SERMONS FROM THE HEIGHTS

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1 Job 38:1-11; 2 Corinthians 6:1-13 SERMONS FROM THE HEIGHTS by Randy L. Hyde, D. Min. Senior Pastor Pulaski Heights Baptist Church Little Rock, AR rhyde@phbclr.com June 21, 2015 HEARTS WIDE OPEN Have you ever wondered what it might have been like to actually know some of the people we meet in the scriptures? Inevitably, when biblical stories are put on the screen, whether in movies or on television, the people chosen to play the different characters are rarely as I have envisioned them. Is that true of your experience? I don t see Jesus as having been blonde-haired and blue-eyed, do you? Yet, those who depict him on the screen usually look like that have, at least, more moviestar qualities than I would think he possessed. Here s what I mean do you really think Moses looked like Charlton Heston? My guess is that few of you think of him otherwise. But then again, I would hazard the guess that you believe Rhett Butler bore an amazing resemblance to Clark Gable. I saw the movie long before I read the novel Gone With the Wind, and that s how I picture him. If you had had the opportunity to know the people we find on the pages of that book on your lap, or in the back of the pew there in front of you, what might your impression be of them... what they looked like, how they behaved? Aside from what they might have looked like, do you think you might have wanted to spend time with them? I mean, if you ran into John the Baptist in the Walmart parking lot, isn t it true that you would go out of your way to avoid him? 1 A couple of weeks ago we talked about Jacob, how he stole his brother s birthright and despite his personal history of duplicity and trickery with strong mentoring

2 from his conniving mother Rebekah God blessed him anyway, blessed him beyond anything he deserved, and then gave him the very name, Israel, that would describe the nation of people who came to be descended from him. That Jacob was quite the rascal, wasn t he? If you had the opportunity, would you want to spend much time with him? If so, better guard your wallet or your purse! You would think that Jacob would have learned his lesson from the mercy God extended him, but he essentially turned right around and did the same thing to his father-in-law Laban that he had done earlier to his twin brother Esau when he stole his birthright. But then again, Laban was pretty good at deception too, wasn t he? tricked Jacob into marrying the wrong sister, and kept him, essentially, in servitude for years. Are you familiar with the story? For those of you who may not know this fascinating narrative in the book of Genesis, please understand that it is not made up. Reality can indeed be stranger than fiction because fiction has to make sense. If the details of Jacob s story are a bit hazy to you, I encourage you to read it. It s really very interesting and is quite an intriguing case study in human dynamics. But again, other than reading about these people, and being familiar with them, do you think you would have wanted personally to spend time with any of them? The Bible is filled with people who were not exactly paragons of virtue, and the interesting thing is that they re not always the villains. Sometimes they re the very people God uses the most to bring about his redemptive purposes. They were God s chosen ones. For example, despite his reputation as the greatest king in the history of Israel not to mention being the ancestor of Jesus we all know that David had his weaknesses of character. There were times he completely lost perspective, was so involved in his own story that he lost sense of what it was that had brought him to such power. There was the illicit affair with Bathsheba, not to mention the subsequent cover-up. How about his turning a blind eye to the political machinations of his son Absalom? That one came back to bite him, didn t it? His armed forces commander, Joab, was a hot-head of the highest order, would just as soon go to war or chop off someone s head as to eat supper. All the while, David turned his back and let Joab do just about anything he wanted.

3 These are not, as we would think of them, redemptive people! I m not sure at all that we would want to invite them over for dinner or spend any personal time them. Are you? If you do, when they leave, count your silverware! You see, the Bible tells the stories of those who were used by God to fulfill his redemptive will, not because of their virtue but often despite it. It s almost, at times, as if God goes against type just to prove God can do it. Which brings us to the Apostle Paul. Let s admit right up front that the chances are quite good the Christian faith, as we know it, might very well have not survived had it not been for Paul. Let s give him his due when it comes to that. Or, as Don Johnston would say, an atta boy. Paul did more to advance the gospel effort than anyone else of whom we are aware. After all, he was relentless in his efforts to overcome the racial boundaries of the Christian movement. Otherwise, those who followed Jesus would probably have been restricted to the Jewish faith solely. And since it was difficult for those who believed in Jesus as the Messiah to find much of a foothold in Judaism, if the faith had not been given to the Gentiles, it might not have survived at all. We have much for which to thank Paul. Still, that being said, I m not sure I would have been all that comfortable around him. Paul was, shall we say, just a bit intense. Reading his epistles is the closest I d like to get to him, to be perfectly honest. Sometimes, he tests my patience even then. Pushy people and Paul definitely fits in that category tend to get on my nerves. How about you? However, sometimes people need to be pushed, myself included. Those folks over in Corinth definitely needed to be prodded, that s for sure. Paul had begun the church in Corinth. Like our discussion last week of the mustard seed, Paul had planted the church from a tiny seed of faith, had watered it, grown it, nourished it, pastored it, loved it. But it turned out to be something of a love/hate relationship. They had such a strong pagan background they didn t know how to act redemptively, didn t represent well in their community the presence of Christ. 3

4 Do you know much about what went on in the church at Corinth? If our church behaved like that, we would have blown up a long time ago. They behaved like a bunch of children let loose without adult supervision. They wrote the rules as they went along, if they had any rules at all, and whoever happened to be in charge at any given moment were the ones who wrote the rules. All this happened, of course, after Paul had left to take his ministry elsewhere which leads us to wonder why he ever left them at all to their own devices. Did he not understand, did he not sense, that this is how things were going to turn out? The people in Corinth were like teenagers who, once the parents have gone out of town, throw a party to end all parties. Did they really think Paul wouldn t hear about their behavior? Did they care if he did? Regardless of why Paul had left them, or what their feelings might have been about him whether he was there with them or not when he does hear of what is happening, Paul feels betrayed. They know better than to behave like this, or at least they should. Hadn t they learned anything he taught them? What would you have done had you been in Paul s sandals? It would have been tempting to throw up his hands in despair and wash those same hands of the whole bunch. Write it off as a bad investment, take his losses and go home or go wherever he felt led to go to next and forget he ever stepped foot in that pagan city. But when you ve given as much of your blood, sweat, and tears to something as has Paul, when it came to the church at Corinth, you keep at it keep plugging, keep trying, keep pushing. He just can t let the church go. So he writes several letters one he refers to his as his letter of tears (2:4, 7:8) in an attempt to get them to shape up and fly right. You see, we only have two letters from Paul to the Corinthians, but there is strong evidence that these are fragments of several letters put together. What does that mean? It means that Paul probably put more effort into this congregation than any other. And they needed it! Needed all the help they could get! But the evidence is also strong that there were those in the church who resented what they considered to be Paul s intrusion into their affairs. Why didn t he just leave them alone? 4

5 That s what I would have done... left them alone, I mean. Over the last forty-five years of my pastoral experience, when I left a church I left it. I did not try to remain a source of influence in the congregation, writing them letters in an effort to influence what was going on (well, maybe once ). I had the feeling that whoever succeeded me could do just fine without my getting in the way. Besides, when I left a church, it was generally to accept the call of another congregation. I had enough to deal with, in terms of my new church, without sticking my nose in the one I had left. Paul did not hold to that theory. Maybe he felt he didn t have the luxury, that this new movement needed his influence and guidance, and that once he started a church he remained the pastor regardless of where he might be. And that gave him the right to continue staying in touch with them, writing them letters, even a letter of tears. It may have pained him greatly to write it, and we can be assured they weren t very happy to receive it, especially by those who know he was talking about them and their behavior. No doubt, they just thought Paul was being pushy. But you know what, pushy people get things done. So if you re going to apply the definition of that word to others, you might as well start with Jesus. He was pushy too, otherwise he would have just stayed in that dusty little village of Nazareth, content to be a carpenter and spend the rest of his days under the thumb of the Romans. So you might as well start with Jesus when it comes to pushy people. But you might as well end with Jesus too, realizing that in his case being pushy gets you nailed to a cross. Paul reminds the Corinthians of all he has endured in order to fulfill his calling as a proclaimer of the grace found in Christ. There have been afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors. Put that on your resume and see how far it will get you. There were sleepless nights, no doubt, and hunger. He says that he and his ministry companions have been treated as imposters and as liars by Christian clergy no less! Some of them seem to delight in following Paul everywhere he goes in an attempt to undermine his authority with the churches he has served. So Paul reminds them of what he has endured, for their sakes and for the sake of the gospel. And Paul is setting them up, setting them up so he can make a request of them. He wants them to open wide their hearts, as he has done to them. And 5

6 when does he want them to do it? Now, right now. It is, he says, the acceptable time for them to do so. I still don t know if I would have wanted personally to be around Paul, but I will say this much about him: when it comes to the gospel in general, and the church at Corinth in particular, he carries a passion deep within his heart his heart that he has opened wide and laid bare to them. You can t do that without making yourself totally and completely vulnerable to others. And he wants them to do the same, be passionate about the One they profess, and open wide their hearts to the grace that only Jesus can give them. Where does your passion lie? Are you passionate, do you care deeply, about anything? If so, what is it? Are you finding it difficult to answer that question clearly, or certainly without hesitation? If so, allow me to be pushy for a moment, and suggest to you that if you are not passionate about something it may just be because you are taking more than you are giving. William Sloane Coffin talks about the Holy Lands. There, he says, you will find two ancient bodies of water. Both are fed by the Jordan River. One is filled with fish, and roots that find sustenance in its fresh water. It is filled with life and with living creatures. In the other body of water, there is no splash of fish, no sound of bird. There s not a leaf around. The difference is not in the Jordan that feeds them, for it empties into both. But in the Sea of Galilee, where fish swim and birds play, for every drop of water taken in by the Jordan one goes out. It gives and gives of what it has taken, and because it gives it lives. The other gives nothing of what it takes, and that is why it is called the Dead Sea. Paul is afraid that the church in Corinth might become like the Dead Sea. So, he writes them again and again and again, and asks them to open wide their hearts. It is the only way to find life in all its abundance, he tells them. It is the only way to live. Some of you might be just as fearful when it comes to this church. You look around and see that the pews are not full, not like they used to be. You re concerned about our future and what might happen to us. What do you think Paul might say to us if he were here today? Do you think you would be uncomfortable 6

7 in his presence, might be intimidated by what he would say to us? If so, I would encourage you to consider this We need not worry about the future, for it is in God s hands. Our concern should be about the present moment, the acceptable time, to use Paul s word. And our only concern our only concern should be in how much we are willing to give of ourselves our time, our energy, our commitment to be the presence of Christ to those we meet. The more we give, the more we live, and the only way to do that is with hearts wide open. We often sing, Open our eyes, Lord, we want to see Jesus. Our prayer today is that you would find us opening wide our hearts, that we would receive you by receiving those we meet in your name. Through Christ our Lord we pray, Amen. Notes 1 Inspired by Rachel Held Evans, Searching for Sunday (Nashville, Tennessee: Nelson Books, 2015), p

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