Compassion

What makes someone “cool?” The appearance of a “cool” person changes from generation to generation. A cool person in the 1950s (leather jacket and t-shirt) looks different than the cool person from the 60s (long hair and love beads), or the 70s (disco suit, huge collar and platform shoes) or the 80s (parachute pants and swatch watch). To show you how out of it I am, I don’t even know what cool is today. You’ve got your geeks and nerds and hipsters, but honestly, I’m not sure what it looks like anymore.

            But what cool acts like is more constant. The cool person seems to be in control of their emotions. Being cool means you never really show what’s going on deep down inside, whether you’re hurt or lonely or excited.  In more extreme cases, you could say that the urge to be cool is a conscious move away from innocence—it’s a way of being in the world that basically says, “Life stinks. People hurt you and disappoint you. I’ll never let myself be treated that way again, so I’m putting up this wall. I’m putting on this mask so you’ll never see how vulnerable I am.”

            By that definition, Jesus would definitely have to be considered uncool. Here was God in the flesh walking around in the world, but he wasn’t above it all. He refused to be cynical about people. He wore his emotions on his sleeve. He wasn’t afraid to feel deeply for people, or to get upset about their problems. Jesus was all about attachment, not detachment. And that is very, very good news.

            So we see the uncool Jesus in the Gospel of Luke, coming across a funeral procession. Through the city gates of Nain comes a broken-hearted mother mourning the death of her only son. Jesus sees this situation and is moved with compassion. Now it’s extremely important that we understand what is meant by compassion here. It’s more than just feeling sorry for someone. In the original Greek, the word is “splangchthna.” Great word. “Splangchthna.” Sounds, messy, doesn’t it? Almost like ‘Splat.” Which is appropriate, because “Splangchthna” means “gut-wrenching.” It means you feel so bad for someone else’s pain that your insides feel all twisted up. That’s how Jesus felt as he watched this funeral procession. He hates the effects of sin he sees. He hates the fact that death robbed a young man of life. He hates the fact that a widow has been robbed of last remaining family member and source of support. Grief and sadness has rippled out into the whole village. Jesus cannot stand coolly by, detached, hiding his feelings behind dark shades. His splangchthna causes him to act immediately. His compassion causes him to do something very uncool. He stops the funeral, touches the coffin, and talk to the dead man. Awkward, right? Except, when Jesus talks, He speaks words of life. He commands the young man to live again, and a dead heart starts beating again. Dead lungs fill with oxygen. A dead brain starts firing signals. Dead eyes start gathering images, and a dead mouth begins to speak.  Life returns by the word of Jesus. The young man is alive again. So, in a sense, is his mother. The town’s grief is turned to amazement. That’s what happens when the Life-giver shows up—the Life-giver who goes around getting his guts wrenched by the pain and suffering that he sees. Splangchthna. Maybe you’ve felt it too.

This was not an isolated event in Jesus’ life. The gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John record at least eight other instances when Jesus’ Splangchthna resulted in immediate action. His compassion resulted in loving service to lepers, blind men, the demon-possessed, and the hungry, not to mention the dead and grieving! In many of these acts, Jesus exposed himself to ritual impurity, like here in Luke, touching the open air coffin of the young man exposed Jesus to a day’s uncleanness, according to Jewish law and custom. Touching the corpse meant a week’s worth of uncleanness, the most severe form of ritual impurity. In a religious sense, what Jesus was willing to do was not cool, and it opened him up to all kinds of criticism! The religious establishment could only see a radical miracle worker with a blatant disregard for the rules, and therefore, this Jesus is a problem. His followers saw, and we can see it too, through the eyes of faith, the power of Splangthna. In Jesus, we see compassionate love so strong that he was willing to be covered with filth to bring his holiness to the situation. That’s how he operates. That’s how he saves you and me.

Jesus hated the effects of sin he saw in the world. He hated the fact that death robbed young men and women and children of life. He hated the fact that sickness and disease robbed husbands and wives of long life together. He hated the fact that grief and sadness and despair has rippled out across the world. Jesus did stand coolly by, detached, hiding his feelings behind dark shades. His splangchthna caused him to act. His compassion caused him to do something very uncool. It caused Him to sweat drops of blood, to cry and pray in the Garden of Gethsemane. It caused Him to be slapped around by guards and treated like a circus sideshow by rulers. It caused him to be punished like a criminal, his body and his heart broken, insulted even while hanging on the cross. His holiness was swamped by our filth. It drowned Him. Splangcthna. He let it happen. You know why, don’t you? Because Jesus knew it was either Him or you.

Once upon a time a bee stung a woman on the cheek. Then it chased her daughter around the room. The little girl was terrorized, until her mother said, “It’s OK, sweetie, the bee left its stinger in me. It can’t hurt you now.” The gigantic stinger of eternal death was plunged into Jesus on the cross, and he let it happen, because he knew it was either Him or you. Splangthna. Compassion. “Death has lost its sting.”

Can you handle the fact that Jesus loves you that much? Our God aches for you to know the real freedom he can give; He passionately desires for you to grow in faith and wisdom. His gut-wrenching compassion rescued you for eternity.

How will you release that compassion in your life?

If You Build It...

In the movie Field of Dreams, an Iowa farmer builds a temple of sorts. He becomes convinced of the need to replace a cornfield with a unique temple, a baseball diamond. He is driven by the motto: “If you build it, they will come.” And in the movie, they do come—“they” being ballplayers from times past—the Shoeless Joes who emerge from the surrounding corn fields to finish baseball business. At the movie’s end, “they” also includes a long line of cars making their way along Iowa’s back roads to watch the baseball action.

“If you build it, they will come” is also the operative conviction in today’s Old Testament reading, although it speaks of a far greater temple—the temple built by King Solomon as the dwelling place of the Almighty God. Solomon’s temple was no mere ballpark in a cornfield, but there are some parallels between the fictional baseball diamond and the factual house of God.

For instance, in Field of Dreams, there’s a lot of skepticism about whether the ballplayers of the past would really come to play ball. The magic of the story is that they did. A similar--though much greater--question surfaces in the case of Solomon’s temple. Now that we have built it, “will God really dwell on earth?” His answer is a resounding “yes”—He promised, “My name shall be there,” and where God’s name is, God is. Now, you could sit there today thinking, “Well, God’s name is here, too, so does that mean God is here, now?” The answer is a resounding “yes.” Hopefully we meant it when we sang “God Himself is Present,” because He is! It tells you a lot about our natural condition when people go to church, but don’t really expect God to show up. By His own promise, He comes to you in the Bible and at His Table. He descends to us here in this place. Why else would you come here, if not for that?

Do you realize, you are like the people who drove out to the cornfield baseball diamond to watch the game in Field of Dreams? “If you build it, they will come.” Really? Today as we meet for worship in this hour, think about this: you are the fulfillment of Solomon’s words. What an Old Testament King said in a prayer thousands and thousands of years ago is coming true because of you! Because of us! Because of a God who loves to gather us by His Word! Do you hear what Solomon is saying? You are the foreigner he was talking about in verse 41, the non-Israelite. You have heard of the great name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. You have heard and experienced his mighty hand and outstretched arm. You have heard his good news and sensed his activity in the world. What you have heard and believed has brought you here into God’s house. And I don’t mean to shock you, but God has shown up today. His voice calls to you from His Word. He is under bread and wine, waiting to commune with you. The Lord of the highest heavens cannot be contained in structures built by human hands, and yet in love for you and me; out of deep concern for your well being, God descends to you here, not to punish you; not to demand your loyalty; not to force you to grovel at his feet; but to serve you; to serve you. That’s why we call this the Divine Service. God is serving us.

Now, we sang this hymn before, which you may or may not know very well: “God Himself Is Present.” Look at what this hymn is saying. If you want to look at the words in the bulletin or in the hymnal, I encourage you to do that. “God Himself is present: Let us now adore Him/And with awe appear before Him. God is in His temple—All within keep silence, Prostrate lie with deepest reverence.”

Are you tracking with the words of this hymn? Does this describe your experience in worship? “God is in His temple—All within keep silence, Prostrate lie with deepest reverence.” Do you know what that means? It means to shut your mouth and lie down on the ground before the awesome power of the Lord God Almighty. The closest we get to that around here is when we are invited to kneel during the confession of sins—and that’s appropriate. That’s the right idea. That posture is close to lying down on the ground in deep reverence, but of course it’s not about the posture of your body. It’s about the posture of your heart. It’s about the posture of your heart when you enter this building and take your seat in the pew. Do you see how appropriate is it to shut your mouth and lie down before God? Do you think He’s OK with all the things you’ve thought since the last time you were here? Do you think He’s OK with all the things you’ve said and done and refused to do—all the things you’ve looked at and wanted and rejected? Do you think he’s OK with being denied and ignored and used? For who we are and what we have done, God would be justified in saying, “Get out of my face.”

He is holy; totally unlike us. And totally unlike us, He is merciful. You have heard of the great name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. You have heard and experienced his mighty hand and outstretched arm. You have heard his good news and sensed his activity in the world. What you have heard and believed has brought you here into God’s house. When you come admitting who you are and what you have done; when your heart takes a posture of vulnerability and openness to God, then you are ready to hear this: The Lord God Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, finds you not guilty. You have a spotless record before the Lord. You will do no time for your offenses. Do you know why? It’s not because you didn’t really do those things. It’s because the Son of God, Jesus, stepped in and took your sentence. Voluntarily. He was not led to a chamber for lethal injection or strapped into an electric chair. No, his back felt the Roman whip. He was nailed to a wooden cross. A spear was thrust into his side, probably piercing his heart. His Father turned away, and his heart was definitely broken. Jesus endured that, when it should’ve been me. Should’ve been you. It’s Jesus instead. Mercy.

“God Himself is present: let us now adore Him and with awe appear before Him.” Do you see why we should adore him? Do you see why awe is the right reaction? Once more, God has descended to you here, not to punish you; not to demand your loyalty; not to force you to grovel at his feet; but to forgive you. To put you in your right mind. To cause a rebirth of faith in your heart. In answer to Solomon’s ancient prayer, The Lord has come to you, and you have come to Him.

A Master Workman

In the books of Proverbs, we get a picture of Jesus as a craftsman. Now it’s true, at one time in his life, he was a carpenter. But in these verses, we see him doing more advanced work.

You might not expect to find Jesus in the book of Proverbs. Most of the time we meet him in the Gospels. But here he is, “hiding out” in the Old Testament. The chapter begins by talking about wisdom. Wisdom is personified. Wisdom speaks as though it’s a person. For example, in verse 12, Wisdom says, “I, wisdom, dwell together with prudence, I possess knowledge and discretion.” But then, in verse 22, as wisdom talks, it starts to sound like Jesus. And by the time the chapter is over, you know for sure that this is Jesus that is talking. And that’s not a coincidence. The Bible tells us that wisdom isn’t just a concept – it’s a person – Christ is wisdom, and wisdom is Christ.

When we picture Jesus Christ, we almost always picture him as the Son of God who started his work after his Christmas birth. But according to the Bible, Jesus was working long before the first Christmas. Look at verse 22: “I was appointed from eternity, from the beginning, before the world began.” Jesus existed before the world began. Verse 23: “When there were no oceans, I was given birth.” Or verse 24: “Before the mountains were settled in place, before the hills, I was given birth.”

We confess that truth in our Nicene Creed, when we say that we believe in Jesus Christ, who was “begotten of his Father before all worlds.” God the Father and God the Son existed together before they made the world. They were closely united together, before the world was made. Now on one hand we acknowledge the deep mystery here, but on the other hand, do you see how God is described? Before creation, God existed in a relationship. That’s not too terribly hard to understand. We get relationships. Well, the God of the Bible tells us He has always lived in a relationship from Father to Son with the Spirit. It is that relationship idea that keeps a discussion about the Trinity from being just an exercise in wordplay. It is that relationship that helps us understand  who He is.

For instance, many people picture Jesus as the Savior of all mankind, and that’s it. But the Bible tells us here in Proverbs and in other places (like the first chapter of John) that He was also involved in the creation of the world. Verse 27: “I was there when he set the heavens in place, when he marked out the horizon on the face of the deep…” Verse 30: “I was the craftsman at his side.” Jesus was the craftsman, the skilled worker, crafting the world alongside of God the Father, the two of them, as one God, working closely together. The Father speaking; and Christ, the water of life, crafting the lakes and the oceans. The Father speaking, and Christ, the rock of salvation, crafting the hills and mountains. And notice how Jesus felt after he was finished crafting his creation, verse 30: “I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in his presence, rejoicing in the whole world, and delighting in mankind.” What an absolutely beautiful picture this is of Father and Son working in relationship with each other, and out of their love creating a world…creating us…delighting in mankind.

And yet, that delight, that love for us would cost God dearly. Wisdom would be put to the test. Because it was not enough for man and woman to be the object of God’s delight. They doubted His words. They wanted to know what He knew. They believed a lie. They crossed the boundary. Their decision introduced the sickness of sin and the cold certainty of death into the created world. They rejected the relationship they had been created for. The actions of Adam and Eve have set the standards for sin and death ever since—doubting God’s Word. Wanting to be God. Looking for love in all the wrong places. Prioritizing God right out of life. If the Bible is right, and Jesus is wisdom, then it looks like we don’t got very much.

 And so, after crafting the world, Jesus set about to craft something else – our salvation.

Verse 31 of this passage tells us why Christ was willing to die for us. It’s because he “delighted in mankind.” That’s his inexplicable love the Bible calls grace. In verse 35, Jesus says, “Whoever finds me finds life, and receives favor from the Lord.” And that’s absolutely true. But it sounds so easy. The fact is, the blueprint that Jesus followed when he crafted our salvation was a very difficult one. He had to stop being the craftsman AT THE FATHER’S SIDE. He had to leave His Father’s side and go to the cross. There on the cross, Jesus was separated from his Heavenly Father. Jesus even expressed that when he said, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.” This was the real pain of the crucifixion—not the nails, not the struggle to breathe, but breaking of relationship. Father and Son had created together; they had delighted in mankind. But as he hung from the cross, the Father turned his back on him. That’s how Christ crafted our salvation – by allowing himself to be torn away from his Father’s side, dying as a sacrifice for sins. For our sins.

It’s been said that great things aren’t made without great sacrifice. We are rapidly approaching the 69^th anniversary of D-Day, when thousands of soldiers sacrificed themselves as they stormed the beaches of France. You could say that each one of those soldiers was a craftsman, and what they crafted was freedom. And they did that by sacrificing their lives.

The “Christian D-Day” was Good Friday. On that day, Christ stormed the hill of Calvary. He was a man, but he was also God from eternity, and there on that hill he crafted our salvation by sacrificing his life.

Then the Father raised his Son from the dead on Easter morning, and forty days later, Jesus ascended into heaven, and what happened there? Do you see it? He took his place at his Father’s side again, the Architect and the Craftsman reunited. Today the Father and the Son share the Holy Spirit with you, who works in you, once again like a craftsman. What is it that the Holy Spirit crafts inside of you? It’s your faith. And what does faith do? It brings you into relationship with the God who is a relationship, so that you can know what it means to be perfectly, completely, sacrificially loved.

Adapted from a sermon by Don Schultz

Clear Communication

The Day of Pentecost recorded in the book of Acts is a demonstration of what the Holy Spirit does and what he enables human beings to do. The Holy Spirit testifies about Jesus and enables people like you and me to believe that is Jesus is the Son of God. On top of that, He creates in us the ability and the desire to communicate the truth about Jesus. All of these things that the Holy Spirit does are nothing less than miracles.

I say that because communication is normally a problem. It is an ongoing challenge in relationships. Organizations struggle to communicate effectively. Just because the message is sent does not mean that it is received and understood.

For example, I just read about a recent tourism publication from the City of Jerusalem. Boldly proclaimed on the front of the brochure were these words: “Jerusalem! There is no such city!” Tens of thousands of copies had been distributed before the mistake was realized—the correct translation? “Jerusalem--there’s no city like it!”

Here’s a few other mistranslations from around the world:

• In a Tokyo hotel: Is forbidden to steal hotel towels please. If you are not person to do such thing is please not to read this notice.

• In an advertisement by a Hong Kong dentist: "Teeth extracted by the latest Methodists".

• When translated into Chinese, the Kentucky Fried Chicken slogan "finger-lickin’ good" became "eat your fingers off".

• In a Copenhagen airline ticket office: We take your bags and send them in all directions.

• in a hotel in Athens: Visitors are expected to complain at the office between the hours of 9 and 11 A.M. daily

• In A Serbian hotel elevator: To move the cabin, push button for wishing floor. If the cabin should enter more persons, each one should press a number of wishing floor. Driving is then going alphabetically by national order.

 On a good day, communication is difficult. The Bible tells us why.  In today’s Old Testament lesson, we are taken to the tower of Babel, where we see people united by culture and language conspiring to disobey God. He had told them to move out into the world he had made and settle new parts of it. Instead, they decided they liked it just fine where they were at, and started building a tower that would stand as a monument to their own ingenuity. God stops this plan in its tracks by scrambling their common language. Confusion and lack of communication becomes the standard, and has been ever since. Even though we live in the so-called Information Age, it seems harder than ever to say what we mean and mean what we say.

 An old marketing adage says that you have to send a message seven times before the average person starts hearing you—and we are so bombarded with messages today that some researchers now think that we’re talking 70 times before your message gets through. All of which is to say that it is very difficult to communicate well, and the Bible says it is impossible for us to communicate God’s truth without His guidance. That’s where the Holy Spirit steps in.

What started at the tower of Babel—communication confusion—the Holy Spirit starts reversing in Jerusalem on the day described in Acts 2. People who normally were separated by culture and language were hearing the actions of God proclaimed in words they could understand! The Holy Spirit translated the speech of the apostles so that everyone could hear the message of Jesus. The Holy Spirit cut through the confusion with a clear presentation of Jesus as saving Messiah and giver of eternal life. The Holy Spirit makes it possible to believe that Jesus lived a perfect life, laid it down as a sacrifice, and returned to life and that He took those actions for you. With all the static and chaos issuing from my own soul, it is truly a miracle that I could believe this about Jesus. And yet, I do. The credit goes to the Holy Spirit and the wonderful clarity that he brings.

In the final analysis, that is how you can know if the Holy Spirit is at work in your life. It is not a matter of hearing a rushing wind blow through your home. It is not a matter of seeing a flame flickering above your head. It is not a matter of whether or not you have spoken a language you never learned. It’s not even a matter of how you feel on a given day. All you need ask is, “Do I believe that Jesus is God’s Son and my Savior from eternal death? Do I believe that Jesus went to a cross and came out of a tomb to make things right between God and me?” If you believe that, then you can know without a doubt that the Holy Spirit is actively working in you, creating the miracle of faith, writing the story of Jesus continually in your heart. That you would hear and respond to God’s voice, with all the deception and distraction that’s out there, is evidence that the Holy Spirit is going about doing what he does. He replaces what used to be there in us with something far better.

A preacher once described it like this: He held up a glass and asked, "How can I get the air out of this glass?" One man shouted, "Suck it out with a pump!" The pastor replied, "That would create a vacuum and shatter the glass." After numerous other suggestions the preacher smiled, picked up a pitcher of water, and filled the glass. "There," he said, "all the air is now removed." He then went on to explain that victory in the Christian life is not accomplished by "sucking out a sin here and there," but by being filled with the Holy Spirit. 

What this means for us as a church is really pretty simple. If the Holy Spirit is present in this place—if he is present in us—then our calling card will be the clear and consistent communication of Christ as our Savior from sin and Lord of Life. We will care about being faithful to Jesus’ teaching. We will have an urgent desire to share our clear communication of Christ with those who need it most, and we will do what it takes to make it happen. We will live it. We will put our money where our mouth is. And we will do this with great wonder and joy, marveling that the Holy Spirit would choose us to tell the mighty works of God.