1st Century iPod

Recently, I bought my wife an iPod Shuffle--you know, the miniature version of Apple’s mp3 player that’s about half the size of a stick of gum?

Now I have to confess that although I truly intended this be a gift for Sharon, I’ve been getting quite a bit of use out of it. I can’t even begin to tell you how handy this little thing comes in when washing the car or mowing the lawn or drowning out the sound of crying 3-month old twins.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve really enjoyed using it while jogging. The nicest feature about the Shuffle is that it’ll clip right onto your clothes, so your hands are completely free to do whatever they please while running—you can wave at a neighbor, wipe sweat from your brow, or, if you’re like me, clutch your chest as you experience the early stages of cardiac arrest. It’s very liberating!

But, admittedly, the iPod shuffle has very little functionality. It’ll play music, it’ll shuffle your playlist, but that’s about it. No frills. No bells and whistles. I have another version of the iPod that can do much more than this little postage stamp of an mp3 player could ever hope to do.

But here’s the thing: the iPod shuffle’s appeal isn’t its endless functions or limitless features. Its popularity is in its portability. The fact that you can take it virtually anywhere and use it while doing virtually anything is what makes the iPod shuffle so great.

And I think there’s a lot to be said about the virtues of portability. Just ask the Apostle Paul. He’d tell you that the Church wouldn’t have survived without it.

You see, when Paul was appointed to be the apostle to the Gentiles, he found out very quickly that among the many tasks that were listed on his job description, traveling and preaching were at the top.

And if you travel a lot, you know how important portability is when it comes to your luggage. There’s nothing worse than having to haul a massive suitcase or bag that’s too big, too heavy, or doesn’t have wheels.

So imagine Paul’s dilemma when he’s charged with the responsibility of transporting the immeasurable freight of the Gospel--the burden of carrying on his shoulders the immense message of the love of God in Jesus Christ.

A message so huge that he said to the church in Ephesus, “I pray that you may have the power, together with the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.”

It was a lot to carry. But you know what? He did it. He actually did it. And this is how: by making the Gospel portable.

Now, when I say that he made the Gospel portable, I don’t mean that Paul went around handing out pocket-size versions of the Bible or that he went from town to town passing out tracts.

What I mean is that Paul took the immensity of the Gospel message and distilled it. He boiled it down to its very essence and then framed it in a way that made it easy to carry with him.

Take Romans 10:8-10 for instance:

If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,”
and believe with your heart God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
For it is with the heart that you believe and are justified,
And it’s with the mouth that you confess and are saved.

Now at first glance, it may seem like a lot to remember. But notice what he did. He created a little 4-line poem, a quatrain. The more technical term is kiasmus.

And what makes it easy to remember is the shape of the poem. It’s got an A-B-B-A form to it. It’s Mouth-Heart-Heart-Mouth.

“If you confess with your mouth…believe with your heart…it’s with the heart you believe…with the mouth you confess.” Pretty easy to remember it that way, isn’t it?

2 Corinthians 8:9 is another example:

"For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich."

Did you catch the pattern? Rich-Poor-Poor-Rich.

The great thing about Paul’s method is you don’t need to write it down or spend hours trying to memorize it. He makes it simple. It’s the kind of thing you can slip into the back pocket of your mind and pull it out whenever you need it.

And for Paul that was important. Because whether you’re in prison (which he was a lot) or on a mission trip or just sitting with a friend at the local coffee shop, you had with you the Word of faith. Right there at your disposal, you had the heart of the Gospel.

In a lot of ways, Paul’s Gospel message is a lot like an iPod Shuffle: it’s compact, simple to use, and easy to take with you.

In fact, the only difference between the two that I can see is that one is best used with earphones…the other is best used with a megaphone.

"Lord, have mercy..."

In preparation for our September sermon series, "If you could ask God just one question...," we've been soliciting questions from the congregation.

And not just any questions, but deep, challenging questions. We don't want any theological softballs lobbed underhand to homeplate. We want to see 100 mph heat. We want your best stuff. We're looking for the kind of questions that'll make us step out of the batter's box for a minute and wonder what we've gotten ourselves into. And after gathering our composure, widening our stance, and choking up on the bat a little, we'll do our best to swing for the fences.

Now, at the risk of giving our church a big head, I have to say that after looking over some of the questions that have been submitted, I've been impressed. Briarcliff UMC never disappoints when it comes to pushing the theological envelope.

Now granted there are some questions that we've received that are difficult to discern what exactly is being asked. There are others that are some of the most honest and penetrating questions I've ever seen.

But then there are some questions that while they are worthy of an answer, they most likely won't make it to the pulpit. The reason? They're just not meaty enough to write an entire sermon about. Good questions, to be sure--but it just won't take 20 minutes to answer them.

So what I've decided to do is use this blog as a forum to answer as many of those questions as I can.

And the first question that I want to address is one that really caught my eye. It was simple and straightforward, without any kind of explanation as to how the person wanted the question to be answered.

The exact question was written like this: "Romans 9:15- God has mercy on whom he chooses? "

Now, my best guess regarding this question is that the issue at hand is an apparent difficulty in understanding how God can be so seemingly subjective and partisan with His mercy. The verse in question says, "For [God] says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion."

And to be honest, I can see where one might find such a statement questionable.

Because, on the one hand we think of God as being fair and just and all-loving. And yet on the other, it's possible to read this verse and think that God is uneven and prejudicial with his distribution of mercy. Because it stands to reason that if there are some whom God chooses to have mercy on, there must be some whom God chooses not to extend His mercy to, right?

And that might be a probable conclusion if this were the only verse we had related to God and God's mercy. But thankfully--mercifully--Jesus actually had a lot to say about the subject. In fact, if we were to bring this verse from Romans to Jesus and question him about it, I'm convinced that he would look at it, smile, and say, "Every word of that is true."

And if we pressed him and said, "But Jesus, doesn't that seem a bit unfair? God has mercy on whom He wants? Isn't God being biased here? Doesn't that seem like a form of divine discrimination?"

And again, I picture Jesus smiling and saying, "It's not discriminatory when the "whom" of God's mercy includes everybody. You see, God causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous (Matt. 5:45). He is kind even to the ungrateful and the wicked (Luke 6:35)."

And given the opportunity, I'm sure Paul--who penned the original verse in question in his letter to the Romans--would affirm Jesus' contention that God's mercy is universally generous.

In fact, once when he was writing to his friend, Timothy, Paul said: "Here's a word you can take to heart and depend on: Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. I'm proof—Public Sinner Number One—of someone who could never have made it apart from sheer mercy. And now he shows me off—evidence of his endless patience—to those who are right on the edge of trusting him forever. " (1 Timothy 1:15-16)

So, the bottom line is this: God does choose to have mercy on whom He has mercy. And that "whom" includes you, me, and every other unworthy soul in the world.

Therefore the real question, in my opinion, is: "In light of God's lavish mercy, how should we respond?"

And do you know what I think Jesus would say? "Be merciful, as your Father in heaven is merciful" (Luke 6:36).