God's Rope: Such Great Faith
During the US civil war Abraham Lincoln met with a group of ministers for a prayer breakfast. Lincoln was a man of deep, if at times unorthodox, faith. At one point one of the ministers said, "Mr. President, let us pray that God is on our side". Lincoln’s response showed far greater insight, "No, gentlemen, let us pray that we are on God’s side." If we want to know what God wants us to do, then we must first strive to live a life of conformity to Him.
Sometimes these days, it seems like we try and make God conform to our faith; especially interdenominationally. Everyone seems to have an idea of what God is and what God does.
The past five weeks I have been going through a class called Introduction to Worldviews. In here we learn everything from Christian Theism to Nihilism, Existentialism and the list goes on. But what got me the most was that they lumped ALL CHRISTIANS into one category. No denominations, nothing…just Christians.
I think President Lincoln was on to something. As a whole, I think we, as American Baptists, are on to something. We are strong as individual churches, but we work well within the community of churches where we are located. The good thing is, there is a lot of this intercommunity cooperation that did not used to be there across our country between denominations that have very different doctrinal beliefs.
Today, I want to look at this on a personal level. I think our scripture points to this today; it is Luke 7:1-10. Let’s read.
When Jesus had finished saying all this in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum. 2 There a centurion’s servant, whom his master valued highly, was sick and about to die. 3 The centurion heard of Jesus and sent some elders of the Jews to him, asking him to come and heal his servant. 4 When they came to Jesus, they pleaded earnestly with him, “This man deserves to have you do this, 5 because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue.” 6 So Jesus went with them.
He was not far from the house when the centurion sent friends to say to him: “Lord, don’t trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. 7 That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. 8 For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
9 When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd following him, he said, “I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel.” 10 Then the men who had been sent returned to the house and found the servant well.
For clarification purposes, a centurion is a Roman soldier who is, in fact, a commander of a “century” of troops, 100…hence the name, “centurion”. This man’s only fault in this whole situation is that he did not feel that he was worthy enough to approach Jesus. In this weakness, however, I see a strength. He may not have felt worthy, but it showed that he was humble. Not sure about you, but I struggle with remaining humble. I get caught up in my own successes that I forget who orchestrates it all. I sure couldn’t do it on my own, that’s for sure!!! This centurion knew this. He KNEW Jesus could heal his servant. He didn’t THINK he could, he KNEW. All Jesus had to do was to “give the order” and his servant would be healed.
Speaking of orders, this centurion was well versed in the realm of following orders. All he had to do is say a word and someone obeyed. There was no questioning the orders they are just followed.
In the movie “A Few Good Men”, there is a famous scene where Nicholson delivers the now trademark line “YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH!” Before this line is delivered however, there is a discussion on following orders. In this discussion the talk about following orders. Nicholson says “We follow orders or people die. It’s that simple.”
It’s this concept of following orders that I want to challenge us to think about. If military personnel follow orders, especially in wartime, because if they don’t, someone could die, what about us as Christians? Maybe we shouldn’t do it harshly as CO’s have a tendency to do, but we should follow the Bible as our list of orders. Contained in the Bible are God’s “orders”. If we don’t follow these orders, people could die…spiritually.
The problem with this is that we can never be perfect in following these orders. We’re human, we sin, and we WILL mess up from time to time. Keep this in mind however, we will get back to this concept of following orders.
After the centurion told Jesus that he understood what it meant by following orders, Jesus was amazed at this centurion. For one thing friends, a human who amazes Jesus does not happen that often. The Greek root word for amazed here appears in the NT alone 43 times. Only TWICE does it ever refer to Jesus being amazed at someone…at that, both times it was the rendition of the same story, this centurion. Apparently, as Jesus says, not even in Israel does one have this much faith.
The faith talked about here is the blind faith of following orders. This is exactly why I think we should look at the Bible a tad differently today…not only is it the story of redemption of humans, but we see it as an instruction manual.
When you buy something that “requires assembly” ooooh I cringe thinking about those words. But somehow, these instructions for me almost NEVER work. I have to piddle around and figure out what the instructions are really telling me to do, sometimes they even appear as if it’s missing a piece. One way or another however, we get it together, more than likely, not as the instructions say. I think if we look at the Bible as a set of instructions, there is more likely to be error in interpreting, opinions to come forward and differ. But if we look at the Bible as God’s “orders” for us to follow…those same military follow or people die orders, that is the kind of blind faith that it takes to follow effectively. Following orders this way shouldn’t require debate on our own personal part. We should just follow. People will still differ on doctrine, interpretation and so on, but in our own personal relationship with Christ however, I tend to believe we’d be a little more effective. Disobeying is NOT an option. The problem is, it ain’t easy.
This is where the story of my rope comes in. Perhaps some of you noticed this rope that I am wearing around my waist today. There’s a story here, as if you didn’t know!!! As I was making this rope at Riverton’s VBS, one of two we helped at this week, it occurred to me that there was a story behind the rope that I had heard years ago. This rope, triggered that particular memory. In the rope I have a maroon strand and I have a teal strand. Maroon is the closest to red I could find and, well, I love the color teal. This little teal strand starts off very broken like us as humans, frayed and just sad all around. It goes for a while on its own before coming into contact with our maroon strand, which stands for Christ. Here at the knot is where Christ wraps us in his embrace, where we lovingly accept Christ as our Savior, get baptized and start our walk with Christ. After this point on and into eternity, it is difficult to tell where one ends and the other begins. Oh sure, each have their own distinctive colors, and you can see the individual in the rope, but when God looks at us, all he sees is one rope, tied together with the blood that covers us…the blood of Christ. We are perfect and very useful in His eyes. We, then, as a rope are able to be used by God to help hold up our pants (be member of God’s Church helping to bring others to him), drag another vehicle (person) out of the mud (sin). Even our frayed beginning is used to grasp a hold of to help. You see, WE are God’s rope.
When we’re tied together with Christ, no matter what, even when we disobey an order, Christ’s blood covers us. Now, that is not a free pass to sin as much as we want, this type of disobeying is different from a slip up. But we are covered by the grace and mercy of God.
All it takes to become “God’s rope” is faith. Such great faith, faith to follow God’s orders without question.
All too many times when we receive instructions from God we argue and try to drag God down the path we want to go. It’s that form of selfish pride that we need to let go of. This will enable us to follow God’s orders more effectively.
The most important thing to remember is when you DO slip up, don’t run away from the cross, run to it. Run to Christ, remember that he’ll cast your sin as far as the East is from the West…which is pretty darn far!!!
To tie everything together, let’s try to have the faith required to conform to God’s ways, rather than conform God to our ways. If we can conform to the ways God orders, He will do the work of tying the rope together. He’ll give us the instructions we need to live effectively. He will provide all the information we need to have “such great faith”. Is it possible? Yes, we have seen the example given in our Scripture for today. My contention is if it was done once, it is achievable again. Remember, you are God’s rope…
Sometimes these days, it seems like we try and make God conform to our faith; especially interdenominationally. Everyone seems to have an idea of what God is and what God does.
The past five weeks I have been going through a class called Introduction to Worldviews. In here we learn everything from Christian Theism to Nihilism, Existentialism and the list goes on. But what got me the most was that they lumped ALL CHRISTIANS into one category. No denominations, nothing…just Christians.
I think President Lincoln was on to something. As a whole, I think we, as American Baptists, are on to something. We are strong as individual churches, but we work well within the community of churches where we are located. The good thing is, there is a lot of this intercommunity cooperation that did not used to be there across our country between denominations that have very different doctrinal beliefs.
Today, I want to look at this on a personal level. I think our scripture points to this today; it is Luke 7:1-10. Let’s read.
When Jesus had finished saying all this in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum. 2 There a centurion’s servant, whom his master valued highly, was sick and about to die. 3 The centurion heard of Jesus and sent some elders of the Jews to him, asking him to come and heal his servant. 4 When they came to Jesus, they pleaded earnestly with him, “This man deserves to have you do this, 5 because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue.” 6 So Jesus went with them.
He was not far from the house when the centurion sent friends to say to him: “Lord, don’t trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. 7 That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. 8 For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
9 When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd following him, he said, “I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel.” 10 Then the men who had been sent returned to the house and found the servant well.
For clarification purposes, a centurion is a Roman soldier who is, in fact, a commander of a “century” of troops, 100…hence the name, “centurion”. This man’s only fault in this whole situation is that he did not feel that he was worthy enough to approach Jesus. In this weakness, however, I see a strength. He may not have felt worthy, but it showed that he was humble. Not sure about you, but I struggle with remaining humble. I get caught up in my own successes that I forget who orchestrates it all. I sure couldn’t do it on my own, that’s for sure!!! This centurion knew this. He KNEW Jesus could heal his servant. He didn’t THINK he could, he KNEW. All Jesus had to do was to “give the order” and his servant would be healed.
Speaking of orders, this centurion was well versed in the realm of following orders. All he had to do is say a word and someone obeyed. There was no questioning the orders they are just followed.
In the movie “A Few Good Men”, there is a famous scene where Nicholson delivers the now trademark line “YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH!” Before this line is delivered however, there is a discussion on following orders. In this discussion the talk about following orders. Nicholson says “We follow orders or people die. It’s that simple.”
It’s this concept of following orders that I want to challenge us to think about. If military personnel follow orders, especially in wartime, because if they don’t, someone could die, what about us as Christians? Maybe we shouldn’t do it harshly as CO’s have a tendency to do, but we should follow the Bible as our list of orders. Contained in the Bible are God’s “orders”. If we don’t follow these orders, people could die…spiritually.
The problem with this is that we can never be perfect in following these orders. We’re human, we sin, and we WILL mess up from time to time. Keep this in mind however, we will get back to this concept of following orders.
After the centurion told Jesus that he understood what it meant by following orders, Jesus was amazed at this centurion. For one thing friends, a human who amazes Jesus does not happen that often. The Greek root word for amazed here appears in the NT alone 43 times. Only TWICE does it ever refer to Jesus being amazed at someone…at that, both times it was the rendition of the same story, this centurion. Apparently, as Jesus says, not even in Israel does one have this much faith.
The faith talked about here is the blind faith of following orders. This is exactly why I think we should look at the Bible a tad differently today…not only is it the story of redemption of humans, but we see it as an instruction manual.
When you buy something that “requires assembly” ooooh I cringe thinking about those words. But somehow, these instructions for me almost NEVER work. I have to piddle around and figure out what the instructions are really telling me to do, sometimes they even appear as if it’s missing a piece. One way or another however, we get it together, more than likely, not as the instructions say. I think if we look at the Bible as a set of instructions, there is more likely to be error in interpreting, opinions to come forward and differ. But if we look at the Bible as God’s “orders” for us to follow…those same military follow or people die orders, that is the kind of blind faith that it takes to follow effectively. Following orders this way shouldn’t require debate on our own personal part. We should just follow. People will still differ on doctrine, interpretation and so on, but in our own personal relationship with Christ however, I tend to believe we’d be a little more effective. Disobeying is NOT an option. The problem is, it ain’t easy.
This is where the story of my rope comes in. Perhaps some of you noticed this rope that I am wearing around my waist today. There’s a story here, as if you didn’t know!!! As I was making this rope at Riverton’s VBS, one of two we helped at this week, it occurred to me that there was a story behind the rope that I had heard years ago. This rope, triggered that particular memory. In the rope I have a maroon strand and I have a teal strand. Maroon is the closest to red I could find and, well, I love the color teal. This little teal strand starts off very broken like us as humans, frayed and just sad all around. It goes for a while on its own before coming into contact with our maroon strand, which stands for Christ. Here at the knot is where Christ wraps us in his embrace, where we lovingly accept Christ as our Savior, get baptized and start our walk with Christ. After this point on and into eternity, it is difficult to tell where one ends and the other begins. Oh sure, each have their own distinctive colors, and you can see the individual in the rope, but when God looks at us, all he sees is one rope, tied together with the blood that covers us…the blood of Christ. We are perfect and very useful in His eyes. We, then, as a rope are able to be used by God to help hold up our pants (be member of God’s Church helping to bring others to him), drag another vehicle (person) out of the mud (sin). Even our frayed beginning is used to grasp a hold of to help. You see, WE are God’s rope.
When we’re tied together with Christ, no matter what, even when we disobey an order, Christ’s blood covers us. Now, that is not a free pass to sin as much as we want, this type of disobeying is different from a slip up. But we are covered by the grace and mercy of God.
All it takes to become “God’s rope” is faith. Such great faith, faith to follow God’s orders without question.
All too many times when we receive instructions from God we argue and try to drag God down the path we want to go. It’s that form of selfish pride that we need to let go of. This will enable us to follow God’s orders more effectively.
The most important thing to remember is when you DO slip up, don’t run away from the cross, run to it. Run to Christ, remember that he’ll cast your sin as far as the East is from the West…which is pretty darn far!!!
To tie everything together, let’s try to have the faith required to conform to God’s ways, rather than conform God to our ways. If we can conform to the ways God orders, He will do the work of tying the rope together. He’ll give us the instructions we need to live effectively. He will provide all the information we need to have “such great faith”. Is it possible? Yes, we have seen the example given in our Scripture for today. My contention is if it was done once, it is achievable again. Remember, you are God’s rope…
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