Redeemed to Serve

 

Let’s do a brief overview. Jonah is called by GOD to go to Nineveh (modern-day Mosul, Iraq) the capital of the Assyrian empire and warn the city about impending disaster. At the time, it is the greatest city in the world. Jonah refuses, heads in the opposite direction, and gets on a ship. GOD sends a storm to track him down, endangering the lives of everyone on board. The sailors rebuke Jonah for not applying his faith for the common good. Jonah, recognizing this predicament, offers to be thrown into the ocean so the lives of the other sailors will not be forfeited. When Jonah wakes up and steps up his faith sparks a change in the sailor’s hearts and lives. Too often, the church is like Jonah: asleep to the people standing right in front of us. What does the story of Jonah teach us about how Christians should relate to the outside world? Well first, we must recognize every human being has a deep, spiritual longing, but in our natural state, those deep, spiritual longings are often distorted by fear, and our own selfish ambition. Far too many people like Jonah are asleep below deck, absorbed with our own problems, or agendas. We are asleep below deck, consumed by what we want.

So goes man…and so goes Jay Adam. Recently, I was contacted by a friend and invited to attend a Golf tournament. Now, all expenses were paid, including two days of golf, food, and all the amenities. Everything was set, before playing our Team decided to play a couple of tune-up rounds. Therefore, I met the other three, and we played a couple of rounds. I was able to tweak my iron shots and improve my putting. The day for the tournament came and we were all excited to see if the practice we had put in would transfer to the tournament. The round went off as we had hoped… it was almost magical; I began the game of my life on the Golf Course that day. I had 2 straight pars, a birdie…and then it happened. The man I was paired with began asking questions about the Bible, questions about life, and deep doctrinal questions. Now, normally, I embrace these opportunities. I am not the person who when the doorbell rings and it is the Jehovah's Witness or the Mormons, I choose to lock the door and simply set quietly and pray they leave. I am the guy who, when the Jehovah Witness, the Mormons, or any other person desiring to proselytize come knocking, I invite them in and then lock the door! But this was different! I had a legitimate chance to shoot par. In my frustration with birds chirping, birdies abounding, and eagles soaring, GOD spoke to my heart, asking me a question… one simple question we each need to hear this morning… “What really matters?”

Today the nay-sayers are chirping, silo communities are abounding, the cost of living rising, and gas prices are soaring. As I stood on the next T-Box thinking about what GOD had spoken to my heart…peering at a distant flag whipping in the breeze… the story of Jonah came rushing home. I have read this story literally over one hundred times. I know this story inside and out…or so I thought. You see I had always looked at the story from Jonah’s perspective, or from the Ninevite's perspective. I never considered what the sailors thought, what the sailors were asking Jonah, what the sailors were facing. The sailors were scared, they were searching for answers, and they were facing eternity without GOD, and they knew it. This is exactly what this man was doing by talking with me, he had no intent to ruin my round…he needed answers…and GOD had sent a storm amid a round of golf… he encountered me below deck… an appointment with a "C player" with a personal relationship with the ONE he was searching for…and I almost threw away the opportunity…for a chance to shoot par…praise GOD I woke up… he shared, I listened, …and he realized the truth of scripture, what Jesus did at Calvary, and that YES… he mattered. 

We have the distinct opportunity to serve our fellowmen by listening to what they are facing, by being present, by remaining attentive, and by following the Holy Spirit's direction. How can someone gain the strength to accept the Gospel of Christ and to follow and stand up for the cause of Christ when Christians refuse to listen, share, and serve? This reminded me of Thomas Cranmer’s life, testimony, and death.

Thomas Cranmer (1489–1556) was a leading reformer in the Church of England. His life, legacy, and fate were intertwined with the lives of several English monarchs. King Henry VIII and King Edward VI. Cranmer completed his most famous works, the Book of Common Prayer and the Book of Homilies, during their reign. Under Mary Tudor's “Bloody Mary”, the Queen of England and of Ireland, Cranmer was accused of heresy and treason, imprisoned, tried, and forced to write a declaration denouncing his faith. Cranmer was taken to a public place to read his declaration admitting heresy. Cranmer, like Jonah, would wake up and find strength to stand firm in his faith. After denouncing his written declaration, he is immediately dragged from the podium and taken to a place where his death by burning at the stake was already prearranged. At the end, Cranmer remained firm in his faith. In his final words, he raised his hand declaring this hand which had written the declaration denouncing his faith had offended GOD and should be burned first. Then placing his hand in the flame, he never withdrew it, the fire would consume his hand, then his arm, and ultimately his complete body. From written first-hand reports Cranmer remained steadfast never yelling in anguish. What he did say was to quote Acts 7:56 “Look, he said I see the heaven open up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of GOD.” Cranmer found comfort in his steadfast faith with the knowledge he had been redeemed to serve. What really mattered to Cranmer was Christ…Christ alone. Cranmer’s death did not have the effect Mary Tudor had hoped for…his steadfast faith fanned the flame of the reformation into a fiery inferno spreading throughout all of Europe.

Yes, one life can make a difference, and 13 lives can change the consciousness of a Nation. Twenty-five years ago, on April 20, 1999, 12 students and one teacher at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, were massacred and shot by two angry young men. In some ways, a lot has changed in the intervening decades; in others, nothing has changed at all. Mass shootings happen so frequently in America. Last year, on March 31^st, in the County where I teach, there was a shooting at a Middle School where one child was murdered, and another carelessly threw his life away. During school, our children participate in active shooter drills and lockdown drills. In 1999, though, these measures were not commonplace. A decade after we in Greenwood faced the first school shooting in America on September 26, 1988, at the then Oakland Elementary and now Rice Elementary school no safety measures were in place in our schools. Why would it take 10 years for Columbine to become a watershed moment in the consciousness of School Administrators and the American public? Now, safety feels like an illusion. You can be exposed to danger anywhere: at home, at the grocery store, at the mall, in the classroom, and even in church during a Wednesday night Bible study. So, I ask you again… What really matters? 

Cassie Bernall, a Columbine student, was asked a question that fatal day. She was asked, “Do you believe in GOD?” Cassie never faltered she said “Yes,” and then the angry young man shot and murdered her. Cassie and Cranmer decided to live where they lived. They decided to live in the empty spaces. They decided to live amid the brokenness. They each decided to be present in the lives of their neighbors regardless of their neighbor’s complacency, disdain, or hatred for them personally. Love is the only emotion on earth more powerful than fear… and there is no charge for LOVE.

When we read our Great Light (the scriptures), we should ask ourselves:

§  Who wrote it?

§  When did they write it?

§  Where did they write it?

§  Who is the message for?

§  Does the lesson apply to us today?

 

As much as emails have made it convenient to communicate, they also have created distance evoking a silo mentality. Am I alone when I say I miss letters? To see the handwriting of a loved one, read their message, remember love shared, evoking hope united, pricking our conscience knowing together you shared something special.

I believe this is how the Israelites must have felt when they read a letter from GOD.

Jeremiah 29:4-7

“This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce.  Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease.  Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city where I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”

GOD tells them three things to accomplish:

1. Live and settle there; do not withdraw and separate.

2. Respectfully resist and do not assimilate, becoming part of the culture.

3. Sacrificially love there serving their neighbors.

I believe this is what GOD is telling us to do today. In many ways the passage informs the children of Israel to live as exiles. Consider how we live in an age where it is not politically correct to use the term illegal alien, however, we the New Testament Church are aliens living in a strange land. Essentially, we are citizen aliens. Here is my point:

     James 1:1 – “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations: Greetings.”

1^st Peter 1:1 – “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To God’s elect, exiles scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,”

I believe the New Testament church is here to represent the values and the interest of GOD by thriving as citizen aliens. Thomas Cranmer forgot it for a short time, but then he woke up and got it. Cassie Bernall never lost it. The Children of Israel refused to accept it until Jeremiah sent GOD’s letter. GOD told them to live where they lived through self-sacrifice. We are not to assimilate to the world’s values. We are to freely give of ourselves and have our Christian values flow through us to a lost and dying world. Will we meet people who desire to live in a silo mentality? Certainly, now a silo mentality is the unwillingness to share critical information or what is happening in their lives within their circle of acquaintance or across different cultural bounds.

This is why Jonah did not want to go to Nineveh. Jonah had a silo mentality; they looked different, they spoke a different language, and Jonah deemed them unworthy. However, this was not Jonah’s decision to impart grace; it was GOD’s decision, and that is why HE sent him. Jonah, another angry young man, eventually goes to Nineveh. He would serve the ones who despised him. He would share GOD’s message of redemption to another culture. Jonah woke up. Jonah listened and then responded. Now, Jonah would get angry as he witnessed GOD move in the hearts of the Ninevites. For me, what is vital in the story is that Jonah listened.  

Now, this is what hit me as I stood on the T-Box. Let’s look at the story from the sailor’s perspective. The sailors “were afraid, and each man cried to his god;...” These sailors threw their livelihoods overboard as they cried for deliverance from the storm. While the sailors worked feverishly to keep the boat from sinking, Jonah slept peacefully in the inner part of the ship. They cried, they worked, and Jonah slept. The sailors were put in an awful position when they heard Jonah say, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea.” Instead, the sailors tried to row to shore, but when they realized they had no hope of survival, they begged the True GOD for mercy, saying, “Please, Lord, … do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man.” I wonder if the sailors replayed the scenes from that night over and over in their minds, how a refugee running from GOD introduced them to the LORD in the midst of a storm.

Sometimes it may feel like we live in Nineveh, a corrupt, violent, heathen city. Sometimes we may find a Jonah in our boat by way of being a family member or coworker, or they may even join you on a T-box. These refugees who decide running from GOD is better than obeying Him so they climb into our boat, and when they do a violent storm follows, and we become sailors for a season. Once Jonah was out of the boat the sailors feared GOD and worshiped Him; they began a personal relationship with the LORD which they never had before. When Jonah enters our boat, we may find ourselves in a battle against the greatest storm of our life… (self). This is when the sailors in our lives begin to call out for help to anyone who will listen as this storm threatens their lives. Today, as you sit and read this Blog, I would like to ask each of you, are you a sailor in the storm searching for GOD, are you the cargo on a ship just along for the ride, or are you a Jonah running, causing the storm? Whichever one you may be, remember this: GOD can’t get Jonah to the place He’s prepared for him, until he wakes up and gets out of the boat.

I cannot blame Jonah for not wanting to go to Nineveh. They had a reputation for fileting alive visiting profits. Often, they would decorate the city walls with the skins of those they had slain. In contrast, Tarsus was an extremely expensive place to live. To be a citizen in Tarsus, a person had to pay 500 drachmae, which was a year and a half’s wages. The city was full of rich, high-class people, not full of outcasts like Nineveh. Tarsus was part of the Roman Empire, and being a citizen came with special privileges. They had the right to choose between a local or Roman trial, and as a Roman citizen after a trial they could appeal directly to Caesar. Additionally, they had exemption from imperial service, and protection from degrading forms of punishment such as scourging and crucifixion. Citizens of the Roman Empire would most likely have carried around clay tablets that functioned as birth certificates or citizenship papers. However, a claim of citizenship would most likely have been trusted without verification since a false claim would end in death. Because of its prominence, the population of Tarsus was no less than 500,000 people. This is significant because Rome at its height only reached around 1 million people and Alexandria, Antioch, Carthage, and Ephesus only reached about 200,000. It was the perfect place for Jonah to hide.

There was an additional contrast between Nineveh and Tarshish. Nineveh was located east of the Tigris River. It was more than 500 miles east of Jonah’s hometown Gath-hepher. Tarshish, in contrast was west. In fact, Tarshish stood more than 2,500 miles from Israel in the opposite direction of Nineveh. It is the distance from South Carolina to California. It was the most remote destination available, and Jonah was trying to put as much distance as he could between himself and the Assyrians. Whatever happened to Nineveh, Jonah would not be there to see it…or so he thought. Jonah’s reason for running was quite simple, he did not like the Assyrians. Assyria was an idolatrous, proud, and ruthless nation bent on world conquest and they had long been a threat to Israel. When GOD sent Jonah as an ambassador to Nineveh, the prophet balked. At the end of his story, Jonah specifies his reason for initially refusing to harken to GOD:

Jonah 4:2

“That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.”

In other words, Jonah wanted Nineveh to be destroyed. He felt they deserved GOD’s judgment; after all they were not his people. Jonah didn’t want to see GOD’s mercy extended to his enemies, and he knew in his heart GOD’s intention was to show mercy. Jonah discovered GOD’s salvation is available to all who repent, not just to the people of his choosing. As Christians it is our duty to pour ourselves out into service even to the people who would reject, hurt, and possibly kill us if they could.

 

Earlier, I wrote about being on the T-Box. Well, let’s talk about the greatest game.

Ø  It is the only game you can call a penalty on yourself. At times, there may be a gallery or just you and the ball. 

Ø  The best way to finish a round is to finish strong.

Ø  As you move through the course, there are all kinds of hazards, obstacles, and traps. Each shot is definitely not an easy choice because there is a time to hit that shot and a time to leave it in the bag.

Ø  The SON affects how we will play. As the days grow longer, the course seems to change as the grain moves toward the sun.

Ø  It is always an interesting match, to say the least. The night air makes it colder, and the evening dew lands on the green, affecting how we play. 

As one who has played for a long, long time trying to hit that perfect shot, I have some advice. Regardless of how you have played or are playing…play for the moments yet to come… play for your place in the field.

For it is the game that cannot be won, only played. Everyone will struggle with thoughts of quitting. And there is a time when you must choose to forget the past, the penalties, the traps, and all the hazards and move on to the next shot. As you play, I hope you go for the perfect shot… not the hole-in-one. Where you just go for it. You focus, settle in, trust the shot, and strike the ball with all your might because that makes this game great. Have you figured it out? The greatest game is not golf…it is called life. Play it well!

 

Sunday night, April 18, 1999, two days before that fatal day at Columbine High School, Cassie Bernall was asked about the greatest game called life. She was asked what she believed and why she believed it. Cassie’s response was:

 “I think the way of advancing the Kingdom is just being a loyal friend, and being a good example to non-believers and also to Christians. Just trying to not contradict myself and get rid of all hypocrisy, and just to live for CHRIST.”

As I reflected on Cassie's life and testimony I thought what a remarkable young lady, and how her parents must have felt pride in the fact she lived her faith in the face of certain earthly death. I never met Cassie, although as an educator for the past 29 years, I have seen the footage and read the reports each year as we have active shooter training in our school district. To me, Cassie had an Indelible Faith that sustained her on that fatal day. As I thought about what an indelible faith entails, I picked up my pen and wrote the following poem.

Indelible Faith

 

Father, a patient heart, create in me

 As I seek solitude in the distance

Of resounding orphan cries so bleat

Is this my hopeless existence?

 

Long my captive soul did lay

Exiled on pillory and fetters

All dignity and esteem cast away

Could this be, my scarlet letter?

 

Ovations of ten thousand Angels

Lost in tranquility’s great depth

Along life’s endless path of tangles

Could this be my last breadth?

 

In all the plights waiting for me

The depth of Thy love is so divine

Constant, immense, and free

Could it all be my Father’s design?

 

Arriving humble and unsteady

Amid caviling echoes in this place

To swallow one’s pride so petty

Only to be saved by Grace?

 

Now alive in Christ to thrive

For my GOD of miracles

Bids me bloom again to strive

Could it be, that life is so typical?

 

Bids me once more take hold

Leaving behind all chaos and scathe

Justified as the Saints of old foretold

Transformed by indelible faith

 

Sola Fide

Jay Adam Pearson

A life of self-sacrifice supported by an indelible faith. Doesn’t this story sound familiar? For He came to this world not to gain glory but to become a living sacrifice. CHRIST did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. He took upon himself the form of a servant, living where He lived, He was present, ever active in ministering to the needs of others, going about doing good. He said suffer the little children to come unto me. He spent time with those the world had rejected and who they deemed unworthy…He even ate with sinners… today He remains and always will remain accessible, compassionate, and merciful.  

We have our example. Now, let us go forth and serve today, tomorrow, and forever. Amen.