July 20, 2003 - Lesson: Matthew 8.18-22

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INTRODUCTION:

There was a tradesman, a painter named Jack, who was very interested in making a dollar where he could. So he often would thin down his paint to make it go a wee bit further. As it happened, he got away with this for some time.

Eventually the local church decided to do a big restoration project. Jack put in a painting bid and, because his price was so competitive, he got the job. And so he started, erecting the scaffolding and putting up the planks, and buying the paint and thinning it down.

Jack was up on the scaffolding, painting away, the job nearly done, when suddenly there was a horrendous clap of thunder. The sky opened and the rain poured down, washing the thin paint from all over the church. Swiftly Jack got off the scaffold and down on the lawn.

Jack was no fool. He saw this as a judgment from the Almighty, so he fell on his knees and cried, "Oh, God! Forgive me! What should I do?"

And from the thunder, a mighty Voice spoke, "Repaint! Repaint! And thin no more!"

1. Jack has a huge obstacle that is affecting his life, and we know what it is.

1. He cheated.

2. He cheated to make a profit.

3. He not only cheated his customers, but he also cheated himself.

2. Jack had a need and we know what that need consisted of

1. It's a bit trite, but clear.

2. Repent and sin no more.

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MAIN BODY:

1. There were those who sought to follow Jesus.

1. Perhaps they did not fully understand the sacrifices and the obligations.

2. This disciple heard the conversation between Jesus and the scribe.

1. The scribe would follow Jesus wherever he would go.

2. Jesus told him that he was an itinerant preacher with no income and no fixed address.

3. Apparently the scribe changed his mind.

4. So now the disciple offers his own reasons why he cannot continue.

1. "Lord, first let me go and bury my father."

2. This appears to us to be so logical, when in reality it is so illogical.

3. What is the status of the "father?"

1. Is the father ill and hear death?

2. Has the father already died.

3. Is the father alive?

4. What is the disciple really saying?

1. Perhaps it is, "I will follow you, but I cannot so long as my father is alive."

2. This kind of rationalization would allow the disciple to return home with his honor intact.

3. It would that is if the story ended here, but it doesn't.

5. We have the almost troubling response of Jesus.

"Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead."

1. Jesus response might be understood in this way:

I fully recognize your obligation to your parents, but your obligation to the kingdom takes precedence.

The claims of the gospel transcend those of family ties--not that family ties are to be relaxed in the least.

Family ties are not to be made an excuse for avoiding, neglecting, or compromising the nature of discipleship.

It's Sunday and you have company. What do you do with the necessity of honoring God and being present in worship?

Worship on August 17 will be at 9:00 am.

This is because the VFW has schedule their parade at 10:00 am.

We are very disappointed in this scheduling conflict for our children and parents who are involved in the parade.

I certainly hope that it does not happen again.

2. There are always conflicts and obstacles to be met and overcome

2. What are the obstacles that we face everyday and how do we deal with them?

1. The obstacle of fear created by feelings of inadequacy.

M. Scott Peck in the Road Less Traveled ⁽²⁾ illustrates from a personal experience a way in which he achieved his own relief and release.

He was taking a Spring walk one Sunday afternoon an happened on a neighbor who was repairing his lawnmower. After greeting him he remarked, "Boy, I sure admire you. I've never been able to fix those kinds of things or do anything like that."

His neighbor, without a moment's hesitation, shot back, "That's because you don't take the time."

He resumed his walk, somewhat disquieted by the guru-like simplicity, spontaneity and definitiveness of his response.

You don't suppose he could be right, do you?" he asked himself. Somehow it registered.

The next time the opportunity presented itself to make a minor repair he was able to remind himself to take time. The parking brake was stuck on a patient's car, and she knew that there was something one could do under the dashboard to release it, but she didn't know what.

He laid down on the floor below the front seat of her car. Then he took the time to make himself comfortable. Once he was comfortable, he took time to look at the situation. He looked for several minutes. At first all he saw was a confusing jumble of wires and tubes and rods, whose meaning he did not know. But, gradually, in no hurry, he was able to focus his sight on the brake apparatus and trace its course. Then it became clear to him that there was a little latch preventing the brake from being released.

He slowly studied this latch until it became clear to him that if he pushed it upward with the tip of his finger it would move easily and would release the brake. So he did this.

One single motion, one ounce of pressure from a fingertip, and the problem was solved. He was a master mechanic. Well he was not a master mechanic. But he learned how to release a stuck emergency brake.

1. All it took was time.

2. Take time!

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2. The obstacle of anxiety

1. Jesus was at the home of Mary and Martha

2. The conversation between Martha and Jesus is enlightening.

1. ³⁸...Martha welcomed him into her home. ³⁹She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to what he was saying.

2. ⁴⁰But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me."

3. ⁴¹But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; ⁴²there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her," (Luke 10:38-42, NRSVA)

3. The obstacle of doubt

1. Coming down from the mount of transfiguration Jesus confronted a chaotic scene.

1. His disciple were unable to heal a boy whose mind was possessed.

2. The father explained the situation

3. Jesus responds to him with: ²³..."If you are able!--All things can be done for the one who believes."

4. ²⁴Immediately the father of the child cried out, "I believe; help my unbelief!" (Mark 9:23-24, NRSVA)

2. I believe you, but I am conflicted and confused.

1. There are times when I am not sure.

2. The cry is to help me to be sure.

4. The obstacle of inappropriate goals and ambitions.

In their book Sacred Bull: The Inner Obstacles That Hold You Back at Work and How to Overcome Them (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1994), Albert J. Bernstein and Sydney Craft Rozen list these ten Sacred Bulls as the key assumptions we live by that are wrong for the new world. The rest of the book explicates each one of these Sacred Bulls.

1. Denial: I don't see the problem so it isn't there.

2. Blind Spots and Shortcuts: What I don't like can't be important.

3. Self-Interest: Always look out for Number One.

4. Mind Reading: People should know what I want without being told.

5. Blame: If something goes wrong, it has to be somebody's fault.

6. Being Nice: Avoid conflict at all cost.

7. Perfection: If it's not perfect, it's nothing.

8. Fairness: I don't need to negotiate for what I want; I just want fairness.

9. Excuses: There's always a good reason why I don't follow the rules everyone else works by.

10. Being Right: There's a right way and a wrong way; my way is right.

5. The obstacle from inaccurate and harmful thinking.

The Healing Touch of Christ ⁽³⁾

Three guys were fishing on a lake one day, when Jesus walked across the water and joined them in the boat. When the three astonished men had settled down enough to speak, the first guy asked humbly, "Jesus, I've suffered from back pain ever since I took shrapnel in the Viet Nam war. Could you help me?"

"Of course my son," Jesus said. When Jesus touched the man's back, the man felt relief for the first time in years.

The second man, who wore very thick glasses and had a hard time reading and driving, asked if Jesus could do anything about his eyesight. Jesus smiled, removed the man's glasses and tossed them in the lake. When the glasses hit the water, the man's eyes cleared and he could see everything distinctly.

When Jesus turned to heal the third man, the guy put his hands up and cried defensively, "Don't touch me! I'm on long-term disability."

1. Talk about inappropriate thinking.

2. This is very harmful.

3. This is not for us.

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6. Most of all the obstacle of our inveterate excuses.

Calvin of the CALVIN AND HOBBES comic strip is asked by his teacher: "Did you ever read the history chapter I assigned?"

Calvin: "I tried, Miss Wormwood, but the book publisher didn't use the proper print fixative. Needless to say, when I picked up the book, all the letters slid off the pages and fell on the floor in a heap of gibberish."

As Calvin approaches the Principal's office, he says, "I think my excuses need to be less extemporaneous."

1. This is about as good as it gets.

2. We can be more creative, but not more accurate.

CONCLUSION

1. Release is achieved by letting go of the old and replacing it with the new.

Saying Yes to God ⁽⁴⁾

William Shirer, the great author and journalist, writes in his autobiography, 20th Century Journey, of a conversation he had with his friend Grant Wood. At the time of the conversation, 1926, both men were living in Paris and neither had made a name for himself. Shirer was working as a journalist but had not yet published anything of consequence. (He would later gain world acclaim for his huge work, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.) Wood was painting but had not yet found the theme and style that would make him famous and change the direction of American art. (Grant Wood is best known for American Gothic.) The two men had long been friends. They'd both grown up in small towns in Iowa and had known each other in school. Shirer records the conversation this way:

"Everything that I've done up to now was wrong," he [Wood] said, "and, my God, I'm halfway through my life."

"You're only 35," I [Shirer] said.

"All those landscapes of mine of the French countryside and the familiar places in Paris. There's not a one that the French Impressionists didn't do a hundred times better! ... All these years wasted because I thought you couldn't get started as a painter unless you went to Paris, and studied and painted like a Frenchman. I used to go back to Iowa and think how ugly it all was. Nothing to paint. And all I could think of was getting back here so I could find something to paint-these pretty landscapes that I should have known-Cezanne and Renoir and Monet and the others had done once and for all."

Shirer offered some lukewarm encouragement: Maybe Wood will do well someday in Paris. But Wood plunges on: "Listen, Bill. I think...at last...I've learned something. At least, about myself. I think you have to paint...what you know. And despite the years in Europe-all I really know is home. Iowa. The farm at Anamosa. Milking cows. Cedar Rapids. The typical small town, all right. Everything commonplace. Your neighbors, the quiet streets, the clapboard homes, the drab clothes, the dried-up lives, the hypocritical talk, the silly boosters, the poverty of culture. Bill, I'm going home for good. And I'm going to paint those cows and barns and barnyards and cornfields and little red schoolhouses and all those pinched faces and the women in their aprons and the men in their overalls and the storefronts and the look of a field or a street in the heat of summer or when it's ten below and the snow is piled six feet high. I'm going to do it."

1. Do it he did.

2. Grant Wood found that his past changed from problem to promise, from burden to resource.

3. We are all immensely richer for that discovery.

4. Where does that movement need to take place in your life?

5. It is a means of saying yes to God.

2. We can achieve relief and release through Jesus Christ.

1. Jesus invites, "Come and follow me."

2. Is there any other constructive alternative?

1. Received from Beliefnet Religious Jokes [BeliefnetReligiousJokes@partner.beliefnet.com]

2. Peck, M. Scott, The Road Less Traveled, (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1978), pages 27-28

3. Beliefnet Religious Jokes [BeliefnetReligiousJokes@partner.beliefnet.com]

4. Michael Scrogin, Practical Guide to Christian Living (Valley Forge: Judson Press, 1985), 62-63. Saying Yes to God is saying Yes to life.

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