Who are You?

Galatians 1:1-12New International Version (NIV)

1 Paul, an apostle—sent not from men nor by a man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead— 2 and all the brothers and sisters with me,

To the churches in Galatia:

3 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5 to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

No Other Gospel

6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7 which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse! 9 As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse!

10 Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.

Paul Called by God

11 I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached is not of human origin. 12 I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.

Last Sunday I shared with you the story about my conversation with a gentleman that led to him giving me a book.  This past week, I have been reading said book and it has opened my eyes.  The copyright on the book says 1975 but it seems like Simon Potter (the main character of the book) and Og Mandino (the author and also a character of the book) could be having these conversations set in modern times.  To summarize the book, Simon is very educated and at one time he was a very successful business man.  He is a self-proclaimed ragpicker of souls.  A ragpicker is someone who helps others find the value in their lives.  When people hit bottom Simon believes his job is to help them see just how valuable each individual is.  Simon’s goal is to let everyone know that even in the worst of times there will be two people who love them, God and Simon Potter.  As Simon is getting older, he knows that he needs to be passing this skill onto someone else so the book takes us through Og Mandino’s training to take over for Simon as Simon carefully takes Og through the process of learning how to care of others.  The book is a story of how to succeed at life and not in the traditional way of looking at success which is through dollar signs.  The entire purpose of the book is hope.  There is another book that I read from each week that also has a purpose of hope.  It does not matter the story or the parable found in scripture the purpose of each one of them is hope.  Ragpickers offer hope when it seems lost.  This morning our scripture is written by a ragpicker and he mentions the greatest ragpicker of all time by name.

To come up with the tools and wisdom to help others, Simon has a stack of many books in his tiny apartment.  The first time Og goes to the apartment he asks about that particular stack and Simon’s response blew me away.... Simon said, “For thousands of years this world witnessed a countless parade of prophets pronouncing and explaining the will of God: Elijah, Amos, Moses, Ezekiel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Samuel, and all the other marvelous messengers  until Jesus and Paul.”  Simon continued, “And then..... No more?.... I cannot conceive that God finally gave up on us and turned His back on our needs causing some of us to finally assume that He must be dead since we haven’t heard from Him in a long time.”  Think about that for awhile... Through all of my religious education the question was never once posed to me if I thought the prophets stopped with Paul.  But think about it, do we think of anyone since the time of Paul as a prophet like we do Paul and the many others before him?  Does this mean God stopped talking to us through this kind of medium?  Are the days of the prophets gone?  Has God changed how he chooses to speak to us?  Does he even speak to us anymore?  Does the thought of God speaking to us seem a little too far fetched?  “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel.”  Paul’s words written nearly 2000 years ago to a church in Galatia still ring so true today.  How quickly we desert the one who has called us to live in the grace of Christ!!!

No, God did not stop talking to us.  The thought of God speaking directly to us is most likely a little much for many of us to handle.  Myself included.  I know that He does speak to me but I know that He also speaks to others who are much better at listening to Him than I am.  I must seek those people out.  We all need to seek those people out.  Simon went on to say, “...I believe that God has sent, to every generation, special people, talented people, brilliant people.... All bearing the same message in one form or another... that every human is capable of performing the greatest miracle in the world.”  That brings me to my next point: miracles.  Along with the prophets, miracles also seem like they do not really exist anymore.  The reason for this is that science can now explain many of the things we consider miracles.  There is also a section in Mr. Mandino’s book, The Greatest Miracle in the World, that goes through how science has affected our relationship with God that offers some great insights.  Getting back to miracles, I am going to perform one today with someone’s help (ask a younger member of the congregation to come forward).  Og Mandino describes a miracle as “...something that happens contrary to the laws of nature or science... a temporary suspension of one of those laws.”  (Ask member for something of value and hold it up high).  One such law of nature is undoubtedly gravity.  If I were to drop this, the law of gravity says it will hit the floor.  (If all goes well, member catches item before it hits the ground).  By catching [item] you have temporarily suspended the law of gravity, a miracle by definition.  

Hope combines both the prophets and miracles.  Perhaps the greatest miracles are those in which the dead are brought back to life.  Simon uses this to make his point and really the point of the entire book: We are all some sort of dead.  We all have one or more issues that lead to us being among the walking dead.  Whether we admit it or not, there are things that make us feel bad about ourselves.  We may have little patience, eat too much, eat too little, a bad attitude, some addiction.  In one way or another, most of us have something that we hold onto that kills our self esteem.  It can be a trauma, grieving, or doubt but there is something that keeps us from fully reaching the person God has designed us to be.  We become the living, walking dead.  Both prophets and miracles give us hope to get out of that state of mind.  Some prophets are preachers but they can also be teachers, coaches, doctors, nurses, farmers, administrators, factory workers, watchmakers, butchers, iron workers, electricians, office workers, students or anything really.  But preaching is something I do.  Teaching is something some of you do.  Farming is something some of you do.  While what you do may be a part of how you identify yourself, it is not who you are by definition.  You are you and that is exactly who you are supposed to be and anyone of you is capable of performing the greatest miracle in the world and I do not mean simply preventing something from hitting the ground.  Only you can take this life and make it yours.  We have the ultimate decision of exactly how this life we have been given will be lived.  A life lived full of hope and joy instead of sadness and pity is a miracle.  A miracle you yourself are capable of performing.  You are God’s greatest miracle.  Listen to the prophets who speak through art, music, literature, voice and some even through Youtube.  Paul reminds us that this gospel, although we may reminded by human means, is not of human origin.  This gospel of grace and love culminates in hope and we receive it via revelations from Jesus Christ.  To conclude, “...the most difficult tasks are consummated, not by a single explosive burst of energy or effort, but by consistent daily application of the best you have within you.”  Yes, Jesus died on the cross in a single act but what made that particular burst of energy and effort so important was the daily application of the best he had inside himself.  The act of the cross was so important due to the daily application of faith lived up to that point.  Many died on the cross but only one did so for the sins of the world.  The best we have within us is a spirit of love and grace put there by a God who loved us more than we can fully understand.  You are God’s greatest miracle.  Amen.