Sunday, October 29, 2017

Measure By God

• Twentyfirst Sunday after Pentecost
with James 4:11-18
www.FirstChurchBville.com  FirstChurchBville@gmail.com  @FirstUMCBville  @kerrfunk
This sermon viewable on youtube at https://youtu.be/XY5NqAECsFs

• It is half a mile from my door to the track at the middle school. Then it’s either 400 yards or 400 meters around the football field, I don’t remember. It’s so confusing to have different measures. Is a mile four laps, or four laps plus nine meters, or four laps plus a hundred something yards?
Speaking of which, remember cubits? Genesis 6, the ark, 300 cubits x 50 x 30. According to Bill Cosby* not even God remembers what a cubit is.
*If you have not heard his Noah routine from 1964, I recommend checking it out. You can find it on youtube.
Also, what reason did the Lord give for the flood?
He saw mankind’s great wickedness,
their evil hearts and inclinations.
They were based not on God but on themselves, self-reliant.
And God provides for the saving of Noah and family if they will rely on God. It’s a theme throughout the Old Testament: rely on God, it goes well.  Deviate from God, and it doesn’t.
• A cubit equals about 18 inches, or elbow to fingertips. Not real exact. An inch is about thumb-width, or the middle joint of index finger… 12 inches in a foot, three feet in a yard, six feet in a fathom, 15 1/2 or 16 feet in a rod...
Some 300 years ago a more standard measure was made, the meter. Initially defined as the length of a pendulum that takes one second to swing side to side, the meter was defined in 1793 to be one ten-millionth the distance from the equator to the North Pole. Walk a straight line, divide by ten million… one meter.
I think it’s a good measure because it’s not based on me, my arm/hand/foot.
Based on something bigger and more universal.
Today’s reading from James: self-reliance puts you above God. Don’t slander your brother or set yourself above the law, but instead position yourself in submission to God, to the law, with your brother next to you. Don’t build your life on a foundation of you and your self-assuredness, build your life on a foundation of God.
Measure yourself by God.
• Tuesday is 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s 95 theses. His goal: examine contemporary practices and see whether they’re built on God’s word or not (he claimed not).
And he sought to realign the practice of faith with God’s word.
Translated the Bible into the common language from the original languages so that discipleship could be in the hands of the people.
Also made the worship service in the language of the people, also educate the people.
• And later that’s what the Wesleys did, seek to draw the Church into better alignment with God, into Bible-based faith practice, seek to measure own life by God.
• I want to know when I’m off track.

• Hymn: (of Charles Wesley): I Want a Principle Within


James 4:11-17 (CEB)
11 Brothers and sisters, don’t say evil things about each other. Whoever insults or criticizes a brother or sister insults and criticizes the Law. If you find fault with the Law, you are not a doer of the Law but a judge over it. 12 There is only one lawgiver and judge, and he is able to save and to destroy. But you who judge your neighbor, who are you?
13 Pay attention, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such-and-such a town. We will stay there a year, buying and selling, and making a profit.” 14 You don’t really know about tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for only a short while before it vanishes. 15 Here’s what you ought to say: “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” 16 But now you boast and brag, and all such boasting is evil. 
17 It is a sin when someone knows the right thing to do and doesn’t do it.ò


1 Thessalonians 2:1-8 (CEB)

2 As you yourselves know, brothers and sisters, our visit with you wasn’t a waste of time. 2 On the contrary, we had the courage through God to speak God’s good news in spite of a lot of opposition, although we had already suffered and were publicly insulted in Philippi, as you know. 3 Our appeal isn’t based on false information, the wrong motives, or deception. 4 Rather, we have been examined and approved by God to be trusted with the good news, and that’s exactly how we speak. We aren’t trying to please people, but we are trying to please God, who continues to examine our hearts. 5 As you know, we never used flattery, and God is our witness that we didn’t have greedy motives. 6 We didn’t ask for special treatment from people—not from you or from others—7 although we could have thrown our weight around as Christ’s apostles. Instead, we were gentle with you like a nursing mother caring for her own children. 8 We were glad to share not only God’s good news with you but also our very lives because we cared for you so much. ò

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