God Training

28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

31 “It has been said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’ 32 But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

33 “Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but fulfill to the Lord the vows you have made.’ 34 But I tell you, do not swear an oath at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. 36 And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. 37 All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.

38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’

As some of you may have noticed, I tried something new this month.  I picked out the scriptures and sermon titles in advance so I could put them in the newsletter but as I started preparing for the scripture I picked out for this morning, initially I wished I hadn’t picked this scripture.  After reading this part of the sermon on the mount more closely, I began to think to myself that this scripture is a difficult one.  If we are going to be honest with ourselves, there are parts of this scripture that are difficult for us.  Honestly, I almost changed the scripture because of the difficulty I was having in preparing for the sermon.  This scripture is difficult because there is most likely something that applies to each one of us and if we really think about this scripture, it might sting a little.  I did not stick with this scripture for that reason, so it would sting, but I stuck with it because it offers us a great opportunity to get real with our faith.  

Even if you can honestly say that there is nothing in our scripture this morning that does not apply to you, I did hear a phrase this weekend that does apply to each of us.  I heard the phrase “wrongology” which is the study of being wrong and I thought it was pretty profound.  It does not happen to me very often, but in the few times that I am wrong, I have these feelings of embarrassment and anger.  We might even feel like our intelligence is questioned when we are wrong.  So most of us know what it feels like to be wrong but what does it feel like when we are wrong and we do not know it?  If we are wrong and do not know it, it feels like we are right.  If I taught Griffin that 2+2 was 5, over the course of time I could convince him that this was correct.  That is until, he got to kindergarten or first grade and they taught him otherwise.  But since he is in fact my son, I am sure that his stubbornness would cause him to argue and argue.  It could possibly take the teacher quite sometime to convince him that 2+2 does in fact equal four instead of five.  Griffin could potentially go a few years believing that 2+2 does equal five and not even question it until it was brought to his attention that this is wrong.  When we are wrong, our pride does its best to tell us that we are not.  Our pride is what causes these feelings of anger and embarrassment.  When Wile E Coyote is chasing the Roadrunner, and the Roadrunner runs off a cliff Wile E keeps chase but gravity does not take its course until he realizes he is off the cliff.  Being wrong is the same.  We can keep running off the cliff until we realize we are wrong.  We can either be wrong or we can know it, it is impossible to do both at the same time.  And as humans, or Christians for that matter, we can be purposeful in being wrong just so we do not have face the sting of being wrong.  We want to hold being right because being wrong makes us feel inferior and we often equate being wrong with being bad.  

Our scripture this morning may have had something in it this morning that may have stung a little but we live in a much different world today than when this was written but that doesn’t make adultery any less wrong, it does not ease the pain of a divorce.  But I am not here to condemn or make you feel guilty because we all fall short.  I am here to tell you that God loves you.  I am here to tell you Jesus died for you.  I am here to tell you that God rose him from the dead.  In my theology class, we are reading a book that causes me to question a lot of what I have grown up believing.  At times, it makes me very upset because it makes me feel like I am wrong.  I have gotten angry and even embarrassed but once I moved passed those emotions I could grow in my faith.  This book has not convinced me that I am wrong but it has taught me to think about why I believe what I believe.  How often do we take time to question why we believe what we do?  In my scenario of teaching Griffin incorrectly, I am sure that he would come home from school and say something along the lines of, “Do you know what that crazy teacher tried to tell me today?  She tried to say that 2+2=4... Can you believe that dad?” Again, he is my son so I think this would be pretty accurate.  I know it’s a silly example but we can so easily attach our faith to it.  How often do we encounter things that make us doubt what we believe?  Oftentimes this doubt arises in times of loss or hardship and if we have not tried to understand why we believe what we do, then that doubt can get the best of us.  

I am going to borrow a thought from John Claussen since we spent some time at his church this weekend but his sermon title for this this morning was something along the lines of going the extra mile with Jesus.  And I thought this was a great illustration about our faith.  We have to be willing to go the extra mile.  Jesus did not come to earth just to say to us that we are doing things right.  We were walking through this life not knowing we are wrong, Jesus makes this truth evident to us and then gives us the opportunity to acknowledge our wrongs and then do something about it.  Before we invite God to make a home in our hearts, we are walking off the cliff like Wile E and then an event occurs and we realize we are falling but God provides a safety net for our fall.  Sure we will fall, but when our faith is placed in God’s hands and not our own then that fall is not nearly as bad.  If we take our faith seriously, we will go that extra mile with our faith.  We will go that extra mile to help others, we will go that extra mile to show God’s love to others.  I do not agree with everything that is said at events like Acquire the Fire but it can be a springboard for kid’’s to launch their faith, just like it was for me.  Sure I have fallen, sure I am not perfect, but through my struggles and imperfections God still loves me.  I doubt aspects of my faith but I can no longer doubt the grace and love of God.  We may sweat the small details of our faith but there is one thing that we should not doubt and that is God’s love for us.  We will have events that will cause us to doubt even God’s love but if we have wrestled with that ourselves beforehand then we have a safety net that only allows us to fall so far.  That way, we can get back up, brush ourselves off and keep marching forward in our faith.

There was another good metaphor used this weekend and that was training your faith like a marathon runner trains their body.  Now, I am no marathon runner but I have tried running just a mile or two without training and that is brutal.  I couldn’t even imagine running 26.2 miles! It is 26 miles from Fairview to Southridge Mall so a marathon runner would make that run during the course of a marathon, let that sink in... From where we are right now, all the way to Southridge Mall is 26 miles.  That takes a lot of training to be able to complete that distance.  None of us could make that run in a decent time and we would not even attempt it if we had not prepared.  Our faith needs to be considered in a similar fashion.  We can not take on the stresses of this life if we have not prepared and trained ourselves to handle those situations.  How can we handle the loss of a loved one if we are not firmly entrenched in our faith?  How can we handle difficult marriage situations if we have not prepared as a family by being devoted to God and one another.  As an athlete, we always ran harder in preparation for a game or match than we did in the actual game or match.  We went the extra mile in practice so the game was easier so why don’t we do that in our faith.  For the longest time, I thought my faith was good enough because I was not willing to go the extra mile in my preparation of my faith.  For as long as she possibly could, my great-grandma Francey was reading her bible and devotions.  As she approached 90, she knew and understood her faith wasn’t complete yet.  She kept reading the same scriptures she had read several times and I often wondered why.  What could she possibly read this time through that she didn’t get from that scripture the first 10 times she read it?  I am beginning to understand that she was practicing worshiping her Lord and Savior so when it came time for “game day” she was ready.  She had prepared during the course of her life, so she was ready to worship Him in heaven when the time came.  

But before she could even practice, she had to become part of the team.  Grandma Francey invited God into her heart and became part of His team.  And as you sit there today, maybe even yearning to be a part of God’s team, I encourage you to take that first step to join his team and you will find yourself surrounded by others who are willing to help you grow and more importantly, my hope is that you fill find others who are willing to grow with you.  Sometimes, it takes a renewal of faith to get back into training mode and if that is you, I encourage you to do that today.  That is exactly why I like attending events like Acquire the Fire because they offer people like me a chance to renew my spirit and my faith.  It does a heart good to see youth on fire for God, to see youth struggle in their faith only to realize that they have a God in their life that cares so incredibly much for them.  My hope is that all of you see that as well, that you worship a God that loves you.  More importantly, my hope is that you see family in the faces of those sitting here today.  There will be parts of lives that hurt, there will be scriptures that really cause us to think hard about our faith, but there is also a family here, sitting with you, struggling with you, that cares about you.  Wrestle with your faith, train your hearts, and prepare your minds so we can continue to spread a message of love and grace.  Amen.