Matthew

President Obama is in trouble again. He has been caught on tape, once again, bowing to a foreign head of State. First to the king of Saudi Arabia, now we find him bowing to the emperor of Japan. An editorial in our local paper opined: “Kings and emperors have been treated with courtesy, of course, but to bow is—yes, I’ll say it—un-American.”....
Imagine how upset the pundits would be if they knew that most of citizens of America bow down to foreign powers every day. Constantly.

...pay attention to what Dr. Hodes said. He said that when he came to a tough decision point, like the decision to adopt those two desperately sick boys into his own family, the answer that came to him was like God himself offering him an opportunity to help these boys. Don’t say no,” said his heart. “Don’t say no” to God.

A couple of months ago, I got a call from the Library here at Milligan. “Hey, we’ve unearthed a couple of boxes of Hopwood archives. Are you interested?” Was I interested? Finding this stuff was like stumbling across the long-lost book of the law in the wall of the temple. The boxes arrived and I went through the notebooks and documents as gently as one might handle newly discovered Dead Sea scrolls. I carefully opened the brittle pages, and treasured the words set down so long ago. There were working notes from Mrs. Thompson’s long lost history of Hopwood. There was a registry from 1915. There were minutes of elders’ meetings from 50 years ago. We don’t want to forget our history. We’re making plans to celebrate 175 years together on Buffalo Creek. We’re actually a few years older than that, but you know how people tend to round downward once you reach a certain age. The Buffalo Creek Christian Church, later known as Hopwood Memorial, may have been established here as early as the late 1820’s. Church historian Addie Thompson wrote that “For several years there was no building for weekly services so (the church) met on the banks of the creek, in barns, mills, cemeteries, homes, groves, or any place they found suitable. Later a log church was built on land donated by Joshua Williams.”

Say what you want about the end-times views of these 19th Century reformers, but don’t miss the point that our forebears firmly believed that the way they lived their lives…the manner in which they served Christ…and the way in which they shared with their neighbors actually enabled them to (as Barack Obama might say): “put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day.” They believed that their actions influenced the coming Christ and the coming Kingdom. They saw themselves as participants in the heavenly drama. They weren’t hanging around waiting for God to straighten everything out. They were co-workers in the Kingdom of God.

Jesus said that this command is the greatest, the heaviest. Why? Because if you miss this one, you have no hope of understanding anything that comes after, and you have no need to search any further. On these two commandments, the whole Gospel hangs, or hinges. This command to love God is the lynchpin, the top hinge, the first stone in the foundation. If you never learn to love God, you’ll never understand his heart. But if you fall in love with God, a lot of other things will come into focus. At its very core, the kingdom of God is not about thinking correctly, or keeping the right rules or even believing all the right things …it's about being in love.

Have you ever found yourself in the servant’s place? Have you ever been at the mercy of someone like that? When I was a Milligan student, a group of us enjoyed rock climbing. We practiced our trade on campus during the week, to keep our skills sharp for the weekends. We rapelled on ropes out of 3rd floor windows of Derthick, or the roof of Pardee. When those places seemed tame, we began to eye that Matterhorn sized building called Seeger Chapel. Soon we were happily jumping out of the belfry during the wee hours of the night…after completing our Humanities homework, of course. One night, someone said, “I wonder if we could get Milligan’s buffalo mascot, (a five foot high, 80lb. fiberglass statue), up into that 100 foot belfry?” Weeks of planning and subterfuge brought us to the night of action....

God found some of you at 7:00am. Your folks probably got you up and had you ready—perhaps they taught you the importance of a lifetime of service in the landowner’s vineyard, and when the truck rolled into the market, you jumped on. Some of you he found at 9:00am or even 12 noon. You took a little longer to come around, but gladly got to work when you were called, and you’ve been plugging away ever since. Some of you weren’t found until 3 pm, or even 5pm, when the Lord walked in on your card game at the marketplace. You’d given up any thought of work for the Master, and were shocked when the door flew open and the Landowner stepped through with a smile and said: “What in the world are you hanging around for? Come on, let’s make something of this day.” So here you are, hoe in hand, at work in the Master’s vineyard. You’re a little embarrassed that it’s so late in the day, but it’s great to be found by Him.

The election of 2008, which got under way about three days after the last election, is only two weeks away, and most of us are more than ready to be done with it. We’ve heard enough about red states or blue states…enough talk of people “pal-ing around with terrorists.” We know too much about moose gutting; we get the point about “Main Street and Wall Street,” we know a “bail out” when we smell one. Yes, we’ve had our fill of hockey moms and mavericks; we’re had it up to here with community organizers and ACORNS and Robocalls. We’re even tired of all the Joes…blue collar Joe, Joe-Sixpack, and especially Joe the Plumber. Let’s get it over! Let’s move on! My name is Tim Ross and I approved this message!

We love people in theory, but when it comes to living expressions, it’s not so easy. We love humankind…it’s people we can’t stand! Stop for a moment and think…visualize a person or persons with whom you have had great conflict. Think of the pain you have experienced because a relationship has gone sour, a misunderstanding has mushroomed into all-out warfare, a longstanding cold war has drug on for years. Corporately, Hopwood has been an unusually harmonious congregation, but let’s be honest…we have our problems too.

We know our weaknesses better than anyone. But we also know that amazing acts of goodness and kindness and forgiveness and grace take place here. This is the place where we learn to share with the homeless, the sick, the prisoner, the poor. This is the place we can find healing, forgiveness-- here we take our place in the family of Christ. We’ve been at it for 175 years, right here. And you’re a part of that tradition.