Old sermon on Saul

1 files changed, 257 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/faith/victory_sideways.rst b/faith/victory_sideways.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fc95bbe
--- /dev/null
+++ b/faith/victory_sideways.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,257 @@
+Victory sideways
+################
+
+:date: 2012-01-22T11:00:00
+:category: faith
+:tags: sermon, english, Bible
+
+Victory sideways: How a Communist Writer Changed My Life Through
+a Bible While I Was Still an Unbeliever
+
+Last time I gave you a lesson in a Czech language, this time we
+turn to the Czech literature. There was an interesting movement
+among Czech writers (mostly quite lefty ones) in the beginning of
+the German occupation of the Protectorat Böhmen und Mähren to
+publish books which were seemingly innocent and censors couldn’t
+object against them, but in fact they were helping to support
+Czech nationalism and resistance to the occupation. Some
+classical Czech books were then written or republished (e. g.,
+Czech Fairy Tales by Horák, Images from the Czech history by
+Vančura and many others).
+
+One of the writers participating in this movement was a Czech
+Communist writer Ivan Olbracht. Before the war he fell in love
+with the people of Podkarpatská Rus and wrote plenty of books
+about them (who were then mostly Rusyns (Ruthenians) and Hasidim
+Jews from Galicia). So, it is no surprise that when Germans
+occupied what remained from Czechoslovakia he wrote a paraphrase
+of The Old Testament called “Biblické příběhy” (Biblical
+stories/tales?) to show beauty and glory of Jews. Illustrated
+with dramatic Doré’s engravings it was a nice introduction to the
+Biblical world for me (then very early teenager). Although I was
+then an unbeliever, one story somehow touched me deeply and
+changed my worldview and led me to some rather countercultural
+ways (1Sa 9.1-10.1) [#]_:
+
+   Now there was a man of Benjamin whose name was Kish the son of
+   Abiel, the son of Zeror, the son of Becorath, the son of
+   Aphiah, the son of a Benjamite, a mighty man of valor. He had
+   a son whose name was Saul, a choice and handsome man, and
+   there was not a more handsome person than he among the sons of
+   Israel; from his shoulders and up he was taller than any of
+   the people. Now the donkeys of Kish, Saul’s father, were lost.
+   So Kish said to his son Saul, “Take now with you one of the
+   servants, and arise, go search for the donkeys.” He passed
+   through the hill country of Ephraim and passed through the
+   land of Shalishah, but they did not find them. Then they
+   passed through the land of Shaalim, but they were not there.
+   Then he passed through the land of the Benjamites, but they
+   did not find them. When they came to the land of Zuph, Saul
+   said to his servant who was with him, “Come, and let us
+   return, or else my father will cease to be concerned about the
+   donkeys and will become anxious for us.” He said to him,
+   “Behold now, there is a man of God in this city, and the man
+   is held in honor; all that he says surely comes true. Now let
+   us go there, perhaps he can tell us about our journey on which
+   we have set out.” Then Saul said to his servant, “But behold,
+   if we go, what shall we bring the man? For the bread is gone
+   from our sack and there is no present to bring to the man of
+   God. What do we have?” The servant answered Saul again and
+   said, “Behold, I have in my hand a fourth of a shekel of
+   silver; I will give it to the man of God and he will tell us
+   our way.” […] Then Saul said to his servant, “Well said; come,
+   let us go.” […] As they came into the city, behold, Samuel was
+   coming out toward them to go up to the high place. Now a day
+   before Saul’s coming, the Lord had revealed this to Samuel
+   saying, “About this time tomorrow I will send you a man from
+   the land of Benjamin, and you shall anoint him to be prince
+   over My people Israel; and he will deliver My people from the
+   hand of the Philistines. For I have regarded My people,
+   because their cry has come to Me.” When Samuel saw Saul, the
+   Lord said to him, “Behold, the man of whom I spoke to you!
+   This one shall rule over My people.” Then Saul approached
+   Samuel in the gate and said, “Please tell me where the seer’s
+   house is.” Samuel answered Saul and said, “I am the seer. Go
+   up before me to the high place, for you shall eat with me
+   today; and in the morning I will let you go, and will tell you
+   all that is on your mind. As for your donkeys which were lost
+   three days ago, do not set your mind on them, for they have
+   been found.” […] And they arose early; and at daybreak Samuel
+   called to Saul on the roof, saying, “Get up, that I may send
+   you away.” So Saul arose, and both he and Samuel went out into
+   the street. As they were going down to the edge of the city,
+   Samuel said to Saul, “Say to the servant that he might go
+   ahead of us and pass on, but you remain standing now, that
+   I may proclaim the word of God to you.” Then Samuel took the
+   flask of oil, poured it on his head, kissed him and said, “Has
+   not the Lord anointed you a ruler over His inheritance?
+
+It is a lovely story in itself, but for me it was in that moment
+much more. Somehow, the part of the story which grew upon me was
+how Saul was being faithful in what he was supposed to do and he
+got not only what he was after but also a kingdom on the top of
+it. There was no way how he could try to be a king (for one,
+there were no kings in Israel at all then), there was no way how
+he could plan and scheme how to became a king. He was just doing
+faithfully what he was supposed to do, going through a long way
+to find those donkeys and in the end asking for help a prophet.
+And that prophet not only gave him what he asked him for
+(information about donkeys), but en passant he made him a king as
+well.
+
+I suddenly saw a God given principle of achieving impossible.
+**When we hope for more than we can achieve, when we hope for
+something which requires extraordinary God’s blessing or even
+a miracle, we cannot “go for the thing” directly.** We have to
+just wait and pray for the thing, and hope that God gives us this
+thing somehow on the top of everything else.
+
+This is deeply in the opposition to the thinking of this world.
+Post-Enlightenment world (although here probably Protestantism is
+the one to be blamed, I am afraid) is rational and
+**purpose-driven**. We set our goals, decide about steps to get
+there, and do it (in the ideal case). This is not biblical way of
+thinking. There is something which Christians of the previous
+generations knew better. Mother Theresa stated that the goal of
+her mission was “do something beautiful for God”. Her original
+job description was to “hug the most poor in the slums of
+Calcutta”). Also, this is about the worship (and art generally),
+which is deeply purposeless, which leads to what we are doing
+right now. [#]_
+
+I was then a teenager so of course the first place where
+I applied this principle was dealing with being without a girl.
+I just knew (and I think I remember it till this day) that
+getting the right wife is a miracle, which we cannot do on our
+own. I don’t remember how exactly I expected miracles to happen
+when I denied the very existence of God, but I somehow knew that.
+And when my classmates boasted with their adventures with girls,
+I had a fight with my own feelings of inferiority by hope that
+what I am really looking for is a deep friendship for life, and
+the whole sex thing is something I can just hope to get on the
+top for free. I was just not willing to settle for less, because
+of the hope this story somehow gave me. And I am really thankful
+to God for that.
+
+Now, we have been married with Markéta for fifteen years (this
+coming summer sixteen), and so couple of single people asked me
+during those years was asking about finding a girl, with kind of
+“You have managed to do it, so you now know the way how to do it,
+right?”. And I don’t have the answer for them. It somehow
+happened to us. Actually, when I asked couple of married couples
+myself about this question, they usually give me a good story
+about some rainy day when she needed to carry an umbrella, and he
+who was there for some other purpose helped her, and then ... or
+some other story which has nothing to do with a purpose-driven
+life. I have never heard a story about a man who decided to marry
+the best girl possible, so he made a scientific poll, measured
+all possible girls by some predetermined set of criteria and then
+worked hard his way to marry the one which won the poll.
+
+We were members of the Vineyard Christian Fellowship of
+Cambridge. Cambridge is a city with an average church attendance
+4 % down from the national average of around 40 %. There are
+endless numbers of failed Church missions all around the Boston
+area, so much so that in the missionary circles it is considered
+“The Cold Spot of the America” or “The missions graveyard”. And
+yes, our church grew in seven years from zero to around one
+thousand average weekly attendance, which was considered by many
+quite an extraordinary success. When asked people involved in the
+leadership of the church how they achieved such a success I heard
+a lot about hard work, sacrifices and effort, but everybody
+always emphasized that they were all quite surprised by the
+success they were given and without any false humbleness they
+ascribed the growth to special God’s blessing on top of their
+hard work (“I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the
+growth.” 1.Co 3.6).
+
+I could give many more examples both from my life and from the
+miracles I have observed around me, but I see this principle
+again and again.
+
+It certainly doesn’t mean that we should give up our hope, or
+that we should somehow hide our desires from the Lord. That would
+be nonsense, “for your Father knows what you need before you ask
+Him” (Ma 6:8) and he seeks those who “worship [Him] in spirit and
+truth,” (John 4:23) not a pretense. Let me put here a couple of
+practical points how I think we should apply this principle to
+our life:
+
+1. **Submit your desires!** We are not Buddhists, so we are not
+   asked to minimize our desires, just opposite, not only that
+   God hates our hearts of stone with suppressed desires, but He
+   Himself promises us living “heart of flesh” (Ez 11:19, 36:26).
+   However, we are called to submit our desires to His will.
+   I believe in every big desire we hope for we have to come to
+   our Mount Olives and confess from depth of our heart “not My
+   will, but Yours be done” (L 22:42).
+
+2. **Ask others for help!** It is no good for us to be alone. God
+   in the Holy Trinity constitutes a fellowship, we are made into
+   his image, so we need fellowship as well. Talk with others
+   about your struggles. Certainly small groups are the best
+   place for you to start, but if you find somebody who would be
+   willing to talk with you and pray with you about this desire
+   for a long run, even better! Trusted wise brother/sister can
+   help you to see what is really behind your desire, can tell
+   what’s wrong with it (if anything), can help you to persevere
+   on your path.
+
+3. **Humble yourself!** It is slightly the same as the first
+   point, but it deserves repeating. We submit our ideas about
+   fulfillment of our desires to God, not only for his need to be
+   in control, or to satisfy his sadistic desires, but because we
+   know he loves us and he knows better than we do what is the
+   best for us. And this is true of our goals, what we expect
+   will give us satisfaction, but also (or especially?) about the
+   strategy to achieve such goal. Not in boasting and persuading
+   others about our superiority, but “In repentance and rest you
+   will be saved, [i]n quietness and trust is your strength.”
+   (Isa 30:15) [#]_ .
+
+4. **Be faithful in what you do!** And now we return back to our
+   original story of Saul. The most important part of being
+   content in waiting on God to fulfill our desires is that we
+   are free to stay and persevere in being where God put us
+   already and to be faithful there. And I believe that quite
+   often when we are on our way to find lost donkeys (or souls)
+   of Our Father, we may from time to time meet a seer with
+   a bottle of oil who will turn us to paths we couldn’t even
+   imagine.
+
+5. **Be ready for a sudden change of the path!** We should keep
+   our path a bit in the parenthesis, because we never know when
+   God calls us to something overwhelmingly crazily different,
+   from looking for asses to being a king or a queen.
+
+Be it so for all of us! Amen.
+
+.. [#] After I wrote this sermon, just before leaving to the
+   church I found the actual book in our library, and found to my
+   biggest surprise that actually this story about boy Saul
+   looking for donkeys and finding a kingship is not in the book.
+   I have to probably read it in some other biblical stories
+   collection, although I don’t remember which one. It was too
+   late for me to change the sermon, so I just left it there.
+
+.. [#] I didn’t have time to mention it in the sermon, but here
+   should be included a brief thought on missing Protestant art.
+   There are Protestants who were great statesman, generals,
+   missionaries, scientists, but there are almost no deeply
+   believing Protestants who would be first class artists (two
+   questionable exceptions being Johann Sebastian Bach and John
+   Milton, but the first did most of his great work for Catholic
+   customers, and Paradise Lost is half way towards tract
+   anyway). Some (including my Cantabrigian pastor) blame missing
+   understanding of life as a sacrifice (i.e., without direct
+   purpose) as a cause of it.
+
+.. [#] I tried to avoid in this sermon a religious slang, so this
+   somehow meant to include also worship despite our
+   circumstances, but I didn’t know how to say it. After my
+   sermon, other elder of the church stood up and she had on the
+   spot a terrific brief word about thanksgiving and worship
+   (“[T]he Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took
+   bread; and when He had given thanks, […]” It wasn’t exactly
+   most pleasant night in his life, and yet he gave thanks.).
+   Thank you.