First Lessons

Since I'm chugged up with a nasty summer cold and have chosen not to share it with the whole church I'm home alone this morning.

And since Sunday morning belongs to God regardless I found a reference to my very first Prison Ministry lesson in a favorite book I was thumbing through. It took me back - quite a few years in fact.

The lesson was on Michal, the daughter of Saul and the first wife of David. The story of her life begins as a young princess in love and ends as an embittered woman left to her own misery. The passages that intrigued me to study her are found in II Samuel 6:

vs. 16 And as the ark of the Lord came into the city of David, Michal Saul's daughter looked through a window, and saw king David leaping and dancing before the Lord; and she despised him in her heart.

vs. 20 Then David returned to bless his household. And Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David, and said, How glorious was the king of Israel to day, who uncovered himself to day in the eyes of the handmaids of his servants, as one of the vain fellows shamelessly uncovereth himself!

The starry eyed bride who helped her husband escape death was now attacking him with everything she had. What happened?

The bottom line of the lesson is in Who/what each chose to worship. David had lost himself in worship to God. Michal worshiped, well, other things. It's that simple.

In the twelve or thirteen years that have passed since first delving into Michal's life, I've read many books and heard many lessons and sermons that continue to shed light on this thing about worship. Perhaps the best is from my pastor:

“Worship is focusing my minds attention and my heart's affection on who God is and everything He has done for me.” David Lewis

Everyone worships something. Some recognize it, some don't. Some admit it, some don't. Most go through life blindly chasing what they think will bring happiness. The list of idols is long: new (house, car, job etc), romance, finances, authority, recognition, etc. There's no denying these things bring pleasure, but good things are ultimately unsatisfying when they are THE ultimate thing. In Michal's case it was self image. She was trapped in that preteen girlish nightmare of what people thought.

I love Mark Batterson's take on this incident:

“I think David gives us a picture of pure worship. Worship is disrobing. It is taking of those things outside our relationship with Christ that we find our identity and security in. It is a reminder that our royal robes are like 'filthy rags.' It's not about what we can do for God. It's about what God has done for us. And that understanding produces the greatest freedom in the world: having nothing to prove.”

I hope you will worship with me today.  Clothed of course.

Martha and Mary Revisited

I love Martha.  She has a servant's heart, she holds herself together, she's practical and not afraid to work.  And she's been preached "against" for as long as I remember.  There's no getting around that Jesus gently turned her attention to more important matters in Luke 10, but the whole picture seems greatly out of focus when John 11 is taken into consideration.

So here we are -  two sisters and a dead brother.  Both heartbroken.  Both mourning.  Both wishing the friend they love had been there four days earlier.  And Martha finds out he's on his way.

"Rabbi, if you had been here my brother would not have died."

And here's where her true faith comes through:  " But I know, that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee."

And with these words Martha was the first one to receive some of the most powerful words recorded in the Bible, "I AM THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE . . . "

Consider Mary now.  She's back at the house being consoled by a  bunch of people who get up and follow her to Jesus.  I don't know about you, but that tells me that Martha's being able to slip away unnoticed meant that she was holding it together.  The crowd gathered around Mary was trying to help the emotionally fragile sister from falling apart.  Or they were enjoying the show.

Think I'm being hard on Mary?  Look closer.  After falling at Jesus feet Mary said the exact same words to Jesus. "Rabbi, if you had been here my brother would not have died."

The Savior's response is dramatically different.  Instead of powerful words of comfort  he "groaned in the spirit, and was troubled."

Why would that be?  Why would Jesus offer powerful words of comfort to Martha and be troubled with Mary?

Because He knew where each was at in their spiritual progress.  Martha showed a mature faith.  Mary didn't show any faith at all.

OK, I'm going to jump off a theological cliff here and propose something radical . . .  Luke 10 happened after John 11.

It makes sense.  Jesus's gentle reprimand of Martha in Luke 10 wasn't that she was doing anything wrong . .  she had simply failed to notice that Mary finally got it!  Emotionally frail Mary's choosing that "good part" was the step of faith she had taken in coming to real  faith in the Savior, the kind that Martha had already demonstrated.  Mary later demonstrated her own faith in washing Jesus's feet.

There are Marthas in this world and there are Marys.  Some have strong faith, others struggle to come to faith at all. While the orthodox challenge to balance service with worship is a valid one, I personally think Luke 10 is more of a challenge to the Marthas of this world to be gentle and understanding of the Marys.

They are after all our sisters.