Interactive Sermon

Sermons You've Never Heard pt. 3

Here's another of those passages that you haven't likely heard on a Sunday morning.  As one who likes to go camping with my family, this one caught my attention.  Makes me thankful for campground facilities!  Also made me think of toilet paper.  Hence, the Charmin Bear.

Deuteronomy 23:12-13 reads:

Designate a place outside the camp where you can go to relieve yourself. As part of your equipment have something to dig with, and when you relieve yourself, dig a hole and cover up your excrement.

Well there you have it. I can't imagine why preachers don't cover this text around Memorial Day every year, when members of their congregations prepare for summer camping excursions--lest they forget to pack a spade and sin unaware. What's more, all this talk of excrement and excavation has me thinking about the pet-walk areas in campgrounds. You know, those places where they have little plastic baggies that pet owners put on like gloves to pick up after their four legged friends. I'm thinking, use the spade! I mean, plastic baggies are tough on the environment, no? Verses like this show you that God is green at heart.

Let's be serious--for a moment, anyhow. On the surface, this verse looks more like it came out of a Boy Scout manual than out of the Bible. What gives?

Taking a look at the context in which we find this instruction might help. It appears in a little sub-section having to do with cleanliness in the encampment of God's people. Take a look at the thoughts that bookend this section.  In verse 9 we read: When you are encamped against your enemies keep away from anything impure. Then in verse 14 we read: For the Lord your God moves about in your camp to protect you and deliver your enemies to you. 

Now, within the immediate context, this whole 'bury the excrement' stuff isn't even the most awkward part. You think verses 12-13 would be strange to hear a sermon on, how about verse 10-11?  Why all the bodily function talk?  Why the specificity?

Verse 14 beginning with the word 'for' gives us the best clue. This is about God's covenant relationship and presence with his people, not latrine theology.

Look back at the first eight verses of the chapter. Oh wow! Verse one... another of those you'll likely never hear in a sermon!  Generally, those verses speak about the purity of the assembly of the Lord.  They speak of the purity of the people's religious gathering with God.  Now look at verse 9 again. It begins: when you are encamped against your enemies. Note that God promises to be just as present with His people when they go to war as He is with them when they put on their best clothes and show up to the house of worship.  Again, from verse 14, He promises: to protect you and to deliver your enemies to you.

I'd suggest that these, like all the ceremonial laws, would serve as a constant reminder of the Lord's holiness.  You do these things because God is holy.  And here, specifically, to remind that He is among His people!  He is as present here where you do battle as in the sanctuary where you gather to pray.

Segue that lesson into our daily lives.  Do we live as if He is as present with us on Monday mornings as He seems to be on Sundays?  Are we as convinced when we find ourselves in a crucial meeting at work, or in a confrontation with a neighbor, or at the side of a loved one's hospital bed?  It seems to me that being encamped against the enemy--and uncertain as to how things would go when the arrows start to fly--is a perfect time for God to have given instructions that would remind His people of His presence.  But nocturnal emissions and bowel movements?  Even in your most private of moments... God is there.

What do you think?

Technorati Tags: Interactive Sermon,Bible Study,Charmin,Deut. 23

Happy Blogiversary To Me!

Celebrating the 4th Blogiversary of Interactive Sermon is simply a great excuse to gather with some of the best folks I know and eat cake.  So, let's do it.  Sunday August 30th is the day--four full years of Interactive Sermon!  That's over 1500 posts and more than 150,000 page views.  I am so very thankful to you for granting me this outlet and for allowing me into your daily lives.

I'm bringing the cake.  I'm providing music.  Well, actually, 3 Chords & A Cloud of Dust will be providing music.  You?  You bring the party! 

The Granite Town Tavern is the place.  Sunday August 30th, 5pm to 8pm.  3 Chords will be playing a few sets of acoustic music and telling stories--Interactive Sermon stories, recalling blog moments over these past four years.  You won't want to miss this.

There will be two kinds of people come Monday morning--those who were there for the 4th Blogiversary and those who missed out.  Which one will you be?

Technorati Tags: Interactive Sermon,Blogiversary,3 Chords & A Cloud of Dust,Granite Town Tavern

What's On My Mind?

A mind is a terrible thing to baste.  Turkey, however...

College ~ I enjoyed my first college visit with my daughter Amanda today. Amazing. Scary. Amazingly scary, actually. All the talk about grades, transcripts and SAT scores makes me nervous--of course my own high school transcript was a fist full of referrals to the principal's office. Then the talk about tuition, costs, financial aid--oh my!  I'm feeling old.  I remember when it was the first day of pre-school.  Where have the years gone?

Blogiversary ~ August 30th marks the 4th anniversary of Interactive Sermon.  Yes!  Party time.  Don't make other plans--you'll be getting an invite... tomorrow.

Allie ~ Okay, so I named my new old Ford after Al Gore. She's all about global warming, carbon footprints and smog.  And I love her!  I've been tinkering on her a little bit each evening and am getting close to a big date with a New Hampshire vehicle inspection.  Oh, and I received my copy of National Parts Depot's old Ford truck catalog today.  Yeah!  Look out world.

Daniel 10 thru 12 ~ Nearing the end of my summer series.  Great stuff to end with.  Here goes!

3 Chords ~ An all acoustic date Sunday 5pm to 8pm at Granite Town Tavern.  Love these storytellers type events.

What's on your mind?

Technorati Tags: Interactive Sermon,Blogiversary,Ford F100,3 Chords & A Cloud of Dust

3 Chords: Unplugged/Storytellers

Make plans Sunday afternoon to join 3 Chords at the Granite Town Tavern in Milford for an all acoustic evening of your favorite music and stories behind some of the songs from band members.  Many of you remember what a great time it was when we did this back in June.  If you weren't there, you've undoubtedly heard people talking about it.

The Granite Town Tavern is a great place to spend a few hours--it is Milford's best new gathering place.  The kitchen cranks out awesome food and the staff and service are second to none.

The Granite Town Tavern is located at 40 Nashua Street, just off the Milford Oval (across from the Library).  We're scheduled to play a few sets of music between 5 and 8pm.  Come on out!  We look forward to seeing you.

Technorati Tags: Interactive Sermon,3 Chords & A Cloud of Dust,Granite Town Tavern

Big Buts From Sunday's Sermon

Our study through chapter 9 of the book of Daniel led us through one of the most eloquent prayers recorded in the bible. The prayer of confession that Daniel offered God is a thing of beauty.  We would all do well to consider this prayer an example.  Two buts stand as bookends of this prayer.  In verse 7 Daniel confesses "You are righteous but this day we are covered with shame."  This is a summary of the specifics that Daniel doesn't withhold.  He numbers himself among the guilty--using the word 'we' over and over in laying the sins of the people before God.  You also get a sense for Daniel's remorse and contrition where sin is concerned.  Then, in verse 18 he winds his petition us with the words, "we do not make requests of you because we are righteous but because of Your great mercy."  This sentiment carries through the entire prayer--having begun by noting God is a covenant keeping God, he concludes here--it's all about Your faithfulness.

Don't miss the close cousin to the big but--a couple of big yets, in verses 13 and 14.  "All this disaster has come upon us yet we we have not sought the favor of our God by turning from our sins" and "the Lord did not hesitate to bring all this disaster on us... yet we have not obeyed Him" give us an insight into the opportunities for repentance.  Within God's judgment there is always an element of mercy--an opportunity to have a change of heart, and to make a change of your ways.  God's punishment is not without purpose.  He who has begun a good work is faithful to complete it.

May your consideration of these buts and yets bless you in your prayer life this week.

Technorati Tags: Interactive Sermon,Big Buts of the Bible,Bible Study

This Just In

You have heard how I read and enjoyed The Shack during my vacation in 2008.  You may know that I chose to re-read it this year.  If you've read the book then you can imagine how creepy it was to read a story like that while I was camping with my wife and daughters--not once, but twice!  Still, I have come away from both readings with some great thought-provocation about my relationship with God and others.

Anyhow, this just in!  My friend Ralph sent me an email today with a link to Guideposts and a piece on the author of The Shack--the story behind... the story.  Check it out by clicking here.

H.T. to Ralph!  Let me know what you think.

Technorati Tags: Interactive Sermon,The Shack,William P. Young

Sermons You've Never Heard pt. 2

Here's another of those passages that you haven't likely heard on a Sunday morning.  As I am getting older and my hair line is in retreat--let's just say I don't find these words as disturbing as I once did. 

2 Kings 2:23-25 reads:

From there Elisha went up to Bethel.  As he was walking along the road, some youths came out of the town and jeered at him.  "Go up, you baldhead!" they said, "Go on up, you baldhead!"  He turned around, looked at them and called down a curse on them in the name of the Lord.  Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the youths.  And he went on to Mt. Carmel and from there returned to Samaria.

You haven't heard this in a sermon lately?  How about a Jr. Sermon?  That's where I think it would really be a hoot.  "Gather round children!  Pastor Darin has something to share with you... Do you know what these bible verses mean?  You know how sometimes it's fun to tease people?  Well, you better be careful making fun of old men... like me.  A bear could eat you on your way home from church today!  I'm just saying.  You better make sure your parents tithe too.  Okay?  Amen.  Head off to Jr. Church now and have a great morning!"

Perhaps Elisha is just so new to this prophetic mantle thing that he doesn't know the power of his own prayer.  When I was a teenager, my brother offered me the chance to shoot a .54 caliber muzzle-loader.  He warned, "It has a kick."  When I squeezed the trigger, the gun recussed against my shoulder with such ferocity that my arm went numb for half an hour.  Perhaps when Elisha pronounced his curse and the bears came out of the woods he was thinking, "HA!  That'll teach 'em!" but then when they started chewing the limbs off of little boys his jaw dropped with that "O flip!" sort of terror.  "Um... never mind.  God?  It wasn't that big a deal.  Yoo-hoo... uh... bears... Shoo!  Go away!  Nice bear!"  Sort of a 'be careful where you point that thing' kind of a lesson for the new prophet.

One commentator I read suggests that a study of the whole of Elisha's ministry demonstrates that he was always compassionate on the repentant and very stern with the obstinate.  Well there you have it.  Perhaps Elisha stood by saying, "Will you take that back?  Say uncle!  Let me hear it!  No?"

Here are some observations: First, I notice that Elisha is headed up to Bethel.  Bethel (beth el) literally means house of God.  The city was anything but a house of God in Elisha's day.  There was a notorious school of false prophets there.  The prophet Hosea would later refer to the city as Bethaven (beth aven)--house of wickedness.  Second, it appears to me to be unfortunate that some of our English versions use the word 'children' or even (KJV) 'little children.'  The NIV that I've quoted here translates 'youth' and I am not sure that's much better.  Throughout the Scriptures the same Hebrew word is applied to many who, in years anyway, are not youth.  The word is frequently used of servants and soldiers, and is applied to Isaac and Joseph when each was believed to be in his 20s.

Let me be clear: I'm not suggesting that if this text depicts bears dismembering men in their 20s instead of children that everything changes.  The simple words as we read them are troubling--it appears that Elisha was offended so he cursed his attackers, and God sent bears to eat them. 

What if it wasn't Elisha who was offended?

Do you remember the storm of controversy that was caused when President Obama used the words "like the Special Olympics" to describe his poor bowling skills?  As he apologized he acknowledged that was a very poor choice of words.  Political correctness (or perhaps just common decency) tells us that the mentally impaired were slighted.  But that was not what the President intended.  If you strip back the emotion of it all, what the President meant to belittle was not people with handicaps, but rather the fact that he is a lousy bowler. 

I'd suggest to you that this may be a key to this passage.  These lads were mocking God's prophet by calling him Baldy.  In that culture baldness was often thought of as a disgrace.  It was one of the effects of leprosy.  It was likely used in the vernacular of Elisha's times (like the word retarded was in the years of my childhood) as being akin with mental degradation.  We read this as an insult to Elisha.  What if it is God who took offense?

Elisha is God's man.  He's picked up the prophetic mantle (earlier in chapter 2).  Signs and wonders have accompanied his calling (also earlier in chapter 2).  And this band of young men denounce him on the journey to Bethel, "You?  God's prophet?  With a bald head?  You a leper?  You must be mentally impaired!  You think you will speak with more power than our prophets?  We don't fear you!  Go ahead!  Go on up, Baldy!"

Reads a little differently, doesn't it?

Then again, I really like the Jr. Sermon application above.  I might just stick with that.  What do you think?

Technorati Tags: Interactive Sermon,Bible Study,2 Kings 2:23-24

Follow The Buts

When I was preparing for this past Sunday's study in Daniel chapter 8, I noted that a couple of commentators referred to this as one of the most difficult passages in all the Bible to preach and teach.  Perfect!  And just when did I think this was a good idea?

I would suggest that some--and I stress some--of the difficulty can be eased by following the appearances of the word but through this text.

The first portion, you will remember, is Daniel sharing a vision that he had somewhere in the mid sixth century BC.  A ram, a goat, horns, blood, guts and so on.  (That would be a cinematic summary of the dream.)  We considered again, as we saw last week in the vision of chapter 7, how precisely the elements of the vision fit the things known to have unfolded in Israel's experience under the Medo-Persian and Greek eras.  And some buts serve to help us see it in clarity.  We noted again how well "one of the horns was longer but grew up later" described the kingdom of Media giving way to Persia, and how well the speed of the goat's approach depicted Alexander the Great's conquests.  We recognized how clearly "but at the height of his power the horn was broken off, and in its place four prominent horns grew up" lined up with the events of Alexander's untimely death and the division of the Greek kingdom under Cassander, Lysimaucus, Seleucus and Ptolemy.  And we saw how "out of one of them came another horn which started small but grew in power" and his deeds clearly depicted Antiochus Epiphenes.  We then saw as much confirmed as Gabriel was sent to give Daniel an explanation of the things he saw.  Those predictive elements covered a range of some 400 years.  And perhaps beyond.

We considered Jesus' words in Matthew 24:15 (and the surrounding context) to see that Jesus recognized Daniel's prophecy as still having some future relevance to God followers.  In other words, it doesn't appear that it was only about the times of the Medo-Persian and Greek empires in Israel's experience.

And then we were relieved to see that, twice, Daniel himself confessed that these things were beyond his ability to clearly understand.  Ya think?

Still, there's a few more buts to help us.  In verse 22 we see that Alexander's kingdom would be divided, but will not have the same power.  In verse 24 we learn of Antiochus Epiphanes that he will come to rule, but not by his own power.  And in verse 25 we learn that he will eventually be defeated, but not by human power.  I would suggest that these three buts give us a great deal of hope--that hope being that God is sovereign over all of this.  In reading verses 12, 14 and 24-25 we discover something telling: it is the rebellion of God's people that has brought this whole situation on.  What that means is that God is accomplishing something in the lives of his people with and through all of this.  This vision is given to assure God's people that He is in control. 

The final but of the text, I think, brings more comfort.  Daniel is scratching his head trying to understand the complexity of all of this and he is told but seal up the vision because it speaks of the distant future.  This isn't about knowing future events as much as it is about knowing God.  Seal this up.  Hold it in your heart.  When the time is right it will make sense to those experiencing it.  Rest in God.

So, the toughest chapter in Scripture, eh?   

Technorati Tags: Interactive Sermon,Big Buts of the Bible,Bible Study,Daniel 8

Well There You Have It!

It may pass inspection.  It isn't likely to pass many gas stations, however.  The picture is Em and me about to embark on the 330 mile journey home from Binghamton, NY.  What a wonderful ride it was!

Maybe?

I'm courting again...