Hard Job

Mark 2:13-14

      Being a public figure brings with it certain challenges. I am sure you have seen the recent news, the ongoing saga of Justin Bieber. This young man is in serious need of Jesus. He has too much wealth with no wisdom. At 19 years old, he has never been given any real responsibility and his life is showing it. But many public figures have difficulty. They are constantly watched and scrutinized. Photographers are paid to take pictures of them at moments when they look their worst, or in the most embarrassing situations. The price of fame!

      When Jesus calls Levi in our text, he doesn’t call him to a life of fame, but to a life of following. The attention was clearly focused on Jesus. Jesus is out beside the Sea of Galilee (the lake) again. We don’t know the exact reason Jesus is out by the water again, but Mark told us He was forced to primarily stay away from populated areas because of the crowds created by the publicity that followed His teaching and miracles.

      Jesus shows up and word gets out. Remember that this is before Twitter or even cable news. The current location and direction of travel would not have been tracked by GPS. Everything would have been by word of mouth. I can imagine that when Jesus stayed somewhere that the word would spread that evening to the nearby villages that evening. By morning several layers of towns would know where He was and people would come. When they arrived they would be told His last known direction of travel and off they would go.

      Of course lakeshore makes a great place to teach. The land naturally slopes in toward the water making a natural amphitheater. Jesus voice would have carried across the crowd much more easily than in a residential area. From the text we see that Jesus is teaching the crowd that has gathered.  And in Mark’s condensed style Jesus is immediately walking along following His time of teaching. We don’t know what Jesus is doing while He walks. We do know that He comes upon Levi at his place of employment. I don’t know what his booth looked like, but people approaching must have known that it was time to pay the tax.

      Most people approaching the booth would have had a reaction much like our reaction to a toll booth today. Do you gleefully approach a toll booth excited to pay your toll? No! Most of us see the stop as an inconvenience, an interruption in our journey. I can imagine the name calling that Levi had to endure as he did his job. The complaining about the tax, its amount, the fact that they just paid a few miles back, about the unfairness of the system, that they were being taxed too much, about how did Levi expect anyone to make a profit. The list of verbal abuses could go on and on.

      But instead of complaining, Jesus simply speaks to Levi those words that are familiar to us, “Follow me.” They were probably the only kind words Levi had heard at work in a long time. And Levi responds. Levi follows. Are you willing to follow like this?

Just a Click Away

Proverbs 17:9

      Let it die! Don’t spread the story. No one else needs to know.

      These are not phrases that are heard very often in our age of Twitter and Facebook. We have become a culture where gossip takes on a life of its own. Who cares if George Zimmerman got arrested again. It doesn’t affect my life. It shouldn’t affect your life. That goes for Justin Bieber, Lindsey Lohan, Lady Gaga and the whole rest of that bunch. Just let it die.

      If only we would spread stories of the good things that people are doing. That would be some news worth spreading. Find someone who tells the truth even when it is inconvenient or personally costly, that would be some great gossip.

      Our proverb talks about the relationship between our handling of an offense (a wrong done to a person) and love. If we want to build a loving atmosphere, then we must work at not highlighting other people’s weaknesses and failures. Even if the offense is against us. There is no rule that says we have to make a big deal out of it. We can let it go. We can forgive.

      So why do most people gravitate to gossip? Most people gossip because they are insecure about who they are and their own value. If they are putting other people down, then they are lifting themselves up in the pile. They may not be on the top, but at least they are not like “that guy.”

      We can also feel insecure about our friendships, so we repeat stories to the other person’s friends in order to ruin that friendship. We don’t cover it over, we bring the spotlights and make sure everyone can see it. We video it and post it on Youtube. And once it is posted, it can never really be taken back.

      I want to challenge you and I to be different.  We need to learn to let it go, to stop spreading or even taking in the follies of other people. We don’t have to be a consumer of those stories. We can just click right past them instead.

Pigpen

Proverbs 15:2

      I love the character Pigpen from Charles Shultz’s Charlie Brown. Remember him? He is the one with the cloud of dust that surrounds him. Everywhere he goes that cloud that goes with him. For him it isn’t such a good thing. His reputation precedes his arrival. And after he leaves there is a little bit of him that stays behind. When he is in the room, people know he is there. He isn’t the center of attention, but his presence is felt.

      This picture of Pigpen gives us a good way to picture our proverb. What we say is like that cloud. It spills over onto everyone in earshot. And the content of our speech stays around for a while.

      Speech that is filled with wisdom adds value to everyone who hears it. This is what we are supposed to be exuding in our lives. We are supposed to be filling our hearts and minds with God’s wisdom, so that when we speak, His wisdom comes out. If we only have a little bit of wisdom, then only a little bit can come out.

      This is where the wise person creates a cloud of wisdom that precedes and follows them. Wise people speak wise words. It is what they do. And their wisdom benefits the people around them. We all want advisors whose wisdom will help keep us out of a jam.

      The fool, the person who doesn’t have a relationship with Christ, also has this cloud that surrounds them. Their cloud is filled with folly. People around them who have wisdom, look at each other in disbelief as they hear what the fool has to offer. You know the look, rolling eyes, the look that says, “Brother! That was dumb!” But unfortunately, the fool has no idea just how foolish they are being.

      Part of the equation that often gets forgotten is that our reputation precedes and follows us. Each time I have moved to a different job assignment, people have heard about me and, so far, they say it is good things that have been passed along. This reputation has helped buy smooth transitions. When you have a good reputation, people give you credits based on that reputation.

      But the fool can also have a reputation that precedes their arrival. People have given a “heads up” about the fool, and are already on guard, watching for the folly to come. Human wisdom only has so much potential. There are very wise non-Believers in the world. They have gathered wisdom deposited by the LORD for all to see. That wisdom is deposited in the hopes people will understand that there is a Wisdom behind it all.

Ketchup Packet

Proverbs 10:18-21

Have you ever stepped on a ketchup packet from a fast food restaurant? Splat! Out comes the contents in all their glory. You can’t really predict exactly how that ketchup is going come out, what pattern it will make. You know your foot is going down, but after that it is a mystery.

Our texts today talk about what we say with several different word pictures. As we read we can see the contrast between the righteous and the fool, a constant theme here in Proverbs.

Verses 18 and 19 bring to mind the small child with mommy’s makeup all over her face. “Did you get into mommy’s makeup?” “No.” Do you know who did?” And on goes the story. She begins to weave a tale that gets more and more unbelievable with every spin. And all the while, the evidence is right on her face.

Hatred can’t be hidden forever. It will squirt out at an unplanned moment. It often takes the form of slander, saying negative things about the other person in order to color their reputation. And the more words that get spoken, the more the sin is multiplied. Lies lead to more lies. It is better to just shut up and accept the consequences.

In contrast to these lies, the righteous speak words that have great value, a value that will last. You can bank on the words of a righteous person. They won’t change their story over time. Don’t you hate it when you count on someone’s word and then they let you down!

A righteous person nurtures those around them. Their words build up those who hear. This is in contrast to the drain that liars bring everywhere they go. Since you can’t trust what they say, you have to constantly make alternative plans, making up for their deficiency. This is especially true in the lives of addicts and abusers. Their lives become disappointment after disappointment. Little league games, concerts, birthdays, anniversaries, groceries, rent, utilities. Their word means nothing. It has no value.

Now, before you quit life, God has the power to redeem our lives. He paid the price so that we could truly start over and get it right this time. Today we can be honest with our words. But it will take the power of God to break the habit of lying. If you could do it yourself, you would have done it years ago. Ask for His help, and then step out and tell the truth each time you are tempted to lie. Pray that He will open your eyes to the lie before it exits your mouth.

Pigpen

Proverbs 10:6-7

One of my most memorable cartoon characters is Pigpen from Charlie Brown. He carried his own atmosphere with him, a dust cloud. Everywhere he went the cloud went with him. It would arrive a few moments before he got somewhere and lag a few moments after he left. Some people carry their mood like they have their own weather system. They enter a room and the mood in the room changes.

Verses six and seven talk about what kind of cloud that accompanies both the righteous and the wicked. The righteous carry around blessings with them. We call this their reputation. Their reputation paves the way for blessings to come. Blessings are something that get shared. They overflow and positively affect those around us. You can’t contain a blessing. I don’t know about you, but I like being around this kind of person. I feel better about myself and about life after they have been around.

I don’t really like being around people whose mouths spew ugliness. I don’t care whether it is foul language or foul content; if I have a choice, I will leave. This kind of cloud pulls the whole crowd down. It can pull a family down as well.

Have you ever noticed that it can be very hard to pull a conversation upward, but very easy to turn it downward? Once one person starts complaining, it seems that everyone follows. It takes very little to get it started and a whole lot to get it stopped.

And the color of a person’s life does not automatically change when they die. We call this after effect someone’s legacy. Even the memory of the righteous person carries a blessing, while the wicked rots. Think about that for a moment. Have you ever left garbage in a trash can and gone on vacation. What was it like when you returned? Stink? Crawling, squirming things, flies? That is what it is like with a wicked person. Even after they are dead, it can take a while to get things cleaned up.

What kind of reputation do you have? What kind of legacy do you want to leave behind? Now is the time to do things that create both.