According to his Ability

Matthew 25:15 ESV

To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away.

After five years my friend failed. He was removed from his pastorate and given thirty days to move his family out of the parsonage. I say he failed because the flock bit so hard it decided another pastor was needed. This happened and that happened, reasons were given, and the church was diminished. He would find another church and pastor another community, and God would move once again in his ministry. This is not a conversation about the hardships of pastoring or how hard times are to pastor in. A similar story could be told of a young man who graduated from college worked until he was so stressed his body started “bubbling” randomly, he would start finding blood in his stool, then be fired for not developing fast enough. That is the world we are called to minister in. It is hard and things happen we don’t like. Did the master judge rightly?

Isn’t that the heart of the question we ask ourselves everyday as the challenges mount, and failure looms on the horizon? The parable of the talents has two main points to set the stage. The first is that the master is going away and the servants will be left in charge of portions of his wealth. As he decides what each is to be left with it finishes with the reality that the Master already understood each one's ability and had given as he had evaluated. Lest you feel sorry for the guy with one talent, the notes will tell you that a Talent was roughly equivalent to twenty years of wages for a laborer, $600k at $15 dollars an hour. The first and second servants get to work. They trusted the master and the last did not. Looking at the life we have been given it is easy to look around and feel that we are in over our heads. How can I overcome the challenges that are facing me right now? Do you trust the master to know your ability and the world he has created?

You have pressed and pushed, and now the failure lays at your feet, what now? People will mock. I have mentioned Nutt’s Folly before, the beautiful three-story octagonal house started construction in 1861, never to be completed. Named Longwood by its owner, but upon his death in 1864 it would bear his name as Nutt’s Folly, never being completed. “Folly” is the term used by the foolish. It was a home that housed his family even after his death and their subsequent poverty. “Folly” is what they call a home that stands 163 years after its construction that still brings wonder to those that see it. Others do not know and are not fit to judge what your failure looks like. The text tells us in verse nineteen that “after a long time” the master returned. How often did the man with five talents fail? Did you assume he went from glory to glory, never watching as a deal sour? Is that how you have seen God move? Is it not more likely they failed, learned, and succeeded, over and over. l Does the savvy investor put all his money on “lucky number seven” and let it ride, or over the aggregate watching as he is simply trying to capture the 10% gained over a “long time”.

Be encouraged brother and sister, God has chosen and assigned your task as a wise master. You will fail and you will succeed, the only danger is failing to trust the master’s judgment, lose heart, and bury your talents. Let us live wholly, fully, and abundantly in this life.

Living for Jesus, a life that is true,

Striving to please him in all that I do;

Yielding allegiance, glad-hearted and free,

This is the pathway of blessing for me.

Coram Deo

What was that?

Daniel 2:16 ESV

And Daniel went in and requested the king to appoint him a time, that he might show the interpretation to the king.

It is easy to see why Daniel was so revered in his time. As a youth he possessed an assurance of God’s willingness to answer him that is beyond the greatest saints. At this point in the story the order has already gone out that all the wise men in Babylon were to be destroyed. Daniel did not attempt to argue his way out, after all he had not picked the job, but instead requested a meeting with the King. He did not wait for God to first reveal the dream to him, but assured of God’s answer, made the appointment ahead of time. THEN he goes home and asks his friends to pray for him and for God to answer. God does and the rest is history I suppose. Where is the place for the timid?

What of Daniel’s three friends Mishael, Hananiah, and Azariah?  They made no arrangements to come before the king. Had it not been for the machinations of Daniel they would have likely remained in low level government jobs. We may think them timid, for simply following Daniel. Yet, as they grow and as the text continues, we find that they also are met with the moment when timidity must burn in the fire of conviction. Standing before Nebuchadnezzar, they let him know the limits of his power, and do so not with whimsy, flowery speech, but strong and powerful rejection of the King’s authority over the God they serve. And Nebuchadnezzar, in his anger would overheat the furnace and kill his own men as he sought to execute the sentence of death upon them. Where is the place for soft words?

Men of God are called to be fearless in God’s service. Not that they reject wisdom or discretion, but that they rely wholly and fully on God to accomplish his ends as they speak truth into the darkness. It was not with flower speech that Paul would come to Corinth and so the men of God do not seek to win converts by niceness and timidity but rather by frank and honest words. It is a lesson I must learn over and over. It is easy to fall into timid speech, speech clothed in qualification and flowery words, so as not to offend. As a man loses his hearing, he stops noticing all the small things that are supposed to inform him. The more that is taken from him the more he simply doesn’t notice. So, is the society that we find ourselves in. A small word here and there simply passes by ears that have been tickled so often they are numb.

We are not to be a people determined to be heard, a people only speaking in words and messages that will be heard by culture. But we are a people that is to speak truth plainly that we might be heard. The further gone a society is ,the more likely it will hear truth the way Nebuchadnezzar did from the lips of Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, "heat the furnace seven times the normal!" Such is the effect of truth spoken to tyranny. By God’s mercy occasionally the tyrant will hear, more often God’s servants suffer. Loss of life, loss of funds, loss of family, loss of health, many are the sufferings of his servants in the cause of Christ. They killed the son, why would we expect them to honor the servants?

The people of God are called and commanded to speak truth, and a quiet word is no longer effective, our society is too much like the old man that refuses to put his hearing aids in!

Say what you mean, with no frills, and say it loudly. 

Coram Deo 

Apples of Gold

1 Kings 19:2 ESV

Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So may the gods do to me and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.”

It had been a long day, working on the house across the road, and I was beat. Shoveling and loading plaster that had the smell of old smoke, mixed with animal refuse/rot, and a little mildew takes its toll. Combine that with all day alone with my fairly negative thoughts and I was exhausted emotionally, physically, and spiritually. Hurrying across the street to start the evening schedule of drop off and pickups for the kids’ activities. I come up from the basement and start walking across the street, and see a truck coming. Upon seeing them I do all I can to not look as I feel. To try and hold the head up, stop the shoulders from drooping, and make sure the feet aren’t shuffling. After all, “it had been a good day, much had been accomplished, progress had been made” I tell myself. Then the head starts coming down, the shoulders drop a little. I put forth a little more effort, the truck is almost to me. It turns out to be the city crew, and they slow down a little. Expecting to hear the words “you look beat” (because I was) instead he says “looks like you're winning” I respond with a few words and they continue on.

Elijah has had a good day. He had returned to his homeland and brought the people of God to a moment of conviction and choice. Challenging the farcical priests of Baal to a showdown of biblical proportion in the face of the largest crowd he could find, he one convincingly. Hearing the chants of the people “The Lord, he is God; the Lord, he is God.” Reverberating in his ears as he remembered being witness to the triumph of Yahweh over such false faith, and seeing as a people prone to wander and idolatry had been brought back to faith and good days ahead. As he came back, he saw the destitute nature of the Land after three years of drought and famine. The dry dusty wind making it hard to see and hard to breath when the wind would kick up a little dirt, the withering trees and shrubs dotting the land, and the animals barely surviving as they can find no food or water. After the “revival” of the people he goes up the mountain and prays, and prays, and prays… seven times, then a cloud appears. He knows that God has broken the drought and rain is coming. After years of dry days, he can smell the wonderful smell of rain! Invigorated he ran, overwhelmed by joy, and carried along by the very spirit of God such that he outran a chariot, a feat that would cause any man to hold his chest out a little more. Then Jezebel speaks. After such a day, why did it matter what such a woman would say? Yet, her words threw the prophet into a tizzy and he must go seek the face of God on his mountain, knowing it all was in vain.

As the truck drove off, it was easier to walk without a shuffle, and I looked back on my work. It didn’t feel like “I was winning”. “Winning” never felt this wearing before. Yet, somehow someone thought I was winning and all the sudden I felt better. The encouragement or discouragement of another is powerful. Dr. Martin Lloyd Jones, in his book Spiritual Depression, notes that we often lie to ourselves and part of fighting for truth is fighting the lies we tell ourselves. All day I had been hearing and reliving the meaninglessness of my effort. “The house was too far gone.” “All the effort was wasted.” “Someone with more experience and better equipment could do better quicker.” “Every effort was a pointless one as slowly and surely degradation would give way and all I would be left with was lipstick on a pig.” Over and over, it would go from the house to my call and back to the house. (My hardest days are ones alone with myself, in case you were wondering.)

Proverbs 25:11 – A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver.

Coram Deo

In Place

Ephesians 5:4 ESV

Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.

The boat was beached and tilted sideways as it was being repaired. In the midst of an argument the young woman reaches over and straightens a picture… It was played for laughs in the middle of the movie Father Goose. The picture had been hanging level but all that was around it was not so it looked crooked, it looked out of place. When things are out of place, they are the proverbial “sore thumb”, all attention is drawn to it. Here Paul is telling us what is not to be found among us, these things are “out of place”. Chapter five begins with the imperative to be “imitators of God” and to “walk in love”. To do these things it was noted that sexual immorality, impurity, covetousness, filthy talk, and crude jokes were out of place. The list of vice is not among the more extensive lists but rather a short practical list of things that will not remain in a community focused on God’s word and dedicated to the gospel.

I walked in and immediately recognized that I did not fit in. Nothing was said to me nor was I asked to leave but I was clearly out of place at this gathering. In point of fact, every effort was made to make me feel comfortable and welcome, but it didn’t change reality, this baby shower was for my child but I was the only guy present and so I didn’t stay much longer than was necessary. Things that don’t fit in may be present for a time but they don’t stay. Such are the vices listed to the Ephesians they will wither and wilt until they depart when the word of God is read and the gospel is preached. What grows under such conditions? What virtue is to be seen in greater proportion year to year? Thanksgiving.

The walk of love (Eph 5:2) is to be one that is marked by a heart of thanksgiving. As a community of believers gathers on Sunday morning the thankfulness to God is to be overwhelming. Over the years my family has made it a point to visit many different homes while we are on vacation. We visit the homes of the well known and less than well known. The tours we are given always mention how the owners’ hosted others. How did they make people welcome in their home? One way that was done was making sure the guests knew they fit in. Mrs. Dana had the flowers taken out of her planters and the planters filled with water and goldfish, she had ice cream put in the icebox in her personal library, all so the children of the neighborhood would know that they fit in. They belonged in her home on this occasion.

This last weekend my family was blessed to stay the weekend with a good friend and visit our former church as well. We fit in. It was hard to leave and we found ourselves lingering after the church meal, not wanting to leave a place we could tell we belonged. Even as Paul points to what is out of place, he also tells us what is in place. The church is to make thanksgiving welcome. It is not a coincidence that the Thanksgiving Holiday is centered around a table and a meal. Giving thanks to God is a time of gathering around fellowship and a meal. Healthy churches will gather around tables for fellowship and meals, like every healthy family. As a church desires to grow in health it must find time around tables to rejoice in the blessings that God has given. Not only on the occasional Sunday but throughout the week as various members as others over for meals of Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is to be firmly “in place” in our fellowships.

Coram Deo

Charge

Ecclesiastes 2:15 ESV

Then I said in my heart, “what happens to the fool will happen to me also. Why then have I been so very wise?” And I said in my heart that this also is vanity.

I was very annoyed with the Audio Tour as we were driving around Gettysburg. We could not figure out where this or that was. We finally caught up with one of the soundbites and heard the story of the 1^st Minnesota. I now must take back all the bad things I said “in my heart” about technology. As I sat at my desk to write these words, I was able to pull up the offending app from the National Parks Service and relisten to the Audio tour. (Wishing I had known beforehand, we could have listened to the 1 hour audio tour on the 20 hour drive to Pennsylvania!) As I relisten to the section the enormity of their sacrifice is once again upon me. Looking around watching as other units flee to the safety of the rear the two-hundred and sixty-two men of the 1^st Minnesota charge the on coming Alabamians force of one thousand seven hundred men that the line might be shorn up and the day held. They did so at the loss of two-hundred and fifteen men, only forty-seven surviving.

Solomon was living the high life. His kingdom was secure and growing. He wisely administered it and its wealth and fame were growing as well. In his wisdom he saw reality for what it was. His faculties and health were wanning. He looked around and saw the truth and understood his end. He, like all others, would die and go the way of all the earth. He in all his pomp and wisdom, could not avoid the same fate as the fool. Then his heart asks the fateful question, “what’s the point?” Why all this sacrifice, why all this work, if I can do nothing to change my end? At this point his wisdom fails and he joins the fool and says “this too is vanity.” He is right that he will die. He will die just like the mange ridden dog. He will die just like the pathetic fool who won’t work. But vanity is not the death of the wise who fear God. It is easy for us to forget why? To forget the purpose for which we labor and sacrifice. In the throws of the grinding “pointless” effort to believe the lies of the heart that is “deceptively wicked above all things.” This is what had overcome Solomon. Governing a “stiff-necked people” for a few decades had taken its toll and he gave in to cynicism.

As we finished our tour of Gettysburg, we walked to the cemetery where President Lincoln gave his famous address. We took pictures next to the monument erected on the site, and reread his Gettysburg Address. I must confess that this is not my favorite of Lincoln’s Speeches. My favorite lies in his Second Inaugural Address. Mostly because it gives me hope for his soul, that I will meet him in heaven, because heaven is not made for good or great men but saved ones. As he submits himself to God’s will and sees the need for payment for “every drop of blood drawn with the lash is paid with one drawn with the sword… ‘the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether,” I hope that a man who can read our creators will and face so well also submitted to him as savior. Lincoln saw amongst all the blood shed at Gettysburg and hundreds of other battlefields the payment for the injustice of slavery. The reality of our life is that we have no pointless commissions or stations. The Army of the United States might be an exercise in foolish “hurry up and wait” but the LORD’s Army is not so. “All things work for the Good of those who love him.”

As with the 1^st Minnesota, some or many of the men might not have known why they were charging, but they did anyway. They might have even been foolish and thought they were going to win the day by killing the Alabamians. But the man who gave the order knew and they won the victory even as his unit was mowed down and he with them. Solomon worked until he forgot that he had such great wisdom that he might rightly “govern this your great people” (1 Kings 3:9). I do not know what pointless place you think you are in. You might have forgotten why you came there or wished to be there at all. You may never have known why your commander placed you in such a post. Rest assured, he has given the order, and you have obeyed. You are right where he wishes you to be. You might be called upon to charge, to hold the line, or simply carry the wounded, but it will not be a pointless effort. Victory and Valor are not to be judged by your sight but by the commander of the Lord's army who has placed you for his purposes.

“Trust and obey, for there’s no other way, to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.”

Coram Deo