ideas of the group.  In essence it is group think and we do it so we have some form of validation and respect even though it is fake.

   My second observation about fickleness is that how the minority can change the whole dynamic of the group.  With the Triumphal Entry and Jesus, the religious leaders wanted Jesus gone, preferably dead, but at least not causing waves.  They were doing it because they enjoyed the status with the Roman Empire.  They were free do as they please as long as they minded their own business and didn’t cause any trouble.  They saw Jesus as a threat to their peace, comfort and status with the Roman Empire.  The religious leaders started a smear campaign against Jesus, causing people to question His authority and their way of living.  When seeds of doubt and lies start getting planted, how often do we seek the truth, and how often do we become the conspiracy theorist.  We tend to take those seeds of doubt and lies and with it until we find something else comes along that sounds better.  Fox News, CNN and just about every other news and satire outlet make millions doing this.  This is how they are able to stay on the air, because they know the news they promote may have a kernel of truth to it to make it believable but twist it in such a way that the facts are long gone and it leaves people divided and in shouting matches online or in person.

   My third observation about fickleness is who do you trust.  Our beliefs and actions show ourselves and a world that is watching who or what we trust.  Do we only trust ourselves, the mob mentality of culture or the wisdom of the Creator.  If I am going to watch a Jerry Bruckheimer movie (director of Top Gun, Armageddon and others), I know there are going to be big explosions, questionable acting and a few naughty words.  When you trust someone or something, you are letting them or that thing speak into your life and impact it in ways that could bear eternal consequences.  If we trust ourselves and pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps, it leads to an unhealthy self reliance that is not good or Biblical.  Relying on others to what we think can lead to group think which can be dangerous.  Also, others are humans too, just as sinful and fallen as we are.  The only way to go is trusting Jesus.  Not only is He the author and perfector of the faith, but He is the Creator which means He has authority over all.  When we are fickle, we tend to lead ourselves and others astray, no matter how good our intentions are.  Jesus is the only one that can give us a firm foundation to stand on and we don’t have to go jumping from idea to idea because He doesn’t change.  Cultural truths changes with the generations but the Truth of Jesus never changes.  How it is presented may change, but the core message stays the same, which is that there is a Creator that loves us, and creation, no matter how fallen or self destructive we are or can be, we are worth redeeming because we are created in the image of God and that is worth redeeming.

   I will finish off with this quote that is attributed to such people as Alexander Hamilton, Peter Marshall and others.  That is “if we don’t stand for something, we will fall for anything.”  Not being fickle means that we stop being so gullible and we grow up and mature.  We use the brain that God gave us to reason things out, while listening to the leading of the Holy Spirit and following that lead.  That backbone is not bowing down to the ever changing culture and sticking to the time tested truths that God has set up before the earth was created.

Commitment

Commitment: the state or quality of being dedicated to a cause, activity;

 Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died, ¹⁵ and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” ¹⁶ So Thomas, called the Twin,^[b] said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

John 11”14-16 ESV

  Let me ask an important question and that is, what is your commitment level?  No matter what we are involved in, work at, or participate in, we have a commitment level.  The levels vary anywhere to totally committed or all in to you not wanting to touch it with a twenty foot pole.  Our commitment level often determines our effort level and our attitude effort are high and we go at it with full gusto.  There are times when we may not want to do it, but we still give it all and get it done.  One of the people I follow on Insta Gram is Farm Fit Mamma (I think her real name is Amanda) combines fitness and the farm life.  She is so dedicated that she puts out motivational and informational videos to show how she goes about how to eat and exercise.  She even created online groups to provide encouragement and accountability to other woman to want to make lifestyle changes.  The opposite side of this laziness.  The only way something gets done is because one has to do it, and is just avoiding the consequences.  It tends to get done half assed and these type of commitment are the people are usually the last ones in and first ones out.  If they can get someone else to do it, they can find some great excuse why it didn’t get done.  Lets explore several different kinds of commitment that are found through out the New Testament that I think are worth looking at.  Now this is not an exhaustive list and there probably more, but these are the ones that are jumping out at me right now. 

   The first one an apathetic commitment.  We can see this in our Scripture passage above and the Thomas is the perfect example of it.  Lazarus, who happens to be a follower of Jesus and also a dear friend has died, and for whatever reason Jesus waited a few extra days to go to Lazarus house.  Thomas statement is telling, because he probably heard the rumors and the gossip that the religious leaders wanted Jesus to at least disappear or even die.  Thomas statement is telling because he was telling the world that yes, he was committed to the cause of Jesus, and will do what is required of Him, but don’t ask him to go above and beyond.  I think the apathetic commitment is all about the have to and not want to or there is some sort of expectation by themselves or others that they do this.  There is no joy, happiness, and they are there either because they invested to much, or they can’t find anything better because they don’t try. The phrase “I’m here” applies to this form of commitment.

    The second form of commitment is the flash.  These people get excited about a cause and show their loyalty to it, either until there is some sort of adversity or the fuel runs out.  They either do not count the cost of the said commitment, or they are not wise with their time and energy and they burn out.  The perfect example of this is the Apostle Peter.  He told Jesus that he would follow Him anywhere even to death.  When it was time for the rubber to hit the road and Peter was following behind Jesus during His trial and beatings, Peter flat out denied knowing Jesus three times.  In essence they are there until it cost them something great and then they are out.  To paraphrase the famous line from the Bad Boys movie trilogy there is no riding together and dying together because someone ends up jumping out of the car.

   The third form of commitment is a silent committed.  They are committed, but they don’t want anyone to know, because they are afraid of the backlash and consequences.  These type of commitments usually lurk in the background doing things and often are never seen or heard from, but you see there work.  The perfect example of this Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus,  they were apart of the religious leadership and if they privately went to Pilate to get the body of Jesus so they could bury Him in a new tomb before the Sabbath.  were caught burring Jesus in a new tomb, there would have been at least a bad social stigma attached to them.  This kind of commitment, people are often more worried about reputation than character. 

   The fourth form of commitment is all in.  I wish I had a better name for it, but this type of person is committed to the cause, does not matter the cost and they perform their duties to the best of their abilities.  It often goes from being forced to do it, wanting to do it, to needing to do it.  The all in commitment is not about me and look what I am doing, but it is about the cause.  Most of these people go unnoticed and never get fully recognize for the work they do.  One Biblical example of this is Simon of Cyrene.  I know this might be a stretch, but here me out.  Jesus was so weak where He could not carry His own cross, so Simon did to the place where Jesus was crucified.  There has to be some sort of commitment level to publicly carry the cross of an alleged anarchist and who everybody wanted dead.   Being committed sometimes mean doing something that isn’t popular and you will get scorned for.  I think of Rosa Parks who was suppose to sit at the back of the bus, but chose to sit up front and chose to show the value that all people have, and not just a particular groups of people.

    To finish up this blog, being fully committed means that we bear our cross.  This means that at times we do things, that aren’t easy, fun, and counter cultural and we will be mocked for.  We are all fully committed to something, is it being lazy, apathetic, or all in.  In essence we are all obedient to something or someone, and is that to ourselves, others, or God.  There is only one that provides the endurance, strength and adds value not only to our life but also the lives of others, and that is fulling bearing our cross and being obedient to what God has called us to do.

Scapegoat

capegoat: a person who is blamed for the wrongdoings, mistakes, or faults of others, especially for reasons of expediency.

 “Aaron shall offer the bull as a sin offering for himself and shall make atonement for himself and for his house.  Then he shall take the two goats and set them before the Lord at the entrance of the tent of meeting.  And Aaron shall cast lots over the two goats, one lot for the Lord and the other lot for Azazel.  And Aaron shall present the goat on which the lot fell for the Lord and use it as a sin offering, but the goat on which the lot fell for Azazel shall be presented alive before the Lord to make atonement over it, that it may be sent away into the wilderness to Azazel.

Leviticus 16:6-10 ESV

   The first Monday after the NFL Season ends is known as Black Monday, because this is when a number of head coaches and general managers are fired for their team’s performance.  One of the reasons they are fired or let go is because the owner can’t get rid of the whole team, so the coach and or general manager becomes the scapegoat for the team’s bad record and or performance.  This just isn’t the case for football, but this will happen to just about every coach in every team sport at every level.  In essence coaches, especially head coaches are hired to be fired.  Coach Dean Smith is a rarity to coach the University of North Carolina Men’s Basketball Team for decades and retire on his own terms.  Scapegoats just don’t happen in sports, but they also happen at jobs, within churches, and even within friends and families.  So lets explore how a Scapegoat ties into the Lenten Season and Easter. 

    The first concept is that when there is a Scapegoat, there is a guilty conscience.  Guilt means that we realize that responsible for the mess we are due to our actions, words, attitudes and even our lack of action.   This means that we realize that there are consequences for our actions and that relationships are, at best damaged, to broken beyond repair.  I think guilt can cause that famous fight or flight response.  Whether we stick our head in the sand and pretend nothing is wrong, or we it forces us into action.  In essence we play the blame game or scapegoat someone into the responsibilities and consequences of our poor decisions.  I think there is a third option for guilt, but more on that later.

 To expound on the blame game, why should we take responsibilities for our actions when we can make someone else responsible for them and we can make them face the music.  How often do we blame a sitting president for an economy or blaming the pastor of a church for the church not growing and for younger families moving to the bigger church down the road? It is never our fault because it is always someone else’s actions, attitudes or words that causes the problems or not finding the right solutions to fix all of our problems.  Blame always tries to minimize our guilt if not get rid of it completely. 

    The second concept of a scapegoat is this idea of alienation.  When we blame or scapegoat someone, we are termination the relationship somehow.  I think one of the reasons we do this is that we feel guilt in what we have done or said to that person so we alienate them so that we don’t have so see them and either face the music and or be awkward in their presence.  I think the biggest reason why we alienate people and send them of off to the relational desert is that they are paying the price for our guilt and for our actions.  Guilt needs to be atoned for, and scapegoating someone means the debt, guilt and consequences are being placed on that person or group of people.  How many of our relationships have died because we blamed people for our bad decisions or for our lot in life.  Killing a relationship is sometimes easier or more convenient than actually doing the hard work and taking the responsibilities for our actions.

    The third concept of scapegoating is this idea of peace.  In his book, The Mosiac Atonement Josh McNall makes two great statements and the first one is.  

The scapegoat succeeds in delivering a measure of peace.

In essence this statement is right, the reason we scapegoat is to appease our guilty conscience.  We often will try to do anything and everything, except the right thing.  We will even throw  people under the bus if it makes us feel better.   As I wrestled with this section of Josh’s book, I came to realize that this peace is only temporary.  When it starts to fade, we try to find other ways to sooth our soul and to clear our conscience.  I think this view of peace is not only means a lack of strife and conflict, but it also means that we are happy.  True peace means doesn’t always mean we are happy and that conflict is always absent or minimal.  True peace is our response to when things are not going well.  Josh’s second observation is this

First we lynch our scapegoats, then we worship them

We are all created to worship something and we tend to worship what makes us feel better.  We worship scapegoats we are placing the guilt and consequences that belong to us on them and we think we have skirted around the consequences, guilt and responsibilities of our action or inactions. This is me thinking out loud, I think we scapegoat and worship anything that absolves us of any responsibility to grow up and that masks our guilt and shame. This form of worship often leads to unhealthy relationships and even addictions to various things, such as food, alcohol, technology.  When we mask our guilt an shame, it takes us down some really dark roads and have some ugly consequences until it we grow up and deal with them. 

    The fourth concept of being scapegoat is the idea that the scapegoat is innocent of what the are being blamed for.  The only way they could bear the transgression and the blame is if they were innocent of said action or words.  Biblically speaking, the only way for guilt to be taken care of and dealt with is by the sacrifice of an animal with no blemishes.  Within the Old Testament, t here was a \yearly feast where the High Priest would sacrifice a perfect lamb for the sins for the nation of Israel and the blood is what allowed the people to go before God.  All the sins of the nation were placed on the other lamb and sent off into the wilderness.  In essence the only way for our guilt to be properly taken care of is for it to be placed on someone or something that has not sinned

   \To finish up this blog, the passage that we started off with foreshadows Jesus.  Jesus is the ultimate scapegoat, to where He bore our sins and guilt so that we may be forgiven.  Jesus was alienated to a hill outside of the city limits of Jerusalem and died a brutal death on the cross.  His death took  care of our guilt and shame issue once and for all.  As the author of Hebrews puts it, Jesus sacrifice is the sacrifice to end all sacrifices.  In essence, Christ death, paid the price for our guilt and His resurrection made sure that we can over come our sin and guilt and that we don’t have to continuously live in it.