Arcata Lutheran | 10-11-2015
Good morning,
My name is the Lane DeVries
It is with great joy to be here this morning with the Lutheran congregation in this serene location in the Arcata redwood forest. This church holds a special place in my heart as I will explain in a few minutes. I have visited here for a wedding and several funerals but until last week not for regular church service. Your congregation appears to be warm and welcoming and I am grateful to be in your midst.
This morning’s sermon is based on readings from Amos 5, Hebrews 3 and Mark 10, but before we dive into the message, I would like to say a few words about my background.
My family has been in flower farming for four generations back in Holland, I came to this great country in 1983 with $160.- in my pocket. Started working at Sun Valley in 1984, first as lily grower than operation manager to general manger and in 1991 bought the company together with two partners from Holland.
My wife Kathryn and I have been married for 30 years this December. We adopted two children Tony and Sarah, which are now 21 and 19.
Back in Holland I grew up in a Dutch Reformed family rooted in the Calvinistic tradition. Luther and Calvin the two great reformers of the 16th century changed the theological landscape of northwestern Europa and later America and the rest of the world. 5 centuries later there are an estimated 840 million protestant believers worldwide.
Billy graham once said: you can inherit your religion but you can’t inherit your faith. Growing up, my faith in God had slowly faded away, but 12 years ago it came back, with help from the Holy Spirit. Ironically enough this rebirth came in December 2003 right there in this church while attending a funeral service, celebrating the life of Violet Hansen. I had known the Hansen’s through Rotary and Jerry Hansen was my CPA. His mother Violet was a wonderful lady.
This funeral service had a lasting impact on me. In one of the eulogies Violet was described as a believer and while on her deathbed having an amazing peace and joy and delight as she described seeing Jesus while she passed away.
This made such an impression on me, it penetrated my heart. The Holy Spirit started working within, and it invoked a hunger of the soul and a search for the love and peace of Jesus Christ. It led to become inquisitive and seek nourishment of the soul.
After the funeral I went through that door and have walked with the Lord ever since. That very next Sunday I started attending church and never looked back again.
I am a member and past elder of the Eureka Presbyterian Church. In May of this year I was asked to occasionally preach at the Blue lake Presbyterian and have also done so in Eureka a few times. Sondra asked me if I could give a sermon here and was delighted to serve.
Let there be no misunderstanding I am a flower farmer at heart. The flower business is not an easy business these days with competition from South America and ever increasing cost of labor and materials putting pressures on the business.
But as a famer it is gratifying to see crops grow from cuttings, seeds or from bulbs, and 12 weeks later turn into beautiful flowers, marvels of God’s creation. There is a direct correlation of how well plants grow with the development of its root system. As farmers we find ourselves with our hands in the soil to make sure the roots are happy because the roots are the foundation of a good and healthy crop.
So it is with the word of God, it starts with the foundation and the root of Christianity is found in the books of the Old Testament.
The Hebrew bible, the Talmud gives us history from Genesis to Malachi. When Martin Luther the founder of this church translated the OT into German in 1534 he only used the books of the Talmud. The protestant OT bible with its 39 books is virtually identical to the 24 books of the Hebrew bible. Books like chronicles, Kings and Samuel are singular in the Talmud and the 12 Minor Prophets in the Jewish bible are one book.
Amos was one of these Minor Prophets; they are called minor not because these prophets were less important, to the contrary, it relates more to the shortness of the writings. The book of Amos has particular significance. James in his speech at the Jerusalem counsel quoted directed from Amos, so did martin Luther King in 1963 in his letter from the Birmingham jail and in his famous “I have a dream” speech from the steps of the Lincoln memorial.
He quotes Amos 5; But let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream.
The book of Amos starts and ends with references to an earth quake and indeed a severe earthquake did occur 2 years after Amos wrote the book in 760BC. Amos did not proclaim to be a prophet or the son of a prophet, no he was farmer, a sheep herder and a farmer of sycamore figs.
One day the word of God came to him and he started writing. Amos lived in the northern kingdom during the days of the split kingdom in a time of peace and prosperity after King Jeroboam had won a major battle against the Syrians.
During this time of prosperity the large land owners abused their position to the detriment of the people. The book of Amos is short but quite articulate and fervent in its delivery. God talked to this farmer and he warned the people of Israel to change behaviors of evil and inequity or the wrath of God would come over the land.
Interesting enough the things Amos writes about could be a commentary on today’s society. The wealth imbalance in the world today is staggering, counting over 2000 billionaires, more than any other time in history and twice as many as in 2007, before the great recession. These billionaires have collectively amassed more than 7 trillion dollars of wealth. The 500 billionaires in America alone account for 2.4 trillion dollars and 15% of GDP.
Amos describes the inequities in the land of Israel in the 8th century BC but the core theme in Amos 5 is seek the Lord and LIVE, seek good and not evil that you may LIVE and the lord will be WITH you.
The writer of the letter to the Hebrews does the same thing in chapter 3 12-19 describing the exodus of the Israelites in the desert with Moses, disobeying God and instead making and worshipping a golden calf. God orders Moses to stay in the desert and forbids him and his generation to enter the Promised Land and the Israelites spent 40 more years in the desert eating manna as a penalty for defying God. Finally after Moses passes away, Joshua leads them back into the land of milk and honey.
This takes us 1000 years later when Jesus responds to the rich man in Mark 10.
Follow along with the text found in your bulletin:
17 And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 18 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’” 20 And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” 21 And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” 22 Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
Wow this text is challenging isn’t it. Jesus is talking to the rich man, but would this be the equivalent of one of today’s billionaires? That would be convenient wouldn’t it, there are only 500 of them in the country, and he wouldn’t be talking about us. The question is: what is rich? Many may think, hey, this doesn’t apply to me. To some affluence means money in the bank to others, a nice car or a luxurious house. But Jesus says sell all your possessions and follow me. We all have possessions of some kind so this could apply to any of us.
I believe the core message here is the same as in Amos and Hebrews. Are we willing to surrender and believe in God? Are we willing to drop the things we treasure, what is dear to us and follow Jesus?
Taking this a step further, are we willing to let go of our favorite things or the way we spend our time? Like our hobbies or favorites sports?
Last week I was talking to a manager at our Oxnard facility, his son loves bicycling. He belongs to a bicycling club. At any moment of free time he climbs on his ten speed and goes for 80 miles rides. Would he be willing to give up this favorite hobby to follow Jesus?
It all centers around letting Jesus taking control of our lives, and not resisting and struggling with whatever happens to us and to think that we can solve it on our own. At some point it is inevitable that hardship enters our lives.
Going back to the roots, the foundation, The Old testament gives us much guidance in examples of hardship where faith in God persevered, like Job, Abraham, Joseph or Daniel. These were people that went through great hardship and rather than getting bitter and allowing their hearts to harden, they continued to believe in God and God ultimately reciprocated. They didn’t take things into their own hand, no, they put their trust in the Lord.
Sometimes we want to solve things on our own in situations where letting go and surrendering to Jesus is the answer.
Let me illustrate this with a two examples, back in 2007 a severe back condition left me virtually unable to walk and in excruciating pain for weeks.
A CAT scan revealed that a disc had completely herniated and was pushing against the spinal cord. Up to that point asking the Lord for help was not something I was accustomed to, but once pain becomes as overwhelming as it did in 2007 praying for help came naturally.
The lord answered my prayers and miraculously by the fall of 2007 against all odds and without surgery the pain started subsiding and I have been essentially free of back pain ever since.
Here is another example: in the summer of 2008 we lost most our workforce due to an immigration action by our government. Nearly 400 team members or 80% of our workforce had vanished, including a significant portion of our leadership structure.
The domino effect of operational meltdown and the psychological wear that developed had a harmful effect on our team and the company as a whole. It literally brought us to our knees. This is when my search for “the meaning of life” truly started. These were trying times in many respects. I walked around with despair and a feeling of “why me”, what have I done wrong.
I fought this for a while and allowed bitterness take a hold of me, and let pity and sorrow take control of my heart. After more than a year of agony at last I realized to let go and led Jesus lead the way and follow him. A weight was lifted off my shoulders.
Moses was frustrated with his fellow Israelites. They heard and yet rebelled they were disobedient to God and ate manna for 40 years in the desert.
Amos was discouraged with the people of his time for not seeking the Lord instead doing things on their own committing sins and transgressions.
But here is where the good news of Jesus Christ comes into the picture.
God loves us and he sent his only begotten Son to straighten the path to everlasting life.
Jesus said in John 6:58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”
Ladies and Gentlemen: God send his son for us to receive the gift of eternal life.
Are we ready to accept the gift of salvation?
Jesus is patient; he is waiting for us to ask for help.
Surrender your heart to Jesus Christ our Lord and savior and repent of your sins.
He is ready to provide us with the gift that is available to all who believe in him and follow him.
Thank you,
Amen
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