The Angle At Which You Stand

Business guru and author, Jim Collins, wrote a book called Built to Last. The book is about companies that have been lead to excellence over the long haul. But even the very best companies are built to last only what, fifty, one hundred years. Historically speaking, that’s a drop in the bucket.

You know what’s really built to last? You. . . I know, you may not feel like it. You may not have felt like it easing out of bed this morning. But you really are crafted for the long haul.

I intend to live forever. So far, so good.

That’s one of the things Jesus is pointing out in his teaching, the difference between the temporary and the eternal. Temples and coliseums are temporary – people are eternal.

Someday my car will be scrap metal, my house will succumb to the wrecking ball. All my prized possessions will be in someone else’s hands. Someone will go through my stuff and decide what’s worth keeping or not. They’ll be going through because, well, it won’t be my stuff anymore. It belongs to earth. Heaven doesn’t want it. I’m sorry to say, I have no reason to believe there are flea markets or yard sales in heaven. Heaven doesn’t want our junk.

But Heaven wants me and heaven wants you.

Jesus warns, however, that the journey into eternity can be difficult at times. There will be people talking in the name of religion who will lie to you. There will be war and the threat of war almost constantly. There will be ecological disasters and famines and terror. And as for you, if you would live your life faithfully before God, you will be tested in your faith. Some people won’t like you just because of what you’re trying to represent. Your allegiance to Christ may cost you benefits in this world. It may strain business relationships. It may cause trouble in the family. Some people may just irrationally hate you.

Will you still follow Jesus?

G.K. Chesterton once wrote, “It is always simple to fall; there is an infinity of angles at which one falls, only one at which one stands.”

There are dozens of stories in this room about angles at which we have, or might have, fallen. If we were honest enough, or bold enough or foolish enough, we might tell these stories without flinching and we would all probably nod in agreement and understanding as we listened to each other’s troubles. I don’t think many of us would be reaching for stones to throw. None of us have been trouble free. We might call our group, “Sinners Anonymous.”

Jesus advice to us is, “Don’t Give Up.” Don’t quit.


Gordon McDonald wrote about a comment a relative made after his mother died, “She never really finished anything she started. When things got difficult, she would walk away.” That is a sad commentary on someone’s life. Have we ever noticed that quitter’s tendency in ourselves?

Laura Hillenbrand, in her book Seabiscuit, writes about the horse’s greatest moment in his race against War Admiral. War Admiral was the heavy favorite, a Triple Crown winner that had obliterated the competition. Seabiscuit’s longtime jockey, Red Pollard couldn’t go because of an injury, so he gave his replacement, George Woolf, advice on how to race that defied conventional wisdom. Have Seabiscuit jump out to the lead, but then when War admiral launches his final drive for the wire, do something completely unexpected; let him catch up.


This went against all common sense, but Pollard said it was a case of horse psychology. “Once a horse give Seabiscuit the old look-in-the-eye,” Pollard said, “Seabiscuit begins to run to parts unknown. . .War Admiral has speed, good speed; speed when unopposed. But with Seabiscuit, you could kill him before he’d quit. . .It’s not in his feet, George. It’s in his heart.”

The whole country stopped to listen on the day of this race, the largest radio audience that had ever been assembled. In the White House, FDR put off a cabinet meeting to listen in. The bell rang and Seabiscuit jumped out to an early lead. Coming into the backstretch, Woolf pulled back a little on the reins, and War Admiral drew even with Seabiscuit, both horses now were stride for stride. Woolf could see Seabiscuit looking directly into the eyes of his rival. His ears flattened to his head and Woolf whispered into his ear to give him everything he had. Woolf saw a subtle hesitation in War Admiral, a wavering. And then War Admiral began sliding from Seabiscuit’s side “as if gravity were pulling him backward.” Seabiscuit’s ears flipped up. He had broken his competition. Woolf made small motion with his hand to War Admiral’s jockey, Charles Kurtsinger, saying, “So long, Charley,” a phrase he coined that would be used by jockeys for decades. And the crowd broke out in pandemonium.

When things get hard, some people quit, but other people just get better.

There was a minor stir recently in some circles about the release of Mother Theresa’s personal diaries. Turns out she expressed some frustrations and disappointments in her personal diary. She questioned God about some things. What! The woman that spent most of her life among the destitute poor and leprous of Calcutta had some bad days?! Outrageous!

The point is almost too obvious to mention - she had bad days, but she never quit.

I just read a retelling of Martin Luther King’s last days in Memphis. He was in a very difficult period of his life. He was receiving death threats almost daily. He spoke to a group that night and he mentioned a bomb threat he had received:

“But it doesn’t matter now. Because I’ve been to the mountaintop, “ King declared in a trembling voice. “And I don’t mind. Like anybody I would like to live a long life – longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will.

And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seeeeeen the promised land! And I may not get there with you. . .I’m so happy tonight. I’m not worried about anything! I’m not fearing any man! Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!”


Jesus says don’t give up. “By your endurance you will gain your souls.”

“Be watchful, stand firm in your faith, be courageous, be strong.” I Corinthians 16.13

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we are not contending with flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.” Ephesians 6.10-13


There are many angles at which a person may fall. There is only one at which you stand.

Godliness


“If you love me, you’ll love me as I am.” Who is not familiar with that statement? It’s a true one. If you love someone, you love them “warts and all.” You love them with bad breath and hair falling out and a pot belly. And ladies, you have to love us guys, too.

Agape love, which is the self-giving kind, goes beyond our inborn tendencies of attraction and prejudice. As Mark Buchanon puts it, “It trumps our niggling irritations. It annuls our sticky and picky conditions.”

Deep love loves simply because its nature is to love.

“While we were weak, at just the right time, Christ died for the ungodly.” Romans 5.8

He loves me just as I am. But that’s only the half of it. Real love loves us just as we are so that we can become what we are meant to be. That too, is the nature of love. It’s a love that will not let us go. Its end goal is godliness. God wants to love us into godliness.

This is the whole framework of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. This is how the Apostle Paul expresses it:

Beyond all question, the mystery of godliness is great:

He appeared in a body, was vindicated by the Spirit,
Was seen by angels, was preached among the nations,
Was believed on in the world, was taken up in glory.


The life’s work of Jesus Christ was for the sake of godliness, our godliness. For godliness is nothing more or less than Christ-like character, to “be holy as He is holy.”

Conversion makes spiritually dead people alive. As we saw in the case of Zacchaeus, God can pull that off in one conversation, one visit.

Sanctification makes godless people godly. God typically uses a lifetime to accomplish this. Becoming godly happens as we draw upon the resources of the Kingdom that God provides.

“His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.” 2 Peter 1.3

I remember back a few years ago, we had a little red wagon. And both my boys used to fit together in that little red wagon. One day I told them to climb him and I began to pull them in that wagon down to the park. My neighbor saw us and must have thought it was a cute scene, a Norman Rockwell kind of scene. Because he said to me, “Wow, that’s what it’s all about, isn’t it?”

Well, I thought, I’m not sure that pulling my boys in a little red wagon is what “it’s all about.” I mean, it’s a good thing, no doubt. But isn’t it interesting, this pull in the world of replacing the goal of the Kingdom of God, with lesser ideals and virtues like, “being a good parent” or “being generous” or “working hard.”

This what the Sadducees were doing with Jesus. They didn’t believe in the resurrection and eternal life. There was no real big picture. For them morality was a personal puzzle with no long term consequences. The puzzle that day was: what do you do with a widow several times over? And if she marries seven brothers, whose wife then, finally is she?

Jesus said in effect, “Look, you’re missing the forest for the trees. There is a resurrection. There is eternal life whether you want there to be or not. Marriage, or whatever good we do in this life is only beneficial ultimately for how it contributes to us finding our life in God.” You don’t need appetizers once the main course is being served.

Part of godliness’ wonderful mystery is that godliness whispers of a hidden reality and life that is being revealed. Of all things, godliness deserves our utmost attention and effort.

The enemy of godliness is worldliness. When we use the term “world”, we are not talking about the planet earth or anything physical. By world we mean the human social and cultural structures by which human history is unfolding. Mark Buchanon says that the opposite of godliness is not Satanism or witchcraft, it’s worldliness.

“For everything in the world – the cravings of sinful man, the lust of the eyes and the boasting of what he has and does – comes not from the Father but from the world.” 1 John 2.16

Worldliness is selfishness. It’s craving, lusting, competing, boasting. It’s me, me, me. It’s whatever makes sin look more attractive than God.

I’ve used this example before but it’s worth repeating I think. I like to compete in sports. I like to win and when I win I like to act humble, aw shucks, like it doesn’t matter to me. But it does. It does.

I like it that my sons like to compete. I like it when they do well in sports. I have taken them for training and practices and even special lessons. But from time to time , I pause and ask myself, “what is the point of all this effort?” Do I really want or need my sons to become professional athletes and at what cost?

I only mention sports because of what many of us assume our kids should go through – you may feel free to substitute music, grades, or videogames for that matter – and what we seem prepared to sacrifice as parents. If in the pursuit of our kid’s (and our own) glory, we have neglected to bring our kids to worship and Christian education, what kind of persons will they become? Are we prepared to sacrifice their spiritual development? Or do we just think we can manage it well enough on our own?

“Have nothing to do with profane myths and old wives tales. Train yourself in godliness, for, while physical training is of some value, godliness is valuable in every way, holding promise for both this present life and the life to come.”

What “profane myths” and “old wives tales” are we giving too much energy and time to?

Is our own training in godliness getting sufficient time and energy?


Listen to how Mark Buchanon describes godly people based on his reading of the mystery of godliness in 1 Timothy 3.16:

Godly people make God personal. When you stand among them, you sense God is near. The godly entrust justice to God. They do not exhaust themselves trying to manage what others think about them. Their main audience is cosmic. They believe that we are engaged in something much bigger than ourselves. The godly live in a way that makes angels cheer and demons quake. The godly have global influence. The godly have impact beyond the church. They change the world they live in. Their influence translates into transformation. The godly know their life has ultimate purpose and reward. They live in the here and now, but live with their eyes fixed on forever. What motivates them is not earthly reward but the glory that will be revealed. Their treasure is in heaven.

Saved

Scripture: Luke 19.1-10; Ezekiel 34.16


“In Israel, certain vocations carry a heavy social stigma,” writes John Ortberg. They were called the despised trades. They were “dirty jobs.” If there were television then, there may have been a show about them. No devout Jewish person would engage in them. Religious leaders would make lists of these jobs to warn people to choose a different career.

Some occupations are dishonorable. Others are just repugnant – like “tanner of dead skins” and “dung collector.” Dung collecting was a career choice. If a woman’s husband became a dung collector she actually had the right to divorce him and receive a sum of money. Even if she married him knowing he was going into that profession – in the words of one rabbi, she could say, “I thought I could endure it, but I cannot.”

There were a few occupations that were not merely unpleasant but considered immoral as well. People who practiced them were not only considered unpleasant but also immoral. They were to be shunned. Tax Collector is at the top of this short list.

Zacchaeus was the chief tax collector of the Jericho district. It’s ironic that his Hebrew name means “clean,” because that’s not how his neighbors saw him. Now, Jericho was a very prosperous city in a lush region of Palestine. Rome received a lot of tax money from Jericho. If you got a job as a tax collector here, you got rich. But you also got shunned. You were despised by your neighbors as a traitor and sell out to your people.
What made Zacchaeus choose a profession that would make him hated? It’s fair to assume, that after years of this, he was a thoroughly corrupt person.

And to this town where Zacchaeus lives comes a man who could not be more different in his life and motivation. Jesus is a good man in a good profession. First he was a carpenter and now a rabbi. If his reputation is less than what it could have been it’s only because Jesus persists in doing some strange things. He talks with sinners. This good rabbi, instead of shunning tax collectors, goes to their homes and eats with them. One of his disciples, Matthew Levi, was one such acquaintance.

Earlier in the gospel, (chapter 15) Luke tells us that “the tax collectors and sinners were all coming to Jesus to listen to him speak. And the Pharisees and others complained loudly and bitterly that Jesus was associating with these dirty people. But remember, Jesus’ motivation was different from most. He wasn’t concerned so much about his reputation. After this episode, Jesus wouldn’t have one.

His motivation can found in the prophetic passage:

“I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the crippled and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will watch over; I will feed them in justice.” Ezekiel 34.16

Jesus came looking for the lost. William Barclay reminds us that “lost” doesn’t only or necessarily mean “damned” or “doomed.” In the New Testament lost means in the wrong place. And when something is in the wrong place we return it to its proper place.

I have a reputation in my house of throwing things away. Sometimes I am accused of throwing things away that other members of the house still want. Sometimes they are right. But sometimes I have not thrown something away, but rather, put it back in its proper place. That’s why they can’t find it. When something is lost we put it back where it can be found.

That’s what Jesus is doing with Zacchaeus. The religious people in Jericho are upset because Jesus invites himself to the home of this sinner, which is a very personal thing to do. It was a sign of respect to eat a meal with someone.

Notice Jesus didn’t say, “Zacchaeus, if you clean up your act, change jobs, and make restitution, I’ll come to your house.” Jesus didn’t say anything like that. What he said was, “Zacchaeus, I must come to your house today.” That doesn’t make sense to the religious leaders who are only interested in keeping the shunning going. YOU’RE RUINING OUR SHUNNING, JESUS!

But if, however, you are interested in putting the lost back to a found position, then saying I must come to your house (where you live) is exactly the right thing to say.

Remember how we talked about a “Bar Code Faith” a few months back? Bar Code Faith is the kind where by some ritual or mental assent to a belief, God “scans” you and forgiveness floods forth. Our guilt is erased and some righteousness is deposited to our account. We are saved. The problem with Bar Code Faith is that it stops there. Salvation never means more than forgiveness and guilt-removal. People who claim Bar Code Faith say they have a Savior but don’t seem much interested in a Lord.

Notice what happens when Jesus declares his intention to come home with Zacchaeus.

“And Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, ‘Behold, Lord, the falf of my wealth I give to the poor; and if I have defrauded any one of anything, I restore it fourfold.”

“Fourfold” was the legal measure of restitution prescribed by the law of Moses in the Pentateuch. Steal a sheep? You must pay back four sheep in return. Then you can be right again. Zacchaeus is making restitution. No one has told him to do this but he does it.

It reminds me of something Dallas Willard wrote, “The law is never the source of goodness but it is always the channel by which goodness flows.”
I don’t know if Zacchaeus expected to meet a Savior that day, but I do know that he recognized his Lord. Zacchaeus made Jesus Lord that day and found a Savior as well.

We could learn a lot from that “wee little man.” It’s not until you make Jesus Lord that the true meaning of salvation comes home to you.


In our culture, we consider the measure of person in these terms: where they went to school, how much money they make, what kind of job they have, what they look like.

Zaccheus did something quite remarkable. He realized that what kind of person he was becoming was more important than anything else. And he acted on it.

Again, Dallas Willard writes, “I meet many faithful Christians who, in spite of their faith, are deeply disappointed in how their lives have turned out. They painfully puzzle over what they may have done wrong, or whether God has really been with them.”

But their failure is in realizing that their lives still lie before them. The life of “the flesh” matters little – what kind of person we become, well, that’s everything. The Lordship of Jesus is the only power that can heal the broken and put the lost back in their rightful place again. The power we receive when Jesus is Lord of our person is the only power that can transform us into sons and daughters of His Kingdom.

Upside Down

Scripture: Luke 18.9-14;


One afternoon a carpet layer had just finished installing carpet for a lady. He stepped out for a smoke, only to realize that he had lost his cigarettes. After a quick but fruitless search, he noticed that in the middle of the room, under the carpet he had just installed, was a bump. His cigarettes!

“No sense pulling up the entire floor for one pack of smokes,” he said to himself. So he got out his mallet and flattened the bump. Not long after, as he was cleaning up, the lady came in. “Here,” she said, handing him his pack of cigarettes. “I found them in the hallway. Now, “ she said, “if only I could find my parakeet.”

Oops.

As hard as it is to pull up the carpet, it’s harder for most people to admit their mistakes. But we makes mistakes all the time. Here are a few mistakes from actual job resumes:

“Personal: I’m married with nine children. I don’t require prescription drugs.”

“I am extremely loyal to my present firm, so please don’t let them know of my immediate availability.”

“Marital Status: Often. Children: Various.”

“Reasons for leaving last job: Responsibility makes me nervous. They insisted that all employees get to work by 8:45 every morning. I couldn’t work under those conditions.”


People really write that stuff because people really think that way. No one is ever at fault. Consider the parable Jesus tells about the two men who go to pray in the temple.
The Pharisee saw it as confirmation of how good he was compared to all the losers around him in the temple praying. “God! Thank you that I’m not like these (roll the eyes) people!”

The man couldn’t see his own pride. And yet pride is the deadliest of all sins. Nothing is as perilous and fatal to our souls. It was pride that moved Lucifer to think he could be like God. It was pride that made Adam and Eve take that apple. It was pride that made you feel a perceived slight this morning before church.

C.S. Lewis writes, “There is no fault which makes a man more unpopular, and no fault which we are more unconscious of in ourselves. And the more we have it in ourselves, the more we dislike it in others.”

The answer is pride, is of course, humility, literally, humus, getting down to earth, close to the ground.

“But the tax collector, standing far off, would not look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’”

And yet, there’s a danger even in this. If you recognize that you are humble, and spend any amount of time thinking about it, then, either you lose it and become proud again, or you somehow manage to make humility a badge of honor for which you are rewarded with heaven. Is this the Gospel, be sufficiently debased and you will get heaven? Is this the point of the parable?

No, I think there is more at stake than that. Dallas Willard likens our situation to the pilot, some years ago, practicing high-speed maneuvers in a jet fighter. She turned the controls for what she thought was a steep ascent – and flew straight into the ground. She was unaware that she had been flying upside down.

We are flying upside down morally and spiritually. Our frame of reference is so out of whack that even the virtues we can still see clearly, must be put into proper context, pointed in the right direction again. Humility, generosity, mercy, justice, all these things must be seen in the light of our dire need for God.

I know a lot of people that I think, deep down, are relying on their pharisaic credentials, if you will, to see them through for the long haul. The credentials vary slightly but the emphasis is the same. Hey, I believe in God and I’m trying to be good, so what else is there?

But nominal belief and nominal trying is not the cry of the tax collector is it? And later on, Jesus says the kingdom of God belongs to the little children who have no other reason to come to Him except that they want to.

“Truly, I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never come in.” Luke 18.17

See, the point is not just that we’ve made mistakes or that we’ve sinned. It goes beyond that. We can longer see what is truly beautiful and good anymore for ourselves and others. If we could, then desiring God constantly wouldn’t be something we would have to be told we should do. That word, even to churchgoers, sails off into oblivion most Sundays. It’s religious talk, doesn’t mean much. We think.

It’s like all the fuss over MRSA lately. You know what MRSA is? It’s something. It’s stands for something but I can’t tell you. It’s some infection that you can get and a certain percentage of people who go into the hospital get it. Now my wife tells me that it’s not much to worry about, its always been around along with a lot of other stuff. And she’s right. But I read in the paper about that woman who is pushing the CDC and AMA and such to make testing for MRSA mandatory before a person is checked into the hospital. When asked why she thinks most doctors are reluctant to do that, the woman replied, “Because doctors don’t like to be told what to do.”

None of us like to be told what to do. When it comes to our personal autonomy, we all have Ph.D’s. If this were not true, I would be out of a job. You wouldn’t need a preacher or a pastor. But you do. And I do too.

There are, however, occasional moments of clarity. There are times in our lives when it is so obvious, we don’t need a preacher to tell us that things are not working out. We can sense maybe we’re upside down, or at least, sideways. Maybe there is a way we can get right side up again. Sometimes, this even leads us to try God again. And then there are those of us who think we have been “trying God” and our lives aren’t working any better than anyone else’s. And this road following God is hard, and we want to quit. Is this you?

What did you think following Christ would be like? Lots of resorts? Lots of Beds and breakfasts? Where did you think the road was leading? It it’s no place you want to get to, then quit, by all means. Don’t let me talk you out of it.

But what if this is the only road home?


The road is not rules, and it’s not good works or superior attitudes. The road is Christ himself, Christ himself. The longer you follow Jesus the better you understand that tax collector crying out, “God have mercy on me!”

Here is another prayer that may help you on the road:

So far today, God, I’ve done all right. I haven’t gossiped, haven’t lost my temper, haven’t been greedy, grumpy, nasty, selfish or over-indulgent. I’m really glad about that.

But in a few minutes, God, I’m going to get out of bed and from then on I’m probably going to need a lot more help. Thank you. In Jesus’ name. Amen.