A Glorious Triumph - Sermon from September 14 - Based on Exodus 14 and 15

When I began my study for this week’s sermon, I wanted to take a look at the epic movie The Ten Commandments. I have to confess that I’ve never watched this old classic before, and I wondered how the studios of Hollywood would depict the scene of the parting of the Red Sea. Since the public library’s version was out, I had to settle for a clip on YouTube. It starts with the Israelites and Moses trapped between the Egyptian army and the sea. Then after the pillar of fire separated the two camps, Charlton Heston, as Moses said in his deep, resonant voice “Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord.” Then, as if moved by an invisible zipper, the sea separated gradually and left the ground dry. And so the people passed through.

When Israel had nearly made it, the pillar of fire left the Egyptians and they started chasing after their enemies through the dry seabed. As the last Hebrew family reached the other side, one person turned and shrieked at the sight of the army in pursuit. Moses turned around and said, “The Lord of Hosts will do battle for us; Behold his mighty hands!” And the zipper was pulled up again and the sea came together, covering the horses, chariots and Egyptian soldiers.

The YouTube clip stops there, but Exodus itself gives me a pretty good picture of the next scene. Imagine the camera sweeping the shoreline as you hear these words again. “The waters returned and covered the chariots and the chariot drivers, the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea; not one of them remained…Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore.” And the Israelites sing in the next chapter, “I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; horse and rider he has thrown into the sea.”

A glorious triumph. In some ways this story is so very familiar to us. Bad guy chases good guy into a tight spot, but in the end the good guy prevails. Just think of Tom and Jerry, Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote, Popeye and Bluto, Indiana Jones and the Nazi’s, Superman and Lex Luthor, Batman and the Joker, 007 and the KGB. As long as we can identify with the good guy, we are entertained by the story line and laugh or cheer when the enemy gets what is coming to him.

But this morning I’m inviting you to take another look at this Bible story. Look at that scene at the end. A whole army of dead bodies, washed up on the shore. It raises a whole lot of questions for me and I’d like you to ponder them with me for a while.

First think about the power of the waters of scripture. A flood destroyed the whole earth except for those floating in Noah’s ark. The Red sea kills a whole army. No wonder Jesus’ disciples panicked when they were caught at sea during a storm. In other ancient religions the sea is a god who represents chaos, death and destruction. Such power is presented to us daily this time of year as we keep track of hurricanes Ike and Hannah and remember the devastating results of Katrina and the Christmas Tsunami of 2006. Does our loving God really use the sea as a weapon of destruction? And how can we tell when God is punishing people, from times when innocent victims are just swept away, or worse when victims are created by human systems of social injustice. Remember the Israelites had just escaped from Pharaoh’s policy of drowning every boy child in the Nile.

In Exodus God tames the sea long enough for the Israelites to escape, but then lets it come crashing down on the whole Egyptian army. Though we are clearly supposed to cheer at salvation for the Israelites and ruin and destruction for the Egyptians, I think about how the families of the soldiers must have mourned when they heard the news that their boys wouldn’t be coming home. I hear the news that America is much more reluctant to help the citizens of Cuba (still our enemy) from Hurricane Ike, than we are to help citizens of Haiti. And clearly we are giving far more attention and resources to the much wealthier people of Texas than we give to any of our neighbors. Do stories like the Red Sea help to contribute to this injustice? Somehow, the glorious triumph is tarnished, I have trouble singing to the Lord when I think of all the dead riders and horses along the sea.

As I continued to ponder, I remembered the work of Walter Wink called Engaging the Powers and I began to re-read it. It’s a dense scholarly book of over 300 pages with tiny print and many foot notes. His argument is complicated but he addresses my questions and agrees that there is something wrong when a scene of death and destruction is called a glorious victory for God. For Christians who believe that the One who created the universe loves it and sent Jesus to save it, the idea that the same God is responsible for the dead Egyptian soldiers on the seashore is problematic.

Walter Wink proposes that the perspective that good guys beating bad guys with violence is normal, is actually part of an evil domination system, often referred to in scripture as the “world.” This worldly view of life includes fictional stories like Tom and Jerry, Batman and the Penguin as well as the histories most commonly recorded were cowboys kill the savage Indians, the Union army beats the Confederate Army, and the Nazi’s were defeated by the Allied forces.

And the biggest problem with the domination system is that the violence is perpetual. Think again of Tom and Jerry, or Indiana Jones. The “indestructible good guy is unalterably opposed to an irreformable and equally indestructible bad guy. Nothing can kill the good guy, though for the first three-quarters of [any story] he suffers grievously, appearing hopelessly trapped, until somehow the hero breaks free, vanquishes the villain, and restores order until the next [time]. Nothing finally destroys the bad guy or prevents his reapparance, whether he is soundly trounced, jailed, drowned, or shot into outer space.” Another feature Wink brings to our attention is that in this drama of redemptive violence there is no real change or growth, no discipleship. “No premium is put on reasoning, persuasion, negotiation, or diplomacy.” “Repentance and confession are…alien” Wink quotes the final episode of the old spy thriller “Get Smart” when “the villain [is] tricked by a loaded cigarette and blown off a cliff to his death on the rocks below. Agent 99 watches in horror, then comments, ‘You know, Max, sometimes I think we’re no better than they are, the way we murder and kill and destroy people.’ To which Smart retorts, ‘Why, 99, you know we have to murder and kill and destroy in order to preserve everything that’s good in the world.”

While Wink’s argument is carefully documented, and I find it persuasive, I admit that Wink moves into contested ground by claiming that God’s order, which is domination free, stands opposed to the domination system we all know so well. From this perspective Christ’s reign of the universe is domination free, non-violent, self-sacrificing so powerful that it sealed a new covenant in which God requires no more human sacrifice to accomplish the work of salvation.

There is not time in one sermon to fully deal with these complex ideas, so I plan to come back to this theme again as we move through Exodus over the next few weeks. But one idea I offer for you to ponder, according to Wink’s line of thought, is that we must read the stories of the Old Testament differently than we read the stories of the New. The blueprints for Christ’s domination-free order can be found most clearly in the Gospels and among the early followers of Christ. When the world runs according to the way God ordered it through Christ then power is used to give, support and nurture life, to seek win-win situations. Equality and partnership are lifted up, exploitation and greed are replaced with sharing and sufficiency. The image of a jealous, wrathful, punishing God is replaced by Christ who is both loving and judging, compassionate and severe, merciful and demanding. Thus the good news of the New Testament directly challenges the idea that Exodus 14 depicts a glorious victory.

While many stories of the Old Testament seem to promote a domination system where God chooses the side of Israel, we can also see many places in the Old Testament where God’s domination free order shines through. Look at creation where the entire universe came into being, not through battle, or struggle or death as other ancient cultures believed, but through God’s strong and peaceful word. “Let there be light! And it was so.” We remembered five strong non-violent women when we first started reading Exodus a few weeks ago. Shiphra and Puah, Moses’ mother, sister Miriam and the Pharaoh’s own daughter committed acts of civil disobedience in order to preserve live. Even the story of crossing of the red sea makes clear that the Israelites were not saved by their own might. They did not fight the Egyptian army in any way, but trusted fully in God who protected them.

The church names the issue I’m asking us to consider here Salvation or Redemption. It is the question of how God saves God’s people and it also has become a question of which people God will save. Some people read the Bible and see evidence that God chooses to save some, but not others. God saves the Israelites, by killing the Egyptians soldiers. God saves those who have faith, but condemns others to outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. Many Christians, like John Calvin have read the Bible and been convinced that God decided at the beginning of time who would be saved, and who would be damned. This is called pre-destination.

But other Christians, including Methodists, read the scriptures and see in it the love of God and the hope of salvation for all the world. They see how Christ passed through this violent world in a non-violent way, embracing especially those whom the world had condemned. They hold fast to the promise that all who come to faith, all who learn God’s way of love can be saved, and that God’s compassionate heart is yearning to save all of creation. “God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” In this view the glorious victory of God is shown in the image of all of creation gathered in peace around the throne of Christ singing our praises, “Holy, holy, holy!” and worshipping our loving God with joy and abiding love.

I’m sure by now you can see my own bias. I am a pacifist, and I am deeply concerned about these matters. But I don’t expect everyone to stand where I do. I only hope that my reflections will lead you to reflect some more on your understanding of Jesus Christ and his work of salvation, and that you will share your perspective with me. Let us pray…

Wedding at Wesley - September 6

On Saturday September six, Joeseph Elewononi and I were blessed to be wed at Wesley United Methodist church, surrounded by church members, friends and family. This lovely altar arrangement was created by Mrs. Kim.

Standing on Holy Ground - Sermon from August 31 - Based on Exodus 3

“Take off the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” When I was a child at Camp Farthest Out we would gather on a lush grassy field in the late summer sun for devotions in motion – a time of prayer combined with music and movement – The woman who led us in those days, Anne Allen, would always quote this verse as we gathered. A few moments latter, after a wonderfully relaxing spine stretching exercise, Anne would instruct us to walk very tall, milling about with each other and greeting each other by name. “Good morning St. Sarah, Good morning St. Anne, Good morning St. Jean, Good morning St. Paul…. Other times at camp I would hear about the miracles God had done in some people’s lives, and witness others being deeply touched and healed through the power of God’s Spirit. All of this together gave me the impression that when I was at camp I was in a holy place, surrounded by saints and angles. It was a powerful feeling. “Take off the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” I gladly kicked them off, and planted my bare feet on God’s good earth, and felt the power of holiness all around me.

When we experience the holiness of God, standing in his presence on holy ground, it is thrilling, amazing, and wonderful. This is what Moses experienced at the burning bush. He was witnessing a miracle – the bush was blazing, but was not turning to ash and soot. The angel of the Lord appeared to him – he saw the angel in the bush and had to stop what he was doing and take a closer look. He was drawn to the place that had become holy with God’s presence. Some people are attracted to such a holy experience because it is thrilling, it make your heart beat a little faster – makes you feel alive. But the thrill of standing in God’s holy presence is not all we are meant to learn from Exodus chapter three.

Moses also heard God speak to him directly, call him by name. Moses! Moses! And God told Moses that he had come to Moses’ people, the Israelites to be with them in their suffering and help them out of their troubles. Do you remember the old popular tv show, Touched by an Angel and the inevitable moment in every episode when the music changes and Roma Downey begins to glow, her hair gently blowing and the character in front of her display their wonder and amazement when she proclaims “I am and angel, sent from God.” Students of the Bible know that the Hebrew and Greek words for angel simply mean messenger. And in the tv show, the message is always the same, “God loves you.” It’s a wonderful thing to stand in God’s holy presence and know that God loves us and will help us out of trouble. But I don’t think this is all this passage of Exodus is trying to say to us today.

Another aspect of standing on holy ground is becoming aware of the power of God. The first instruction the Lord gave to Moses was “Come no closer!” In Old Testament days it was thought that if humans were too close to God, or looked directly at God the power would overwhelm and destroy them. God’s holiness is truly AWE-SOME in that when we become aware of it we are both attracted, and a little afraid. In the Chronicles of Narnia C.S. Lewis depicts Christ as a Lion, Aslan. The children in the story were so attracted to him - that soft, warm mane and beautiful face – but they were also always keenly aware of his powerful muscles rippling under the fur, and his very sharp claws and teeth. It was the power of God that caused Moses to hide his face.

But it’s also tempting for humans to try to harness divine power for our own purposes. We want the holy power of God to rub off on us. In the 70s there was a children’s show I used to watch called Shazam. Every Saturday when young Billy Batson got into trouble he would call on to the godlike elders Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles and Mercury – Shazam! - and they would send their power to him, transforming him into Captain Marvel, able to meet any challenge and defeat any enemy. Some Bible scholars speculate that Moses, like Billy, might have gone intentionally to the Mountain of God and had the desire to know God’s name so that he could tap into God’s holy power and use it. Sometimes humans fall into this same mindset when only turn to God in prayer, or make our way to certain holy places when we want something from God. But I don’t think Exodus three means to encourage us in such a one sided relationship with our God.

I think Exodus three become much more clear when we notice everything God is doing in this passage. God is the active one in the story. Moses was just shuffling along with his sheep when all of a sudden the angel of the Lord appeared. Then God called to Moses, gave him instructions and made an introduction “I am the God of your ancestors. I have observed the misery of my people. I have heard their cry. I know their sufferings and I have come down to bring them up out of Egypt and bring them to a land flowing with milk and honey.” God is the active one here, not Moses.

There are two really important aspects of Moses encounter with God. First God teaches Moses who God is. Yes, God is holy, and powerful. God is too awesome for any human to take full strength. But this God is a particular God, not Mercury, or Atlas or Zeus. Our God’s name (show card). When Christians try to say this Hebrew name for God they usually pronounce it Yahweh, or Jehovah. But the Israelites and even Jews today never actually pronounce this name, in respect for God’s holiness. Instead, when they see these letters in they say Adonai, which means Lord. This is why so many of our bibles us the word Lord – all in capitals, for the name of God. In Hebrew these letters for God’s name look like the verb “he is”. And so when Moses asks God, what his name is, God replies. “I AM who I AM or I Will Be who I Will Be. Tell the people, “I AM has sent me to you.” But God doesn’t just give Moses his name. The Lord makes sure Moses knows that he is the same God who chose a particular family, a certain people and made a covenant with them. “I am the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Rachel and Leah. This is also my name, the title you shall know be by for all generations.” Furthermore the Lord is not just a God of long ago and far away, a God of faded memories and old stories. The Lord is alive and is acting today. As we just noted, the Lord is a God who acts. He appears before us, he calls to us, he gives us instructions, he teaches us his name. He also watches us, hears our cries, knows our sufferings and comes down to bring us up out of our troubles and lead us to a better place, a land flowing with milk and honey.”

But the second very important thing God wants us to know today is that our holy encounters with God are not just meant to give us a thrill, or to assure us we are loved, or we will be saved. When we become aware that we are standing in God’s presence, on holy ground, we can be sure that God is also giving us a vocation. God appeared before Moses and called him by name because God had a plan for Moses’ life. And this plan was not just for Moses to find a job, get a wife, settle down and live happily ever after. No, just like last week when God called Shiphrah and Puah, Moses’ mother, sister Miriam and the Pharaoh’s daughter, the plan God had for Moses involved using Moses himself as an instrument of salvation.

The experience of standing on holy ground, in the presence of the Almighty God is the preparation stage for our vocation. It is a time to experience God’s power, God’s love for us and God’s assurance that God is and always will be with us, just as God was with our ancestors. It is a powerful way for us to gain trust in God, and God’s promise to stand by us. I think all human beings need such a time before we can ever dare to accept God’s mission. Like Moses most of us resist the call of God on our lives when we first hear it. We don’t feel worthy, we think we are inadequate for such an important task. For that matter it takes time to get used to the fact that God is calling us. Such a calling is usually an intrusion, disrupting our plans, making us redefine whom we are and what our lives are about.

If I am completely honest, I can remember God’s call on my life going way back. God blessed me greatly, gave me wonderful Christian parents and teachers along the way and probably gave me more than a normal share of holy experiences. Yet I still resisted God’s call on my life. I was ready to serve God’s people and after college took jobs as a preschool teacher, a nanny and a houseparent at a boarding school. But I resisted the call to ordained ministry. I kept telling God that I wanted him to let me settle down and be wife and mother before I started thinking about seminary and ordained ministry. For four years after college I hung around Amherst and Northampton, doing everything I felt I could morally do to find a husband, in an area full of young single people. But God was not answering my prayers. When, in desperation I turned to my pastor Gregory for counsel, he actually was angry with me, accusing me of waiting around for God to act like a fairy godmother and make all my dreams come true.

But it took an especially holy experience, the experience of keeping watch a couple of years latter, as Gregory died before I said yes to my vocation – God’s call on my life. The holiness of God is mysterious, very hard to put into words. The time we spent in the parsonage during Gregory’s last days were holy. I could palpably feel the presence of saints and angels, more clearly than ever before, every time I walked through the parsonage door. Our friend Lisbeth matter-of-factly stated that she sensed the presence of Gregory’s beloved grandmother in the corner, near his bed. It was a time of waiting, and watching, of prayer and singing and though I was sad, I also felt extremely peaceful – the peace that passes understanding. I still have trouble describing just how that holy experience led me to finally accept my call and tell my church, my family and my friends that I was going to seminary. Perhaps it was the reassurance of experiencing God’s abiding presence even in death. Perhaps it was my slow realization of how God had worked in Gregory’s life, even though he was not perfect, to spread good news of salvation to God’s people. Perhaps it was the experience of ministering to the other members of my church during the early weeks of our grief together. I still can’t quite explain it, but I am sure that this experience of standing in the holy presence of God was key to my ability to say “Here I Am, Lord.”

And now, after allowing God to use me to spread his good news of salvation through my ministry and through my studies, and has caused me to grow even stronger in my faith, God has also granted my prayer for a husband. Neither Joseph nor I would have been ready for marriage 20 years ago. God had to work on both of us to prepare us for each other, and for our vocation as husband and wife. When we were ready, God answered our prayers and put us together. Our vocation now is to travel through life together, even when the destination is as unclear to us as it was to Abraham and Sarah, trusting that God will guide us.

After a period of resistance to God’s call on his life, Moses also returned to his initial response to God, “Here I Am, ready to obey, to submit my own plans and will to God’s perfect plan and will for his life and serve as God asks. Here I Am is the common response of many people in the Bible who, after standing in God’s holy presence are empowered to take the risks. As God’s beloved, chosen people, the Lord has given each of us a vocation to serve him and our neighbors in our own unique ways and be instruments of his plan of salvation. The experience of standing on holy ground in God’s presence is given by God to empower us to say yes! Here I am Lord. Let us pray,

The Risky Will of God - Sermon from August 24 - Based on Exodus 1 and 2

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God – what is good and acceptable and perfect.” When I hear these words I always remember Mt. Level Missionary Baptist Church in Durham, NC. This is the church I attended for the whole last semester of my seminary days at Duke University. The head pastor is Rev. Dr. William Turner, my preaching professor and the one who also taught us about the history of the Black church in America. While I attended Mt. Level I joined an adult bible study class focused on the Mind of Christ. This twelve-week course is devoted to helping Christians learn to think the thoughts of Christ, to have the mind of Christ as we are instructed to do in Philippians Chapter two, “Let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus.”

The authors, T. W. Hunt and Claude N. King see three scriptural stages in developing the mind of Christ. First we set our minds, as Colossians 3:2 says “Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.” Philippians 4:8 also shows us that we have the ability to set our minds. “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things.” Hunt and King call this stage the Will Principle. “[We] must set [our] mind. [We] must decide, choose, or determine the focus of [our] mind. That is where [we] start in developing the mind of Christ.” Unlike animals, we human beings have the will to control what we do. This enables us to obey God in spite of our feelings or intuitions.

The second stage Hunt and King call the growing stage. This is when we are transformed by the renewing of our minds. After we give our will to God, we “must continue to allow [our] minds to be changed (transformed) by a renewing process.” This is when we, as disciples of Jesus, grow. When we are in this transformational stage we experience newness; new thoughts, new insights, new strength and energy, flowing ideas, new ways of looking at the same old problems, and new ways to resist our temptations.

The third stage is when we become ready for action. This is when we gird up our minds so that we are ready to move. Men and women wore long robes in Jesus’ day, and if they wanted to run, they would have gird them up, or lift up the edges and tuck them into their belt. I often think of girding up, being in a state of readiness as keeping my tennis feet. Remembering that the ball might come from any corner and being ready to move quickly and agilely to face and meet whatever comes my way. Jesus was like this, mentally ready and alert at all times to meet challenges of life, such as the shrewd questions of the scribes, chief priests and Sadduccees, without getting flustered, or unduly angry.

I agree with Hunt and King that when our wills are set and our minds have grown through constant renewal, we will be ready for any test God allows to come our way. It is also important to remember that we are not expected to do this on our own. Paul doesn’t tell us to go transform ourselves, right? He uses the passive voice, be transformed, that is, let God transform you by renewing your mind. “God wants us to develop the mind of Christ. He causes you to want it. He enables you to do it. Then one day Christ perfects the work that God began.”

Our stories from Exodus show this principle at work. Though the main characters in Exodus may not have known Christ as Jesus, we can trust that since Jesus assures us that he is one with the Father, Christ was at work in their lives helping them to have his mind and to do the risky will of God.

First we have the midwives. I love these two women, Shiphrah and Puah for their faithfulness in the midst of adversity. While last week we left Joseph in Egypt reuniting with his father and brothers and protecting them from the famine in the land, now we have jumped many, many years, until the Egyptians have forgotten Joseph, and the children of Israel have multiplied in the land. Like many powerful governments, the Pharaoh started to become fearful, even paranoid of the immigrant population, and this fear propelled a policy of greater and greater oppression. But God was good to his people, and the more they were oppressed by Egypt the more they multiplied and spread. This increased Egypt’s fear and the Israelites were enslaved, forced to do the hardest work and treated ruthlessly. Such hateful measures never work, the king was still afraid of the Israelites and ordered the Hebrew midwives to kill all the Israelite boys at birth.

Shiphrah and Puah knew better, they knew God and they knew that killing babies was never God’s will. It was such a daring act for them to disobey the king, that they must have had their minds set on God, allowed God to renew and transform their minds. They clearly discerned the will of God and were ready to meet the king’s challenges. With their minds set, transformed and ready, Shiphrah and Puah were enabled to disobey the king’s command, and continue their work as midwives should, striving to help all the mothers safely deliver all of their children. Their state of readiness is seen in their answer when the king asked, “Why have you done this and allowed the boys to live?” “The Hebrew women, they are not like the Egyptian women. They are vigorous! Before the midwife can get there, they’ve already had the baby!” God was pleased with the midwives and because they honored God, they were blessed with families of their own.

Next we are introduced to three more heroines in Egypt, two Israelites and an Egyptian princess. The Hebrew mother gave birth to a fine baby boy in the time when the king made it a policy to drown every boy child in the Nile river. Knowing that it was God’s will for this child to live, the baby’s mother disobeyed the law of the land and kept him quietly hidden for as long as she could. After three months she was inspired to give her son up to God’s care alone. Like Noah, she made a boat, just big enough to protect her boy from the deadly water, and placed it among the reeds along the riverbank. In this case the mother didn’t just have to break the laws of the world, she also had set her mind upon God’s will to even be able to fight her own maternal instincts of trying to keep her son safe with her. With nothing but trust in God’s mercy, she let him go in his little boat.

The other Hebrew heroine of this story was a girl, the baby’s sister Miriam. She was brave enough to stand by the river and watch and see what would happen to her brother. And her mind was ready for action, so that when the princess found the basket, Miriam bravely appeared, encouraged the princess to keep the child, and shrewdly offered the baby’s own mother as a nurse. If this mother and daughter had let their minds be conformed to the world, they would have never in a million years thought it would be possible for God to use the Pharaoh’s own daughter to keep their boy safe from harm. Not only did the princes adopt the baby, name him Moses, and unwittingly pay his own mother to nurse him. She also insured that he would have a fine education, enabling him to do the work God ordained for him of helping lead the Israelites to freedom. Our minds are not big enough to fathom the ways of God. But when we allow ourselves to be transformed by God so that we can discern and do God’s will we can be sure that blessings will follow.

And even the Egyptian princess, in some way, must have been open to the transformation of her mind in the act of defying the laws of her land in order to save one precious life. Her willingness to take a holy risk, inspired by God, enabled God’s plan for the salvation of his people to unfold.

American history is very similar to the history of Egypt found in Exodus. Like the rulers of Egypt, the white rulers of this land became fearful of the immigrant workers they had “imported” from Africa. In 1740, in the colony of South Carolina, a law called the Negro Act was passed that made it illegal for slaves to gather in groups, earn money, raise food and learn to read. The act permitted slave owners to kill any slave that rebelled. Similar laws were adopted in many other parts of this country. In spite of terrible oppression, through what can only be the miraculous working of the Holy Spirit, many black people in this country accepted the religion of the white oppressors and came to Christ. As they did so, they came to know the mind of Christ, which made them strong enough, and free enough to defy evil civil laws. Many black Christians would give up precious hours of sleep in the evenings to gather for worship. And there were many Americans, black and white who defied the prohibition of teaching slaves to read and write.

Sophia Auld was one such woman who taught her slave Frederick the alphabet when he was about twelve. When her husband Hugh discovered this, he strongly disapproved. But Sophia had opened the door for the boy who was able to continue his education by trading bread to the poor white boys of Baltimore in exchange for their knowledge of reading, and by carefully observing the writing of the white men where he worked and copying the letters in his dictionary. Frederick latter wrote, “I wished to learn how to write, as I might have occasion to write my own pass.”

Upon finally learning how to hold a pen, his immediate response was to write three passes for himself. One pass stated, “I, the undersigned, have given the bearer, my servant, full liberty to go to Baltimore, and spend the Easter holidays. Written with mine own hand, &c.”

Frederick Douglas went on to teach other slaves how to read the New Testament at a Sabbath school on a plantation. As word spread, the interest among slaves in learning to read was so great that on any week over 40 slaves would attend lessons. For about six months, their study went relatively unnoticed until one Sunday a group of white men burst in on the gathering, armed with clubs and stones to disperse the congregation permanently.

But Douglas’ writing career did not come to an end. After he escaped to freedom, Douglass wrote a book about his life as a slave, which was promoted by the abolitionists until he became famous. Fearing the publicity would draw the attention of his ex-owner, Hugh Auld, who might try to get his “property” back Frederick’s friends sent him on a book tour to Ireland and England. The people there were so inspired that they soon raised the money necessary to pay Mr. Auld, who gave a signed manumission to Douglas in return.

This story is just one example of how God will bless us when we refuse to be conformed to the ways of the world, and let our minds be transformed to have the mind of Christ, so that we may both discern and do the will of God – those things that are good and acceptable and perfect. Can you think of example in your own life when God has done this work in you? When have you set your mind to doing the risky will of God, which defies the ways of the world?

Two cases I can think of in my life are the choices I had of which college and which seminary to attend. In both cases I had safer options. I could have gotten my degree from an Ivy League university that cost less and was closer to home. I could have attended seminary where I was pretty sure most people thought and felt the way I did about the world. But God also gave me options with more risks; an expensive but innovative college where I would be free of tests and grades could design my own major; a seminary where I would be forced to consider very different points of view and stretch in new directions. Through careful consideration and prayer, after weighing the risks I could see, and listening to the tug of my heart I opted each time for the risky choice; the choice which would push me farther, give me more opportunity to grow, and stretch in new directions. Both times I was strengthen to take these calculated risks in favor of what most seemed like God’s will by the assurance that God would be with me, and that God was arranging my life so that I would meet fellow brothers and sisters in Christ who would help me overcome the challenges involved. As a result both educational experiences offered me far more blessings than I could ever have imagined. In college my faith was challenged in a way that made me both much stronger, and wiser and I began to face the ugly, judgmental part of myself and be transformed. In seminary, not only was I stretched in ways that made me much more balanced as a pastor, but also I was given the blessing of spending a whole year of study in Germany for free. Something I would never have imagined beforehand.

The next time you are faced with a choice about what to do, remember to let your mind be like the mind of Jesus. Stop and pray about which choice is most in line with the teachings of the Bible. Remember that the will of God often seems risky from the perspective of the world. “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God – what is good and acceptable and perfect.” When you open yourself up to the risky will of God you will be amazed at what the Lord will do with your life.

Let us pray.

Lord Jesus, we are hungry and thirsty after Your righteousness. We do want to be like You. You are the Bread of life itself. Fill us with Yourself so that we may experience the abundant life You came to give. Give us the ability to set our minds, to allow you to transform our thinking and our actions and help us to be ready to meet any challenge or test that comes our way. Lord Jesus Christ, give us your mind so that we may more fully live our lives according to your will. We ask all this in your precious name, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Amen.