The Organic Gospel AFFIRMS ITSELF!

Text:  Acts 9:36-43

Theme:  “The Organic Gospel Affirms Itself”(3^rd in A Series)

4^th Sunday of Easter/Good Shepherd Sunday

April 17, 2016

FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

Denton, Texas

Rev. Paul R. Dunklau

+In the Name of Jesus+

36 In Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (in Greek her name is Dorcas); she was always doing good and helping the poor. 37 About that time she became sick and died, and her body was washed and placed in an upstairs room. 38 Lydda was near Joppa; so when the disciples heard that Peter was in Lydda, they sent two men to him and urged him, “Please come at once!”

39 Peter went with them, and when he arrived he was taken upstairs to the room. All the widows stood around him, crying and showing him the robes and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was still with them.

40 Peter sent them all out of the room; then he got down on his knees and prayed. Turning toward the dead woman, he said, “Tabitha, get up.” She opened her eyes, and seeing Peter she sat up. 41 He took her by the hand and helped her to her feet. Then he called for the believers, especially the widows, and presented her to them alive. 42 This became known all over Joppa, and many people believed in the Lord. 43 Peter stayed in Joppa for some time with a tanner named Simon.

A location is given for where she lived:  Joppa, a coastal town on the eastern seaboard of the Mediterranean.  There is no word on whether or not they put her on the prayer chain, but they did call for the pastor.  Her illness, apparently, was both rapid and terminal.  The call to have clergy stop by came after she died, interestingly enough.  “Please come at once,” urged the messengers who spoke with the pastor/apostle Peter.

The first thing we’re told about her, besides her location, is that she is a disciple.  Let that sink in.  We get that information even before we learn her name.    There’s nothing about what church she belonged to.  Similarly, we don’t know whether she was against hydraulic fracking – or some ancient equivalent.  There’s no report on her wealth or lack thereof.  What wildflower did she like the most, Indian Paintbrush?  We are not told. 

There’s not much to go on really.  It’s difficult to plug her in to the proper demographic.  We’re really good at that these days – sticking people into various and sundry groupings before we even know their names.    I suppose it didn’t matter so much, back then, to do that.  Maybe all that mattered was that they were human beings. 

Her name certainly mattered.  Luke gives us both her Aramaic name (Tabitha) and her Greek name (Dorcas). 

Is there anything else we need to now?  Yes, actually.  It’s easy to overlook if you’re speed-reading.  It says, simply, that she, Dorcas, was “always doing good and helping the poor.”  “Ah, she’s a ‘good-two-shoes”, comes a thought from the gallery.  “Yep,” I say – and the world, being what it is, could use a few more of those.  It’s not people who TALK about how they’re doing good and TALK about how they’re so wonderfully helping the poor.  No, it’s about the people who are actually doing the deeds.

This little story of Tabitha (or Dorcas, if you prefer), tucked away into the larger narrative in the Book of Acts, has inspired poets.  This from Robert Herrick’s Dirge of Dorcas:

For Tabitha; who dead lies here,

Clean wash'd, and laid out for the bier.

O modest matrons, weep and wail!

For now the corn and wine must fail;

The basket and the bin of bread,

Wherewith so many souls were fed,

Stand empty here for ever;

And ah! the poor,

At thy worn door,

Shall be relieved nevermore.

Farewell the flax and reaming wool,

With which thy house was plentiful;

Farewell the coats, the garments, and

The sheets, the rugs, made by thy hand;

Farewell thy fire and thy light,

That ne'er went out by day or night:--

No, or thy zeal so speedy,

That found a way,

By peep of day,

To feed and clothe the needy.

And poet George MacDonald wrote this in his poem, Dorcas:

The King shall answer, Inasmuch

As to my brethren ye

Did it-even to the least of such-

Ye did it unto me.'

Home, home she went, and plied the loom,

And Jesus' poor arrayed.

She died-they wept about the room,

And showed the coats she made.

Thus far George MacDonald.  And it was the clergy/pastor/apostle Peter who saw the coats.  That was enough for him; he needed no further convincing. The proof was irrefutable:  the gospel had affirmed itself in the life of the Lord’s disciple, Tabitha.

To the shock, amazement, and, ultimately, the joy of all her disciple friends, the gospel of Jesus Christ was about to affirm itself again. 

Pastor Peter sends out the disciple-friends, the widows and witnesses to all the good Dorcas had done in her life.  He is alone in that room.  He kneels; it is the biblical posture of worship.  He prays.  Gazing, then, on the lifeless body in front of him, he says:  “Tabitha, get up.”  She opened her eyes and saw him.  She sits up.  He takes her by the hand and then presents her to her disciple-friends, the believers in Joppa.  Words gets out about this, and many more believed – that is to say, they became disciples of the crucified and risen Lord Jesus Christ.  Call it a ripple effect.  That’s what happens when the gospel affirms itself.  It calls forth it’s own response.

This morning, we rejoice that the gospel is at it again  -- this time in the life of Elijah Padia who is confirmed this day.  What confirmation celebrates is that the Lord’s mandate – make disciples by baptizing and teaching – has been done in the life of Elijah.  He has been baptized; he has availed Himself of instruction in the Lord’s Gospel.  Mindful of the Lord’s words – “He who confesses me before others, Him I will confess before my Father in heaven” – he affirms the faith this day. 

Of course the gospel that always affirms itself, has been at work in Elijah for quite some time.  I recall just one instance when this young believer, nurtured by his family with your support and prayers, came back from a mystery work trip to New Orleans.  He shared what he saw in the still blighted portions of that city.  He spoke of the good they were able to do and the help they were able to provide for the poor.  It sounds like Tabitha to me.  The gospel affirms itself; it works.  We’ve seen the evidence. Like the pastor/apostle Peter, we need no further evidence. 

Lord, let there be a ripple effect.

Amen.

The Organic Gospel CHANGES PEOPLE!

Text:  Acts 9:1-20

Theme:  “The Organic Gospel Changes People” (2^nd in a Series)

Third Sunday of Easter

April 10, 2016

FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

Denton, TX

Rev. Paul R. Dunklau

+In the Name of Jesus+

Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest 2 and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. 3 As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”

5 “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.

“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. 6 “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”

7 The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. 8 Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. 9 For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.

10 In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, “Ananias!”

“Yes, Lord,” he answered.

11 The Lord told him, “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. 12 In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.”

13 “Lord,” Ananias answered, “I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your holy people in Jerusalem. 14 And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name.”

15 But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel. 16 I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.”

17 Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord—Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here—has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” 18 Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized, 19 and after taking some food, he regained his strength.

Saul spent several days with the disciples in Damascus. 20 At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God.

In November of 2004, the IBM company hosted a conference at Rockefeller University in New York City.  A number of brilliant thinkers were gathered there just one day to propose solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems. 

The first topic was the crisis in health care.  It’s an industry that consumes an astonishing $2.1 trillion a year in the United States alone – more than one seventh of the entire economy.  Together with the massive cost, every reliable indicator demonstrated that we’re not feeling healthier, and we are not making enough progress toward preventing illnesses such as heart disease, stroke, and cancer. 

At one point in the proceedings, Dr. Raphael Levey, founder of the Global Medical Forum, told the audience:  “A relatively small percentage of the population consumes the vast majority of the health care budget for diseases that are very well known and by and large behavioral.”  In short, we have a small percentage of our fellow citizens who are sick, who know they are sick, who can be treated, but yet they steadfastly refuse to change their behaviors.

Dr. Edward Miller, dean of the medical school and CEO of Johns Hopkins, reported thus to the conference:  “If you look at people after coronary-artery bypass grafting two years later, ninety percent of them have not changed their lifestyle.”

In his excellent work, Change or Die, Alan Deutschman asks us a question: 

Could you change when change really mattered?  When it mattered most?  Yes, you say?  Try again.  Yes?  You’re probably deluding yourself.  That’s what the experts say.  They say that you wouldn’t change.  Don’t believe it?  You want odds?  Here are the odds that the experts are laying down, their scientifically studied odds:  nine to one.  That’s nine to one against you.  How do you like those odds?

Why, pray tell, is there such resistance to change?  Without change, people will die, groupings of people will die, churches will die, and empires have fallen.  In short, the status quo is killing us but we will stop at nothing to maintain it.

Why such resistance to change?  The verdict of the ages is one word:  fear.  Fear stops us dead in our tracks.  It robs us of any enthusiasm to do the work – sometimes the hard work – of change.  The tactic we employ so often to cover up that uncomfortable fear is DENIAL.  “I don’t have any problems; we don’t have any problems; everything is fine.”  If someone pecks and probes, then we often resort to the tactic of Adam in the garden of Eden.  After that unfortunate afternoon when the forbidden fruit was consumed, Adam said to God:  “The woman you gave me; she made me eat.”  Eve deferred to the snake, and the finger-pointing has gone on ever since.  Instead of change, we assess blame. 

It’s fear, folks.  Fear fuels the resistance to change.    It’s fear of retribution, fear of being vulnerable, fear of getting out of our comfort zone, fear of actually having to look at ourselves and our world with 20/20 vision.

With some individuals, it is impossible to change – in and of themselves.  They simply do not possess the spiritual, mental, or physical resources to do it.  They are, in effect, actively dying

As a chaplain and as a person on the front line in recovery programs, I’ve seen this.  Speaking of recovery, most programs are 12-Step programs.  I won’t go through them all, but round about the 9^th step some promises start to kick in.  One of them, perhaps the most important one, is this:  “We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.”

This “doing for us what we could not do for ourselves” is what happens when the organic Gospel, the Gospel of Jesus Christ – the message of grace, forgiveness, and new life – gets a hearing.

A case in point, straight out of the Book of Acts, is our text for today.  About the least likely candidate for any meaningful and lasting change was Saul of Tarsus.  Our reading begins with Saul “breathing out murderous threats” against the Lord and His disciples. 

Saul’s resume’ was all but an impenetrable wall against change.  He had it right it.  He was right.  He had the doctrines all in a row.  He was Jew, a Roman citizen, and a student of the most famous rabbi, Gamaliel.  He had the pedigree, the street creds, call it what you will.  As to the laws of God, he considered himself blameless.  And if blameless, there is no need for change.  If there were to be any change, it would have to be in people who didn’t see it His way.

He was on his way to round up some of those first Christians; he considered them common criminals – a massive threat to God’s honor, to what was good and right and salutary and pious and exemplary. 

Then it happened.  God did for Saul what Saul could not do for himself:  change the man.  It began with a question, actually:  “Saul! Saul!  Why do you persecute me?”

You see, the organic gospel – the real thing that Jesus taught and literally embodied – changes people.  Sometimes the change can be direct and dramatic (as with Saul) or it can be indirect and more intellectual.  Either way, the Gospel changes people.

Being the gift that it is, the gospel keeps giving!  It changes people; it produces faith in people, it makes disciples, it creates community,  and – drum roll please – it gives people new purpose.  Saul, this complex and even murderous man, became the chosen instrument to take the gospel to the Roman world.

Earlier, I mentioned Alan Deutschman’ book, Change or Die.  At the end, he mentioned how he wished to change the title.  While fear is a great motivator to change (in this title, it’s fear of death), fear never produces lasting and meaningful change.  The new title he selected was Change and Thrive.

Gifted and motivated by the pure gospel, God will do for us what we cannot do for ourselves.  We can change and thrive.

Amen.

The Organic Gospel is A MESSAGE!

Text:  Acts 5:27-32

Theme:  “The Organic Gospel is A Message” (First in A Series)

2^nd Sunday of Easter

April 3, 2016

FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

Denton, Texas

Rev. Paul R. Dunklau

+In the Name of Jesus+

27 The apostles were brought in and made to appear before the Sanhedrin to be questioned by the high priest. 28 “We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name,” he said. “Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man’s blood.”

29 Peter and the other apostles replied: “We must obey God rather than human beings! 30 The God of our ancestors raised Jesus from the dead—whom you killed by hanging him on a cross. 31 God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might bring Israel to repentance and forgive their sins. 32 We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”

“It seems to have lost the sense of urgency and organic vitality that made it great,” so wrote Nico Hines in Megapolis magazine.  He referred to New York City.  Once thought to be the greatest city in the world, his view was that London, England had replaced it since the Big Apple had lost its “organic” vitality.”

Speaking of all things organic, just a few blocks from here, there is a small grocery store.  It has a limited inventory.  It’s not a Super WalMart, a Kroger, or an Albertson’s.  Not far from the downtown square, there’s another store that is similar. 

What makes them somewhat unique is that they offer the buying public natural or “organic” foods.  Organic foods tend to be more localized; they are minimally packaged or not packaged at all.  Missing are all the various and sundry preservatives that keep the food “fresh” as it is moved from harvest and preparation to the retail shelves.  You get the idea.

What does the word “organic” mean?  How is it defined?  Here come the folks from Dictionary.com to the rescue.  They give us seven definitions, but the one most suited to our purposes is this:  “organic” is “characteristic of, pertaining to, or derived from living organisms.”

The first point I wish to make, as we begin a series entitled “The Organic Gospel:  The Genuine Evangel for an “Evangelical” World”, is that the Gospel of Jesus – the good news that His person and work brought to the world – is organic.  It is a living thing – an organism, if you will.  The great majority of the Old Testament was written in the language of ancient Hebrew.  The Hebrew word for “word” is dabar.  It means word, or word event, or thing; it pulsates with energy, with life.   St. Paul said:  “I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God unto salvation.” 

Within  dabar is a power to evoke some kind of change.  It may be a simple reaction.  Here’s a dabar that, in literary/poetic circles, has been called a “limerick”.

There was a young woman from Ryde

Who ate a green apple and died.

The apple fermented inside the lamented

And made cider inside her inside.

Such a limerick, as this kind of modern dabar reveals, can evoke a reaction, a chuckle, or a “good grief” and roll of the eyes.

My point is that the organic gospel –the original “good news”, the euanggelion (lit: eu/blessed, anggelion/message)—evokes a reaction and so much more.  Ultimately, cutting to the chase, the organic gospel changes people. 

A second point I wish to make is this:  today, particularly in America, the organic gospel – the original, real thing – has been pre-packaged, packaged, and “preserved” with so much worldly gobbledygook, that we’ve lost sight of what it actually is.  Marshall McLuhan had it right:  “The medium has become the message.”  It’s not so much the gospel; it’s how it’s packaged, how it’s presented, how it’s delivered to a “buying” public.

Elsewhere and in differing forums, I’ve been occasionally critical of the behavior of those in the “young millennial” demographic.  This morning I extend a word of praise.  These 20somethings and 30somethings can spot phoniness from a mile away.  They know about packaging and presentation – far better than we baby boomers and greatest generation-types do.  And they have spiritual lives; those lives may not be what we think a spiritual life is or what it should be, but they do.  Most of them, at least the ones I’ve met, if pressed, would say that “religion” is three things:  1. Do the right thing; 2. Take care of one another; and 3. Entertain the possibility that there is a power greater than self in the world.  Millennials are profoundly good at processing massive bits of information very quickly, and that’s what it boils down to.  One scholar called it “moralistic, therapeutic, deism”:  do the right thing; take care of one another; consider a power greater than yourself.  Is the organic gospel in there?  Maybe, maybe not.  But that’s where they’re honestly at.

Young parents and grandparents know what I’m talking about.  Little Johnny or Susie sees an incredible toy on the retail shelf at Target – let’s say it’s “Captain America” (or fill in whichever action-figure, fun-figure you want).  My grandson Noah sees the package on the shelf and says:  “Papa, that’s what I want.” (This process takes longer than you might think.)  We transact our business with my Target RedCard and go on our way.  Eventually, Noah says:  “Papa, can you open it up for me.”  We get back to the house, and off I go trying to extricate the genuine article, Captain America, from the confines of his packaging.  Torn cardboard and twisty-ties litter the floor.  In the end, Noah is happy and, in a way, I am too. 

Modern Americans “walk down the spiritual/religious aisles”, so to speak, and what to they find?  They discover row upon row of nice packaging, colorful packaging, packaging that – like the forbidden fruit – is “appealing” to the eye:  “God will save your marriage{“; “God will straighten up your finances”; “God will give your life meaning”; “God will make America great again” – and on it goes.

The organic gospel, the evangel, may be in there, but it’s entirely covered over by the packaging.  What I intend to do in this series of meditations, based on the lectionary choice of the Book of Acts for the Easter season, is precisely this:  to tear away the packaging.

The organic gospel – the genuine article, the real deal – is a message that produces change.  It is so supremely powerful that some powerful forces tried to stop it dead in its tracks. 

29 Peter and the other apostles replied: “We must obey God rather than human beings! 30 The God of our ancestors raised Jesus from the dead—whom you killed by hanging him on a cross. 31 God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might bring Israel to repentance and forgive their sins.

Looking over the readings for over a month and a half of Sundays, the unpackaging of the organic gospel will reveal much to us.  Here’s just a sampling:

It’s not about membership in a particular church; it’s about discipleship;

It’s not about what people want; it’s about what God wants for His people.

Amen.