When Eli was an old man and Samuel a young boy, his mother gave him to God to work in the Temple in Shiloh. Shiloh was where they kept the Ark of the Covenant which contained the 10 Commandments. Eli was the priest who managed the tent and other things of God for the nation of Israel. The nation had been formed by God but, when they made their way into the land flowing with milk and honey, times were hard as the people accommodated themselves to the god's of the land. Everybody began to look like everybody else, and you couldn't tell church folks from anybody else, and that's never been a compliment. Eli's sons were as bad as they come and they reflected the morals of the land.
Old Eli first met Hannah when he observed her praying one day at Shiloh. At first Eli thought she was drunk as she was giving God a hard time. She was eyeball to eyeball with God because she had been faithful, but God had not given her children and she was mad - so mad that she staggered and yelled and screamed at God. Eli thought she was drunk. But then Eli realized that she was praying for a child, he assured her that God would fulfill her prayer. Sure enough Samuel was born. When he was a young adolescent, she returned to Shiloh and gave him to God for divine service under old Eli's mentorship. That's when it happened...God called to the young man ...
God's call was to Samuel that he would be the nation's prophet. His first message from God to the people was one they would not like. The message was that Samuel was to tell old Eli that God was fed up with his sons and that Eli's house was finished. Later Samuel would anoint Saul as king and then select David. The point of this wonderful story is that Samuel was called of God for a purpose and so are you!
As a part of our Millennium celebration, Americans were recently asked "Who are the persons that you most admire who have lived in this past century? The Past 100 Years? Not the last Decade or ten years, but those who have lived over the past 100 years you most admire.
Their responses were most interesting. Who they did not choose was as interesting as who they did choose. They did not choose the rich and famous. They did not choose the big moneyed athletes. They did not choose the esteemed politicians of the powerful nations of the world. They did not choose the great scientists of the 20th century. No, as number one, they chose as the individuals they most admired Mother Teresa and, number two; Martin Luther King, Jr.
Individuals whose very lives awaken such themes as love and humility, service and peacemaking, self giving and acts of mercy, non violence and loving kindness.
Servants of God, these giants once walked the earth and were our ancestors. They were our people. They were individuals made in the image of God, committed to Jesus Christ, baptized in the Holy Spirit, and walked in the way of the Lord all the days of their lives. Mother Teresa walked for 87 years and Martin Luther King whom this nation recognizes this weekend walked only 39 years.
Mother Teresa was Albanian born, trained in Ireland, and was a teacher in Calcutta. In the Missionaries of Charity, she found herself caring for the sick and poor of India. There, in her caring acts of mercy and kindness, she discovered her deepest joy met the world's deepest needs.
She once said: "God has called us not to just fill a place, and not just to be a number. He has chosen us for a purpose."
Dr. King, was Southern born and theologically trained at Boston. In his work as a pastor and civil rights advocate in Montgomery, Alabama, he shared his hopes for the nation when he spoke on a hot August day in l963 before the Lincoln Memorial in Washington saying: "I've been called to share a dream... a dream deeply rooted in the American dream...a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."
Sometimes you think that American society values only one's physical attractiveness and possessions, but when we as a people take the long look, when we judge the personalities of the century, we most admire the humble, peaceful, loving servants of God. If you are quiet, you can hear in this most interesting choice of the most admired of the past century, the voice of Christ saying :"If you truly desire to be great, then become the servant of all."
Listen to your life and use your birthright gifts and God will do great things in you and through you!
Frederick Buechner asserts that our vocation is "the place where your deep gladness meets the world's deep need."
You may not be in your vocation yet. Maybe you are young and circumstances has kept you from the job that stirs your heart. Maybe you are old and time in running out, and it is now time to make some decisions about what God has called you to do or to be.
A few weeks ago, there appeared in the news an interesting statement which was made by Timothy McVeigh's mother who apparently lives in Pensacola. Timothy McVeigh is the convicted killer of 168 people in the Oklahoma City bombing. I do not know Timothy McVeigh's mother, and I apologize for the harshness of what I am about to say. It is not her that I criticize. It is what she said that I react to so negatively. May God bless her for my heart goes out to the mother of a man who committed a hate crime against the government of these United Stated and intentionally killed 168 innocent people in Oklahoma City in April of 1995. But, that being said, it was reported she said: "Let's face it. This happened four and one half years ago. Let's get it out of our minds. Let's get on with our lives."
Rather than getting the memory of this hideous crime against humanity out of our mind, I say, "Lets get it into our minds.!"
Violence doesn't solve problems. It creates problems.
No, Let's not get it out of our minds, let's get it into our minds.
No, I don't want to forget that hate will destroy tall buildings and little children.
The Martin Luther King celebration each year gives us the opportunity to remind ourselves that non-violent persistence brings about social change. Just the week before he died in Memphis, he preached these words:
"Hate kills and love redeems,
Sin destroys and forgiveness builds up,
Evil claims lives and goodness redeems life."
Dr. King was to be struck down by an assassin's bullet when he was in the prime of his life. A bullet fired because of hate and ignorance into a motel balcony in Memphis.
But, long years before Martin's death, there were those who gave their life's energy for civil rights in the nation because God had called them to do so. They had answered God's call in their own way. Interestingly enough, a number of these early civil rights leaders were women.
There was Isabella Baumfree who refused to sit in the back of a Washington, D.C. streetcar in the black only section in 1853. Isebella Baumfree felt that her God given mission in life was to travel and preach for abolition, temperance, prison reform and women's suffrage. To symbolize her calling by God, Isabella Baumfree changed her name to Sojourner Truth. I don't want to forget Sojourner Truth.
It was a hundred years later in Montgomery Alabama that Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to get up and move to the back of the bus so a white man could sit down. She said "I was just so tired. Tired of being pushed around. Tired of seeing the bad treatment and disrespect of children, women, and men just because of the color of our skin. She was tired of the Jim Crow laws. Tired of being oppressed. I was just plain tired."
There was Mary McLeod Bethune who organized Bethune-Cookman College to provide a solid education for young black students.
These early female civil rights leaders got little glory, but they paid the price as women of every generation have paid a price. In America today we would be wise if we listened to the concerns voiced by women as they speak to us of the mission of the Church and where God is calling us to serve today.
I perceive that women leaders of today are responding to God's call and are trying to deal with the complications of a changing world. They speak of:
1. The globalization of the world where all the children of the world are regarded as our children.
2. A lingering inequality among human beings because people still judge others as less then themselves on the basis of the color of their skin, the sex of their body, or the origin of their birth.
3. A growing secularism which treats things to be of value and people to be used, rather than people to be of divine value and things to be used.
4. A mounting concern of the importance for the family unit and community in a world that is split and broken.
5. A world that practices violence and needs peace desperately.
Many have walked the long and lonely road, and some even died along the way, so that all of our children might be free to pursue their dreams of one nation under God with liberty and justice for all. There were many who died in Hitler's holocaust furnaces, in South Africa's apartheid prisons and in England's slave ships. Others died in the fields of Mississippi some on the Selma Road died before they realized their dreams. We must not forget them, because in forgetting evil they receive another chance.
I don't want to get it out of my mind, I want to get it into my mind that hate kills and love redeems; that women and men, black and white, are in this together. God is calling us to be His people. The Bible teaches us that "Once you were no people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people."
I want to remember who I am as a part of God's own people. The great epic stories of our people help us to remember.
Remember that Moses raised his shepherd's staff over the waters and the people walked across on dry ground.
Remember that Joshua said: "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."
Remember Samuel who said: "Here I am Lord, speak, your servant is listening."
I want to remember Who I am! That I am a child of God, and a redeemed sinner. That I am a son of my mother and father and that my parents sacrificed to get me where I am today. They sacrificed that I might go to school. They pulled me out of bed every Sunday and carried me to church so that I might know who I am.
I want to remember that, although I'm not the man I'm going to be, thank God, I'm not the man I used to be. "I'm pressing on the upward way, new heights. I'm gaining every day. Still praying as I'm onward bound, Lord plant my feet on higher ground."
I want to remember that when I am responding to God's call there have been those who have died along the way and that I might have to pay the ultimate price.
There was Jesus who died on the cross when he was 33 because of hatred, selfishness, religious bigotry and political ignorance. I want to remember that in Jesus, God said "No" to hate and "Yes" to love,
"No" to doubt and "Yes" to faith.
"No" to death and "Yes" to life.
"No" to evil and "Yes" to goodness,
"No" to injustice and "Yes" to righteousness.
And, there was Dr. King who died at 39 for the cause of justice and freedom for all. He demonstrated the power of God's love to change society in nonviolent ways from what was wrong to what was right.
I want to remember April 4, l968. Most of the day, Martin had spent all morning with Jessie Jackson, Andrew Young, Ralph Abernathy and James Lawson as they met at the Centenary U.M. Church in downtown Memphis in an appeal to the city for equality in employment for the black garbage workers. They had gone back to the Loraine Hotel where they were on the third story balcony. They were standing when the shot rang out that would be heard around the world. I want to remember that hate kills and that love redeems.
I want to remember that Ralph Abernathy held the bloody head of Martin Luther King in his hands and Andy Young said "O God, Ralph, it's over." Ralph Abernathy answered back "Don't say that. Don't ever say that. It will not be over. It will never be over!"
Yes there have been those who have
died along the way,
but until you discover something to die for,
you will never have discovered your calling.
The Kingdom of God is at hand! The first day of the rest of your life is today! There is urgency about our life and faith because you don't have forever, you only have today.
During the last millennium I was unfair to you for not stressing the importance of your immediate commitment to Jesus Christ. In my "don't panic, you can tend to this tomorrow attitude", perhaps I have given you a false sense of security and have not served some of you well. You don't have forever! Today is all you have and what ever you need to do or say, you had better do it today!
I have to face death straight in the face so often that I probably have developed a different attitude than most of you. But realizing what I have realized about the fleeting nature of life and the performance of death, there is an urgency about today which most do not feel.
Lynn Johnston...if I had known she was going to die, I would have... When my brother was dying a very skilled hospice nurse told him, "Now Jim, these are important hours in your journey, and you need to talk individually with everybody you want to talk with, and you decide what you want to say to them..."
There is urgency about life, for we do not know what any day may bring and God has given us this day as a precious gift of opportunity.
In the early church there was a sense of urgency that we in the mainline churches have failed to keep alive. When there is no fire in the belly of the church it can be a cold, old building. It is fair to say that any sense of urgency about their faith is missing among most contemporary, middle class Christians. The Christian faith is viewed as a lifelong pilgrimage that ends only when we die, and we are not planning to die this week, so why the rush? Even though we pray every week in the Lord's Prayer for God's Kingdom to come, we lack an urgency about its coming. We suppose that it is far into the future and not really a pressing matter right now.
Mark, in his gospel lesson for today, uses the word immediately 25 times, for there was an urgency about Jesus' presence. In retrospect, as we look back, Mark was correct in his sense of urgency. For Jesus died on the cross at 33 years of age, after only three years of teaching, preaching, healing, and community building with his disciples. The Jesus that you may not know, was so convinced about the Kingdom's presence that he taught it was already a reality in his life, thus the reason for the healing of the blind so that they could see, and the raising of Lazarus and the daughter of Jarus. The Kingdom has come, repent and believe in the Good News.
Jonah was sent to Nineveh with an urgent message: "Forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown". You have forty days, no more and no less, what are you going to do with them? A friend of mine has Prostate cancer. He knows that one day he will die from it and it has changed his life. He knows that the days are limited and he is more generous and kind. He puts up with fewer hassles in himself and others. He worships, and interestingly, takes communion every chance he gets. When life is limited there is urgency about it. Well, let me tell you, it is limited!
Paul often wrote of the urgency of one's relationship to the Kingdom of God. I Cor. 7:29 "The appointed time has grown short, from now on, let even those who have wives be as though they had none, and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no possessions, and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away."
There is an urgency about life and our relationship with God, an immediate demand to put first things first, for those who really know what is happening in our lives. Life is like an ever-flowing stream. We will not pass this way again so the power of this wonder-filled gift is now!
Occasionally, at unexpected times, the Kingdom breaks in on us and the Rule of God is present, and we embody its full reality in our lives. I hunger for a daily dose of awareness of this reality. But in the meantime, I must stay alert and ready when the Kingdom dawns.
Let me make the following observations and suggestions:
1. One cannot read Mark's sense of urgency about the Kingdom and not be impressed with the theme of repentance that runs through the whole story. Which leads me to call upon you to repent of your sin and to accept the rule of God in your life. Repentance carries the ancient Hebrew connotation of "turning around" or "turning about face." It has more to do with the direction of life than the sorrow we may feel for our past lives. The question we must answer today is, are we living in such a way that God would be pleased if He comes to knock on the door of our house today!
2. We Also Need To Be Decisive Just As The Disciples Were Decisive. Jesus saw Simon and Andrew, his brother, casting a net into the sea. Jesus said to them, "Come after me and I will make you fishers of men." Immediately they left their nets and followed him. Here we see Simon and Andrew being challenged with a great opportunity and they responded immediately.
You and I would have called a committee meeting. We would have talked the matter to death. Procrastination has often been called the thief of time and the graveyard of opportunity. If you are going to start saving your money, then today is the day to start. If you are going to stop smoking, then today is the day to stop. If today you are going to get a new job, then today is the day to begin to find it...
Recently, I heard of a young man who, in a very hurried and excited voice, called an insurance agent and asked, "Can I insure my house?" The insurance agent said, "Why, of course, you can! We'll set up a time and I'll come out and look at your house." The man said, "Well, can I do it over the telephone?" The insurance agent said, "No, I'm sorry, I'll have to come to your house first." The young man said, "Well, you better hurry up and get out here because this place is on fire!" There are some issues too important to put off. A decision has to be made.
Once an Ann Lander's column told about a dilemma faced by another young man: "Dear Ann, I have got to decide between a new car and getting engaged. I really love this wonderful young lady, but every night when I go to sleep I dream about the car."
When we hear an invitation from Christ, we often find two conflicting inner voices within our spirit. One is telling us, look before you leap; don't get involved; you can always do it later on. Then there is a voice urging us to trust and be obedient to the call. We can't have it both ways. We must respond to one voice or the other. We can't waver between two opinions. The disciples were teachable; they were decisive.
3. Jesus and the disciples were busy doing the work of the Kingdom. They were inviting people to come and to meet the Lord. They were visiting the sick and taking care of the widows and the orphans. Are you? What have you done this past week for the Kingdom? Better yet, what are you going to do this coming week? We are quick to criticize when we need to be as quick to reach out in acts of love and mercy.
Volunteer to work with the children, visit the elderly and learn from them. Give some empowering money to make something good happen in someone's life. Our children are getting really confused as they watch television, and as their parents we make very confusing decisions. We need to help the children of today before they become the criminals of tomorrow.
I carried my Grandson to his first soccer match the other day only to discover that his coach was Ken Corley, a member of our church. Here Ken is involved in character building of his own son and others. That's important and it is urgent.
So many of our children are confused about honesty, clean language, and spiritual things because they have such poor role models.
I wish that we could recapture in our church a sense of "It's Sunday - lets get to worship". We have too many people who never or seldom ever worship, and it affects one's soul. I wish that every member of a Sunday School Class or a UMW circle would not come to their meeting without bringing with them a new person. There are plenty of people in the community who do not know the Lord, nor the strength of belonging to a believing community, but we have so little sense of urgency about reaching out to them.
When we develop a no rush attitude toward the people we love our love begins to fade and die. I used to have a friend in college who became engaged to be married five times, twice to the same girl. So I guess it was really four times. But every time the girl started talking about an actual date for the marriage, he was out of Dodge. I don't now if he ever got married. You have to make a commitment if you expect love to grow. And the time for commitment is right now, today, this very minute. For opportunity doesn't wait for anyone.
I don't see our urgency as that of saving persons from the fires of hell, but rather saving them from the nothing life. One day when you ask yourself, "What did my life amount to?" You don't want to answer: "Nothing."
The Lord's ministry consisted of three dimensions:
Preaching - "The Kingdom of God is here."
Teaching - "You have heard that it was said: "You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy:" but I say Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your father who is in heaven."
And thirdly, Healing - casting out unclean spirits delivering individuals from disease, death, and demons - the three life defying spirits.
Today's scripture deals with the third dimension of Jesus' ministry: Casting out of the unclean spirits. There are demons, unclean spirits, who walk and stalk the earth today. This scripture from Mark is the first record of the healing of demoniac possession, and it throws us into a world that is far from our modern habits of thoughts. Yet the world into which Jesus came was "a demon haunted world." Belief in the reality of demons was a fact of the mentality of the time and place of Jesus in history. Mary Magdalene was "possessed" with seven demons. It is encouraging to note that in the presence of Jesus, the demons, whether they showed the symptoms of hysteria, or paralysis, or epilepsy, or some other form of mental illness, in the presence of Jesus they took flight.
We don't know what Jesus preached about in the synagogue in Capernaum. . .but we know that he was not adverse to challenging the prevailing morals of the day. Not unlike today, many in the world of Jesus believed that "Might Makes Right", or the "Most Powerful Is the Greatest". It might be that Jesus challenged those ill-informed positions. We know from his teachings recorded in other places that he taught that humility and peacemaking and servant hood were the character traits of those who were the greatest of all, which was an attitude incongruent with the prevailing attitude of the day. And so the demon cried out: "What do you have to do with us? Have you come to destroy us?" It sounds like a page out of the X-Files.
There was in Capernaum, and in the churches of today, and in the legislative halls and in your offices and homes, a cosmic battle between good and evil, right and wrong and truth and dishonesty. God and the demonic powers in mortal combat! The demon was flushed out when Jesus preached and called out "Have you come to destroy us?" And Jesus answered, "Yes!"
Demons are not welcome here! It is a fact that men and women of today are yet haunted by demons of the spirit, unclean spirits. Perhaps by the calling of their names in this place so filled with the spirit of Jesus, we might at long last be delivered. Their names? Fear, worry, anxiety, inferiority, guilt, hate, greed, dishonesty, a selfish spirit, a judgmental spirit and a violent way of life. Out, out unclean spirits! You have reeked havoc in our lives long enough.
1. Deliverance begins always with self-examination and repentance. In the presence of Jesus, our evil ways look paltry and embarrassing. God expects the best of us always, and anything less than the best is a compromise. Consider your insatiable desires and repent!
Anything that holds you back or pushes you down, or denies your potential, needs to be out of your life. You don't need it, so let it go!
Recently I visited in the hospital with a person that was so angry. Nothing was right - the food was not fit to eat, it was too cold or too hot, I never could figure that out. No one helped them, the doctors never came by and the nurses were non existent. Later I was reading in the Board Of Global Ministries Prayer Calendar about the Maua Methodist Hospital in Kenya, Africa. The hospital takes care of 18,500 patients each year. I noticed that in the fine print it said the hospital had 255 beds and an operating room. We have the best of medical care and although we need always to improve, it behooves us to approach our medical personnel and all of life with a grateful heart. I wanted to ask this person, "Do you want to get even or do you want to get well?"
Anytime I complain about my own lack of ability to do something physical, I look around and inevitably I will see someone without a leg or on crutches, and my memory comes alive. Examine yourself and repent!
2. Deliverance takes place in the presence of Jesus when we are surrounded by His word and His people. That's why people who struggle with demons will seldom be in worship. Prayer is not a part of their experience. Prayer's that are positive, regular, receptive, and acts of surrender create an environment in which a demon cannot breathe and they cry out: "What are you trying to do to us? Destroy us?"
3. Deliverance is experienced as a gift of God as faith or reliance on God and not on ourselves. Happiness is dependent on circumstances, but the joy of deliverance is that deep sense of confidence that God is in control of every area of our life. A friend shared with me that he had received a card during a difficult time in his life, which read: "Dear Tim, I have everything under control." And it was signed: Jesus.
4. Deliverance is completed as we experience liberation from jealousy or hatred or greed or guilt, or anxiety. So today we leave our demons of the spirit and walk out of this place with a genuine resolve of love and confidence.