Contrapositives

Contrapositives are sort of like calculus – you don’t use them much in the everyday activities of grocery shopping, taking care of babies, or cutting the grass. Engineers and logicians might use them in their work, but not your regular office worker, manager or even electricians.

So I was thrilled last week to have contrapositives show up in a sermon!  What are they, you say?  A term used in logic, it is a powerful tool to make an argument. The two logical statements below are contrapositives:

If A, then B.

If not B, then not A.

Contrapositive statements are either both true or both false; they are logically equivalent.

The series of sermons on 1 John are about evidences or signposts – assurances of salvation.  These are not causes, but results or indicators.  Several if-then statements are contained in chapter 5, verses 1-5:

If you believe that Jesus is the Christ, then you have been born of God.

If you love the Father, then you love whoever has been born of God.

If you love God and obey his commandments, then you love the children of God.

If you are born of God, then you have overcome the world.

If you believe that Jesus is the Son of God, then you have overcome the world.

Sometimes the contrapositive is easier to discern than the original:

If you are NOT born of God, then you do NOT believe that Jesus is the Christ.

If you are NOT born of God, then you do NOT love the Father.

If you do NOT love the children of God, then you do NOT love God or obey his commandments.

If you have NOT overcome the world, then you are NOT born of God.

If you have NOT overcome the world, then you do NOT believe that Jesus is the Son of God.

The sermon application was a refutation of the partly true statement that “No one ever really loves God or really loves his neighbor.”  The truth is that no one can love God or his neighbor perfectly.  But verse 3 of 1 John 5 says that these commandments of God are not burdensome, so they must be doable in some sense.  There must be room for a sanctifying, growing, overcoming-the-world love for God and neighbors that serves as a signpost / indicator of growth in belief and love for Jesus.

Advertising Audience

An old farmer is inconsolable after his dog goes missing. His wife suggests he take out an ad in the newspaper, which he does. But two weeks later, there’s still no sign of the mutt.

“What did you write in the ad?” his wife asks.

“Here, boy, ” he replies.

Holy Stuff

The category in this blog of Holy Lists is meant to exemplify Philippians 4.8 – a group, clump, set or collection of words, concepts, entities or ideas can help define or explain truth, honor, justice, purity, loveliness, excellence, and praiseworthiness.  Usually the lists are ideas or concepts.  Today’s list is made up of concrete things.

TabernacleCourt

Chapters 25-30 of the book of Exodus has detailed descriptions for the construction of holy items that are dedicated to the LORD and used in his service. Try to imagine the look, the feel, and the smell as the daily worship of God proceeded with all these parts in play:

Ark of the covenant

Table for the Bread

Golden Lampstand

Tabernacle

Bronze altar

Court of the tabernacle

Lamps

Priest’s garments

Altar of Incense

Bronze Basin

Yogi-isms

Yogi Berra turned 90 last week. He was raised in St Louis and was a Hall of Fame baseball player for the New York Yankees. The following quotes are taken from a USA Today Sports article published on his birthday.

It ain’t over ‘til it’s over.

It’s déjà vu all over again.

When you come to a fork in the road, take it.

Family friends came to Yogi’s house one year when a moratorium had been declared on sprinkling because of a drought. It was about 7 in the morning and the lawn was dripping. “Yogi, you’re not supposed to be sprinkling now.” “I don’t. It comes on automatically.”

A friend told this story: “We were playing golf one day, and I was below the hole with about a 4-foot putt and it was breaking to the right. Yogi was standing up above the hole looking down at it, and he said, ‘No, that doesn’t break right. It breaks left.’ So I putted the ball and it went right and I said, ‘See, Yogi, it went right. And he said, ‘Yeah, but I’m left-handed.’”

One day Yogi was reading a Superman comic book while his med student roommate Bobby Brown was reading a pathology textbook. They finished reading at the same time, and as Yogi tossed aside his comic, he said, “You can’t beat these Superman comics. How’d yours come out, Bobby?”

A sportswriter ridiculed Yogi, saying he was the ugliest player he ever saw. Yogi’s response: “So I’m ugly. I never saw anyone get a hit with his face.”

Yogi passed on his gift to his son Dale, who played with the Pirates. When asked how he and his dad were alike, Dale said, “All of our similarities are different.”

Baby Belief

Two miracle babies are promised in the first chapter of Luke. Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, and Mary, the mother of Jesus, have mostly similar experiences with one big difference.  Both are visited by the angel Gabriel.  Both are afraid and are told not to fear.  Both are given similar news that a baby is in their future and they are told the name of the baby even before conception.  Both have questions for the angel.  The big difference is that Mary believed Gabriel and Zechariah didn’t.

Zechariah asks the angel in verse 18: “How shall I know this?  For I am an old man and my wife is advanced in years.”  Mary asks a comparable question in verse 34: “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”  But the old man is struck dumb “because you did not believe my words” (verse 20) while Mary is commended by her cousin Elizabeth: “Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her” (verse 45).

Mary believed two things:  She was not going to be with a man (she was not married and was not going to sin), and she was going to conceive (the angel said so).  Her question was a wondering how this was going to happen.  The tone is reminiscent of Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac.  He knew two things:  He would sacrifice Isaac (God told him to) and Isaac was to be his heir (God promised).  “He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.” (Hebrews 11.19).

Zechariah, in the earlier episode, was asking for a sign.  His unbelief is like that of Gideon who actually asked for two “fleece” signals in Judges 6. Or like the Pharisees who asked Jesus for a “sign” of his divinity.  Zechariah’s faith was full when his son John was born, and he blessed God in the prophecy in verses 68-79.  But he was not convinced by the mighty angel’s initial announcement, and it was reckoned to him as temporary unbelief.

So faith and belief are internal and not immediately discerned by statements or actions.  As Hebrews, says, they are “an assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Heb 11.1). Our hard, natural, worldly, sinful hearts do not want to believe.  It takes a miracle to soften and save our whole being so that a believer can see, hear, understand, and know the truth of Jesus Christ and Him crucified.  And from the examples of Zechariah and Mary, such belief does not always happen at the same pace.

Terminology

A man tells his doctor that he’s incapable of doing all the things around the house that he used to do. When the exam is over, he says, “Okay, Doctor. In plain English—what’s wrong with me?”

“Well, in plain English,” says the doctor, “you’re just lazy.”

The man nods. “Now give me the medical term so I can tell my wife.”

Passing Through Their Midst

Jesus taught in many places around Galilee during his early ministry, including his home town of Nazareth.  Most people in most venues were astonished at what Jesus was saying and doing: he taught with authority, cast out demons, and healed the sick.

But those in his home town took exception to his teaching. While they were also astonished, they couldn’t get over the fact that he grew up among them – they knew him as a carpenter’s son rather than a great teacher. Jesus’s famous quote was issued there: “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own household” (Matthew 13.53-57).

Both Matthew and Mark point out that Jesus could do few miracles in Nazareth because of the unbelief of the residents (Matthew 13.58, Mark 6.5). The scene in Luke is longer and more violent – the passage Jesus reads in the synagogue is quoted, the barb Jesus tosses out about Israelites not listening to prophets is detailed, and the people’s attempt to stone Jesus is described (Luke 4. 16-30).

The listeners seemed to accept Jesus’s claim to be the Messiah, as they “marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth.”  But they were ticked when they realized the indictment of their forefathers’ treatment of prophets was being applied to them!  The mob rose up, drove him out of town and tried to throw him down a cliff.  But it was not Jesus’ time to die, and he escaped.

The description of his escape at the end of the Luke passage is a sad, poetic indictment of any who hear the good news of Jesus but turn away, through anger, unbelief, familiarity, pride or any other reason.  “But passing through their midst, he went away.” They missed the importance and the meaning; Jesus was to them just a fleeting mist.

Unexpected Good News

A man was angry at being drafted and determined to make things hard for all involved. At his medical examination, the doctor asks if he can read the letters on the wall. “What letters?” the man asks. “Good, “ says the doctor. “you pass the hearing test.”