Diamonds in the Rough -- FPC sermon excerpt

Rough diamonds are becoming increasingly popular among wealthy trend-setters, people who crave whatever is new and different in the world of jewelry. There is a company called Diamond in the Rough that sells these gems, and De Beers has featured rough diamonds in their Talisman collection. You can now buy rough diamond rings, necklaces, and medallions. The gems have a certain natural, earthy, organic appeal, and they are sometimes a bargain — for instance, you can get a small, rough diamond in a ring for about $600.

On the other hand, you can drop a cool $750,000 at Tiffany for a one-of-a-kind necklace of uncut diamonds and pearls.

So these rough rocks are not always a steal.

The biggest problem with these diamonds is that you cannot easily ascertain their value. Faceted diamonds are priced based on cut, color, carat, and clarity, but there are no industry standards for evaluating uncut diamonds. Some people wonder if these gems will have much value at all once the fad for natural diamonds fades away.

Even a piece of gravel, worth almost nothing, can look a lot like a diamond in the rough. How can you tell when you’re looking at a truly precious gem?

The apostle Paul wonders the same thing as he examines the Christian community in Ephesus, a large seaport city in Asia Minor. These Christians have a Gentile background, and because of this they have a lot to learn about being in relationship with God. At one point, they were “without Christ,” recalls Paul, “being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel … having no hope and without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:12).

“But now,” Paul points out, “in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us” (vv. 13-14).

What an amazing transformation. The Ephesians were diamonds in the rough, and through the sacrifice of Christ they have now come into relationship with God, right along with the Jewish members of God’s family. “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens,” writes Paul, “but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God … with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone” (vv. 19-20).

Paul has the same vision for community that we do here at FPC. He wants to create a Meeting Ground, a place for people of diverse perspectives to come together for worship and service. He wanted to include Jews and Gentiles, residents of Jerusalem and citizens of Ephesus. The most important thing is that everyone come together to have an experience of Jesus Christ — an experience that can turn people from rough diamonds into polished gems.

Soundtrack for Living -- FPC sermon excerpt

Threshold Choirs.

These are groups that sing at the bedsides of seriously ill people, many of whom are in the final stages of life. They sing a capella — without instrumental accompaniment — in homes, hospitals, and hospices. Their music comes from a 300-piece repertoire of songs and hymns, ranging from “Ave Maria” to “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.”

Started in the year 2000, there are now 35 chapters in a dozen states. According to the San Diego Union-Tribune (February 26, 2007), usually two or three members of a Threshold Choir gather at a bedside and sing a selection of songs. Says Kate Munger, the founder of this choral movement, “We think of these as lullabies for [people] on the way out.” People on the threshold between life and death.

When the singing starts, the face of the dying person often softens, and there is a sense of relaxation taking place. Kate Munger says that it’s often a comforting moment, as when a mother softly croons a lullaby at the end of a day — only in these cases, the lullaby comes at the end of a life.

Some of the people receiving this music are hooked up to monitors. Frequently, as the singing begins, the patient’s heartbeat steadies and their breathing becomes less labored. Once in a while, the patient actually recovers, and some of them credit the singing as playing a role in their healing. Clearly, this kind of singing can be a very comforting and healing gift to people who are facing death.

So Threshold Choirs provide people with a Soundtrack for Dying. But what about a Soundtrack for Living? That’s the job of our songs of faith.

To get a sense of that soundtrack, you can flip through a hymnal. You’ll find pieces about some very heavy themes: Sin, death, war, social ills, pain, and personal emptiness. But when you sing or read these hymns, you find that they are written from a perspective of faith, praise, thanksgiving, forgiveness, and spiritual affirmation.

That’s what our Christian Soundtrack for Living provides: A set of tunes that take the pain of life very seriously, but at the same time offer us a perspective of faith and spiritual affirmation — a perspective that can helps us to deal with our difficulties.

Take Two Tablets -- FPC sermon excerpt

This month contains a silver anniversary.

Something significant happened exactly 25 years ago. Ronald Reagan was president, leading the fight against communism. He told a story about a collective farm in the Soviet Union, one in which a state commissar grabbed a farm worker and said, “Comrade, how are the crops?”

“Oh,” said the farm worker, “Comrade Commissar, if we could put the potatoes in one pile, they would reach the foot of God.”

The commissar corrected him, “This is the Soviet Union, comrade. There is no God.”

“That’s all right,” said the farm worker, “there are no potatoes.”

But that’s a joke — that’s not what happened in February 1983. That month, Ronald Reagan proclaimed 1983 to be “The Year of the Bible.”

You remember it, don’t you? “The Year of the Bible.”

I didn’t think so.

Sure, 1983 was better known for the final episode of the television series M*A*S*H, which ended after 11 years and 251 episodes. It was the same year that Sally Ride became the first American woman in space, and the Soviet Union shot down Korean Air Flight 007. Oh, and this might surprise you: Microsoft Word was first released that year.

But 1983 as “The Year of the Bible”? It’s hard to remember. I certainly don’t.

President Reagan’s proclamation said, in part, “Today our beloved America and, indeed, the world, is facing a decade of enormous challenge. As a people we may well be tested as we have seldom, if ever, been tested before.” That was true then, and it is true today.

He went on to say, “We will need resources of spirit even more than resources of technology, education, and armaments. [The Bible is] the writing that Abraham Lincoln called ‘the best gift God has ever given to man … But for it we could not know right from wrong.”

“The Year of the Bible” came and went, and few people — if any — remember it. But we still need the “resources of spirit even more than resources of technology.” The Bible remains one of God’s greatest gifts to us, revealing God’s will and showing us what is right and wrong. It is a book that should be approached with gratitude and urgency … not just one year, but every year.

Exodus 24 gives us an excellent place to begin. Here, God instructs Moses to “take two tablets” — the Ten Commandments. Moses goes up Mount Sinai, into a cloud that contains the glory of the Lord, and receives the gift of two tablets. But he soon discovers that the laws of God can be hard for people to swallow.