12-14-75. Matt & Messiah. We come now to the 3d surlday in Advent and the 2d in our qr's series in the study of Matt. ~-ii4;.~ we hrd Dr Davis tell us of the unique nature of Matt's gospel, but I would like to make an introd+ic+jon ~ We have in Matt the most wmdely-read gos~pl in the earl Church, the acct which had the greatest infl in determining men's ideas of Xr. I'm sure you all :(now that the earliest Xr documents that were widely available were the ltrs of Paul explaining the meaning of the Xr event, and that it was another decade before the biogrs, the stories of the Er event itself became available. Mark's was first, and Matt used his gosppl as a primary sourse. Matt's gosnel itself is built like a medieval cathedral, and the author himself has been called the architect among the gospel writers. His work is like a massive building representing the work of a long period of time and many workers, but so well harmonized and unified and shaped that it gives the impression of a living whole. And within the building, so diverse were the people who felt the appeal of J, and so sharp the eye of the writer, that we find ma~y different kinds of personalities, all sorts and conditions of the human race--shepherds, magi from the east, centur• ions in the Roman army, fishermen, tax collectors, farmers, vinedressers, blind beggars, generaus women, scribes and Pharisees, priests & levites, young children and very old people. There is in this cast of characters a repr from every social class and every type in the moral order from the good to the bad. But the figure who stands above all the rest, who captures our imaginat and our attn, is Jesus of Nazareth, the Xr of God, the Messiah of the Hebrs who fulfills all the prophecies and who also fulfills all the needs of the human soul. In this book he is seen as teacher of di• vine truth that is so far beyond the ethical teachings of mankind that any doubts about its divine inspirat must be put aside; he is seen as the healer of diseases and lord of the elements; he is also seen as a person with so radiant a life that all who looked upon him and heard him were at• tracted to him and folwd him gladly. ~nd it is the tragedy of the book that while the conunon people heard him and folwd him, the relig ldrs rejected as dangerous, as a blasphemer who would wreck the ancient faith and bring down upon the nation the wrath of the Roman overlords. And in their blindness they had him crudified. This is the essence of Matt's book and the meaning of the Advent--God was made flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace & glory, as God acted in divine love to reconcile man to himself. No one can wal~ into the might building that is Matt's gos~pl with• out being moved to awe and wonder and praise, and then being led to worship Jesus the Xr in sptrit and in truth. For today we have 3 references to Matt's use of OT prophecies to show that J fulfilled the ancient dream of the Messiah. The first one is in Matt 4: 12-16. This comes immed after the tem• ptation of J, when he withdr into Galilee where Matt sees a striking fulfillmt of the two prophe• cies in Isa 9:1,2. The first of these is that according to the prophet those people who lived in the very region that J now entered wbuld be the ones to whom the light would be given, and the second is that those who sat in darkness for so long a time have now received the light. The sym• bol of darkness well fits the moral de~radat & confusion of society in J day. It means people did not know which way to turn to escape their hopemessness, that there was no guide or path to follow, that all were gfoping for something. The symbol of light, which we meet here for the firs time in N~, is intended to tell us the essential nature of the minist&!Y of J. His mission was to be a sourse of light and hope and guidance to a people who had for so long aacted any purpose in life; it was to bring beauty and meaning into the dull lives, just as a shaft of sunlight on a gray day can renew our hope and brighten the colors of the earth. So here is the first P-Vidence from the OT that J was the answer to the prophetic vision--the retreat into the region of Galilae, the light which came into the lives of men. The second instance is in Matt 12: 14-21. This comes after the healing of the man w/wither hand,& J felt the opposit arise so he w/dr, but not from the corrnnon people, who fold him in great numbers and he healed them and swore them to secrecy. This is the beginning of a new phase in the mission-file no longer goes to the synagog to read & discuss scripture, but to the open places & the lake shore where the people are. Forced out of the relig centers he began open-air ministry. ~o Matt, this is not a defeat or a retreat, but a fulflmt of prophect, again from Isa, 42:1-4, the suffering servant. Quotmng the entire passage is characteristic of hatt who wants to link up the OT prophecy withe J of history. And this the second evid from OT that J was the answer to the Messianic hope. He is the chosen servant in whom God is pleased; he shall procl justice to gentil he will not fight back when attacked, he will not force himsalf upon anyone who will not hear, and the non-Jews will have hope in his name. So J w/dr from the synagogs and moved among the people, and Matt saw it as a sign from heaven that this was the man we are all waiting for, He is not a distant and uncaring spi±tt, he came into the world in the flesh, and the seal of God's approval was upon him. This too is the gospel of the messiah and of the advent. The third istance is in Matt 21•1-5. This one is nearing the end of that earthly min• istry and still the events were foretold long before. It is the story of the triumphal entry into Jerus from the Mt of Olives a Sagbath day journey fro~ Jer~s, for here, according to tr~dit, the messiah would appear. Bethphage means the house of unripe figs, probl an estate on the hill. Here he sent 2 students to ask about his mount into the city--probl J had already made arrangemts, per• haps with one who was a folwr waether openly or secretly--the Lora has need of this means J, as this was the normal title for J as head of the Xr community. Only Matt mentions the two animals, colt and foal, and this was the fulfillmt of Zech's vision and Isa 62. The Isa ref is the first part of Matt's citation--Say to the daughter of ·zion, behold your salvation comes; the Zech (9:9(.) --rejoice greatly, o daughter of Zion. Shout alout, 0 daughter of Jerusalem. Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on an ass, on a coat the foal of an ass. Heee again Matt shows how J fulfills OT aspirations. In the triumphal entry he rides upon a donkey to dramatize the spiritual rather than the military or material nature of his domain, but with it all, here comes salvation into Jerus, lo, your kg is coming triumphant & victorious, yet lowly and humble. This, then is Matt's view of the Messiah. He brings light into moral and spiritual darkness. He is gentle rather than forceful, and he has God's approval, the chosen servant of God. He brings salvation to the hill of Zion in Jerus, a king who comes riding upon a donkey because he is humble and his reign is in the hearts of men. He is enunanuel, god with us, and this is what Chrti.stmas means to us. 12-28-75. J's Dilemma & Decision. Those of us in our generat often like to think that the younger generat practices lax morality while we are the upholders of an absolute ethic that admits of no bending or compromising. It is the younger ones who like to think of terms of situational ethics, of allowing circumstances to determine morality, of tolerating more permissiveness. And yet it is our generat which is willing to turn in padded expense accts, keep some secrets from the tax people take part in white-collar crime. Archie Bunker can forbid any talk about sex in his house, but he can borrow the company's electric drill and put a few nails in his pockets to take home. On TV this week I've seen an adv for cars--if you don't take the_ savings on a new car the tax-man will get it--, and there are ads in the paper urging people to beat the tax by buying now. What all of this means is that all of us are tempted,and when temptat comes to us it is not always dressed in the same garb. Sometimes it is an invitat to deal in half-truths to others or to lie to ourselves about why we do things. Sometimes temptat comes to us in our work, or in our recreation as we tell haw large was the fish we caught or how many strokes we took at golf. Sometimes it comes as a de• sire to gossip, to hurt someone with our tongues, to assassinate a character by slurs and innuendo. And at other times temptat comesaas we do the very best things for the very worst reasons. We try to fool ourselves by ratmonalizing our actions,so that we can continue to live with ourselves in spite of ourselves. So sometimes we ~o the very worst things for the very best reasons, and it still comes out w~cng. We are all tempted all the time, and need to stay on our guard against it. And if it is any consolat, we can know that J was tempted even as we are, so he can understand the pressures we are under as we fight it out with the forces of darkness. Jesus was tempted in the most severe fashion immediately after histaptism and his commission from God the Father. As he came up out of the water a loud noise was heard, like thunder, which some underst to be the goice of God saying this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. And after receiving the seal of divine approval H went out into the desert for a period of fasting and meditat. It was there that he confronted the dilemma that faces all of us--how shall we attain the goals we have set for ourselves? Shall we do it the hard way, the right way, or shall we cut corners and compromise and take the easy way? This was J's dilemma, as it is ours. Let us see what decisions he made in the face of his temptat to take the easier way. The first temptat invite J to misuse his power for his own good. Matt 4: 1-4. The word here transl tempted is a word that conveys the ideas of pain, sorrow, disappointmt, intitat to sin, and confl of duties by which a person is tried, tested, or proved. The idea we have of temptat, that it is an appeal to our baser natures, a solicitation to sin, to break God's law, is found only a few times in NT. Instead we find much more common the idea of testing, and this is what we have here. J was being tested by the devil, to find out what kind of person he was, to find out what kind of methods he would use to reach his ideals and goals. And to underst the real meaning of this temptat event we must get behind its symbolism. All the early Xrs, as did Jews, believed in a personal devil whose business it was to test men's faith, to accuse them of evil-doing, to ridicule & slander their good works. His name was Diabolos, the slanderer. The author of this event--and it is recorded in all 3 synopt saw these events as objectively true, hapoening as recounted here. But it makes more sense to see this temptat as a profound and deeply signif spiritual experience of J treated here in symbolic language. It was an invitat to sin by not by some act of the carnal man; it was an invitat to sin by choosing the worst method to accompl the best goal. What was happening within the consciousness of J is here described as happening outwardly as well. Incitement to sin may come from without, but the real struggles we have between good and evil always take place within ourselves. And note well that the temptat event clearly shows that J could not meet the contemporary Jewish ideas of the Messiah, for it was those very Messianic ideas that ma~e up his temptat. He was asked to do what good Jews thought Messiah would do when he came, and he rejected all of them. This first temptat was one to misuse his power. He was a~~ed to give a prominent place to purely material goals. He was hungry, and he was reminded that many in the world are hungry and crying out for a new social and econ order that would give brea~ to all. If he would use his God-given powers to that end, the whole wonld would be at his feet. But J rejected the temptat to misuse his powers. He keew full well that human hearts, made with a hunger for God, tJould never be satisfied with bread alone. Bread is essential to life but the soul needs much more. His task is to be to lead men to the point that they can hear the sustaining word of God as he heard them at his bapt. His mission is a relig one and he cannot accompl it by an appeal to physical hunger. They must heard the words of God, not just those recorded in ancient scriptures but also those that men can exper• ience in the transformation of their lives. Eat of this bread and drink of this water and you will hunger and thirst again; but eat and drink of the word of God and you never go hungry or thirsty again. That was the dilemma--seek a following by offering to make stones into bread. Jesus decide any following obtain'd in that manner would not be w~cth the effort. The second temptat, Matt 4: 5-7. Here we are taken up in imaginat to the high roof of the temple where Roman sols were stationed to watch the crowds during feast days. The suggestion is t~at if J would throw himsalf down from that great height to the stones be~ow, in sight of the mul• titude, that angels would bear him up as the Psalmist (Ps 91) had written, and all would know that he had God's favor, and would flock to him. Popular ideas of Messiah held that he could make bread for all to eat, and that he could leap off tall places and God would hold him up. Jfnd it wa again a temptat to win a folwg, to attain his goals, but by some magical method. And again J dec• ided against that method. Jans whowe us that we are not to put God to the test by resorting to devices and ways that are in directviolat of his laws. J says he is not going to use spectacular methods in his ministry among men. He is not going to be the kind of magic-working messiah many were looking for. His method may be slower, but it would be surer. The third temptat, Matt 4: 8-11, is a very real temptat, or testing. The Jews expected thei messiah to be a great political ldr taking his people to war against the reomans who were then the oppressors of their race & religion, and this the devil asks him to do if he will ackno~l the pwr of evil in bringing it about. But J absolutely repudiated this definition of messiah, and also any acknowlmt that he would compromise by secretly wcrshipping the devil. His help must come from God, and God only must he serve. It is only as he submits himself to the will of the father that he can accompl his spiritual purposes among men. These were J's dilemmas and his decisions. He would not misuse his power, he would not abusehhis relationship w/God, he would not forsake his divine mission. He would not eo the very best things for the ~ery worst reasons, or the very worst methods. And to us the same temptats come, not while we are in some desert place without food or water, but in our businesses and our homes and cities. We too are called upon to cut corners, to win popularity by catering to the crowd, to find the easy way and go therein. Our master knows how we are tempted, for he too was tested. He was found not wanting for the mission the Father sent him on. In one of the most famous chapters in all of literature, the grand inquisitor in Dostoiev ski's the brothers karamatzof tP,lls J ..• 1-11-76. The Kgdom way of life. Back in the 30's when for millions of Amers the future looked bleak indeed and security in the material sense became all-important, a play ran for a long stand on broadway and was made into a prize-winning film. It was You can'~ take it with you, and it con cerned a group of people who lived in a big house and all did what they wanted to do. One was writing a play, using a kitten as a paper-weight. Another made oull-toys for children, duck that waddled. Two others experimented with fireworks and almost blew out the basement. And when some• one asked the old man about them, he saie We are lilies; we toil not, neither do we spin, but God takes care of us. It was a depression play with a depression message, but it is a good point to remember anytime. It takes faith to live like that, faith so simple that to a materialworld it becomes simplemindedness. But we can't take it with us, as the old sermon had it there are no pockets in a shroud, and all of our getting and grasping and storing up will one day seem rather pointless. Time and again you hear people say of someone that he worked hard every day of his life, and killed himself with overwork just as retiremt and rest were coming up. Today we have a lesson in our series on Matt, the second taken from the sermon on Mt, and this one deals w/Kgdm way of life. For that's what it is, a total way of life. It is not a way of doing certain things but a certain way of doing all things, and that certain way is faith that God will protect and pro vide. Things are necessary to life, food and shelter are essentials--give us this day our daily bread--but to make the ownership of things the object of life is the one sure pathway to unhappi• ness. It is a shallow and unrewarding life, to tear down barns to build greater banns, and always there comes the night when we must give an accounting of our souls. This is the lesson of the teachings we have for today. When wealth accumulates and men decay then evil is in control and the kgdom of heaven has no chance to grow. All this is contained in J teaching on the Mt. The sermon is a collection of teachings, prob repeated whenever there was a new group of hearers, and put in such sharp contrast to the prevail• ing values and goals, and in such memorable language, that it stuck in memory. J spoke in Aramaic and in transl it into Grk some explanatory phrases would be necessary, which may mean that Matt's longer acct is more accurate than Lk's briefer treatmt. In dealing with the ethic presented in the sermon, we must al~ays consider 3 questions; what did it mean to those who heard it, what did it mean to the Ch for whom the gospel was written, and what does in mean in the context of today, with the much more complex needs of modern life we must conten~ with. And thru the entire sermon or collection of teachings there flows an ethic so unusual, so contrary to human underst, that it must be genuine and original and divinely inspired. And it also contains an insight into the goals and values of those who are in the kdgm of heaven. This is the Kgdm way of life. Matt. 6: 19-21. This portion of the sermon, the last half of the 6th Chap, is a description of piety, or righteous living, expressed in a life of complete trust and confidence in God's watchcare, and in a life of freedom from anxiety and care. We are to recoggize the uncertain security of material possessions, and put first things first. It is a human desire to store up treasures, to prepare for the coming winter, or a rainy day, or for future needs. And it is not the things themselvrs which are the error, but making them the only goal in life. We must understand that things go bad and we cannot depend upon them. Clothes get eaten P:P by moths, metals rust and wear away, and thieves break in. So we try to beat the game by using mothballs and restproof paint and sec• urity locks on our doors and safety deposit boxes in banks. But we must never forget that what we cherish the most gets all our attention and our allegiance. Where our treasure is, there ase also our hearts. How many hearts do you see in imagination in the bank vaults? We need to remem• ber that the things of the spirit can never gecome motheaten or rusty or stolen. Aigood education can never be taken away; a life filled with meaningful experiences is a treasure that will not be stolen; citizenship in the Kgdm of heaven is the ultimate value in life--and that means that we stop caring and begin to trust. Matt 6: 24. Here J is showing his deep underst of human psychol. the human mihd is incapable to giving attn to two things at the same time, the human personality is incapable t~ a dual allegiance. Man is so richly made that only God can fill the deep void in his heart. If material possessions become the only object of our lives we are doomed to failure & bitter disapptmt, for the cra~tor of our souls has made them so that we cannot find peace outsid of Him who made us. 1~ cannot serve God and any other interest at the same time. The word mammon is an Aramaic word meaning wealth, riches, worldty goods, and is derived from another word meaning that in which one puts his trust. He is saying that God will mever be seoond, he will not even be co,equal with another interest. He must come first or not at all. Matt 6: 25-33. This beautiful poem is the summation of the kgdo,way of life. We are to realize the ultimate insignif of~ things like food and clothing and to remember that there are some things beyond our control. Life is more than food & clothing, and we miss the entire point of victorious living if we remain on the material level of life. And here again it ms not the action but the intent, the goal, the purpose We need our daily bread, but we must always remember that God will provide--that is the meaaare of the kgdm outlook. So let is not be concerned about eating and drinking, the pagans make those things their concern in life, and God knows we need these things. But--and here is the key to all theethic of the ~gdm--it does matter what we put first in life. Seek first clothing and food and shelter, and if lucky we may get them; seek first the Kgdm and the righteousness of God and we get that, and all these other things thrown in as a bonus. It does matter what direction we take in life, it does matter what we put first and what we put second and third. For every per son has a god--it is that in which he puts his ultimate trust. And if that god is material things --marmnon--it may not be able to deliver. But if that god is the God of the Kgdm then all things fall into place, we know the meaning of peace in our souls and happiness and fulfillmt. Just before going down into Jerus to face the final test of his ministry J stopped in to visit some omd friends, two women named Martha and Mary in Bethany. Mary sat at his feet and talked and listened; Marth scurried around caring for his needs, bring water to wash his feet, food and drink to serve. And it was all necessary, and Martha complained to J that her sister should help her serve. And J ansd , Martha, !'iartha, you are anxious and troubled about many things; one thing is needful. And thru all his ministry he tried to explain what that one thing is: total faith, complete trust, inner peace that overcomes anxiety and care. The Kgdm way of life was described by the very God who made us for it; it is our way to happiness and self-ful• fillmt. Let us live that way of life, for it is the way of God for us. 1-25-76. Mission of the Twelve. Not so very long ago we had a series of lessons on Xr maturity, and one of the definitions of maturity we found then was the ability to produce one's own kind. The mature plant or animal is the one capable of reproduction and propagation, the mature person is the one able to procreate others like himsPlf. The mature Xr is the person who is able to serve as the agent of God to win other people to the way of the gospel. There comes a time in everyone's life when he wants to convert somebody to his way of thin~ing and living. The Commun• ist, the socialist, the republ or democr, the vegetarian and the pacifist, the meat-eater and the war-monger, the traveler and the stay-at-home, all sorts of people try to win acceptance of their views. Some go from door to door, others buy an ad in the papers, still others hand out literat on the mall or the shoppin~ center. And that, in whatever enterprise is involved, is the mark of maturity. For the Xr, mauurity comes when he finishes his course as a pupil and becomes a messen• ger, a witness, a spokesman for the God who sent his son into the world to forgive sin. And that is our subject for today. It deals with the change in the folwrs of J from students to travelling salemmen. During all the earlier part of J ministry he was teaching a group of folwrs, and they were called disciples, which means student. Now we are about to see the change come over them, they are to become mature to the point that they can now become teachers and witnesses, they are ready to go forth in the name of J. But before they go J gives them the rules of the road and tells them something of the nature of the world they are going into. And what he told them made his words a kind of little apocalypse, prior to the big apocalypse he gave them just before his crucifixion. For he was discussing the coming of the spirit into the lives of men. Matt 9:35--10:1. Here is the commission of J to his disciples, and the cause of his sending them forth. In a genl statemt Matt describes how J went thru the cities and villages preaching the gospel, the good news, of the kgdm of heaven in the synagogs, and healing all manner of ill• ness and disease. And there were so very many of them, crowds of them, more than he could take care of. And he felt compassion upon the crowds of oeople in need. He felt pity for them because they were like sheep w/o shepherd. They were harassed and helpless, or in the older words they were distressed and scattered like a flock of sheep w/o guidance. The words suggest that the people were cornered like a hunted deer, that they were attacked by dogs and wolves, and they had no one to protect them. It suggests that J meanttthat thepeople were harassed by false hopes & dark superstitions, they were attacked by fears and anxieties, and were helpless because they W•>'lI'e leadersess. So he said to his disciples, the harvest is plentiful, the laborers are few--changing his metaphor from sheep to harvests, a much more hopefil picture than leadersess speep under attac Here the image of the people in need is of ripe golden grain ready to be harvested, waiting only for some laborers to go into the fields. Work among human need promises rich rewards, J says, and asked folwrs to pray to the Lord of the Harvest to send forth workers. Surely, outside of the shepherd ef the 23d Psalm there is no more beautiful description of God than lord of harvest. So J will be shepherd to some confused sheep, and will send wor~ers into the fields for harvesttime is here. This ts the commiesion to the disciples. He called his 12 discs and authorised them, empowered them, to drive out unclean spirits and heal all infirmities. Note, no teaching or preaching. And in V.2 the name of the 12 has changed in one sentence from disciple to apostle. That is the measure of themr maturity. Disc means student, but apostle means one who is sent out, from grk words apo---i'rom and verb meaning to send. In a miraculous change not too unlike the out• pouring of the spirit on pentecost the disciples became apostles. From those who listened and watched as J healed, they would not become doers and witnesses. This is the great leap forward to maturity in Xr. This was graduation day for the students of the master teacher. There folws a list of the 12. There are four lists in the gospels, no two exactly alike Peoples' memories vaeied, or, more likely, some left and were replaced by others. But the words of instruction were clear, and are almost identical in Lk t s acct. Do not go to gentiles or Samar• itans, but go to the lost sheep of the house of Isr. ~nd as you go preach, and here is the author ity for preaching, the kgdom of heaven is at hand. That is the good news. And as you go, heal, sick, raise dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. Take no money in your pockets, no bag nor a change of clothing or sandals, and no wal~ing cane, for you will be fed and sheltered along the way. Wherever you are recd, give your peace upon that house; if you are not recd, do not wait to argue; shake the dust from your feet and move on. And they should expect it to be a tough world. Matt 10:16-20. Now the metaphor of sheep helpless and harassed is turned around to become sheep who are harmless and weak in a world of hungry predators. So they are to be as wise as serpents and as harmless as doves. The word wise means sensible, exercising reasonable caution, having common simse and sound judgmt. Thus J overlooks all the baq qualities of serpents and men• tions its good quality--it does not attack when the odds are uneven, it slikks away when its judg ment tells it to. It takes a sound judrmt to know when to stand and fight and when to move off. And taey are to have the simple sincerity of spirit as the dove, which at J baptism was the symbol of the spirit of God descending upon him. There folws the little apocalypse, w/predictions of persecuts to come. They will be dragged before councils and flogged in synagogs and taken before governors and kings. But they are not to be afraid, or to worry about what they will say, for the spirit of God will tell them what to say. They will not be speaking, but the spirit of God speaking thru Jm[ them. They will need the comforterifor the life of the apostle will be a danger• ous one. He goes to to say that families will bedivided because of the gospel, and brothers will deliver brothers up to death, and many will be hated for J sake. But those who endure to the end --the apocalypse, the final things--will be saved. It is the msg of the revelation in one sentence And in conclusion, the hope of reward. Matt 10: 40-42. In Lk's acct, the words in V.40 come at the close of the commission to the 12 and should be a part of that. They are to be ambas• saoor-s , which is another word !6d>r apostle, one who is sent, and they go mot in their own names but in the mame of J. Those who recv the apostle receive the sender as well. And there folws descrs of 3 types of Xrs--prophets, righteous men, little ones. The prophet is probl the apostolic mis• sionary, the rightous is the Xr of uhusual piety, the little ones are the rest of us. And all are to be ceceived, and will receive reward according to rank, a prophet's reward, a righteous man's reward, a little one's reward. The entire 10th chap gives a picture of foreboding, a foreshadowing of the struggle that was already beginning among the Jews and which would ultimately cost J his life and make 1000s of mar• tyrs. But still the missionaries go forth. And the harvests are still plentiful, the compassion• ate are still moved to tears over the numbers of needy people like sheep w/o shephere, and the call is still heard for messengers to take the word. Shall we remain dis:piples, or shall we make the great leap of faith and become apostles? The need is there, and so the master's reward. 2-15-76. Contrasting Responses of Faith. Some time ago we got a yogurt-maker in our house and we have been mixing powdered milk and growing yogurt ever since. We like the taste, the good benefit from the yogurt enzymes, the cheap food. I asked my neighbor i~ he liked it, and he replied that he'd never tasted the stuff. So from the next batch I took him a serving of it and he tried it. He did not like it, and said so. He could eat it if he had to, but he'd just as soon not. And I told him it might be that it was an acquired taste and more of it might make him like it. He was'~ n't all that excited. Like the time I took another neighbor a serving of my Swiss chard. He told me later He liked it very much, but please don't bring him any more. We are like that about some things. We like them from the very beginning, or we know full well we'll never like them. I hear people say about people, and books, and foods--you either like it very much, or you detest it. And the people of J's day, and of ours as well, were different in their responses to his appeal fo faith. They were not all alike, nor are we. The road to heaven is a Barrow one, and the gate is strait, because we must enter it one at a time. It is an individual matter, our response of faith to the call of Xr. And sometimes even the most faithful among us falter and fail, while those we would count among the pagans can show the deepest and most steadfast faith in a time of crisis. Our lesson for today is of two people and the contrasting nature of their responses of faith. One of them, whose faith faltered, was Peter, who followed his master and denied him and went a-fish• ing and then became shepherd of the sheep and mat.tyr in Rome; the oll:ilier, who showed such strong faith, we never hear of again. Today we have passages from Matt 14 & 15 which make a unit in Matt's biogr of J, in which we find a series of incidents that show different reactions to the msg & person of J. Ch 14 begin w/death of Jno-Bapt and w/dr of J to grieve, but so many people came to the monely place that they must be miraculously fed. When all the food left-over had been collected, J retired to pray, his discs got into a boat to cross the lake. Matt 14: 22-33. J made his discs get into a boat, & 4th Gosp tells why--he did not want them to share the worldy view of Messiah of the crowd, who had been fed where there was no food and wanted to make him king. That's one response of faith, if you call it that, and it is a popular one. But it was a stormy night and they made little head• way. In 4th watch, 3 to 6 a.m., he came to them, wal~ing on the sea. Now what we have here is Peter's own acct of what happened, as told to M~, and it was an incident that impressed itself u~• on Peter's mind. Some rationalists of 19th cen tried to argue that they had been blown back to the shore, and in dim light saw J walking along the shore and thot themselves far out to sea. The Grk preposition transl on was also used to mean by. But whatever happened, Peter was sure of what he saw, and what happened next. Impulsive Peter wanted to do that trict too, and he stepped out of the boat and sure enough he was walking on the waves as if they had been paved over. But then that humiliation he could not forget years later. He became afraid, lost his faith, and be• gan to sink, but J pulled him up and put him in boat. 0 man of little faith, why did you doubt? P's impulse had been replaced by shame and reproach; perpahs the others laughed at him. But they also saw a mi~aculous sign that told them J was truly the son of God. The story held a great fas• cination for early Ch, as it passed thru persecut. It was a comforting reminder, and its lessons are important: that w/o Xr the Ch is always in danger of sinking into the storm, that in the hour of greatest need Xr will come, that his presence is real and not a phantom, as some were saying in those days, and that when he comes our little faith becomes sufficient again and all is safe. The storm ceases. Here was Peter's response of faith to J walking on water--impulse to do it too, humiliation & failure, repentance and confession, and restoration to the favor of J. It took him a long time to learn, and he had other embarrassmng failures before he did, that trust can do grea things, while fa~~, lack of faith, cowardice, are destructive. Qhite a different fesponse came from the pagan woman. Matt. 15: 21-28. Lk omits this story as hard for Gentile audience to underst, Matt tells it to Jewish audience to tell that J mission solely to lost sheep of Isr, Mk 7:27 inserts word "first" for lost sheep, then others have chance. The story tells of shocking conduct on part of J, usually so polite to everybody. But he wastes• ting this woman. At her first request, silent barrier, no answer, but ha may have been smiling. But she would not give up, altho discs wanted her driven away. But she asked again. This time the response was a curt putting her in her place--he was not sent to paganslike you. But she per• sisted, Lord, help me. Ang a second slur upon her; it is not fair (several Mss give, it is not lawful ••• ) to give children's bread to the dogs. He used the word little dog, the kind that would be under a table, an inside dog. And he may have smiled again at her. She accepted his slur upon her, and said she would eat even the crumbs that fall from the table of the children. And then he praised her faith, and performed the miracle of healing she asked. Her response of faith tells us to persist in faith and huihility, keep on asking whatever we get thrown into our faces. She was not of the chosen race, she was a mixture of Syrian and Phoen~cian. The orthodoE, even the discs, condemned her, but J found faith in her. She ran the risk of rebuff, she dared, and by her daring faith the made contact w/pwr of God. Peter also dared as he asked to walk on the water. He wal~ed, but he began to fear, and fear drives out faith, so he began to sink. Thw syrian woman dared to ask a gift of J, who was of the people who despised her and her kind. But she learned that the Uod of J was big enough for all people and all their problems. She learned that waaaever people make the leap into the great adventure of faith they too may become children who eat bread at the lore's table. For where the woman would have accepted crumbs, J gave her the children's bread. Faith, and not racial origin, is the requiremt for entering the spiritual family of God. We who believe become the real sons of Abraham and the heirs of the promise. When an individ, of whatever origin or past experience, embarks upon the great dare, the great adventure, dares to run risks of falling into the sea or or being humiliated and turned away, the entire resourses of God's spiritual universe are his. This is the lesson of the pagan woman's faith. Let it sing its song in our hearts. 2-29-76. The way of forgiveness. In one of his most charming short stories Alphonse Daudet told of the pope's mule, a proud and haughty cr-e at.ure who tossed her head and snubbed other beings be• cause she bore the pope himself. But when a group of mean fellows played a humiliating prank up• on her and then left France, she saved her vengeance, and her kick, for seven years. Daudet tells us that some people are like that, and that the French;. then had a say_ing;.., .. hew~ra t.ha t, mf-~, he is vindictive and he never forgets, he is like the pope's mule who saved her l<:ick for 7 yflB;, And he may have been satirizing his own people, who could ,never forget a hum:riiliation. On Jan 18/71 the German "Emp was proclaimed from the hall of mirrors in the place of versailles, the Germans took the provinces of Alsace-Lorraine and two small states in Belgium, and imposed an indemmity of 5 billion gold francs upon the French--an enonmous and unheard of sum. Mil occup would continue til the debt was repaid. But the French clenched their fists and gave to pay the bill--they gave thei gold jewelry, their hidden treasure, their old-age money. And they did not forget. And in Nov/18 ~fter a long and bloody war this time the French were victorious. They took the prelimin armistice from the Germans in a little railway car on a siding at Compiegne, which the French then cut off from the tracks and turned into a natl shrine, retook Alsace'~Lorraine and the two Belgian territs, imposed an indemnity upon the Germans so large they would not even set a sum, and on Jan 18/1919 brought the Germans to the hall of mirrors to sign the final treaty ending the German Emp. But it still was not over: in 1940 the Germans conq again, and they compelled the French to come to that same ry car at ~ompiegne, and back to the hall of mirrors, and took back Alsace-Lorraine and made all of Ffance an occup terr. It sounds rather childish to put it like that, but th at is just what hapoened. Anger is an underst human 11m1x±xw emotion, but when it goes on too long, or beco~es the excuse for meanness and pettiness it is a burden. Revenge, getting even, is just as childish and does more harm to the person seeking it as to the person attacked. And yet it is a constant human temptat. N0body can put anything over on me; nobody can get ahead of me,; like the Couht of Monet Christo we sometimes spend the best energies and thoughts of our lives in getting even wmth those who have wronged us. Today our lesson is about forgiveness which J intended as the dominant spiri of the Kgdm people. The spirit of revenge had been too long a dark part of the hist of his own people and of all primitive people in general. But in the new world of the Kgdm evil of all kind was to be overcome by good, not by another evil. You fight fire with fire and you just enlarge the conflagration. Fight fire with soft words or healing attitudes and you might put it out. Paul underst, and quoted w/approval the OT prophet's words, vengeance is mine, siith the Lore. Let God do the avenging, and let us remember in all humility what God has forgiven in us before :tkB we think about holding a grudge against somebody. The lesson is from Matt 18, another of those discourse chapters between two chaos of action. Ch 17 tells of the transfig, ch. 19 begins J's journey to Jerus. But inbetw there are valuable teachings, and among them is the teaching about forgiveness. Matt. 18: 21-22. 0eter put the question that bothered many people at the time. How many times should I forgive someone who Ras done me a wrong? And he probl thought he was being generous in asking if it should be as many as 7 times. Among Jews the number of times one should forgive varied, in one interpr of the laws it was put at 3 times, after which he was presumably free to get even if he could. But Peter put the number at 7, as do some other interprs of the laws. But J answ~ decisively, 7o times 7, or it cld be transl 77 times. It was a way of expressing an unlimited number. J says we are never to grow tired of forgiving. And, he was thinking, these people have been forgiven so much, why should the try to put a limit upon the forgiveness they offer to others? Because to press the point home, he told a parable. Matt. 18: 23-35. It is a commentary upon the beatitude Matt 5:7, blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. It was one of the simplest and clearest of J parables, with its one trute expressed for us in the final verse. To strengthen the spirit of humility and pity and forgiveeess in our hearts we must never forget what God has had to pardon in us. Sins vs. God are symbolized by talents, maybe worth as much as $10,000 in today's money. 10,000 talent was an unheard of sum, perhaps not even that much in entire Emp. Huge. Jddea and Samaria paid an annual tax to the EJnp of 600 talents, and that was regardes as enormous. But that is the amount God has forgiven in us. The sins men commit against us are symbolixed by pennies, copper coins, worth parhpas $20. So the Kg, who is God, forgave the servant who owed all the money in the world, and let him go free out of pity, and forgave him the debt--wiped it clean and then forgot it. But that same servant met one of his fellows who owed him a trifling sum. Pay what you owe, he deman• ded, wnd when the person could not he threw him in prison until he could pay. And the others told the kg about it--that man you forgave everything in the world, has put another in jail for a petty sum. So the Kg called him in. I forgave you all that you owed because you begged me to, and you should have had mercy upon you fellow servants as I had mercy upon you. And he had the man thrown into jail. And then the lesson: so will God do to each of us who does not forgive hms brother fro his heart •. Bl~ssed are the merciful) for:they shall receive mercy. J is emphasiz the great tnuth that mercy is 7n the heart of God, tnere is the mercy-seat as we used to sing, and that because we have been forgiven much we should forgive others.~ God forgives, so to forgive is to be Godlike. Ill-will and a grudging, vengeful spirit are unGodlike, and God holds ~s accountable. For as he M,&~1 f~ · fGA Ji11c CAM d#'tr ~' ~-fot.,; .. e . has fofgiven us, so we should forgive others. The fact that it is heavenly Father who at the end is shown as punishing the unforgiving, shows that the docnrine of the fatherhood of God does not mean that we can impose upon his goodness. A father may be stern in the best interests of the chil dren. He is father, loving and kindly and merciful, to those who are humble and brotherly to other but those who are not merciful to others may expect little mercy from him. And that is because so much has been forgiven us that we should show our gratitude in our attitud~s. We are all sinners, even the best of us; our debt to God is so great that there is not in the whole world enough to pay it. Yet because we asked in faith and humility, and sometimes in tears of sorrow, he wiped out thedebt and remembered it no more against us. That is the rclason we should be forgiving. Little children, let us love one another, as God has loved us, and let us forgive one another, as God has forgiven us, and let us never forget that nothing in this lost world so surely beare the imprint of the Son of God as forgiveness. It is the jewel of God set into the hearts of men.