Nothing is Written in Stone
Jacob's Well – 20 August 2006 – Greg Meyer – www.jacobs-well.net
Message Outline –
Rules without Relationship create Rebellion.
“I will make a new covenant with them, not like the one I made with their ancestors when they came out of Egypt, the one that they broke,” says the Lord. Jeremiah 31 [1].31-32
Jesus would rather have us follow _________ than follow the _____________.
"Teacher, I have—from my youth—kept them all!" Jesus looked him hard in the eye—and loved him! He said, "There's one thing left: Go sell whatever you own and give it to the poor… And come follow me." Mark 10 [2].20-21
God has called us to live in the middle; in between certainties, at a place called _________.
“I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” Jeremiah 31 [3].33
Truth cannot be ___________ __________, but it must be ___________ ________.
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Welcome to Jacob's Well, it is great to see you all here today. I’m Greg Meyer, the pastor of Jacob's Well and it is a true privilege to spend this time with you today. I want to acquaint you with the Sunday Paper that you found on your seat when you came in. On the back of it you will find a message outline. That is there to guide you through the message today. You’ve got a pen, so follow along in it if you would like, or if you’d rather just sit back and listen, that’s okay too.
I have to show you this stone. I was at a store in my hometown with my family a few months ago and my daughter Natalie spotted this – she told me I had to give her credit for that. I loved it immediately, “Nothing is written in stone” written in a stone. [Click here [3]to see picture.] The irony of it was too cool. But it was way too much money, so I was practical and didn’t get it. But I couldn’t forget it, because this idea that the only thing written in stone is that nothing is written in stone is so key to Jesus’ basic message and my life is so much about telling Jesus’ message. I had to have it. I was ready to look up the number of the store and buy it over the phone and tell them not to sell it to anyone else until I could get back there for it, when my wife Kris tells me not to worry about it, it is already under the back seat of the car. She had better foresight than I.
This very simple idea was one of the most compelling reasons for me to start a new church. God calls us into the middle, between our certainties, our truths, rules and absolutes where nothing is written in stone. And if that is where God wants us to be, then that is where our churches have to be too to help us know how to live there. But not many churches know how to do that. In fact the mass exodus from churches in the last few decades has been a direct consequence of what Melissa was talking about earlier, “Rules without Relationship create Rebellion.” The rules have become more important than the people. And when that happens people rebel, the lose interest, they stop coming.
I don’t know what your experience with church has been like, but aren’t you tired of the rules? ‘You can’t wear blue jeans.’ Whoops, I broke that one already. ‘Only one kind of music is allowed in church.’ Oops, broke that one too. ‘There is only one way to worship, and you should sit still for it.’ I hope you all break that one before you leave today. ‘You can’t be interested in beliefs that are different from the ones that we all hold.’ ‘If you are a woman, you can’t serve in leadership.’ ‘You can’t be gay or lesbian.’ ‘You should vote a certain way if you are a Christian.’
All these rules; all these versions of the truth. But they aren’t really truth, are they? No, they are more like gatekeepers keeping people out who are different and threatening to us, and making sure those who are inside will continue to conform. But you know, that’s not what Jesus wants. Jesus is more interested in having us follow him, than in following the rules. That is the first fill-in on your outline. Jesus would rather have us follow him than follow the rules.
There is a great story about that in the Bible. It is in the 10th chapter of the Gospel of Mark. There Jesus is getting ready to go on a journey (aren’t we all?), and a man comes up to him and says, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus, I imagine, is busy packing his things and doesn’t pay much attention to him, just gives him the answer. He says, “Well, you know the ten commandments, do not kill, do not steal, don’t lie, don’t defraud others, honor your mother and father…” And the man, in his eagerness, cuts Jesus off and says, “Teacher, I have – from my youth – kept them all!” And then Jesus stops and looks up at this extraordinary person, and he can tell that he is sincere, he has kept them all. And so he tells him this, “Okay then, there is only one thing left. Go, sell whatever you own and give it to the poor… And come follow me.”
Jesus is more interested in us following him, than in following the rules. But the man couldn’t do that. The rules he could keep, but give his life over to Jesus? Too much.
Now, let’s not forget all about rules, they aren’t the enemy, after all. If we want to live together rules are not only helpful, they are essential. Just imagine driving down a street, coming up to an intersection where the traffic going the other way has a stop sign. If you didn’t think they would follow the rule, you couldn’t go through yourself. We need rules. In fact, I would take that a step further and say that there are such things as absolutes; ultimate truths. We don’t get to make the truth up for ourselves. So you kids, when you go home today and your parents say, “It’s your bedtime now,” don’t tell them, “The pastor at church today said that following rules isn’t really all that important.”
No, rules are important, it is just when we mistake them for truth, when we forget the relationship that has to go along with them that they get us into trouble. Here at Jacob's Well we seek to be a people who follow God by living in this middle where we know Truth exists, but also know that every time it gets written down it gets brittle, weak and often gets used for the wrong reasons. God wants us to live in the middle. Let me show you…
These two milk crates are “positions of truth” [Greg places them about 12 feet apart]. Have you ever noticed how truths tend to come in sets of two; diametrically opposed to each other? And this [a 12 foot plank] is the span between these different positions of truth. Now I can stand on one of these or the other, and this is comfortable. I can do this all day. It might be Republican on this side or a Democrat on the other [Greg crosses to the other side and the plank sags and bounces]. Both hold some truth, but I think it is pretty clear that neither of them have a corner on truth. Maybe it is ProChoice or ProLife. If you are a teenager and heading to high school in a few weeks maybe you are wondering if you should dress kind of preppy, or be kind of ghetto… or maybe neither of those is really you, and you find that you belong somewhere here in the middle [bounces precariously] which is authentic for you, but it isn’t in the magazines and you don’t get a lot of acceptance for it. Maybe the choice is Christian or Non-Christian… an interesting juxtaposition… I’ve never known a Christian who didn’t doubt something or a non-Christian who didn’t believe something.
God calls us into the middle where we don’t have everything all worked out for ourselves, but we don’t depend on our own self-supported ideas, but actually have to be in dialogue with God and seek to figure out what the Truth might mean in this place and this time.
Now, this may seem like fun. I bet a bunch of you kids can’t wait for the service to be over so you can come bounce on this. It isn’t always so much fun though, it is often very hard. Let me tell you a story. My oldest daughter is a junior in college now, a wonderful girl doing great stuff; she is studying in Argentina for a semester right now. But when she was in early high school she had some very difficult years dealing with depression. As good a relationship as her mom and I had with her, for some reason we weren’t the ones who could walk her through it; and that was like torture for us.
Here I had my choices. [Stepping to one end of the plank] I could take control of the situation, lay down the rules to make sure she stayed safe and made no poor choices. But I could see it wasn’t going to work. Or [crossing over to the other end] I could cut her loose. “This is too painful and she won’t accept my help. Then fine, let her figure it out for herself.” I couldn’t do that either. So there I was caught in the middle and I didn’t know how to do that… Fortunately I was able to talk to a man who knew the situation and was much wiser than I. I’ll never forget his words. Steve said, “Greg, when she was young you gave her the understandings and values that she would need one day to lead her own life. It may be a little sooner than you expected, but you have to trust that what you planted in her long ago is there now and will guide her through.” Then he fixed me with his eyes – he knew I was a pastor – and said, “It sounds a little bit like faith to me.” Sounded a little like faith to me too.
I had to let go of the certainties, I could have no guarantees that everything would work out all right, and I had to trust what was planted in her heart long ago. And that wasn’t easy. But you see, that is where God has called us. You’ll find this on your outline. God calls us to live in the middle, between the certainties, in a place called faith.
Now there is something very important to know about this. And that is God doesn’t just expect us to do this, God does it too! And boy, is that hard for God. God loves us so much that it ripped out part of God’s heart to do it.
Earlier Melissa shared the beginning of a passage from Jeremiah where God, speaking to us long before the time of Jesus, said,
The day is coming when I will make a new covenant with you, not like the covenant I made with your ancestors when they came out of slavery in Egypt, a covenant written in stone which they broke. But I shall make a new covenant.
Would you read the rest with me…
I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Jeremiah 31 [4].33
The reason this is so hard for God is two-fold. First, God has chosen to use us to make God’s love, hope, peace and will known in our world and has no guarantees other than to trust what God has written and continues to write in our hearts. You see, not only do we have to have faith in God, God has to have faith in us!
The second reason living in the middle is so hard for God is what it took to write the truth within our hearts. It was Jesus, the Truth written not in stone, but in flesh and blood. You see God knew what we need to know, and that is the last fill-in on your outline. Truth cannot be written down, but it must be lived out. And in Jesus truth was lived. “The word of God became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth” (John 1 [5].14). And being the truth in Jesus hurt. As Jesus, God was misunderstood, rejected, hated, betrayed by all but a few of his closest followers, and finally killed. But that was okay with God, because in giving God’s self away in Jesus God was able to keep us. And God was able to plant something in our hearts that will never die.
You may say, “Great Greg, you’re talking about Truth all the time, but just what is this Truth that you speak of.” And all I have to say is that I can’t tell you. Oh, we can and we will talk about it our whole lives long, but to say, “This is it” is to write it down in stone again, and as much as I capture, I lose.
But you and I can live it out. And that will be messy. You won’t always know how to interpret my life and I will make mistakes. But God is willing to trust what was planted in my heart – and in your heart – long ago. Even with its many imperfections my life and your life can live out Truth.
Now I would like to think this is where I live, in the middle, but I flatter myself, and you do too if you think you live here. I actually take the dynamic and petrify it – kind of like this stone you received when you came into the service – to make it easier and more convenient for me with my prejudices, my self-interest and laziness.
But I don’t want it to be that way. Why? Because when I live out here in my own little island of certainty I push away the people I love. My life ends up being a lot less significant and a lot more about being a big fish in my own little pond of truth. And I just miss out on a lot of the great people and experiences that God has in mind for me because I’m not open for them.
Maybe you feel that too. Maybe you would live to join me in taking a step toward trading in the stones of our rules and homemade truths and certainty for a life that is shaped by God.
Here is my invitation to you: You’ve got that stone. It is everything we have talked about already. It is solid, it will be there for you tomorrow and you know where you stand with it. But it isn’t part of you, it is outside you, it will not respond to you or adapt to you or new situations.
There is also clay [Greg takes a lump from the potter who has been working there the whole service]. It is similar to the stone, but it is moldable and responsive. This clay is not the law outside you, but the word of God inside you. It is you, the ‘you’ God is shaping. Sometimes you will forget about it and treat it just like the stone, and in so doing it will become like the stone. It will get hard. But all you have to do is dip it into the well of God’s love, forgiveness and second chances and the hardened heart will become soft and God will be ready and able to work with it again.
Here is what we are going to do. In a minute I’m going to say a prayer for us on this journey of letting God shape our lives, and then the band will play a song. During that song I invite you to come forward and trade your stone for a lump of clay. There are large basins of clay in several areas around the room. Carry that clay with you this week as a reminder of God shaping you as you seek to live out the truths God has planted in your heart. You may not want to stick it in your pocket or anything, so there are small plastic bags stapled to your Sunday Papers (you wondered what those were for, didn’t you?)
Please pray with me. God, we are all under construction and you will never be done with any of us. Thank you for caring for us enough to be willing to live in the precarious middle through Jesus so that you could really touch our hearts. And thank you for believing in us enough to use us to live out your Truth in the world. Give us courage to live it out, give us honest and clear eyes to see what it is we should do, and remind us to return to your forgiveness continually to receive the forgiveness we need to try again when we fail. In your loving name we pray, Jesus. Amen.