Gleanings...So Far (Part 1)
Gleanings…So Far (Part 1) by Rev. L. John Gable
June 26, 2022
Forty years ago this month, on June 20, 1982, I was ordained to the Gospel ministry at my home church in St. Louis. Since graduating from Princeton Theological Seminary that year, Kris and I have lived in and served churches in Mansfield, Ohio; Waterloo, Iowa; Mequon, Wisconsin; and now for the past fourteen years here at Tab. I would like to think that I have learned something about life and ministry in those 40 years, but even saying that I realize that I have much still to learn about both. At the 20 year mark I preached a sermon called 20 Gleanings from 20 Years, at the 30 year mark I added 10 more, and now I’ve come to add still 10 more. For your sake and mine, I’ve divided these between two messages, this week and next, lest you start asking “How long, O Lord, how long?”
Like the Teacher says in our lesson from Ecclesiastes, admittedly all wisdom is vanity. “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” By this he means that that which is not grounded in some greater truth than our own is meaningless and futile, and simply passing away. So, I will admit to you that I hold no absolute allegiance to these particular insights; in fact several of them have changed in the process of my writing and rewriting, and now rewriting again, particularly in light of the pandemic and the conflicts and controversies we’ve experienced in the past decade, and, I imagine, ask me a month from now, there will likely be still others which could well find their way on to this list. I will also add, these are not listed in any particular order of importance or even arranged by topic. They are simply gleanings and reflections on truths that have shaped my life and ministry thus far.
#1. IF THE LORD IS TO BE THE LORD, WORSHIP MUST HAVE PRIORITY IN OUR LIVES. I believe it was Richard Foster who wrote those words, but I claim the truth of their message as my own. There are many “would be gods” which call for our attention and devotion, but there is only one God who is worthy of our ultimate adoration and praise: the Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the God made known to us in Jesus Christ. This One alone is worthy of our worship, so worship must have, for us, a priority in our lives.
#2. TREAD LIGHTLY WITH PEOPLE BECAUSE EVERYONE IS CARRYING A CROSS. This is one of the first lessons I learned in ministry. One evening, years ago, Kris answered the phone at our home and told me it was a friend of ours who wanted to talk with me. When I got to the phone I started joking with him right away, until I realized he was in the midst of a crisis. He was calling me as his pastor, not just his friend. Ever since then, I have tried to learn to be sensitive and attentive to the burdens others are carrying, even before I know what they are, because everyone is carrying some kind of cross.
#3. PEOPLE DON’T CARE HOW MUCH YOU KNOW UNTIL THEY KNOW HOW MUCH YOU CARE. A seminary professor once told us, people will test you by telling you about the small stuff in their lives to see if you are trustworthy enough for them to share the big stuff, and I have found that to be true. If you are willing to listen to others tell about their kid’s little league baseball game, their favorite hobbies, their family vacations, they just might be willing to tell you how it really is in their homes, in their hearts and in their souls.
#4. ALL PEOPLE ARE SINNERS, BUT STILL WE ARE LOVED BY GOD. Both of these truths must be held closely together. G.K. Chesterton once said that the doctrine of human sinfulness is the only tenet of the Christian faith that is empirically provable. It was Chesterton who was listening to a radio broadcast one day when the announcer asked the rhetorical question, “What’s wrong with this world?” Chesterton called in and said, “I am.”
When Scripture teaches that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” it isn’t telling us something we don’t already know, and the sooner we acknowledge that sordid truth about ourselves, and one another, the easier it will be for all of us. But regardless of our sin and brokenness, the Good News is that God loves us still; He always has and He always will.
#5. GIVEN THE OPPORTUNITY PEOPLE WILL RISE TO THE OCCASION. Over the years of my ministry I have been amazed and inspired by the commitment people are willing to make of their time and energy and resources when given the opportunity and a worthy cause. National and international catastrophes have allowed many to see what we in the church have known for years – people will rise to the occasion to help when there is a need. Through the years I have been moved as I have watched people care for others, even those they do not know, in beautiful ways. I have been amazed by the good works of ministry and the incredible commitments people have made to serving God, the church and others, and how they have done so willingly, gladly, tirelessly, and so often without any fanfare or expectation of recognition.
Perhaps I have been too long on this side of the pulpit to know what kind of a church member I would be in the pew, but I can certainly tell you, I could only hope to be as committed as many of you. I count it a privilege to have stood beside and served with you and people like you for the past 40 years.
#6. ALL ISSUES ARE AT THEIR CORE THEOLOGICAL. Whether it is a global issue we hear about on the evening news, a social issue, a matter between a husband and wife, or a parent and child or a struggle of the soul, all issues find their ultimate meaning and resolution in our relationship with God and our living by His timeless truths. All issues are, at their core, theological.
#7. GRACE IS THE GREATEST TRUTH OF OUR FAITH, AND THE HARDEST FOR US TO ACCEPT. If the Gospel could be summarized into one word I believe it would be grace. By grace I mean the unconditional, unearned love God has for us. But I have found that as beautiful and appealing and truly amazing as grace really is, it is the hardest thing for us as Christians to put our heads or our hearts around. At times we have trouble extending it to others who we think don’t deserve it and at other times we have trouble “accepting the fact that we are accepted.” No matter how free it is we always think it has to be earned and are as frustrated as can be when we find that it can’t be.
#8. MOST OF FAITH IS A MYSTERY. Through the centuries we have tried to explain faith and God and the religious experience in ways that others can understand and embrace for themselves. And while all of that is well and good, the bottom line is, most of faith is a mystery. Given what I have seen people go through I find it hard to imagine that some people don’t believe, and that still others do. I have also come to accept the fact that there are some things about God that my 3 ½ pound brain simply will not be able to comprehend. I appreciate the wisdom of Abraham Lincoln when he says, “Accept all you can by reason and the rest by faith and you will live and die a better person.”
#9. FAITH HAS MORE TO DO RELATIONSHIP THAN WITH REASON. The whole purpose of the incarnation of Jesus Christ is that God desires to be in a relationship with us. So He came, not as a new idea, or theory or philosophy. He came as a man who we could see and know and touch, and most importantly, love. God’s great desire is not that we know more about Him, but that we know Him, more and more, and fall deeper and deeper in love with Him and more and more committed to following Him. Simply put, “God became like us so that we can become like Him.”
#10. WORDS CAN EITHER HELP OR HURT. The old saying, “sticks and stones may break your bones, but words will never hurt you” is simply not true. Words matter: what is said and how they are said, so we must learn to be more gentle with one another for our words will either build others up or break them down. And the scars our words leave, though unseen, are indelible.
#11. ENCOURAGEMENT IS CONTAGIOUS, SO IS DISCOURAGEMENT. Unpack either of those words and they are telling. Encourage means “in-courage”, to give courage. And conversely, to “dis-courage”, means to take courage away. We all know people who can do either one of those to us. I want to be an encourager, one who “gives courage” to others. I believe encouragement is a priceless gift we can give one another – and discouragement is of the devil.
#12. TRUST THE PROCESS. I am going to sound very Presbyterian here, but over the years I have learned that my ideas aren’t always the best and my knowledge is not complete in and of itself. While I have at times been frustrated by the Presbyterian ways of “decently and in order” and “when in doubt form a committee” (You know the saying, God so loved the world He didn’t send a committee), still through the years I have learned to trust the wisdom of the body as it seeks and prays for God’s guidance and direction.
#13. THE SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES ARE HARD WORK, BUT THEY ARE NECESSARY IF WE ARE GOING TO GROW IN OUR FAITH. The disciplines of prayer, study, fasting, meditation, service and the like are all hard work, but if we want to grow as disciples of Jesus Christ we must learn to put them in to practice. The beauty is, as we submit ourselves to the disciplines, we gain the freedom the disciplines afford us: intimacy in our fellowship with God, power in our prayer life, growth in our understanding of His Word, a greater awareness of God’s presence in our lives and in the world. The choice is always ours, but IF we want to grow in our faith, we must exercise our spiritual muscles and practice the time tested disciplines of our faith.
#14. GOD CALLS US TO BE FAITHFUL, NOT NECESSARILY SUCCESSFUL. Success, regardless of the field you are in or how you try to measure it, is deceptive. Just when you think you’ve got it, you don’t. Like the Teacher says in Ecclesiastes, “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” So I am convinced, God doesn’t call us to be successful, even in our spiritual lives. He simply calls us to be faithful, and out of our faithfulness comes the fruitfulness we call “success.”
One of my favorite devotional writers, Oswald Chambers, you’ve heard me quote him often, says, “The test of the life of a saint is not success, but faithfulness in life as it actually is.”
If we seek success, it is, at best, only fleeting. If we seek faithfulness it can be ours every day. This truth lies at the heart of Jesus’ teaching, “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all of these other things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:33).
#15. TRADITION IS MOMENTUM. Tradition has gotten a bad rap as being out-dated, boring and no longer relevant, but I have come to believe just the opposite- that tradition is momentum. Admittedly it is hard to get a stationary boulder to move, but once moving it is hard to get it to stop. As John Leith puts it, there is a difference between tradition and traditionalism. “Tradition is the living faith of dead people. Traditionalism is the dead faith of living people. For this reason tradition is a source of vitality for the church, and traditionalism the occasion of its death.” Tradition in a church like Tab is a great momentum moving us in the right direction of doing God’s work in this community and around the world. An evangelical witness from the pulpit and a commitment to social engagement in the community is written in to Tab’s DNA. Tradition is momentum.
#16. AGE IS ONLY A NUMBER. I can remember a time in my life when 60 seemed old; well I blew right past that. I look at so many of you and think 80 is the new 60, and 90 the new 70. History is replete with individuals who have made great contributions in their later years. Look around you: we are surrounded by folks every day who bear witness to the fact that as long as we are taking breath God can use us in His work, so age is just a number.
#17. CHANGE IS INEVITABLE AND IT IS HARD, EVEN CHANGE FOR THE BETTER. We are creatures of habit and by nature resistant to change. We know what we like because we like what we know. But we must always be open to change because we are not yet all that God intends us to be, as individuals or as a church. Sometimes we in the church are the most resistant to change. How many Presbyterians does it take to change a lightbulb? Change? What do you mean ‘change’? While the truth of the Gospel never changes, the means and methods of its proclamation must change continually. Every generation needs to hear the Good News in a new way. As one has said, “The Gospel must be constantly forwarded to a new address because the recipient is repeatedly changing places of residence.”
#18. ATTITUDE IS (ALMOST) EVERYTHING. “The mind is its own place”, writes John Milton, “it can make a heaven of hell, or a hell of heaven.” The Jewish Talmud teaches, “We do not see things as they are. We see things as we are.” And Ralph Waldo Emerson penned these familiar words, “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” There is much we cannot control in our lives or the world we live in, but we do have a choice as to how we will interpret those events and how we will respond to them. Viktor Frankl, in his classic Man’s Search For Meaning, writes, despite what life throws at us, “what alone remains is the last of the human freedoms – the ability to choose one’s attitude in a given set of circumstances.” We cannot choose what happens to us, but we can choose how we will respond.
#19. WE DON’T NEED A GREAT FAITH IN A LITTLE GOD. WE NEED A LITTLE FAITH IN A GREAT GOD. I will admit that sometimes, perhaps too often, I have limited what I have asked or expected of God because my concept of God is “too small”, as J.B. Phillips has put it. I don’t ask, believe or pray big enough. I have been afraid to step out in faith because my vision of God has been too limited. We don’t need a bigger God, we need bigger faith, and Jesus tells us, faith the size of a mustard seed is sufficient.
And finally, at least for today, #20. PREACH THE GOSPEL PLAINLY. One of the greatest compliments I have ever received about my preaching was given to me by a young mother after worship one day. She said, “My third grader understands your sermons.” I think that was intended as a compliment, at least I took it as one. The Saturday night before preaching my first sermon in seminary I was sitting in the kitchen reading my sermon out loud when about half way through Kris called to me from the other room, “You lost me!” I was dumbfounded. I was using all the words I’d learned in seminary. So that night we stayed up late rewriting until the message made sense. As Napoleon said to his messengers, there are three essentials to good communication, “Be clear. Be clear. Be clear.”
I have never intentionally tried to “wow” anyone with my insights or intellect, in part because I never thought I could, but in larger measure, because I don’t want my words to get in the way of His Word. Someone said, the role of the preacher is to “know the way, point to the way and then get out of the way.” This, I believe, is what Paul was getting at when he writes, “I did not come proclaiming the mystery of God in lofty words or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. My speech and my proclamation were not with plausible words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom, but on the power of God.”
Which seems to me a pretty good place to stop for today. We are half way there and I look forward to sharing the rest of my gleanings with you next week.
Rev. L. John Gable
Tabernacle Presbyterian Church
Indianapolis, IN