The Experts Were Wrong -- FPC sermon excerpt

If a doctor had examined Jesus after the crucifixion, he might have missed the exact cause of death.

Physicians make mistakes.

Lots of them.

I tend to trust my doctors, but I guess I’ve been one of the lucky ones. Studies reveal that there is a one-in-twelve chance that a doctor’s diagnosis will be wrong. So wrong, in fact, that it causes the patient harm.

But medicine is not the only danger area. Having just filed your federal tax returns, you might want to know that professionally prepared returns are more likely to have serious errors than returns you prepare yourself. Fifty percent of all newspaper articles have at least one incorrect fact. And the studies published in economic journals? Economists say that they are all likely to be wrong.

All of them.

Not that I am pointing fingers. When homeless people come to the church for help, I am sure that I assist some people who go out and descend deeper into drug or alcohol abuse. Other times, I fail to help people with legitimate, life-and-death needs.

The experts are wrong.

David Freedman has included these shocking discoveries in a book called Wrong: Why Experts Keep Failing Us — and How to Know When Not to Trust Them. He is encouraging us all to be smarter about how we search for advice, and to ask tough questions of those who claim to be experts.

So who were the experts of Jerusalem, back on that first Easter Sunday?

The chief priests, the Pharisees, Pontius Pilate, maybe even the male disciples of Jesus.

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

At least when it came to the resurrection.

The Gospel of Matthew tells us that on the first day of the week, early in the morning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary go to see the tomb of Jesus (Matthew 28:1). The two Marys are non-experts, of course. Through most of the gospel, women such as these two are seen as background personalities, without speaking roles. There is little indication that they matter much to Jesus or the church.

Until now.

Suddenly there is a great earthquake, as an angel of the Lord comes and rolls back the stone and sits on it. His appearance is like lightning, and his clothing is as blinding white as sunlight on snow. The Jewish guards at the tomb are terrified, and become stiff as corpses (vv. 2-4). They have been put in place by the experts of Jerusalem — chief priests, Pharisees, Pontius Pilate — all of whom are home in bed.

The ones who see the truth are the guards. Non-experts.

The angel says to the women, “Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay” (vv. 5-6). The women inch closer to the tomb, surely feeling dread, but also intense curiosity. Of all the followers of Jesus, they are the only ones who have stayed close to the body of Jesus since the crucifixion. These two were the only ones who remained at the tomb on Friday night, when Joseph of Arimathea took the body of Jesus, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his own new tomb (27:57-61).

Mary Magdalene and the other Mary are not experts. But give them credit — they do show up. At the right time. In the right place. As Woody Allen says, “Ninety percent of life is just showing up.” Their success as followers of Jesus comes from simply showing up. That was true for them, and it is true for us today, especially in the life of the church. We can each do a lot of good for God, simply by showing up.

Generosity of Spirit -- FPC sermon excerpt

I always feel sorry for visitors who come to our church during stewardship season. They attend a few services, and then begin to wonder, “Does this church do nothing but talk about money?”

Well, yes — for a few Sundays each year.

But then a visitor sent me this story by email, so I figured that she was taking it all with good humor.

Three kids are sitting around the lunch table at school. One says, “My dad’s a lawyer. People pay him $100 for a letter with his opinion on it.”

Another says, “My mom’s a doctor. She writes prescriptions on a little sheet of paper and people pay her $200 for it.”

The third says, “My dad’s a preacher. He writes a few notes, talks to everyone in church, and it takes four people to collect all the money!”

We’ll see that in just a few minutes, when our super-strong ushers take up the offering once again. But until then, I’m not going to talk about money — I’m going to talk about generosity of spirit.

This is the fifth in a series of sermons that Jessica Tate and I are preaching on Extravagant Generosity. We have already taken a look at God’s generosity, and answered the question, “Why generosity?” We have listened to what Jesus says about generosity and earthly treasures, and have focused on the importance of disciplined generosity — including the practice of tithing and giving in proportion to our incomes.

Now we shift away from money to the topic of generosity of spirit, and next week Jessica will conclude this series with a sermon on the generosity of Jesus. We will enter Holy Week with a deeper understanding of the amazing gift that Jesus gave us, when he offered up his life on the cross.

Let’s reflect on a passage from Paul’s letter to the Galatians, which begins with the challenge, “Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh” (5:16). Paul sets up a contrast between life in the Spirit and life in the flesh, and he begins by listing a number of flesh-based activities that are destructive to individuals and communities: Fornication, impurity, jealousy, anger, quarrels, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these (vv. 19-21).

What I love about this list is that it sets a trap for each of us, whether we are in or out of the church, living a wild or a mild kind of life. Sure, I might be innocent of fornication and carousing, but anger and envy? Guilty as charged. I’ll bet that each of us can identify with at least one of these works of the flesh.

Fortunately, Paul offers us an alternative, which moves us from flesh to Spirit. “By contrast,” he says, “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. There is no law against such things” (vv. 22-23). Go ahead and do as much as you want, says Paul — it’s not against the law!

We are challenged by this passage to practice true generosity of spirit — to do as much as we want in terms of love, joy, peace, patience, and all the other gifts of the Spirit. With the works of the flesh, you have to be very careful not to go overboard — fornication can lead to a sexually-transmitted disease, and drunkenness can cause you to wrap your car around a tree.

But the fruit of the Spirit? Go crazy! You simply cannot be too generous with kindness, faithfulness, or gentleness!

Disciplined Generosity -- FPC sermon excerpt

A week ago, a group of church members gathered for movie night, and we watched the movie “Get Low.”

At the beginning of the film, an old recluse played by Robert Duvall walks into a church. He places a huge wad of money on the table. He is looking for a preacher to do his funeral, so he says to the minister, “Let’s get low” … let’s get down to business.

The preacher says, quite correctly, “You can’t buy forgiveness. It’s free, but you have to ask for it.” The Robert Duvall character gets up, and stomps out of the church.

I begin with this little story, because I want you to know that you cannot buy forgiveness. The topic of today’s sermon is “Disciplined Generosity,” and it is the fourth in our Lenten sermon series on Extravagant Generosity. I believe that there are many important reasons for being a generous person, but our giving is certainly not what gains us forgiveness. Our forgiveness has been purchased for us by the death of Jesus on the cross, a sacrifice that we will remember as we receive the Lord’s Supper this morning.

You cannot buy forgiveness. But still, what we do with our money is certainly important. So let’s get low … let’s get down to business.

Our Scripture lessons are two brief passages from the Old and the New Testaments. The book of Leviticus is full of offerings, festivals, rules, and regulations — it’s an instruction manual for the people of Israel, as they attempt to follow God. Today’s passage speaks of the “tithe,” which is a ten-percent portion of a crop, herd, or flock. It says, “All tithes from the land, whether the seed from the ground or the fruit from the tree, are the LORD’S; they are holy to the LORD” (Leviticus 27:30).

The point of this passage is that the first tenth of what we produce belongs to God, so we really ought to give it back to God. The tithe is not our own, it is the Lord’s.

Then in his first letter to the Corinthians, the apostle Paul is advising the Corinthians to follow a pattern of regular giving, an approach that he had given to the Galatians. “Now concerning the collection for the saints,” he writes: “you should follow the directions I gave the churches of Galatia. On the first day of every week, each of you is to put aside and save whatever extra you earn, so that collections need not be taken when I come” (1 Corinthians 16:1-2)

Paul challenges us to care for others who are in need — in his case, he is taking up a collection for the poor Christians in the mother church in Jerusalem. He asks the Corinthians to give in ways that are proportional to their resources. The New International Version of the Bible has a better translation of this verse than what is in your bulletin: “On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income” (v. 2).

So what do these brief passages teach us about disciplined giving?

- For starters, the first tenth of what we have belongs to God. The tithe is the Lord’s.

- Second, we are to set aside money on the first day of the week, the Lord’s day. Regular giving should be an act of Sunday worship.

- And third, each of us should set aside a sum of money in keeping with our income. Our giving should be proportional to our resources.