Guest speaker Garland Bellamy

He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself was praying thus, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ I tell you this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.”

Lk 18 :9-14 The Pharisee and the Tax Collector

I. Intro: Change is in the air

Metaphor - Baseball game metaphor- bottom of the ninth . . .his out pitch was a change-up

Toothless Huskies, clawless Cougars, and hitless Mariners à probably some changes coming in the coaching ranks -
Financial world - Economic Rescue Plan, market collapse, Whew !

Political campaigns - “Change we can believe in”, others?

Technical innovation comes so fast we don’t realize it. For instance see if this sounds familiar:

Top five reasons you know you’re living in 2008 :

1. You accidentally enter your password on the microwave.
2. You haven’t played solitaire with real cards in years.
3. You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of 3.
4. You e-mail the person who works at the desk next to you.
5. You pull up in your own driveway and use your cell phone to see if anyone is home.

Certainly the scriptures resonate with this theme:

Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Matt 18:3

Listen, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.”

I Corinthians 15: 51-52

So let’s look at the two kinds of change we deal with and most importantly what our inward attitude needs to be in the midst of all that.

II. Change that happens to us

It may seem everything is just flying on by us . . .

• Bob Dylan - “The times they are a’changin’” 1960’s
• Future shock - Alvin Toffler (1970) - rate of change would literally become a shock to our culture
• There is exponential growth everywhere
• In human knowledge - grad school library à HSLib 1 Go to www.ipac.ca/Executive _Briefs_Future
• In human population
• Student’s back packs
• Expansion of the tax code - done your own tax form lately? Linda and I handed over that task to an accountant years ago.
• And in the natural world - Animal and plant species, are estimated to be heading towards extinction at a rate of about one every 20 minutes.. That’s a pace a thousand times faster than the norm during Earth’s history. 2 Go to www.conservation.org/learn/ species/Pages/overview.aspx

In our personal lives can come overwhelming neg. stuff: loss of health, or a job; kids or parents who go off the rails. It can make us feel like the person who joked that there are only two kinds of people in the world. There are those who wake up in the morning and say, “Good morning, Lord,” and there are those who wake up in the morning and say, “Good Lord, it’s morning.”

There are lots of things that can “throw a change-up” at us. But there are times to move beyond the passive. We can influence the world and those around us and we need to. And so we come to the second category of change in our lives…

III The Changes we bring about

These can be for ourselves, and should be personal.

The most important change is the decision to personally receive the forgiveness and love of Jesus the Christ. This personal salvation is what God offers to all of us. But there is something more.. The epistle of James states plainly that “faith without works is dead.” Those works must expand outward from our personal salvation to the greater world: the neighbor in the good Samaritan story is now both a local neighbor and a global neighbor.

There’s a Disney tune that runs, lah, lah lah lah lah la lah . . . I would adapt it like this
“It’s a both and faith after all . . .” Well, you get the point. Both a faith lived out in personal piety and a faith of study and in action in the world.

Certainly the scriptures call for a personal faith that expands to include the greater world. One of the most powerful passages is from the fifth chapter of the the book of the OT prophet Amos. He rails against the taking of bribes by officials, the “trampling of the poor” and a host of other private and institutional crimes of the people of Israel. God makes it starkly clear that even worship is repugnant to Him under these conditions. Hear these passages in which God speaks:

I hate, I despise your festivals … take away the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps. But let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-rolling stream”

Amos 5:21-24

Well there are a host of issues that arise as we might apply the gospel to current issues. A hot one (pun intended!) is that of global warming. As usual a little humor always helps. To that end . . .

The parents of a college freshman at a prominent Pennsylvania university had picked him up at school and were heading home. As the road wound through the beautiful Amish country the student, who had been taking an environmental science class, began to expound on the dangers of global warming. Dad was involved in the oil business and thought such claims were unfounded. Everyone was starting to get hot under the collar the car caught up to an Amish carriage. The owner of the carriage obviously had a sense of humor because attached to the back of the carriage was a hand printed sign… “Energy efficient vehicle: Runs on oats and grass. Caution: Do not step in exhaust.” Everyone gave out a chuckle, took a deep breath and began to relax.

Some are concerned that a concern for social or economic justice might detract from the personal gospel. l Jim Wallis, editor of Sojourners magazine responds:

It’s unfortunate we even have to ask that question. I’ve been fighting the false dichotomy between evangelism and social justice my whole life; . . ..It (the gospel) changes personal lives;(and) it brings social justice. It transforms individuals, communities, societies and even governments. God’s aim is to make all things new.

If we’re not engaging the world, bringing empowerment to the marginalized and addressing the specific injustices of our time, we’re also not taking the Gospel seriously. It’s that simple.”

-7 injustices 3 Go to relevantmagazine website at www.relevantmagazine.com/ life_article.php?id=7624

Think about the prayer we just said a few minutes ago - the Lord’s prayer- and the consider what another writer calls us to remember - that Jesus doesn’t teach us to pray,

May we come to Your Kingdom in heaven after we die, where, unlike earth, Your will is done.” He teaches us to pray, “May Your Kingdom come here to earth. May Your will be done here on earth as it is in heaven.”

Bruce McLaren in Relevant mag - “7 injustices”

There’s an amazing story I’d like to share with you where the personal became global

Jerome Hines, the superb operatic bass, had been invited to sing at the Moscow opera house in the lead role in Mussorgsky’s opera, “Boris Gudonov.” You need to know that this was at the time of the height of the Cuban missile crisis of 1962. Russia had placed nuclear missiles in Cuba and President Kennedy was at the point where he felt that they might not be removed unless the US threatened a nuclear attack on Russia. Against this background Hines traveled to Moscow for his performance. At it’s conclusion Hines acknowledged the thunderous applause of the audience, the went backstage only to find the Premier of the Soviet Union, Nikita Kruschev, who had come to congratulate him on his performance. As Kruschev turned to leave Hines called out in Russian, “God bless you, sir.” His blessing was met only with a puzzled gaze. The next day there was a confrontational phone call between the White House and the Kremlin in which the fate of the world literally hung in the balance. Fortunately, Kruschev backed down and agreed to remove the missiles. Could Jerome Hines have helped avert a nuclear holocaust? It’s certainly possible. 4 “The Genesis Trilogy”, p266-267 M. L’Engle

We may never have the opportunity that God gave to the great singer. But we do live in a time of many crucial social, environmental and political issues. Many of us will have opinions about these, strongly held opinions. Some of which we are convinced God has lead us to. And this can lead us to a serious trap. I know whereof I speak; I’m one of those Christians with some of those strong opinions. Some of you have probably been subjected to them; perhaps already in this sermon.

IV. The spirit is as important as the issue

Well here, then, lies the great trap, and how well I know it- that we can become like that Pharisee in the reading in Luke’s gospel we began with. “Lord, I thank you I am not like other men.” I am absolutely convinced that (whoops, there I go again!), I am strongly convicted that God is as much concerned with the spirit in which an opinion is held as in the position that it supports, no matter how good it sounds. Let me say that again … The epistle to the Hebrews tells us that

…the word of God … is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. When God looks at our hearts as we advocate for the issues of the day what will He find?”

Heb 4:12

Our prayer should be that He finds a spirit of humility that the tax collector at the temple well knew, that recognizes ourselves as imperfect humans, that no matter how well intended, humans that can only imperfectly know the mind of God. Adoption of that spirit can seem a hard thing in the heat of battle, so to speak. It may be beyond us, but God can do for us what we cannot do for ourselves if we prayerfully seek His strength. Without humility we can fall victim to a host of sins, yes sins: the demonization of the other, an anger that refuses to see the good in those we disagree with and in the end, a hostility that does not bring the Kingdom, but only destruction. Sadly, I believe we have seen this corrosive spirit at work in the public and private discourse of our time and I believe it is tearing our churches and our country apart.

Saying this in no way devalues the work of those prophets that God has raised up in recent times - Mahatma Ghandi, Dr. King and many others I’m sure you could add. But oh how we need that spirit of humility!

In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

1 Go to www.ipac.ca/Executive_Briefs_Future

2 Go to www.conservation.org/learn/ species/Pages/overview.aspx

3 Go to relevantmagazine website at www.relevantmagazine.com/ life_article.php?id=7624

4 “The Genesis Trilogy”, p266-267 M. L’Engle