Lesson from the Sparrow

I sat in my yard and watched a sparrow hop around looking for seeds.  Her head was hardly higher than the blades of grass that surrounded her.  She was tiny, fragile, and vulnerable.  Yet she had plenty.

Nearly 2000 years ago, Jesus delivered a famous speech we now call “The Sermon on the Mount.”  It was written down by one of his closest followers, a government worker named Matthew.

In it he addresses the topic of worry and anxiety:

Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?

In another speech (recorded by a doctor named Luke) Jesus said something similar:

Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.

This sparrow in my yard was not a fool.  Had I so much as stood up she would have flown away to avoid danger.  Yet, I sensed no anxiety in her.  She did not look worried or even fearful as she confidently pecked away at her meal.

Picture from Wikipedia

We are so quick to worry.  We fear what our future will look like despite the fact that none of us will ever be in the future.

God is watching over you.  This does not mean that nothing bad will ever happen to you.  In fact, if you are following Jesus you are pretty much guaranteed to have trouble as He clearly stated, “If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.”  The comfort is that you do no need to be anxious.  You do not need to worry.  God is in control, “and we know that for those who love God all things work together for good” (Romans 8:28).

Yet perhaps you are not convinced.  If the wisdom of Jesus and the writings of His early followers is not enough to get you to stop worrying, then look at your own life.  Reflect on the times you have worried.  Remember walking around with that ball of fear in your chest that made you feel sick.  Did all that anxiety help?  If so, then by all means, continue to be worried and let fear improve your life.  If not, perhaps you should listen to Jesus and take a lesson from the sparrow.

Well His eye's on the sparrow
And the lilies of the field I've heard
And He will watch over you and He will watch over me
So we can dress like flowers and eat like birds

-Rich Mullins

Fall From Grace

Have you ever heard the term “fall from grace?”  It is a term I have heard used in many ways, but it is usually refers to someone who was once well respected or viewed highly and has since been relegated to a lesser state.  This might be because of his own doing (for example a business man who was loved by his boss until he was caught fooling around with his bosses’ wife), or because of political maneuvering (such as an economic advisor whom the president loved until others began to paint him in a bad light), or because of other circumstances.

Believe it or not, “fall from grace,” is a biblical term.  It refers to someone who has fallen to the point where they no longer have anything to do with God.  It is a state relative to God that can lead to nothing but our condemnation, and it is a state that we should avoid at all costs.

Falling from grace is mentioned in a letter that Paul wrote to the church in the region of Galatia in what is modern day Turkey.  The Galatian church was uncertain how much they had to do to earn their own salvation.  They were engaged in the old debate of whether or not Jesus’ saving work on the cross is enough to be saved, or whether or not they had to add to that work through good works on their own.  It is a debate that exists among Christians to this day.

Some say that we are only saved by what Jesus did for us.  Other say that we cannot be saved unless we believe in Jesus and do good works ourselves as outlined in biblical law.

Christ alone = salvation

OR

Christ + our good works = salvation

Which is right?

It is in chapter five of the letter that Paul makes the point clearly when he writes in verse four, “You who are trying to be justified by the law have been severed from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.”

Justified in the Bible means “to be made righteous in the sight of God.”  Some Galatian Christians were trying to be made right in the eyes of God by following the law (which for them would have been Old Testament rules such as the ten commandments, following ceremonial rules, celebrating certain holidays, and things like that).  They were trying to have a relationship with Christ while trying to earn a relationship with God.

Others recognized that they could not earn justification and accepted God’s gift of salvation freely given through Jesus.

Paul made it clear.  You cannot even try to earn your own salvation and have a relationship with Christ.  You cannot have both Christ’s work on the cross and your own works as a means of justification.  To try to earn your way into heaven is the same thing as separating yourself from Jesus.

We only have two choices to pursue in justification.  The first option is to try on our own to make ourselves right with God.  The other option is to accept Jesus’ free gift given to us.

The good that I do comes out of the freedom that Jesus gave me.  His salvation paves the way for my good works.  My actions do not earn me favor in God’s eyes. Rather, they are done because Jesus has transformed me to be more like Him.

Christ alone is enough for salvation.

Works alone are never enough.

If you try to add your works to Christ’s to earn your way into heaven, you fall away from grace.

Missing out.

I come back to the United States one year out of every five.  During this time I have a number of speaking engagements and get a chance to reconnect with friends and family.  This year, about 25% of my time in the US I have been stuck at home because of this virus.

Yesterday I was talking with my brother about how frustrating it is to be here yet not be able to be here.  I cannot visit people.  Speaking engagements have been canceled.  I have not even left the county since March.

He calmly asked me, “What would you be doing now if you were back in Bulgaria?”

“I would be stuck at home with even tighter restrictions not able to do anything.”

I guess I forgot the “pan” part of pandemic.  Most of the world is in the same situation.  Everyone is missing out on something.

The Temptation of Recognition

We live in an era of showing off.  Social media has brought a lot of wonderful things, most principally among them the ability to stay connected with friends and family across great distances.  My counterpart decades ago would have no idea what his old classmates were up to.  Whereas I with a few clicks on my phone can tell you all kinds of things about the guy I sat next to in science class 28 years ago.  (He’s a teacher now.)  Yet with all the advantages of social media, it has also created a means of showing the world how good we are.

This might not seem like a bad thing.  After all, it is good to do good things.  Helping victims of a disaster to repair their houses or making meals for refugees are things we should do.  Yet when we take selfies that show off how we helped those on the margins of society or write blog posts about the amazing things we have done for those less fortunate it creates the impression that the only reason we help others is to make ourselves look good.

Those who work in professional ministry or for charity organizations are especially prone to falling into the show-off trap.  Often such people are able to continue their work only through the generous donations of others.  They want people to see the return on their investment, and they do this often through photos and stories of lives changed.  Yet there is a fine line between talking about those who are helped and boasting about we who do the helping.

The temptation for self-glory did not began in the age of the internet.  It has been around for thousands of years.  Jesus addressed it in the first century, and his words were recorded by one of his closest friends, “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:1)

The temptation to show off how good we are is very real, and it is not without reward.  The man who volunteers at a soup kitchen for the weekend could be quite about it and trust that his reward is in heaven, or he could take a picture of himself with a couple of shabby looking kids in need who have big smiles on their faces because he came to hand out soup to them.  If he does the later, he will get the reward he wants.  People will notice for a brief moment that he did something good.  They will think better of him.

Yet what does that say about his heart?  Is he really a good person, or does he just want to look good?

He did his good works before men, and in doing so he traded in God’s reward for a little blue picture of a thumb.

He made a bad deal.

A picture of me washing the car of a needy guy who lives in inner city Sofia.
(I'm also the needy guy.)

Is Your Heart in the Right Place?

Hundreds of years before Jesus came, a prophet named Zechariah spoke to God’s chosen people.  His teachings are recorded in the Bible today in a book named after him, and they are considered holy scriptures by most major monotheistic religions.  Zechariah is mostly remembered for his prophecy of four horsemen, but his book has so much more to teach us.

In the middle of that book, Zechariah addresses a question of fasting.  A fasting ritual had long been established to seek God’s help in dealing with terrible circumstances that had fallen the nation of Judah.  The people wanted to know if God wanted them to continue fasting.  It was almost as if they were asking impatiently, “Do we need to keep doing this?”

God’s response delivered through Zechariah was pretty clear.  He questions why they were fasting in the first place.  He recounts how the previous prophets gave them clear instructions and they ignored them.  He reminds them that the terrible things that happened to them came as a result of their disobedience.

It is as if God is saying, “I told you to not be evil.  I told you to treat others with justice and kindness.  You did not.  That is why this has happened to you.  I want obedience, not fasting.”

They had gotten so caught up in the religious practice that they forgot what the religion actually taught. 

Over the next few months there will be many religious celebrations around the world.  In the US in particular we will observe Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Hanukkah.  There will be much celebration.  Let us not forget why we celebrate.

Christmas reminds us of the birth of Christ through whom we not only receive forgiveness of sins but are also adopted as the children of God.  Hanukkah reminds us of the rededication of the temple.  (Fun fact: the only person in the Bible ever mentioned to have celebrated Hanukkah is Jesus.)  In the US we will celebrate Thanksgiving, a practice started by puritan Christians and the Wamponoag people to thank God for His provision.

Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, and Christmas are all great celebrations and have value.  They are hallowed days with God, but they are hollow days without God.

Ceremonies with the wrong heart are empty.  Fasting without obedience is meaningless.  Religion without God is pointless.

Hearts matter more than ceremonies.

A Conversation at 30,000 feet

I am not a guy who typically talks to the people next to me on a plane.  This is mostly as a curtesy to my fellow passengers.  If you are an introvert (as roughly half of all people are) then I would imagine the idea of being strapped to a seat forced to converse with a person you do not know who is already dangerously close to your personal space is about the worst thing that can happen to you.  Thus, as a respectful extravert, I sit in silence and wait for my seat-mate break the ice.

On a recent flight, the ice was broken with a delightful lady who was on her way to teach in central America.  She told me about how she likes to teach because she sees that as the best way to change the world for the better.  She asked what I do, and I told her I do something similar, but I teach the Bible.  This got her talking about spiritual things, and she admitted that she struggled with all the suffering in the world and could not understand why it happens.

She then changed the conversation and asked how I ended up teaching the Bible in Bulgaria.

I told her, that it is a long story that goes back years, but at the heart it connects to her question about suffering in the world.  The reason that there is suffering in the world is because of people.  Our selfishness had led to cheating, dishonesty, immorality, and murder.  The cause of suffering in the world is the heart of humanity, and the world cannot be fixed until hearts are fixed.

We might ask, “Why do bad things happen to good people?”  Jesus said, “No one is good except God alone.”  In that respect, I have never seen bad things happen to good people because I have never met a good person.

We cannot change the world without first having our hearts transformed.  That is why I teach the Bible.  Some turn to politics to change the world through force of government, but the only way to really change the world is to start in the hearts of the individual.  Since I cannot change people’s hearts, I teach them about the one who can and point them to Him.

We make our own suffering.  Jesus came to end it.  Let Him change your heart.