Love God | Understand Yourself | Serve Others

Genesis 25:29-34 (The Message)
One day Jacob was cooking a stew. Esau came in from the field, starved. Esau said to Jacob, “Give me some of that red stew– I’m starved!” That’s how he came to be called Edom (Red). Jacob said, “Make me a trade: my stew for your rights as the firstborn.” Esau said, “I’m starving! What good is a birthright if I’m dead?” Jacob said, “First, swear to me.” And he did it. On oath Esau traded away his rights as firstborn. Jacob gave him bread and the stew of lentils. He ate and drank, got up and left. That’s how Esau shrugged off his rights as the firstborn.

“I’m starving!” Esau said to Jacob, “What good is a birthright if I’m dead?” There’s certainly no doubt that Esau was extremely hungry. He had been working all day in the field– hard, draining labor. But was he actually dying from lack of nourishment? Highly unlikely. Esau’s hungry belly responded urgently to the smell of a hearty stew, and he lost all perspective. He wanted what he wanted, when he wanted it, how he wanted it. Now! He made the promise to Jacob, scarfed down the food and drink, then walked away. The food was gone, but the consequences of his decision would be with him forever. No bowl of soup, no matter how scrumptious, is worth giving away one’s inheritance.

Last Monday, my sister-in-law and I started a diet. We’re both bridesmaids in a cousin’s wedding, so we agreed to be accountability partners, checking in by text message and skype. I’m amazingly weak when it comes to good food. And by “good” food, I actually mean bad. Yummy cheese, salty chips, fizzling soda. In addition, I loathe going to the gym. It takes a ridiculous amount of mental effort for me to choose to eat a salad, or to spend time on the treadmill. But if I’m going to fit into the fancy little dress hanging in my closet, I have to focus on the long-range goal. Focusing on the right things in life takes discipline.

Discipline? Oh, how we don’t like that word! It sounds uncomfortable and tedious and inconvenient. And, frankly, it often is. But it is also necessary. Without discipline, there would be no school graduations, no job offers, no promotions, no successful marriages, no healthy bodies. Without discipline, we can be tempted to give away our eternal inheritance for a quick pleasure.

John Wesley, the man who founded the Methodist movement, spoke and wrote often about the “spiritual disciplines” of praying, reading and studying scripture, participating in Communion, and joining in Christian community. He believed that these activities were gifts from God to help deepen our relationship with our Creator. Just as our bodies and minds need training, so does our spirit. The apostle Paul spoke about this in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27: “You’ve all been to the stadium and seen the athletes race. Everyone runs; one wins. Run to win. All good athletes train hard. They do it for a gold medal that tarnishes and fades. You’re after one that’s gold eternally. I don’t know about you, but I’m running hard for the finish line. I’m giving it everything I’ve got. No sloppy living for me! I’m staying alert and in top condition. I’m not going to get caught napping, telling everyone else all about it and then missing out myself.”

Question…
What is it that distracts you from God’s promises? How are you doing right now in training your body, mind, and spirit for the race of life? What do you think needs to change for you?

Genesis 12:1-4a (New Revised Standard Version)
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 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 the one who curses 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…

On a usual weekend at my former church in Florida well over a thousand people attend one of the five worship services. But this weekend, all those services were cancelled. No Saturday service last night. No chapel service, no service in the Gym, none in the Sanctuary this Sunday morning.

That’s right. Church was cancelled.

What would make a church do such a crazy thing? It’s their annual SERVE.EVERYBODY. weekend. Instead of going to their regular worship services, people spread out across the community to actively demonstrate God’s love in practical ways. They reached out to the homeless in the city, offering hospitality, food, and haircuts. They gave a deep cleaning to a daycare center, created a butterfly garden at a local school, played bingo with nursing home residents. They pampered stressed out parents at a crisis housing center, wrote letters to soldiers overseas, painted parking lines at a thrift store, stocked shelves at a food pantry. All this– and more– in an effort to show people that God cares for them.

Christians across the world engage each day in serving people in need. It’s part of what Jesus commanded us to do when he said, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” A serving attitude is one of the most attractive features of a worshipping community. When my husband and I walked into a church in our new town, we saw a large toilet sitting in the lobby. No sign, no explanation. Our curiosity was piqued! We soon learned that the church is working with a village in Guatemala to install a sewage system for the community. We knew then that we were in the right place. This was a church that got it.

Our scripture reading today reminds us that when God chose Abram and his family to be the “Chosen People,” he was claiming them as his own, as his beloved children. Then God told Abram that God had chosen to bless them so that they could be a blessing to the world. The blessing was not for them to keep for themselves, but for them to share with everyone they met. The truly amazing thing is that God can– and does– use the people of the Christian community today to make real, lasting change around the world. And that was the plan all along!

Question…
What action can you take this week to show someone God’s love in a way they can understand?

Genesis 11:1-5 (Common English Bible)
All people on the earth had one language and the same words. When they traveled east, they found a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there. They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them hard.” They used bricks for stones and asphalt for mortar. They said, “Come, let’s build for ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the sky, and let’s make a name for ourselves so that we won’t be dispersed over all the earth.” Then the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the humans built.

For the second time in my life, I’m living on the 16th floor of a building. When we first lived in Pompano Beach, we were in apartment 1611, and now that we’ve moved to the DC area, we’re in 1612. In Pompano we looked over the Atlantic Ocean,  while here we have a view of similarly tall brick buildings heading off into the hills of Virginia. It’s a funny thing, being this high up. People look so tiny on the streets below, and even SUVs and buses look like children’s toys. It’s amazing to me that human beings have created buildings that can house so many people in a single square mile. I was curious earlier, and looked up the building with the most floors. There is a skyscraper in Dubai with 163 floors! I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t like to live at that altitude, looking down from such a height to the earth below. But, truly, human ingenuity is an awesome thing.

In our reading today, it’s no wonder that the builders were excited about what they were doing. They were able to take clay and stone and tar– simple materials– to shape and construct a city. A fabulous accomplishment! But these ancient engineers quickly succumbed to a very present-day temptation: pride. They were caught up in the glories of their own achievements, forgetting that their abilities and skills were gift from God. And that’s where the trouble begins. They could have been thankful for the dexterity of their minds in imagining these structures, and for the availability of supplies needed to fulfill their creative ideas. But, instead, their words and actions show that they had an amazingly inflated opinion of their own superiority and capacity.

Centuries and centuries later, the wise King Solomon would proclaim: “Pride ends in humiliation, while humility brings honor” (Proverbs 29:23). And that is certainly true here, as God thwarts their plans, throwing them into confusion, and scattering the people.

What if the people had rejoiced in their skills and given thanks to God instead of trying to “make a name” for themselves? What if they had used their creative energy and abilities to make their world a better place? I can’t help but think how different this story could have been.

Question…
What are some of the abilities and skills that you possess? How can you use those gifts from God in ways that honor the Giver?

Psalm 12:5-8 (The Message)
Into the hovels of the poor, into the dark streets where the homeless groan, God speaks: “I’ve had enough; I’m on my way to heal the ache in the heart of the wretched.” God’s words are pure words, pure silver words refined seven times in the fires of his word-kiln, pure on earth as well as in heaven. God, keep us safe from their lies, from the wicked who stalk us with lies, from the wicked who collect honors for their wonderful lies.

There is a story in Genesis where we’re told that God “saw the wickedness of humankind was great in the earth” (Genesis 6:5a) and decided to send a world-covering flood to “restart” creation. But, before the flood arrived, God told Noah– “a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time”— that it was about to happen. God gave Noah and his family instructions on how to build a big floating vessel to ride out the flood with a collection of every kind of creature on earth.

But… we’re not going to talk about Noah today…

Instead, we’re going to look at the people God saw acting in wicked ways. God say that “every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5b). Wow… that wasn’t a particularly healthy or happy way to live!

And, unfortunately, we know that evil inclinations didn’t cease after the flood. It seems that this is a basic part of the human condition, one with which we struggle in every age. So, how can we keep the inclination of our hearts from leaning in the direction of destructive and unhealthy ways?

In the posting “Good Advice Ignored,” we considered how our thoughts influence our actions: Cain’s refusal to examine and change his attitude led to a painful, irrevocable act. Today’s reading from Psalm 12 shows how important our words are, as well. It gives us an incredible comparison between God’s words and the words of the world:

God’s words: healing, pure, refined, flawless.
The world’s words: damaging, wicked, boastful.
God’s words: protective and safe.
The world’s words: oppressive and deceptive.

Words are powerful! In Matthew 15:11, Jesus was talking about this fact when he said to a group of followers, “It’s not what goes into the mouth that contaminates a person in God’s sight. It’s what comes out of the mouth that contaminates the person.”

In other words… words matter.

Question…
What does the way that you speak say about what you believe?

Genesis 5:25-27 (New International Version)
When Methuselah had lived 187 years, he became the father of Lamech. And after he became the father of Lamech, Methuselah lived 782 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Methuselah lived 969, and then he died. 

“He’s older than Methuselah!” I remember hearing that phrase as a kid, and not having a clue what it meant. Then I read our passage for today from Genesis. Nine hundred sixty-nine years! It’s a lifespan that is almost inconceivable to us.

Here’s an interesting little tidbit about Methuselah. He was 187 when his son Lamech was born, and Lamech was 182 when Noah was born. Genesis 7:6 tells us that Noah was an even 600 years old when God sent a flood to cover the earth. Quick math: 187+182+600=969. That means Methuselah died the same year as the Flood. I have to admit that I hope Methuselah died before the Flood happened, so he didn’t have to spend his last few days cooped up in the ark with all those stinky animals!

But other than his amazing longevity, we don’t really know anything about Methuselah. We’re told that he had kids, and then he died. That’s it. I’m sure that there were lots of things that he did during his almost millennium-length life, but there was nothing that this biblical author felt was worth writing down.

Contrast that with Jesus, who lived a relatively very short 33 years. In that time (just 3% of Methusaleh’s lifespan), Jesus changed the direction of human history! He showed the world God’s power and grace through his actions. He demonstrated forgiveness and healing with his passionate and compassionate words. He sacrificed himself for the redemption of a sin-scarred world, and gave us hope of new life through his resurrection.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve sometimes lamented how quickly time seems to go. The hours rush by, the days pass so quickly, weeks are a blur, and before I know it a year has passed by! But here’s the truth: we have exactly the time we need to accomplish what God has planned for us. Jeremiah 29:11 is my favorite verse: “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'” Sometimes we get so caught up in the busy-ness of our day that we forget to live the joy-filled life God has prepared for us. May that not be true of us this day!

Question…
What are your hopes and dreams for your life? What might God be calling you to do with your time on earth? How can you use your gifts, talents, and resources in a positive way?

Genesis 4:2b-7 (New Living Translation)
When they grew up, Abel became a shepherd, while Cain cultivated the ground. When it was time for the harvest, Cain presented some of his crops as a gift to the Lord. Abel also brought a gift– the best of the firstborn lambs from his flock. The Lord accepted Abel and his gift, but he did not accept Cain and his gift. This made Cain very angry, and he looked dejected. “Why are you so angry?” the Lord asked Cain. “Why do you look so dejected? You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master.”

It’s difficult being a parent. You constantly have to be looking for the best way to guide your child to a healthy life. Your guidance sometimes sounds like irrational strictness or unfair boundaries to a child who wants to explore and experience. Often the well-meaning advice is ignored entirely. And if that is true of human parents, it is infinitely more true of God.

We’re told in today’s reading that Cain brought “some of his crops” as a gift to God, while Abel brought the best of his newborn flock. So, was it the quality of the boys’ gifts that made the difference? Does God need our earthly goods? No. It’s all God’s– we’re just the caretakers for a while.

So what made the difference? Attitude.

Abel gave from the best he had, and it was accepted because his gift showed trust and gratitude. Cain’s gift was refused because it reflected joyless obligation– it reads as if he just picked up what happened to be lying around.

Why would God care so much about attitude? Because thoughts lead to action. In the amazing interaction above, God speaks directly to Cain, offering him advice: “Watch out! Sin is crouching at the door!” A disgruntled, dissatisfied, resentful attitude yields more of the same. And that mindset opens us up to tempting thoughts of revenge, of retribution, or reprisal. That is what God is so compassionately trying to warn Cain of here: “Get your head on straight, son! Down this path you’ll find nothing good.”

But Cain doesn’t listen to this loving advice. Next thing we read, Cain lures his brother out into a field. And kills him.

Sin was crouching outside the door… and Cain invited it in.

Question…
Are you giving the best of yourself to God? What are some of the negative attitudes that you are holding onto right now? How could those attitudes lead to actions that could damage you or others? How can God help you in healing those attitudes?

Genesis 2:15-17 (Today’s New International Version)
The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the Lord God commanded the man. “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will certainly die.”

Camping one summer in the Adirondack Park in upstate New York, we had absolutely perfect weather. Warm during the day, but not too warm. Cool at night, not cold. No rain. Blue skies with high, puffy clouds in the distance. A nice breeze coming off the lake. Just lovely. Perfect.

Except for the black flies. Nasty flying bugs that seemed to take out small chunks of flesh with their bites. I laughed when one morning around the campfire my mother-in-law sighed deeply and said, “God put black flies here so that we wouldn’t confuse the Adirondack Park with Eden.”

Each of us probably has a picture of an Eden-like place we’ve been to– a place of beauty where we felt at peace. For some it would be the beach, for others a mountain cabin, for someone else a quiet forest. Whatever your “Eden” looks like in your imagination, the actual Eden would have surpassed it in beauty and perfection.

So, why, in the midst of Eden, would God have placed this “tree of the knowledge of good and evil,” and then order Adam not to eat from it? Why would God do such a strange thing? It certainly seems at first glimpse as if God is setting Adam up for failure: “Here’s something great and yummy. Now… don’t touch it!”

One of my seminary professors used to say, “Unless you have the option of saying no, your yes is meaningless.” If we can only say yes to God’s plan– if that is our only option– then what meaning does that “yes” really have? God could have created us with only the ability to do what God has told us to do, only able to say yes to God’s plan. But, instead, God took the amazing risk of giving us free will. We get to choose! The tree in the garden is not really about temptation. It is about the choice of saying “yes” or “no” to God’s command.

Scripture talks about “fruits of the Spirit,” characteristics that grow in us when we’re faithfully following the healthy path God has for us: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23). But God doesn’t force us to act, speak, or think this way. We can instead choose hate, dissatisfaction, impatience, cruelty, meanness, disloyalty, intolerance, and damaging behavior. That’s not a list that most of us would want to lay claim to. But the point is that we have a choice– every day, in every interaction– about how we are going to let God work in and through our lives.

Question…
In this past week, how well did your actions and words illustrate those “fruits of the Spirit”? Which “fruit” was the biggest struggle for you? What challenges in your life kept you from living that way?

John 1:1-3 (New International Version)
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

The gospels of Matthew and Luke start with the birth of Jesus, and Mark opens with the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. But John? John’s first verses talk about the beginning of the beginning! It is such a beautiful, poetic way to begin this powerful story: En arche en o logos… “In the beginning was the Word.” The Greek word arche means absolute beginning. Not just the beginning of the story, but the beginning of everything!

What does it mean to believe in a God who was in existence before existence even started? To trust in a God who initiated it all?

I remember many nights as a child lying down in my backyard, looking up at the stars far above me. I could almost feel the universe spinning before my eyes, and the gravity of the earth holding me fast. One particular night, I remember trying to understand what it meant for the universe to be infinite. I pictured myself racing past the planets and stars, out and out and out farther. Never stopping, never slowing down. What would forever be like? How could I picture infinity?

I couldn’t picture it. No matter how hard I tried.

Psalm 106:1 tells us: “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever.” It is hard– maybe even entirely impossible for us– to fully understand what God’s “faithful love” is like. Imagine the deepest, most profound love you’ve ever experienced. Then multiply that by infinity. That’s how much God loves you. (Kind of hard to get your head around, isn’t it?) The amazing truth is that God knows everything about us, and loves us anyway. God knows our mistakes, our annoying habits, our hang-ups, our complete and utter screw-ups… and yet God still loves us with a love that has no beginning and has no end. Forever.

In church services, we’ll sometimes say together an “affirmation of faith” based on Romans 8: “I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow– not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below– indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Whenever life feels overwhelming or when you feel alone or powerless or unloved or in doubt: hold tight to the knowledge that the Creator of this infinitely huge universe has an unstoppable and never-ending love for you. A love that will never change or falter. Forever!

Question…
What does it mean that God’s love for you has no beginning and no end? How can living in that knowledge change your life today?