TOUCHING HOME
PLAY FAIR
DR. JIM DIXON
GENESIS 4:1-16
SEPTEMBER18, 2011
For all of my life I have had an interest in archeology. I have had a love and kind of a fascination with the whole field and study of archeology. I subscribe to some archeological journals. I subscribe to BAR magazine, which is Biblical Archeological Review. It has a panel of scholars, some of them are Jewish scholars, some of them are Christian scholars, some of them are secular but they focus on archeological studies relating to the Bible. I also take a magazine simply called Archeology published by the Archeological Institute of America. You can see some of these recent journals that have come out. It is a fascinating field.
Because I love archeology, I have also enjoyed movies, occasionally made by Hollywood, with archeological themes, including the Indiana Jones series. Indiana Jones plays the part of an archeologist. Anyone who really worked in the field of archeology knows that most of the work is boring and tedious, brief moments of excitement, but nothing as exciting as what you see in Raiders of the Lost Ark. The movie did portray this one reality, which is that archeologists do not always play fair. You have Indiana Jones and you have Belloq and Dr. Belloq is an archeologist who does not play fair.
This is true of life. It doesn’t matter what arena of life you work in, there are some people there who do not play fair and who will not play fair. In truth, the world itself, life itself is not fair. As we look at playing fair and the will of Christ for the body of Christ that we play fair, our first teaching is that life is not fair. We seek to play fair in a world which is not a fair world. You come to the Bible and you read the book of Job and Job struggles with so much that has come his way by the hand of Satan and it is not fair. The book of Job and Job’s counselors are in a struggle to understand how life could be so unfair if God is just.
I know that some of you have heard of Peter Falk. Some of you are, perhaps, too young to remember Peter Falk. Peter Falk just died this year, 2011. He died at the age of 84. He was famous for a television series called Columbo where he played the part of a disheveled, sloppy detective who was brilliant and always seemed to have one more question…You may know that Peter Falk has a glass eye. Maybe you have wondered as you have seen him perform through the years why he has a glass eye. And what happened? Peter Falk had cancer as a child. When he was three years old, he had a cancerous malignant tumor removed from his face. In removing the tumor, they had to remove one of his eyes and he wore a glass eye for the final 81 years of his life.
When he was in high school, Peter Falk played baseball. He loved baseball. On one occasion he was sliding into third base and he was called out, and he knew he was safe. He was two yards ahead of the tag, he had reached base safely but he was called out. Peter Falk looked up at the official and then reached up to his face and took out his glass eye and handed it to the official and said, “You might do a better job with this.” It is true, anyone who has played baseball, or even watched baseball, you know it is true, baseball is not always fair. Sometimes a ball is called a strike, sometimes a strike is called a ball, sometimes a person is called out when they are safe, sometimes a person is called safe when they are out. Baseball is not always fair. Neither is any other sport. Neither is life itself. We are called to play fair in a world that is not fair.
God wants us to understand that he is fair. This is difficult for people because the world is so fallen and people want to know how God could have allowed this world to be so messed up. God has granted freedom. God has given this precious gift to human kind, this gift of freedom. That freedom has been abused. The human race in its freedom has fallen and all have sinned. We see all the damage relationally and in so many ways that damage sin has brought. God also gave this precious gift of freedom to the angels and some of the angels fell at the dawn of time as described in the Bible. There is no way to know the damage that the angelic fall has brought to the creation, but it is evident that the damage brought to the cosmos and to the creation and to the earth by the fall of angels is great. Yet, God is one day going to make it all right. God lovingly gave this gift of freedom that is being abused. God wants us to know that he still plays fair.
In the book of Genesis chapter four you have the whole episode of Cain and Abel and you have Cain and Abel bringing their offering to the Lord and Cain brings of the fruit of the ground because he is a tiller of the ground and Abel brings of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions because he is a keeper of sheep. They bring their offerings to the Lord and God accepts the offering of Abel and does not accept the offering of Cain.
Theologians and scholars have debated this. Was something wrong with Cain’s offering? Did God prefer a meat offering to a grain offering? In the Bible there are provisions for both offerings. Some have said, “Maybe Cain didn’t bring the best when he brought the fruit of the ground and therefore his offering was rejected.” We don’t know because the Bible doesn’t tell us whether Cain brought the best. We do know that Abel brought the best. He brought the firstlings of his flock and of the fat portions, but we really don’t know the quality of Cain’s offering to God.
Some have said, “Maybe it has to do with the heart. Maybe it has to do with the soul.” It does. We are told in the book of Hebrews that “By faith Abel offered to God a sacrifice more acceptable than Cain.” Certainly, something was wrong in Cain’s soul. You see Cain thought that God was not playing fair, so he became angry and his countenance fell because God is not fair. Then you have the word of God to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? If you do well, will you not be rewarded? Don’t you know that I play fair?”
After Cain had murdered his brother the judgment of God came. “Cursed are you from the ground and when you till the ground it will no longer yield to you its strength and you shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.” Again, Cain thought, “God’s not playing fair.” He murdered his brother but he still thought God was not playing fair. “My punishment is greater than I can bear. For you have removed me this day from the ground and from your face I shall be hidden. I will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth. Whoever finds me will kill me. It is not fair.” God said, “Not so!” God said that whoever came against Cain to kill him, vengeance would come sevenfold on such a person. God put a mark, a mysterious mark, on Cain that is much debated in the world of scholarship but there seems to be mercy in the mark as God, even to Cain, is showing mercy at the end. So, you see God in his dealings with Cain, in this amazing story of Cain and Abel, you see God as playing fair. “If you do well, will you not be accepted? If you do well, will you not be rewarded?” You see God going beyond fairness to great grace and great mercy. God wants us to understand his fairness in the midst of the world that is not fair.
One day, God’s final judgment will come and it will be fair. The Bible tells us that God will judge the living. When Christ returns, Christ will judge all who live upon the earth, before him be gathered all the nations, it will be a judgment of the living. Then the Bible tells us that God will judge the dead. In Revelation chapter 20, the great white throne judgment. God will judge the dead from every generation, from all the centuries, from all the millennia of earth history. It seems to be a post-millennial judgment of the dead.
The Bible tells us there is a special judgment for the church, for the followers of Christ. It is called the bema; it was so called in 2 Corinthians chapter five and it was described perfectly in 1 Corinthians chapter three. At the bema seat all Christians will be saved, but some of them will be barely saved. It says in 1 Corinthians chapter three that at the bema some Christians will suffer loss of reward, though they themselves will be saved but only as through fire. We have these judgments. We know that salvation goes beyond fairness that it comes by grace through faith, that it is an expression of incomprehensible divine mercy, but God wants us to understand that in the end as the judgment comes there will be fairness.
As you go home today, I really want to encourage you to read Isaiah chapter 45. It is one of my favorite chapters, it is oh so awesome and you really have this glimpse of God. God says, “Turn to me and be saved all the ends of the earth. I am God and there is no other. By myself I have sworn that from my mouth has come forth righteousness. It goes onto say that in the end every knee will bow and every tongue will swear and, in the end, everyone who has opposed him, everyone who has been angry with him, everyone who has criticized him as unjust shall be silenced and ashamed. God will be vindicated. Isaiah 45 is a powerful passage of Scripture. In a world that is not fair we understand that God is fair.
Now, the second teaching this morning as we are called to play fair in a world that is not fair is that we are to play with integrity. This is the will of Christ for his people that we play with integrity. If we are going to reach our community, we have to do it with integrity. Sports Illustrated tells the story of a boy named Tanner Munsey. Tanner plays t-ball down in Wellington, Florida. T-ball is a form of baseball. There is no pitcher; you actually hit the ball off of a tee. It is a fun game. Tanner, as a t-ball player, sometimes plays second base and sometimes he plays shortstop. In this one game he was playing second base and a kid on the other team was trying to run from first to second and Tanner reached to tag him out and the official, a woman named Lora Benson, called the runner out. Tanner, she said, had tagged him and the runner was out. Tanner went up to Lora, the official, and said, “Ma’am, I missed the tag. You called him out but he was safe. I missed the tag I know for sure.” She reversed her call and brought the runner back safe at second base.
Two weeks later they are playing another game and Tanner is playing shortstop. Lora Benson is officiating in this game. A runner tries to run from second to third and Tanner reaches to tag him out and the official calls him safe, Lora Benson calls him safe. Tanner looks dejected. Lora Benson goes up to Tanner and says, “What’s wrong?” He said, “I made the tag. He wasn’t safe. He was out. I know for sure I touched him.” She reversed her call again. She called the runner out.
The opposing coach was enraged and comes out onto the field. She takes the time to explain to this man that Tanner is a kid with incredible integrity. He is a kid with incredible honesty. She told him the whole story and the opposing coach backed down. An amazing story so Sports Illustrated told this story about this kid with integrity. I was thinking, “Wow!” In the body of Christ, that is what we are called to be like. Even those who would oppose us would still trust us and know that we are people of integrity, we who follow Christ, we who take the name of Christ. As we go out into the world that people would know and believe that we are honest. If we have any hope of reaching our community for Christ, this must be true that we are people with integrity.
One of my favorite passages in the Bible is in Micah chapter six verses six through eight. In fact, I preached on it earlier this year. In that passage the prophet Micah says, “With what shall I come before the Lord and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams or ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? The Lord has told you, O man, what is right. For what does the Lord require of you but to seek justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God.”
The word for justice we have seen is the word mishpat, which is equivalent to the Greek word dikiosune. It connotes fairness. We are to seek fairness on the earth. The world is not fair, life is not fair, but every day, if you are a follower of Christ, you have got to get up and think, “How can I make life a little more fair for the people around me? Is there anyone today that I can make life just a little more fair for them?” That should be on your mind constantly to make life just a little more fair for the people around you. To love kindness and to walk humbly is to walk in obedience. It is all integrity. Integrity is summed up by all three of these concepts: to seek justice, to love kindness, to walk humbly. This is the call of Christ upon us that we would be people of integrity. I think sometimes in ministry, mistakes are made. I think sometimes in ministry there are times when, perhaps, we have not done things as we should and it hurts our testimony in the world.
One of my favorite ministry organizations is Campus Crusade for Christ. This is a massive Christian ministry organization founded by Bill Bright. Bill Bright came to love Christ at Hollywood Presbyterian Church. He was discipled by Henrietta Mears there. Henrietta Mears was one of the greatest disciplers of collegians in American history. Bill Bright, anointed by God, started Campus Crusade for Christ. Its growth is incomprehensible. Today, Campus Crusade for Christ ministers in 191 nations. They have a full-time staff of 26,000 people and 225,000 trained volunteers that they might serve Jesus Christ in 191 nations.
Bill Bright just passed away a few years ago. Vonette, his wife, continues to serve. They were throughout their life close friends with Bill and Ellen Armstrong who go to our church. Bill is the president of Colorado Christian University. These are great people. Even a wonderful ministry organization, like Campus Crusade for Christ, which recently has changed its name, has made through the years some mistakes. I think I was part of one of them. You might recall 45 years ago, or you might not, but I recall 45 years ago, I was in Westmont College. Folks from Campus Crusade for Christ came to train us to do beach evangelism in Santa Barbara. From East Beach to West Beach to Goleta Beach to do evangelism. They had us learn how we could go up to people on the beach and act like we are taking a survey. Going through the survey asking questions, filling out answers, we really had no interest in the survey or the results. It was a means to get in the door so you could evangelize them. They trained us in doing this.
We went out and hit the beaches. I remember going out with some buddies and we went up to people on the beach and we said, “Hey, we are giving a survey and have a few questions for you. Would you give us a few answers?” Some people were gracious; some were kind of put out, many people saw through it very quickly and became very angry when you would begin to transition from the questions to the evangelism stuff. I felt guilty at the end of the day that the survey I was using was more-or-less bogus, although, I wanted to see people come to Christ. At the end of the day, there was this testimony time where people shared victories of people on the beach who had accepted Christ. Yet, the power of Christ attends the gospel even when it is poorly delivered or improperly delivered, the Holy Spirit bears fruit. If they had asked for anyone who had offended someone that day to stand up, there would have been a massive rise of humanity as we all had offended everybody all day long. It just felt like we didn’t do it with integrity.
What we want to do, in this world that is not fair, is be people of integrity. We are seeking to reach our Jerusalem, but we want to legitimately care about people. We are not just trying to get notches on our gun. It is not about the number of converts that each of us can accrue. We actually love people. We are called to go into our community and really care about them, to seek their friendship, to find out what they are interested in, what floats their boat, and get on board a little bit, see if we enjoy them and they enjoy us. Out of relationship tell them about the beauty of Jesus. Out of legitimate relationship we talk about the beauty of Jesus.
Finally, if we are going to play fair, we need to play in such a way that we love our enemy. This goes beyond integrity. If we are going to reach our community, we really have to reach the point where we love our enemy; we love those who really don’t love us. You have to learn to love people who might even oppose us. This is the key to receiving the power of heaven in all that we do in our ministry. There is a passage in Proverbs, chapter 19 verse 13. This passage in Proverbs says, “A nagging wife is like a leaking faucet.” I have never preached on that. I am not planning on preaching on it today. One translation renders it: “A nagging wife is like a leaking faucet.” It is true that faucets and plumbing were actually invented by the ancient Romans. It is a bad translation of the Hebrew. The Hebrew in proverbs nineteen thirteen really says, “A nagging wife is like a continuous dripping.”
I can’t speak to that because I don’t have a nagging wife. I thank God for Barb and I don’t have a nagging wife. I have done 35 years of marriage counseling in my ministry. For 35 years I have counseled people who have come in with problems, husbands and wives. I think there are a lot of stereotypes. I think nagging takes place on both sides of the relationship. I also think a lot of guys who have said to me, “My wife is nagging me,” are just a little too sensitive and don’t want any criticism at all.
Having said all of that, I read a joke this week about a husband and wife who went to Israel. This guy’s wife really was nagging him all the time and he just couldn’t take it anymore. They are in Israel, the Holy Land and are going around to all the sites. At one of the sites his wife has a heart attack and dies. He is like, “I don’t know what to do.” He doesn’t know what to do in terms of funeral arrangements and getting the body back home. He talks to people and they say, “If you want to have a memorial service for your wife right here in the Holy Land, we will do that for you for $150 and it will be beautiful.” He says, “Well, if I want to ship my wife’s body back home to the states, what will that cost me?” They say, “Well, that will cost about $5000.”
He thought about it for a while and he said, “I am going to spend the $5000 and let’s takes my wife’s body back to the states. They said, “Why would you spend $5000 when you can do a wonderful memorial service for your wife right here in the Holy Land?” The guys say, “This is the Holy Land and a long, long, time ago a man lived here, died here and was buried here. After three days he rose from the dead. I just can’t afford to take that chance.”
I marvel at how when I talk to married couples, they seem to be conflict habituated. Have you ever seen a couple that seem to be habituated in conflict? Pretty much every day it feels like a war. It feels like some couples are just opposed to each other. God has given us in the Bible this wonderful prescription of radical love that can heal a marriage. It is the key to everything. It is what releases the power of heaven. It is true in marriage, it is true in our ministry in our neighborhoods, as we go out to work and as we seek to reach the greater Highlands Ranch community, we have got to learn what it means to love our enemies and to love people with whom we have conflict and what it means to love them with a love of Christ.
There is a beautiful story on ESPN. It is a women’s softball game. It took place in Ellensburg, central Washington. I was not even watching, I had ESPN on, it was kind of in the background, I was going through some books. But when I heard the word Ellensburg I perked up and looked at the TV set because Ellensburg is where our daughter went to school at Central Washington University. She went to Westmont College and then Colorado State University, CSU. Our daughter, Heather, got her teaching credential at Ellensburg at the Central Washington University. At that time Heather and her husband Chris lived in Yakima, but Heather would take that drive from Yakima to Ellensburg. Ellensburg is just beautiful surrounded by mountains. This ESPN report was on a softball game between Central Washington and Western Oregon and they were playing in Ellensburg. In the midst of the softball game this one gal named Sara, she played for Western Oregon, hit a home run. It is the first homerun of her career. She was a senior and in all of her years playing softball she had never hit one out of the park. Here she is a senior, she hits one out of the park and Sara is so excited so she begins to run the bases.
As she rounds first base heading for second, she doesn’t touch the bag. Even if you hit it out of the park you have got to touch all of the bases. Her first base coach at Western Oregon calls to her and says, “Sara, Sara, you missed the bag. You have got to come back and touch first base and then move on.” Because she had hit it out of the park there was plenty of time. But she turns quickly around to come back to first base, twists her knee, tears her cartilage, and she falls to the ground and she can’t move.
So, she has hit it out of the park but she is writhing in pain on the ground and she can’t move. There is this rule in softball that your teammates cannot help you around the bases; it is illegal. Her teammates could not come and help her go around the bases. She is just there writhing in pain on the ground and she can’t score. Then an amazing thing happens. A player for Central Washington named Mallory Holtman, who played first base, went up to the officials and said, “What would happen if me and some of my teammates helped Sara around the bases? Even though she is on the other team, we feel like we should do that. What would happen if we helped her around the bases, would that be legal?” The official said, “Yes, that would be legal.” The official was amazed.
Then Mallory and a friend picked Sara up and helped her come back to first, which she touched and helped her go to second and to third and finally home base. Sara scored and it was the first homerun of her career. Central Washington, which had helped their opponents, had lost the game, partly because they had done this amazing act of compassion. ESPN wanted to give a special award for sportsmanship to Central Washington and to Mallory Holtman. Again, I was thinking, “Wow! There is a lot of Christ in that. There is a lot of Jesus in that kind of story.”
I think in the body of Christ, in the church, we need to so love those who oppose us. We need to learn to love those who oppose us. They need to see that we care about them and we care about their accomplishments and we care about their goals and we care about their lives and that we have compassion and that we are willing to help. This really is what brings the power of heaven to our ministry on this earth. Amazing power.
One of my favorite passages in the Bible is in Luke chapter six from the Sermon on the Plain. In Matthew chapters five through seven you have the Sermon on the Mount. This is Luke chapter six and the wording is different, but these are the words of Jesus. These are incredibly radical words. Jesus said, “I say to all who hear.” Remember Jesus reminded us that many have eyes to see and cannot see and many have ears to hear and cannot hear. We live in such a world. Many are spiritually blind and they cannot see and they are spiritually deaf and they cannot hear. Jesus begins by saying, “I say to all who hear. Love your enemy. Do good to those who hate. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who abuse you. To him who strikes you on the cheek offer him the other as well. From him who takes away your coat, do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs of you; and of him who takes away your goods do not ask them again. But as you would have people treat you, so treat them.
If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But I say to you, love your enemy, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward shall be great, and you will be called children of the Most High; for he is kind even to the ungrateful and the selfish. Be merciful as your Father in heaven is merciful. Judge not and you will not be judged. Condemn not and you will be condemned. Forgive and you shall be forgiven. Give and it shall be given to you.
Do you realize how radical those words are? I really feel like, in my life, I should approach the throne of God in prayer with trembling because my life doesn’t measure up to the words of Christ. So often, my life does not measure up to those radical words of Christ. But, I know in those moments when they do, in those moments when my life lines up with those radical words, there is power. I have felt it. I know it is true. The power of heaven is released. When we learn to love our enemies and to have this kind of radical willingness to give and forgive, the power of heaven is released. Here we are, called to ministry in a world that is not fair and we are called to play fair and to be people of integrity and to love our enemy. When we do these things, the power of the Holy Spirit brings fruit on the earth. This is a great challenge that is set before us as a congregation that we would serve him with power. Let’s look to the Lord with a word of prayer.