Thursday, March 21, 2013

The Miracle of Regeneration

The first day of Spring is one thing, but the first Spring day is another.
                                                       – Henry Van Dyke


A couple of Sundays ago I added a little "show-and-tell" to my sermon....complete with "props".  I'm sure my congregation was at least a little curious as to why I had a 3-foot-long oak tree branch resting on the pulpit on that particular morning.  I actually used it to make an illustration about rebirth, regeneration and the Spring season. 

Of course....to make the illustration properly, I had to do a little botanical research on the budding process for trees.  What I found out was even more amazing than I first thought.  The small, emerging buds that we see on trees in early spring - like the ones on my oak limb sample - actually develop at the end of the previous summer.  The tree forms these buds when the days are still long and there's plenty of sun.  It then covers the buds with "scales" (looks sortof like bark) and insulates the buds throughout fall and winter.....until the days start to lengthen again and there is ample sunlight.  As the sun grows warmer and the days longer (in Spring) the bud gets restless and the scales begin to drop off.  Perhaps we don't notice all of the true miracles that happen around us....all the time.

I thought about a story I once heard.  A wise king was wrestling with his Christian faith and belief.  "If I could just witness a miracle", he said to himself, then I could finally belief that God exists and moves within humanity.  Troubled....almost obsessed.....by these thoughts, he finally consulted his wisest counsel.  To the king's delight, his wise sage informed him that God had given the old wise man the ability to grant the king a miracle.  Eager to finally witness this long-awaited miracle, the king hung on every word of his trusted counsel.  The wise gentleman instructed the king to plant four acorns in separate locations around the perimeter of a small, crystal clear pool.  After planting the acorns the king was instructed to gaze into the crystal clear pool, for only a second, and then look up.  When the king did, he was gazing up at four magnificent, mature oak trees.  "Wow!" he shouted.  "That is truly a miracle!"  In just seconds, four acorns turned into four beautiful oak trees.  Amazing".  The wise man, with a slightly troubled look on his face, explained to the king that the "split second" was actually 80 years....a little trick necessary so that the king could see the miracle unfold.  Sure enough, the king gazed back down into the crystal-clear pond and his reflection revealed a wrinkled face and stringy gray/white hair.  Although the king's condition was temporary....he had learned a valuable lesson.  Just because it took over 80 years for an acorn to become a mature oak tree....the process in no less a miracle. 

At some point in your lives, I think we've all been like that king.  When things are falling apart around us....we find ourselves almost shouting...."where is God in all of this?"  "Does God even care about this little drama called 'my life'"?  And then....God shows up.  If it's still a little hard to believe, just spend some time outside during the next two months.  God...is....here.

Springtime is all about rebirth, regeneration....resurrection.  It reminds all Christians that regeneration is the way God begins His work in us, and it explains why each Christian is a new creation in Christ. 

The New Testament is full of imagery of rebirth.  In John 3:3, Jesus tells Nichodemus that unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.  Then in 2 Corinthians 5:17 Paul reminds us (as he does several times) that in Christ, we are new creations.  And then in 1 Peter chapter 1, Peter shares with readers a "new birth into a living hope".  Even though Peter wrote this letter during a time of intense Christian persecution - at the hands of Nero - his words brought hope, promise and optimism to his fledgling Christian readers.  We get a sense that Peter knew the persecution would spread and continue....and so his letters encouraged Christians to remain strong. 

Peter's letter is clear that it is the Holy Spirit who grants us a new birth (1 Peter 1:3) and that the miracle of rebirth is nothing we can do for ourselves.  Peter also explains that, as Christians, our "living hope" and outpouring of brotherly love is a directly result from the "seed of God" planted within our hearts as part of the regeneration process. 

While preparing for this sermon on rebirth and regeneration, I ran into an article, written by columnist Beverly Beckham, that originally ran in the April 24, 2011 edition of the Boston Globe.  Beverly's article is a powerful and moving reminder of the miracle of rebirth.  A link to the article is below.  Enjoy!

Article: "With spring, a rebirth of hope"

Audio Sermon: The Miracle of Regeneration

Sermon Notes: The Miracle of Regeneration

Monday, March 18, 2013

Focus on the Family

A few weeks ago, I was flying to New Orleans - from Nashville - coming back from a consulting engagement in Tennessee.  I brought the latest copy of USA Today on board to help pass the time on the relatively short, but crowded, Southwest flight.  A glance at the Opinion page and I saw a headline that read "Debate over preschool obscures the core problem".  A subtitle read "Fragile families harm children".    Any reader would have had a hard time missing the alarming chart in the middle of the page which showed that in 1960 5.3% of children were born out-of-wedlock....but by 2010 that percentage had grown to 40.8%.  Let that sink in for a moment.  Today, two out of every five children are born to single mothers.  As a man and a father, I just can't imagine turning my back on the fundamental responsibility of holding one's family together.

Apparently, being a father is just not as fashionable these days. 

The article cited a number of research studies that have concluded that children raised in one-parent homes typically face an uphill battle - socially, physically, financially and emotionally.  Now...to be fair....there are plenty of single parent success stories - most of those being single moms.  The article was simply pointing out that raising children with only one parent makes child raising harder than it has to be.   Reading through the article, you can almost feel the arms of the author being cast skyward in desperation....as the article begs the questions...."where did we go wrong?" and "what do we do now?".  The article ends with a bone-jarring claim: "the primary engine of social advancement has always been the family, and it is breaking down."

Of course....a secular article in USA Today is not going to refer to the Biblical model of the family.  But if we truly ask ourselves....if all parents were following the Biblical model of the family....would there even be a need to write the article I found myself reading?  The answer, of course, is "no". 

God's plan for the family was not an afterthought.  We read of God's plan all the way back to Deuteronomy 6:4 - 9.  This is a well-known passage where we experience Moses communicating with the people of Israel.  This passage is also where we first learn of the Greatest Commandment (Jesus himself would later reference this passage during his ministry on earth)....and the fact that instructions regarding the family were mentioned alongside of the most revered of Jewish teachings....reminds us that the family is important. 

Within these five verses in Deuteronomy 6 we learn that God should be part of all daily activities - waking, working, going to bed.  Family activities that have remained unchanged over the course of several thousand years.  Moses also instructed God's people to protect their house with the Word of God.  Many took this literally...and some still do.  Phylacteries are small containers of scripture that some orthodox Jews wear on their forehead and arm.  And some adorn the doorways  in their houses with "mezuzahs" (containers with scriptures) that can be touched when traveling from room-to-room.

Scripture is "crystal clear" that "family comes first" - to borrow a phrase that seems overused at times.  It is in the context of the home - not the Church - where families learn and grow in faith.

In a modern society where the breakdown of the family is so alarming and profound, it would be tempting for us, as Christians, to just shake our heads, wonder where it all went wrong....and resign ourselves to the fact that things just aren't like they were in the "good ol' days.  But that is not how Jesus Christ would respond.  Our congregations should approach the problem of the family with prayer, love and compassion....not condemnation, shame and embarrassment for those who find themselves in the midst of family turmoil.  After all, if Jesus Christ did not come to condemn the world (John 3:17) then how can we justify doing so? 

Audio Sermon of "Focus on the Family"

Notes from "Focus on the Family" Sermon





Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Spread the Word

During a sermon a couple of weeks ago....I got on the "anti-Facebook" bandwagon.....warning my congregation that there is evidence that social media has a tendency to make some unsuspecting users a tad more self-centered and narcissistic.  My wife and 12-year-old daughter, both Facebook junkies, were not amused.  They both would be surprised to hear me, just two weeks later, exclaiming the amazing ability of Facebook and other social media sites to spread the news about Christ's grace. 

I recently stumbled on a FoxNews.com story about a Facebook page called Jesus Daily....a site that now has over 15 million regular followers.  The site was started by a physician in Virginia who, from what I can tell, was just following the command of Jesus himself....to embark on the Great Commission.  Here's  quick YouTube video on Jesus Daily.


Amazing what one person can do when moved by God.  My faith in social media is renewed!  Sortof.  ;-)

About that same time I was pondering the good works of Jesus Daily, I received the latest issue of Christianity Today and the cover story was called "The New Radicals"....an article about David Platt, Francis Chan and others who are challenging comfortable Christians to extreme discipleship. 

And then finally I found myself reading up on some history, as I often do, and got on the subject of the Jewish Diaspora and how that spread of Jews helped the spread the Christianity by introducing cultures to a monotheistic God and establishing synagogues that would later be used by early Christian church congregations. 

Perhaps God was nudging me to put together a sermon on "spreading the word"?  You think?

Sure...a sermon on Matthew 28:16 - 20 would not be very original or groundbreaking, but with Easter right around the corner....maybe its time we reminded ourselves of that powerful piece of scripture.

Matthew packs a lot in to these five verses.  In these verses we find Jesus:

....assuring disciples of His power.
....giving them instructions on the Great Commission.
....promising the disciples his continued presence.

What I find comforting, in a weird way, is just how much the disciples doubted Jesus.  We see this same theme over and over again in the New Testament.  The disciples weren't always brimming with confidence.  They doubted Jesus' ability to save them when the seas turned rough.  They had to touch the wounds of Jesus to belief his resurrection.  And few believed that Jesus could somehow feed the 5,000 on a particular busy day during his earthly ministry.  Basically, the disciples were much like you and I.  Always doubting....always questioning our faith.  So in the first part of our scripture passage, Jesus reassures the disciples yet again.

We then hear Jesus offer up details on the Great Commission.  That it is universal...for ALL nations and people.  That it is all about "teaching" or "making disciples". 

Jesus commanded us to "go" and "teach" and know that we are not alone.  What strikes me.....is that if this was the LAST recorded thing (in Matthew) that Jesus said to his disciples....the very last thing he would say to them before departing....then this must have been some important, groundbreaking, earth-shattering stuff.

I'm reminded that I need to have faith that is it possible for all of us to make disciples.  Every-now-and-then we need to also be reminded that the greatest faith movement that the world has ever seen....started with, at most, a handful of ill-prepared, doubting followers. 

As Margaret Mead famously said:

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world.  Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.


Audio Sermon - Spread the Word

Sermon Notes - Spread the Word