Mitford Sermon #4: CONTROLLED BY THE WORD
First preached: July 13, 1997
I don’t have a lot of personal words to share this week. We have family coming for our grandson’s high school graduation so have been spending a lot of time getting ready. We also have been working hard to plant our flowers and vegetables in our many pots. All of this is complicated by the fact that my wife, Dawn, is still on a knee scooter. Although her foot surgery was a long time ago - February 9 - the major reconstruction of the foot has resulted in a very slow approach to walking again. This has made for a very interesting few months for both of us.
Barnabas, the dog, is one of the more delightful, interesting characters in the Mitford books. Although the origin is a mystery it is eventually discovered that his behavior is controlled by reciting from the Bible. That has led to this sermon.
Although to be controlled by the words of the Bible is not a bad thing it can also get us into a lot of error and trouble if we do not approach the Bible in humility, letting the Bible speak to us instead of using the Bible to bolster our own opinions. Most importantly we need to remember that it is the Word of God (Jesus) and not the written words about God and revealed by God that is to be our ultimate guide in living and interpreting life.
Scripture Reading: 2 Timothy 3:10 - 4:5 (NRSVue)
Now you have observed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions, and my sufferings, the things that happened to me in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. What persecutions I endured! Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. Indeed, all who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. But wicked people and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving others and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have known sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 so that the person of God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.
In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I solemnly urge you:proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable; convince, rebuke, and encourage with the utmost patience in teaching. For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound teaching, but, having their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths. As for you, be sober in everything, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, carry out your ministry fully.
.... [Father Tim] arrived at the office, uttering the prayer he had offered at its door every morning for twelve years: “Father, make me a blessing to someone today, through Christ our Lord. Amen.”
As he took the key from his pocket, he felt something warm and disgustingly wet on his hand.
He looked down into the face of a large, black, mud-caked dog, whose tail began to beat wildly agaist his pant leg.
“Good grief!” he said, wiping his hand on his windbreaker.
At that, the dog leaped up and licked his face, sending a shower of saliva into his right ear.
“Get away! Be gone!” He shouted. He tried to protect the notebook he was carrying, but the dog gave it a proper licking before he could stuff it in his jacket, then tried to snatch it from him.
He thought of running, but if anyone saw him fleeing before a shaggy, mud-caked dog, everybody in town would know it within the half hour.
“Down!” He commanded sharply, at which the dog leaped up and gave his chin a bath.
He tried to fend the animal off with his elbow, while inserting the key in the office door. If he were a cussing man, he reasoned, this would offer a premier opportunity to indulge himself.
“Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth," he quoted in a loud voice from Ephesians, “but that which is good to the use of edifying...” Suddenly, the dog sat down and looked at his prey with fond admiration.
“Well, now,” he said irritably, wiping the notebook on his sleeve. “I hope you’ve got that nonsense out of your system.” At this, the dog leaped up, stood on its hind lets, and put its vast paws on the rector’s shoulders.
“Father Tim! Father Tim!” It was his part-time secretary, Emma Garrett.
He stood helpless, his glasses fogged with a typhoon of moist exhalations.
Whop! Emma laid a blow to the dog’s head with her pocketbook. Then, blam, she hit him again on the rear flank.
“And don’t come back!” she shouted, as the yelping dog fled into a hedge of rhododedron and disappeared.
Emma gave him her handkerchief, which was heavily scented with My Sin. “That wasn’t a dog,” she said with disgust, “that was a Buick!”
The dog came back. It seemed to appear out of no where adopting Father Tim as his own. Father Tim eventually reciprocated naming him Barnabas and taking him into his home and heart.
On one particular day Father Tim brought Barnabas to his office. He had been having a hard time controlling him. He sat down and turned to his Gospel reading for Sunday. He prepared to read it out loud as was his accustomed.
Barnabas appeared to take that as a signal to stand by his master’s chair and place his front paws on his shoulder, giving a generous lick to the Bible for good measure.
[Father Tim] had just read that ignoring negative behavior and praising the positive could be a fruitful strategy....
“‘And as Jesus passed by,’” intoned the rector, avoiding the doleful stare, “‘he saw a man which was blind from his birth....
Barnabas sighed and lay down.
He continued, without glancing into the corner.... He read aloud through verse five. Then, he stopped and studied Barnabas with some concentration.
“Well, now," he said at last, “this is extraordinary.”
“What’s that?” asked Emma, his secretary.
“This dog appears to be...,” he cleared his throat, “...ah, controlled by Scripture.”
“No way!” she said with disgust. “That dog is not controlled by anything!”
Just then, the door opened, and Miss Sadie Baxter helped prove the odd suspicion.
Before she could speak, Barnabas had bounded across the room to extend his finest greeting, whereuon the rector shouted what came immediately to mind, and what Peter had told the multitude:
“Repent and be baptized, every one of you!”
Barnabas sprawled on the floor and sighed with contentment.
“I was baptized, thank you,” said Miss Sadie, removing her rain hat. (From At Home in Mitford by Jan Karon)
One of the more unique twists to the Mitford books is this dog Barnabas. Most amazing is the heed he gives to scripture. Something happens to Barnabas when he hears scripture. A peaceful resignation comes over him and he mellows out.
I've never before used a dog as a role model in a sermon but Barnabas seems to be a fitting example. Don't you think an great description for any of us as Christians might be - "she/he is controlled by scripture."
No time better than the present to experience something like that. In this time of inconvenience and agitation, in these days when our patience is being tested and our future seems tentative and unknown we need something we can take like a medication of sorts that will quiet our worries and settle our anxieties, that can anchor us and hold us, that will bring wisdom and confidence to our decisions. As we feel out of control we need something to control us and center us and calm us down. To be controlled by the scriptures - that is what we need.
But how? It's obvious that in order to be controlled by the scriptures we have to interact with the scriptures. There is no such thing as a Bible pill. We can't soak it up by putting on the nightstand or on the coffee table and expect it to radiate itself inside of us somehow.
It even takes more than simply reading it or taking Bible classes. We must allow ourselves to be exposed to it and exposed by it. One person said, "What makes the difference is not how many times you have been through the Bible, but how many times and how thoroughly the Bible has been through you." I would add -- it has nothing to do with how many hours we spend scrutinizing the Bible but how diligently we allow the Bible to scrutinize us.
The Bible is a treasure. We need it far more than we know.
A man was out walking in the desert when a voice said to him, "Pick up some pebbles and put them in your pocket, and tomorrow you will be both sorry and glad."
The man obeyed. He stooped down and picked up a handful of pebbles and put them in his pocket. The next morning he reached into his pocket and found diamonds and rubies and emeralds. As the voice prophesied he was both glad and sorry. Glad that he had taken some -- sorry that he hadn't taken more. That is how it is with God's word.
You may have noticed that instead of entitling the sermon "Controlled by Scripture" I entitled it - "Controlled by the Word." I did it for a reason.
There is a difference between being controlled by the "word" (with small letters), synonymous with the scriptures, and being controlled by the "WORD" (with big letters), synonymous with Jesus. You may remember that John describes Jesus in the beginning of his gospel like this: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
I know some people who are controlled by the word (small letters) who I wouldn't want to emulate and I don't think God would want us to emulate either. In fact, one of the greatest struggles Jesus had during his ministry was dealing with people who were controlled by the word. The Pharisees were a case in point. They lived by the law and to make sure they were living by the law they fine tuned it by adding amendments and addendums, making it as black and white as possible. They were bound up. They had lost the reason for it all. In their quest to love the law they lost their love for God and for the people God had put into their lives. When Jesus healed on the Sabbath they were aghast. Jesus couldn't understand why on this day set aside for the LORD mercy and healing for God's children wouldn't be a part of it.
I know people who are controlled by the word - controlled by the scriptures - and it is not a pretty sight. The gospel which sets the hearts of men and women free is replaced by a religion that says "you better not do this and you can't do that and better not go there and you shouldn't look like that." Their hearts are as cold as stone. Their faces look like they have been sucking lemons for most of their lives. Their world is only big enough for them and Jesus and nobody else because nobody else is good enough or worthy enough.
But to be controlled by the WORD (big letters) - to be controlled by Jesus - is an entirely different matter. As the hymn says, "Make me a captive, Lord, and then I shall be free." To be controlled by the WORD means no longer being motivated by "thou shalt not" but being motivated by "you shall" and "fear not" and "you are forgiven, go and sin no more" and "you will receive power." Guilt and fear is replaced by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, grace and mercy.
To be controlled by the Word, we must give ourselves to the WORD.
An old National Geographic magazine tells about Carl Sharsmith, an 81 year old guide in Yosemite National Park. "Carl was back at his tent quarters after a long afternoon with tourists. His nose was flaked white and red with sunburn; his eyes were watery, partly from age but also from hearing again an old question after a half century of summers in California's Yosemite National Park. A lady tourist had hit him with a question where it hurt: "I've only got an hour to spend at Yosemite," she declared. "What should I do? Where should I go?" The old naturalist-interpreter-ranger finally found voice to reply. "Ah, lady, only an hour." He repeated it slowly. "I suppose that if I had only an hour to spend at Yosemite, I'd just walk over there by the river and sit down and cry."
The WORD of God has so much to offer us. What a tragedy to give Him a moment here and a moment there, a quick read here and a short prayer there.
We are offered so much more. May we not settle for so much less.