Liberating our Families

Chan and Tin worked most of their lives in the rice fields of Thailand.  After working all year on the farm, there was barely enough money to feed the family.  They struggled year after year in desperate poverty.

One day a recruiter for a company called Global Horizons came to their village promising high paying jobs on farms in America.  In one month in America, they could earn what they make in a full year in Thailand.  It was the opportunity of a lifetime to change the lives of their children and their whole extended family.

There was just one catch.  To enter the program, they had to pay a recruitment fee of almost $15,000.  They mortgaged their farms and their houses.  They talked their relatives in to mortgaging their farms and homes.  Tin’s loans ranged up to 80% annual interest, but Chan’s loans reached 152% annual interest.

When they got to the airport, Global Horizons forced them to sign a host of new documents - including a visa renewal fee of $8,000.  When they reached America, the recruiters confiscated their passports “for safekeeping.”  This meant that they had no identification and no way to prove that they were in the USA legally.

At first, there was plenty of work and on-time pay.  After a few months though, the work began to run out and the pay started coming later and later.  Often, they sent 100% of their pay checks back to Thailand so that their families could make the payments on their loans.  That meant they often didn’t have enough to eat, so they caught wild animals for food and gathered wild vegetables from forests.  They usually lived in overcrowded housing without enough beds for each person.  Sometimes the toilet wouldn’t work for weeks at a time.  They often lacked kitchens, washing machines, and sufficient heating. To limit their contact with outsiders, their handlers told them that Americans are greatly prejudiced against Asians and that leaving their housing grounds would be very dangerous.  

Surely this couldn’t really happen in today’s world, right?  They are free people.  They could just change companies, right?  Wrong.  Global Horizons was their legal sponsor and guarantor.  If they quit, they would lose their visas and be sent home to Thailand ... and their families would lose everything.  

We Are All Orphans (Ephesians 2:1-10)

1 Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. 2 You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. 3 All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else.

4 But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, 5 that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) 6 For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. 7 So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus.

8 God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. 9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. 10 For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

This week we will hear reports from our January trip to the Village of Hope in B., so I will keep my comments brief.  These beautiful children are a metaphor for us.  They are living parables explaining our passage today, and explaining our relationship with God.

These children, who are now so full of hope and joy, were once undernourished, homeless, and hopeless.  In many ways, they were dead - even though they had breath and blood.  They had no chance in life.  They had no dreams or hopes other than a full stomach.  Even if they were able to imagine some dreams of future careers, they had no ability to go anywhere or to do anything other than to scratch for daily survival.  Their only future was a life of hard work for little pay, giving all their efforts for survival until even that wasn’t enough.  In the great injustice of this broken world, the sins and failings of others had stripped them of the very resources necessary for living.  They had no life and nothing to live for.

In a very real sense, when Nazarenes in B. welcomed them into the Village of Hope, they were raised from the dead.  With nutritious meals, good education, and heaps of TLC (tender loving care), these kids have blossomed like desert flowers after the rain.  Their joyful faces and warm affection have captured the hearts of every person from our church who has visited.  

Finding Forgiveness - Genesis 45:1-15

             Today, we are concluding our study of Genesis with a quick look at one of the final chapters.  We aren’t going to spend a lot of time on it because our Bangladesh team is back.  We want to have plenty of time to hear their stories, too.

             Before we read the text, you need to remember some important background info.

• Joseph’s brothers hated him and sold him into slavery in Egypt.
• God blessed Joseph with the power to interpret dreams and helped Joseph rise to a position of leadership second only to the King.
• A famine devestated the whole Middle Eastern region, and the only food anywhere was the food that Joseph helped Egypt save.
• Joseph’s brothers traveled to Egypt to buy food for their families, where they met Joseph.  But of course, they didn't recognize him in his role of Egyptian royalty.
• Joseph struggles to forgive them and put them through a series of tests to see if they have truly changed.  Our text begins after the final test.

Genesis 45:1-15

¹ Joseph could stand it no longer. There were many people in the room, and he said to his attendants, “Out, all of you!” So he was alone with his brothers when he told them who he was. ² Then he broke down and wept. He wept so loudly the Egyptians could hear him, and word of it quickly carried to Pharaoh’s palace.

 ³ “I am Joseph!” he said to his brothers. “Is my father still alive?” But his brothers were speechless! They were stunned to realize that Joseph was standing there in front of them. ⁴ “Please, come closer,” he said to them. So they came closer. And he said again, “I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into slavery in Egypt. ⁵ But don’t be upset, and don’t be angry with yourselves for selling me to this place. It was God who sent me here ahead of you to preserve your lives. ⁶ This famine that has ravaged the land for two years will last five more years, and there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. ⁷ God has sent me ahead of you to keep you and your families alive and to preserve many survivors.  ⁸ So it was God who sent me here, not you! And he is the one who made me an adviser to Pharaoh—the manager of his entire palace and the governor of all Egypt.

 ⁹ “Now hurry back to my father and tell him, ‘This is what your son Joseph says: God has made me master over all the land of Egypt. So come down to me immediately! ¹⁰ You can live in the region of Goshen, where you can be near me with all your children and grandchildren, your flocks and herds, and everything you own. ¹¹ I will take care of you there, for there are still five years of famine ahead of us. Otherwise you, your household, and all your animals will starve.’”

 ¹² Then Joseph added, “Look! You can see for yourselves, and so can my brother Benjamin, that I really am Joseph! ¹³ Go tell my father of my honored position here in Egypt. Describe for him everything you have seen, and then bring my father here quickly.” ¹⁴ Weeping with joy, he embraced Benjamin, and Benjamin did the same. ¹⁵ Then Joseph kissed each of his brothers and wept over them, and after that they began talking freely with him.

             Joseph’s story is one of the classic forgiveness texts in the Bible.  Joseph actually seems to struggle quite a bit in the process of forgiving his brothers.  His struggles and his eventual forgiveness show us three common barriers to forgiveness and the keys to forgiveness. 

The Gospel of Restoration - Isaiah 61

             Hello.  My name is Josh, and I’m an alcoholic.

             I’m a porn addict, a compulsive gambler, a smoker, and a semi-regular crack user.

             I’m a shopaholic, workaholic, me-aholic.

             I’m the child of abusive parents, and now I’m a codependant adult.

             I beat my wife, and I’m more than $100,000 in debt.

             I am a rape victim, and I’m a sexual abuser.

             I’m grieving the loss of a loved one.

             I’m a racist, a legalist, a moralist, and a recovering hypocrite.

             I am depressed and lonely. 

Sometimes I have thoughts of suicide.  I may even have a plan.

I look like I have a lot of friends, but really I have a very hard time developing meaningful relationships.

I’m struggling with problems with my parents, and my marriage is falling apart.

I’m obsessed with my looks, and I have an eating disorder.

I’m addicted to the internet, and I am a flagrant procrastinator.  Not a good combination!

I have deep resentment and hidden anger.

I am addicted to romance.

My life is dominated by anxiety.

I use profanity often – especially when I’m not at church.

I can’t stop gossiping, no matter how many times I tell myself I’m going to stop.

I’m beginning to lose hope in God.

I am actually an athiest.

I doubt everything all the time.

I value achievement more than love.

I’m struggling to become the person God wants me to be, and I’m beginning to give up.

I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired.

I am lost, captive, blind, despairing, mourning, helpless, and hopeless.

I am broken.  I am a sinner.

Some of these are true of me.  All of these are true for someone in this room.

Nazarene Heritage: Holiness

Isaiah 6:1-8

John 17:13-26
Galatians 5:13-25

    I grew up hating holiness.  I hated hearing about it.  I hated singing about it.  I hated talking about it.  I hated everything about holiness.
    That was a problem - especially for someone in the Church of the Nazarene, which is a “holiness denomination.”  We talked about holiness a lot.  We preached about it.  We sang about it.  We talked about it in Sunday School.  But I hated it.
    Then, I went to MidAmerica Nazarene University, and I discovered that I was not alone.  “Doctrine of Holiness” was required for all ministry students, and it was one of the students’ least favorite classes - right behind “History and Polity of the Church of the Nazarene.”  When special preachers came and did revival services and talked about holiness and entire sanctification, we felt this awkward tension between wanting to stand up and argue and wanting to run to the altar and repent and pray -- again -- for the hundredth time.  Any time “Holiness unto the Lord” was sung, we cringed inside and kind of turned to our neighbors with an uncomfortable smirk, like “There they go again.”  We might even swing our arms in mock joy (“Sing it, shout it, loud and long”), while inside we were scoffing at such an overplayed and under-lived song on an over-preached subject.
    What’s the deal?  Why all the resistance?  Why all the bitter feelings?  Why on earth would future pastors not want to talk about being holy?  And if the theology majors didn’t want to talk about holiness, you know everyone else was either clueless or hostile.  What happened?

Change and Continuity

I stumbled onto this video today.  This girl, Amanda, has taken a photo of herself every day for three years (ages 14-17) and compiled them into a continuous video showing her changes.  This struck me as a metaphor of life and the gospel.  A few observations.
1. It is clear that she is the same person throughout.  She changes.  She grows.  Her hair gets longer and shorter.  The backdrop changes.  The clothes change.  But she is the same.  This is how it goes with us throughout life.  Things change.  We change, but we're still the same - in this case - Amanda.  Also, this is how Jesus (and the church and the gospel) works.  The cultural backdrop changes.  The style changes.  The decorations change.  For the church and our understanding of the gospel, there may be changes and growth.  But the Jesus remains the same.
2. I was strangely encouraged by the fact that she had zits and that they went away and came back and went away and came back.  On the day that she had some of those big zits, they must have felt like horrible problems - remember she's a teenage girl!  But problems that seem monumental today will pass.  New problems will come, sure, but these will go the way of zits in puberty.  They will fade.
OK, that's all for the thought of the day.  If you have other observations, please share.