Building Strength for the Trials - Series #2. COVENANT

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When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am El-Shaddai—‘God Almighty.’  Serve me faithfully and live a blameless life.  I will make a covenant with you, by which I will guarantee to give you countless descendants.”  At this, Abram fell face down on the ground.  Then God said to him, “This is my covenant with you: I will make you the father of a multitude of nations!  What’s more, I am changing your name.  It will no longer be Abram.  Instead, you will be called Abraham, for you will be the father of many nations.  I will make you extremely fruitful.  Your descendants will become many nations, and kings will be among them!  “I will confirm my covenant with you and your descendants after you, from generation to generation.  This is the everlasting covenant:  I will always be your God and the God of your descendants after you. 

Then God said to Abraham, “Regarding Sarai, your wife—her name will no longer be Sarai.  From now on her name will be Sarah.  And I will bless her and give you a son from her!  Yes, I will bless her richly, and she will become the mother of many nations.  Kings of nations will be among her descendants.”  Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16

Then Jesus began to tell them that the Son of Man must suffer many terrible things and be rejected by the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law.  He would be killed, but three days later he would rise from the dead.  As he talked about this openly with his disciples, Peter took him aside and began to reprimand him for saying such things.  Jesus turned around and looked at his disciples, then reprimanded Peter.  “Get away from me, Satan!” he said.  “You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.”  Then, calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me.  If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it.  But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it.  And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul?  Is anything worth more than your soul?  If anyone is ashamed of me and my message in these adulterous and sinful days, the Son of Man will be ashamed of that person when he returns in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”  Mark 8:31-38^(NLT)

When I was nearing the end of High School my parents wanted to know what plans I had after graduation.  My answer was something of an insignificant, non-committal shrug…I don-know!  (Russell was a very articulate 17 year-old).  Our discussion about college was something like:

Mom & Dad:  We can send you to college, so you can learn something, get a degree and then a good job.

Russell:  Uh….OK.  (Remember…I was articulate)

Mom & Dad:  You’ll have to work hard in college.

Russell:  Yeah…oh, hey, is that cheesecake?  (Add focused to articulate)

Mom & Dad:  We mean it…hard work, study, graduate…grow up.

Russell:  Sure, no problem…is there any whipped cream for that cheesecake?

Articulate, focused, and sincere…what else could parents want?

What I took away from that conversation was that Mom and Dad were going to pay for my tuition, room, board and books, and I was going to go to a strange, exotic faraway destination called Yankton, South Dakota (the only college in America that would have me with my GPA), where I will have a thrilling, fun-filled adventure that will end up in me getting a prestigious and fulfilling job that pays a little more than Donald Trump earned last year.  In sum, all I took away was the stuff I wanted to hear; I ignored the real meaning of that conversation entirely!  College was hard work, and it was a lot of study, and I was unprepared, not equipped to deal with being an adult, and didn’t last past the first semester.  It didn’t help that the most gorgeous girlfriend in the world was back home!

And this is what happens to so many people who carelessly, unthinkingly, and/or frivolously think they’re accepting the covenant our Heavenly Father wants to make with us.  And by covenant we do NOT mean a business transaction, where if you accept God’s terms, you get to keep eternal life.  Rather we understand it is an ongoing conversation with our eternal God, Almighty, El Shaddai!

Today, let’s look at how easy it is to miss the meaning of the God-conversation.  Many people have completely misunderstood this down through the ages.  It begins with Abraham being promised a son who would bless all nations.

The Promise to Abraham

God said to Abram (Abraham), this is my covenant with you.  God’s promise was for eternity, never to be withdrawn.  People who have a problem with the Jews, Jerusalem, or the cherished children of Abraham occupying any part of the whole of Palestine from Egypt’s border to the Euphrates[2] are either not Christian, or need to bone-up on the Biblical promise to Israel.  The so-called “West Bank” is a modern invention; it belongs to God who created it first, and is Abraham’s inheritance in God’s covenant to the Nation of Israel.  Frankly it does not belong to Ishmael’s offspring; Scripture declares they will be wanderers perpetually.

That being said, it’s easier to understand the whole conflict issue between the sons of Isaac and Ishmael (the descendants of Abraham), because they have fought ever since Sarah and Hagar were jealous over each other. 

This contention for the Middle East has always put the covenant in peril.  It’s not that God withdraws his promise; just that, in free will, when we kick against the promise, we prevent the kind of peace God wills.  If you tell a child to stop being a brat to his sister and be happy with each other, it doesn’t necessarily mean he won’t kick her in the shins when you’re not looking.  Isaac and Ishmael have been kicking each other in the shins for a long time.  It’s not the promise of God that is failing in the Middle East, it’s the brat syndrome; some call it human nature.

Something that is critical about the promises of God, whether to Abraham or us, is that God does NOT promise to live it out for us.  God EXPECTS US to live the promise.  God told Abraham he would make him the father of many nations, kings among his and Sarah’s descendants.  You recall that it only takes a moment of passion to BECOME a father biologically; on the other hand it takes a lifetime of caring:  being there, pitching-in, and sacrifices if you want to BE a real father.

The promise of God to Abraham was that God would empower a living covenant; Abraham had to cooperate with God to live out the promise in the covenant.  And that’s where the New Covenant comes in; the Gospel lets us in on the fact that it takes a bit of spiritual discernment and a whole lot of practice with self-discipline in order to do that. 

The Problem with Peter

As a general rule, like the Apostle Peter, we humans have something of a problem with following God’s leading.  Our Gospel text tells us Jesus started talking about what was ahead for him; the cross, tomb and resurrection.  Scripture declares that Jesus didn’t stumble in telling his disciples this plainly.  But Peter (ever the leader of the band with an open mouth and closed mind) takes Jesus off to one side and wants to know what Jesus has been smoking.  After all, if you want to build a movement you don’t do it by scaring potential investors with promises of hardship and execution.  That’s not a strategy, Jesus!  C’mon!

To say Jesus went-off on Peter would be putting it mildly; he called him Satan!  Now, the devil is known by many names, and one of the more common handles Lucifer is known-by is ADVERSARY.  Satan is the opposition…at all times.  Jesus told Peter he was opposing God’s will, and to back-off. 

In the next heartbeat Jesus tells the crowd of onlookers and wannabe disciples that if they’re serious about following him it would mean self-denial, giving up being in charge, picking up a cross with their name on it, and following Jesus.  Now, that’s not a euphemism for going to church every Sunday or giving a tithe into the offering plate, or even visiting nursing homes.  What it is was plain-speak to a crowd who needed to know what covenant was all about:  death!

In Genesis 15 when God made His promises to Abraham it was sealed with the blood of a sacrificed animal.  The animal was cut in two and then Abraham fell into a deep sleep and watched as the presence of God passed through the space between the halves.  It was the ancient customary ritual of making a promise under penalty of death.  God was swearing the promise on his own name:

…there was God’s promise to Abraham.  Since there was no one greater to swear by, God took an oath in his own name, saying:  “I will certainly bless you, and I will multiply your descendants beyond number.”  Hebrews 6:13b-14^(NLT)

God was actually saying to Abraham, if I break my promise, what has happened to this bull laying in two pieces will be me; I, the author of life will die.

Peter had trouble seeing this.  He, like every other Israelite, and like me, and like you can only imagine the Father as in charge, stern, penalty-imposing – a judge!  But here we have El Shaddai, the Almighty Creator and Sustainer of all which exists making a promise to one of His creation.  It’s no wonder we humankind can’t come up to God’s level; we can’t even admit we have a problem with gambling, or porn, or stealing, greed, lust, or jealousy.  We wouldn’t put our 401K on the line to save a life; God puts his life on the line to save our eternity; and He makes the promise to sinners!

Why Would God Do That?

I’m glad you asked.  God did that because God knows that sinners can’t help themselves.  Sinners do bad things because they’re sinners, and they don’t know how to be righteous.  Sinners are into grabbing, getting, holding-onto what they’ve gotten, and holding others away, or in anger retaliating when they’ve been done wrong.  Sinners are into being like Cain standing behind Abel with a rock.  Do you honestly think it was a righteous, good boy who carried an AR15 into Parkland, Florida’s High School a week ago?

God knew we were like that, Abraham was like that; God knew nobody short of God can save sinners like that.  And so he made a covenant – a promise to save us. 

And that covenant was nailed to a tree on Good Friday.  Frankly, it doesn’t make sense, but it is the only way to bring peace between a righteous God and the unrighteous, the sinners like you and me.  And that peace is something the world does not understand…it is utterly beyond human reason.  It’s like most everything God does, including when He tells us if we want to really find our life, we have to lose it first…in Him. 

That is…

The Profit of Loss

Jesus said if you try to hold onto life and all you can get you will lose everything.  If you release all you have and are to His keeping, you’ll find you have immeasurably more than you could have imagined. 

So…how do I get in on this?  Simple answer:  Become a Jesus person.  Here are three Scripture verses that tell us all about the gain in the profit of loss:

His Light will Overcome My Darkness

No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket.  Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house.  Matthew 5:15^(NLT)

If you have a genuine light it will light up other people’s path as well as your own.  If you try to hide a real light you have to work at it.  God’s covenant with us is about spreading the light around; His children will do the same.

His Nearness will Strengthen My Weakness

And now, dear children, remain in fellowship with Christ so that when he returns, you will be full of courage and not shrink back from him in shame.       1 John 2:28^(NLT)

Sharing covenant with others is a matter of fellowship – Jesus called his disciples friends.  When you are in fellowship with Christ you develop covenant relationship.  That’s why He came; that’s what He sends us to.

His Life is Eternal

All who are victorious will be clothed in white. I will never erase their names from the Book of Life, but I will announce before my Father and his angels that they are mine.  Revelation 3:5^(NLT)

The mere fact that there is a heavenly eraser presupposes that your name can be erased from the Book of Life.  I believe this book, symbolic, or literal, has each human soul registered.  We don’t earn being in that book – it is God’s free grace, His gift to sinners who simply turn to Him in faith.  The eraser is for those who choose to reject the offer of salvation.

The New Covenant was sealed in the blood of Heaven’s Lamb; that covenant is all the strength we need for the trials that come our way.

You can come to this altar and ask God to help you with living the covenant.  That’s what altars are for.  That’s how we build strength for the trials.

Let the church say Amen in the Name of the Father, Because of the Son, Cooperating with the Spirit…Amen!

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[1] Title Image Courtesy Pixabay.com.

[2] Genesis 15:18

Pain Has a Purpose

Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.  He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.  But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan!  For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”  He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.  For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.  For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life?  Indeed, what can they give in return for their life?  Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”   Mark 8:31-38 (NRSVA)

As we approach Holy Week we are looking at texts that bring the suffering of Jesus into startling focus.  Today our text is about pain, picking up a cross and following God to the place where they spit on you, pin you spread-eagle on crossbeams, and leave you to bleed-out and die on the town garbage dump.  And then they break your legs.  It is not a “feel-good” text; Christ’s movement to the cross is all about pain!

The issue of pain does not escape any of us.  And we’re usually ready to talk about it if asked (sometimes you don’t have to ask)!  Pain is one of the lowest common denominators for human beings; we all know the experience of pain to one degree or another.  We talk about it, manage it, control it, deaden it, use it for motivation, fear it, and some even love it! 

Christina Ricci and Angelina Jolie are two movie stars

who have admitted that they inflict pain on themselves for “therapy”.  Christina Ricci was interviewed by Rolling Stone magazine and described in detail why she inflicts pain on herself:

She stretches; her sleeves ride up; there are raised round scars on her forearms, burns on the back of one hand.  She later explains where each mark came from:  how she heated a lighter, held it against her hand, a stunt to impress some boys when she was angry about "not looking very good."  The forearm scratches come from soda tops and fingernails:  "It's like having a drink," Ricci says, "but it's quicker.  You know how your brain shuts down from pain?  The pain would be so bad, it would force my body to slow down, and I wouldn't be as anxious.  It made me calm."[1]

The differences between Jesus and Christina Ricci are too obvious to dwell on the subject.  However there is at least one marked distinction that ought to be made:  the actress craves the pain so her brain will shut down and she won’t have to face her life – selfishness taken to extreme; Jesus endured the pain to embrace life and secure life for others – selflessness taken to the divine. 

An actress trades one type of pain so she will not have to accept another.  The Lord endures all the pain that is possible to destroy the effect it has on the human race.

Well, what do you do about pain? 

Pain has been, is, and will continue to be part of our human experience.  The questions are “why” and “for what purpose”?  If I’m going to have to deal with pain in my life, I want to know, or at least understand better what purpose this “unwelcome visitor” pain, serves!  

The book of Job is probably the oldest of the Bible’s texts.  In it the writer deals with the oldest question, why is there suffering…why must we experience pain?  The book closes with less of an answer to the questions than an assurance that God truly loves us and is watching over all that happens.

I once attempted in a sermon to answer the “why pain question” for a church member who was experiencing more than his share:

All the pain in the world is the direct or indirect result of sin (original, and secondary).  Pain sometimes comes to us as a result of other people's sin, not our own...but it is the best ‘wake-up call’ we can have to remember we are part of one another....and when one part of the human family aches, we all must groan.  We are connected, and, at base level, we are most connected by our suffering. 

When Adam and Eve sinned the ground was cursed, all creation felt the groaning.  That was when pain entered the equation of human existence.  Pain was the accompanying trumpeter announcing the approach of death. 

Sometimes the best way to deal with what seems to be arbitrary, contradictory and malevolent is to watch how others have navigated the rough waters of pain. 

I want to show you two scenes from the Movie “Shadowlands”.  This movie is the story of C.S. Lewis and his struggle with human suffering. 

Lewis was, in my opinion, the clearest Christian communicator of the 20^th century.  He was an atheist as a young man, and only became converted in mid-life.  As a confirmed bachelor in his 50’s he finally married Joy Gresham, a divorced American single mother. 

The first scene is a lecture at Oxford University in 1952 (the same place where John Wesley taught in the mid-18^th century).  Lewis (played by Anthony Hopkins), is lecturing on pain and suffering, attempting to answer the question of God’s point in allowing suffering:

I don’t think God particularly wants us to be happy; I think he wants us to be able to be loved, and to love.  I think he wants us to grow up.  We think our childish toys bring us all the happiness there is; and our nursery is the whole wide world.  But something, something must drive us out of the nursery – to the world of others, and that something is suffering.[1]

At this point in his life Lewis is still unmarried and pretty much teaching intellectually rather than from practical experience.

The second scene is several years later, after he has fallen in love with Joy (played by Debra Winger).  They became friends at first, and then married for Joy’s sake, so she could stay in England.  She is diagnosed with cancer, almost dies, and then experiences remission.  Then, as the disease makes a comeback Joy and Lewis (she called him “Jack”) are on a trip to find favorite place from boyhood memories.  The threat of Joy’s growing cancer is hanging over their relationship:

Jack:    You know, I don’t want to be somewhere else anymore; I’m not waiting for anything new to happen; not looking around the next corner – no next hill.  I’m here now; that’s enough.

Joy:      That’s your kind of happy, isn’t it?

Jack:    Yes, yes it is.

Joy:      It’s not going to last, Jack.

Jack:    We shouldn’t have to think about that now – let’s not spoil the time we have together.

Joy:      It doesn’t spoil it; it makes it real.  Let me just say it before this rain stops and we have to go back.

Jack:    What is there to say?

Joy:      That I’m going to die, and I want to be with you then, too.  The only way I can do that is if I’m able to talk to you about it now.

Jack:    I’ll manage somehow; don’t worry about me.

Joy:      No, it can be better than that; I think it can be better than just managing.  What I’m trying to say is that the pain then, is part of the happiness now.  That’s the deal.[1]

The Mark of God’s Love

As much as human beings are interconnected by our common experience of pain, our connection with God’s love is also marked.  I had emergency surgery for a ruptured spleen when I was 16.  I was not nearly as indestructible on the football field as I thought when my soft underbelly met the knee of another player.  

Two days following the surgery the ancient nurse came into my room and said, All right, young man, time to get up and do our walking!  I wanted to say to her, what do you mean ‘our’ walking – you got a squirrel in your pocket, lady?  I’m in pain here! 

My thinking was if we were going to do walking, I wanted her to share some of the pain.  In actuality she did.  That nurse was small but wise, and she had a look, a cold stare that could freeze hot tamales! She knew about pain; you could tell it in her eyes.  She’d borne children and known hardship and discipline.  She’d lived four times as long as me, and now she was sharing my pain.  We walked, and I eventually felt better, stronger.  She helped, because she understood.  And we are forever linked by the suffering we shared.

In our pain there is the evidence of our connection with God’s love.  God’s way is to bring His love to us.  C.S. Lewis also said that God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains; it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.[2]  What is it that He shouts to us?  It is His love.  It is John 3:16…He so-loved us, He sent His son to bear the pain we could not endure.

In Gethsemane Jesus faced the spiritual pain of all the sins of all people for all time.  On the cross Jesus cried out over both the physical abuse and the spiritual desolation, knowing the intensity of pain no one has ever known.  And His pain produced our salvation.  We are connected to God by salvation, and His death, like Joy Gresham Lewis’ is part of the happiness of our redemption day.  His pain is the evidence of God’s love. 

Dealing with Our Pain

Sometimes we can get our mind around the purpose for our pain as it connects us with the Son of God.  But even that doesn’t tell us what to do with that pain.  Three things stand out as primary:

#1.  Don’t run from it…embrace it. 

It is God’s reminder, His still, small voice of leading, loving you.  Remember you have not yet been hung on a cross, nails driven through your hands and feet, and a crown of thorns jammed-down on your head. 

Neither are you paying for the weight of the sins of the whole world.  Neither are you innocent of sin. 

He was all of that.  Your pain is teaching you Christlikeness.  Don’t run from it.

#2.  Don’t despise it. 

Pain is one of the few warning systems the body has to help it heal.  Dr. Paul Brand of Carville, Louisiana, one of the world's foremost experts on leprosy, describes how "leprosy patients lose their fingers and toes, not because the disease can cause decay, but precisely because they lack pain sensations.  Nothing warns them when water is too hot or a hammer handle is splintered.  Accidental self-abuse destroys their bodies."[3]

Far from destroying you, your pain can help you see more clearly than ever the miracle which is life – and the Author of that miracle!

#3.  Love in the presence of pain. 

C.S. Lewis had a horrible childhood, with experiences of death and a father who had no love for him.  He was wounded badly in World War I, seeing the cruelty and brutality of a horrific war firsthand. 

He rejected any idea of a loving God, and buried himself in books and scholarly pursuits of academia; he insulated himself from the possibilities of love and relationships.  He reasoned that a God who allowed that kind of pain cannot be welcomed into human life. 

In excluding the God he couldn’t see, he isolated himself from the humans around him he could have seen.

Until he met Joy…[final film clip]

Why love, if losing hurts so much?  I have no answers any more; only the life I live.  Twice in that life I have been given the choice, as a boy, and as a man.  The boy chose safety; the man chooses suffering. The pain now is part of the happiness; that is the deal.[4]

The ancient sufferer, Job, tells us pain is part of who we are as human beings, as assuredly as the sparks fly upward. 

But the pain now is part of the happiness God has waiting for us.  He said that was the deal!

…he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.”   Revelation 21:4 (NRSVA)

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[1] David Lipsky, "Nice and Naughty," Rolling Stone (12-9-99), p.50 © 2000 PreachingToday.com / Christianity

[2] Edythe Draper, Draper’s Book of Quotations for the Christian World, (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publisher’s, Inc., 1992).  Entries 8256-8257

[3] Philip Yancey in "Pain:  The Tool of the Wounded Surgeon," Christianity Today, March 24, 1978

[4] Shadowlands, Anthony Hopkins, Debra Winger  ©1993 Savoy Pictures, Inc.  @ 2:06:00 (Elapsed time 36 sec)