Tawa Baptist

The Sycamore Tree

Scripture: Amos 7

Video Link: https://youtu.be/CD8ZTg4VlW4

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

Today we continue our Testimony of Trees series by focusing on the sycamore tree. Or to be more precise the Ficus Sycomorus, also known as the sycamore fig; not to be confused with Acer Pseudo Platanus, which is the European version of the sycamore tree that some here might be more familiar with.

The sycamore fig is native to Africa but grows well in parts of the Middle East, where it was plentiful during Biblical times. It reaches a height of 20 meters with strong lateral spreading branches. The leaves are broad and heart shaped, making the sycamore fig ideal for shade.

The fruit of the Ficus Sycomorus is a large edible fig, about 2-3 cm in diameter. Interestingly, the sycamore bears fruit all year round. You can get up to five crops in a 12-month period.   

The sycamore fig is mentioned seven or eight times in the Bible, including most famously in Luke 19, where the tax collector, Zaccheaus, climbs a sycamore tree to see Jesus as he passes through Jericho.

Our message today though is based on the prophet Amos chapter 7, which also mentions the sycamore fig tree. From Amos 7, verse 1, we read… 

Amos 7:

This is what the Sovereign Lord showed me: He was preparing swarms of locusts after the king’s share had been harvested and just as the late crops were coming up. 2 When they had stripped the land clean, I cried out, Sovereign Lord, forgive! How can Jacob survive? He is so small!”  3 So the Lord relented. “This will not happen,” the Lord said. 4 This is what the Sovereign Lord showed me: The Sovereign Lord was calling for judgment by fire; it dried up the great deep and devoured the land. 5 Then I cried out, “Sovereign Lord, I beg you, stop! How can Jacob survive? He is so small!” 6 So the Lord relented. “This will not happen either,” the Sovereign Lord said. 7 This is what he showed me: The Lord was standing by a wall that had been built true to plumb, with a plumb linein his hand. 8 And the Lord asked me, “What do you see, Amos?” “A plumb line,” I replied. Then the Lord said, “Look, I am setting a plumb line among my people Israel; I will spare them no longer. 9 “The high places of Isaac will be destroyed and the sanctuaries of Israel will be ruined; with my sword I will rise against the house of Jeroboam.” 10 Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent a message to Jeroboam king of Israel: “Amos is raising a conspiracy against you in the very heart of Israel. The land cannot bear all his words. 11 For this is what Amos is saying: “‘Jeroboam will die by the sword, and Israel will surely go into exile, away from their native land.’” 12 Then Amaziah said to Amos, “Get out, you seer! Go back to the land of Judah. Earn your bread there and do your prophesying there. 13 Don’t prophesy anymore at Bethel, because this is the king’s sanctuary and the temple of the kingdom.” 14 Amos answered Amaziah, “I was neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet, but I was a shepherd, and I also took care of sycamore-fig trees. 15 But the Lord took me from tending the flock and said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’ 

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us.

You may have heard of the term cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance is the internal distress a person feels when their external reality does not align with their values or beliefs.

Cognitive dissonance can be caused by our own behaviour; when we do things that go against the grain of our values. Or it can be caused by the behaviour of other people, when they do things which contradict what we believe to be right or true. Let me give you some examples…

Imagine you put a lot of importance on eating healthy food and exercising regularly. You believe your body is a temple and consuming sugar is a sacrilege. If one day you fall off the wagon and eat junk food instead of going to the gym, then you will feel distressed, probably guilt or shame. That’s cognitive dissonance caused by the choices you have made.

Or say you are in middle management and top management tell you to make two of your team members redundant to cut costs. If giving people the sack to increase profits goes against the grain of your values, then you will feel angry and distressed because you are being forced to do something you don’t believe is right. That is cognitive dissonance caused by the choices other people have made.

The experts reckon there are basically four ways to deal with cognitive dissonance. Four ways to bridge the gap between what you believe is important or true and your lived reality.

One way is to change your behaviour. In the case of the health fanatic, that might mean having an apple for dessert instead of ice cream. However, changing your behaviour doesn’t work when the cognitive dissonance is not caused by anything you are doing.

Say, for example, you believed your uncle to be a good man. Then one day you saw him doing something extremely bad. In that scenario, it is your uncle’s behaviour which has conflicted with your belief and caused the cognitive dissonance. Changing your own behaviour won’t help.

To bridge the gap, you would have to modify your belief about your uncle. You would have to accept the fact that he wasn’t as good as you thought he was.

Returning to our healthy eating example: if not eating sugar proves too difficult you could try modifying your values, letting things slide a little. You might tell yourself, “I’m allowed ice cream and brownie every once and a while, especially tonight because I’ve had a hard day.” The problem with this approach is that it can become a slippery slope.

The third thing you can do to bridge the gap caused by cognitive dissonance is compensate by adding new behaviours. Compensatory behaviour is like balancing out the bad with some good.

For example, you might make yourself feel okay about having ice cream and brownie with chocolate sauce, by promising to do an extra spin class tomorrow.

Or you might make yourself feel okay about making money in a dodgy business deal by donating some of the profits to charity. Compensatory behaviour is not ideal. It leaves you divided within yourself. It makes you weaker, less whole.  

The least helpful strategy for dealing with cognitive dissonance is denial.

Denial is when you lie to yourself by pretending your behaviour is not at odds with your values. You might, for example, tell yourself that eating ice cream and brownie with chocolate sauce and sprinkles every day is good for you.

Or you might try to convince yourself that your uncle’s bad behaviour was for the greater good. Or you might reframe that dodgy business deal by saying, “It’s not wrong. Everyone does it. It’s just how the world goes round.”

The problem with denial is that it doesn’t work over the long term. The truth always comes out in the end.    

At some point, all of us must wrestle with cognitive dissonance. At some point all of us realise there is a gap between what we value and how we behave.

At some point we all face a disconnect between what we believe to be right and true and what we experience in reality.

What is the cause of your cognitive dissonance? How do you bridge the gap?  

You might be wondering, ‘what has this got to do with Amos and the sycamore tree?’ Well, bear with me. It will become clear soon.

Amos was a Hebrew prophet. He spoke his message roughly 240 years after king David and around 760 years before Christ. During that time the people of Israel enjoyed a period of sustained prosperity. The people were not oppressed by political enemies and business flourished.

Sadly, the people’s wealth made them complacent toward God. Many in Israel were not living in alignment with the values of God’s covenant. Hence the Lord called Amos to confront the people over their sins.

At that stage the Jewish nation was divided in two. There was the southern kingdom of Judah and the northern kingdom of Israel.

Imagine if New Zealand was divided in two, politically, with one government for the North Island and a completely different government for the South Island. That’s sort of what it was like for the Jews of Amos’ day.

Amos came from Tekoa, which was in the southern kingdom of Judah.

God compelled Amos to prophesy to the northern kingdom of Israel.

That would be like God sending someone from rural Otago with a message for the people of Auckland.

For the most part, Amos’ message was an oracle of judgement. The people of Israel were supposed to live as an example to the nations around them. They were supposed to worship the one true God, to administer justice, to show kindness to the poor and to walk humbly with their God.

Unfortunately, many in Israel were more influenced by the pagan nations around them. Many in Israel worshipped other gods alongside Yahweh.

The consequent moral decay resulted in the rich oppressing the poor.

Basically, the behaviour of the Israelites was not aligned with the values and beliefs of their covenant with Yahweh. And this was causing quite a bit of cognitive dissonance, quite a bit of distress in the land.  

The people dealt with their cognitive dissonance in all the wrong ways.

They compromised their values, they compensated for their injustice by singing worship songs and offering sacrifices, and they denied there was anything wrong in what they were doing.

You see, it wasn’t that the people were not religious. They were very religious, but in the worst possible way. They separated ritual worship from justice and compassion. Their worship was compartmentalised into one day a week.

It wasn’t woven through all of life. They put God in the corner, out of the way.

When people do that, worship becomes empty, false, a kind of going through the motions to cover shame and appease a guilty conscience.

Amos was sent by God to tell the people of Israel they needed to change their behaviour. They needed to repent by bringing the way they lived back into line with the beliefs and values of their covenant with Yahweh. If they didn’t, judgement would follow. The truth always comes out in the end.

In verses 1-6 of Amos 7, the prophet repeatedly refers to God as the Sovereign Lord. A sovereign is the supreme ruler, like a king or the emperor. By calling the Lord, ‘Sovereign’, Amos is reminding us that God is the supreme ruler of the universe. As Sovereign Lord, God has the power and legitimate authority to pass judgement.   

When the Lord shows Amos a vision of judgement by locusts and Amos sees the destruction caused by the locusts, he begs God to forgive Jacob. (Jacob is another name for the nation of Israel.)

And, even though the Sovereign Lord has every right to send a plague of locusts, He listens to Amos and shows mercy on Israel.

Next the Sovereign Lord shows Amos a vision of judgement by fire, so that the water ways are dried up and the vegetation is destroyed. Again, Amos begs God to stop. If God carried out this vision of judgement by fire, the people of Israel (aka Jacob) would surely die.

And once again the Sovereign Lord, who has every right to destroy by fire, listens to Amos and relents.

Next the Lord shows Amos a vision of a plumb line and a straight wall.

Then the Lord says to Amos, “Look, I am setting a plumb line among my people Israel; I will spare them no longer. 9 “The high places of Isaac will be destroyed and the sanctuaries of Israel will be ruined; with my sword I will rise against the house of Jeroboam.”  

A plumb line is used by builders to make sure the structure is straight.

Yahweh has measured the behaviour of his people Israel (those descended from Isaac) and found their worship to be crooked.

Therefore, God is going to bring them back into line by destroying their places of worship and removing their leadership. Jeroboam was the king of Israel at that time, and he was among those who had led the people astray. 

This vision of judgement, which involved exile for the people of the northern kingdom of Israel, was a more merciful vision than the total destruction God had been contemplating.

So what about the sycamore tree then? Well, the sycamore fig was important in ancient Israel. So important in fact that king David appointed a cabinet minister to oversee the care of sycamore trees. [1]

Sycamores were valued for the shade they provided for animals and people alike. And probably too they were part of Israel’s food security strategy, given they fruited all year round.  

In traditional medicine, the fruit of the sycamore fig is sometimes used to treat conditions like constipation and diarrhoea. Also, the tree’s bark is used to heal coughs, sore throats and chest diseases.

One of the curious things about the sycamore fig is that the fruit must be pricked or cut three or four days before harvesting, otherwise it won’t ripen properly and will taste awful.

Before God called him to be a prophet, Amos was a shepherd and an orchardist. Amos took care of sheep and sycamore fig trees. Among other things, taking care of sycamore trees would have involved pruning branches and pricking the fruit, at the right time, so it ripened properly.

The role of the prophet in ancient Israel was similar to that of a dresser of sycamore trees. The prophets pruned back the dead branches of idolatry and they pricked the collective conscience of the nation, so the fruit of justice and mercy would ripen in people’s lives. 

‘Pricking the conscience of the nation’, is another way of saying the prophets pointed out the cognitive dissonance caused by the people’s moral failure. 

Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, had his conscience pricked by Amos, and he didn’t like it. Rather than letting the truth of what Amos was saying sink in, Amaziah was in complete denial of any wrongdoing. Amaziah reported Amos to the king and he told Amos to get lost, saying…

“Get out, you seer! Go back to the land of Judah. Earn your bread there and do your prophesying there. 13 Don’t prophesy anymore at Bethel, because this is the king’s sanctuary and the temple of the kingdom.”

A seer is another name for a prophet. Prophets like Amos see visions from God and are therefore called seers. In ancient Israel there were people who made a living as prophets or seers. They would tell people what their itching ears wanted to hear and be paid for it.

By telling Amos to earn his bread prophesying back in Judah, Amaziah is accusing Amos of being a prophet for hire. He is calling Amos’ character and motives into question.

Amaziah seems to be implying that Amos is being paid by the religious establishment of Judah to spread conspiracy theories and fear in the northern kingdom of Israel. Amaziah sees Amos as an enemy who could have a destabilising effect on Israelite society.   

While it is true that Amos’ words could potentially upset the status quo, no one is paying Amos to give a message of judgement against Israel. Far from it.

Amos is an honest man and a friend to Israel. His plumbline words of truth are a kindness, not a conspiracy.

When God showed Amos visions of Israel’s possible destruction by locusts and fire, Amos interceded for the Northern kingdom of Israel, asking God to have mercy. Amaziah is the one promoting conspiracy theories, not Amos.

Amos stands his ground saying: “I was neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet, but I was a shepherd, and I also took care of sycamore-fig trees. 15 But the Lord took me from tending the flock and said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’ 

In other words, “I’m not a prophet for hire and neither is anyone in my family.

No one is paying me. I’m not even part of the religious establishment. I am a labourer. I’m not here for any personal gain. I’m here because God sent me”.

Amos gets the last word, saying to Amaziah…

17 “…Your land will be measured and divided up, and you yourself will die in a pagancountry. And Israel will surely go into exile, away from their native land.’”

The truth always comes out in the end. Amos’ word from the Lord was realised in 722 BC when the northern kingdom of Israel was conquered by Assyria and the people were taken into exile. 

Conclusion:

Amos foreshadows Jesus in a number of ways…

Both Amos and Jesus were practical men, they worked with their hands.

Amos was a shepherd and Jesus is the good shepherd.

Both men lived most of their lives in relative obscurity before being compelled into a public ministry of proclaiming God’s word.

Both Amos and Jesus had an interest in sycamore trees. (Jesus probably slept under a few sycamore trees in his time.)

Both men were sent by God, offering a remedy for cognitive dissonance.

Both Amos and Jesus preached a message of repentance.

Both men confronted a religious establishment that was blind and corrupt.

And both were rejected by those they came to save.      

There is a significant difference between Amos and Jesus though. Amos came to fore warn the people of God’s judgement in the form of exile.

Jesus came to redeem the exiles (the lost sheep of Israel) and bring them home. Through his death and resurrection, Jesus bridges the gap of our cognitive dissonance removing our guilt and shame. Our part is to trust and obey Christ.

Let us pray…

Sovereign Lord, we thank you for your justice and your mercy. Forgive us for not living by the plumbline values of your kingdom. Grant us the grace to live in alignment with your purpose for us in Christ. Through Jesus we pray. Amen.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

  1. What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?
  2. What are some of the characteristics and uses of the sycamore fig tree?
  3. What is cognitive dissonance? How does cognitive dissonance make you feel? What are the four strategies for managing cognitive dissonance?
  4. What was the cause of Israel’s cognitive dissonance in Amos’ day? How did Israel deal with this? What is the cause of your cognitive dissonance? How do you deal with it?  
  5. Why does Amos refer to God as “Sovereign Lord”?
  6. How is God’s mercy evident in Amos 7?
  7. In what ways are Amos and Jesus similar? In what ways are they different? 

[1] 1 Chronicles 27:28

Tawa Baptist

Forgiven

Scripture: Psalm 130

 

Title: Forgiven

 

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Guilt
  • Forgiveness
  • Waiting
  • Conclusion

 

Introduction:

When I was a kid, for special occasions like birthdays, we would go to Pizza Hutt for dinner

–         This was in the days when Pizza Hutt had an actual restaurant you could sit down in – It seems to be all takeaways now

–         Anyway one of the exciting things about Pizza Hutt, for kids, was the little red pencils and activity sheets they gave you as you waited for your pizza to come to the table

–         On these activity sheets they usually had a maze like this one…

 

The idea was to trace your pencil through the maze, in one side and out the other, without going down a dead end

–         It doesn’t sound like much fun when I explain it now (in an age of iPads) but when you are young almost everything is full of wonder

 

This morning we continue our series on the Songs of Ascents

–         These songs were probably sung by Jewish pilgrims as they made their way to the temple in Jerusalem

–         They are songs about drawing nearer to God

–         Sometimes drawing closer to God can feel like trying to find your way through a maze – you don’t always know if you’ve taken the right turn and you sometimes get lost and come up against a dead end

 

Our focus today is psalm 130

–         In this song the psalmist describes a way out of the maze when you are lost – It is the way of forgiveness & waiting in hope

–         From the New Revised Standard Version, we read…

 

1 Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord. 2     Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive     to the voice of my supplications!

3 If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities,     Lord, who could stand? 4 But there is forgiveness with you,     so that you may be revered.

5 I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,     and in his word I hope; 6 my soul waits for the Lord     more than those who watch for the morning,     more than those who watch for the morning.

7 O Israel, hope in the Lord!     For with the Lord there is steadfast love,     and with him is great power to redeem. 8 It is he who will redeem Israel     from all its iniquities.

 

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate this song for us

 

Psalm 130 shows us a way out of the maze

–         It takes us from the prison of guilt to the freedom of redemption

–         The way out is characterised by forgiveness and waiting in hope

–         Let’s begin by considering the depths of guilt

 

Guilt:

Tell me, what happens as you go down deeper and deeper under water? [Wait]

 

That’s right, it gets darker and darker

–         Not only that but the pressure on you gets heavier and heavier

–         We can’t breathe under water so the deeper we go the more we feel trapped and therefore the more panicky (or fearful) we become

 

In verse 1 the psalmist says…

–         1 Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord.

 

The ‘depths’ are a metaphor – they are a place of great pressure and fear, where it is dark and it feels like you can’t breathe and everything is closing in on you

–         It is a place of profound despair and weakness

–         A place where many people might lose hope because they can’t see a way out – but not the psalmist, he sees a way

–         Even though no one can hear you under water (in the depths) the psalmist still cries out to the Lord saying, ‘Hear my voice’

–         It may seem like a long shot but what’s he got to lose

 

‘Supplications’ is a word which here means to ‘beg humbly’

–         The psalmist is begging God for mercy from a position of vulnerability and weakness

 

It’s not until verse 3 though that we learn what is causing all this distress

–         3 If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand?

 

‘Iniquities’ is another word for ‘sins’ – in particular sins of injustice

–         If God were to keep a record of all our mistakes, all our moral failures, then we wouldn’t have a leg to stand on

–         This tells us it is guilt which is weighing the psalmist down in the depths

–         Verse 3 also tells us everyone is guilty of iniquity – no one is innocent

–         So we are all in the same sinking boat

 

Now it needs to be said that guilt is a slippery critter

–         Sometimes we don’t feel guilty when we should – it’s like we have this blind spot and can’t see how our actions have been unfair to others

 

Other times though we can misplace our guilt, which is when we feel guilty about the wrong things

–         For example we might feel guilty because we ate a bar of chocolate or we didn’t go to the gym

–         These things are not really ‘iniquities’ – they are not moral issues of injustice and we don’t need to feel bad about them

–         (Unless of course the chocolate isn’t fair trade chocolate)

 

Misplaced guilt, however, can be more serious than not going to the gym

–         Like when someone survives a car crash while others in the car die and the survivor feels guilty even though they did nothing to cause the crash

–         Or when kids feel guilty for their parents’ divorce even though it’s not their fault and they were powerless in the situation

–         Surviving a car crash is not a sin

–         Nor is being the child of divorced parents

–         There’s no reason to feel guilty about that

 

The author of psalm 130 is not blind to the way his actions have affected others

–         Nor is his guilt misplaced

–         His guilt is appropriate in the face of his moral failure

–         We are not told specifically what the psalmist is feeling guilty about

–         But we do know he is a pilgrim who is drawing closer to God

–         And when we draw closer to God it is inevitable that our conscience will be pricked

 

If you are sitting in a room in the dark or the half-light then you don’t tend to notice the dirt and the grime that has accumulated on the ledges and windows

–         You probably don’t see the cobwebs in the corners or the bits of broken biscuit trampled into the carpet

–         But when someone turns the light on, suddenly all the marks show up

 

It seems to be a principle that as we draw nearer to God we become more aware of our guilt

–         This is because God is a moral being, he is supremely & thoroughly good

–         The Lord is light and as we draw closer to the light all our dirt (all our iniquity) is exposed and we realise we don’t have an excuse

 

The inconvenient truth of the gospel is that before we can feel good we need to feel bad – before we can enjoy God we must grow sick of ourselves

 

Guilt is the thirst (parched and desperate) that draws us to drink from the well of life

–         Guilt is the coldness (long and bitter) that draws us to warm ourselves by the embers of love

–         Guilt is the pain (stabbing and relentless) that draws us to Christ the doctor of our souls

–         Guilt is the boil (sensitive and fierce) that longs for the lance of forgiveness to release the infection

 

Forgiveness:

When I was at Baptist College preparing for ministry my mentor, Walter Lang, gave me his complete set of the Journals of John Wesley – all 8 volumes

–         I can’t say I’ve read them all but let me read to you a small portion

–         In May 1738 John Wesley writes…

 

In this vile, abject state of bondage to sin, I was indeed fighting continually, but not conquering. Before, I had willingly served sin: now it was unwillingly; still I served it. I fell, and rose, and fell again…

 

During this whole struggle between nature and grace, which had now continued above ten years, I had many remarkable returns to prayer, especially when I was in trouble; …But I was still ‘under the law’, not ‘under grace’; for I was only striving with, not freed from, sin. [1]  

 

Now what you need to understand is that John Wesley was not a bad person by society’s standards

–         He wasn’t a slave trader or a drug dealer or anything like that

–         He was a minister of the church, a preacher and a missionary

–         By most people’s standards he was a very virtuous man

–         And yet he was struggling in the depths

–         He still wrestled with sin and guilt having not felt touched by forgiveness

 

John Wesley wrote that this is the state [that] most who are called Christians are content to live and die in

–         It is possible to come to church and call yourself a Christian and not feel truly forgiven

–         We might know in our head that we are forgiven but do we know it deep down in our soul

 

Some people give up on the Christian faith because it makes them feel stink about themselves most of the time and they don’t want to feel bad anymore

–         That is such a tragedy

–         I don’t believe God wants us to feel guilty any longer than we have to

–         Guilt may be necessary for a time but it’s not meant to be the norm

–         Just like feeling thirsty or cold or in pain should not be the norm

 

John Wesley persevered with his guilt for more than 10 years

–         Perhaps you have suffered longer

 

On the morning of Wednesday the 24th May 1738, John Wesley opened his Bible on the words: “Thou art not far from the Kingdom of God”

–         That afternoon he was asked to go to St Paul’s (a church)

–         The hymn they were singing was psalm 130

–         Out of the deep have I called unto Thee O Lord: Lord hear my voice

 

In the evening of that same day John Wesley writes…

–         I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther’s preface to the Epistle to the Romans.

–         About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death. [2]   

 

The Lord is not standing over us waiting for us to make a mistake

–         He is standing beside us waiting to forgive

–         In verse 4 the psalmist says…

 

4 But there is forgiveness with you, so that you may be revered.

 

Walter Brueggemann makes the observation here that…

–         Forgiveness is the first fact of a new life

–         From forgiveness everything else flows [3]

–         The forgiveness is not earned, not reasoned or explained and not negotiated – it is simply believed in, trusted

 

Forgiveness comes before reverence (or fear) of God

–         It is because the psalmist knows the Lord has the power to forgive that he is able to show God the proper respect of obedience

–         Grace is the horse which pulls the cart of obedience

 

(It’s interesting that the psalmist doesn’t talk about God’s punishment being what inspires fear & reverence – it is God’s forgiveness that causes us to fear him.)

 

Psalm 130 shows how the Lord’s forgiveness provides a way out of the prison of guilt to the freedom of redemption

–         This sounds straight forward enough but on closer inspection we find there’s quite a bit of waiting in between our guilt and our redemption

 

Waiting:

In verses 5-6 the psalmist uses the image of a watchmen standing guard on the walls through the night – waiting for the morning…

 

What we notice here is that waiting and hoping are virtually the same thing

–         To wait for the Lord is to place your hope (or your trust) in his promises (in his word)

 

Not only is the waiting eager but the hope is certain

–         It may feel like a long wait but the morning is certain to come

–         So too the Lord’s forgiveness & redemption are certain to come for those who wait in faith

 

I said earlier that guilt is like a boil (like an abscess)

–         And I compared forgiveness to a lance (or a needle) that pierces the boil of guilt allowing the infection to drain out (what a lovely image for you)

 

When I was preparing the sermon I wondered whether I should make it the antibiotics of forgiveness for the boil of guilt

–         After all, antibiotics seem like a more gentle approach to treating an abscess – the image of lancing a boil evokes anticipation of pain

–         But I decided the lance was a better metaphor of forgiveness because forgiveness is not always pain free

–         What’s more forgiveness is about releasing the infection of sin

–         And antibiotics don’t convey the same image of release

 

The other reason I stuck with the lance of forgiveness is that antibiotics on their own aren’t usually enough for serious infections

–         Anyone who has had a decent boil knows it has to be drained eventually

–         But before it is drained there is a period of waiting for the boil to come to a head

–         To lance the boil before it is ready doesn’t achieve much – in fact it probably delays the healing process, if anything

 

Now some people may be thinking, ‘Why does God make us wait for forgiveness and redemption from our sins?’

–         Poor old John Wesley struggled for over 10 years

–         While the people of Israel had to wait 40 years in the wilderness until they were properly released to enter the Promised Land

–         Well, the boil of guilt must be allowed time to come to a head before God can release the puss of sin

–         Imparting the peace of forgiveness before someone is ready is like trying to lance a boil before it is ready – it delays the process

 

In thinking of this point I’m reminded of a scene from the 1986 movie The Mission

–         ­The Mission tells the story of some Jesuit priests who travel deep into the Amazon jungle to bring the gospel to the Indians living there

–         One of the priests used to be a human trafficker – he hunted the Indians and sold them as slaves

–         For a long time this reformed slave trader couldn’t accept forgiveness

 

As part of his penance he dragged his armour through the jungle to where the Indians lived

–         At one point one of the Jesuit brothers tried to cut him free from his burden but the reformed slaver just gathered it up again and carried on

–         It was like he was carrying his guilt and he wasn’t ready to let it go

–         The boil hadn’t come to a head

 

Eventually, when he finally did reach the Indian tribe their chief cut him free

–         That was the sign he needed to know that God had forgiven him

–         Once he felt forgiven then he could serve the people

 

The other thing to say about waiting in hope is that it’s actually good for us

–         When we wait for something we tend to value it more

–         If you give a diamond ring to a 3 year old they are not likely to take care of it – they will probably lose it

–         But if you wait until they are 33 then they will look after it

 

God makes us wait, not because he needs time but because we need time

–         By the same token, when the time for forgiveness arrives we shouldn’t put it off

 

Examining your guilt is a bit like looking in the mirror – you don’t want to spend too long doing it

 

What we find with the author of psalm 130 is that his focus changes

–         He becomes less introspective and more outward looking as the psalm progresses

–         In the first six verses the psalmist is focused on himself in relation to God: ‘I cry to you, hear my voice, I wait, I hope…’

–         (This is what guilt does – it narrows our peripheral vision)

–         But in the last two verses the psalmist stops his navel gazing and thinks about the wider community of God

 

In verses 7-8 he calls Israel to hope in the Lord because of God’s great power to redeem

 

To redeem is to set free, to release, to liberate and so it’s very close to forgiveness in its meaning

–         Guilt makes us a prisoner in our own soul

–         Forgiveness releases us to think outside of ourselves

–         We need to be prepared to seek forgiveness while we can and wait in hope for God to bring his redemption when the time is right

 

The point we shouldn’t miss is there’s often a gap (a time of waiting) between being forgiven and realising our full redemption

–         Just like there is a time of waiting between when the boil is lanced and drained and when the wound finally heals over

–         Or to use a different analogy: the stain of guilt may be removed from clothes of our soul by the washing of forgiveness but we still have to wait for the clothes to dry before we can wear them

 

Conclusion:

There are many stories of forgiveness in the gospel

–         But the story which (I think) fits best with psalm 130 is Jesus’ forgiveness of the criminal on the cross

 

Jesus was crucified between two criminals

–         The first criminal was not in touch with his own guilt

–         He didn’t feel bad about what he had done

–         He seemed to be blind (or unfeeling) when it came to the impact his actions had on others

–         He gave Jesus a hard time saying: Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us.

–         Jesus ignored this first criminal – he said nothing to him

 

The second criminal was in touch with his own guilt

–         He rebukes the first criminal saying: Don’t you fear God? You received the same sentence he did. Ours, however, is only right, because we are getting what we deserve for what we did; but he has done no wrong.

 

The second criminal does feel bad for what he has done – and what’s more he feels bad for Jesus who hasn’t done anything to deserve crucifixion

 

What I find particularly interesting is way the second criminal begins by saying:

–         Don’t you fear God?

–         To fear God is to have deep respect and reverence for him

–         This connects with verse 4 of psalm 130 where the psalmist says…

–         But there is forgiveness with you, so that you may be revered [or feared]

–         We hold God in deep reverence and respect because he has the power to forgive

 

It’s like the second criminal is saying to the first:

–         What are you doing?! You are guilty and without excuse.

–         You need forgiveness and God is the only one with the power to forgive.

–         This man Jesus, who you are insulting, is God’s representative

–         Why would you insult the one man who could help you get forgiveness from God

–         Don’t you respect God – don’t you believe God has the power to forgive?

 

Clearly the second criminal did believe that God could forgive him and take away his guilt

–         What’s more he also believed Jesus was the key to God’s forgiveness

–         So he says: Remember me, Jesus, when you come as King

–         The man is in the depths and he is begging Jesus for mercy from a position of vulnerability and weakness

 

And the Lord replies: I promise you that today you will be in Paradise with me

–         Jesus is promising the man redemption

–         The implication here is that the man’s sins are forgiven

–         Jesus is not standing over the man waiting for him to make a mistake

–         He is hanging beside the man waiting to forgive

–         All the man has to do is wait in hope and keep trusting in Jesus’ promise of paradise

–         What we notice is there’s a gap – a time of painful waiting – between being forgiven and being fully redeemed

 

In a few minutes we will share communion together

–         Communion is a time to remember that with Jesus there is forgiveness

–         The musicians will come now to lead us in song as we prepare our hearts to receive God’s grace

[1] The Journal of John Wesley, Volume One, pages 471.

[2] Ibid, pages 475-476.

[3] Walter Brueggemann, The Message of the Psalms, page 105.

Tawa Baptist

Mercy

Scripture: Psalm 123 (also Luke 18:35-43)

 

Title: Mercy

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Human mercy
  • Honour & shame
  • Jesus’ mercy
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Today we continue our series on the Songs of Ascents – which we know as Psalms 120 to 134

 

The word ‘Ascent’ has to do with moving upward

–         The temple in Jerusalem was on a hill

–         On their way to religious festivals Jewish pilgrims might sing these songs as they ascended the hill to the temple

 

The 15 Songs of Ascents, then, are about being on a journey – not just a physical journey to Jerusalem but also a spiritual journey

–         As we make our way through these Songs of Ascents we notice the psalmist draws closer to God

 

The plan, over the next couple of months, is to explore the Songs of Ascents as we journey toward Easter

–         This morning we take a closer look at psalm 123

–         Last week, in psalm 122, the palmist sang about arriving in Jerusalem

–         Now that he has arrived his first word is a prayer to God for mercy

–         Not mercy in the sense of forgiveness for anything he might have done wrong – but rather, mercy in the sense of a reprieve from the wrong that has been done to him by others

–         From the New Revised Standard Version we read…

 

1 To you I lift up my eyes,     O you who are enthroned in the heavens! 2 As the eyes of servants     look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maid     to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God,     until he has mercy upon us.  3 Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us,     for we have had more than enough of contempt. 4 Our soul has had more than its fill     of the scorn of those who are at ease,     of the contempt of the proud.

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate this prayer for us

Human mercy:

In their book “A Higher Call” Adam Makos and Larry Alexander retell a true story of mercy from WW2…

 

The pilot glanced outside his cockpit and froze. He blinked hard and looked again, hoping it was just a mirage. But his co-pilot stared at the same horrible vision.

 

The men were looking at a gray German Messerschmitt fighter hovering just three feet off their wingtip. It was five days before Christmas 1943, and the fighter had closed in on their crippled B-17 bomber.

 

The B-17 pilot, Charles Brown, was a 21-year-old West Virginia farm boy on his first combat mission. His bomber had been shot to pieces by swarming fighters, and his plane was alone in the skies above Germany. Half his crew was wounded, and the tail gunner was dead, his blood frozen in icicles over the machine guns.

 

But when Brown and his co-pilot, Spencer Luke, looked at the fighter pilot again, something odd happened. The German didn’t pull the trigger. He nodded at Brown instead.

 

What happened next was one of the most remarkable acts of mercy recorded during World War II. Instead of finishing the American bomber off the German fighter pilot continued to fly in close formation with the bomber to protect it from German anti-aircraft guns on the ground

 

The German pilot’s name was Franz Stigler. Franz was a fighter ace. One more kill and he would have been awarded the Knight’s Cross.

 

But Stigler was driven by something deeper than glory. His older brother, August, was a fellow Luftwaffe pilot who had been killed earlier in the war. American pilots had killed Stigler’s comrades and were bombing his country’s cities. The temptation for revenge was intense.

 

Despite having strong reason to shoot, Stigler pressed his hand over the rosary he kept in his flight jacket. He eased his index finger off the trigger. He couldn’t open fire. It would be murder.

 

Stigler wasn’t just motivated by vengeance that day. He also lived by a code. He could trace his family’s ancestry to knights in 16th century Europe. He had once studied to be a priest.

 

A German pilot who spared the enemy, though, risked death in Nazi Germany. If someone reported him, he would be executed. Yet Stigler could also hear the voice of his commanding officer, who once told him:

–         “You follow the rules of war for you — not your enemy. You fight by rules (or principles) to keep your humanity.”  [1]

 

Many years later the two pilots, Charles Brown and Franz Stigler met in person

 

Whether in war or peace, mercy is part of humanity’s code

–         The capacity to show mercy, compassion and kindness is what sets us apart as creatures made in God’s image

 

One of the things we recognise from Franz’ story is that human mercy is circumstantial – by which I mean the circumstances need to be right for us to show mercy

–         Like Franz Stigler we need to be in the right place at the right time with the right resources to be able to demonstrate mercy to others

–         Sometimes we may wish to show mercy but it might not be in our power to do so because we aren’t in the right place at the right time or we don’t have the resources (or the power) that is needed to help

–         That’s okay – so long as we are always prepared to show mercy when the opportunity presents itself and it’s in our power to do so

 

Unlike us human beings, God is not limited by time or space or power

–         He is present everywhere and His resources are infinite

–         So God’s mercy is qualitatively different from human expressions of mercy

 

Honour & shame:

One of the big concepts found in psalm 123, which is perhaps not as obvious to us as the concept of mercy, is the idea of honour & shame

–         To understand where the psalmist is coming from we have to think in terms of honour & shame

 

An honour-shame mind-set is different from an innocence-guilt mind-set

–         Innocence & guilt are about the things we do

–         While honour & shame are about who we are

 

Innocence and guilt has to do with the personal moral decisions we make

–         For example, Franz Stigler made a personal moral decision not to shoot the struggling B-17 bomber out of the sky

–         He reasoned that would be murder

–         If Franz had shot the plane down he would have been guilty

–         But he didn’t – he saved the plane – and so he was innocent, in that situation at least

 

Honour and shame is different from innocence and guilt

–         Honour and shame is something that other people put on us

–         So if Franz had shot the plane down his superiors would have honoured him with the Knight’s Cross – a special medal

–         Ironically he wouldn’t be innocent but he would be honoured

–         By not shooting down the plane Franz took the risk of being shamed by his superiors – being branded a traitor or disloyal

 

Focusing just on shame for a moment…

–         I remember when I was about 15 or 16 riding along Ward Street in Hamilton on my bike and a couple guys rode past and spat on me

–         I had no idea who they were – it was completely unprovoked

–         They were simply looking for a fight

–         Now I didn’t feel guilty about that – I hadn’t done anything wrong

–         But I did feel shamed – they literally put shame on me by spitting on me

 

Now the temptation when someone puts shame on us is to retaliate and try to put shame on them as well (as if that could restore our honour)

–         I didn’t retaliate in this situation, mainly because they were bigger than me

 

Looking back on it now I think the reason they spat on me was because someone had tried to put shame on to them and they were simply trying get rid of that shame by passing it off onto me – it wasn’t personal

 

Shame, then, isn’t so much about making a mistake

–         Shame is a statement or action that says you are a mistake or you are nothing, you don’t matter

 

People can put shame on us in a whole variety of ways

–         Usually it’s by name calling – saying things like ‘you’re a looser’, or ‘you’re ugly’ or ‘you’re stupid’ or whatever

–         But they might also cause shame in other ways too – like physical or sexual abuse or by causing us social embarrassment

–         When someone tries to put shame on us, we have a choice

–         We can believe the lie that we are worthless

–         Or we can remember the truth that we are made and loved by God

–         That we are valuable to him

–         We are so valuable to God in fact that he was prepared to put His Son Jesus in harm’s way for us

 

In psalm 123 the author hasn’t done anything bad – he isn’t feeling guilty

–         But he has been made to feel shame

–         Other people are showing him scorn and contempt

 

To be shown scorn & contempt is to be rejected – treated like you are nothing, like you are a mistake

–         Scorn & contempt isn’t so much a criticism of what you’ve done

–         It’s more a criticism of who you are

 

But the psalmist chooses not to accept the shame that his enemies are trying to put on him

–         Instead the psalmist looks to God for honour

 

 1 To you I lift up my eyes,     O you who are enthroned in the heavens!

 

God is the one enthroned in the heavens

–         You can’t get any higher status or position than that

–         God has the most honour and he is the source of real honour

–         God has conferred on human beings the honour (and glory) of being made in his image

 

2 As the eyes of servants     look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maid     to the hand of her mistress,

so our eyes look to the Lord our God…

It’s interesting how in today’s world we are used to having eyes on us

–         We are used to security cameras watching our every move,

–         Speed cameras waiting to snap us if we go over the limit,

–         Security guards monitoring us to make sure we don’t get out of hand

–         Managers keeping an eye on us to ensure we do our job, and so on

 

But here in verse 2 all eyes are on the master

–         The servants and the maid are not the centre of attention – the Lord is

–         The servants and the maid are trusted

–         They give their attention to the hand of the master

–         Why the hand?

–         Well the hand is symbolic of power & authority

–         A simple hand gesture from the master tells the servant what to do

–         The hand also protects and provides

 

By describing themselves as servants and maids who diligently look to obey God their master, the Jewish pilgrims are essentially saying…

–         ‘Our honour comes from the Lord – not from what other people think of us. We are not defined by those people who show us scorn and contempt.

–         We are defined by God himself – we are his servants, he is our master’

–         The implication is: there is honour in being a servant of God Most High

 

If you have suffered shame by the way people have treated you or the lies they have spoken about you then, let me say, you are not defined by the proud or the abusive

–         You are not defined by the flippant or by those whose lives are easy

–         You are defined by God Himself

–         You are his precious child – his beloved

–         And He (the Lord) places immeasurable value and honour and respect on your life – you are loved by him

–         Jesus came to transform our temporary suffering into eternal glory

–         He came to clothe our shame with his honour

 

Returning to verse 2, another thing we notice is the wonderfully inclusive language used here

–         Women are honoured alongside men, on the same social level as men

–         This is not a boys only club

–         Women have the dignity (the honour) of serving God, as men do

–         This might not seem like such a big deal to us now but equality between the sexes was a big deal 3,000 years ago

 

The Jewish pilgrims look to the Lord for mercy because they are fed up with being shown scorn & contempt by those around them

 

Mercy has to do with power

–         To show mercy one must be in a position of power

–         Mercy is basically using your power to help someone

–         There is no one more powerful than God and also no one more merciful

 

What we see here is that the psalmist does not ask mercy from the proud who are showing him scorn and contempt

–         Instead he asks God for mercy – he goes right to the top

–         This is an admission that God is the one who is really in control

–         The proud can only show contempt because the Lord allows it

 

It’s a bit like when Pilate said to Jesus, “Don’t you know that I have power to release you and power to crucify you?”

–         Meaning, “Don’t you realise I have the power to show you mercy?”

–         And Jesus replied, “You would have no power over me unless it had been given you from above”

–         In other words, ‘Pilate, you’re not really in control here. This is only happening because God is allowing it. God could take away your power at any moment’

 

The proud are on notice – they are not in control, even if they think they are

 

As it turned out God allowed Jesus to be crucified

–         Crucifixion isn’t just physically painful

–         It is also incredibly shameful

–         Jesus hung on the cross naked while people heaped their scorn and contempt and insults on him

–         But three days later God honoured Jesus by raising him from the dead

–         Resurrection is honour

 

Psalm 123 ends in a way that feels unfinished

–         We are left hanging as the psalmist is left hanging

–         The pilgrim has asked God for His mercy but we don’t know, at this point, how God will respond

–         God is silent

 

This is often how the spiritual life is – we make our petitions to God in prayer and are left waiting with no quick results

–         Perhaps you have had a similar experience

–         Maybe asking God for healing and not getting it straight away

–         Or asking God for a job and then having to wait for months just for an interview

–         Or asking God for some direction in your life only to hear a long silence

 

The Lord’s timing is not our timing – but it is right in the end

 

Mercy can take a variety of forms

–         In the example of Franz Stigler and Charles Brown, mercy took the form of a reprieve from death

–         In psalm 123 the mercy requested was an end to contempt and shame

–         Mercy can also be the restoration of something that was lost

 

Jesus’ mercy:

Many years ago there lived a man who was blind

–         The man had not always been blind – he had lost his sight part way through life

 

It wasn’t the man’s fault that he was blind – it wasn’t because of anything he had done wrong and yet he didn’t feel good about himself

–         He survived by begging on the side of the road

–         No one really likes a beggar – they tend to make people feel guilty

 

Although the man couldn’t see he could certainly hear well enough

–         It wasn’t just the rude things people would say about him, it was their tone of voice as well

–         Most people tried to avoid him, some were afraid of him, others were irritated at the inconvenience he presented and just a few were abusive

–         He felt like a dead weight – not contributing anything to society, just getting under people’s feet, making them feel uncomfortable

–         He was made to feel shame every day

 

The blind man could never voice his frustration to others though

–         Even if they did stop long enough to listen how could they possibly understand the daily grind that was his reality

–         Being made to feel shame for who he was – something he had no control over – It wasn’t fair

–         Not that he would give in to self-pity – not for a moment

–         He had enough pity from others without adding to it himself

 

One day the man heard a commotion further down the street

–         He recognised the sound – it was a large crowd on the move

–         Crowds made him nervous

–         A crowd is an unpredictable thing – a dangerous thing, especially if you’re blind

–         But curiosity got the better of him and he asked what was happening

–         “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by”, they told him

 

Jesus of Nazareth

–         The blind man had heard of Jesus

–         Jesus would have known about shame and contempt

–         There were rumours about his heritage – his mother got pregnant before she was married (or so they said)

–         Nearly as bad as that, Jesus came from Nazareth – and everyone knows nothing good comes from Nazareth

–         Of course the blind man knew that was just a prejudice

–         It wasn’t fair to right someone off because of where they lived

–         Not everyone can afford a nice house in a leafy suburb

 

The blind man had heard how Jesus could heal people – make them whole again

–         This might be his only chance – maybe Jesus would heal him

–         Maybe he could see again and get a job so he didn’t have to keep begging

–         Maybe he could be free of the shame people kept heaping on him day after day – God knows he had had his share of contempt

–         So he cried out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.”

 

This was a bold thing to say

–         ‘Son of David’ was another way of saying ‘Messiah’ or ‘King’

–         People were divided by Jesus

–         Many were uncomfortable with thinking he might be the Christ

–         The man had no qualms though

–         It was funny how he (a blind man) could see that Jesus was God’s promised Messiah, while others with 20/20 vision couldn’t see it

 

The people around told him, in no uncertain terms, to shut up

–         But he just shouted even louder, “Son of David, have mercy on me.”

–         All those years of taking their shame – no way was he going to be quiet

–         It was worth the risk of getting punched in the face

–         They did not define him – God defined him and Jesus was from God

 

Jesus stood still and the crowd slowed to halt also

–         Then, without moving, Jesus ordered the blind man to be brought to him

–         The man had called Jesus a ‘king’ because a king he is

–         Standing still while one of his subjects was brought before him was a very kingly way of handling the matter

 

When the man was near, Jesus asked him…

–         “What do you want me to do for you?”

–         The man liked that Jesus didn’t make any assumptions

–         To be asked what it was he wanted made him feel respected – it empowered him, gave him a real choice and dignity

 

“Lord, let me see again.”

 

It was a simple sentence and yet it said so much

–         The blind man addressed Jesus as “Lord” – it was a way of giving Jesus honour, placing himself under Jesus’ authority

–         “Let me see again” – was an acknowledgment that Jesus had the power to restore sight and to end the contempt and shame he suffered

 

Jesus responded just as simply as the man had asked, saying…

–         “Receive your sight; your faith has saved you.”

–         Not only did Jesus give the man his physical sight back, Jesus also restored the man’s honour by giving him credit for his faith

–         Jesus acknowledged the man’s spiritual vision

 

Those who had tried to the silence man were now the ones with nothing to say

 

But the man wasn’t worried about them – he could see again and was overjoyed, praising God as he followed Jesus down the road toward Jericho

–         The man’s joy was infectious – the people around him couldn’t help but join him in praising God too

 

Conclusion:

Mercy – it is one of God’s defining characteristics

–         Jesus shows us what divine mercy looks like

–         Jesus shows us what it is to be made in the image of God

 

 

Let us pray…

–         Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us

–         And help us to pay your mercy forward

–         Amen.

 

 

https://soundcloud.com/tawabaptist/19-feb-2017-mercy

 

[1] http://edition.cnn.com/2013/03/09/living/higher-call-military-chivalry/index.html?hpt=hp_c1