July 1999 Sermons
Dr. Henry
E. Roberts
Y2K Preparation for Christians
Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
The Year 2000 is fast approaching. Y2K is on the way! Ready or
not, here it comes. Some wonder if we're living in the last days of the end of
the age or the beginning of a New Age? It is wonderful for those of us who are
in Christ, whose life is centered in the Will of God, and whose only desire is
to do his will, to think that we will soon live in a new millennium and to think
that as many developments that have taken place in the past, might take place in
the near future. Even if we have only one half of the inventions and new
developments in the 21st century as we have had in the 20th century, it will
prove to be an interesting ride.
We can hardly image what the years ahead in the 21st century
will have in store for us, but it will without a doubt prove to be exciting,
bewildering, challenging, and an alluring time to be alive.
There are many voices of fear that have begun to make themselves
heard, not unlike the voices of a hundred years ago as we approached the 20th
century. Many of the recent voices of fear have focused on the computer problems
which we mistakenly built into the computers which were only invented in this
last century. The problem is this: Many software applications refer to a
four-digit year by its last two digits. For example, today would be referred to
as 7/18/99 rather than July 18, l999. This was a space saving measure which
worked fine in the l900's but dates in the years ahead which will start with
2000 pose a problem. July 18, 00 could be interpreted as July 18, l900 rather
than 2000 thus turning the clock back 100 years. Such a misinterpretation could
wreak havoc with computer driven modern equipment such as jetliners, utility
companies, sewage treatment plants and Lord knows we don't need any additional
problems with those. (having had 2 major sewage spills in our city in the past 2
weeks)
This potential for misinterpretation is referred to as the Y2K
Problem or the Millennium Bug. It has been an interesting and expensive
challenge for most every segment of our society. This week San Francisco
reported that they have spent 15 million dollars to get the city's systems ready
for the new millennium.
We are constantly receiving news reports and letters from banks,
insurance companies, brokerage houses, utility companies, etc., telling you
"There is no problem," "We have it under control." And I for
one believe that we do or will soon be ahead of the problem. But there are
voices, which will encourage you to prepare for the worst - "stuff your
cash in your mattress, store water, can your food, and get a gun in order to
protect your properties." There are a lot of voices of fear out there.
Always has been, but it seems they really come out of the closet as you approach
the millennium change.
There could be trouble ahead, I think minor trouble, but what do
I know. I usually chose to claim Mark Twain's attitude that, "Most of my
problems have never happened." Nevertheless, we must always prepare ahead
so that we are not caught off guard.
The meteorologists tell us that this will be another interesting
year of hurricanes and we have all learned that advance preparation can help you
sleep better in the midst of the storm. Well how do you prepare for the coming
Millennium with its potential Y2K problems and other challenges?
1. The Bible always has a word to us if "we have ears to
hear." And the Word today is clear and simple and comes out of an
interesting parable attributed to Jesus concerning a problem on a farm. The
farmer has planted wheat, but someone evil or foolish has planted weeds and he
didn't discover the problem until it was too late. It is a parable dealing with
the presence of evil in the world.
The implication of the parable is clear: There are good and bad
folks in the world. The good folks come from God; the bad folks come from the
devil. One day there will be a judgment when the good folks will be separated
from the bad and you definitely don't want to be a weed at that time.
The act of sowing weeds in another man's field as a form of
revenge was so common in Jesus' day that there were laws prohibiting it. Wheat
and tares look identical until they ripen, at which point the wheat head looks
very different from that of the weed. The wisdom of the farmer in Jesus' story,
was to simply wait until the harvest and then would come time and opportunity to
separate the wheat from the weeds. In the coming harvest the good will be
separated from the bad.
The bad will be burned and the good will be placed in barns for
future use. So for the farmer his problem is that an evil one has done a
dastardly deed-planted weeds in the night. His dilemma is do I destroy the
entire field and give up or plant again or what? Jesus uses this dilemma to
remind the disciples of one of the basic truths of life for the Kingdom People.
And what is it?
-
Trust in God! In dealing with all problems, trust in God!
Matthew seems to take poetic liaison with Jesus'
teachings and seems to flesh out the stories as none of the other Gospel writers
do. So, Matthew seems to say, in the struggles and problems concerned with the
coming end of the age, we are counseled to not do battle with the powers of
darkness now, but to wait till the harvest. This is congruent with Jesus'
authentic teachings when he said to his disciples concerning the End of the Age
---"Wait"!
There will be a time of harvest. When the reapers come, they
will not do battle, but will harvest the crops-first collecting the weeds and
then burning them in the furnace of fire and then collecting the wheat. The
weeds are the children of evil and those who do not do the will of God. The
wheat is symbolic of the children of God. So also in dealing with evil in any
form, the parable counsels "wait till the harvest" and the heavenly
angels will separate the children of God from the children of evil. Trust in God
for harvest time is coming.
I noticed recently on this business television channel, an
advertisement for a company called "Sure Trade". It was an interesting
ad. Young adults were pictured saying: We are not relying on the government.
"We are not relying on a big fat inheritance. We are not relying on a
broker." We are not relying on Daddy. We are relying on ourselves!" If
this is true, if we have a generation who are solely relying on themselves, then
they are in trouble. For the truth is we are dependent on God and one another.
The challenge for us who have experienced much success in life,
is to look beyond ourselves to find our hope and confidence not in our own
selves but in God who is our creator, redeemer and Guide into the unknown of the
new millennium.
The Psalmist first affirmed this perspective:
-
(Chapter 25) "O my God, in thee I trust"
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Chapter 37:3) "Trust in the Lord, and do good; so you will dwell in
the land, and enjoy security, Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you
the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust in him and he
will act. ..Be still before the Lord, and wait patiently for him, fret not
yourself over him who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil
devices!
-
Proverbs 3:5 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not
unto your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will
make straight your paths."
Jesus would return to this theme time and time again: "Like
the birds of the air and the plants of the field, God takes care of them. Oh yea
of little faith, will he not take care of you."
2. So it is not our task to do battle with evil nor to seek revenge with evil
ones, nor to figure everything out. There is no way we can anticipate all of the
changes in the millennium ahead. Our task is to "trust in God" and it
would be most helpful if we practiced trusting in him today, and this week.
Remember who you are and be not afraid
but be confident. The Apostle Paul wrote assuring words to the early church
members who were worrying about the Judgment Day or the End of the Age:
-
"What you shall be is yet to be disclosed, but here and now, you are
the children of God."
-
"All who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. It is the
Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with
Christ."....I consider that the sufferings of this present age are not
worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us." (Romans
8:1-25)
Now, the thrust of this parable of the
wheat and the weeds is so simple, do not let me confuse you-Trust in God as the
harvest will surely come!
Since Matthew took a little liberty with this story and
expounded on it, I am tempted to do much the same and focus on the wheat and the
weeds in today's society and identify the weeds by name. But on second thought,
I don't think I will do that. Pierce Harris who once served the First United
Methodist Church in Atlanta, was building his Sunday evening crowds and
advertised in the Atlanta papers, that the title of his Sunday evening sermon
would be "Ten People I would Like to See Go To Hell". A crowd of
people came to hear him preach that night. Well, I have decided that it might be
best if I didn't identify the "weeds" at least by name.
I will point out however that the Christian Church has over the
years wasted a lot of time and energy in identifying the weeds in the name of
righteousness and most of those times in our history now have become an
embarrassment to us. We have seen Christians carry out atrocities against others
whom they identified as weeds.
The Crusades in the Middle Ages was an attempt to stamp out the
Muslin faith, but it was little more than a disguised protective vial of the
European's desire to conquer the world. The Inquisition in the late Middle Ages
was little more than the Roman Church's imposition of conformity. The Holocaust
in Nazi Germany and the lost of so many lives in the Jewish community and the
battles between Catholics and Protestants in Ireland, the Indians and the
settlers in the Southeast and the blacks and whites in all of America, and the
Jews and Arabs in Palestine, and the Christians of Serbia against their Muslim
neighbors in Kosovo, are all but illustrations of mankind's misguided attempt to
deal with perceived evil-identifying the weeds!
We must be suspicious of all movements that judge people because
of their religious commitments, their national origin, the color of their skin,
their sexual orientation, or any other human dividing issue. We have our
standards and values and things which are accepted in our family of faith, but
we are not among the judges of the earth. There is a judge, but you are not He!
In the coming harvest, those decisions will be made but not by you nor me.
George Buttrick, Minister of New York's Madison Ave Presbyterian
Church, who edited the Interpreters Bible, often struggled with the problem of
evil and suffering. He once wrote: "Life is essentially a series of events
to be borne and lived through, rather than a series of intellectual riddles to
be played with and solved or battles to be fought." This means, I believe
that in coming to terms with sorrow, courage counts a whole lot more than
brilliance. And in dealing with evil, our task is not to do battle, but in
humility, to wait until the harvest.
Let us respond to the invitation to the story of Jesus which
informs us in our preparation for Y2K and any other problems which lie ahead in
the Coming Age:
Trust in God and wait for the harvest.
Lessons from the Kingdom
Genesis 29:15-28, Romans
8:26-39, Matthew 13:31-33,44-52
We are the Kingdom people. Citizens of the Kingdom of God which
means we acknowledge that God rules this universe and that in our lives His will
is paramount in all that we do. Therefore, it becomes our number one desire to
know God and to love Him with our heart, mind, soul and strength.
Jesus taught lessons of truth concerning the nature of the
Kingdom of God in story form and would use images or analogies of common things
to convey deeper truths concerning the Kingdom:
-
"A farmer planted good seeds" illustrating that God is always
planting good seeds in our lives, but the poor soil illustrates what can
happen if the environment of our life is not receptive to God's dealings
with us.
-
And there was "the wise farmer" who in dealing with an evil
person who has planted weeds in his wheat field, illustrating that to deal
most creatively with evil, we must wait for the harvest.
-
And in today's scriptures there is a potpourri of images illustrating
various lessons or meanings of the Kingdom:
The kingdom is like a mustard seed- It is like
leaven in flower The Kingdom is like finding a treasure hidden in a field It
is like a merchant in search of fine pearls. The Kingdom is like a net, which
catches all kinds of fish.
These images come in rapid succession and today we look for some common
threads of meaning or lessons from the Kingdom teachings:
-
A mustard seed, the smallest of all seeds but has the capacity to grow
into this giant of a bush -There is an
inevitable growth potential in God's Kingdom.
The Mustard seed
grows into a tree (Matthew overstates his point by saying that it will grow
into a tree) A touch of Leaven or yeast in flower which mysteriously causes
a rising of the entire loaf.
It was interesting that Jesus would use an analogy of yeast in
the making of bread, for the dietary laws of Judaism forbid the use of yeast in
flower for kosher foods. One wonders if this was a subtle hint by Jesus early on
to his Jewish disciples that the Kingdom would grow beyond its Jewish roots? I
think so.
God's Kingdom will continue to grow far beyond our traditional
churchly ways among persons of our own nation and sociological class. As a
matter of fact, the fastest growing places of Christian growth today is among
persons of color in Africa and Asia.
-
The Kingdom is like a farmer who discovers a treasure hidden in a field or
a merchant in search for a precious pearl both of whom would be willing to
sacrifice everything in order to possess these precious dimensions of life.
(The lesson learned is that some things are of great value and our
relationship to God is one of the most precious.)
-
And there is a net, which gathers all kind of fish, good and bad, eatable
fish and trash fish, Mackerel and Croakers, and a field of wheat and weeds
waiting for the harvest when the good are kept and the bad at the close of
the age, are thrown into the furnace of fire. (The common thread of meaning
is an underlying emphasis on God's judgment).
God who created us expects something from us. We are blessed so
that we can be a blessing. Israel was given as a light to all the nations of the
world, but nations of light are expected to be as beacons in a dark world. Of
those who are given much, the Bible states, much will be expected.
In the Kingdom teachings there are these various emphasizes or
lessons:
Inevitable Growth
A delineation of Things of great Value
A coming time of Judgment
Based on these lessons from the Kingdom teachings, I would
suggest the following:
1st
Realizing that the
Kingdom will grow, let us find new ways to participate in the growth of the
Kingdom. Just as you look for new investments to grow your personal wealth, look
as intently for new ways of involvement in the increasing Kingdom.
I'm somewhat put off with street corner preachers with Bible in
hand and screaming at the cars as they go by. But they are participating in the
Kingdom's work as they see fit. What have you done this week for God's growing
Kingdom? Better yet, what will you do this coming week about it?
Philip Brooks once said: "We never
become truly spiritual by sitting down and wishing to become so. You must
undertake something so great that you cannot accomplish it unaided."
2nd
Realizing that there
is a preciousness about certain dimensions of our life, then resolve to cherish
those precious dimensions of your life.
I wonder if John and Carolyn Kennedy on the morning of two
Fridays ago, knowing what we now know, would have done anything differently.
Life is precious, our faith is precious, and our family is precious. So why do
we treat some of the most precious things with such casualness?
In a sermon preached by John Wesley entitled "On Grieving
The Holy Spirit:" Wesley says: "The first I shall mention as being
more especially grievous to the Holy Spirit is inconsiderateness and inadvertence
to his holy motions within us." What Wesley is saying here is
that we grieve the Holy Spirit when we don't pay attention. Understand that we
believe that "All things work together for those who love God" and it
would behoove us to seek God's will most carefully during the hard times, or the
sad times, or the challenging times.
Perhaps these are "Motions of the Holy Spirit" within
us, directing us, and saying something very important to us. Wesley in this
sermon points out that "There is a particular frame and temper of the soul,
a sobriety of mind, with which the Spirit of God will not concur in the
purifying of our hearts." Maybe the problem is that we are just not paying
attention. Maybe we have a bad attitude. Wesley made some specific suggestions
in his time when he suggested: "calming our affections, and checking the
inordinate pursuits of our passions, and the squandering away of our thoughts
and days on unnecessary things." (Sermon 138, Vol. 7. P. 489 on Grieving
the Holy Spirit)
I sat beside my father with him
knowing he was dying at age 84, and I sat beside my brother knowing he was dying
at age 59. They each talked about what was of important to them - family led the
list. I hope John and Carolyn Kennedy had time to talk with each other and
others who were important to them. I hope you have time and the opportunity.
3rd
Realizing that there
will come an end to all things and that judgment day comes for all, then live in
such a way that you will be conscious free and confident on the day of death.
Let us resolve to write our own history with pride and dignity and integrity.
Will Rogers once said: "Let us Live in
such a way that you would not be ashamed to sell your parrot to the town
gossip."
Summary: What we have learned today is
that God's Kingdom will grow, and some things are of great value and yes, a time
of judgment does come for all.
First United Methodist Church Pensacola
FL
E-mail
Phone:
850.432.1434 Fax: 850.432.5749