Blue Lake Presbyterian Church | 3-13-2016
Good morning,
Daylight savings time, the clock went forward an hour last night, we lost an hour of sleep, it is surprising and gratifying to see this great and wonderful group here this morning.
Imagine for moment having some folks over for dinner, not at your house but actually inside a greenhouse, where guests are seated on one long table. As a matter of fact, this happened last night 152 people from as far away as San Jose to Seattle dined at a 150 ft long table hosted by the American grown field to vase movement in the middle of our greenhouse surrounded by millions of tulips growing, and ready to be harvested for the upcoming Easter holiday.
What a joy to see these happy faces treasuring the beauty of the flowers and the comradery of people gathered together. These millions of tulips are grown in soil with composted bark as it core ingredient. Even though composted bark is dirty and nasty and smelly it makes for a great environment to make good, strong, healthy, roots.
Roots that are strong and grow deep make for great plants with beautiful long-lasting flowers. This week I checked with to Dr Gus de Hertogh retired professor from NC State U an authority in bulb research in America in the 1960’s he did trials with special long pots for growing tulips. They grew up to 40 inches long. In other words tulips have deep roots.
Roots are the foundation, so it is with today’s message as we go back to the roots of Christianity that are found in the Old Testament or the Jewish Tanakh. We just read from Psalm 126, one of the ascension psalms likely written by King David. In Jewish tradition these psalms were sung during festivals when the people walked on the way up to Jerusalem and once there while climbing on each step of the temple a different ascension Psalm was sung. In verse 4 it reads:
4Restore our fortunes, O Lord, like the watercourses in the Negeb.
What is the Negev, The Negev takes its name from the Hebrew neghev, meaning dry. It’s located south of Jerusalem from which Negev took on the meaning south. Both names are very fitting: the Negev is the southernmost area of Israel, and it is also one of its driest places.
So when David talks about restoring water courses in the Negev, it seems like that would be a very unlikely place to happen. Going back to the roots of Jewish history, the Negev was the scene of many events in the bible.
In Genesis 12 we read that Abram travelled south through the Negev to Egypt. Later in Genesis 21, Hagar and Ishmael were exiled out into the Negev by Sarah.
Both Isaac and Jacob lived for some time in the Negev.
In the book Joshua we read that when the land was divided among the 12 tribes and the Negev was allotted to the tribes of Simeon and Judah .
The Negev was part of the kingdom of David in 1000BC.
After Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians in 586 BC the Negev was taken over by Edom its neighbor to the east, what we call Jordan today.
In 1948 when the state of Israel was established its leading founder David Ben Gurion insisted that the Negev desert was to be included as a part of the State of Israel. The Negev covers more than half of Israel’s landmass.
Restore our fortunes O God, like the water courses in the Negev…. Despite it desert nature, today the Negev provides Israel with productive farm land and abundant crops. And watercourses indeed,,,, they come through tiny little channels called drip tape.
The tulips that surrounded that dinner table last night are irrigated with drip tape. More than a hundred miles of drip tape in that tulip house alone, feeding the crops with water and nutrients at ground level.
But did you know that drip tape was invented in the Negev desert in Israel in 1960’s. So in a way the water courses in the Negev WERE restored and this irrigation method is used on vast amounts of land producing prolific crops.
And see these cherry tomatoes; these were invented Israel’s Negev as well. The cherry tomatoes produced in the Negev are World famous due to the brackish water and over 300 days of sunshine a year it makes for some of the sweetest tomatoes in the World.
The opening hymn this morning was joyful joyful we adore thee, the hymn written by Henry van Dyke based on the tune of the Beethoven’s 9th symphony. It is with this joy, that David wrote about, in Psalm 126, but what was this joy all about ??
2Then our mouth was filled with laughter and our tongue with shouts of joy; 3The Lord has done great things for us, and we rejoiced.
5May those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy.
” Bible scholars widely believe that this psalm was written to celebrate the deliverance of the Israelites from Egyptian rule, and in particular after the Egyptian army was swallowed by the Red Sea.
In Exodus15:2 Moses writes: The Lord is my strength and my might and he has become my salvation and in 15:20 with great joy Miriam the sister of Aron took the tambourine in her hand and all the women went out after her with tambourines and with dancing, sing to the lord for he has triumphed gloriously horse and rider, he has thrown into the sea.
Going back to the roots this event has huge significance in Jewish history, 200 years after David wrote the Psalm, the prophet Isaiah also touched on this miraculous experience in Isaiah 43:16-21
16Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters, 17who brings out chariot and horse, army and warrior; they lie down, they cannot rise, they are extinguished, quenched like a wick: 18Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. 19I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people.
So here we have Moses, David and Isaiah all describing the same event with the Israelites crossing the Red Sea and the mighty Egyptian army being destroyed. Obviously this is a major cornerstone of Jewish history.
The Israelites were saved from the waters of the Red Sea, and the Egyptians were not, but Isaiah is signaling something even more powerful that is to come. He says, roots are important, but, do not remember the former things or consider things of old.
Isaiah is foretelling the coming of the Messiah. 19I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.
The Israelites were saved from perishing of the waters of the Red Sea, but with Christ, Jews and gentiles alike, are saved from perishing, with eternal live. Jesus said in John 3:16 whoever believes in me will not perish but have eternal life.
The deep roots of Jewish culture and history are formed by the amazing event of the parting of the sea which was followed by spending 40 years in the desert. It was during that time that Moses came down the mountain of God with the 10 commandments and subsequently Moses penned the book of Leviticus with 613 laws that shaped Jewish culture for the next 1500 years, and it is against that backdrop, it is through this lens, that Paul the Pharisee witnessed the world around 60 AD.
In 2011 when we still had a Borders bookstore in Eureka I searched for a book to learn more about the apostle Paul. The store had a collection of books on Paul. I bought this book called the “First Paul” written by Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan. This book is an easy read and a great biography on Paul. What stood out that Paul was an appealing apostle of Jesus whose vision of life “in Christ”—is remarkably faithful to the message of Jesus himself.
The book of Acts and Paul’s letters provide great historical foundation in the life, the conversion and the mission of the most profound evangelizer of the Christian faith.
Today we will be talking about the joy that had overcome Paul having a person relationship with Jesus Christ. Interestingly Paul didn’t know Jesus when he was alive.
Paul comes into the picture in the Book of Acts after Jesus had ascended to heaven. Yet it is Paul who is able to articulate the deep sense of relationship with Jesus that believers today can use as the ultimate compass, like a GPS, a guiding light in knowing Jesus.
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Philippians 3:4-14
4even though I, too, have reason for confidence in the flesh. If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: 5circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; 6as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. 7Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. 8More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. 10I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, 11if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead. 12Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.
Ladies and Gentlemen, the letters of Paul have shaped Christian theology for the last 2000 years; Paul in his letter to the Philippians provides a similar message as Isaiah did 700 years earlier.
This letter highlights the fact that Paul was a devout Jew in verse 5 it says circumcised on the eight day a member of the people of Israel raised from the tribe of Benjamin. Back to the roots, Benjamin was the younger son of Rachel, Jacob’s favorite wife.
Benjamin was a favored child and a favored tribe. According to Genesis 35, Benjamin was the only son born in the Promised Land,. The tribe of Benjamin gave Israel their first king, Saul. Benjamin’s territory did include Jerusalem and so they had that marvelous city in their own land.
Benjamin was a very special tribe, loyal, faithful, maintaining high rank and status, a noble religious heritage.
Paul was a Hebrew born of Hebrews as to the law, a Pharisee. The Pharisees were the advocates of the strictest purest code of morality they studied scripture and they were the ones interpreting the law, there were 6000 Pharisees at the time.
They were devoted to the Jewish religion. All Paul had was his religious back ground. But it didn’t help. It was useless for salvation. Ritual, race, rank mean nothing. They impressed Paul for a long time, until he saw this awesome flower, until he saw the treasure in Jesus Christ. And by comparison, all other things were trash.
In verse 6 it says: as to zeal, a persecutor of the church as to righteousness under the law blameless. He was serious about the zeal, as he was determined to eliminate the early church. He was so zealous for Judaism that he wanted to kill all the early believers in Christ All the religious heritage of being a Pharisee couldn’t lead him to eternal life and glory.
In verse 8 he says I count it all rubbish , the could be translated garbage, or manure or composting bark, at the end of the day it gets us back to the root , to the foundation, but it is like a plant with great roots and a great stem but no flower.
Here we have man who spends his whole life accumulating a religious wisdom but at the end the glory of God is manifested in Christ Jesus.
Paul through his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus and his subsequent conversion exhibits a remarkable transformation and recognizes that the past, the root, the law, none of it is not relevant, the only thing that is important, is Jesus Christ.
To use the analogy of the deep rooted tulip, the soil and the roots and the plant gave us this beautiful flower, but in the end, we throw the root and the bulb and part of the plant away, it is all rubbish in the words of Paul, it will all become compost, the thing that is important is the flower itself, the pearl, the treasure, the lamb of God, described in the manifestation of Jesus Christ.
Paul wrote in 2Corinthians 5:17. This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
We will close today with O Christ the great foundation on which your people stand.
Folks,,, Jesus Christ is the foundation, he is our redeemer, our rock and our beacon of hope in this troubled world.
What an incredible gift to know Jesus, intimately and to pursue the love of Christ.
What a delight, to know the same Jesus that 2000 years ago healed the sick, drove out demons, performed miracles, was crucified, and buried and resurrected on the third day and ascended into heaven.
Jesus is the pathway to salvation; he is like a beautiful flower that never wilts.
He is the way the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father but through him.
What a joy to let Jesus come into our lives, in the midst of trials, and in the midst of troubles and difficulties.
Jesus is our strength, our joy and peace.
Invite Jesus into your heart,
Draw near to Jesus; put your trust and faith in him.
Jesus Christ will lead us on that pathway through that small gate. The narrow pathway to eternal life
Amen
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