Feb 6,
2000
This message delivered by
Pastor Gene Preston on Sunday, February 6, was Chinese
New Year Sunday. Kung Hai Fat Choi!
HUMBLE
FORKS
Psalm
147:l-ll
As I was living in Hong Kong I
missed the tremendous hoopla surrounding the Women's
World Cup Soccer matches in my home country, the U.S. I
am indebted to the Professor John E. Stanley of Messiah
College in Pennsylvania for giving me this illustration
and its' context.
Following the l999 Women's World
Cup Soccer Championship, a sports shoe manufacturer ran a
popular spot add on TV which featured Michael Jordan
challenging Mia Hamm, the star of the US Women's Soccer
Team, in a game of "Anything You Can Do, I Can Do
Better."
Big Michael and smaller but
equally athletic and competitive Mia reflect the popular
notion that life, and success in life, consist of running
very hard in a competitive race. Victory goes to those
who finish first because they try hardest, run fastest,
and play best of all the game of ANYTHING YOU CAN DO, I
CAN DO BETTER. Life is competition and it helps to wear
the right brand of athletic shoes!
The metaphor of the spiritual
life as a race is found in the scriptures, as in the
Apostle Paul's comparison of his faithful following of
Jesus like running an Olympic race. Paul, however,
celebrates the metaphor of a race to emphasize spiritual
training and endurance rather than winning any earthly
prize.
There are even more references
in the scriptures which describe the life of faith, not
as a competitive race, but as a walk. And you may find
these references if you look up the full text of today's
message on our web site: cchk.net. (Gen l7:l, Psalm
84:ll, Micah 6:8, Romans 8:l, Galatians 5:25).
In the race for Christian
success the modern church can get sucked into converting
what could be worthy goals such as growing attendance,
ever increasing budget, and the building of fancier
premises, into idols. This happens when we participate in
the game of ANYTHING THAT CHURCH CAN DO OUR CHURCH CAN DO
BETTER.
My theme today is that an
essential part of the spiritual life consists, not of
running, but just hanging in there with God and plodding
along. Sarah and Abraham are the earliest examples from
the Bible of how God prefers the slow plodders. They had
to wait a very long time before anything
happened.
Psalm l47 reminds us that God
does not hold in high regard those who run fastest in his
name. Let us hear this text:
PRAISE THE LORD!
HOW GOOD IT IS TO SING PRAISES
TO OUR GOD;
FOR HE IS GRACIOUS, AND A SONG
OF PRAISE IS FITTING.
THE LORD BUILDS UP
JERUSALEM
HE GATHERS THE OUTCASTS OF
ISRAEL.
HE HEALS THE BROKEN
HEARTED,
AND BINDS UP THEIR
WOUNDS.
HE DETERMINES THE NUMBER OF THE
STARS;
HE GIVES TO ALL OF THEM THEIR
NAMES.
GREAT IS OUR LORD, AND ABUNDANT
IN POWER;
HIS UNDERSTANDING IS BEYOND
MEASURE.
THE LORD LIFTS UP THE
DOWNTRODDEN;
HE CASTS THE WICKED TO THE
GROUND.
SING TO THE LORD WITH
THANKSGIVING;
AND MAKE MELODY TO OUR GOD ON
THE LYRE.
HE COVERS THE HEAVENS WITH
CLOUDS, PREPARES RAIN FOR THE
EARTH,
MAKES GRASS GROW ON THE
HILLS.
HE GIVES TO THE ANIMALS THEIR
FOOD,
AND TO THE YOUNG RAVENS WHEN
THEY CRY.
HIS DELIGHT IS NOT IN THE
STRENGTH OF THE HORSE,
NOR HIS PLEASURE IN THE SPEED OF
A RUNNER;
BUT THE LORD TAKES PLEASURE IN
THOSE WHO FEAR HIM,
IN THOSE WHO HOPE IN HIS
STEADFAST LOVE.
This psalm emphasizes that God's
blessing goes not to those who are successful in worldly
terms but those who are faithful to God, giving him total
reverence and trusting in His steadfast love.
HIS DELIGHT IS NOT IN THE
STRENGTH OF THE HORSE,
NOR HIS PLEASURE IN THE SPEED OF
A RUNNER;
BUT THE LORD TAKES PLEASURE IN
THOSE WHO FEAR HIM,
IN THOSE WHO HOPE IN HIS
STEADFAST LOVE.
Success can be transient - Mia
Hamm is not so much a household name as a year ago and
even Michael Jordan will eventually pass into obscurity
even though he has just bought a nearly defunct
basketball team to manage it and keep his endorsement
prowess strong.
My wife and I were married many
years ago in what then was one of the largest and most
prestigious of central Los Angeles churches, the Wilshire
Methodist Church. It was yesterday's mega-church but
today it does well to draw l50 worshipers into its
sanctuary which can seat seven times that many. If the
only reason a church exists is to run a worldly race for
bigger as better, take care because success with churches
can be fleeting; steadfastness in serving God is long
lasting.
There are many small churches
which hardly see a baptism per year and yet they serve
the Lord faithfully in worship and outreach. There have
been countless missionaries who have labored a lifetime
without much harvest. The novelist Pearl Buck tells us
that her missionary father worked forty years in China
without, as best she knew, ever having converted a single
soul.
In India the murderer of Rev.
Stains and his two sons has just been apprehended and the
leader of the mob which murdered the three, Kara Singh,
seeks to justify their act by accusing the Stains family
of converting Hindus. In truth, the twenty some years the
Stains have labored in India has produced relatively few
concerts, and those among the lepers and untouchables who
are largely excluded from Hindu concern.
Like most missionaries there,
the Stains have given countless acts of love and
compassion to those with whom they live. The most
commendable witness of missionaries has not been their
success in numbers, but their faithfulness when success
in the numbers race did not come.
William Carey was the father of
modern missions. He was a shoemaker by trade who became a
linguist and scholar and first opened the door for
foreign missions in Asia and Africa. Carey lived by this
motto: "Expect great things from God; attempt great
things for God." In old age, he made this clear about his
life's work: "if, after my removal, anyone should think
it worth his while to write my life, I will give you a
criterion by which you may judge of its correctness. If
he gives me credit for being a plodder, he will describe
me justly. Anything beyond this will be too much. I can
plod...to this I owe everything."
HIS DELIGHT IS NOT IN THE
STRENGTH OF THE HORSE, NOR HIS PLEASURE IN THE SPEED OF A
RUNNER, BUT THE LORD TAKES PLEASURE IN THOSE WHO FEAR
HIM, IN THOSE WHO HOPE IN HIS STEADFAST LOVE.
The world crowns quick success;
God crowns long term faithfulness. God does not demand
you win anything; he asks you to serve him patiently and
sincerely. Again I an indebted to Professor Stanley for
reminding us that "the fear of the Lord is a theme
familiar to the Proverbs of the Old Testament. THE FEAR
OF THE LORD IS THE BEGINNING OF KNOWLEDGE (Prov l:7,
2:5-7, 9:l0, l5:33 and also see Job 28:28 AND Psalm
22:20.)"
The fear of the Lord refers to a
respect for God and an awareness of God's transcendent
majesty which are lifted up in Psalm 147 with its vision
of the stars, the animals, the universal goodness of
creation and all coming from God.
Fear of the Lord also creates a
sense of revulsion against moral evil and all forms of
compromise and subservience which would reduce the
holiness of God. It is often the case that the finest
service a Christian can give to God is not to compete but
to decline to compete with popular opinion and
prejudice.
A once famous American baseball
player Harold "Pee Wee" Reese died in August of last
year. Pee Wee was a talented and very small short stop
who played on seven pennant-winning teams. But athletes
do have a short shelf life, as do successful churches.
And while few now remember him for his athletic record,
Pee Wee Reese is remembered because of a single feat he
did in l947 when he was Captain of the Brooklyn
Dodgers.
Jackie Robinson had just been
signed as the first black player in American major league
ball. His recruitment was met with universal condemnation
by the fans and the sports writers. The announcement of
Robinson's name at the stadium the first day he appeared
brought a howl of anguished boos from 50,000
fans.
At that moment Reese plodded
slowly over to second base - I wonder if he moved slowly
for the effect that l00,000 eyes came to focus on him -
slowly he walked where Robinson was beginning his
professional career and gave his team-mate a fraternal
hug. That gesture of inclusion signalled his teammates,
the National League and the fans that Pee Wee Reese
valued and respected Jackie Robinson as a team-mate. I
would suggest that gesture depicts what it means in human
relationships to fear the Lord and hope in God's
steadfast love regardless of what worldly popularity
might suggest as the successful course to run.
Faithfulness to God arises from
an experience which is the opposite of worldly
competition. For the latter is based on the need to
achieve. We compete to prove ourselves. While faith
starts in knowing that we are born receivers, not givers.
Our fundamental relationship to God is not as givers to
God, but as receivers from God. That is the outlook of
today's psalm. That is our experience as we come to
communion.
The very best thing about Gene
Preston is what I have received. I can love because
"Christ first loved me." The common spiritual wisdom is
that "the joy is in the giving." To reverse the attitude
to "the joy is in the receiving" grates on our spiritual
nerves.
But the most elemental biblical
attitude, expressed in this psalm 147, is that God is the
owner and the giver. When King David dedicated to God
everything and everyone who was a part of building the
first temple in Jerusalem, he offered this
prayer;
YOURS, LORD, IS THE GREATNESS
AND THE POWER, THE GLORY, THE SPLENDOUR, AND THE MAJESTY;
FOR EVERYTHING IN HEAVEN AND ON EARTH IS
YOURS;…EVERYTHING COMES FROM YOU, AND IT I ONLY OF
YOUR GIFTS THAT WE GIVE TO YOU. (l Chronicles 29:ll,
l4).
God owns everything. We receive
from God. That is why Christians can be content with
moving ploddingly rather than compulsively in the express
lane.
I read of an unusual request a
pastor received from a member of his church. This member
was a 90 year old woman who had spent her entire life in
that small congregation where the pastor had arrived only
a few months earlier. When she knew her death was near
she discussed with her pastor some details of her funeral
and asked him to make certain that when she was buried it
would be with a fork in her hand. !
Odd though the request was, the
pastor honored it and at the funeral home put a fork into
the clasped hand of the deceased.
At the funeral another old time
member of the congregation commended the pastor on this
gesture. He said: "I did it because Emily asked me to do
it. But Why?"
"Ahh, pastor, Emily was the most
faithful worker at our church. For sixty years she served
at church suppers and cleaned up afterwards. Emily loved
the food and the fellowship. Her favorite time of the
evening was when she was gathering the used dinner plates
and she would always tell us: 'Keep your forks, dears.'
That told us that Emily knew a delicious dessert was
coming our way; keep your forks because the best is yet
to come." Emily wasn't being eccentric; she was just
being consistent at her end: "with God the best is yet to
come."
One wonderful prospect before
plodders, unlike those who put all their hope in winning
the race now, is that the best is yet to come.
Community Church is a small
congregation with both some modest and some ambitious
expectations. God may or may not give us what the world
calls success. But success cannot be godly if its'
measure is ANYTHING THAT CHURCH CAN DO WE CAN DO
BETTER.
Our vision is to become a
faithful congregation of the many as one in Christ, a
community of acceptance which honors the story of each
person, a spiritual journey which empowers us to be
mature rather than childish in our beliefs and
relationships, a fellowship which lives love in
relationship to one another and to the needs of the
world.
If we continue committed to that
vision, we partake in the steadfast love of the Lord. And
similarly when we come to communion we participate in the
steadfast love of the Lord. We don't have to prove
anything. We just have to know we are receivers. And the
best is yet to come. If you are inclined to race
anywhere, just come quickly to the Lord's table to
receive.
"Day by day perform your
mission, With Christ's help keep at your
tasks;
Be encouraged by His
presence---Faithfulness is all He asks."
(Bosch)
Pastor Gene
Preston
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