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Feb 6, 2000 This message delivered by Pastor Gene Preston on Sunday, February 6, was Chinese New Year Sunday. Kung Hai Fat Choi!
Psalm 147:l-ll
As I was living in Hong Kong I missed the tremendous hoopla surrounding the Women's World Cup Soccer matches in my home country, the U.S. I am indebted to the Professor John E. Stanley of Messiah College in Pennsylvania for giving me this illustration and its' context.
Following the l999 Women's World Cup Soccer Championship, a sports shoe manufacturer ran a popular spot add on TV which featured Michael Jordan challenging Mia Hamm, the star of the US Women's Soccer Team, in a game of "Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better."
Big Michael and smaller but equally athletic and competitive Mia reflect the popular notion that life, and success in life, consist of running very hard in a competitive race. Victory goes to those who finish first because they try hardest, run fastest, and play best of all the game of ANYTHING YOU CAN DO, I CAN DO BETTER. Life is competition and it helps to wear the right brand of athletic shoes!
The metaphor of the spiritual life as a race is found in the scriptures, as in the Apostle Paul's comparison of his faithful following of Jesus like running an Olympic race. Paul, however, celebrates the metaphor of a race to emphasize spiritual training and endurance rather than winning any earthly prize.
There are even more references in the scriptures which describe the life of faith, not as a competitive race, but as a walk. And you may find these references if you look up the full text of today's message on our web site: cchk.net. (Gen l7:l, Psalm 84:ll, Micah 6:8, Romans 8:l, Galatians 5:25).
In the race for Christian success the modern church can get sucked into converting what could be worthy goals such as growing attendance, ever increasing budget, and the building of fancier premises, into idols. This happens when we participate in the game of ANYTHING THAT CHURCH CAN DO OUR CHURCH CAN DO BETTER.
My theme today is that an essential part of the spiritual life consists, not of running, but just hanging in there with God and plodding along. Sarah and Abraham are the earliest examples from the Bible of how God prefers the slow plodders. They had to wait a very long time before anything happened.
Psalm l47 reminds us that God does not hold in high regard those who run fastest in his name. Let us hear this text:
PRAISE THE LORD! HOW GOOD IT IS TO SING PRAISES TO OUR GOD; FOR HE IS GRACIOUS, AND A SONG OF PRAISE IS FITTING. THE LORD BUILDS UP JERUSALEM HE GATHERS THE OUTCASTS OF ISRAEL. HE HEALS THE BROKEN HEARTED, AND BINDS UP THEIR WOUNDS. HE DETERMINES THE NUMBER OF THE STARS; HE GIVES TO ALL OF THEM THEIR NAMES. GREAT IS OUR LORD, AND ABUNDANT IN POWER; HIS UNDERSTANDING IS BEYOND MEASURE. THE LORD LIFTS UP THE DOWNTRODDEN; HE CASTS THE WICKED TO THE GROUND.
SING TO THE LORD WITH THANKSGIVING; AND MAKE MELODY TO OUR GOD ON THE LYRE. HE COVERS THE HEAVENS WITH CLOUDS, PREPARES RAIN FOR THE EARTH, MAKES GRASS GROW ON THE HILLS. HE GIVES TO THE ANIMALS THEIR FOOD, AND TO THE YOUNG RAVENS WHEN THEY CRY. HIS DELIGHT IS NOT IN THE STRENGTH OF THE HORSE, NOR HIS PLEASURE IN THE SPEED OF A RUNNER; BUT THE LORD TAKES PLEASURE IN THOSE WHO FEAR HIM, IN THOSE WHO HOPE IN HIS STEADFAST LOVE.
This psalm emphasizes that God's blessing goes not to those who are successful in worldly terms but those who are faithful to God, giving him total reverence and trusting in His steadfast love.
HIS DELIGHT IS NOT IN THE STRENGTH OF THE HORSE, NOR HIS PLEASURE IN THE SPEED OF A RUNNER; BUT THE LORD TAKES PLEASURE IN THOSE WHO FEAR HIM, IN THOSE WHO HOPE IN HIS STEADFAST LOVE.
Success can be transient - Mia Hamm is not so much a household name as a year ago and even Michael Jordan will eventually pass into obscurity even though he has just bought a nearly defunct basketball team to manage it and keep his endorsement prowess strong.
My wife and I were married many years ago in what then was one of the largest and most prestigious of central Los Angeles churches, the Wilshire Methodist Church. It was yesterday's mega-church but today it does well to draw l50 worshipers into its sanctuary which can seat seven times that many. If the only reason a church exists is to run a worldly race for bigger as better, take care because success with churches can be fleeting; steadfastness in serving God is long lasting.
There are many small churches which hardly see a baptism per year and yet they serve the Lord faithfully in worship and outreach. There have been countless missionaries who have labored a lifetime without much harvest. The novelist Pearl Buck tells us that her missionary father worked forty years in China without, as best she knew, ever having converted a single soul.
In India the murderer of Rev. Stains and his two sons has just been apprehended and the leader of the mob which murdered the three, Kara Singh, seeks to justify their act by accusing the Stains family of converting Hindus. In truth, the twenty some years the Stains have labored in India has produced relatively few concerts, and those among the lepers and untouchables who are largely excluded from Hindu concern.
Like most missionaries there, the Stains have given countless acts of love and compassion to those with whom they live. The most commendable witness of missionaries has not been their success in numbers, but their faithfulness when success in the numbers race did not come.
William Carey was the father of modern missions. He was a shoemaker by trade who became a linguist and scholar and first opened the door for foreign missions in Asia and Africa. Carey lived by this motto: "Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God." In old age, he made this clear about his life's work: "if, after my removal, anyone should think it worth his while to write my life, I will give you a criterion by which you may judge of its correctness. If he gives me credit for being a plodder, he will describe me justly. Anything beyond this will be too much. I can plod...to this I owe everything."
HIS DELIGHT IS NOT IN THE STRENGTH OF THE HORSE, NOR HIS PLEASURE IN THE SPEED OF A RUNNER, BUT THE LORD TAKES PLEASURE IN THOSE WHO FEAR HIM, IN THOSE WHO HOPE IN HIS STEADFAST LOVE.
The world crowns quick success; God crowns long term faithfulness. God does not demand you win anything; he asks you to serve him patiently and sincerely. Again I an indebted to Professor Stanley for reminding us that "the fear of the Lord is a theme familiar to the Proverbs of the Old Testament. THE FEAR OF THE LORD IS THE BEGINNING OF KNOWLEDGE (Prov l:7, 2:5-7, 9:l0, l5:33 and also see Job 28:28 AND Psalm 22:20.)"
The fear of the Lord refers to a respect for God and an awareness of God's transcendent majesty which are lifted up in Psalm 147 with its vision of the stars, the animals, the universal goodness of creation and all coming from God.
Fear of the Lord also creates a sense of revulsion against moral evil and all forms of compromise and subservience which would reduce the holiness of God. It is often the case that the finest service a Christian can give to God is not to compete but to decline to compete with popular opinion and prejudice.
A once famous American baseball player Harold "Pee Wee" Reese died in August of last year. Pee Wee was a talented and very small short stop who played on seven pennant-winning teams. But athletes do have a short shelf life, as do successful churches. And while few now remember him for his athletic record, Pee Wee Reese is remembered because of a single feat he did in l947 when he was Captain of the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Jackie Robinson had just been signed as the first black player in American major league ball. His recruitment was met with universal condemnation by the fans and the sports writers. The announcement of Robinson's name at the stadium the first day he appeared brought a howl of anguished boos from 50,000 fans.
At that moment Reese plodded slowly over to second base - I wonder if he moved slowly for the effect that l00,000 eyes came to focus on him - slowly he walked where Robinson was beginning his professional career and gave his team-mate a fraternal hug. That gesture of inclusion signalled his teammates, the National League and the fans that Pee Wee Reese valued and respected Jackie Robinson as a team-mate. I would suggest that gesture depicts what it means in human relationships to fear the Lord and hope in God's steadfast love regardless of what worldly popularity might suggest as the successful course to run.
Faithfulness to God arises from an experience which is the opposite of worldly competition. For the latter is based on the need to achieve. We compete to prove ourselves. While faith starts in knowing that we are born receivers, not givers. Our fundamental relationship to God is not as givers to God, but as receivers from God. That is the outlook of today's psalm. That is our experience as we come to communion.
The very best thing about Gene Preston is what I have received. I can love because "Christ first loved me." The common spiritual wisdom is that "the joy is in the giving." To reverse the attitude to "the joy is in the receiving" grates on our spiritual nerves.
But the most elemental biblical attitude, expressed in this psalm 147, is that God is the owner and the giver. When King David dedicated to God everything and everyone who was a part of building the first temple in Jerusalem, he offered this prayer;
YOURS, LORD, IS THE GREATNESS AND THE POWER, THE GLORY, THE SPLENDOUR, AND THE MAJESTY; FOR EVERYTHING IN HEAVEN AND ON EARTH IS YOURS;…EVERYTHING COMES FROM YOU, AND IT I ONLY OF YOUR GIFTS THAT WE GIVE TO YOU. (l Chronicles 29:ll, l4).
God owns everything. We receive from God. That is why Christians can be content with moving ploddingly rather than compulsively in the express lane.
I read of an unusual request a pastor received from a member of his church. This member was a 90 year old woman who had spent her entire life in that small congregation where the pastor had arrived only a few months earlier. When she knew her death was near she discussed with her pastor some details of her funeral and asked him to make certain that when she was buried it would be with a fork in her hand. !
Odd though the request was, the pastor honored it and at the funeral home put a fork into the clasped hand of the deceased.
At the funeral another old time member of the congregation commended the pastor on this gesture. He said: "I did it because Emily asked me to do it. But Why?"
"Ahh, pastor, Emily was the most faithful worker at our church. For sixty years she served at church suppers and cleaned up afterwards. Emily loved the food and the fellowship. Her favorite time of the evening was when she was gathering the used dinner plates and she would always tell us: 'Keep your forks, dears.' That told us that Emily knew a delicious dessert was coming our way; keep your forks because the best is yet to come." Emily wasn't being eccentric; she was just being consistent at her end: "with God the best is yet to come."
One wonderful prospect before plodders, unlike those who put all their hope in winning the race now, is that the best is yet to come.
Community Church is a small congregation with both some modest and some ambitious expectations. God may or may not give us what the world calls success. But success cannot be godly if its' measure is ANYTHING THAT CHURCH CAN DO WE CAN DO BETTER.
Our vision is to become a faithful congregation of the many as one in Christ, a community of acceptance which honors the story of each person, a spiritual journey which empowers us to be mature rather than childish in our beliefs and relationships, a fellowship which lives love in relationship to one another and to the needs of the world.
If we continue committed to that vision, we partake in the steadfast love of the Lord. And similarly when we come to communion we participate in the steadfast love of the Lord. We don't have to prove anything. We just have to know we are receivers. And the best is yet to come. If you are inclined to race anywhere, just come quickly to the Lord's table to receive.
"Day by day perform your mission, With Christ's help keep at your tasks; Be encouraged by His presence---Faithfulness is all He asks." (Bosch)
Pastor Gene Preston
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The Rev. Gene R.Preston14th Floor, Blk 36, Lower Baguio Villa Tel : 25516161 Fax: 25512114E-mail : gpreston@netvigator.com |
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