Sermons: May 24, 2009 - May 30, 2009 Archives

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May 24, 2009

H: Holy Listening

Sermon: May 24, 2009 H: Holy Listening
Luke 24:44-53

Today the Christian church celebrates Ascension Sunday. The Easter Season we have been celebrating these past six week closes with one more celebration. The resurrected Jesus leaves his disciples and returns to be with God. Luke reports that Jesus was lifted up into heaven on a cloud. The disciples were overcome with joy and celebrated Jesus, their Messiah. These final miracles solidified for them Jesus’ divine nature.

The scripture verse that I want to focus on this morning is the one that appears on the cover of your bulletin—Luke 24:45. “Then he opened their minds to understand…at last…these many scriptures. The New Living Translation is the translation we find on the cover. It varies slightly from the NRSV that Lowell read. Neither include the words “at last” in their translation. Where did they come from?

I checked five translations. None of them include the words “at last.” They must be the illustrators’ interpretation. While I didn’t find this phrase in any translation, they fit, don’t they?

Throughout his ministry, Jesus did everything humanly possible to help the disciples understand who he was. After his death, Jesus presented himself alive to the disciples in a variety of ways and places. Now, at last, the disciples get it—Jesus is the one. All their doubts are set aside. They realize God has come to them in Jesus. Now Jesus can leave. He has done what God sent him to do. As Jesus leaves, the disciples worship him. Returning to Jerusalem, they praise God for sending Jesus.

While he was with the disciples, Jesus continually referred back to the Hebrew Scriptures. He taught in the synagogues. He encouraged his Jewish followers to read and search their sacred writings.

The disciples were to read their sacred writings through the lens of the two great commandments that Jesus preached and lived—love God with every fiber of your being and love your neighbor as yourself. They were to seek their sacred scriptures for the deeper spirit-filled meaning—the one that survived throughout the millennium—the one that survives today.

If Jesus encouraged his disciples to immerse themselves in the sacred text, how important is it for us to become familiar, to immerse ourselves in Scripture? It’s one thing to accept Jesus into your heart. We see this witness with the apostle Peter. His heart belonged to Jesus; however his mind was still not certain. How else do you account for his lack of faith and his denial? Like any faithful disciples, to understand what it means to follow Jesus takes an opening of both heart and mind.

We need to spend time in the sacred texts. The Bible is God’s living word to us. It reveals who God is, who we are, and why we are here. Through Bible study we gain insights into God, human nature and creation. (Lift up Bible.) This is the story of our God and the people of God. How well do we know the people in this book? For their stories are our stories. As we come to understand them, we will come to understand ourselves and our relationship with God.

Let me introduce you to one family…There was no work in his home town so John took his wife Cindy and their two boys to the big city. There were jobs there. He found work, difficult factory work. One day John got hurt at work, and he never recovered. He died shortly afterwards, leaving Cindy with two teenage boys. They lived from hand to mouth. She had no way to return home so she worked and made a life for them. The boys grew into men and married local girls. Everything was going great. The couples had been married almost 10 years, and were getting ready to have children. Then the unthinkable happened.

Both men died within a year of each other. The mother was devastated. The wives were too. How could God have let this happen? After burying her sons with their father, Cindy decided to return home. This big city had claimed almost her entire family. Being widows, the three women had a tight bond. Cindy had expected that her daughter in laws would return with her to her home town. Their experiences had made them even closer than they were before.

As she packed her meager belongs to leave, Cindy had a change of heart. She encouraged her daughter in laws to stay in the city. They didn’t owe her anything. Why leave their family to return to her home town with her? One daughter-in-law decided to stay, but the other, Rhoda, would not leave Cindy. She had no intention of abandoning her mother in law in her time of need. If Cindy could leave her family and all she knew to come to the city, Rhoda figured she could leave her roots and go to a small rural town.

Rhoda, the daughter in law exhibited for her elder, what it meant to have faith and fortitude in the midst of difficult and fearful times. The student became the teacher.

Do you recognize this story? It is the biblical story of Ruth and Naomi in the Old Testament book of Ruth. It’s one of my favorites. There is something about these two widows heading out together in a time when women, specifically widows, where considered the lowest of the low. Neither woman had a son to support her so they were on their own. You might know Ruth’s famous words to her mother-in-law Naomi.

“Don’t ask me to leave you and turn back. I will go wherever you go and live wherever you live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.” (Ruth 1:16). This young woman makes a big commitment to love and support an older woman. It catches me short. We are not in each other’s lives by accident. We are together by design. What is God’s plan for me? How does this story of a faithful woman influence my behavior toward older women—toward my mother-in-law?

To give equal time to you guys, there is a great story of male friendship in the Bible between David before he is officially the King of Israel and Jonathan, the son of David’s greatest nemesis, King Saul. My husband Mark loves the movie Shawshank Redemption because he says there aren’t many good male friendship movies. The story of David and Jonathan is a good male friendship story. What kind of effort does it take to have a significant relationship with a male friend? What would that look like for you?

In her book on spiritual practices, Adele Calhoun (1) offers a variety of spiritual practices that involve our sacred text. She defines Bible Study as focusing our attention on scripture in an attempt to understand and apply biblical truths to our life. At a recent leadership meeting, a large percentage of us said we want to study the scriptures. Many of you have come to me asking about Bible Study. God has planted this yearning inside of us. God is inviting us into know him in a deeper, more intimate way—a way that will guide and direct our lives and the life of this church. What are we willing to do about it? Where will this yearning fall in our priorities?

Currently, David Foster teaches a Bible Study on Sunday mornings from 8:45 to 9:45 and anyone is invited to attend. They meet on the third floor. Bring your Bible, or if you don’t have one, just come. We’ve got plenty of Bibles around. In the coming months other group opportunities will arise. Pastor Lowell was teaching a beginner Bible Study on Thursday’s and this will pick up again later this year. Take the time to check them out. Find one that works for you or offer an alternative if you have a good idea for a Bible Study.

For some of us just picking up a Bible and trying to read it seems overwhelming. One of the ways to tackle this is to get familiar with it a little at a time. One resource has organized the Bible into 15 to 20 minute sections. Each day you read a portion of the Old Testament, New Testament, and a Psalm. In one year, you can read the entire Bible. It’s a great over view.

There are numerous methods to help us study scriptures to make the Bible accessible to everyone. Please get out your Bible if you brought it or take one from the pew rack. You’ll also need something to write with. Turn to the Mark 10:46-52.

Adele Calhoun has a method she calls the “Artist Method” (2). You read a passage of scripture and consider these three questions while you read:

1. What speaks to my heart? (draw a heart beside the word that speaks to your heart)
2. What new thought or idea comes to me? (draw a light bulb beside the new thought or idea)
3. Does this passage move me to do something? If so what? (draw a hand beside the action that you want to take)

Share what insights I received. Is anyone willing to share what insights you received? When we study scripture with this method, we consider how to apply one of our insights in the day.

One method I’ve tried is the Sensory method. Close your eyes. I will read the same scripture passage through slowly. Put yourself in the scene. Let it take shape in your mind’s eye. Using our senses what do we see, hear, smell, touch, taste? Do you see yourself in this passage? Remember you may not be one of the main characters but an observer. Where are you? Is God saying something to you in this passage? What is it?

These are just the tip of the iceberg as it relates to the spiritual practice of Bible study. The most important thing is to pick up the book and spend time with it. We don’t have Jesus but we have this book. Most of us don’t get a word from God speaking to us from the heavens, as Moses did when God gave him the 10 commandments. But we have this book. It’s our roadmap, our "aha" moment, our “I’m not the only one who has struggles with this” insight, our love song, our sad song, our words when we can’t seem to find the words.

God speaks to us in many ways. One way is through revelation in scripture. But if we aren’t familiar with the sacred texts, how will God be able to open our mind to understand them? My prayer for each and every one of us is that we will have multiple “at last” moments of revelation, as our relationship with God in Christ grows and matures. Let’s be a community that not only prays together but studies our sacred scriptures. A community that says, “Speak God, for your servants are listening.”

Posted by vickie at 10:00 AM