I. Introduction (Digital projection> A Parable: Your Plate is Full ) Your Plate is Full skit. See Appendix.

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1 Half Truths #4: God Won t Give You More Than You Can Handle (or Your Plate is Full ) (Based on Adam Hamilton s book, Half Truths, pp ) I Corinthians 10:6-13/Mark 4:35-41 (And Call to Worship Psalm 46:1-2, 10-11, Affirmation of Faith Romans 8:35, 37-39) FPC/July 3, 2016 By Rev. Dr. Glenn Hink I. Introduction (Digital projection> A Parable: Your Plate is Full ) Your Plate is Full skit. See Appendix. II. Scripture and Exegesis Your plate is full it is often a way of saying your life is filled with busyness, activity, people and events and planning and doing and often stress. The size of plates can be different, because people are different.but we all have things that end up on our plates. It is the way of life. And sometimes we wonder about the number of things on our plates..or on other people s plates; work, relationships, losses, concerns, health, stress. Can there be too much? (Digital Projection>God Won t Give You More Than You Can Handle) And sometimes we wonder, or believe, or whisper to ourselves or to others, God wont give you more than you can handle. Now the intentions are often good..a word of encouragement, hope, patience.but is it true? Does God really not give me more than I can handle? Or can my plate (or plates) get too full? God won t give you more than you can handle. I believe it s a half truth. So what s the whole truth behind it? To get to the whole truth we need to take a deeper look at a verse from the Bible in I Corinthians 10. This verse is often quoted as the basis of God won t give you more than you can handle. But is that what it really means? What does this verse say? (Digital projection>pic of garden hose reel with garden hose) I ve got a garden hose in my back yard. It s on a hose reel. I unwind it to water my tomatoes and flowers. And then I wind it back up again. I ve noticed that when I don t wind it up correctly and carefully at the start, that mistake gets passed through every row of hose as it 1

2 gets wound up and I end up with a mess at the end. To clear up the mess, I have to unroll the hose, and get it right from the start. So what I d like to do is unroll this text from I Corinthians 10, and get it right from the start, and then carefully roll up the meaning. To unroll this hose means we need to talk first about the city of Corinth itself.and who these Christians there were. 1 st C Corinth is a busy, international, port city, with lots of people coming and going people there to make money. And with lots of different people come lots of different cultures, religions, languages and ways of life. So the Christian churches there are fresh and new in this busy port city. Everyone there is a recent convert from whatever religion they believed before. And now they re coming to Christian churches, and not to the temples with animal sacrifices to various gods, and temple prostitutes, where they used to go. It s all new, and these new Christians are learning their way in following Jesus. That s to whom Paul is writing this letter called I Corinthians. And if we roll the text up just a little from there we can talk about the verses right before this well known verse from I Corinthians 10 the literary context. Paul begins by telling a story to these new Christians from the Old Testament. He said, Learn from this example. The ancient Jews went through the plagues and sea in Egypt. They saw and shared the miracles of water and food in the wilderness. And so they thought that was some type of guarantee of their salvation.of God s protection.of their claim to being God s people. But most of them did not make it to the Promised Land, because they chose a way of life like the pagans all around them. Do you see? The way of your life matters. That s the context that s what comes right before our text. It s a waring and example about the importance of our life choices. And now one final thing as we roll up the hose a little more. There is a word in this important text that is often translated testing and we think it can refer to any tests that come to life and faith. But the better translation here is temptation. (Digital Projection>Tempted, not Tested) And specifically the temptations for these new Christians in Corinth were some of the ways of their old lives, and the lives of their friends; idol worship in the pagan temples, and visiting the temple prostitutes. The meaning of this word is not tested by the hardship of life (as we often think), but the temptations of idolatry and sexual immorality. So now let s reel up the hose, and hear the text. projection>i Corinthians 10:6-13 NRSV translation) Read I Corinthians 10:6-13. (Digital (Digital projection>god helps us in times of temptation) It s that last verse, verse 13, taken out of context, which is often used to support the half truth of God won t give you more than you can handle. But we can see, that isn t really what it means. It s not about God deciding who gets which burdens. What it really means is that all people are tempted. And Christians are tempted to return to old ways of life away from God. But God is with us to help us not fall to the temptation. It s not about God putting anything on your plate. Rather it s all about God helping you, helping, me, when we are tempted. That s what Paul is talking about in this text. It has nothing to do with God won t give you more than you can handle. Rather it has everything to do with God helping us in temptation. 2

3 And furthermore, God won t give you more than you can handle has some serious moral and philosophical problems. If God is in charge of what falls on our plates, does that mean that God is the source of the tragedies and evil and hard things in life? The shootings in Orlando..the terrorist bombing in Turkey the civil war in South Sudan..a lost job, a report of cancer, a failed marriage, an addiction to alcohol or drugs, abuse..is God the source? This morning I read in the paper about the death of Elie Wiesel, Jewish author, who wrestled with faith and God and the death of 6 million Jews in the holocaust is God the source of that evil and hell? Or if God is not the source, but somehow God let s those things happen because God won t give us more than we can handle doesn t that make God morally culpable? If I can step in and stop a tragedy from happening to innocent people, or at the very least the people I love, don t I have a moral responsibility to stop it? Sure I do..as would God. To cause or let evil and tragedy happen because God won t give us more than we can handle calls into question the very love, goodness and beauty of God. God won t give you more than you can handle is really less than a half truth. It s a no truth. III. Reflection So what is the truth? I think it is in our Call to Worship: God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear. (Ps. 46:1). I believe it is in the familiar words of Psalm 23: The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me. And I trust that the truth is in the familiar story from Mark 4, Jesus calming the storm on the sea. Storms come up, they swamp our lives, and we fear than we cannot make it. But there Jesus is in the boat in the storm.with us.speaking peace and asking us to trust him. (Digital Projection>Pic of Rembrandt s painting Jesus calming the storm ) We saw this painting of Rembrandt (1633) last summer. It s called Jesus Calming the Storm. You can feel the roll of the sea and the splash of the waves coming into the boat. You hear the howl of the wind, and the shouts of the men. You can feel the tension, the chaos, the fear. Because we read left to right, and up to down, our eyes look first to the bow of the boat, bathed in light. There we see the drama of the storm.and it introduces the story of the painting; what do you do in an impossible storm? Our eyes then travel down to the other side of the painting, to the stern. There it is darker quieter.calmer. And we see Jesus in the center of it all in the middle of everything that s going on. Rembrandt really wants us to pay attention to the reaction of the disciples in the storm. Some fight against the storm. Others just hang on. One disciple is sick, throwing up over the side. Some disciples are paralyzed in fear. One man looks out at us with his hand on his head, as if to say, How did I ever get into this mess? There s two angry men in front of Jesus, 3

4 probably demanding he do something. And there s a man we can barely see, praying before Jesus with a faint halo. By now we know this is not just a painting about the story in Mark. This is a story about the terrible storms of life the ones that overwhelm us..the times in life when our plates are more than full. And this is about the various Christian responses to the storm. This is about those who fight the storm, and those who just try to hang on. This is about those who are sick in body and soul, and those paralyzed with fear, and those who wonder How did I ever get into this mess? And this is about those who are angry with Jesus, and those who find a way in the storm to trust Jesus with them.and know peace. Where might you find yourself? And you see, that s exactly what Rembrandt wants us to do..find ourselves in the painting. How many disciples would you expect to see in the painting? 12, right? 12 disciples, plus Jesus. 13 total. But if you carefully count, guess what? There are 14 people in the boat. What s Rembrandt doing? Maybe he doesn t know the Bible story? But I think he does. Perhaps he s painting himself in the boat? It think that is possible as he s don t that in other paintings. But I also think he s painting each of us.you me..inviting each of us to find our place in the boat in the storm..struggle, fear, faith one of the disciples with Jesus.Jesus with us in the storm. (Digital projection>faith, Fear, Struggle..Jesus in the Boat with Us.) And I believe and think and hope that is the whole truth. I struggle with God will never give you more than you can handle. Maybe you have too. Rather, I believe, it s us in the boat with Jesus..faith and fear and struggle.helping each other..trusting in Jesus. If we are like most people, at some point we will face things that are more than we can handle. But those things are not part of some perfect of God. They are not sent by God. Rather they are part of the human experience, where all types of things can happen.beautiful and tragic. I don t believe God sends the tragedy. But I trust God is with us in it.beauty and tragedy..helping us.and each of us helping each other as we can. The promise of scripture..the promise of faith..the promise of God is that in good or bad calm or storm empty plate or full God is with us to help, hope and love.to help us with all that comes our way. IV. Appendix- Your Plate is Full Skit Props: 2 plates, 1 tray pieces of miscellaneous junk in two bags. Set up: Main Character (MC) off stage with plate. 2 people playing the events of life (EL) stand to side, off stage, bags of junk. Narrator reads script, as MC and ELs act out. Maybe one day.someday.somewhere..once upon a time for someone life seems like a bright empty plate. (MC enters from off stage to center, stands, shows plate) 4

5 Life is light, happy, free. There is joy, and dreams and laughter. (MC dances around holding empty plate.) And then life happens. (EL-1 enters, dancing, with bag, pulls out piece of junk) Maybe it was a hurt, or a disappointment, or just one more thing.but it landed right on the empty plate (EL-1 places junk on plate, and dances off to other side of stage). (MC looks at plate, shocked) What is this?? There is something on the plate. There was nothing on the plate before. But it s only one thing. He can still dance..carefully. (MC slowly, carefully dances) And then life happens. (EL-2 enters, quick and business like. Pull piece of junk from bag and place on plate. Exits to other side) (MC looks stunned.) And then life happens. (EL-1 enters, dancing, pulls junk from bag, places on plate, dances to other side) It is a full plate. It happens sometimes. A full plate can feel heavy. (MC looks at full plate, stains to hold it up, but then pleased strong enough.) But, of course, life doesn t stop just because your plate if full. (EL-2 enters quick and business like, looks at full plate, puzzled, then has a great idea, and pulls a 2 nd plate out of bag, shows audience, gives to MC, places a piece of junk on it, and quickly moves to opposite side.) And..life does not stop. (Both EL-1 and EL-2 enter together, dancing/quick and business like, pull stuff from bags, place on plate, and to off together.) (MC struggles keeping 2 plates balanced back and forth). And life does not stop. (Both EL-1 and EL-2 enter together, dance/quick and business like, look at full plates, EL-1 whispers to EL-2, EL-2 goes off stage, returns with a tray, EL-1 and EL-2 congratulate each other on a solution, then together attempt to put tray on MC s head, MC shocked..mc runs off stage with EL-1 and EL-2 following.) Life is often a full plate. 5