“The Dos and Don’ts of Christianity”

 

Scripture Readings:

 

Psalm 107:1-9, 43; Luke 12:13-21; Colossians 3:1-111

 

Tenth Sunday after Pentecost

 

Preached by Jeffery C Summers, pastor

 

Maranatha Baptist Church

 

Plains, Georgia

One of the first words that babies learn, after momma and dada, is the word no. We are constantly teaching our children the dos and don’ts of life.

We teach them that it is nice to share their toys; we teach them that it’s okay if another child has more french fries on their plates than they do; we teach them to be polite to adults and respectful to other children even when those other children and adults haven’t learn that lesson themselves.

Also, we teach our children that it’s not nice to push someone; it’s not polite to throw something at someone else; we tell them it’s not nice to lie to mommy and daddy or anyone else for that matter.

We never stop learning. We encourage children to study; we encourage them to study so hard that they can go to college and make something out of themselves. It is very important that we do not forget the lesson on learning, but how do we remind ourselves of this simple, easy, straightforward lesson.

The hardest part for any student is learning what the professor wants. Doesn’t that sound unfair? But it’s life in education; the professors are always right, many of them don’t want to be corrected, so we learn how to appease them for a good grade.

We had one professor in college who I can best described as Granny of the Beverly Hillbillies. She was one of my English Lit professors, and she took no prisoners.

Then there was Dr. Bob Gardner, one of the best church historians in the world. Every semester, his classes would begin with at least thirty students; by the next class session, there would only be three students left, and that’s a true story. He would place every student’s name on a note card, and when he had a question, he would randomly choose one of those note cards, and you hoped you new the answer.

There is no difference in faith. I remember standing amazed when I first became a Christian that people knew the Bible so well; they could quote chapter and verse from memory. Imagine the time they spent learning the Bible. But it’s unfortunate that they didn’t spend just as enough time learning and experience God. People assume that knowledge of the Bible is knowledge of God, but in truth it’s knowledge about God not knowledge of God. To know God and to learn of God is to experience God on a personal level and that requires more than Bible study.

Experience says a lot. We don’t want anyone to come talk to us about how to handle a situation unless they been through it themselves. It’s one of those famous trite saying, “I understand” when in their hearts they truly don’t, but they think it’s an appropriate response that will make us feel better.

We can’t understand what life was like for the Jewish community during the holocaust unless we were there. Wondering if they would see the gift of living another day.

Elie Wiesel tried to capture in words his holocaust experience. Mothers and fathers screaming as hard as their lungs would let them, begging the Nazis not to hurt their family. In his book, Night, he talks about the “terrifying account of the Nazi death camp horror that turns a young Jewish boy into an agonized witness to the death of his family . . . the death of his innocence . . . and the death of his God.”[1] Listen to this account from a section of his book Night.

He told his story and that of his companions. The train full of deportees had crossed the Hungarian frontier and on Polish territory had been taken in charge by the Gestapo. There it had stopped. The Jews had to get out and climb into lorries. The lorries drove toward a forest. The Jews were made to get out. They were made to dig huge graves. And when they had finished their work, the Gestapo began theirs. Without passion, without haste, they slaughtered their prisoners. Each one had to go up to the hole and present his neck. Babies were thrown into the air and the machine gunners used them as targets.[2]

We can’t begin to fully know how parents feel with the loss of a child. We know there is a loss, but the depth and pain of the loss is unimaginable unless we have experienced such a loss.

There are some experiences in life that can’t be learned; there needs to be something more; life must be experienced.

I remember my father sharing the story with me about this young man who was hired to be his boss. This young man and I were of the same age, and we graduated college the same year. A lesson my parents taught me was to never open my mouth to speak unless I knew what I was talking about – a lesson this young man apparently did not learn. My father is caretaker of a cemetery in Fulton County, Georgia. This young man proceeded to tell my father how to pack a grave, which was a lesson, my brother and I learned when we were six. My father always used water to help getting the dirt settled. One day this young man noticed what he was doing. he proceeded to chastise my father for doing something that has always been expected when packing a grave. My father used the kindest words he knew, told him to go back to his office and leave him to do his job.

Faith is the same way as life; we can’t learn faith; we must experience it; and then we must learn to live faith. Faith isn’t about reading a book for a test; faith isn’t multiple choice. Faith is true or false; faith is black or white; faith is right or wrong.

Dr. Chuck Poole preached a sermon at the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Annual Meeting title Central Standard Time. Basically, he is saying that God’s ultimate revelation is Jesus Christ, and in the light of life of Jesus we can see the dos and don’ts of Christianity. He says that we should read the four Gospels over and over again until the Spirit of Jesus is at the center of our interpretation and then read the remain books of the Bible and measure the authority of scripture based on according to the light and life of Christ.[3]

“We are good at using the Bible to make our case in relation to our economics and politics. We use the Bible to make points to win our arguments.”[4]

There’s no gray issue when Jesus tells the crowd that if we have two coats and if someone didn’t have one, we are to give one of our coats to some one who has none. What about I Timothy 2:9 which tells us to stay away from hair solons and jewelry stores.[5]

Do we give to everyone who begs from us before investigating their worth like Jesus says in Matthew 5:42 – “Give to everyone who begs from you, do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.”

We pick and choose scripture that we claim to be authoritative in our lives. Which dos and don’ts will we choose to accept to defend our case and make our point?

There are scriptures that we know without any hesitation. We don’t need the Bible to remind ourselves what those verses say, like the Lord’s Prayer or John 3:16. We may know Acts 4:12 – “There is no salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved” but how many of us are aware of Acts 2:44-45 – “All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all as any had need.”

We may know Isaiah 1:18 where God tells us that our sins will be made whit as snow, but do we know Isaiah 58:7 – “Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; . . .”[6]

We pick and choose scripture to fit in our way in the world.

Yes! I would not have had any problems if Jesus just gave us a Christian to do list for us to check off, but in a round about way, Jesus did. If we are in the Spirit of Christ, then we now his intentions through his lessons that he taught.

The Ten Commandments are exactly that; they are a dos and don’ts list for us, which seems to be passing away with time.

In his letter written by Paul to the church of Colossae, Paul gives us a list of vices for us to stay away from. Paul gives us a dos and don’ts list, so we wouldn’t feel the “wrath of God.” Paul is one who experienced faith when he encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus, but all of us can’t be like Paul; we must find our own road; our own experiences that strengthen our faith.

Psalm 107 tells us that Israel was wondering in the desert; they were not able to find any towns or civilizations, just an open waste land. They were hungry and thirsty; their souls were tired, exhausted, and weak to the point of fainting. They could no longer continue on this journey, so they did what they knew what they learned a long time ago: God’s steadfast love endures forever, so the Israelites did only what was in grained in them: they cried out to God.

It’s easy for us to feel unworthy. We wonder why God would continue to love us – sinners! People who continue to seek self; people who have forgotten the basic lessons Jesus taught about community, sharing, and material possessions Have we gotten so preoccupied with our self that we have forgotten the basic lessons Jesus taught about community, sharing, and material possessions. Have we gotten so preoccupied with our self that we have forgotten the basic lessons of faith?

Peter Rhea Jones, who pastored First Baptist Church in Decatur, Georgia, calls the rich fool a “practical atheism.” This is his provocative term for the rich fools’ approach in the Luke passage read this morning. The rich fool may protest that he has always believed in God, but when it comes to managing his life, dealing with his possessions and planning for the future, the rich fool lives as though there was no God. The parable probes our basic commitments. What difference should our faith in God make in the practical matters of life?

A televised interview with a man who had lost his house and all his possessions to a raging brush fire driven by Santa Anna winds in California provides a striking contrast to the rich fool. Recalling that his brother had recently mused that they should be careful not to allow their possessions to possess them, this man who had just seen everything he owned but the shirt on his back go up in smoke announced to the reporter with a note of unexpected triumph – “I am a free man now!”

This past week, Jessica and I had the worst experience of our lives. We were at Wal-Mart buying a few things that we needed. We ran into a church member who was in front of us in line. At the twenty items or less register, we were trying to pay for out stuff just so we could leave. Our son was being as active as ever. Suddenly, my debit card wasn’t working properly, so we were trying quickly to resolve the issue, because the line was backing up. After fixing the problem we turned around to make sure we had everything, but we couldn’t find our son.

I threw the buggy against the wall not caring if I broke the eggs or not. I quickly grabbed the twins in the stroller and rushed to the game room Wal-Mart has, but he wasn’t there. The greeter was kind enough to watch the twins while we searched for him. For two minutes, we literally were in a state of emotional, physical, and spiritual hell. We just knew that someone had taken our son. The worse case scenarios ran through my head, but God sent an angel by the name of Mary Prince, the church member who was in front of us in the line. Connor had followed behind her just to give her a hug. When I saw that they found him, I didn’t know whether to spank him or hug him, but I think I did a little bit of both.

After an experience like that, I have a renewed perspective on life. Life’s not about status; it’s not about our names being in the paper; it’s not about getting attention for services rendered. From this experience, I was reminded of the important things in life – people. We could have been a statistic; there are parents who are still searching for their missing children. That is an ache that never heals. Do we care about them, help them, search for them, or do we bother ourselves more with our own concerns? There still remain people who are hungry every night, do we work to help them, or do we care about wasting time causing division within the community by spreading gossip and slander? Do we care more about getting praised for something that was expected of us anyway?

Once we become Christians, it’s not longer JUST about me or you – it’s about US! That’s what’s important. These concerns that appear so big – they’re nothing really. It’s all small stuff when you think about it. You know, we are here in this nice, cool sanctuary, well dressed, well fed, and healthy. Maybe it is because things are so good for us, that we can’t seem to be content and happy. We start to create problems: gossiping, back-biting, complaining, undermining the good in a community. We talk to everyone except the one who needs to hear. When will we learn? When will we see that life is about more than ourselves? Life is about what we do to building up, edify and strengthen those around us – our family, yes . . . our friends, yes . . . our visitors, yes . . . but most importantly, those who have no reason to expect anything from us. The measure of a person’s character is the actions they live everyday. Are you the kind of person of which one can say that have never seen in a foul mood, they’ve never heard a negative comment come from your mouth, that you always try to help when you see or are told of a need near you?

Now I am not deluded. I now we are not perfect, nor can I expect you to be. But I can expect that you will endeavor to leave this place a little better than when you found it.

Wendy Joyner, a pastor in Americus that many of us know, has said this about being part of the family of God:

The family of God is made up of all of us, especially those who, in our human way of seeing, appear to be beyond redemption. The family of god is made up of sinners: liars, cheaters, addicts, prisoners, idolaters, and all of the other folks on the margins of society. The sons and daughters of God include those who are faithful as well as those who are faithless. It is God’s divine parenting that claims all of us who seek relationship after we have lost our way. It is God’s love that welcomes us home, over and over and over again.[7]

Those who renounce self-sufficiency and cry to God will be the beneficiaries of God’s wonderful works, which reveals God’s enduring steadfast love – salvation through Jesus Christ. This has been the Christians only hope through history. Indeed, it is our hope as well.

1. Quote comes from the back of the book
2. Wiesel, Elie. Night. P. 4 Bantam Books, April 1982, New York
3. From Dr. Chuck Poole’s sermon at the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Annual Meeting
4. Ibid
5. Ibid
6. The scripture examples used came from Dr. Poole’s message.
7. Tenth Sunday after Pentecost. The Abingdon Preaching Annual 2007 p. 203