King Duncan
A couple came to their local police department, wanting to dispose of some ammunition. They handed the desk officer a wooden box and explained that it contained two bullets an uncle had given them as souvenirs from World War II. "We didn't know what to do with them," the woman explained. "So all these years, we've kept the bullets in the bottom drawer of the china cabinet, away from our children." The officer assured the couple he'd dispose of the bullets safely. But when he took one out of the box the top came off, revealing a strange black substance. His suspicions aroused, the officer removed the top of the other bullet and found a hard white substance. The officer was amused. The so-called bullets were in reality souvenir salt and pepper shakers. (1)
This couple had been afraid all those years of a harmless pair of salt and pepper shakers. Of course, they didn't know they were harmless. In their minds, they had imagined them to be much more sinister. They thought they might explode at any time.
It's funny how our minds can cause us so much discomfort, so much distress. Sometimes the results can be disastrous.
Karl Sirovy, a Yugoslav artist, and his wife, Zdenka, kept to themselves. They avoided the neighbors and only left their apartment if it was absolutely necessary. You see, Karl and Zdenka lived in Yugoslavia during World War II, and Zdenka was a Jew. The Sirovys daily endured the fear that the authorities would deport Zdenka to a concentration camp. She and Karl made a suicide pact: if the police ever came for her, they would both swallow cyanide capsules. This way, they could die together.
Even after the war's end, Karl and Zdenka continued to live in fear. They could not believe that Zdenka was finally safe from capture. One day, a colleague of Karl's registered a complaint against him. It was a minor complaint, but it brought the police to their apartment to question him. In the presence of the police, Karl and Zdenka swallowed their cyanide capsules. The young couple died needlessly because their fear had overtaken their lives. (2) Fear can do that to us. It can cause our imagination to run wild--to see threats where no threat exists.
I'm not going to ask if anyone is this room is afraid to fly. Many years ago, Time magazine reported on famous people who have a phobia about planes. Among them was former President Ronald Reagan. In an interview done aboard Air Force I, the president was asked if he had overcome the fear of flying. "Overcome it!" he retorted, "I'm holding this plane up by sheer will power."
And yet, there are few places in the world you are safer than in an airplane. Yes, there are accidents, and, when they occur they can be devastating. But they are rare. You are twice as likely to die from a bee sting as you are a commercial airline flight. You are 110 times more likely to die on a bicycle. Your chance of death on a commercial airline flight is 1 in 10 million. A sold-out 747 would have to crash every day of the week for ten years with no survivors to equal the highway deaths per year in this country. You are nineteen times safer traveling by commercial plane than by car. Your chance of dying in a tornado is 1 in 150,000, but your chance of dying in a commercial flight is, again, 1 in 10 million! Commercial planes are well equipped with backup systems for virtually every system on the plane. If one fails, the other one will take over. All jets are multi-engine. Even three-engine planes can be flown on just one engine. And most planes now have duplicate landing gear and retraction systems. You really do have very little to fear when flying commercially. (3) But, try to tell that to some people . . .
Almost 100 years ago, a French doctor named Emile Cou?said something quite profound: "When the will comes in conflict with the imagination, the imagination invariably carries the day." In other words, when your will--your rational, logical self--comes in conflict with your imagination--your creative, right-brained self--your imagination always wins. Put simply, your imagination is the key. Case in point: A child is told there are no monsters under the bed--but when the lights go off, the childlike imagination runs wild. (4)
Now, let's apply this to our lives. Are not most of our fears products of our imagination? There is no monster threatening us at the moment, but our imaginations are running wild. "What if I get sick?" "What if my child falls in with the wrong crowd?" "What if real estate values fall or the stock markets crash?" And on and on we go imagining one disaster after another. No wonder Christ counseled us to live one day at a time. Hey, today's a good day. Let's rejoice and be glad in it.
Then we come to today's lesson from the epistle: " . . . those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of Sonship. And by him we cry, 멇bba, Father.' The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs--heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory."
Paul is asking us to imagine ourselves as children of God. Of course, this isn't just our imagination. In Christ, we are indeed children of God. But in our minds, in our imagination, many of us have not accepted that truth.
How would we walk if we thought of ourselves as God's own child? Wouldn't we walk with our shoulders thrown back and our chest sticking out, not out of pride, but out of confidence and assurance that we can handle whatever life may throw at us? This is so important. Many people live defeated lives, and it has to be because they do not know who they really are--God's own elect. And this truth complicates their life.
During World War II, Henry K. Beecher of the Harvard Medical School studied soldiers in Italy who had been wounded in battle. With astonishment he observed that only one in three soldiers with severe wounds asked for morphine. Many said they felt no pain, or the pain was minor. This pattern contrasted sharply with what Beecher had seen as an anesthesiologist in private practice: eighty percent of those patients who had wounds very similar to the soldiers' begged for morphine or other painkillers.
Morphine works its magic primarily by reducing the patient's fear and anxiety levels. Evidently, the soldiers' fears had been replaced, either by a feeling of pride in the significance of the wound, or, in some cases, by relief at being away from the battlefield. Beecher concluded, "There is no simple direct relationship between the wound per se and the pain experienced. The pain is in very large part determined by other factors." (5)
Do you see what this is saying? There is a connection between our minds and the pain we are experiencing. You've known people who walk around as if they have the weight of the world on their shoulders. You see other people carrying burdens just as heavy, yet they are positive, upbeat, a joy to be around. We say, the difference is attitude. But what is attitude? Doesn't it have to do with the way we imagine ourselves? If we see ourselves as victims, we will act accordingly. However, if we see ourselves as God's own children, we will also act in accordance with our beliefs.
Paul says that we should approach life with a sense of entitlement. He writes, "Now if we are children, then we are heirs--heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ . . ." Have you ever been around a person who is from a moneyed family? They expect to live a certain way. We are generalizing, of course, but it is so often true. People who have been raised with a silver spoon in their mouth usually expect that silver spoon to stay firmly in place all their lives. In their eyes, that is their birthright. And often they will turn this into a self-fulfilling prophecy. They will be successful because they expect to be successful.
Now, suppose you and I felt a healthy sense of entitlement because we are God's children. Suppose we imagined that everything that came our way could be used to our best good. For isn't that what we've been promised? "All things work to the good for those who love him . . ." What if we really believed that everything that happened to us was an opportunity? For truly, in one way or another, it is.
In his book, Creative Suffering, the Swiss physician and counselor Paul Tournier recalls his surprise upon reading an article titled "Orphans Lead the World." The article, which appeared in a respected medical journal, surveyed the lives of 300 leaders who had a great impact on world history. After searching for some common thread, the author discovered that all these leaders had grown up as orphans--either actually, through the death of or separation from parents, or emotionally, as a result of severe childhood deprivation. His list included such names as Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Robespierre, George Washington, Napoleon, Queen Victoria, Golda Meir . . .
"So there we are," writes Tournier, "giving lectures on how important it is for a child's development to have a father and a mother performing harmoniously together their respective roles towards him. And all at once we find that this is the very thing that those who have been most influential in world history have not had!" (6)
Tournier himself was an orphan, and he pondered the orphan phenomenon soon after the death of his wife, when he felt orphaned once again in old age. Previously, he had judged each major event of life, success or tragedy, as either good or evil. But now he began to perceive that circumstances, whether fortunate or unfortunate, are morally neutral. They simply are what they are; what matters is how we respond to them. (7)
Now, imagine that you are a child of the King of the universe. Nothing, therefore, in this world can defeat you. The events that occur each day, regardless of how painful they may be, are opportunities for you not only to build your fortune, perhaps, but also to build your character and your spiritual stature. Can you see how this could cause you to approach your difficulties differently? Stand tall. Be victorious. This is who you are.
Of course, knowing that we are children of the King should make us more aware of our relationships with others. Paul writes, "Now if we are children, then we are heirs--heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory."
How do we share in Christ's sufferings? We do so in love and compassion for our fellow co-heirs. We understand we are very special people. We are followers of the humble Galilean. And we live our lives as he would. In love and service to others.
Tony Campolo tells a wonderful story about a pastor friend of his who had a deacon in his church. The pastor tried to get the deacon to really open up and let the spirit of God lead him. Finally the spirit led the deacon to conclude that there was one thing he could do in service to God and to others. He could take the youth group to the old folk's home. Once a month the youth group of this church went to the old folk's home and put on a little church service for the people who were there.
Once this deacon went with the youth group and stood in the back of the room. The young people were performing and this old man in a wheel chair rolled his chair over to where this deacon was standing, took hold of his hand and held it all during the service. That was repeated the next month and the next month and the next month and the next month and the next month. Then they went one Sunday afternoon and the man wasn't there. The deacon asked the nurse in charge, "What happened to that man?" "Oh," she said, "He's near death. He's just down the hall, the third room. Maybe you should go in and visit him. He's unconscious, though."
The deacon walked down and went into the room. There were tubes. You know how people are when they are just about gone, and lying there was quite an ugly scene. The man went over and took hold of the hand of the gentleman in the bed. Instinctively, led by the Spirit, he said a prayer. And when he said "Amen," the old fellow squeezed his hand. The deacon was so moved by that squeeze of the hand that he began to weep. He shook a little. He tried to get out of the room and, as he was leaving the room, he bumped into this woman who was coming into the room. She says, "He's been waiting for you. He said he did not want to die until Jesus came and held his hand, and I tried to tell him that after death he would have a chance to meet Jesus and talk to Jesus and hold Jesus' hand. But he said, 멞o. Once a month Jesus comes and holds my hand and I don't want to leave until I have a chance to hold the hand of Jesus once more.'" (8)
And, in truth, he was holding Jesus' hand. "Wherever two or more are gathered in my name . . ." Isn't it time we quit being afraid? We are God's children. We can handle anything by His grace. Why? Because He is with us.
____________________________
1. Pastor Tim's Clean Laugh List - http://www.cybersalt.org/cleanlaugh.
2. Alison Leslie Gold, Fiet's Vase (New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher, 2003), pp. 169-170.
3. Lucinda Bassett, Life Without Limits (New York: Cliff Street Books, 2001), pp. 141-142.
4. Mark Victor Hansen and Robert G. Allen, The One Minute Millionaire (New York: Harmony Books, 1990).
5. Philip Yancey, Where Is God When It Hurts? (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1990).
6. Paul Tournier, Creative Suffering (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1982).
7. Philip Yancey, Where Is God When It Hurts? (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1990).
8. Tony Campolo, "Being Upbeat in a Downbeat World," http://www.csec.org/csec/sermon/campolo_4519.htm
A couple came to their local police department, wanting to dispose of some ammunition. They handed the desk officer a wooden box and explained that it contained two bullets an uncle had given them as souvenirs from World War II. "We didn't know what to do with them," the woman explained. "So all these years, we've kept the bullets in the bottom drawer of the china cabinet, away from our children." The officer assured the couple he'd dispose of the bullets safely. But when he took one out of the box the top came off, revealing a strange black substance. His suspicions aroused, the officer removed the top of the other bullet and found a hard white substance. The officer was amused. The so-called bullets were in reality souvenir salt and pepper shakers. (1)
This couple had been afraid all those years of a harmless pair of salt and pepper shakers. Of course, they didn't know they were harmless. In their minds, they had imagined them to be much more sinister. They thought they might explode at any time.
It's funny how our minds can cause us so much discomfort, so much distress. Sometimes the results can be disastrous.
Karl Sirovy, a Yugoslav artist, and his wife, Zdenka, kept to themselves. They avoided the neighbors and only left their apartment if it was absolutely necessary. You see, Karl and Zdenka lived in Yugoslavia during World War II, and Zdenka was a Jew. The Sirovys daily endured the fear that the authorities would deport Zdenka to a concentration camp. She and Karl made a suicide pact: if the police ever came for her, they would both swallow cyanide capsules. This way, they could die together.
Even after the war's end, Karl and Zdenka continued to live in fear. They could not believe that Zdenka was finally safe from capture. One day, a colleague of Karl's registered a complaint against him. It was a minor complaint, but it brought the police to their apartment to question him. In the presence of the police, Karl and Zdenka swallowed their cyanide capsules. The young couple died needlessly because their fear had overtaken their lives. (2) Fear can do that to us. It can cause our imagination to run wild--to see threats where no threat exists.
I'm not going to ask if anyone is this room is afraid to fly. Many years ago, Time magazine reported on famous people who have a phobia about planes. Among them was former President Ronald Reagan. In an interview done aboard Air Force I, the president was asked if he had overcome the fear of flying. "Overcome it!" he retorted, "I'm holding this plane up by sheer will power."
And yet, there are few places in the world you are safer than in an airplane. Yes, there are accidents, and, when they occur they can be devastating. But they are rare. You are twice as likely to die from a bee sting as you are a commercial airline flight. You are 110 times more likely to die on a bicycle. Your chance of death on a commercial airline flight is 1 in 10 million. A sold-out 747 would have to crash every day of the week for ten years with no survivors to equal the highway deaths per year in this country. You are nineteen times safer traveling by commercial plane than by car. Your chance of dying in a tornado is 1 in 150,000, but your chance of dying in a commercial flight is, again, 1 in 10 million! Commercial planes are well equipped with backup systems for virtually every system on the plane. If one fails, the other one will take over. All jets are multi-engine. Even three-engine planes can be flown on just one engine. And most planes now have duplicate landing gear and retraction systems. You really do have very little to fear when flying commercially. (3) But, try to tell that to some people . . .
Almost 100 years ago, a French doctor named Emile Cou?said something quite profound: "When the will comes in conflict with the imagination, the imagination invariably carries the day." In other words, when your will--your rational, logical self--comes in conflict with your imagination--your creative, right-brained self--your imagination always wins. Put simply, your imagination is the key. Case in point: A child is told there are no monsters under the bed--but when the lights go off, the childlike imagination runs wild. (4)
Now, let's apply this to our lives. Are not most of our fears products of our imagination? There is no monster threatening us at the moment, but our imaginations are running wild. "What if I get sick?" "What if my child falls in with the wrong crowd?" "What if real estate values fall or the stock markets crash?" And on and on we go imagining one disaster after another. No wonder Christ counseled us to live one day at a time. Hey, today's a good day. Let's rejoice and be glad in it.
Then we come to today's lesson from the epistle: " . . . those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of Sonship. And by him we cry, 멇bba, Father.' The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs--heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory."
Paul is asking us to imagine ourselves as children of God. Of course, this isn't just our imagination. In Christ, we are indeed children of God. But in our minds, in our imagination, many of us have not accepted that truth.
How would we walk if we thought of ourselves as God's own child? Wouldn't we walk with our shoulders thrown back and our chest sticking out, not out of pride, but out of confidence and assurance that we can handle whatever life may throw at us? This is so important. Many people live defeated lives, and it has to be because they do not know who they really are--God's own elect. And this truth complicates their life.
During World War II, Henry K. Beecher of the Harvard Medical School studied soldiers in Italy who had been wounded in battle. With astonishment he observed that only one in three soldiers with severe wounds asked for morphine. Many said they felt no pain, or the pain was minor. This pattern contrasted sharply with what Beecher had seen as an anesthesiologist in private practice: eighty percent of those patients who had wounds very similar to the soldiers' begged for morphine or other painkillers.
Morphine works its magic primarily by reducing the patient's fear and anxiety levels. Evidently, the soldiers' fears had been replaced, either by a feeling of pride in the significance of the wound, or, in some cases, by relief at being away from the battlefield. Beecher concluded, "There is no simple direct relationship between the wound per se and the pain experienced. The pain is in very large part determined by other factors." (5)
Do you see what this is saying? There is a connection between our minds and the pain we are experiencing. You've known people who walk around as if they have the weight of the world on their shoulders. You see other people carrying burdens just as heavy, yet they are positive, upbeat, a joy to be around. We say, the difference is attitude. But what is attitude? Doesn't it have to do with the way we imagine ourselves? If we see ourselves as victims, we will act accordingly. However, if we see ourselves as God's own children, we will also act in accordance with our beliefs.
Paul says that we should approach life with a sense of entitlement. He writes, "Now if we are children, then we are heirs--heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ . . ." Have you ever been around a person who is from a moneyed family? They expect to live a certain way. We are generalizing, of course, but it is so often true. People who have been raised with a silver spoon in their mouth usually expect that silver spoon to stay firmly in place all their lives. In their eyes, that is their birthright. And often they will turn this into a self-fulfilling prophecy. They will be successful because they expect to be successful.
Now, suppose you and I felt a healthy sense of entitlement because we are God's children. Suppose we imagined that everything that came our way could be used to our best good. For isn't that what we've been promised? "All things work to the good for those who love him . . ." What if we really believed that everything that happened to us was an opportunity? For truly, in one way or another, it is.
In his book, Creative Suffering, the Swiss physician and counselor Paul Tournier recalls his surprise upon reading an article titled "Orphans Lead the World." The article, which appeared in a respected medical journal, surveyed the lives of 300 leaders who had a great impact on world history. After searching for some common thread, the author discovered that all these leaders had grown up as orphans--either actually, through the death of or separation from parents, or emotionally, as a result of severe childhood deprivation. His list included such names as Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Robespierre, George Washington, Napoleon, Queen Victoria, Golda Meir . . .
"So there we are," writes Tournier, "giving lectures on how important it is for a child's development to have a father and a mother performing harmoniously together their respective roles towards him. And all at once we find that this is the very thing that those who have been most influential in world history have not had!" (6)
Tournier himself was an orphan, and he pondered the orphan phenomenon soon after the death of his wife, when he felt orphaned once again in old age. Previously, he had judged each major event of life, success or tragedy, as either good or evil. But now he began to perceive that circumstances, whether fortunate or unfortunate, are morally neutral. They simply are what they are; what matters is how we respond to them. (7)
Now, imagine that you are a child of the King of the universe. Nothing, therefore, in this world can defeat you. The events that occur each day, regardless of how painful they may be, are opportunities for you not only to build your fortune, perhaps, but also to build your character and your spiritual stature. Can you see how this could cause you to approach your difficulties differently? Stand tall. Be victorious. This is who you are.
Of course, knowing that we are children of the King should make us more aware of our relationships with others. Paul writes, "Now if we are children, then we are heirs--heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory."
How do we share in Christ's sufferings? We do so in love and compassion for our fellow co-heirs. We understand we are very special people. We are followers of the humble Galilean. And we live our lives as he would. In love and service to others.
Tony Campolo tells a wonderful story about a pastor friend of his who had a deacon in his church. The pastor tried to get the deacon to really open up and let the spirit of God lead him. Finally the spirit led the deacon to conclude that there was one thing he could do in service to God and to others. He could take the youth group to the old folk's home. Once a month the youth group of this church went to the old folk's home and put on a little church service for the people who were there.
Once this deacon went with the youth group and stood in the back of the room. The young people were performing and this old man in a wheel chair rolled his chair over to where this deacon was standing, took hold of his hand and held it all during the service. That was repeated the next month and the next month and the next month and the next month and the next month. Then they went one Sunday afternoon and the man wasn't there. The deacon asked the nurse in charge, "What happened to that man?" "Oh," she said, "He's near death. He's just down the hall, the third room. Maybe you should go in and visit him. He's unconscious, though."
The deacon walked down and went into the room. There were tubes. You know how people are when they are just about gone, and lying there was quite an ugly scene. The man went over and took hold of the hand of the gentleman in the bed. Instinctively, led by the Spirit, he said a prayer. And when he said "Amen," the old fellow squeezed his hand. The deacon was so moved by that squeeze of the hand that he began to weep. He shook a little. He tried to get out of the room and, as he was leaving the room, he bumped into this woman who was coming into the room. She says, "He's been waiting for you. He said he did not want to die until Jesus came and held his hand, and I tried to tell him that after death he would have a chance to meet Jesus and talk to Jesus and hold Jesus' hand. But he said, 멞o. Once a month Jesus comes and holds my hand and I don't want to leave until I have a chance to hold the hand of Jesus once more.'" (8)
And, in truth, he was holding Jesus' hand. "Wherever two or more are gathered in my name . . ." Isn't it time we quit being afraid? We are God's children. We can handle anything by His grace. Why? Because He is with us.
____________________________
1. Pastor Tim's Clean Laugh List - http://www.cybersalt.org/cleanlaugh.
2. Alison Leslie Gold, Fiet's Vase (New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher, 2003), pp. 169-170.
3. Lucinda Bassett, Life Without Limits (New York: Cliff Street Books, 2001), pp. 141-142.
4. Mark Victor Hansen and Robert G. Allen, The One Minute Millionaire (New York: Harmony Books, 1990).
5. Philip Yancey, Where Is God When It Hurts? (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1990).
6. Paul Tournier, Creative Suffering (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1982).
7. Philip Yancey, Where Is God When It Hurts? (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1990).
8. Tony Campolo, "Being Upbeat in a Downbeat World," http://www.csec.org/csec/sermon/campolo_4519.htm
