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October 19, 2003
The Principle of Buried Treasure
The Principle of Buried Treasure
Psalm 95 / Proverbs 12: 1-10
Luke 6: 43-45
October 19th, 2003
This past Wednesday evening the Public Broadcasting System aired a TV program about the life of Winston Churchill. I was once again drawn in to the life of a man who has intrigued me as long as I’ve known of him. As I was reminded of this man’s story, I wondered about my own life’s fruitfulness.
I read Churchill’s biography some years ago. He defied the early expectations of him. As a lad he’d not shown much promise, but in his later years he had “his finest hour.” When all the chips were down for Great Britain, its cities being bombed pitilessly, he inspired his country’s defense against the Nazi blitzkrieg. He then wrote the story of this war so well that he won the Nobel Prize for literature. He wrote the history of his nation as well. He was a spellbinding orator and a more than competent artist and bricklayer.
There was a fire inside Winston Churchill, something inside that developed gradually, and in the end burst on the world scene as a multi-faceted, brilliant life. And I thought of Jesus’ words in our text this morning, “from the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.” What was the abundance inside of Churchill? What was inside of Winston Churchill was a buried treasure that got dug up and was offered to the world when it needed just this kind of treasure.
And yet, having witnessed the striking role he played on the stage of world history, I wonder what he was in his depths. What makes “great people” noticeable involves factors outside of themselves. Timing is everything. Had there been no war with Germany, would Winston Churchill have been just another witty, cigar-chomping British politician, clever in the debates on the floor of the House of Commons, but not even a footnote in history?
Whether or not there was a war with Germany, and Churchill a great player on the world stage, he was what he was, as you and I are what we are, regardless of how we are perceived. None of us is defined by what we accomplish.
In the brief section from Luke’s Gospel that we read a few moments ago, Jesus spoke to His twelve disciples about what they were inside, regardless of how they were seen by others, without regard for what they would accomplish on the stage of history. Here Jesus instructs them on how to love themselves. Because, I believe, we love or do not love ourselves on the basis of our deepest goodness or badness. Indeed, there are many who do not love themselves because they assess themselves as God does, and subliminally condemn themselves. Outwardly we may defend ourselves for what we condemn ourselves at the deepest level. The twelve Apostles little realized how dramatically they were going to change the history of the world. But St. John was what he was at heart, and so were St. Peter and St. Paul, regardless of their upcoming roles in shaping the world. Jesus spoke straight to the heart, without interest in how they would be seen later on.
Jesus is puzzling to me in his first remark, “No good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit.” What is a bad tree? The word for “bad” here means spoiled or rotten. It’s the Greek word saprovn (sapron) from which we must get our word sap. Perhaps Jesus is saying, no matter what a tree looks like, if the sap is bad, it cannot produce good fruit.
I’m not sure what Jesus means in terms of plant biology, though I get the idea. There are fruitful trees that don’t look like much, like the dwarf red-delicious apple tree in my back yard that produces scrumptious apples. In the spring I look at that scrawny little tree loaded with blossoms, and wonder how it will support the weight of all the apples promised in those blossoms. That little tree produces the sweetest, nicely shaped, most crisp apples you could imagine. Perhaps there are other trees that look good, but are simply defective genetically--they produce defective sap so to speak, so that though they look good outwardly, they can never produce good fruit. You plant-geneticists will have to help us understand this illustration. But we all get the point. It’s what’s inside that counts.
Jesus is clearer in reminding us that a thorn bush can’t bear figs, or a bramble bush produce grapes. Brambles produce a terrific fruit--those big, black berries that we all love in a pie or jam. But brambles can’t bear grapes. If it’s grapes you want, you must go to a grape vine.
We get the point, we can only bear what it is in our nature to produce. In the Epistle of James Jesus’ brother, asked, “Does a spring pour forth from the same opening fresh water and brackish?” Of course not.
Jesus spoke to a like matter when he chided zealous religious people in his day that made a big project of cleaning the outside of a cup, but not the inside. It’s a cartoon again, that asks us to imagine someone scrubbing the outside of a cup, removing every coffee stain, while ignoring the accumulated grunge inside, then putting it back into the cupboard, ready for use. There are people who would never think of putting a dirty cup back into the cupboard, who will do nothing about mire in their hearts.
Jesus wouldn’t have spoken of these things to His disciples, these men He chose to launch the greatest reform movement in the history of the world, unless they were liable to the inner contamination about which He warned them.
And you and I have the same inner defects. How we handle these defects is crucial to what becomes of us in life. It’s really hard for some of us to admit that we have these inner defects. We protect ourselves when we realize others notice something of our contaminated inner selves. This is really awkward for the one who sees and for the one being seen.
It is hard to escape the instinct of trying to cover over inward blemishes with outward cosmetics. We may hide behind nervous laughter. We hide behind excessive sensitivity. We hide behind façades of philanthropy. We hide behind habits that destroy us physically--over-drinking, over-eating, over-medicating, over exercising—and even being over-religious. We even now refer to as “physical diseases” what are actually inner diseases because we protect as much as we can any exhibit of our depths. We feel exonerated if we can blame our flaws on a physical problem. The psychiatrists tell us that many physical problems are caused by what’s going on at the heart-level.
The psalmist confessed in that revealing thirty-second Psalm, “When I declared not my sin, my body wasted away.” How many of us are wasting away physically because of a root cause, a cause in our hearts, in our depths that we at once try to protect and realize it is destroying us? It would surprise me if there are not a few of us here today who are suffering emotionally, and even physically because we will not let God re-shape us inside.
We dabble in healing our defects when we make public confession of sin. We acknowledge to God publicly that, yeah, we know we’ve messed up here and there. “Forgive me, God,” we say ceremoniously. But then we move on, unchanged, and not intending to change. We continue to hammer out on the anvil of our lives the same iron we hold to the same flames that burn inside of us.
Some people criticize those who go to church all dressed up in Sunday finery, as though all we do at church is compare clothes. This is an accusation that would have seemed more appropriate in another time; we’re pretty casual these days. But still, some people accuse you and me who come here for God’s correction and guidance of showing off how good we want people to think we are—simply by showing up at this address on Sunday morning. All of us who come know better. But is it not true, we do not come here asking God to change us, with the intent of cooperating with God in producing a new, changed way of life? Paul told us that “reasonable worship” means being transformed by the renewing of our minds. But there is nothing more off-limits to others and even to God than our minds.
And aren’t those who accuse us partly right? What one of us wants the inner details of life changed? We cling to what we are, even as we desperately don’t want our inner-selves put on exhibit. Is there a one of us who is proud of who we are in private? Are you proud of what you say about others to your closest confidant, about others to whom you are affable when you speak with them personally? We who don’t like two-faced people, are we two faced? When we see a judge put on trial for offenses that he has put other people into jail for, we at first feel like pointing the finger at him. But then, does this not make you have the sinking feeling that you’ve just not been caught yet? I sometimes think our jails contain at least a few scapegoats of our uneasy consciences.
What we do in private, when we think nobody can know about it, says most about what we are like inside. You know it’s true. Jesus tells us in no uncertain terms that it matters what we’re like inside. He warned His disciples, and He warns us, because it matters.
Jesus told His disciples these things, and He instructs us, because we can do something about the sap that runs inside us. A tree can’t. But you and I can.
You and I are not altogether stuck with contaminated sap. The doctrine of “original sin” may be true, that all of us have a sin nature that we cannot get rid of, but Jesus did not speak in vain in telling us we can do something about what’s there inside of us.
The Apostle Paul understood what Jesus was saying when he wrote, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed. The new has come.” We are offered a transfusion in Jesus, with His sap replacing our sap. His spiritual genetics replacing our spiritual genetics.
Jesus would not tell us of these things if they were not important, and if there was nothing that could be done about it. That these things of the heart are important is evident in how unsatisfying the outward embellishments of life are. If concentrating on outward things could help us, then wealth would be the answer to human need. If outward things could help, every man with rippling muscles and every woman with an hourglass figure would be happy. If outward things could help, then everyone with a Ph.D. would be virtuous. If outward praise could satisfy, then all the awards and congratulations we heap on great outward achievers would bring them satisfaction. If outward things were most important, then the most important profession in the world would be the make-up artist.
Despite the fact that we put the lion’s share of importance on all these things, accumulating wealth and education, making ourselves look good, producing measurable achievements, the richest nation on earth is not the happiest. I read recently that Nigeria is the happiest nation on earth. How this was calculated, I don’t know, but it surprises me that a poor African nation should be thought of as having the happiest people.
So what do we do? What can you do to get at the inner person, to see your heart healed, to make good sap run in your veins, to change your bramble bush to a grape vine? There are two aspects to any change that comes about in us for good. First, we have to trust that God is working behind the scenes, able to help us turn any difficult situation into an opportunity for good. We have to trust that the hard things that come to us do not compel us to respond badly. A troubled personality, even weak character can be changed. You can change the tendency to give up, to become bitter, to criticize, to lie in self-protection.
Poor health, financial fears, career disappointment, a difficult spouse, or whatever evil that has come your way does not have to define your life. We quote Romans 8: 28, grasping it as a promise: “And we know that in all things God works for good for those who love Him, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” God is One who does remarkable things with chaos.
Second, God has so made us that so that we can train ourselves inwardly by what we compel ourselves to do outwardly. He has given you and me the privilege of participating in His reshaping us inwardly. I think that many of us need to reconsider whether we even try to be sincere. You will either choose to be sincere in coming to God, or you will choose to keep up appearances. Sincerity matters.
Personal discipline is another tool God has given us to use. You can make yourself do what does not come to you naturally, in obedience to God. You can compel yourself to acknowledge what are your inner sins, what are the inner contaminants to your character and behavior. And you can attack those very sins, imploring God’s strength. God’s strength is able to do a lot with your weakness. But if you cling to your weakness as your right, as your “uniqueness,” then be sure that you will not change. You will continue to sink in the sad direction you have chosen to go.
There is something more than mysterious about cultivating what’s inside of us. There are aspects of your inner makeup that you can’t control. They are built in to you. They are the autonomic part of your psyche, that work the way the heart beats without your thinking about it, or the way your lungs breathe without your command.
In these days of modern medicine, we know we are not stuck with our bodily weaknesses. Pace-makers can help a weak heart beat right. Surgery can replace arthritic joints with titanium joints that work wonderfully. And we go after these surgeries with fond hopes of success.
God can do even better things with your inner person, the engine that drives your life. Some of you may need to start some habits that will help you. Be here faithfully on the Lord’s Day. It hurts you if you are hit and miss on the Lord’s Day. Make yourself be on time. Lazy habits contribute to our weakness. Actually take out your Bible and begin to read it. Read it not with a critical eye, noticing how much is unclear, or how defective the Bible’s characters are. Read it humbly asking God to enlighten your understanding. Go to Sunday School where we talk about the Bible together.
Actually pray. Come to morning prayers on Wednesday. Use the gift you know you have for the common good. If you sing well, get to the choir and sing like a nightingale that loves its Creator. If you have plenty of money, give it generously thinking of Jesus as the recipient. If you can fix things, ask what you can fix for Jesus’ sake. But, for goodness sake, do something for Jesus’ sake.
I don’t know how God will reshape your heart, because I can’t see into your heart. But it works the same way for us all. We’ve got to participate. God will not impose goodness on you. He can and will, but only if you consent. Open your heart intentionally to God. Begin intentionally to do what you know is good, for goodness sake, for Jesus’ sake.
“The poor of this world, rich in faith, are heirs of the Kingdom which God has prepared for those that love Him.” “Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Don’t rely alone on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him. And He will direct your paths.”
Let us pray: O Lord, we sit here in Your presence, known completely to you. Give us grace to become what will please you best, and what will please us best, and will make our lives good and useful. In Jesus’ name. Amen
Stuart D. Robertson
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, Indiana
Posted by faithpres at October 19, 2003 09:30 AM